Janiisj and SusanSDJ Thanks for the info. I am definitely sticking to only 2 places, London and Paris. Found a flat in Paris for 300euros.
SusanSDJ - Yes we are interested in the books. We love to read and learn.
Thanks a bunch

In Paris, your daughter will enter every museum and landmark free, so you only need to budget for one.>

well if she is a EU citizen she will, but bot if American i believe

wrong PQ . . . .

Janis - this has been discussed recently here in detail and confirmed American youths under 25 do not get free access to Parisian museums just like EU ones? But i did not note that the girl was 8 years old so you are probably right with someone that young. My mistake thinking the girl was older like say 18 in which case she would not i believe get the under 26 discount.

All kids under the age of 18 get in free, regardless of citizenship.

Young adults with EU citizenship between the ages of 18-25 get in free.

If your daughter is interested in princess-type things, you should definitely take a trip to Windsor while in London. The Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park is also a nice place to relax after a long day of sightseeing, and is relatively close to Kensington Palace if you or your daughter are interested in Princess Diana. Enjoy planning!

natlove: I was joking.

You can mention Frommer, DK, Lonely Planet, Thomas Cook, the moppy-headed guy from Seattle, or any other guidebook on this forum.

But it is a FODORS forum.

And Fodors publishes guidebooks; often good ones. So . . . saying you'll go to the library and look at the Frommer is bad form. Unlike DK or that guy on PBS, Fodors has a pretty full range of guidebooks for all parts of the world.

If you go to Windsor, get your ticket to the castle at the train station (Paddington or Waterloo) and see if they offer a discount for it. We saved 3.50 GBP each on entry fees this way and skipped the line at the castle too.

And in London and the UK, if you go, look into www.daysoutguide.co.uk and print out the two-for-one offers. I've posted on how to redeem these elsewhere. Your daughter will generally get a reduced price entry to places that charge entry fees (e.g., Tower of London is 17 GBP for you, 9.50 for her), but the twofer deals mean you pay only for yourself, and she gets in free.

Did you get an apartment for 300 Euros for a week? That's a great deal (almost too good to be true????). If it turns out that there is a glitch, do consider youth hostels. They do take children, I've had my 11 year old daughter and my 11 year old neice in the, one in Vienna and one here in California. You just have to book carefully and do your research. I usually go with Hostelling International because they have relatively high standards for membership.

PQ: The OP's daughter most definitely does not have to pay most places. We were commenting re natlove's situation (an 8 yo child) not some random 19 year old student.

Thanks all. BigRus..lol. cferrb the apartment is legit. Someone mentioned it to be in another post. I went to a website offering flats for rent and emailed the owners. It seems good. I'm definitely looking into the some one the places mentioned in London and Paris.
I appreciate all your help guys. Thanks

I don't know what the train trip is like to Bruges, in Belgium, but it's one place that I wish I had been able to visit with my daughter when we were in Europe. It might be worth a long day's trip out of Paris.

Hi natlove- if the 300 euro apartment is the one I posted, I've got a few photos of the flat, the staircase, and the surrounding area. I'd be happy to post a link to the photos and to try and answer any questions you might have, just let me know.

If it's a different apartment, would you mind sharing which one it is? At least after you've got everything booked. I'm always on the lookout for cheap places to stay in Paris.

Books for young people:
Britain:
Karen Cushman's Catherine Called Birdy
Carolyn Meyer's Doomed Queen Anne and books about the other wives of King Henry VIII.
If she, like most princess-minded girls, loves these stories, she would also enjoy the film, "Lady Jane" about Jane Grey, the 16-day's-queen. It stars Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes, in his Wesleyan youth and beauty.
When you go to the Tower, you can look for the graffiti in her honor.
Of course, you can search for Harry Potter's London. Peter Pan, Mary Poppins and Paddington Bear have also left their tracks there. Aliki's William Shakespeare and The Globe is a great picture book telling the story of the rebuilding of The Globe-another place you can spend a day.
Kids'versions of Sherlock Holmes and Dickens' novels also set the stage.
For Paris-Madeline, of course, and Eloise in Paris. Linnea in Menet's Garden and The Young Dancer, about Degas.

I'm sorry I'm not coming up with my whole list-but I'll come back to it once my migraine ends and I again have access to all the files in my brain.

I always go to the library computer catalog, look up the place I'm traveling to, then fiction, then juvenile fiction. That's probably obvious, but there's so much out there!

I'm so excited for you. Make sure she's part of the planning.
The book London for Families taught me to have each family member make a top ten list of things they want to see/do. Everyone gets their #1, the rest is negotiated. Have her journal and draw along the way and be aware that her best memories might be the little detour you took or person she meets (children don't need a common language, they all speak "kid"), not one of the big sights.

Children don't get in free to every museum and monument in Paris, although they do to a lot of the national/city museums. You could avoid the places they do not, for the most part, to save money. They don't get in free to some private enterprises, like the Eiffel Tower, for example, and they don't at some museums where kids might naturally go, nor a few others, like the Marine Museum (which surprised me, as I think it is national, but I really enjoyed it)--except for very young kids, like under age 5.

The Paris Plage is not a beach, it's just sand brought in for people to suntan. It's like a sandbox for kids IMO. It is no real beach. I'd forget the whole beach idea on this trip, it doesn't make sense with the other things to do, and seems a real waste of time and money to go to London/Paris to go to the beach.

Natlove - Please won't you be so kind as to give us the link to the apartment you have selected at 300euros? Is that for a week?

If you were only going to spend 3 nights in Paris over a weekend I was going to suggest the Hotel Ibis Esplanade La Defense because they reduce the double rooms en-suite right down to 49euros. It's only 8-10 min metro ride to the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees.
We always stay there to take advatage of the offer.

Natlove - me again. When you say you guys love the beach.............you do mean one with real beach sand don't you? If so, forget Brighton. The "shore" is just made up of pebbles. Ghastly to walk on, worse to lie or sit on. The only good thing about a pebbled beach is that is makes a lovely sound near the water's edge just where the waves ripple in and out!
Brighton on a good day - that is one with bright sunshine and only a slight breeze is MAGNIFICENT for strolling the Promenade and poking around in the little lanes. Even the Victorian seudo Taj Mahal(Brighton Pavillion) looks nice.

lol..thanks guys for all your help.
SusanSDG its ok we have time. So when your migraine goes away send whatever you can.
Tod- doesn't necessarily have to be send. My daughter loves to swim doesn't matter. If there is a pool near by she will be ok. I already told her we might not go to the beach or pool. She swims all summer so she will be ok.

The flats I found are on homliday.co.uk. Someone send me the link and I signed up. You can email the owners directly. I contacted two people that quoted me 300euros.
Apres_Londee.. the one you gave I really liked but I think they were booked the week I want to go. I emailed the owner.
Thanks again everyone for all your help. I will definitely keep in touch.

That's great! Glad to hear it's all coming together.