First trip abroad! Please help!

You might want to choose London and Paris,easy connections.
If you only have 7 days,each day you move on might well be $150/$200 for connections alone plus you may lose half your valuable time in check ins, bus commutes,and packing unpacking at new hotels.
You will get more bang for your $ reigning it back a little..tempting as it is to see everything!
Have fun with the planning anyhow

Do you mean that you have 7 days in each of the 4 countries you want to visit or you only have 7 days altogether and in that time you want to visit 4 countries.

If it is the latter I plead with you to reconsider.

Your couture is going to be seriously cramped. If you are a starlette can I assume that you live on the west coast of the US? If so you will arrive in London probably in the morning of the day after you leave. Are you counting your flying in and home days as part of the 7 days?

If so you will land jetlagged on day 2. That day is good for very little more than finding your hotel and recovering from jetlag. So one day sightseeing London on day 3. Eurostar to Paris on day 4 and half a day in Paris. On day 5 fly to Rome and have half a day there. On day 6 fly to Spain - where? - and have half a day there. On day 7 fly home.

I don't think so. Sorry.

You ask for the last expensive way. I don't think you have time to think of the least expensive way. You need the quickest regardless of price - or you need to slow down.

Please listen to the experienced travelers here. If you only have a week you just don't have time for 4 countries. It is important for you to realize that you can't consider your time to start when you leave L.A. You don't arrive in Europe until the next day. I find it easiest to figure out how much time I have in a place by how many nights I spend there. If you have 2 nights you have one full day, 3 nights is 2 days, and so on. How many nights will you spend in Europe? The day you arrive and the day you leave to fly home you won't be seeing much.

For a first time one week visit I would fly into London, spend 3 nights there, take the Eurostar train (2 hrs 15 min) to Paris, spend 4 nights there, and fly home from Paris. Even then you will only see a fraction of what those cities have to offer. Adding any other destinations and your trip will consist of seeing the inside of trains, planes, train stations and airports.

" I would like to travel to Paris (sight-see at at stops along the way) first from London." There won't be anything to see. The Eurostar will take you directly from central London to central Paris.

Imagine trying to see NYC, Washington DC, New Orleans and Chicago on one week. Would you do that?

LAX is my point of departure as well. Always factor in that I loose a day in flight.

As other seasoned travelers have noted, no way in H are you going to be able to see London, Paris, Rome and Spain in 7 days.

If you are an Angeleno think of it as trying to see and enjoy Six Flags Magic Mountain, Disneyland, California Adventure and the Pacific Ocean in a day.

Please take a look at a map of Europe on your smart phone and realize there are only 24 hours in a day and unless ALL you want to see is the inside of planes or trains you need to rethink your schedule.

Try London to Paris in 7 days. Tight but doable. You'll only get a flavor of both cities but if thats what you want so be it.

Would also be practical if you reserved at least a first night's lodging in London. Time is of a premium so why waste it looking for a place to stay?

Personally, I'd pick ONE! London or Paris (or Rome or one city in Spain). If you haven't been to Europe at all before, I'd suggest London. Easy to get to, no major language problems, and LOTS of GREAT things to do! We've been to London more than 40 times and there are still plenty of things we haven't done, and even more that we'd love to do again (and again, and again). If you enjoy music or theatre, there's lots to choose from, there's history- from the Picts to Anglo-Saxons and Romans, to Norman French, to WWII, to Thatcher....., and architecture that spans those same periods, plenty of beautiful churches, loads of wonderful, diverse markets( and stores to die for), parks, gardens, and more art than you imagine. Castles and palaces, too. And plenty of day trips- easy to do yourself by train or join a London Walks group or use any of a number of reliable tour services. I promise you won't be bored!

Some say London is expensive, but it all depends on your choices- plenty of 'cheap and cheerful' options- especially if you stay the whole week, you could get a studio apartment or dorm accommodations (some universities like London School of Economics rent spare dorm rooms &/or apartments to tourists). You could save some on meal costs that way, by fixing your own some of the time.

I'm sure Paris enthusiasts (and those who love Rome or Spain) will tell you the same about their European love. In truth, any MAJOR city in Europe has enough to engage your attention for a week.

To All, thanks for all your replies it's greatly appreciated. I should clarify I have family in London in terms of lodging (so I have accommodations). Also, I will be there from Sunday through the following Tuesday, so technically it's 7 or 8 nights and a day of travel. My trip is round trip from LAX to London and back of course. I will take in consideration all of the advice given. I wanted to arrive in London stay for 3 days and then head to Paris via train and I had hoped to make it to Rome. Spain, as you all have expressed is out the question. I love the comments and thanks for the comparisons to landmarks/cities in the US and Cali. This makes sense!!! I'm from Los Angeles. Thanks for laying it out in plainly and simply. So I will book a hotel in Paris for three (3) nights and forget Spain, but would love to sneak in Rome for a day. However, it's seem unrealistic at best. Point taken.
Thank you.
Star🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧💃💃💃💃💃

No chance of doing Rome as a day trip from Paris. By train it takes all night, and it's about two hours by air.

I really think you should drop Rome and Spain. You just don't have enough time. Rome is a wonderful city. Even at a fast pace, it still needs a least a few days. Can you buy a ticket LA-London, returning Paris-LA? That way you only have to pay for one transit between cities.

Assuming you're going to go to London and Paris, make sure to fly "open jaw" by selecting multi-city when you book your airline tickets. The air fare price is comparable to flying round trip from London, but you save travel time by not having to backtrack to London to head home. You'll also save money buy not having to buy another Eurostar ticket from Paris to London.

If you haven't purchased your flights yet, try to get an open-jaw ticket, that's flying into London and home from Paris. That will save you time and money. Then spend your last few days in Paris. You can save considerably by purchasing your Eurostar train ticket 120 days in advance. No changes or refunds allowed, but the price is about 25% of the full amount, so huge savings. You should also book your hotel in Paris in advance. Look at hostelworld.com for some cheaper options.

If you really really want to cram it in.. you could squeeze Rome in.. ( forget Spain) but I don't personally recommend it..
You could fly into London.. spend a few days, take Eurostar to Paris ( can be cheap if you book well in advance, takes 2.5 hours city center to city center) then 2-3 days in Paris.. then fly from Paris to Rome on one of the cheapo airlines( don't use Ryanair from there as they use a very inconvenient airport,, use Vueling or Easyjet) .. then 2 days Rome and fly home FROM Rome. You may think its cheaper to fly in and out of London.. but you are not taking into consideration the costs of backtracking to London.

If your flights are already booked return from London.. they just skip Rome and Spain.. you only have a week,, and really London and Paris are worth a week EACH let alone 2-3 days you seem to have for each place.

Thanks again, great advice. Rome and Spain out! I'll make the best of London and Paris. Thanks for hostel idea as well. However, I will probably do a hotel in Paris for three days. Wow this site is awesome, you're all awesome. I'll report on my travels upon returning. #grateful
Star

I would suggest you spend the entire week in London. There is certainly enough there to keep you interested.

As mentioned above by several, if you only have seven days, pick ONE place and do it well. Each day of travel = pretty much a full day out of your vacation (getting packed, checking out, getting to the train station or airport, getting to the hotel, checking in, getting unpacked).

We agree with all the posters above. It's just far too much ground to cover in a very short period of time. You could spend a week in London or a week in Paris and not see enough. Technically, you could do those two in a week and that would be more doable if you fly into London and out of Paris. Getting between the two is possible by the Eurostar train (www.eurostar.com) but if you wait too long to book this it can be very expensive. There are also not any stops along the way as this is a direct train (and not a whole lot to see if you could stop). You could also fly using one of Europe's very cheap budget carriers (check www.skyscanner.com). I would completely eliminate all thoughts of Italy and Spain and save those for another trip (or another two trips!)

I would just do London and Paris on this trip!