London Paris Rome Help
 

What do you think of this itinery?
We will be landing in London at 9:30am on the 3/30/2011. We are flying in from Houston, Texas. We want to see Tower of London, Big Ben, St. Pauls Cathedral, Buckingham palace, and Madam Wax museum.
The next day on 3/31 we will leave via eurostar at 8am to Paris. Is this too early? Should we take a later time? Once in Paris want to see Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, and Louvre ( do not have to go in, just see from outside).
We are debating on leaving Paris that night 3/31 via flight to Rome, Italy or we can leave the next morning 4/1. We will spend the remaining days in Rome and fly back to Houston on 4/6 however our flight leaves from London at 11:30am. We will take a flight from Rome to London on evening of 4/5.

You are joking right?

There is no real feasible way to do this.

1. You wont be in central London until noon, Tower takes 1/2 day and could take you 30 mins to get to depending on where you are staying. Big Ben and Buckingham Palace are on the other side of London - so lets say a good 30 mins away.

2. You are going to go all the way to Paris to walk by the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Louvre?

3. Dont forget you lose an hour between London and Europe. After walking by the above you will need to get to the airport (an hour in transit) for two hours before the flight leaves...so that only leaves you a few hours in Paris depending on train and flight times - why bother?

Why not add Madrid, Berlin and Prague?

As others have already said, there is not a lot of sense in this itinerary.

If you want to go to Rome, why fly into London? I'd suggest either basing yourself in London for several days or changing your tickets so you fly into and out of Rome.

<b>London Paris Rome - Help</b>

Pick one.

This is one of the funnier posts I've seen lately, so thank you for that. Ditto bardo.

There are some people who try to pack to much into an tinerary.

That's not what ths is.

This is really not a trip at all. Why bother flying to europe? Just look at the pictures of the outsides of these places in a guide book?

You are trying to do 3 world capitals - including transports in between - 5 days. It won't work.

Agree that you need to pick one.

Maybe you could do 2 cities if you can get an open-jaw flight. It still would be rushed a bit, but it is doable. Easier is Paris and London, as you can connect the two with the Eurostar train which departs and arrives in city centers. No need to transfer to/from the airports. 3 days Paris and 2 days London would give a glimpse of the two cities.

I agree - at least narrow it down to two and try to change to an open-jaw flight, if feasible. Your time in Paris seems almost pointless, especially if you leave the same night. That's a lot of added expense to say you saw a few buildings, not to mention a lot of stress trying to make all those connections, train and plane security, etc.

Suggest you spend a peaceful, no-cost 5 days at Borders or Barnes and Noble looking at guidebooks and picture books. No hassles, no logistics, and you'll see lots more than you will on this proposed "trip."

:D to StCirq... agreed.

While it is funny...I will assume you did not mean it to be so.

This is crazy.

Jetlag and just getting to/from airport to hotels is going to chew up a big chunk of your usable time.

Travel tip...less is more.

That being said...I have done an extended weekend in Paris. But..I know Paris, I adjusted for jetlag, and I ONLY went to Paris.

thanks everyone this is why I asked the question.
Well I think I will do 2 cities: Paris and Rome. We have to fly in and out of London because I have already purchased the tix. Though I will check to see if I can fly out of rome.
What do you think of the revised plan?
After flying into London on 3/30 we will take the eurostar to Paris. There is a departure at 12:30 pm or 2pm. Since it will take 1 hour from Heathrow to the St. Pancraas station, I think the 2pm is safer right? We will spend the night in Paris and leave Paris on evening of 3/31 to rome via flight(ryanair). We will spend 4/1 to 4/5 in rome flying back to London on evening of 4/5. Departure back to houst is at 11:30am on 4/6. Does this sound reasonable or should I skip paris all together? I figure with the time in paris we can see eiffel tour and Notre Dame.

Better. You get 1 day + in Paris. It's not a lot, be we here can make a plan up for you. Jetlag...I have ideas.

Skip Paris. If you can't change your tickets, spend the day or two in London and then fly to Rome.

If you were even one-hundredth serious about your initial post, you've got no real interest in seeing any of these cities.

So it really doesn't matter which you junk.

Except, of course, that it does. Flying into London to avoid the city is probably even dafter than the original idea. The only thing dafter is going into London at all - to get a train???

If London's bottom of your list why did you book this nonsense (unless, of course, you didn't and you're just trying to see how far you can wind this forum's collective tail).

Junk one of the foreign cities and spend your time here

Or if you must, get on a plane at Heathrow and go straight to where you really want to go to. But even on your second pass, a unguided tour of the London tube strikes me as simply dozy.

The only reason I was flying to london is due to the ticket fare I was getting. Now in hindsight, I wish I thought that through. I am more keen on seeing paris then london so that is why paris and rome now.

And to flanneruk, I am not here to pull anyones chain. I looke at this forum for feedback.

<i>...get on a plane at Heathrow and go straight to where you really want to go</i>.

Yep, that's what I was going to say. You would still need to allow plenty of time at Heathrow to go through immigration, get your bags and check in for your next flight. (The better option, if possible, is to investigate how much it would cost you to add a leg to Paris onto your initial ticket - that way you could check your bags all the way through.) But if you don't care to see London, no reason to go all the way to central London just to catch a train.