Paris travel help -VOTE

[laurie31]

Hello

We are going to London next summer and have been considering adding a couple of days in Paris as well. It will be years before we are able to travel to Europe again, and we would love to take the girls to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre (and the Orsay, Notre Dame, etc).

Pros - the big cost is airfare and we'll be paying that anyway. We can get to Paris from London in 3 hours on Eurostar.

Cons- DH doesn't have a lot of vacation time. We only have 9 days, 11 at the most. We would only have 2 days for Paris, which is barely enough to skim the high points.

So, should we add on Paris, or just stay in England? (We will be taking a couple of day trips out from London - I want the girls to see the English countryside not just London) And...the big question...if we do go to Paris, how can we not go to Disneyland Paris? Should we take a day of our very limited time for EuroDisney? Is it worth the time and expense? Or will I get banned from the DIS for even asking such a thing Tickets woudl be about $200, plus it would cost us a day.

Just 2 days in Paris (transportation from London + hotel) will be around $1000. I'm starting to wonder if we can pull Paris off at all.

What do you think? Poll coming...

Laurie

 

[monkeyboy]

Disney Paris

 

[Sparx]

ED and paris

 

[gina2000]

Love Paris. Skip ED.

 

[NancyIL]

Yes, go to Paris. With only 2 days to spend there, skip Disneyland.

I love both London and Paris, but Paris is a less expensive city to visit. Can you give up one day in England to have one more in Paris? Does your budget assume you will take the Eurostar roundtrip from London? If so - why not fly into London and home from Paris? I am a big fan of Rick Steves, and his books, Rick Steves' London 2005 and Rick Steves' Paris 2005 will help you get the most bang for the buck.

 

[trappednabox]

Yes, go to Paris. With only 2 days to spend there, skip Disneyland.

 

[CarolA]

I agree, go to Paris. Skip Disney.

I liked EuroDisney, but it's really just the Magic Kingdom so there is not a whole lot you haven't already seen. Paris is beautiful and if you try to shove Disney in there one of them is going to get shorted...

 

[AnnetteF]

Go to Paris and to Disneyland Paris! I went to London and some parts of England in 1993 with DH who had to go there on business. I absolutely adore London and the English countryside is wonderful to see as well. We were there for 10 days and I had thoughts of going over to Paris as I have always wanted to see it and also the Disneyland park had just recently opened at that time and would have loved to have seen it. Although we toyed with the idea, we decided against Paris on that trip and would do it another time. We have yet to go back and it is one of the biggest regrets of my life. Go and enjoy!!!

 

[Beth76]

Definitely go to Paris!!!!!!

 

[rcyannacci]

You can always do Disney in the States...there's too much to see in both London and Paris to justify EuroDisney, IMO.

If you have the $$$ and don't mind spending it, I'd throw in Paris too. Granted, I've done a 10 day trip to London with 2 day trips and never got bored, but I've also done 5 days in London and been fine with that too. Just prioritize and schedule carefully; study the underground and Metro maps to make sure you don't backtrack and such; know the schedules of things you want to do (like Portobello Road Market on Saturdays, etc.). Also, if you can afford it, get theatre tickets in advance; the Mary Poppins musical is reportedly fantastic, and it could be hard to get tickets in short notice. Plus, you could get your Disney fix w/o EuroDisney!

 

[debabe]

Yes, go to Paris. With only 2 days to spend there, skip Disneyland.

I love both London and Paris, but Paris is a less expensive city to visit. Can you give up one day in England to have one more in Paris? Does your budget assume you will take the Eurostar roundtrip from London? If so - why not fly into London and home from Paris? I am a big fan of Rick Steves, and his books, Rick Steves' London 2005 and Rick Steves' Paris 2005 will help you get the most bang for the buck.

ITA with this. When we were in Paris we had one day left and asked the kids (1 10 yr old girl, 1 9 yr old boy and 1 10 yr old boy) if they wanted to go to Disney or spend another day in the city. Hands down, they all voted to skip Disney. HTH

Deb

 

[mef78]

I used to live in London and took quite a few trips to Paris -- it's absolutely worth the cost, especially for the opportunity to introduce your girls to two of the most incredible cities in the world. The opportunity to take the chunnel train, see the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysses, etc. is incredible; and the beauty of Paris is indescribable. London is and always will be my first love, but Paris is definitely worth the money.

I wouldn't throw in Eurodisney, though. There's too much in Paris to see.

 

[LukenDC]

I love Paris. London is neat too, but it is not nearly as interesting or beautiful as Paris. In London, the top sites are widely dispersed whereas in Paris, there are interesting things to see everywhere. Paris is visually stunning, London is not. In fact, I even encourage you to shorten your stay in England in order to spend more time in France.

Skip DL Paris. It is a very American theme park and you would be wasting precious time.

 

[sk!mom]

DH and I went to ENgland and France this summer. We had two weeks. Since we had been to Paris before we only spent a few days there this trip. We wanted to see our favorite places again and relax at the end of our trip. The Eurostar from London to Paris is a quick, easy trip and there are some good discounts. Since we had BritRail passes we were able to get Eurostar tickets one way for 75 USD each. We had open jaw plane tickets so that we did not have to spend time traveling back to LOndon. We flew home from Paris. You can easily see the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, and walk the Champs Elysee in one day. The Bateaux on the Seine is a good way to get from the Tower to Notre Dame. You could spend days in the Louvre but you can hit the high spots in a few hours.

We have never considered ED. DH would never consider traveling that far and spending that much to do something that we could do much closer to home.

We have never gone to Paris for such a short time but definitely would if it was all the time we had. Have a great time.

 

[princess pooh]

Definately go to Paris! I went for a weekend during a London trip and it was wonderful . It wasn't enough time to see everything of course, but it was better than nothing.

Disneyland Paris wasn't worth it in my opinion. It was great to go there when I was spending a few months in London, but I think your time is too limited.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I voted to do Paris & Disneyland Paris. Who knows when you'll get over to Europe again, and in my opinion, one day in Paris is better than none!

 

[beachbunny]

Wow, I guess I'm totally in the minority here. I've been to Disneyland, WDW, TDL, and DLP (not ED), and each is unique. I vote for spending a day at DLP if you do go to Paris. It is less than one hour away by RER.

If you only have nine days on the ground, you should have ample time to do both London and the surrounding countryside - but not Paris. With eleven days, it will be tight, but you could fit in three days in Paris (one day at DLP and two in the city - do the hop-on-hop-off bus tour and you'll see most of the major Parisian sights). Have you thought about flying to Paris instead of taking Eurostar? There's a lot of airline competition in Europe and you can get a round trip for about $100 - and it take only 50 minutes versus 3 hours on the train. And you will make up the airfare in one or two nights in Paris because the hotels are that much cheaper.

I've planned a whopper of a England/France trip for next month - in England, we're doing everything from tea at the Ritz, touring Buckingham Palace, touring Parliament, two musical productions (Lion King and Mary Poppins), a production of the Royal Opera, Portsmouth, Greenwich, well, you get the picture. Please pm me if you have any questions.

 

[catherine]

IMO you should go to Paris, but not DLP. I don't particularly like DLP it's nowhere near as good as WDW or Disneyland.

My DD went on a school day trip to Paris a couple of weeks ago and I was amazed at what they managed to pack into one day! They were able to hit all the major tourist spots.

Hope that you have an amazing trip whatever you decided to do!

 

[auntpolly]

I think one of the worst mistakes people make when they go to Europe is trying to see too much in too little time. It's like having 3 days to do WDW and trying to cram it all in, commando mode. (You know, you've seen those people running around WDW, screaming at their kids and looking like they are having a terrible time!)

If you think you will never, ever, be back, and it's your lifelong dream to see Paris, sure, go! But otherwise, save it for another time. England is a great vacation all by itself!

 

[Robinrs]

My sister and her daughter are going to BOTH in October. I think the opportunity to see both cities while in Europe is so worth it.

Can't respond about the Disney part of it, though. I go to ORLANDO and don't go to Disney!