Hello all
We are going on a cruise that requires us to fly into London. We have 11 days to spare before we embark on our cruise. Family of four that includes 12 and 8 year olds. I am thinking of flying to Paris (and return home directly after we disembark near London). This being our very first trip to Europe/London we would love to cover touristy spots to honestly get it out of the way so we can cover more non-touristy spots in our subsequent trips. We enjoy walking/history/FOOD/museums/art/Harry Potter/views== pretty much everything.
I am thinking we will cover Paris, Switzerland before we fly into London a few days ahead of our cruise start date.
So given 11 days at our disposal, do you have any recommendations for an ideal itinerary (how many days to spend at each destination, which ones to attend to first etc)?
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5691 posts
Just to clarify- do you have 11 days/nights IN Europe, or does that include your flight from Home to Paris? Its helpful to plan your trip in nights rather than days in each place.
Since this is your first trip, and with 11 nights on the ground, I'd forget Switzerland for this trip. It would just eat up too much time getting there and then to your next location. Leave it for another trip. Split your time between Paris and London. Get multicity tickets, flying into Paris and home from London. Take into consideration that your first day will be jet lagged, and some members may be very tired. And your train trip on the Eurostar to London will take up half a day by the time you get to your next hotel. 5 days in each city - there is more than enough sights to see and things to do to fill your time. But there are also many options for day trips from each city.
Use the Explore Europe section of this forum (the At A Glance pages for each city) and the Paris and London guidebooks to flesh out your itinerary, based on your family's interests. But if you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, book those tickets as soon as you know your dates. They can sell out months in advance for high season.
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1879 posts
We did this itinerary a few years ago, it might work for you: fly LHR to Geneva. Pick up rental car. Drive to Lauterbrunnen (easy drive) for a four night stay. (I recommend Hotel Silberhorn). One day for Jungfrau, one day for Schilthorn which are both easily accessed by trains / cable cars from Lauterbrunnen. The third day is "just in case" the weather is too foggy on day one or two. You can use the third day for a cruise on one of the two lakes at Interlaken. There are also interesting paths adjacent to Lauterbrunnen. Then return rental car in Geneva, take the train to Paris.