<p>Hello All, Taking my first trip to London with my 2 DD’s (16, 18) in July. We will be there for 8 full days (not including travel from the US). I would like to take a side trip either to Edinburgh or Paris. We can do a day trip by train to Paris - looks fairly easy. For the trip to Edinburgh, I was thinking doing an overnight train and spending the day, then overnight back to London. Has anyone done a short trip to Edinburgh? Or should I just stick to the easy Paris day trip? Hubby has no desire to go and since this may be my only trip I would like to see at least one other country. Any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Paris with 2 daughters…Priceless!</p>
<p>This time last year we visited D in London and S in Dublin in a 6 day span. First, bring a lot of money - it doesn’t go far with the exchange rate (although improved). I have done a side trip to Paris from Koln. Sorry, but no experience with Edinburgh. With 8 full days I would recommend at least an overnight in Paris (if you chose over Scotland).
You’ll all have a great time, enjoy.</p>
<p>Loved Edinburgh. We drove around England, then abandoned car in Edinburgh and took train back to London. Train was about 4 hours. Don’t speak french so Paris is not as appealing to me. Hope you also get out to Bath/Stonehenge area for a day.</p>
<p>We did one week in London and one week in Paris last year. The Eurostar between London and Paris is great, but you do need a bit of extra time to go through security at each end and en route delays are not uncommon. However it still beats the 6 or 7 hours it would take to travel each way to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a great city, but I suspect two teenage daughters would much prefer Paris. And you will feel as though you’re really someplace different in Paris. Language is no issue at all in Paris, especially for just one day. If you have a smartphone there is a fantastic app for the Paris metro system, but with so little time I would highly recommend a bus tour that takes you to all the highlights. Same for London, take a bus tour the first day to see everything and familiarize yourself with the landscape.
You’ll have a great time!</p>
<p>Last spring we were in Great Britain for eleven days, spending 4 days in London, 3 in Edinburgh, last 4 in London, with side trips to Bath, Windsor, Stonehenge all on one day. We appreciated the train ride to Edinburgh leaving in the morning, seeing the countryside, would not want to travel in the dark and miss that. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Edinburgh (can give you contact information if you PM me), then headed back to London early morning the third day, stopping in York for the day, then continuing back to London. It worked out well for us. </p>
<p>We exchanged money at our bank here before we went and took cash with us to pay for most things, saved the extra fees on credit card charges and higher exchange rates. We split the money up, had a safe place to leave it during the day, which was crucial to doing it that way. </p>
<p>We wanted to have a thorough Great Britain experience, so we did not go to Paris. It is an expensive trip. We bought a Britrail pass which covered our trip at a lower price than paying for RT to Edinburgh, and they threw in an extra day which we could have used for an excursion elsewhere. </p>
<p>Have fun! We loved it. Our only regret was the $$ we wasted on Hop On Hope Off, never could find where they stopped, and it would have been time consuming to wait. The tube, using an Oyster Card, which also works on buses, worked best for us.</p>
<p>I love London … won of my short list of favorite cities.</p>
<p>With two of my kids we made a day trip to Paris from London by train … it’s quite doable … but it is a pretty short day in Paris. I would suggest making the one day in Paris a weekday so you spend less time waiting and in smaller crowds than if you go on a weekend. If I were to do this again I would spend the night in Paris also and train back to London in the morning … so we could hang out in Paris at night instead of being on train.</p>
<p>We also did a one day train trip to Edinburgh … this was a very long day with the two long trips. The kids thought Edinburgh was OK … I loved it as I love history and the castle which the kids did not find nearly as interesting. The kids liked bagging another country on this trip</p>
<p>PS - you can also catch Wales in a one day trip from London</p>
<p>Why not take the day trip to Sonehenge and Bath instead of Edinborough? I think it is just a few hours and they have buses or tours. Personally I would love to see Bath.</p>
<p>I am British so a bit biased here. I’d say Paris is unique and agree that it would be easy from London BUT instead of Edinburgh I’d like to suggest York. Only 2 1/2 hrs train ride from London and utterly fascinating! Loads of history, fabulous York Minster and tons of quaint cobbled streets with amazing shops and tearooms. Wonderful museum too and even the train station is architecturally splendid! Could easily do it in a day from London - lots of time to see everything. Enjoy my fabulous homeland!</p>
<p>I have been to both Edinburgh and Paris several times and I think your D’s would probably like Paris better. If I were you I would at least do an overnight there.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the ‘day trip’ to Paris would work out because there’s a lot of time eaten up with getting ready to go to the train station, getting to the train station, waiting for the train, taking the train, then reversing that for the comeback. It’s possible but you might enjoy it more if you spend a night there. Depending on the time you have you could head there in the morning, spend the day/evening there, spend the night, spend much of the next day there and then come back at the end of the second day perhaps.</p>
<p>You could also skip Paris and spend all your time in the UK. I’ve been to Edinburgh and much of the rest of Scotland as well as York, Stonehenge, Bath, and many other areas in the UK. However, I rented a car and just drove around as I felt like with nothing really planned. As such, I didn’t take the train to Edinburgh but if it’s a 4 hour trip one way then I’d definitely break it up into two days. If you can stop at York on the way then think about doing that as well. The Cathedral there is nice and the Medieval streets cool. It’s something to check into. I don’t know if the train might go through there anyway.</p>
<p>I do think it’s good to get out of the cities for a bit and see something of the countryside and smaller towns. I think seeing Stonehenge, Bath (with which I wasn’t as impressed as some other people), Stratford Upon Avon, Winchester, and other places are worthwhile. </p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed London and other parts of the UK so I hope you really enjoy your trip.</p>
<p>Having lived in London (in former days), I would recommend Bath or York for day trips (or Cambridge - lovely in springtime). Paris is a great trip, but I would spend the night. We did a loooong day in Paris once when the kids were little. We went up in Eiffel Tower, ran through the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, quick lunch in a bistro and then Notre Dame in the late afternoon. It’s doable, but more fun at a leisurely pace.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick replies! You all have given me a lot to think about. My DD’s are pretty set on both Paris and Edinburgh. I don’t know that we want to do an overnight in Edinburgh because both girls are pretty picky eaters. Some of the restaurant menus I checked were a bit daunting. The trains seemed reasonably priced and we don’t mind long days. We were also thinking about doing Stonehenge/Salisbury (maybe Bath was included) and a trip to the castle where they filmed some of Harry Potter. That still leaves 4 days in London, plus a half day on the day we fly out. I think that’s enough for the main things we want to see. I would love to have a month to do it all, but…</p>
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Given that, I’d opt for the trip to Paris where it feels more like you’re in another country since people are speaking a different language, the signs are all in a different language, etc. Edinburgh won’t feel very different from England so if you go there you won’t be left with the feeling you’ve been to another country.</p>
<p>Edinburgh is a city with many eateries so I’m sure your girls should be able to find something to eat. I like eating in the pubs. My vegetarian kid managed to do fine in Scotland. What particular problems do you anticipate in this area? I certainly wouldn’t head back early because of this issue which won’t really be an issue in the first place.</p>
<p>Gosh, my son is the pickiest eater in the world (Aspergers) and he’s eaten fine all over Britain, France, and Norway (he actually liked reindeer). He never liked traditional “British” food - sausages, fish and chips, or any various sorts of “pies” but we always could find him a hamburger, pasta or pizza. In France, he liked steak frites - a standard on every bistro menu.</p>
<p>I’d go for Paris but if you decide on Edinburgh, you can visit the caf</p>
<p>Megpmom & GladGradDad> Thanks, since I’ve never travelled to Europe I was afraid that we would have a hard time finding non-traditional British/UK food, which is what I found on the 4 different restaurant menus that I checked in Edinburgh. My older D (vegetarian)will try some new foods, but the younger one won’t. </p>
<p>Stradmom> Thanks, sounds perfect.</p>
<p>4boysmum…totally agree about York. We drove from cotswalds to Edinburgh with stops in Newcastle and York. If girls like outdoors, hadrian’s wall was one of my favorites (stayed in Newcastle). We stayed in York a day or two and loved it…crooked streets look like Diagon Alley. Did a river ride and of course the cathedral where you can see roman and viking foundations. Very, very cool town.</p>
<p>If you’re really stuck, and if they like that sort of thing, they have McDonald’s, Burger King, and some other American fast food places there. I think you’re better off trying the pubs (families can go in and eat at them) and other local places but it’s an option. It can actually be a little fun to get at least one thing at a McDonald’s there once just to see how it might be a little different but much the same as here.</p>
<p>One of the most wonderful things about England is how varied it is–only a short distance from one region to another, but they are all so different. It seems to me that you’ll be spending an awful lot of time in a train going back and forth to Edinburgh as a day trip, time you could spend visiting fascinating places much closer to London.</p>
<p>Do a google search for daytrips from London and you’ll see what I mean. Check out Stratford, York, Canterbury, Bath, Oxford–you’ll get a lot more “bang for your buck” than if you go all the way to Edinburgh for just a day.</p>
<p>And I’d absolutely go for an overnight to Paris!</p>