Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Whats more fun? Paris or London?

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I truly love London. It seems like "coming home" to me in a way that Paris never could. However, I completely agree about seeing London first, then Paris. When I first saw London, I exclaimed "Wow! I'm in London!!" A week later, coming out of the Concorde metro exit in the evening, I got my first glimpse of luminous Paris. I just sort of gurgled with joy. No words could do it justice. Paris also wins hands down for people watching! Part of the fun is watching American tourists (I include myself in this) try to figure out what the hell they're doing. I could sit on the Champs Elysees and people watch for hours...

Paris, Paris, Paris!!!

I wish I could find out where to get a full pizza meal for four plus wine for 25 Euros in Paris!!!

I can't believe some of the exaggeration in these posts. A 3 course meal plus wine in Paris for 4 for 20 Euros??? That's less than £4 per person. I don't think so somehow!!! More like 20 euros per PERSON, they aren't simply giving the food away over there! London is as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. It really isn't that difficult to find a decent meal (main course and drink) for under £10. I rarely pay more than £7-10 for a main course when I go out for dinner in London. Pre-theatre specials are excellent and some places will do a 3 course meal for less than £15. There is nothing wrong with pizza in London, there are some great Italian style pizza places all over the city these days (which usually fall in the £6-8 price range per person). You can eat very well if you get out of the awful touristy areas like Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, which seem to cater for un-suspecting tourists. As for hotels, it's getting easier and easier to get a good 4 star hotel for £70, I am constantly seeing special offers and discounted websites..... you don't have to pay more than $100-120 tops these days for a really good hotel. Something which I have REALLY struggled with in the big US cities. I've been to Paris twice and IMO it just doesn't compare with London. Maybe I'm biased but I love my home city and am always finding new things to do and see every time I do the tourist thing, London is constantly changing. There's something for everyone - museums, art, music, history, shopping, theatre, interesting neighbourhoods, lots of fun stuff for the kids..... London can be very beautiful - we have lots of lovely buildings, charming neighbourhoods and pretty parks.... a walk along the Thames at night with all the lights and the floodlit Tower/Tower Bridge/St Pauls is magical. And as for the people who said about the attitudes.... well, you get rude people everywhere, but Londoners are very helpful (I am always seeing Londoners get stopped to help tourists - I know I have been late for work more than once because I stopped to help with directions)..... Besides, exchange rates people!!!! It's not London's fault the £ is worth quite a bit more than the Euro and the Dollar at the moment, you might want to bear that in mind when comparing prices.

Good on you Karen - summed up my thoughts entirely. All I can say is that Sheila must have had an expensive bottle of wine with her pizza in London or maybe ended up eating in an expensive restaurant. "Ask" and "Pizza Express" will give you a pizza for £7 and a bottle of wine for no more than £15 I'm glad Mark is going to do both cities - seems the best solution to me

Mark, Glad you are doing both! Will you be taking the Eurostar/Chunnel to switch venues? I recommend it! I personally prefer London, and agree with Cecilia and Karen in particular. Especially if you don't speak French, have kid(s) in tow, and/or don't want to sit around and people watch - London has much more to DO! After having been with a ten year old daughter and eight year old son, I'd recommend: The double decker hop on/off tour Westminster Tower of London Then the "girls" can shop and go to tea one day while you go to the War Museum (my guys found it extremely interesting) We also LOVED Windsor Castle and would include it on even a 3-day stay, but I know others here disagree. In Paris, be sure to go to Mont Marte to have your daughter's portrait sketched, and stop at a cafe. Besides the Louvre, go to D'Orsey to see the Impressionists, and stop at the cafe there as well. The highlight of Paris for us was box seats for the ballet at the incredible Opera Garnier. We also enjoyed a day trip to Versaille; since you're going in summer, schedule your visit there for the day they have the fountain concerts. You will all have an incredible vacation!

Top 3 from a 14-year-old who visited when she was 12/13: Paris: department stores (Printemps, Gallerie Lafayette, etc.), Eiffel tower, French food (dinner about $16 per person for 3- or 4-course meal; you can find it!) London: musicals, the British Museum, double-decker busses & the underground. Which? BOTH!

Here are a couple more suggestions to add to your list, esp. for your daughter. In London: Changing of the Guard - Buck Palace Madam Tussauds Wax Museum Windsor Castle - I found the enormous dollhouse fascinating and I was 16. Ok, this is technically outside London, but easy and quick train ride. Paris: Notre Dame Musee D'Orsay Eiffel Tower Boat Trip around the Seine (Bateaux Mouche I think it was called!) You might want to look for travel guides for those 2 cities that are written with kids in mind. Plus your daughter could read them to get her interest piqued by various sights.

Jeeez, cheryl, get over your room atthe angleterre already! paris. you can take you dog to a restaurant or shopping you can smoke when you want to and where you want to you don't have to shave french sounds better london. if you have money to spend it is great for shopping theater food is good but the good places are $$ they really are polite

If you go to the Imperial War Museum in London, as Beth2 suggested, be sure to go to the Cabinet War Rooms, too. That's the underground location that was occupied by Churchill and his Cabinet during WWII. It's a branch of the Imperial War Museum, but it's in a separate location (the main Imperial War Museum is in Lambeth, and the Cabinet War Rooms are in central London, near Westminster Abbey). If this kind of thing appeals to you, also check out the Musee de l'Armee in Paris (in the 7th, not far from the Rodin Museum). Here are some random ideas about other things you might enjoy in Paris: The "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries in the Cluny Museum (full name: Musée National du Moyen-Age Thermes de Cluny) The stained glass windows in the upper level of Sainte Chapelle (on the Ile de la Cite, near Notre Dame). Be warned: it's part of the same complex as the Palais de Justice, so you have to stand in a long line to go through a metal detector, but it's worth it once you get inside. Bring your binoculars to get a close-up look at the windows. The Place des Vosges: a beautiful old square in the Marais, good for people-watching. The rue des Francs-Bourgeois, just off the Place des Vosges, is lined with chic boutiques, many of which sell the kind of things a 12-year-old might like. And in London: The Theatre Museum, in Covent Garden. They have many child-oriented activities like story-telling, make-up demonstrations, etc. If you go to their website (http://theatremuseum.vam.ac.uk/whatindex.htm), you can search for "Activities for Families". The National Portrait Gallery (around the corner from the National Gallery). The contemporary section includes portraits of people your 12-year-old might actually have heard of, like the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Joan Collins, etc. Tea or lunch at the Orangery, a beautiful old Christopher Wren-designed building in the grounds of Kensington Palace

Thanks Andrew :) It was extremely difficult to be polite in reply to some of the responses here. The London bashers seem to be out in force. In reply to specific posters - >>>>>Although I'd like to keep costs at a reasonable, yet somewhat predictable level, posts which state that a $20 pizza dinner in Paris would cost 100 pds. in London (or roughly $150) is scary. That and bad attitudes makes one lean toward Paris for the duration. However, after further deliberation, I decided to juggle the trip to stay a week in Paris and four days in London. Never having been to either place, I'd invite anyone to share their top three or so experiences (site, restaurant, activity, etc.) in either city for me to place on my itinerary. <<<<< Mark, as I said above, people are exaggerating wildly. Eat dinner early in London (before 6pm) and you will find lots of excellent dining options, usually known as "pre-theatre menus". Some of the moderately expensive restaurants will usually offer three courses for £10/12/15/20 on average. The restaurants at www.conran.com are pretty good with their set menus. There are already lots of threads on Fodors about restaurants in London, which have some really good suggestions. Make sure to do a search. Personally I think 4 days in London for a first visit (especially if your wife and daughter really want to go) isn't enough time. I would go for at least 5 or 6 days. That way you have time for a day trip like Windsor or Hampton Court Palace. Just my opinion...... >>>>>But in my research it does seem like there is plenty to do in London that is not that expensive. What about all the Indian restaurants that are suppossed to be so cheap and good. What about the fact that most of the museums are free. I know the chruches charge fees but I've read that you can go to them for free during evensong - seems like a good way to see them and be entertained at the same time. The hotel I've booked (with gotoday) looks fine on it's website and is less than some I've stayed at in Paris that look about the same. Am I missing something. Can't London be seen and enjoyed for a reasonable amount of money?<<<<<< Ann There were a couple of threads recently about good Indian food in London which had lots of recommendations.... I can't comment myself as I don't like Indian food at all, but I get the impression that yes, there are some really inexpensive restaurants for Indian food in London. I also find a lot of the Italian restaurants reasonably priced and prefer some of the wine bars for food than the pubs (some of the chain pubs like Wetherspoons can be really crap, you have to watch out - although they often serve cheap drinks!). And yes, all of the major museums (and galleries I believe???) are now free! :) In fact the only really good places that still charge are The Tower of London, the London Eye, and St Pauls. Amusingly, a few years ago I took an American friend visiting to the Tower and she balked at the £10 admission - I pointed out that the cost to get into Disneyworld for one day was the equivalent of nearly £35. Totally different places I know, but I think it puts things into perspective.....

Sorry-was that long and confusing reply supposed to compare a day in Disneyworld to a couple of hours at the Tower of London?????

Mark, if you want, as Karen suggests, to take advantage of some "early bird" specials, then you should go to Florida and eat with the pensioners there: remember this hilarious Seinfeld episode where all the Florida condo owners gather at the restaurant before 5 so save a couple of bucks? If enjoying a vacation means looking at your watch to eat before 6, then you'd rather go straight to the hospital (I guess it's the time they serve dinner in those places).

As a student in both cities, many moons ago - it was a tie. As a traveller to each city, every 1-2 years for the past 25-30, still a tie. But I'll take copious notes of my impressions in February, and report back. I predict a continuing tie, and I can live with it! Happy I cannot be more helpful to those who rank unrankables. TC

Easy for me...London. I love England and what it has to offer. There is a lot to see and do. I find the people there to be great. Overall it is just more pleasant for me personally than dealing with the French.

Oh, lol, Gigi, turn in your name for Hortense - and woooo, sorry about those horrid french. Was it perhaps too much of 8 Women. I kept thinking, if they sing again, I'll boycot some lesser french town.

The most FUN? No discussion, that's easy - it's London. Plus, if you try practicing your French in Paris, you'll probably get more frustrated and annoyed looks than sympathy...

Having been to both, my impression of Paris was of a stunningly beautiful city. However, I also think its a very bourgeoise place, where things have to be 'comme il faut'. I still love going to Paris. London is much more laid back and much more, for all its history, of a young persons city. If I had to choose, I don't think I could;)

Folks, My inquiry has generated some really serious responses. Thanks to all, and keep em coming. Feel free to email me personally as well. I am absorbing the information like a sponge. I put out such feelers for Hawaii last year and it worked out perfectly, in every aspect of the trip. There's just no substitute for experience and those who've visited these great cities seem more than eager to share their experiences. I thank everyone kindly. Mark

mark, what may not be clear - have you ever been to either. and if not, good godfrey daniel, guy, see 'em both, and stop polling for what are essentially meaningless data. make your own plans to pop over to P for 2 days, and make L your base. will this be your first time in europe?