Things to see/do on a short schedule?
 

Hi, all. My family's going to Europe in July and it's our first trip to Europe (originally from South East Asia). Unfortunately, we only have 10 days to stay. I'd like to ask if there's any way to cram all the MUST sees in such a short amount of time. We're not too keen on doing a tour group thing but I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how to get as much done as possible.
Thanks!

Where are you going Europe covers a lot of territory!

Yeah, that's just it. There's so much to see and do, right? Anyways, the folks will be arriving in Heathrow on 28 July and staying till 6 Aug. We're hoping to at least see London, Paris and 1-2 other places. My dad heard about a day cruise from London-Norway. Anyone know how that is?
After the folks leave, my sister will be staying back for a week or so more after which we may hopefully pop over to Amsterdam without the parental supervision ;).

Day cruise London to Norway just cannot happen but you could fly even that would be a fair rush as normally the planes come straight back. There are tours in the winter to "father christmas land" (north Norway, Sweden, Finland take your pick).

This period you have selected is one of the busiest periods for holidays in Europe. So you need to be focused.

I might look at say

London (with day trips to say Oxford, Bath) say 4 nights
Paris (with day trips to Monet's gardens and Versailles) say 3 nights
and then one of

Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Brugges of Brussels

It feels too rushed for me but it gives you a started for 9 nights

You need a book, have a look at Rough Guide for Europe

With 10 days pick 2 locations, 3 at most so you don't spend more time in transit than seeing the places you are visiting.

Decide if you want to concentrate on cities or if you want to include some countryside as well. Since you are arriving in London, and your parents have just 10 days including arrival and departure days, limit yourselves to 2 stops. I suggest you consider London and Paris. With about 4 days in each you may want to do one daytrip from each. Do some research and talk with your family to see what you want to cover.

Agree that with so few days seeing anything of more than 2 places really isn't realistic.

You could of course run all over the place - taking a train every morning, spend an hour or two sightseeing in the afternoon, sleeping and then do it again the next next day. But I think you would find this very expensive, very frustrating (you will have a quick glimpse of 1 or 2 sights in each place), a very large percentage of your time in transit - and if there is any delay (bad weather, strike, etc) the whole trip would fall off schedule and be a disaster.

And there is no such thing as a day cruise to Norway. Starting from London you can (in a long day) get across the channel to France and back - but not any further.

If you really want to see someplace else take one of your days in Paris and do a day trip to Bruges (again, a lot of travel for very little time at task - but at least possible).

Jojo, did you Dad mean "Normandy" rather than "Norway"? It is still a stretch but there are long day tours.

Thanks everyone for so many helpful suggestions.
bilboburger, I do believe you may be right. I'll check with him again. I knew it sounded off when he mentioned it. Lol
I'll seriously consider everything everyone has said. But it's true that we have to be realistic and expect to not be able to see everything.

My typing is getting worse as I'm sitting in a hanging chair in the garden in the UK at a balmy 17C (easily the best day this year).