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Dublin to London to Paris

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My husband and I are spending a week in Ireland with family in July, then planning to head off on our own trip. We'd like to spend several days in Paris, and maybe one day or so in London. We're trying to decide if we should fly directly into London, spend one night, and then take the train on to Paris for 4 nights, OR if we should just fly straight to Paris and then plan for a day trip to London.

We are mostly valuing our time in Paris, and would like to experience London but don't mind having a quick trip and not seeing everything--we don't have any "must-sees" in London. It seems like a lot of travel to fly to London, catch the 45 minute train in, check in to our hotel for just one night, then still have energy to see the city in the same day, and move on to Paris the next day. It might be easier to fly straight to Paris and get to relax on the rest of our travel day.

We have NEVER been to Europe before and we feel a bit clueless as to what is best method! Any suggestions?

Posted by
3580 posts

I like your idea about seeing London on a day trip from Paris. Since you haven't been there before, you might look for a tour. There are tours from London to Paris this way, so the opposite may be true.

Posted by
6113 posts

If you only have 4 or 5 nights in Paris, don't waste one of them back tracking to London, as there is enough to keep you busy in Paris for more than a week and your London time will be too rushed. London's going nowhere, so come back when you have more time. Go to Versailles if you want a trip out of Paris. July is peak period, so book your Dublin- Paris flight asap as prices only go one way. Fly open jaw back from Paris.

Posted by
357 posts

If Paris is your priority, I would just skip stopping London. You do have the option of a day trip from Paris to London, so you could do that. I've done the London to Paris day trip and we did see almost everything we wanted.

Posted by
16028 posts

If you wanted to see London, you could fly from Dublin to London City Airport, a small airport on the east side of London and convenient to the center of the city.

Take an early morning flight from London to LCY. The Docklands Light Railroad and London Underground will get you into central London. Find a place to store your bags near St. Pancras rail station--where you get the Eurostar--spend some time in London, and then take an early evening train to Paris.

London City is a very easy airport to get through. I flew out of there a couple of weeks ago and from the time I arrived until the time I got to my gate was about 10 minutes. And that includes going through security.

Posted by
15768 posts

Frank's plan is excellent, provided you can store your bags. If you can't store bags, it's still possible to get a room very close to the station for the night and get a really early train to Paris. If that doesn't work for some reason, I would bite the bullet and skip London. It's too much time and money for a day trip.

Posted by
16028 posts

If you do want to spend the night, I've stayed at the Premier Inn St. Pancras. It's across the street from St. Pancras station. It's basic, clean and there are plenty of places to eat around there. It's also directly across the street from the British Library.

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