1st trip to London (and possibly Paris)

Certainly a matter of preferance, you could spend weeks in the UK, but doing both London and Paris has an appeal for a first trip. I would certainly book your tickets with an Open Jaw or Multi-City option, flying into London, taking the Eurostar train to Paris, then flying home from Paris. I think the combination of the two would mix it up. Paris would provide maybe a more "foriegn" experience due to the language and the two are nice contrasts to each other.

If you're saying that the seven to eight days would INCLUDE Paris, yes, that is way too much, especially when traveling with teenagers. London is a huge city with a rich history and TONS of stuff to do. I could understand that you may not want to spend all seven to eight days in the city, but consider day tripping. Bath, Avebury/Stonehenge/Oxford/Cambridge/Greenwich/Stratford-Upon-Avon are all great choices and could serve to break up your trip nicely.

Remember that you would spend a day travelling to Paris and settling in.

If you do happen to choose to do both (which I don't recommend), definitely fly into one and out of the other.

Rick Steves always says: assume you'll be back. You'll never see it all anyway, especially in that short of a time.

Now, I'm a quality over quantity sort of guy, so take my advice with that in mind.

ChrisA,

only you can know what you will miss if you decide to do Paris.

You an easily spend 7 day IN london and not see everything.

its up to you and your $$$ and time.

If you do decide to go, the travel time and travel cost isnt that bad.

happy trails.

It's hard to choose. If you decide to add Paris, you should definitely book open-jaw flights, into London and back from Paris. Also you should buy your train tickets (Eurostar) when they first go on sale 120 days in advance to take advantage of the low prices. These tickets are non-refundable, non-changeable, but you save a ton on them. There is a small percentage offered at the lowest prices, then the next bracket and so on until only the full price tickets are available. The cheaper tickets go quickly, especially in summer.

It's easy to fill 7-8 days in London, especially with day trips. But Paris is not far away - you'll use up about 1/2 day from hotel to hotel, so you'd still have at least 4 full days in London. Where are you coming from? If it's simply an hour to JFK and then a 7 hour flight to Heathrow at night when you might get some sleep on the plane, you may not be overly tired, though it can take awhile to get adjusted to the time change and your first day or two, you may not be at your best. But if you have connecting flights and more time difference, you may be better off limiting yourselves to London.

I think it's a personal choice, but do have a bit of a bias towards adding on Paris. I spent most of one day there on a very long layover on the way to Winchester, England several years ago and have always wanted to go back. It and London are both world class cities. That being said, there is plenty to do in and near London for the entire duration of your trip. I spent a week in London with my kids last summer and left plently of things unseen/undone. If you want to get out of London for a couple of days, you could also take a shorter side trip to another part of the country. For example, Bath is a popular two-day trip. However, if you want to go to Paris I say go there. With 7 or 8 days you have time to experience some of both cities. They're close enough that you won't lose too much time traveling between them. As far as first or last, I would look at the best time/day of the week for visiting the sites you want to see in London and Paris and let that help you decide whether to put it at the beginning or end.

Have fun!

Is this everyone's first international trip? London is a perfect place to start, it is foreign but the signs are all in English. When I took my wife to London (her first International trip was Edinburgh) I convinced her to spend 5 days in Paris as well. She was not sure about Paris, she's heard all of the stories before. After 7 days in London, we took the Channel Tunnel Train (purchased early for only 99 euros each way!) and we stayed in the 14th arrondissement. The best thing that could have ever happened. the 14th is far enough away from central Paris to put us into neighborhoods instead of Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Chipotle, McDonalds and Pizza Hut. She absolutely fell in love with tiny neighborhoods, bakeries on every corner with adjacent cafe. If you asked her today, Paris was far and away the highlight of that entire trip. Having spent so much time in London getting used to "foreign culture" she only had one minor freakout trying to figure out how to use the loo at Gare Du Nord.

Bon Voyage!

I say, yes! As long as you can spend 3-4 nights in each place which will give you 2-3 full days in each city respectively. If you only have 7 nights then plan on 4 in London since you have to get over your jet lag the 1st day there. London is a great baby step for first time travelers to Europe. Definitely book the Eurostar to Paris 3-4 months out as soon as your dates become available to save money. Book a morning train, arrive at St Pancras 30 minutes before your departure time and voila! You are in Paris 2 hours later. I do have to recommend that you stay in the arrondissement 4,5 or 6 so you can be within walking distance of all the must see sites since you only have a short amount of time in Paris. Also, if you're big Harry Potter fans, a trip to Leavesden Studios is a must.