The co we used for our Paris flat was Vacation in Paris. I like that their office is in NJ, we could communicate with them on our time. It’s been a few years, so you’d want to check reviews on something like trip advisor or Fodor’s.
The way I travel, just saying, is to know the must-sees, a reasonable list, in case something happens (downpours, someone gets the sniffles, etc.) Then the “would like, if we can.” Then the “if we happen to have more time.” And for us, some element of hanging out is important- eg, time at a sidewalk cafe or just stopping to people watch.
Btw, I loved seeing the old Paris sewers.
And if you do make a short trip to a second city, by air, factor in time from and back to the airport.
And yes, everyone I know who visited Edinburgh was enchanted.
Since you have never been overseas, anywhere you go will be exciting and a dream. My first trip as a child many, many years ago was England , Scotland and Ireland where we visited relatives. It still stays with me all these years later.
I would suggest seeing as many places as you can in Europe, but staying at each place at least two or three nights. That might limit the number, but you will get to see more in each place.
Try not to think of this as a dream vacation but the start of things to come!
As I am in Europe right now, with daughters, so wanted to pipe in. This was my first return to the UK in 25 years. Having done a lot of travel in non English speaking places, London is so easy due to the tube! Get the Rick Steves London guide and pay close attention to some of his money saving suggestions. Our B&B gave us a massive breakfast and with coffee and a snack, only one more meal was really needed. Days are terribly short. But we walked by the Thames one evening and ate at the reasonable Xmas market. Some museums are open late. The British museum was open till 8:20 on Friday and there are others. We were in London for 3 nights. Not nearly enough, but we spent one whole day at Windsor and much of another at Kew Gardens due to specialized interests. Buy theater tickets very early at this time of year. We missed out on reasonable tickets.
Regarding your nerd comment, the bookstores are amazing and give the impression that the classics and intellectual commentary are very much part of current culture.
Morrismm, I also was thinking of that first trip to the UK, 1970, to visit British family. They were scrubbing Victorian soot off the buildings!
I find the place to place exhausting as well. Longer train rides are a pleasure after hours on the feet.
No, we have traveled a lot (work trips into Israel), and have plenty of travel left in us. I guess that’s what we’ll do in retirement. It was just an interesting place to go. Thinking about just going somewhere warm and cheap for a couple of days instead, now.
Ditto great lakes mom suggestion on the Rick Steves book. He makes everything interesting and funny, and really helps you find great deals and interesting sights you never would have.
You know, I never really was interested in going to London. I don’t know why, it just always sounded unappealing. But reading all these suggestions, it sounds really interesting and fun.
My first very long trip (a college summer,) a friend who’d done the same said, after multi countries with another language, England is a treat. It happened I did it that way and it was. Same language, many cultural differences. I’m certain you would get the vibe, @busdriver11.
One of the best things we did in London was go to the Churchill War Rooms/Winston Churchill museum. You go underground into the bunkers where the government was run during all the bombing raids. It was fascinating.
I don’t often hear about people going to this museum. Maybe it’s London’s best kept secret.
Our first Europe trip was to Paris, Normandy/Mount St Michelle, London. We stayed in apartments which were great. One of the HP books came out when we were in London. We like history and especially enjoyed the Normandy beaches and Churchill museum. We also stopped and saw the Bayeaux Tapestry in France. Amazing textile piece.
I have been back to England two more times and visited the Cotswolds (really nice day trip), Bath was ok but wouldn’t go on a first trip, same with Stonehenge. The castle in Edinburgh was also interesting but I would go to Paris over Edinburgh on a first trip. We went to Versailles which was also worth it
As @ShrimpBurrito suggested- The Elephant House was cool. We sat in an area and looked out the window (not want to be a spoiler) and you understand the writing and ideas she had. H loved doing a ‘historical’ tour to each place we visited… like where the speech was given in Munich’s Hofbrauhaus, Liverpool and the Beatles area, artists cafe hangouts in France, etc. We preferred Scotland to England. Also liked Wales. Staying in a castle for a night was really fun.
One busy day walking a lot, alternating with a slower day of plays or dinner, then a tour day, etc regenerates our energy. Just like life, unplanned time in each day even a few hours gives us rest time or just the right shopping area or cafe .
What works for us is one week each location, travel takes one day to switch places and is tiring.
I’ve been cruising the Home Away site for London, Paris, and Dublin. I just ordered Rick Steves guides for London, Paris, Best of Ireland, and Edinburgh. I’m also going to investigate Berlin and Amsterdam. After all of this input I’m more sure than ever that London is where we want to base our trip, and I’m getting so excited for the possibilities. Thanks so much!
I love London, but be forewarned that London is WICKED EXPENSIVE, even with the post-Brexit currency weakness. Plus LHR is also WICKED EXPENSIVE to fly out of: the airport departure tax alone is ~179 bucks per airline ticket.
If budget is a priority, then I wouldn’t pick London.
One option to save $ on flights, especially if visiting elsewhere like Ireland is to fly through another place like Dublin and fly a low cost carrier into London using an airport other than Heathrow.
I think you can easily spend ten days in London without getting bored at all. There is much to see and so and as others have suggested you can do day trips. When I was there last DH and did a daytrip tour to both Stonehenge and Bath. At that time the new Vistors Center at Stonehenge had not yet been built, I think it opened maybe 2 years ago. The old Visitors Center wasn’t all that interesting and while the stones are pretty amazing to see, you cannot get up close to them any longer, so I was glad to combine that with a trip to Bath. Unfortunately we were not able to get to Salisbury or to Stratford on Avon but younger d did several years ago and stayed overnight there. Years ago I did a day trip to see Oxford.
As for Paris of course it is an amazing city and I would be there in a heartbeat but taking a day trip there makes no sense to me. You will spend many hours on a train and not be able to really see all that much in Paris. You can easily spend a week to ten days in Paris itself.
I am not a believer in trying to do too many things in one trip. A few years ago we did a Paris Normandy trip. One year we stopped in Amsterdam en route to a family wedding in Israel and drove to Bruge for 2 nights and back to the Amsterdam airport. When younger d did semester abroad in Vienna we visited her for a few days and then took the train to Prague and flew home from there.
We enjoyed spending several days in Bath, several in London and several in Paris. We used the chunnel to get from Paris to London on the train and flew into Germany and out of London. Since you have limited time, you can extend your reach by flying into one city/country and out of another.
We were concerned that everyone warned us about the high prices in London, but honestly compared to HI, everything was quite reasonably priced (we have definitely high cost of living here, especially groceries). We ate at pubs, which often serve inexpensive but tasty lunches, as well as had some groceries. We stayed at the Y near the British Museum and they served a very nice English breakfast included in the price of the room. The ethnic restaurants were also excellent and quite reasonably-priced. You will have a blast!
I’m probably not any help at all but we spent a couple of weeks meandering between Oxfod, the Cotswolds and Bath. We are a bicycling family, so we flew our two kids (preteens at the time) and two tandems over. We actually started in Ireland but since we’d been there before it wasn’t as charming as the first time around.
Oxford was nice - really great town to walk in. The cotswolds were incredibly beautiful and every single person we met was super friendly (you sort of stand out riding tandems there, so folks would approach us and strike up conversations.)
My favorite was Bath. We rented a house there for almost a week- it was right in front of what would be considered a regional or state park here in the states. Palladian bridge right out the window in the park. Bath is a beautiful town and there is so much to see there. The Roman baths of course but there are also little museums tucked in here and there - like the Herschel museum of astronomy. We weren’t bored at all by spending so many days in Bath. Just so much to see.
We went in a day tour from Bath of the Cottswolds, where they filmed Dr Doolittle. It was very quaint. We also saw Raquel Welch perform in “The Millionairess.” It was cool to see her perform, but otherwise the play was pretty awful. It was a few decades ago. We did see “Mousetrap” in London and it was extremely well done. We also saw some boats and the Tower of London in England.
If you do go take the Chunnel between Paris and the UK, you can save a lot by bringing a nice picnic to eat on board. We had a lot of sandwiches on our trip, to stretch our money.
Are you settled on Europe? We spent a wonderful week in Sydney Australia which has a lot of cultural events and places to go. Next on my bucket list in that area is Tasmania and New Zealand.
I think Europe is the way the family is leaning right now, but DH and I have Australia and New Zealand high on our bucket list, so… I guess we have some decisions to make!
