alifaraze

Hi,

My wife, 2 kids (2 and 6years) and me are planning holidays in easter starting from 15 april for around 8 - 10 days. We want to visit Paris and Switzerland. We will travel by car. don`t know how should we schedule and what shoudl we do where to stay etc etc. This is our first trip to Europe.

We are planning to stay in Disneyland for 3 nights. we will avail 3 days in disneyland and then we will travel to switzerland. My friend recommnded us to stay near Titlis. we are aiming to spend 4 days there but do not know where else and which hotel is good and food for kids etc.

Map shows that Titlis is around 8 hours drive from Disneyland. If we leave disneyland hotel around 9am in the morning we will reach there by 6pm. Is that ok? or do you recon anything else?

And then we will come back to Paris and will stay here one day to visit paris and then will go back next day.

Need you advise. Thanks in advance

alanRow

Any reason you mention London?

jamikins

Have your kids been to Disneyland in the US? If so I have heard that the one in Paris is disappointing - and definitely not worth 3 days of time.

Will you not be spending any time IN Paris? It would be a shame to travel all the way to Europe to spend all the time in France at a US type amusement park. Especially if you are from the US.

There are lots of books (and if you do a search here lots of trip reports) about kid friendly Paris. I would highly recommend rethinking this....

And I am unsure about the reference to London...?

alifaraze

travelling from london to paris and then switzerland

flanneruk

Ali Faraze presumably lives in, or is stationed in, London, originates from the Indian subcontinent ("we will avail 3 days in disneyland") and is driving from London to what most Londoners call Europe.

alifaraze

No, We are not from US, we are from UK and never been to disneyland US.

As this is our first ever trip so we are taking advise and will make our trip accordingly.

Right So 2 days should be enough in disneyland. And then we can spend 2/3 days in Paris.

Can you recommend any area within Paris to stay in hotel? so approach would be easy to visit places? and do you recommend that i should drive within city? is that easy to find parking?

alifaraze

Can I amend the title? I want to remove London. sorry its my mistake i didn` think it before.

jamikins

Glad you plan to go into Paris!

Will you be driving your own car? If not, I highly recommend taking the Eurostar to Disney and then the RER train into Paris (depending where you are from of course). You wont want the car in Paris and parking is horrible. You can train to Switzerland and pick up a car there for your time in Switzerland.

Most first timers to Paris like to stay in the 3-7 arrondisments. We like the 5th - or Latin Quarter. If you provide us with a budget we can help make recommendations. You can also do a search above for Paris Hotels and you will get lots of ideas and see advice regarding this.

jamikins

You can get the editors to remove London - just click the yellow triangle with the '!' in it to the right of hte Add a Reply button and send them a message with your request.

alifaraze

I have requested to remove the word London from the subject. Thanks for correction.

Yes that is why I am here on forum to take advise.

I am planning to drive my own car. Actually my friend suggested me to go by car as it would be quite handy especially with the kids but I am happy reconsider it. To be honest my prefrence would be the cheaper option. Do you recommend Eurostar is the cheaper option and easy for me as well?

I live in Birmingham and to take Eurostar i will have to goto London Heathrow. travelling from birmingham to heathrow london would cost around 31pounds per person. I am thinking to spend around 2k gbp.

jamikins

You dont go to Heathrow - you need to go to Kings Cross/St Pancras to pick up the train to Paris.

I dont drive in England, but I think the drive from Birmingham to Disneyland Paris would take all day, so dont forget to factor in your time. The Eurostar - not including your train to London from Birmingham - will take just over 2 hours. You will also have to pay to park every night likely as well. You wont need the car in Disneyland or Paris.

Maybe someone that has done this can provide more advice on driving vs the train. Given you have a 2 year old and a 6 year old it might well be a better option for you, just be sure to ask the hotel if they have parking and to reserve a spot as some only have a couple of spots. I cant help here as we dont drive in Paris.

PalenQ

Lose an hour in time on the clock also when going into France.

jamikins

If you decide to go by train you will want to book your eurostar tickets ASAP as they get more expensive the closer you are to departing www.eurostar.com

alifaraze

Hmmm that is true. more Time + Hassle if you are driving.

Actually you are right. I just notice that from my home birmingham to Dover will take 3:30 hours + Fairy around 2 hours + again 3 hours till disneyland. It means more than 8 or 9 hours. And if i travel by Eurotrain then Birmingham to King cross around 2.15 hours ( i will have to check if any train goes to kingcross) and then 2.5 hours to disneyland. I think it would be suitable and easy jouney for kids as well. as they would be able to walk within the train.
Thanks I think I should choose Eurotrain.

What is your suggestion to switzerland? Which train should i choose and on which time? for titlis. My daughter loves to see mountain. And do you recommend to get hire car there?

Thanks for the precious advise. This is really helpful.

Plus yes we will loose one hour. Thanks

alifaraze

Another question is should i book eurostar + hotel deal? If yes then should i tell them that coming date would be 6 days later? Will it work this way or not?

jamikins

I cant help with the Switzerland details as I havent travelled there - I am sure someone else can help there.

As for the deal - I have never looked into it so I am not sure if that would work. If you give us a buget we can provide some suggestions.

alifaraze

Ok thanks for the help. I have 2000gbp to spend on my trip.

jamikins

Can you provide us with an amount you are willing to spend on hotels each night? We dont know what you have allocated to hotels vs travel vs food vs sites vs disneyland etc. I have no idea how much disneyland costs for example.

You need to break that out so we dont end up recommending something based on our priorities (we spend our money on food and go budget on hotels but you might want to spend more on hotels or sites than on food...)

Michael

To get to Switzerland, try to get a PREM ticket (3 months in advance on http://www.tgv-europe.com/ ) from Paris to Basel and if you want to drive, rent the car on the Swiss side of the airport and return it in Switzerland to avoid cross-border drop-off fees. But if you plan to stay essentially in one place in Switzerland, I would consider using public transportation rather than rent a car.

alifaraze

@jamikins: I have no idea. I am checking booking.com and expedia.com and disneyland.com to check the hotel prices for 2 nights and then for 3 nights in paris city. As this is my first trip so i don't know how much would the room food etc cost.
I just discussed with my wife on mode of travel and probably we would travel by car as my wife thinks that this is easy mode of travel to carry kids stuff.

I am checking hotels in Latin Quarter. i am looking a medium level hotels. should not be too expensive. should not be too low. Suggestions would be gr8.

Thanks Michael. I have checked another post on Switzerland. It is recommended by people that this might not be a good weather to visit. So we are thinking to visit Switzerland in first week of june.