Europe Trip Planning help

[czycropper]

Hi UK Disers - I'm in the process of planning a trip over there and I need help! The whole family definitely wants to go to the UK, then onto Spain and possibly Italy. We are planning on being over for at least 3 weeks from the end of June through July. Here are the questions:

1. Would it be better to get a longterm hotel or try and rent an apartment in London?

2. My DD11 is Harry Potter obsessed - are the tours any good? or should we just do it on our own?

3. DH wants to see as many castles as possible - is there any guidebook that has a list of castles within a couple of hours drive from London?

4. Is it better to fly from London to Madrid? or take a train? How are the fares?

5. We will be taking an overnight train from Spain to Italy - that part has been decided.

Thanks for any and all advice!!!!

 

[Danauk]

I hope you have a fabulous trip, here are my suggestions.

1. Would it be better to get a longterm hotel or try and rent an apartment in London?
I would personally just stay in a hotel, however I suggest that you do the London part of your trip at the start due to the Olympic Games being held in London at the end of July/August. Accomodation prices in general are going way up then!

2. My DD11 is Harry Potter obsessed - are the tours any good? or should we just do it on our own?
I'm not sure if the Harry Potter experience that is being planned will be open by then, actually off the top of my head I can't even remember where it will be located. I haven't seen Harry Potter tours advertised, however if you would like to know where some of the loactions are I would be glad to give you directions to them.

3. DH wants to see as many castles as possible - is there any guidebook that has a list of castles within a couple of hours drive from London?
For castles I would definatley recommend Warwick Castle http://www.warwick-castle.com/ We go there quite often and in the summer months, especially on weekends, they have special events on such as jousting, themed events in the castle etc.

4. Is it better to fly from London to Madrid? or take a train? How are the fares?
Personally I would fly. If you take a train you would have to get the Euro star to Paris and then swap trains to get from France to Spain. There are plenty of low cost airlines that go between London and Madrid.

Hope this helps.

 

[queendisney]

other castles that are beautiful and 2 hours or less from London are

Windsor Castle
Leeds Castle (which is in Kent) http://www.leeds-castle.com/land.php
Hever Castle http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Hever_Castle.htm
Arundel Castle (one of my fav's) http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/arundel_castle.htm

There are just so many but all the above are beautiful...

There are a couple of organisations that you could look at also which might save you money if you plan on going to A LOT of castles...
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-support/w-jointoday/w-jointoday-join_from_usa.htm
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

Have fun.....

 

[~Piglet~]

There is a new Warner Bros Harry Potter tour opening in Spring 2012 Click Here

 

[queendisney]

There is a new Warner Bros Harry Potter tour opening in Spring 2012 Click Here

Oh WOW!!! I am going to book now for that...

 

[czycropper]

THANKS!!!! I had completely forgotten about the Olympics, which is funny since my DH took a pic of the countdown clock in London when he was over there back in March on business. So now we just have to decided whether to go earlier or postpone a year in the meanwhile I'll continue planning

Now we really can't wait to see all the castles. Both my DH & I are into photography so I can't wait to photograph all of them.

danauk - can you get me the names of some of the lower cost airlines? I would like to see what fares are currently and then increase by a percentage.

piglet - that's great that the studios are opening up for tours. It's going to make my DD a very happy kid - hey, it will make her Mom & Dad happy as well since we're the ones that got them hooked on HP!

Keep any ideas coming!

 

[Bonnie151]

I'd rent a flat. We went down to London during the October break and stayed here: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Vacati...e_Tower_of_London-London_England.html#reviews

It was *fantastic*!! It's probably too small for your family, but you can find all sorts of places on Trip Advisor (and if wondering about the authenticity of listings, they have a very helpful and active forum with people who will point you in the direction of reputable agencies). I far prefer renting flats to staying in hotel - you get more room to spread out, it's usually less expensive and you don't need to be eating out all of the time - London has lots of M&S/Waitrose/Tesco Express etc supermarkets where you can get ready meals to pop in the oven.

Hampton Court is pretty good too and not far out at all.

There are Harry Potter tours - if you do a search on Trip Advisor you'll find them. we didn't do any (DD a bit too young, though DS would have enjoyed it), but some get very good reviews.