Help in England and Paris with Tours

Hi Caroline. That sounds like a wonderful trip that you are planning with your daughters. My advice is to fly into London and out of Paris. Price the "multi-city" flight on your preferred airlines website. Then, price one way tickets into and out of the respective airports. Any of the information that you are in search of is available online. England has a discount offer that gets you into a number of places. I can not find it or remember the name at the moment. For Paris, when we went to the Arc de Triomphe, we bough tickets in advance on our mobile phones. Your wish list for Paris sounds very lengthy. I would rethink where you want to go and narrow it down. You have to go with the mindset that you will be back.
Pack a carry on, get BP and Euros from a known bank ATM, get used to using Google Pay or Apple Pay. Train tickets can be bought in advance if needed.
Good luck!

Wow, this is a LOT to plan in month! Let me ask you first of all, have you already booked your airline tickets? If not (or if they are changeable) consider flying into London and out of Paris. No need to backtrack to London, that will just cost you time and money and you've already seen it so no reason to return.

Of course this may or may not be feasible on your airline, but it is worth checking it out.

Westminster Abbey https://tickets.westminster-abbey.org/

Tower of London tickets: https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/visit/tickets-and-prices/#gs.mdg8s2

National Gallery (free entrance) https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/plan-your-visit

Churchill War Rooms https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms

Louvre https://ticket.louvre.fr/en

Eiffel Tower https://ticket.louvre.fr/en

Versailles https://en.chateauversailles.fr/

I assume you have booked flights already. If not book into London and home from Paris on multi city ticket not two one way tickets. If you have booked call airline directly and see if you can alter flights to do the above and see what the price change would be. Be certain you only deal with the official airline. If it is not a tremendous amount it would save you half.a.day of travel.plus the cost of transportation back to London from.Paris. As far as Viator they are.a.third party agent. We always book with the attraction directly. Most.places.in those.two cities take credit cards.so you only need a small.amount of local.currency (pounds and euros) you can get from local.bank or.an ATM on arrival. do not use airport change agencies. Strongly urge you to get Rick Steve's Travel thru the Back door and read all the great advice on packing, transportation etc and then get the country specific books. There are also some sections on this forum also for.England and France as well as packing , money, etc. Also be sure to get the Visa think.it is called. the ETA to.visit England, can get it on line in minutes and it is mandatory. Be sure your passports are not expiring soon, I think you need six months left on them or you cannot enter these countries. Good luck with planning and welcome to this site. It is full of fantastic and truly helpful information.

the only places you need to book in advance are the Churchill War Rooms and probably Buckingham Palace, especially as it only opens for the season on 10/7. With only three days in London trying to fit in Stonehenge, which is a full day trip out of the city would seem to me too much unless you are really, really interested in ancient history.

Don't book with Viator - they are just a third party aggregator and don't run any tours themselves. All you are doing is putting another company between you and whoever will actually run the tours. But anyway you can book everything yourself - there is no need to pay for a tour of any of your London sights.

None of us can tell you what to see in London, as we don't know you or your interests. Do you like art, museums, war history, royal sites, sports, food etc etc. Bear in mind that you can also split up if your family has different interests.

Hi again...

Thank you all for your quick replies, advice and information.

My one daughter already purchased our airline tickets. While discussing this she communicated that it was a lot more expensive to fly home to the states from Paris. That is why we are going back to London and flying home from there.

What would be your top four attractions to visit in London and Paris and would you purchase those tickets for the attractions/tours on a third party site or directly from specific website? What tours do you recommend for London and Paris?

Advice on luggage: checked back and carry ons? What other travel tips or advice?

I would not really book any "tours". You might look at 2 of the very good walking tour sites and see if anything pops out for them/you for the days you will be in each city.

London: www.walks.com

Paris: www.paris-walks.com

I agree with skipping Stonehenge...I LOVE this site but not done as a day trip from London. The rest of your list for London will take up your 3 full days you have in London.

For Paris - unless they are determined to see Versailles, I'd skip it. It's hot and crowded and unless they are big Marie Antoinette fans, I'd just stay in Paris. For myself, Versailles takes a full day when you include the train ride out to Versailles and seeing the gardens (best part for me, lol).

For the Louvre - make reservations TODAY for timed entry for one of the days you will be there. Book directly with the museum and if you want a tour of the museum, book one of the ones the museum offers unless they are sold out.

Eiffel Tower - you do not need a tour unless you can't get tickets any other way. Book directly with the Eiffel Tower not Viator.

You need credit cards AND/OR Apple or Google Pay. You can do almost everything in both cities with ApplePay. IF you don't use it now set it up on your phone and start the next time you go to the grocery store. IF you want to get some cash, take your Debit card from your regular bank and use and ATM in London and Paris. DO NOT take cash with you to "change". You may need to notify your banks/CC companies that you are traveling.

I always go with carry on even though my trips are 4-6 weeks. With your short time frame you can easily go with carry on. IF you don't have suitcases, go to TJ Maxx or Sierra and see what they have. Weigh them and get the lightest ones. The girls can probably go with back packs and you might be able to do that too. I am old and use a 2-wheeler but pack it light enough I can lift it overhead into the bins.

The daughter that did the airline tickets needs to check to see what your airline's size restrictions are for carry on.

Start making to-do lists, hahaha!!!

You are your daughters will need the ETA.

While we say it over and over, the ETA is not a visa. Just apply online. Very simple.

https://www.gov.uk/eta/apply

My other suggestion is to peruse this sight especially this forum for lots of information on visiting London and Paris.

For London they have talked about the Tower of London, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, National Gallery, Churchill War Rooms and Stonehenge. I don't know if we can or should do this all or how?

Hi, miss.caroline: Here is some info about each of those and whether you need a tour.

Westminster Abbey: The easiest (and cheapest) thing to do here is book your tickets online (someone posted links above) for the day you want. Then once you get there (try to go as early in the morning as you can), you can sign up for a Verger's tour, which is only £10 each, and lasts 75 minutes. It is very well worth it.

Buckingham Palace: To be honest, I would just visit the outside of Buckingham Palace, especially since you don't have much time. It's gorgeous and you can see the guards and enjoy looking at this lovely palace.

The National Gallery: I don't think you need a tour for this, as you can just wander around and look at the paintings and art that you enjoy the most.

Churchill War Rooms: Again, this is something you can do on your own. Are you and your daughters interested in WWII? It is a very comprehensive site and most people spend several hours there.

Have you considered the V&A Museum? It's pretty wonderful and has a lot of various types of displays there. With regards to Stonehenge, I wouldn't bother. It would take some maneuvering and a lot of time, which you really don't have. And it's a cool place, but I think it's definitely missable, especially since this is your first trip to London and there is so much there to see.

I would also recommemd that the 3 of your have afternoon tea someplace if possible. It can be a very British experience and lots of fun. Two places I would recommend as possibilities are Wolseley's and Fortnum & Mason at the Royal Exchange.

Then for Paris the same. I do know they most definitely want to visit the Louvre, Versailles, Eiffel Tower (do you suggest a tour for the Eiffel Tower), Luxembourg Gardens, and they want to do a Moulin Rouge show.

The Louvre is easily seen on your own, as is the Eiffel Tower. I would also recommend an evening cruise on the Seine. I was recently there with two grandkids, and we took one on the Vedettes du Pont Neuf, which left shortly before sunset and ended up at the Eiffel Tower, just as it was lit up with sparkles and lights. They loved it!

Luxembourg Gardens is another place you can just wander through on your own. We stayed near there at the Hotel Left Bank in St. Germain and enjoyed the area (and the Gardens) very much.

Versailles: This would take a full day, and unless it is a must see, I would spend my 3 days in Paris. It's such a wonderful city and there is so much to see and do.

With regards to money, both London and Paris are pretty much cashless. I spent 10 nights in London and 3 in Paris, and never once paid cash. I mostly just used Apple Pay. Public transportation in both cities is very easy to maneuver, and I suggest that when you get your basic itinerary done, you come back here and we can help you sort out the Tube and bus transport in London and the Metro in Paris. We can also help with getting you to and from the airport (Heathrow?) and Gare du Nord in Paris.

Luggage size (including carry-ons) will depend on the airline, so if you can share that info with us (general dates, name of airline, which airport you are flying to) we can hep with that as well.

Welcome to the Forum. London is my favorite city on the planet. Been visiting since Nixon was President.

Research London Walks www.walks.com
I’ve taken many.

Answering your question I would say the sites to see in the 3 days are:

Parliament Square ( Houses of Parliament, Elizabeth’s Tower with the Big Ben bell which chimes on the hour and Westminster Abbey ). Nearby are the Churchill War Rooms which must be booked in advance. From here you can walk the path adjacent to St James Park up to The Palace.

Don’t bother with the Changing of the Guards.
Tower of London ( book a Beefeaters Tour in advance) once through the large doors head straight to the Crown Jewels
Attend Evensong at St Brides or St Mary Le Bow Church
Have coffee or meal at Mercato Mayfair
Visit and wander about Spitalfields
Walk across the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s
Check Out the Horse Guards Parade and watch them ride up to the Palace ( do this when you book the Churchill War Rooms) . Check websites for both to get the timing right.
Have a meal at the gorgeous Blackfriars pub.
Lastly the conversion of the Battersea Power-station into a shopping center is worth a look see.

Trust others will offer to do’s for Paris. Been thrice and other than the Rodin Museum and seeing the Effiel Tower light up it never stole my heart.

What would be your top four attractions to visit in London and Paris and would you purchase those tickets for the attractions/tours on a third party site or directly from specific website? What tours do you recommend for London and Paris? Advice on luggage: checked back and carry ons? What other travel tips or advice?

With regards to top 4 attractions, mine will probably be different than yours. I would say that probably the four most iconic sites of London would be Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the V&A Museum and ???? Everyone's four will be different. Here is a list that Rick Steves put together for a 7 day stay in London, so you might go through that and see what you and your daughters pick from there: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england/london-itinerary

And Paris, the same thing. For the 4 top iconic sites, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and ???? One thing I will say about Paris is don't overdo it by trying to see a lot. At least 75% of the charm of Paris comes from just walking around the neighborhoods, drinking chocolate at Angelina's, getting a sandwich at a boulangerie, having coffee at a sidewalk cafe, or stopping at a patisserie for some wonderful French pastries. You can spend some very quality time meandering through Montmartre with its charm and quirkiness, and wander the Left Bank in search of good food and drinks. Enjoy the beautiful flowers you will see all over, and the lovely architecture.

Paris is best when savored at leisure.

For future travel plans when you find a multi city ticket seemingly more expensive than a round trip; be sure to calculate costs to return to departing city and time spent getting back rather than enjoying the city you are in. Often multi city is worth that convenience.

Also I really enjoyed our Buckingham Palace tour. Don’t book a through a third party like Viator when you can book directly through official websites.

Enjoy London and Paris!

With just three full days in each city, please don't spend too much time inside visiting museums and tourist attractions - try to maximize your time out on the streets - both cities are great for walking, and that's how you'll gain a full sense of each place. Get both Rick Steves city guides - each will include walking tours that you can follow at your own pace, and you can download and install the Audio Europe app, then find narrated walking tours for each city:

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-europe

What would be your top four attractions to visit in London and Paris
and would you purchase those tickets for the attractions/tours on a
third party site or directly from specific website? What tours do you
recommend for London and Paris?

I'm gonna have a different take on it than most people here, but you're welcome to my opinion - take it or leave it!

First of all, it all depends on your travel style and interests, but "guided tours" aren't really my jam. I prefer to see an attraction at my own pace, and you can always purchase a guide book to tell you what you're seeing.

Dive in and visit the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels, no guide is necessary. Go to Buckingham Palace, watch the changing of the guard, and stroll through the fabulous royal gardens. Wander around Trafalgar Square, ride a double decker bus, go to a pub and eat fish & chips. Go to Abbey Road and cross the street like the Beatles. There is a ton of stuff that costs very little and is super fun.

Ditto Paris. First of all, Versailles will suck up a most of a day, which you will spend standing in lines and being elbowed by mobs. Unless someone in your party is simply dying to see it, you might consider leaving it off the itinerary for such a short visit. The Louvre is another attraction that will suck up most of a day - it takes HOURS to see even part of it so plan that day accordingly, and don't try to fit in a lot of other sites on the same day.

The Eiffel Tower is just THERE. I mean really you don't have to "visit" it and you sure don't have to pay and stand in line to go up it. The best views of Paris include the Eiffel Tower so go to the Trocadero for great views, or view it from Montmartre at sunset. One thing you should really do, though, is take a cruise on the Bateaux Mouches (time much better spent than waiting in line to go up the Eiffel Tower.) You'll get a good overview of the most beautiful parts of the city, including Notre Dame.

It costs nothing to wander around the Luxembourg Gardens, the Jardin des Plantes, and the Tuileries. Stroll through the Latin Quarter (maybe there will be no line at the Panthéon so you can pop on in.) Stroll along the river, cross the bridges, and just enjoy being there. Pick and choose attractions that need timed, ticketed entries and get those ASAP, but with only three days, I'd suggest you do no more than one per day leaving plenty of time to just enjoy the city.

What fun your going to have.

Do not book through 3rd party websites like Viator. Mary has given you the websites to book direct for many of your wants.

There is more than enough to fill your time in London without doing a long day trip to Stonehenge.

My top to dos for London would be Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, walking through St. James Park from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace in the morning timed to see the Changing of the King's Lifeguards at Horse Guards Parade and a walk along the South Bank of the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge for fantastic views, historic pub stops and more.

My not to do in London is the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and going to Borough Market unless you enjoy mega crowds.

My top to dos for a first time in Paris: view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night from Esplanade du Trocadero or an evening boat cruise on the Seine, Notre Dame, daytime visit to Sainte-Chapelle and or an evening concert at Sainte-Chapelle, a stroll through Luxembourg Gardens with a cafe stop.

My not to do in Paris is spending an evening at Moulin Rouge or the Lido. Attending for a work event over 30 years ago wasted 1 of only 3 nights in Paris. Too much else to do and see in Paris. Yes, I'm still holding a grudge about that!

"Be sure your passports are not expiring soon, I think you need six months left on them or you cannot enter these countries. "

Just a quick correction on passport validity - the whole six month thing is a bit of a myth. For the UK you need a passport valid for the whole duration of your stay; for the Schengen zone (ie France) it's at least 3 months beyond your departure date.

You are getting great advice. Just a couple comments, first, do you know that your air tickets cannot be changed? Often they are not refundable but many times they can be changed/rebooked. Second, just as an aside, We are also AAA members though we typically use them for emergency car service (We live in Minnesota), International Driver's Permits, and once, we booked a cruise thru them. To me, AAA is a combination insurance/travel agent company. I am quite annoyed to hear they recommend booking thru Viator. First of all, just no. Book directly with the company providing the tour not a 3rd party. Second, what is the purpose of paying for and consulting with AAA if they just use Viator? I feel that is an easy cop out, how about they actual provide some service?

P.S. I'll be using London Walks for my trip. There are many really interesting tours that are quite inexpensively priced. When I was in Paris, I used Paris Walks to visit Montmarte and was very happy with my tour.

Someone recommended getting the Rick Steves guidebooks. I strongly concur. Most often, I'm happy with the detail and walking tours in the guidebooks and do not feel a tour guide is necessary.

Check out the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. There are free walking tours in both London and Paris, as well as audio tours of iconic sites like the Louvre or St Paul’s. Put in your headphones and take in the sites at your own pace whenever you choose. One of my favorite resources.

I like the Vistor website as a search engine (they are owned by Trip Advisor.) Their listings lay out the tours very concisely and tell you exactly what to expect - but they also list who the tour “operator” is, and I like to book directly with the operator; many times the operator will offer you a discount for doing so.

Also, consider this tour. We did this on our first night in Paris and it was so memorable. Beautiful food and wine pairings enjoyed with the sites of Paris lit up after dark. Ended with a photo stop with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the background. There is one for London too. A bit pricey but we felt it was worth every euro.
https://www.bustronome.com/

There is already a lot of great advice here. I just want to add my endorsement of using the Rick Steves audio tours (in fact, that is how I first heard about Rick Steves to begin with- a friend recommend the one for the Forum in Rome). They are all free on the app. The ones in London and Paris are all good (even tho we live here we were curious to see where they went!). Others have mentioned how the Louvre can be a bit intimidating due to its size- the audio tour on the app is great for leading you around to the highlights. Good luck with your planning.

favourite thing to do in Paris - for a first or tenth or hundredth time, is sitting with friends under an umbrella outside Carette on the north side of incredibly atmospheric and historic Place des Vosges, relaxing with a tea or coffee or something more and some beautiful pastries. A little pricey, but not bad - and what an exquisite experience.

Enjoy your daughters, watch the kids in the playground, watch the people, just chill and soak it all in. Parfait!!

https://paris-carette.fr/nos-magasins/place-des-vosges/ Google will translate

Nigel, parfait!

Caroline, you've received great suggestions here. I would just add that I'd watch some You Tube videos on how to use the transportation systems in both cities. I would also agree with others, don't over book your days. Leave lots of time to walk around, sit in a tea shop or cafe and relax. You'll be suffering from jet lag and just being out in the open air will help overcome your fatigue. I'd suggest you and your daughters go to the library and get travel guides to these 2 cities and each pick out their top 3 things they want to do in each city and then get together to finalize your plan. I love the way Rick designs his travel guides and he always has 2 pages with an "At a glance" chart which shows the top sights with ratings and a short description with a page reference where you can get more detail. He also makes suggestions on planning your trip, depending on how many days you have. A good guide (or guides) and watching videos on Rick's website or on You Tube will really help you hit the ground running.

Not yet mentioned, but you are going to be in Paris on their major holiday - Bastille Day (July 14). It will be very busy and some of your best laid plans could be disrupted. This post covers the topic: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/paris-on-bastille-day-what-to-do Also if you haven't purchased your Eurostar tickets to/from Paris you should do that today - the price will only go up and some trains could be sold out.

I'm going to ditto a couple comments made earlier as they are very important and necessary for you to actually make your trip: 1) make sure you all have valid passports; and 2) all of you need to apply for an ETA to enter the UK (use the official website or their official app, not a third party).

Skip Versailles on this trip. The dates that you are in Paris do not work well for transportation. The RER C train from Paris to Versailles will be shut down from July 12 - Aug. 23, 2025.

Everyone has given you great advice on booking directly with each attraction.

Our London favorites - the Tower of London, Evensong at Westminster Abbey which is free, walking around the Westminster area to see the outside of Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and Buckingham Palace, riding the London Eye and a river cruise on the Thames, afternoon tea or a treat at the Orangerie at Kensington Gardens, and the Churchill War Rooms.

Paris favorites - river cruise on the Seine, view of the Eiffel tower from Trocadero, Eiffel Tower 2nd floor or Summit, the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay Impressionist museum (smaller than the Louvre and in a former railway station), Luxembourg Gardens, Arc de Triomphe, walking along the Champs Elysees, shopping at the glorious domed Galeries Lafayette on Blvd Haussman, Notre Dame, St Germaine des Pres Church, and Sacre Coeur in Mont Martre.

This will be a wonderful trip for you!

Caroline,

This sounds like an amazing trip and such a treat to share it with your daughters. You have already received so much excellent advice. Having recently come back from Paris and spent time in London last December and will be back this December, so suggestions.

General Feedback

• Book directly when possible for timed entry and do it as early as possible. Paris will be especially busy giving the holidays.
• The favorite sites in London and Paris depend on your interest. One suggestion is to group sites together by location to avoid travel time hopping between multiple different areas. Travel time can eat up a lot of your siteseeing.
• Book tours where having an expert and/or transportation included is important for you. For example, we took a Tour of Versailles and it was a great investment, the guide was knowledgeable and knew how to navigate the enormous crowds.
• Book walking tours where possible as you will see more and have time to get to know different areas. As others recommended London Walks and Paris Walks are both excellent.
• Try to include a food tour in each location. You can use this to cover dinner on one evening and if you do it early in the trip, you will learn about local eateries that you may want to eat at later.
• Pick one or two must haves during each day and leave white space for exploration. Paris in particular is so lovely when you stop and have a coffee in a cafe or lunch in a garden and watch the world go by.

London for First Timers

I have been to London at least a dozen times and I have my favorites. When I take someone for the first time, I ask about their interest and focus the trip around those, but I put a few must sees (IMHO) on the list. BTW, I don't mind going back to any of these as well. I liked the Churchill War Room, Buckingham Palace for me, stood in line once to see changing of the guards and it was only on my 12th visit, I went into the Palace.

• Westminster Abbey and I would recommend the vergers tour. Unless you really are interested in a deep dive into the history of Westminster, I would skip the Queens Gallery and save that for another visit.
• Tower of London: go early, see the Jewels first, then take the Yeoman Warders Tour and if time allows explore more of the Tower.
• British Museum: It is one of the most iconic places to see some of the most important artifacts in History. This is a place that benefits from a Tour. Would recommend taking the one from the British Museum itself or London Walks.
• Victoria & Albert Museum: This is my favorite museum in London. If you can, take the docent led tours, they are free and you uncover so many hidden gems. For example, on my last tour, we saw a gown that we thought was made with sequins, but they were actually beetle wings. If you love decorative arts, glass, photography, fashion, this museum is such a joy.
• Food tour: Eating Europe has great tours. We have taken the East End Tour and the Soho tour and with my niece in December we are doing the East End tour again.
• See a play and have high tea

Paris
I love Paris and have visited multiple time. Took my husband back after 15 years and prioritized. I would skip Versailles on this visit unless you really want to go.
- Eiffel Tower: visit to see if Sparkle. Do not book at tour unless you cannot get tickets and get your tickets early. I waited to 2 weeks out and managed to grab the last elevator slot. The tours are really expensive and most of them I looked at were non refundable.
- Louvre: We took at tour from an outside organization, not great, would have preferred to take a museum sponsored tour. Be sure to visit the Tullieries when as it is close to the Louvre.
- Orsay Museum: my favorite in Paris. Impressionist art.
- Sacre Couer and Montmarte: love exploring this neighbored, not just the church
- Food tour: we took the Eating Europe Marais tour and it was awesome.

My favorites:
London: British Museum( I prefer to Louvre), Westminster Abbey(Churchill War Rooms are nearby), Tower of London, tea at Fortnum and Mason(can be dinner)-Stonehenge would take most of a day, so not a good idea on this trip-definitely do not waste time on Changing of Guard. I don't think Buckingham Palace is open to the public in July but Windsor is an easy day trip from London. I loved the National Gallery but don't think it's a priority for a first trip.
Paris: add Sainte Chappelle for the beautiful stained glass windows, Secret Food Tour(our daughter's favorite thing we did when she was in college)