Paris to London as a day trip?
 

Hey,

We are going to be making our second trip to Paris from Apri 13 - 24. We are considering taking a day trip to London, as we have never been .

Is this manageable? And what would be the best way to do it?

Any help would be appreciated!

It is do-able, but I don't know how much you'll be able to see and absorb in just one day.

London itself deserves a week at least, so you need to decide what YOU want to achieve in that one day.

One choice would be do a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, so that you can get an overview of the city. A lot of the attractions in London easily take hours to see (eg Tower of London, any of the museums etc) so those will be out as they take up too much time.

Honestly, if I were you, I'd save London for a trip on its own next time. I'd rather do an easier daytrip from Paris, eg, Nancy, which I learned recently from a trip report that it is a beautiful town with lots of Art Nouveau architecture.

It certainly is doable. Take an early morning Eurostar train to London and gain an hour by changing time zones. Take an evening train back to Paris. If you book NOW at www.eurostar.com, you can get fares as low as €77 return (roundtrip).

Agreed on the train. You don't want to waste portions of your getting to and from two airports. First one in the morning, last one back.

Adding to my previous post: While a daytrip is doable, since you've been to Paris before, I recommend that you spend one night in London. That will give you the better part of two days for sightseeing and would allow you to spend an evening at the theatre.

Thanks everyone for the information. I'll be checking the eurostar site - and will definately take all advice into consideration. I will have to check into the Nancy area as well, as I am not familiar with it.

There is so much to see and do that it's a bit overwhelming trying to make a decision!

Re: Nancy

Take a look at MlleFifi's trip report:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35171555

Yes!!! We booked a day trip with British Tours. We went via the train thru the Chunnel. Arrived at 9:00 AM and the lady from British Tours was standing waiting with our name on a sign. She put us in her car and what a tour. You just tell her where you want to go and she takes you there. We took the 6:00 pm train back to Paris. Our apartment manager arranged the train tickets and I arranged by email the British Tour portion. All done by email. We had considered the red bs jump on and jump off, but since we didn't have a lot of time we opted for the personal tour.

Doable - definitely. Advisable - that's up to you.

Would you consider a day trip to NYC to get a taste? Knowing that London is much larger/spread out, how would you feel?

You can see a teensy bit of London in one day. As long as you understand you can't "do" London in a day (or a week for that matter) there are worse ways to spend a day.

But it is not an inexpensive excursion. The Eurostar is the only practical way to do this. and even w/ advance purchase (the farther ahead the better) it is not cheap.

Tucson, can I suggest that you add to your post -- what did you do/see on your tour? I think it would be really helpful to the OP to know what he/she can "accomplish" in a day in London.

and how much that private tour cost . . . .

Good point Janis!

We did the opposite years ago and while the only thing we visited was the Louvre I'm glad we did it. We took Eurostar, which was interesting in itself (it was fairly new). We had lunch at a cafe in the museum and since we love art museums it was a terrific way to spend our day.

I think the suggestions of a private guide or hop-on/hop-off bus are good ones. I personally think a taste of the city is better than nothing.

A side trip to Nancy was suggested above. In that vein we loved our side trip to Giverny to visit Monet's house, gardens and pond. Should you decide against London this would be a lovely day trip.

We've been to Paris several times since and hopefully you'll visit London in your future travels to really get a feel of that wonderful city.

Logistically possible and if you will never have the chance to visit London again it could be worth it, but I'd also advise staying overnight to get in two days' visiting. It will give you just a taste - but what a taste! on a recent Paris trip we tacked on a couple days (3 days/2nights) in London en route home and enjoyed it greatly.

We did a day trip to London from Paris, leaving very early in the morning. We took the hop on/hop off tour. We had time for a light breakfast at the National Gallery, with views of London, to walk around the National Gallery for a bit, walk to Buckingham Palace, have lunch in the Red Lion Pub, walk around a bit, shop in Harrods, and tea in Kensington Gardens. We hopped back on for the rest of the tour, and got off near the train station. Not sure how it connects with St Pancras, but I imagine there's a stop near the train station. Well worth doing, in my opinion :-)

Sandy

We were going to do this when we spent 10 nights in Paris over the holidays - but we were going to spend the night - so 2 days really. Keeping our apartment so just bringing a few things. We ended up not doing it due to the cost of the train for 6 persons. Let us know what you end up doing.

I do think that there are plenty of places in France to enjoy a day trip to.

do it, it is so much fun to arrive for a day and have lunch and just wander.
My friend often goes over from London just for lunch!
You can't see everything, no matter how much time you spend in a place.
I usually catch an early train over and take a very late train back for my day trips when I am in London.

oops... do a day trip to London. Disregard my original response (rather back to front!).
You could go to Hyde Park and have lunch. Catch the tube/bus to Big Ben. Have high tea at Fortnum and Mason.