jones073

Hello fellow travelers! My husband and our best couple friends had a great opportunity to take a quick trip to Europe; though it is shorter than we would prefer, we just couldn’t pass up this trip at this price. We do anticipate going back so we are using this as a ”sample platter” if you will. We fly into London and have 5 days to do whatever we want until we fly out of Amsterdam on the sixth day and move on to Ireland. In those 5 days, between London and Amsterdam what are your must see and do ideas? We love to explore the local culture, and while the big touristy things are interesting, we don’t want to waste time standing in lines and paying for a hyped up experience. Also, what’s the besti way to travel around? The Eurostar? Day trip, night trip and sleep on the train? Any cultural tips?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you so much!

janisj

I am a bit confused - your title says London, Paris and Amsterdam, the thread is tagged for the UK and Italy, and the post only mentions London and Amsterdam. So where are you actually going?

Assuming you mean London & Amsterdam . . . Five days will barely scratch the surface in London and Amsterdam is worth at least 3 days for a decent overview. With 5 days total and more than half a day traveling between them you don't have time for much. So any list of 'musts' is pretty much useless.

>>and while the big touristy things are interesting, we don’t want to waste time standing in lines and paying for a hyped up experience.<<

The only place in London with long queues really is the Tower of London and it certainly isn't hyped up. There can be a line at Westminster Abbey but its not bad. And most museums are free so there are no queues to speak of. In Amsterdam the main lines are at the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank's house - again - neither are tourist traps/hyped up. (one must book far ahead for the AF house).

No one's must's will be all that useful when you only have 2 or 3 days in a place since for instance my personal London 'Must see's' is about 25 long. Maybe get guide books for both cities and decide which 2 or 3 or 4 major sites are your musts in each place.

jones073

Yes, I do see how this is confusing, and I’m unable to make any edits, my apologies.

We have decided to forgo Paris and instead focus on England and Amsterdam and make Paris a more dedicated future trip. Like I said, this isn’t much time to see everything so just hoping to get some inside to things worth spending that limited time on. Anne Frank’s house looks interesting and knowing there aren’t many tourist traps but to book early is helpful. In the states a lot of things are hyped up and over priced so, not knowing I just assume it’s the same with other popular destinations.

So, 3 days in London and 3 days in Amsterdam. We have no set attractions, locations as of yet, we are just excited to get to go and experience new cultures!

What is the weather usually like in February? I have read it’s not overly cold, but rainy instead.

Thank you you for your feedback!

Tulips

London-Amsterdam; fly. It's by far the fastest way, particularly if you can go through London City Airport. It's small and quick to get through.
Weather in February? Anyone's guess; rain, snow, maybe even spring-like. Cold and wet is most likely.

Is that 3 full days in London or actually 3 nights? If those 3 days include the day you arrive in London and the day you travel to Amsterdam, it's not a lot of time for the largest city in Europe.

I can't really recommend what to do; I would see the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Hermitage in Amsterdam, but if you have absolutely no interest in looking at paintings, then obviously do something else. Same goes for London, but in London many museums are free, so you can just pop in and leave again if it's not what you want.

janisj

>>So, 3 days in London and 3 days in Amsterdam<<

I don't see how you have 3 days each. You fly to Ireland on day 6 so that leave 5 days. If one of those is your arrival day then you have half a jet lagged day at the beginning and another half a day traveling to Amsterdam -- so essentially 4 days to do two major cities.

menachem

Maybe choose either London or Amsterdam. I think dropping Amsterdam would be sensible.

I know you're flying out from Ams, but just book a flight from any London airport. Luton perhaps not the best choice, but may be the cheapest. Schiphol is great for transfers and very comfortable.

danon

London is huge and moving around is time consuming . You might take a ho- ho bus to get a general view
and select a few " indoor " venues. Three days is very short, but it is up to you.
Amsterdam is small, easily walkable ...three days would do.
droping Amstersm might be an idea...or 4/2 split.
the weather...wet , cool, rainy.

PalenQ

London-Bruges-Amsterdam would be sweet - little time to do Paris justice. Take Eurostar train London-Brussels then local train to Bruges -wonderful Bruges a Belgian favorite of many. www.eurostar.com - then train to Amsterdam via Antwerp (www.thalys.com) - book own discounted tickets online) www.seat61.com will help loads with that; general info on trains and where to go with them: BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Actually just London and Paris or London and Amsterdam would be a max with so few days - or even just London.

Sassafrass

It is still not clear, at least to me, how much time you actually have. Many people mistakenly count travel time and arrival and departure days as sightseeing time and it is not. You say you have 5 days and are flying out of Amsterdam on day 6. That makes it impossible to have 3 days in each city. Add in the fact that even flying, what with getting to the airport, check in, flight, then getting to new hotel, you will use up at least 1/2 day. You are now down to 4 & 1/2 days!

How many nights do you have total?
Are you still going to Ireland?

If you will lay out your whole itinerary, with arrival days and nights in each place or a more detailed itinerary with days, including travel, posters can give you the best advice. Realize that you must subtract 1 from number of nights in a place to get an accurate number of whole days. Do you actually have 6 nights?

arrive London
3 nights (2 days) London
fly to Amsterdam
3 nights (2 days) Amsterdam
fly to ?

Personally, I like days with more detail to make things very clear.
Day before, depart home
Day 1, Arrive London, 1/2 day for walking, getting over jet lag.
Day 2, London, 1 whole day
Day 3, London, 2nd whole day
Day 4, Fly to Amsterdam, maybe 1/2 day
Day 5, Amsterdam, 1 whole day
Day 6, Fly to?
If this is what you have, then you actually have only 3 full days and 2 half days.

Keep in mind that February will have short days for seeing things outside.
Forget a HOHO bus in London. It is a big, sitting in traffic, time waster. Pick out specific things to see and see them.
Do you live in Ireland or traveling there as another place to visit?
If you do not live in Ireland, what is your departure airport? When?

PalenQ

Sassafrass has great advice - but instead of flying London to Amsterdam I would take the bullet trains via Eurostar to Belgium and Thalys to Amsterdam - this pringn hopefully will see thru London-Amsterdam trains in about 3-4 hours - about as quick as flying figuring in getting to airports, etc. Book early at www.eurostar.com for deep discounted tickets.

Tulips

Train London - Amsterdam will take 4 hours at least; + half an hour to change between trains in Brussel + 45 minutes check-in. Even once the Eurostar goes through to Amsterdam, it will take more than 4 hours.
On such a short trip I would fly.
But I would really spend all the days in London, and skip Amsterdam on this trip.

janisj

Agree w/ Tulips. I would fly from LCY of possible. Small airport close to central London and a very short flight. I also agree that all the time in London would be a better use of times since you lose half of your arrival day, half of your travel day, and essentially all of day 6. Doesn't leave much time for 2 major cities.

PalenQ

Yeah if can fly from London City Airport makes sense though the train experience thru the Chunnel and seeing the terrain in between London and Amsterdam is neat too.

sounds like OP may have booked flight out of Amsterdam?

PalenQ

OP- Are you booked flying out of Amsterdam? Or is that still open - if not it's gotta be London and Amsterdam - see no way to hit other places unless you fly from airport in London to Paris and train later to Amsterdam.

PalenQ

There is another way London to Amsterdam -by ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland - can go at night or during day. Now obviously much longer so only go for the experience - nice comfy boats with all amenities.