Please help me plan my European vacation! More ?'s on pg.2

[Desnik]

I wish we could take the kids out of school for this trip and go in Sept, but that's not going to happen. So, we will go the end of June/early July. We will concentrate on London and Paris, spending a week at each. We are definately looking into renting an apartment in each city. We really want to see the countryside too! toto2 had great advice and sounds exactly like what we should be doing! We will do Italy(without my sister) in 2009 so no need to cram too much into this trip. I just wanted my sister to see as much as possible because I don't know when she will be able to go to Europe again. So here are some more questions:

What central location in London and Paris should we pick to rent an apartment? Some place safe.
Is there anyway to get first hand reports on these apartments? I have a fear of loving something on the internet and then getting there and it is a dive!LOL

How do we visit places outside the city for a day trip?

What are must sees in each city? We enjoy some museums, architecture of old buildings, family friendly things, historic places. etc...

We love doing guided tours, are some better than others? Any you would reccomend?

Which airports should we fly into from NY? There is more than one in London, right? Any particular airlines better than another when traveling to London/Paris? Should we fly home from Paris or take the train back to London and fly home from there?

Thanks for any more help you all can provide! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the near future, LOL!!

 

[Dodie]

Have you considered posting on/making friends on the UK Community Board here? I would bet that those friendly folks would be excellent sources of information.

 

[Laura]

What central location in London and Paris should we pick to rent an apartment? Some place safe.

Is there anyway to get first hand reports on these apartments? I have a fear of loving something on the internet and then getting there and it is a dive!LOL

I have to say I've never rented an apartment for a vacation, but I lived in South Kensington for a while as a student (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). I lived between Gloucester Road and High St. Kensington Tube stations; it's a great area. Notting Hill, Bloomsbury, Knightsbridge, Mayfair are also nice. Just make sure you're near a Tube station, wherever you pick. Here's a site with some info: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/london/0055030349.html
As for Paris, I'm not familiar enough with the city to help with that.

How do we visit places outside the city for a day trip?

From London, take a train, in my opinion. We went to Canterbury one day, and left from Waterloo station. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ Easy peasy.

What are must sees in each city? We enjoy some museums, architecture of old buildings, family friendly things, historic places. etc...

#1 in London: Tower of London with a beefeater tour. Also Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, St. Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden (the London Transport Museum has THE best souvenirs). Go see a play/musical while you're there. Especially at the Globe Theatre if you can. http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower is a must, and the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Sacre Coeur for the best views of the city, Notre Dame, and Sainte Chapelle.

We love doing guided tours, are some better than others? Any you would reccomend?

Can't help you there, I'm afraid I didn't do any in either city. There are lots of walking tours in London, and London Walks is supposed to be great: http://www.walks.com/

Which airports should we fly into from NY? There is more than one in London, right? Any particular airlines better than another when traveling to London/Paris? Should we fly home from Paris or take the train back to London and fly home from there?

The major airports in London are Gatwick and Heathrow; I've only flown into Heathrow. British Airways is really nice, but soooo many airlines fly into London from NY. I take the Tube from Heathrow into the city, because it's cheap, but can be a pain with luggage. There's a shuttle train from Gatwick to Victoria Station. http://www.gatwickexpress.com/ If money's not too tight, I'd fly home from Paris if you can. It'll be easier.

 

[Desnik]

Thanks for more great info! I will head over to the UK board. Anyone know what the weather is like in London and Paris in June/July?

 

[jtlover]

Weather is not predictable so you need to pack a selection for all weathers

You should go to Oxford if you are interested in Harry Potter as the great hall in the school is filmed at one of the colleges (Christ Church College) and they do tours. You can get a coach or train from London and see the colleges in a day trip.

Have fun planning

 

[toto2]

I wish we could take the kids out of school for this trip and go in Sept, but that's not going to happen. So, we will go the end of June/early July. We will concentrate on London and Paris, spending a week at each. We are definately looking into renting an apartment in each city. We really want to see the countryside too! toto2 had great advice and sounds exactly like what we should be doing! We will do Italy(without my sister) in 2009 so no need to cram too much into this trip. I just wanted my sister to see as much as possible because I don't know when she will be able to go to Europe again. So here are some more questions:

What central location in London and Paris should we pick to rent an apartment? Some place safe.
Is there anyway to get first hand reports on these apartments? I have a fear of loving something on the internet and then getting there and it is a dive!LOL

How do we visit places outside the city for a day trip?

What are must sees in each city? We enjoy some museums, architecture of old buildings, family friendly things, historic places. etc...

We love doing guided tours, are some better than others? Any you would reccomend?

Which airports should we fly into from NY? There is more than one in London, right? Any particular airlines better than another when traveling to London/Paris? Should we fly home from Paris or take the train back to London and fly home from there?

Thanks for any more help you all can provide! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the near future, LOL!!

This is a sane decision: imagine you wanted to do the whole Dysney Parks in two days without going crazy !

For Paris , stay away from the Quartier Latin ( Latin quarter) It is full o0f tourists . Mommartre , while being the romantic ideal of Paris is as well overun by tourists. Try Saint-Germain des près , wich is close to the center of the city ( Notre-Dame church and many metro stations)

A Bateau-Mouche ride at night is the way I always finish a trip in Paris. It is inexpensive and beautifull.

To get an idea of what you should see in every-city , there are the eyewitness guyides that are wonderfull :

http://us.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780756615475,00.html

and

http://us.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780789483508,00.html

for the Paris books.

The second one is a TOP 10 book , wich gets you directly into the action.

These guides are wonderfull for planing because they are higly illustrated and the descriptions are very short. Not a good book for while you are there because of that. So I would buy these way ahead of time and look throug them. Then , you can buy a more throurough book for while you are visiting.


For traveling outside of the city , at least in France , since this is the city I know most , the train is the best option. This is the weeb site for the trains in France: http://www.sncf.com/indexe.htm

Go to Rick Steeves web page , where there is a discussion forum called "the graffity wall", where you will find info about just about everything !!!

And I would leave from the second city you will visit , in order of not loosing another day travelling.

 

[Dimplenose]

Not a lot of detailed help, but a few comments (I live 20 miles from London).

Most UK schools start their summer holidays in mid-July but London gets busy with tourists from Easter onwards. Watch out for Wimbledon fortnight (usually last week in June and first week in July) as it's fairly close to London and the hotels get busy and expensive at that time so you may need to book early.

Best airports to arrive in London are Heathrow or Gatwick.

Family Rooms in London tend to accommodate only 4 people so you might need to look for connecting rooms or an appartment.

I'm not sure how many Harry Potter locations are in London (apart from the obvious King's Cross station and London Zoo) as a lot of the filming is done in Scotland.

Eurostar is a very quick train service that will take you through the Channel Tunnel and the best way to get to Paris.

With your little ones in mind there are a couple of children's playgrounds in the London parks (Kensington Gardens has a Peter Pan themed one and there's one in St James Park oppsite Buckingham Palace but I'm sure there are more).

Have fun planning

Libby

 

[Desnik]

Thank you all so much for the advice and info!!! More is always welcome!

 

[Cass]

If you can stretch your budget a little bit more, this is what I would do.

Aug 14 - Fly to London
Aug 15 - Arrive London, relax take it easy & sightsee
Aug 16 - Sightsee
Aug 17 - Take a 8 - 10 hour Harry Potter tour (approx 500UKL for 5 people total)
Aug 18 - transfer to Southampton and board the Grand Princess

Aug 18 - 29th - 12 Day Cruise on the Grand Princess (2 cabins)

Ports of call include Gurnsey, Cork - Ireland, Dublin- Ireland, Liverpool- England, Glasgow- Scotland, Belfast-N Ireland, Inverness- Scotland, Edinburgh-Scotland, Paris.

Depart the ship in Paris - do 3 days land in Paris with sightseeing

Fly home Sep 2

Cruise would be about 2800.00 pp, but this includes all your meals, entertainment etc... and you can get a better price with a cruise agent who specialize.

Anyway, that would be the most worry free way to do

 

[CarolA]

Get thee promptly to the Travel Talk section/Europe board of fodors.com. The folks there are VERY helpful. Just make the title of your questions as specific as possible. (E.g not "Need help" but "Need help planning Harry Potter tour of the UK") Also, use the serach feature, as lots of questions come up over and over again.

This is a great suggestion. Get over there and read.... Put the word Apartments in the search box... TONS AND TONS of posts/reviews. Folks there rent apartments ALL the time. (I used RentParis in Paris and had a great experience.)

Also, go to your liabrary and see if you can find Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door. Read his "hints" He has some good ideas on 'how to attack' Europe and "hand holds" you through some of the things you need to deal with.

Get your passports NOW!!! (I am only partially serious, but...) Passport issuance is taking WELL over three months now and next year is NOT going to get any better, probably WORSE. Do NOT wait too long on this. You need to plan on six months.... (If you start reading Fodors you will see why!!!)


Londonwalks does tours outside of London too. Fairly affordable and well organized.

In Paris you might try Fat Bike Tours. I think they have "kid seats" They do a lot of bike and walking tours. Nice company to work with...'

I disagree with the Paris advice on the Latin Quarter. It's full of young folks too. I took a group of teens and they loved it. Cute boys and an internet cafe LOL!