London & Paris/11 days/Family
 

2 adults/2 teenaged girls in London & Paris for first time, 11 days total. Welcome suggestions of good hotel location, mid range price, should we stay in 1 hotel per country, highlights to be sure to see, and options for travel FROM London to Paris (heard it's better to fly a cheapie airline than take the Chunnel.)
THank you!

Have you done any homework at all? What is midrange? Thanks.

You will need to define how many days in each city, your budget for hotels, your expectation for hotels (2 rooms for example, just a place to sleep, need pool, need breakfast,etc...).

Do you want to be central and walk a lot, or less central, travel everyday if can save some $$

Interests...museums, walking around, churches, walking tours,etc. What do you want to see in Paris and London?

Knowing your style of travel would also be good....checklist (gotta see this, then this and then this or relaxed...let's plan on this, but if something comes up...)...long days or short days, importantly are there things the kids want to see,etc...Type of food and budgets also good to know.


I suggest you start with the destination guides on this site.

You might ask whomever told you it is better to fly than take the train (Eurostar) why they think so. Generally, by the time you consider getting from city center to the airport, security and pre-boarding wait, and then getting from the Paris airport back into town, it is less expensive, just as fast, and a whole lot less hassle to take the Eurostar. The girls will enjoy the experience, and you get to see some of the French contryside as well. Ticket prices depend on when you buy them, the sooner the better.

As for hotels, with 4 of your, you might consider apartments instead. Our teenage girls were most happy to have an apartment in Paris, so we could take full advantage of the wonderful bakeries, markets, and take-out (rotisserie chicken) instead of going to restaurants.

There are many websites with short-stay apartments for Paris, but we liked www.VacationsInParis.com

I would definitely only stay in one hotel in each city. One thing to consider when comparing flying versus the Chunnel is that the Chunnel trains depart and arrives in the center of each city whereas you'd need to transport yourselves to and from the airports. Also, flying into one city and out from another (open jaw) will save you the time and trouble of returning to your initial arrival destination but may be a slightly more expensive plane ticket.

There are so many wonderful things to see in each city that I'd probably just divide the time giving the extra day to your arrival city as you'll be jet-lagged.

The destinations information about each city here will give you a good place to start your research as to what you'd like to see. Also, your public library or bookstore should have a good assortment of travel guides to help you decide what highlights are important to you and what hotel price range you'd want.

Happy planning!

As for travel from Paris to London, the Eurostar is a popular and quick (quickest) way to go between the two cities. Quick becasue you go from city centre to city centre and not have to worry about getting to and form airports. You can Tube/Metro from your hotels in the cities to the train stations. And, price can be reasonable. Travel time less than 3 hrs

I'm assuming you are doing an open jaw (fly into one city, leave from the other?)...that makes life easier.

I'd also do a rough swag at a schedule. For day 1 in London, allow ~3hrs to get from LHR/CDG to your hotel, and remember that jet lag will affect what you cna do that 1st day. For the London-Paris transfer day, allow 3 hrs travel time city to city, then max 1 hr to get from train station to hotel, For flight home day, plan to be at airport ~3 hrs before flight. With all of this you will see what time you have to tour in each city.

When you've picked the days you will be in each city, I'd also do a search to see what events are on during your stay. Could be a musical concert, tennis tournament, special exhibit at a museum,etc...Then blend that into your plans.

We'll give you lots of help here. Just help us by giving us some more info...

Cheers et bienvenue,

Mike

You have to 1) tell us your budget (one person's mid range could be another's rock bottom)

and 2) tell whomever told you it was better to fly, to jump in a -- well you know. Even though flying might be cheaper, it will take longer and you have to factor in the cost of transferring out to the London airport and in from the Paris airport. The Eurostar goes city center to city center and w/o all the extreme airport security/check in requirements.

Now about what to see - you really need to do at least some basic research. For starters click on DESTINATIONS above and follow the links to Paris and London. There are good overviews and suggestions for typical 5-6 day itineraries.

What sorts of things do you enjoy - since there are many more major sites than you will have time to see. So we need to know what you like before we can give really useful advice.

We had about 11 days in London and Paris last summer with two teenage daughters - see our trip report http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...RLCH&fid=2. I suggest you involve your daughters in the planning - our girls did heaps of internet research and knew what they wanted to do. Our girls are both keen on history (and less so on things like shopping), but I was amazed at their capacity for museums and the like. They never seemed to tire.

As for transport - the chunnel is certainly quick and we enjoyed seeing the countryside. We booked well in advance and got a special rate which made it comparable to flying on a cheapie airline.

Look forward to hearing what you come up with.