Late May 13 days Paris-London-Amsterdam-Paris with husband and 13 year old daughter

You will have a great trip. You need to get tickets far in advance for the Anne Frank House and, if she's interested, Harry Potter at Warner Brothers studio. If she is a fan of the British Royal Family, she will enjoy Windsor and seeing the chapel where Harry and Meghan were married. Our daughter who recently graduated from college has fond memories of food (pizza and ice cream parlors) at Harrods.

thank you!

I believe the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam now requires timed tickets. You'll need to get those in advance if you're interested.

The Churchill War Rooms (aka Cabinet War Rooms) in London also are extremely popular at the moment, with long lines for folks who haven't bought tickets in advance.

How many nights will you have in Europe, not counting the night on the plane? You're going to lose the better part of two days moving from Paris to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to London. Plus a third day if you have to return to Paris for your flight home. Having been to Europe before, you know that your arrival day is of iffy use, and the departure day is just for getting to the airport.

It seems to me you're not going to have all that many fully-usable days left (9 or 10?), and you are planning to visit three different countries, including two of Europe's most sight-rich cities.

We arrive in Paris on 5/18. Wanted to spend a 2-3 days in Paris. Definitely going to London area for the majority of our trip. Thinking of Amsterdam for 2-3 days (taking that underwater tunnel) then back to Paris for 1-2 days when we leave at 6 PM 5/31.

our itinerary is not set in stone, but I like to MOVE when abroad

Not clear how you are getting to London. I see you are intending on Eurostar for London to Amsterdam? How will you get from Amsterdam to Paris?

haven't planned our train/bus itinerary yet

Is your air travel fixed? If not suggest, fly into Paris and out from London ( or the reverse) and eliminate a lot of useless back and forth moves.

If you are committed to flying in/out from Paris, would suggest going directly to Amsterdam on arrival, then London and finish in Paris to make better use of your time and eliminate one hotel change.

All the city to city moves can be done by train.

It costs a whole lot more to go into one airport and out the other, I checked. Unless I'm not doing it right...?

so I looked at itineraries: paris to london approx 8+/- hours by train
London to amsterdam by train 5 hours; by bus 12 hours, by plaine 2.5 hours
Amsterdam to Paris 4 hours by train, 10 hours by bus, but with a switch in Brussels which would be fun

“..... Paris to London by train 8+/- hours “

Really? 2.5 hours at most. Was that a typo?

In regards to Amsterdam, I was at a RS Amsterdam/Belguim travel class earlier this month. Yes, tickets for the Van Gogh Museum must be bought online. Tickets are no longer sold at the museum itself. From our handout: ANNE FRANK TIPS: Online sales start exactly two months out. Tickets are released between 8-10 a.m. Amsterdam time, eg. (start looking at 11 p.m. Seattle time day before). The tickets are not released all at once--- 20% are released on day of visit. Two months before your visit try to book "introductory program" tickets. Check the night before and morning of for last-minute tickets. All sales are online but this could change in 2019.

Happy Travels!

Paris- Amsterdam via Thalys- 3 h 19m or 3 h 31m

Paris-London via Eurostar- 2h 30m +/- 15 minutes

The London -Amsterdam is ~ 5h as OP states

Loads of good information about the London to Paris fast train here:

https://www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm

Hi Jennie,

You'd definitely save time and money flying open jaw rather than circling back to Paris. So if it's an option, please ask how to search for those fares. For maximum efficiency, I'd suggest Ams > Paris > London, all connections by train.

As others recommended, fly open jaw. Fly in to either London or Paris and return from the other. When you book your flight choose "Multi-city" rather than "Roundtrip" or "One Way". The multi-city price should be about the same as roundtrip. It may be cheaper to fly into London and return from Paris. The United Kingdom has an "Air Passenger Duty" tax for departing flights, looks like £75 per passenger.

Agree about the open jaw flights. Avoid flying out of London due to the high Air Passenger Duty fees. Our family of five flew into Heathrow and out of Paris to avoid these fees and saved hundreds of dollars.

I’m looking at a flight: Atl to Newark, then Newark to Paris. $589 total per person. The multi city flights are MUCH more expensive.

To emphasize: Multi-city itineraries are not a set of one-way tickets. They are a package which must be ordered through a multi-destination search function. You are flying very busy routes with lots of competition so should be able to find an itinerary that will save you lots of time and the expense of retracing your steps. From Atlanta you very likely can find non-stops, too. One site that has many alternatives is matrix.itasoftware.com which provides only information, no sales. See what's available and then go to the airline you want for ticket sales.

Also consider flying between Amsterdam and London using the London City Airport. Some folks here say it saves time. Check prices, including add-ons like checked luggage. Eurostar tickets for your routes should be on sale already. There are significant discounts on early purchases but you are locked into those trains. The prices only go up as the discounted tickets sell out.

We took our kids all over Europe at ages ranging from 5-16. The things they love in Paris were the Eiffel Tower, boat ride on the Seine and Notre Dame Cathedral. At 13, they can handle museums, but not spending 3 hours in one.

For Amsterdam, you can take a canal boat tour and an excursion to see the Zyder Zee. Also, don't miss the Reichsmuseum for Night Watch and all the wonderful Rembrandts. My kids loved the Rembrandts.

When doing the math for your $579 fare you must consider the extra Eurostar or flight cost that you'd save by flying "Open Jaw" PLUS the amount of time (the good part of a day) you'll lose to travel. If you decide to stay with the Paris R/T that consider landing in Paris and then fly straight to Amsterdam. You'd skip the extra transfer and not have to worry about catching your flight home. Paris/London/Amsterdam is a great first trip although you could leave out London or Amsterdam and it would still be great.