Travel Itenery for 1 week.

Only one week and a child !!!!Eliminate Rome!

This is a rushed itinerary and with and small child its far far too much!

Only one week and a child !!!!Eliminate Rome!

This is a rushed itinerary and with and small child its far far too much!

A week is too short a time to visit the three cities. You will spend so much time traveling from city to city, that you will have little time to truly savor any of them. Also remember you'll be suffering from jet lag. By the time you arrive at a European destination, clear customs and immigration and arrive at your lodgings, half a day is gone and you'll be tired. And usually return flights to the US are early in the morning so that's a travel day, not a tour day.

Your post confuses me. Do you mean the city of Lourdes? The travel time by train from Paris to Lourdes is close to six hours. So you might want to consider staying overnight in Lourdes, especially with a 5 year old child. If you MUST visit another city, I would opt for London because of its proximity to Paris and a 2 hour 20 minute train trip on the Eurostar. If I had only one week and had to visit Lourdes, I would only spend my time in France.

To learn about travel times between cities, you can use the Rome2Rio web site. If you are only traveling Paris to Lourdes, do NOT by a rail pass. If you know your travel dates, buy your tickets on line as far ahead of time as possible to get the cheapest prices. Eurail passes are not accepted on the Eurostar. There is a remarkable amount of information in the Travel Tips section of this website. Take a glance and I'm sure that you can get answers to many of your questions.

We didn't take our daughter to Europe until age 11. She got so much out of the trip and still remembers Anne Frank's house.

European travel requires a lot of walking through airports, train stations and underground stations (subways.) Everyone must be able to handle their own luggage. Few 5 year olds are up to the task--much less many cities' touring..

We're raising a 5 year old, very active granddaughter. We'd be hesitant taking her to Disneyworld---much less Europe at this age.

It sounds like the main goal of your trip is to visit Lourdes? If so, I would say book a flight in & out of Paris, see Paris for a day or two, then take the train (individual tickets, not rail pass) to Lourdes.

If you only have a week, I really wouldn't try to fit in London or Rome, especially when traveling with a baby.

Furthermore, if Lourdes is really the main goal, you might do better with a through flight round trip USA to Bordeaux. Bordeaux has plenty of charm and interest for tourism. That way you could relax in Bordeaux for a couple of days, go to Lourdes, and spend a couple of days seeing more of the Pyrenees region and/or the Bordeaux wine country.

Either way, here is a site for train schedule & fares between Bordeaux and Lourdes.
http://www.raileurope-world.com/train-tickets/journey-insights/article/bordeaux-lourdes

Hey,
Thank you all for your advice. May be 2 weeks I should consider then.

Regards,
DD

Thank you all for the advice. May be we can plan for only one destination.
Cleared my confusion now.

DD.

Of course you should consider two weeks.. you want to visit three countries in one week?

Also., its a very long time and expensive to fly.. so its better to stay as long as you can afford to be off work.

With 2 weeks you can fly into London.. spend 2-3 days. then take the Eurostar train to Paris ( very cheap if you book well in advance).. only 2.5 hours city center to city center..

Then spend 4-5 days in Paris and then take train to Lourdes.. do not buy a rail pass.. you do not need one and will not save money.. just purchase train ticket ahead of time.

Then from Lourdes I am not sure how you would proceed( I have never been there).. but you could get to Rome and spend last 3-4 days there.. not rushed .. and fly home from Rome..

When you look for flights to and from Europe you search for an "open jaw" or "multi destination" ticket.. fly into London and out of Rome.. this saves you money and time backtracking to London.. and is cheaper than purchasing two one way tickets.