London/Amsterdam/Paris

Looks like a fun trip, three great cities in winter when you want to be in a city. Our UK friends will surely tell you that December 26 is a day when many things in London are closed and transportation limited (not as much as the 25th though).

You should compare the London-Amsterdam flight (use skyscanner) with a combination of Eurostar and Thalys fast trains (use d bahn), looking at time, convenience, and cost, and keeping in mind the airport logistics and baggage limits of flying. My instinct would be to use the trains, but I haven't done the homework.

For the Amsterdam-Paris leg, the Thalys train is the way to go, center to center in a little over three hours.

A more efficient itinerary might be London to Paris by Eurostar, then to Amsterdam by Thalys, avoiding backtracking, but not with your point-driven flight plans.

As for where to stay, it's hard to be helpful without some idea of your budget and interests. Sights in London are so spread out that there's no ideal neighborhood, just lots of good ones. Paris sights are more concentrated near the river, and prices reflect this. Amsterdam is so compact that you could stay almost anywhere in the ring of canals and be walking distance from anything you wanted to see.

I would stick with your plan to fly London-Amsterdam on Easy Jet or other budget airline. It's usually both cheaper and faster than the high-speed trains taking 5-6 hours. The airport train connection into Amsterdam is shorter than in most cities.

Be cautious about arriving in London on the 26th (or 25th) December. Here is a link to just one of the threads from this past Christmas regarding transportation in to London from the airports.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/heathrow-gatwick-xmas-travel-disruption

If you can slip your date so you arrive in London on the 27th that might work better for you altho this year it looks like there was still disruption on the 27th.

The UK-based posters on the forum may have better advice on your timing on your London arrival.

Check out Stena Line to Amsterdam. It's probably not the cheapest way to go, but my friend and I really enjoyed it this last fall.

We bought the rail & sail, a comfort class cabin and the dinner and breakfast. The meals and room were great.

It's about $180 US each if you include everything (except the bottle of water they leave on the dinner table with a little sign). The people that work on the ship and the docks were really friendly and helpful.

If you've never done an overnight European ferry I highly recommend it. I also recommend taking a seasick pill. This is because seasick pills only work if you take them before you're seasick.

The boat leaves late in the evening, but opens for boarding and check in hours before departure.

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r7IWUZ-8xI

Another thing we really enjoyed was visiting the outdoor museum in Enkhuizen. The people in the museum accused us of being English and the server in the Pancake restaurant near the station thought we were Australian. It's neat to visit a smaller town where they don't see Americans all the time.

Yes, you may have problems getting into London on Boxing Day morning. If you are flying into Heathrow, the Piccadilly Line underground should be running. However, if your airport is only served by main line trains (Gatwick, Stansted, Luton) the trains may not be running and you might have trouble finding an alternative.

Look at flights out of London City Airport, avoiding Heathrow and Gatwick.
Choose your London hotel accordingly for access to Docklands.
This flight, for example, gives you morning time in London before departure....

British Airways BA8455 Operated by BA Cityflyer
15:30 Departs LCY London City
17:35 Arrives AMS Amsterdam

If you can fly from London City to Amsterdam, it looks to be faster than the train. If you have to get out to a more distant London airport, flying's not going to save you much, if any, time over the train, and it's more hassles.

Thank you so much for all of the very helpful information everyone! We didn't even think about what Boxing Day would mean for our transportation. Will taxis still be running from the airport (LHR)? We will be okay with taking a taxi to wherever we decide to stay and then just walking around and taking it easy the rest of the day.

What neighborhoods would you recommend for a couple in their late 20s in London and Paris? I'm not sure which arrondissement would be best for us. Our budget is around $250USD/night. We are open to rentals as well at hotels.

Thank you!

The Rue Cler neighborhood in the 7th is awesome. Many of Rick's recommended hotels are there. I stayed in Hotel Duquesne, which fits right in your budget. They include a free breakfast if you email your reservations and mention you found out about it though Rick Steves.

That's €231 or £175 at today's exchange rate (who knows a year from now - crystal ball time) for locals thinking in local currency.

That's a bit on the tight side for nice at Christmas in London.

I think your original itinerary is good.

If you arrive a day later and shift everything by a day, you then find yourself bumping up against arriving in Amsterdam on New Years Eve which opens up another can of worms. You could shorten stay in London to maintain rest of schedule but if it were me, i would like to have as many days possible in London.