Paris & London - all in-city or mix it up
 

Hi friends, I will be honeymooning for 2 weeks in Europe in August. My first trip to the Continent! I'll be using a variety of Marriott and AA points to make this happen on a budget, and here is my question: I will be able to buy 7 nights stay in either London or Paris. The other 7 nights I want to visit the alternate area, but can take a few nights elsewhere, since we'll be paying for it normally. So, which city is worth a full 7 days? Which city should I just stay in for 3-4 nights, and travel elsewhere in the area?

There's no answer to your question. :)

If it were me, I'd want 7 days in Paris, maybe a few days in French countryside, then a few days in London. But I love Paris and only like London.

Others could spend a lifetime in London and still think it's not enough.

Still others would skip the cities completely and do the countryside, or vice-versa.

So, why do you want to go to London? Why do you want to go to Paris? Why do you want to spend time in the countryside?

If you can give some specifics of what you want to see/do/feel/etc. then people may be able to help, but in the end, you'll really have to follow your heart and choose the split that interests you most, as you could get as many different opinions as there are posters to this forum! :)

OK - I love both cities so I don't have a horse in this race.

My advice would be to use the 7 days of points in London. This is because 1) good hotels are more expensive in London so you would save more money; 2) London is a lot larger and more spread out and it takes longer to see even the barest of the highlights; 3) using London as a base for a week would let you take one day trip out to somewhere like Bath or Oxford or Cambridge.

Paris is absolutely wonderful - but you can see more of it in a shorter time because almost all of the main sights are literally w/i walking distance of each other. the 2 main exceptions are Sacre Coeur and Versailles.

Agree to use the 7 days in London - hotels here are not only expensive - but frequently in very inconvenient areas - so the points are worth more. I would do 7 days London with 1 or 2 day trips and either 7 days Paris with day trips or 5 days Paris with an overnight at a chateau in the Loire.

Thanks for the info. Just wanted to say we're doing a week in London (on Marriott points) then a week in Paris (on our dime). Will do daytrips out of town to get some other experiences.