Seeking Europe Itinerary Suggestions
 

Hello,

I'm currently planning my family's first trip to Europe from the United States and was looking for some suggestions. We're currently looking at around 15 nights. Travelers will be me and my wife, both in our 30s, and our 8 year old son. When I was 19 I spent several weeks in Europe doing a study abroad in Spain and visited London, Paris, Barcelona, Salamanca, and Sevilla. Since this is my wife's first trip to Europe she would love to visit London and Paris so I'm planning the trip around that. I was thinking of flying to Iceland, spending 3 nights there, then going to London for 4-5 nights (with maybe a day trip to Stonehenge or a night somewhere else in the UK to get a different flavor), then Paris for 2-3 nights. This gives us several other days to explore other parts of Europe and was looking for some suggestions from experienced European travelers. We like history and nature, and obviously a place that's kid-friendly as well. Depending on different flight/price combinations we may have to return home from Iceland so that's an extra (4th) night there that will really just be to relax and spend the night.

I loved Spain and would like to go back to the cities I visited and explore other areas along with Portugal, but that's probably better for a future Spain/Portugal trip so for now I'm leaning against a stop in Barcelona or Lisbon or somewhere else on the Iberian peninsula. Same with Germany/Austria or some other destinations that perhaps make more sense for a future trip. Spain would be my first choice, but London/Paris are a must on this trip for my wife :) For this trip, I was thinking maybe Scotland, Belgium, or Prague would make sense as another destination, but I'm really having trouble narrowing it down. Our problem is that we would like to go everywhere haha!

Interested in any suggestions you might have. Also pretty flexible on Iceland for this trip if people think other destinations are better.

Thanks!

2 or 3 nights is VERY little for Paris. For a first visit, 6 or 7 nights is not unusual, perhaps to include a day trip or two. If you are planning around your wife's interests, you might want to make sure you know what, exactly, she wants to see and do there and plan accordingly.

With 1 night transatlantic, and 3 nights in Iceland -- IMO/IME London and Paris is ALL you have enough time for. A 20 yo backpacker could move faster . . . but you have an 8 yo with you and your wife hasn't seen either city. Don't be in such a rush.

Even just Paris & London will be pretty rushed 1 night en route and 3 nights in Iceland (netting 2 full days) leaves just 11 nights (10 usable days) for London. the largest city in Western Europe with TONS of sites for families, and Paris. Even with 11 nights and if you want a day trip or two in either city, you won't see more than a small % of the major sites

Yes, please talk to your wife about what she wants to see and do in Paris and London before you allot days to other places. For example, I have an upcoming trip with 5 nights in Paris, and I'm having to prioritize activities, meaning some will get left off the list because I won't have enough time. With 2 or 3 days I suspect you will leave A LOT off the list.

Thanks for the suggestions! My wife would definitely love to spend more time in London over Paris, and has just expressed interest in seeing some of the major Paris sights, which is why I was thinking about staying there for fewer nights. She was also thinking about Paris since it's relatively close to London by Train and is a famous destination. She doesn't really like planning trips or looking up things to do so I'm generally the one who plans everything. All she has said about Paris is that she wants to go :) I also didn't enjoy Paris all that much when I previously went for a few days, but I know this experience could be different. Personally, I would really love to add in another destination, but maybe my recognizing the lack of time is why I'm having trouble choosing another place.:) I'm kind of leaning towards Scotland, only problem would be backtracking to the U.K. I'm not too worried about traveling with my son. We've gone to Asia twice and traveled to Canada and throughout the U.S. with him so he's a good and, for his age, experienced traveler.

Any thoughts on Iceland? I added that to the itinerary since there are good priced round trip flights to there from the U.S. and it looks beautiful. Has anyone regretted spending a few days there?

Which month are you coming? August is very different to May.

What do you both like to do?

I might look at one of
Strasbourg
York
Edinburgh (not in August)
Madrid
Seville/Cordoba/Grenada
The Mosel Valley

Iceland, I loved it, the food is a bit bland, the spas are excellent, the riding is very very different to anything else, apart from the main city the place is flat/bland with the odd glacier/cliff thrown in and still recovering from de-forestation about 700 years ago, the geology is very very obvious. I'd plan for at least 2 nights stop.

Icelandair flies direct from Iceland to Glasgow, and WOW flies direct to Edinburgh. Then you could take the train to London (maybe the Caledonian sleeper) or to Durham or York and then London. For info on trains see: https://www.seat61.com/

Trains are great - to learn all about them and where to go with them check www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts (especially the latter's online European Planning & Rail Guide that has suggested itineraries for traveling by train).

Book train tickets like London to Paris (www.eurostar.com) well in advance for serious discounts over full fare - www.seat61.com is a grweat source for tips on doing that. If traveling on several longer trains on Continent consider a Eurailpass of some type - they now also cover London-Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam Eurostar trains for a 35 $ surcharge plus using a day on your pass.

Two things: (1) London is catnip for kids, consider adding to the time you're thinking about allotting. (2) You cannot travel from place to place with a hobbit in tow as if you're a 19 year old backpacker - kids need some modicum of stability in where they're staying and a bit of built in down time doesn't hurt.

They only have 15 nights/14 days, many of which are already spoken for in Iceland and the UK, and they only want one more destination. Talk of rail passes and a European Rail Guide is an unnecessary distraction.

Iceland - Scotland - London - Paris - fly home from Paris is straightforward and only requires two train tickets, which should certainly be bought ahead of time.

If you're not married to the idea of flying into and out of Iceland (I don't know convenient routes regarding Iceland) then you can consider London-Paris-Amsterdam. That should be good for a two week vacation. Don't know how much money you'll be saving, but I typically don't backtrack. I pay a bit more to fly out of my last city.

never suggested any railpasses? AndOP expressed thoughts of going to Paris and beyond - and for that a few trains may be in order but no railpass -did not see it mentioned above?

>>never suggested any railpasses? <<

>>If traveling on several longer trains on Continent consider a Eurailpass of some type - they now also cover London-Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam Eurostar trains for a 35 $ surcharge plus using a day on your pass.<<

Seems you were. If not, why muddy the waters even bringing it up?

Got threads mixed up - and yes if they decide just on Continent a railpass could be good if they take several longer trains. Mea culpa. Yet highly unlikely in that short time a railpass would be economic but if traveling a lot...as some do.

Bruges, Belgium is a great town with a chocolate factory if I recall correctly and I loved Prague but it has been many years. You could fly to Scotland from LHR or take a train but that's a long day because the train is something like 8 hours. Now this may not be your thing but Warwick Castle offers history and "glamping" for a night. That could be fun for your kid and you and your wife could see the castle (amazing history). In Paris, www.laduree.com has gorgeous goodies so if you're walking by the Champs Elysees you may want to pop in. Sounds like a great trip. My parents raved about Iceland but I haven't been.

Oh boy. Loads of information from people who haven't been, who like chocolate, and who got threads mixed up. Brilliant.

Bruges Chocolate Factory tour!

My 3 kids are now teens and college students and no longer as easy to impress. I kind of miss those younger kid days. As I recall, 8-year-olds typically like climbing things, things that are big. Climbing to the top of the lookout at some of the larger cathedrals--like St. Paul's in London. Castles and exploring. Other methods of transport--ships, trains.

I don't know Iceland at all. But one thing to think about is that every day you change countries you lose a good part of a sightseeing day.After Iceland, I think you could do really well by sticking with Great Britain and Paris for the rest of your trip. What the experienced people on this board taught me is to break it down into a daily itinerary. On the itinerary, always include where you are sleeping that night each time it's a new lodgings/city. I'm not sure where you're going exactly so I couldn't fill those in yet.

Day 1 Flight to Iceland--Sleep Reykjavik
Day 2 Iceland
Day 3 Iceland
Day 4 Travel to London see a bit of London, Sleep London
Day 5 See London
Day 6 See London
Day 7 see London
Day 8 Travel to York, see a bit of York Sleep York
Day 9 See York Sleep York
Day 10 Travel to either castles by car or to Edinburgh
Day 12-13 See Edinburgh, Sleep Edinburgh
Day 14- Fly to Paris, see a bit of Paris and Sleep Paris
Day 15 See Paris
Day 16 Fly home

My thoughts behind this itinerary:
At least 3 days in London. Or maybe 4. Remember that Harry Potter is there. You can tour some of the sites for that. Tower of London is pretty sweet but the crown jewels are the boring part for kids after about 5 minutes. Checking out the armor and running around the fortifications and looking out are cool. A double decker bus ride or two is a must. My younger two hit the Natural History museum. Finally regarding Harry Potter, there is also some kind of soundlot or themepark experience that we did not do. Climb to the top of St. Paul's.

Then take the train to York. It's a medieval walled city. You can run around the wall. See the huge cathedral, and you also can climb to the top. The old fortifications in the city. Pretty sure the Viking sites are back open (they were under repair when we were there in 2016). My younger two really liked this place. Also we happened to be there on a Saturday and they enjoyed the small, genuine little marketplace.

From there, you could train to Edinburgh or drive to some castles. You mentioned Nature--and Scotland is gorgeous. Janis can help you with hikes and the coolest castles to see. But truly, she will have more for you to look at than you can do in two days. But look at her past reports for others, and see.

I do think you're more opposed to Paris than you give it credit. Your family might enjoy a boat ride along the Seine, or perhaps the French catacombs for something different. Sainte Chapelle was my 15-year-old-boy's favorite thing of our two week trip. So don't miss it! Getting up early to go see the Eiffel Tower was way more fun than having to book tickets ahead during the day.

Okay, here's my alternate idea. After a long day seeing the highlights of Paris... you could see one region of France. You would need to choose between Scotland, Iceland and a region in France. Because if you have to get from Great Britain to France, you've got tickets there (let's say $300 after taxes), it would be nice to be there more than a day and a half.

In France, would you be willing to drive? I haven't seen nearly enough in France--but the two choices I'd want to look at are either Mont St Michel (google it) a tiny island monastery off the coast of Normandy, or a couple of the more famous castles in the Loire Valley-- two very different destinations in terms of location on the map. One thing about Mont St Michel is that it's in Normandy. If you've seen a lot of Monet, you've seen Normandy and didn't know it. Think of those striking coastline paintings he did. I didn't have a car, so mainly I just saw Rouen, which is a cool city with the timbered buildings. but Normandy is one of those places that has called to me to come back.

Here's an alternate plan. I moved Paris to the end because that means you move hotels one less time since you'd fly home from there. Truthfully now that I look at it again, I'm thinking more time for Scotland.... but it's late. Someone else will hopefully come along and fix it.

Day 1 Travel to London Sleep London
Day 2 See London
Day 3 See London
Day 4 see London
Day 5 Travel to York, see a bit of York Sleep York
Day 6 See York Sleep York
Day 7 Travel to either castles by car or to Edinburgh
Day 8 Scotland
Day 9 See Edinburgh, Sleep Edinburgh
Day 10- Fly to Paris, drive to Rouen, see a bit of Rouen, Sleep Rouen
Day 11 See Normandy
Day 12 See Normandy,
Day 13 See Normandy
Day 14 Drive back to Paris, turn in car, See Paris and Sleep Paris
Day 15 See Paris
Day 16 Fly out.

Well Mont Saint-Michel is in Brittany not Normandy!