Honeymoon Plans London+Paris+??April-May

"London to Paris is pretty crazy expensive,"

really?? you don't say the day you're travelling but plenty of tickets for £45 in April/May

For London (how long are you there?) you first need to decide if you want to take advantage of the 2 for 1 offers https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

If so, you need a paper travelcard from a rail station, which also includes all your tube and bus transport.

If you don't want the 2 for 1 offers just buy an oyster card on arrival (£5 each) and add £30 to it. You can add more money if needed and get any unused money back, plus the £5 when you leave London. Oyster is not a ticket it's really just like a bank card - you add money to it and withdraw it as you travel.

Many museums are free in London so tourist passes aimed at visitors aren't really necessary.

Food can range from £30 to £80 (and more) per day - its up to you. But it's your (first!) honeymoon so don't be too tight!

Time Out is good for finding things to do http://www.timeout.com/london

Where are you getting your London to Paris train prices from? The correct place is the website of the train operator: http://www.eurostar.com/
Monday 2nd May is a public holiday in the UK. If you were planning to travel that weekend, most of the £45 seats have been sold already. Prices are around the £67/£79 level.
Whenever you are travelling, book the seats TODAY, the prices can only go up.

For London Transport, I agree with the previous poster, just buy two Oyster Cards. Simple.

Is your figure of "200$ a night USD" for both of you, including hotel? The absolute base price for a hotel in London is £100 per night, anything less is a hostel. That doesn't leave much for eating, travel and any other treats. This is your honeymoon, not an exercise in living cheaply.
"Premier Inns" are a chain of cheap hotels, including in central London. Website: http://www.premierinn.com

London can be inexpensive -- not the lodging mind you. That's expensive. But after that.... so much is free. Beautiful museums, parks, walks, views. Only you can be the judge of what you want to do. Oh, and your bride! I think that if you can be a bit more specific with your questions, you might find the forum regulars (especially those from London), to be very, very helpful on the details.

You'll want an Oyster card in London. Much discussed on this forum. Easy to use. I rode the tube in from the airport. Cheap and easy.
I wouldn't purchase a museum pass. Also much discussed on this forum. The only museum I paid for was the Tower of London. And frankly, my favorite meal was always a sandwich from Marks&Spencer, a piece of fruit, ginger cookies and a view of the Thames. Cheap and easy. Again! Yet the whole experience was priceless.

@Chris
I was on a lot of medicine last night as I'm sick(thats when I saw the prices), so I have no idea what is going on. I see April 29th at 70$ now. Still not sure of my dates now though, as It was going to be the 29th if we were going to include a 3rd country. If we aren't we will have to alter the date.

@Ramblin'on
I guess it all depends on how many countries we are doing or locations, if just two, then we will have to alter the date. I was only doing 4 nights in London originally though. If we assume that....?
We are trying not to be tight, but wedding....house.....honeymoon. We are under pressure from all of this :P!

Thank you for the information re: Oyster card!

@Ann
Sorry I missed your reply. Thank you for the lovely advice. I do appreciate it. Oyster card seems to be the thing I've heard so much about from reading and questions, so I'll go with that. How much does the meal cost you that you mentioned if you remember :P?

Your daily meals estimate is way off, in my estimation, for Paris, especially since neither of you will be having wine. For breakfast, avoid the hotel's offering. Always way out of line. Have a croissant and coffee, or something, at a cafe, and you needn't look for a fancy cafe. Any old one will do. Have your main meal at midday, not dinner time. The menu ("carte") will have a fixed price offering, 3 courses generally, for much less than at 7:30pm. By the way, the Printemps department store on Haussmann, has an excellent cafeteria ... The food is really good!

Hey Norma,

Thanks for the information. In your estimation what would you expect to pay for the exact meal plan you laid out there? Good news that it's a bit cheaper than we expected! Hah

Everyone has different tastes, but ... I had a one-month honeymoon (between grad school and first job) which was ONLY London and Paris. Lots of late evenings sitting outside at Latin Quarter cafes or indoor at London pubs, relaxed mornings, days spent wandering and soaking up ambiance. No need to add another country to your two-week trip. Especially if you have just finished a big, stressful wedding weekend.

Depending on how much you love museums, the Paris Museum Pass can be a good deal -- look at the per-day cost of the longer passes. Includes admission to Versailles.

"Oyster card seems to be the thing I've heard so much about from reading and questions, so I'll go with that."

So you're not interested in the 2 for 1 offers then?
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c195600/London:United-Kingdom:2.4.1.Travelcards.Step.By.Step.html

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

Oh, gosh... this was two years ago... I probably paid between $6 and $10 for lunch everyday. The hotel had a really nice little spread every morning for breakfast, included. Cereal, fruit, croissants, ham, cheeses, tea, coffee. Bagels and cream cheese. Big old toaster! It was enough to rev me up and see me out the door.

For lunches, I hit up the sandwich spots. Marks&Spencer, Tesco, etc. They must sell a billion sandwiches every year in London! There's nothing "fancy" or gourmet. I appreciated that they were different -- Wensleydale Cheese and Branston Pickle on Wheat Bread. Sure, why not! A bag of crisps and a fizzy drink. Suits me. These are everywhere.

Here's are some links to some more ideas. I ate at Nando's https://www.nandos.co.uk/eat/menu And I tried a MasalaZone http://www.masalazone.com/ Both delicious! Those were my pricier dinner meal splurges. Oh, wait... I ate dinner once at The Swan at The Globe. http://www.swanlondon.co.uk/

Another quick bite I enjoyed was Starbucks. I used my pre-loaded Starbucks card to purchase beverage and snacks. It automatically converted and deducted from the card in dollars! That was convenient. One of the Starbucks had some really decent and different pre-made meals, specifically great vegetarian food. Meals I don't see here. http://www.starbucks.co.uk/menu/food-list/lunch

I know there are a million finer places in London to have a meal. I get that. But these meals made my wallet and my tummy perfectly happy. If you're worried about your budget -- google, google, google. Look at menus online before you go. Have some ideas in mind. And, ask at the hotel for what you might be hungry for -- mine recommended a great little pub. Not the super touristy trap one, but the one two more blocks over! It was great. You get the idea!

12 nights from April 25 to May 7 ??

London - 3 or 4 nights
Amsterdam - 3 nights
Bruges - 1 night
Paris - 4 or 5 nights

We decided to just do France and England(London/Paris) and do day trips to a few other locations if we can. We went ahead and booked the eurostar tickets tonight. Hopefully we can get the hotels done early next week. Thank you everyone for the awesome advice. We will have 6 days in London and 6 in Paris. I saw a lot of people from different forums recommend the oyster card, and some don't. Some say don't do the 2 for 1 and some say do, for London. Not sure which to do or?

I travel solo, so I've never compared the 'regular' oyster card to the 2-for-1 option. If you choose the regular oyster, keep in mind:

1. You can buy it at Heathrow and use it immediately to take the tube into the city.
2. You pay a deposit of £5 for each card. This is refundable.
3. If you run out of money on the card, you can add more (top it up).
4. If you have no more than £10 credit on a card when you leave London, you can get an immediate refund of the balance on the card plus your £5 deposit.
5. Caveat you can only get the refund on the spot if you have used the same means of payment for the original purchase and any topping up. So you must buy either with cash (and get a cash refund) or a single credit card and then they credit the money back to your card. If you have more than £10 on the card, or if you've mixed cash and credit card, then the refund is a check in £ mailed to your home address - pretty much worthless, since it's liable to cost more to cash it than the amount of the check .

The Visitor's Oyster must be bought online and mailed to you - possibly the cost of mailing won't be worth it. A one-week Travel Card may be worthwhile. You'll have to do the math. The good thing about the "daily" Oyster, is that it calculates out the lowest price for travel, even if you don't reach the daily cap. And the Oyster is handy, no fumbling for coins or standing in line to buy tickets at a machine. Sights are spread out in London, so chances are you'll want to take at least 3-4 rides a day.

In Paris, it may be advantageous to get a one-week Navigo pass instead of buying tickets as you go. The pass begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, so it would cover your 6 days in Paris. It costs €5-6 each - not refundable, but you can keep it for future visits or just as a souvenir. You'll need a small photo - smaller than passport size (about 1"x1.25"), can be B/W or color. You can buy the pass at most metro stations, it's good for unlimited travel on buses and metros and RER, so you can use it to go to Versailles and the airport on the RER.

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that's up to you - you have to decide if the sights in the guide appeal to you

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

if they do, get a paper travel card, if not just an oyster card will do

but don't buy a visitor oyster card online just a normal one when you arrive

Hello all, I've been very sick lately so I apologize for the delay.

We did book our hotels for 6 nights in Paris and 6 nights in London. The price for both was around 950$usd. We got le petite Paris for Paris and Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel and spa.

I'm a bit concerned about the location for London though as I don't see it on any map of the tube or railway. I see the closest tube is around 23 minute walk and the closest train is Queenstown Road station which is a 6 minute walk.

Will this train be okay to take? I'm really hoping we didn't screw up. What advice is there for transportation given this location? I think it's near battersea Park, is it South Chelsea?

Are we still in zone 1/2?

Congrats on the sensible decision to restrict your trip to London and Paris! You will have a wonderful honeymoon!

Since you do not drink, I think you will find food costs manageable. Coffee prices can get you, too, so choose carefully if you are coffee drinkers. In London, we liked Caffè Nero a lot. Also, it is a good deal to take lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Field. St. Paul's had an inexpensive cafe as well. In Paris the fixed-price meals at lunch are great. We eat later than most, and often do not get to lunch until about 14:00. If we have a significant meal then we eat a light dinner. It can be an economy strategy.