London or Amsterdam?

I like Plan B also. My only quick thought is how far out of the way going to Madrid and Lisbon is. Spain is very large, and even Portugal is larger than I ever thought. I was looking to go from Faro, Portugal (in the south) to Barcelona, and it was 650 miles.
I try to travel in straight lines, and fly from place to place if cities are too far apart and EasyJet goes there. You'll need a 2 week vacation when you get home to regain your strength after those itineraries.

Flip a coin. It makes little difference. You will need about 30 days for this schedule so assuming you have provided adequate time, then it will not make any difference.

You have to consider more than the additional cost of the Eurostar tickets. Also compare the costs of lodging. What you and the kids want to do will also factor into the costs. Many museums are free in London. How many nights are allotted to Munich in Plan A?

The room in London is slightly higher than Amsterdam $25 more a night. Transportation from Paris to London then Munich is $500, Paris to Munich is $250. Most of the sights they want to see in London are free. Except for the eye which is around the same as Anne Frank's. I have 7 nights currently for Munich/Fussen area. It would then go down to 5. Then I would add 2 nights to the Rhine area or Belgium. Oops!I ment to write Rothenburg ODT in my original post not Rotterdam!

I agree with Keith. In May I am taking my 7th trip to Europe and finally will see London on this travel. For the reasons Keith mentions, the increase of trip costs and the travel time used for London, are why I never could visit before. There are many wonderful sidetrips from Munich and the Rhine where you could spend time and Amsterdam will keep you hopping, too.

I am going to be the tough mother, yes your children want to see London, financially from other posts, your budget is tight so if London is more expensive, don't do it, they will survive. My son wanted to go to Mexico with friend and friends parents and had to tell no, could not afford it, was he upset, yes, did he get over it, absolutely.

Go to Amsterdam (and Haarlem too) you won't regret it. Save London and the rest of the UK for the next trip.

Hello Stacey. In each list, are the cities listed in the chronological order of your travel in Europe ? In each of those lists, Plan A and Plan B, I see expensive transportation for three trips between cities. I thought you have a tight budget for the trip. I suggest : delete Madrid and Lisbon and Milan.
If I were planning to do that trip, I think including Madrid and Lisbon and Milan in the trip would cause me to feel overwhelmed.

London. Definitely Plan B. You have been saying your kids were not enthused about the trip yet, but they really wanted to see London. So why not go there? About cutting costs; if you did rearrange your schedule and decide to spend more than just a couple of days in London (I would), look at renting an apartment, or flat, from a website such as VRBO. You can find something for about $86. US per day. Settle in for 3 to 7 days, and enjoy all the free museums London has to offer. Your kids will love London. You will start saving a ton of money when you are not on the train every other day. And you will start enjoying your vacation more.

You have alot of big ticket cities. I would opt to go for the small city that packs a large punch and that would be amsterdam.
And I also feel Madrid and Lisbon and far off the track too. Drop them so you can add more time to the other cities that you will be visiting.

Hi All!
I have already purchased all of my airfare. So my trip is in stone up to Paris and returning home through Dusseldorf. We are staying in Rome for a week and Paris for 8 nights. Most other cities for 4 nights. So I feel that we will give each place a good see. I found major cities to be easier to book apartments in and do day trips out of. We will have a rental car for all of Germany. I know most people think it's easy to find lodging for 5 people but it is so hard. No one under 18 can be in a room alone. So finding a room that will allow 5 people is pricey and difficult. I have one boy so hostels with shared baths are out as I will not send my son into a shower alone with other men if I can't be in there with him. Apartments that are $90 for two that can fit 5 charge $150 for 5 in the same apartment. I have found some great places for good prices in most cities. I was going to add London as a day trip from Paris instead of Disney Paris. We can do Disney anytime but we can't see Big Ben for the same price anytime. :) I then found it to be cheaper to fly to Munich from London than Paris. It is almost the same price as the train from Paris to Munich at a fourth of the time. To add London is about $300 more minus the cost of 2 days of our rental car in Germany. Plus going to Amsterdam was a little stressful for me. I have bad memories from my last trip there. I guess it sounds like I have decided! Thanks for helping me work through this. :)

My kids made the call yesterday. London is out! As much as they want to go it just was too much money. And one less place I have to figure out. :) Back to trying to find lodging outside of Amsterdam as we will have a rental car at this point. :)