We are going to London for 4 days and then Paris for 4 days. What airlines are the cheapest flying from Orlando? Should we fly to London roundtrip to save $$? Should we get the Eurostar tickets from here? We are leaving July 31. Has anybody use Air France for tickets and hotels?
Thank you in advance! Any advice will be so appreciated.

I don't know about Orlando, but why not go to a website and check to see the cheapest -- try www.kayak.com or www.itasoftware.com

I've flown Air France a lot, but have never bought a package from the, but I think they sometimes have good deals that way. Can't go too far wrong as it's just a few items (airfare, hotels, maybe transfers) and you can decide if you like the hotel or not by checking out its location and maybe some reviews. Air France is usually very competitive in air fares, and is very convenient for me as they have a nonstop from my city.

You'd have to compare airfares RT London versus London/Paris or whatever your alternative is to see which is cheapest, plus add in a one-way Eurostar fare to get back.

I wouldn't even consider such a thing myself for such a short vacation, you'll waste so much time, and I can't imagine you'll end up saving anything, but who knows, it's something you can check.

If you're leaving in a little over 3 weeks and don't have tickets, you may not find anything very cheap. But in this economy you may be lucky.

As mentioned, try one of the web sites and see what comes up. And try open jaw - fly into Paris or London and out of the other. Backtracking will cost you precious time, which you don't have in only 8 days.

Yes, buy Eurostar tickets in advance. They're like air fares - usually get more expensive the closer you get to travel dates.

Yes, fly in to London, take the train to Paris, and then fly home from Paris. I got a great deal from American Airlines back in March, so check out Orbitz.com . You options for hotels and hostels are going to be very limited because it's so late, so start your reseach right away.

Thank you, all! I have been checking and it is going to be either American or continental due to the fact that we fly from Florida. Air France would be better if we were to fly from NY, but the add-on is absolutely crazy.
We are excited, it is limited in time, but that is all we have. Our kids are older teens so, they are really like adults.
Any other adivice will be great. Thank you.

it could help if you had some idea what you wanted to do in each city so you could look for hotels in that area of town. have you looked at any guide books to see what seems of interest? do your kids like museums?

one compromise that i think everyone would like would be to go for a day somewhere like hampton court in england. it's an old beautiful royal residence, and you can take a boat to get to richmond from london. but there is a fee to get in. it's historic with beautiful architecture and the boat trip would be fun. the tower of london is always popular. you can take a boat down teh thames from the tate to the tate modern (or the london eye, a ferris wheel type thing) as a
way to see the skyline.

there are also a variety of "london walks" available.

do you know anything of the history of london or paris? or of england or france? what of this would be interesting to look into?

This is our first time going to Europe. We'll be in London for 5 days and then Paris for another 5.
What are the top 5 places that you'd recommend to go to in London and Paris? Our teens are with us and they are 19 and 16 years old.
Any ideas will be very apreciated.

I did the same thing. I've just returned from Europe (1st timer) flying American Airlines. Florida-London-Paris-Florida. Or, you can take eurotrain from london to paris (2 hr approx). It's better to reserve your train tickets in advance, just to be safe. Since you're spending 4 days in London, maybe you're interested in visiting the Stonehenge & Windsor castle (2-in-1 tour)? I only had 2 full days in London so could not go there.
FYI, I stayed in Club Quarter St Paul (in london) & Hotel Madeleine Plaza (in Paris). Be extracareful when you take subway in paris due to pickpockets. ALWAYS put your wallet in the front pocket. I was so paranoid that I put my hand in my pocket at all times

Thank you! I booked our whole vacation through Continental Airlines vacation. Not cheap, but not expensive. We'll be doing a 1 way to London,5 days there, euro-train to France, 5 days in Paris and then one way back to US.

What would anybody recommend to do with teens in these cities? Is the Eurotrain station in London or do we have to use some sort of transportation there?

You mean Eurostar. The London terminus is at St Pancras station in the northern half of central London. Plenty of good connections by public transport.

What should you do nwith your teenagers there? Impossible to answer without knowing what their interests are. You really need to visit your local bookshop or public library and pick up some guidebooks, then come back with more specific questions.

Get your teens to your local public library and check out some travel guides for London and Paris. Get them on the internet and have them read this forum as well as the trip advisor forum. They'll soon have some definite ideas.

While in Paris, we visited the Pere Lachaise cemetary. There were lots of teens and other creatures there, especially around Jim Morrison's grave. Highly recommended. Make sure you get a map before entering Paris' most famous gravesite.

http://www.pere-lachaise.com/

Schuler, most teenagers today have probably never even heard of Jim or The Doors. Probably more of interest to those in their 50's

Your kids have young and facile minds. Tell them to go to Barnes & Noble and start memorizing the train maps for the London Underground and Paris Metro. And tell them to be useful and set out some sights they want to see (and group them geographically, if possible).

Next, go to the Days Out Guide website and look for London attractions and take advantage of the two-for-one offers.

See this thread: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...1-vouchers.cfm

See this thread too: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ravel-card.cfm

Your kids may still get some discounts, but with twofers it may be less expensive to treat them as adults and buy two tickets for the price of one.

As for where to go and what to do: hit the books and look for what interests you. How do we know? You haven't even disclosed the sex of the two teens, which would lead to some basic thought process of what a 19 yo boy/girl would like.

Ultimately, you picked those cities for some reasons, right? Most of the major travel guides (Fodors, competitors) will have suggested itineraries for travelers in their books. Fodors has this feature on this website! How convenient.

Other things: (1) do NOT buy the London Pass = waste of your money (of the top 12-15 "best" museums in London, about 90% are free); (2) do NOT pay retail for transportation -- Paris and London both have bulk transportation options (travelcards, carte orange) so retail is for suckers, the desperate or the really stupid; (3) do NOT exchange money before you go -- you have debit cards? then just hit the ATMs that are ubiquitous in Paris and London; (4) do NOT withdraw cash on a credit card -- your finance charges begin to accrue immediately; (5) do NOT screw around with CDG -- Paris' airport gateway to the world is a 1970s pile of rubbish that is difficult to maneuver through and inefficient. Get there at least 3 hours before your return flight.

Finally, realize that London and Paris are physically large cities (think more like Jacksonville than Destin). You can't hit all "the sights" in a day. London has a population about 85-90% the size of New York. Paris' population is higher than Chicago's. And you're going in high tourist season, so don't fret about crowds, just deal with them.

I think 16 and 19 year olds should be doing their own research - have them look at the Let's Go Student guide series and the Thorn Tree section of the Lonely Planet web site for student activities.

Obviously they will have some different interests from yours and will want to go out and visit student clubs, etc some nights.

If they haven;t studied French make sure they learn the basics before they go - as well as how to use the Tube and Metro. Based on my stepdaughters when they were 14 and 17, they will probably want to spend time at Covent Garden in London and Les Halles (but this may no longer be the right spot since the trip was several years ago) in Paris.

We found spending parts of some days or evenings in separate activities really helped avoid the challenges of 24 hour togetherness.

As for specifics for you all to do - without knowing your interests it's hard. Our girls love the Musee Cluny in Paris (they actually went back to visit one afternoon when we just wanted to relax in a cafe and see a couple of galeries) and naturally the D'Orsay and St Chapelle. In London they had so many favorites it's hard to say. Just be sure to avoid the truly tacky: Mme Tussuad's and the Dungeon.