London, Paris, ?

You probably won't like my suggestion, but with only 10 days I wouldn't add a 3rd location at all. I'd add a day to London and 2 to Paris and do a daytrip or two.

I have to agree with Nancy. Ten days isn't that long really, and you will lose time every time you change location. If I had 10 days and had never been to either London or Paris I would split my time evenly between them.

I also agree with others. travel time wastes touring time.. you arrive in London..arrival day a bit of a wash with jet lag, so spend four full days.. travel on fifth day to Paris.. then finish with four days in Paris and last ( tenth day ) is travel day anyways.

Both London and Paris can easily ,, very easily fill an entire 7 days each.. especially when you consider the easy and fun daytrips you can do from each city base. Brighton, Windsor, Hampton Court, Bath, Stonehenge/Salisbury, Canterbury, Versailles, Chartes, Fontainebleau , Chantilly, Epernray ,Giverny( monets gardens) etc etc..

Your plan to fly to Basel( ??) on monday.. then train to Paris means you would only get one full day in Basel.. maybe two.. and you would waste a day with the flight.. getting to airport in London,, arriving the 1.5 hours at least before flight.. then getting from airport to hotel in Basel.. checking in.. all time wasting.

While it may be rushed, doing those places in 10 days is doable. Think about what your priorities are and how much time you want to spend traveling, but if you decide that you want to do three locations then go for it. Again, it will be rushed - is that what you want or are you looking for relaxation? Sometimes my priority is to see lots of places, and I do go at a quicker speed than others here would recommend (like in May I'll be doing 4 places in 13 days). It also may be a difference with how old you are - I'm quite young, still feel up for that sort of thing haha. I just see so many people here tell others that they need "at least 5 days for Rome" etc. I think that requirement is a little silly. While you won't see everything in 3 days, you can enjoy a 3 day stay in Rome.

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Anyway, if you haven't bought plane tickets yet then I would consider flying open-jaw into Basel or Zurich (it may be cheaper to fly to Zurich and take the train from there), then the train to Paris from there (there are direct TGV Lyria trains that take 3 hours), then take the Eurostar to London and fly out from there. That way you don't do any backtracking and you minimize travel time. So for example, you could do Day 1 - arrive in Basel and stay 3 nights, then Day 4 - travel to Paris & stay 3 nights, Day 7- Travel to London & stay 3 nights. A quick pace, and if you can you may want to add one more day to London if you can extend your stay.

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The other question is what do you want to see in Switzerland? I really liked a day trip I took to Basel, but if you're interested in the lakes and mountains there are better spots even for a quick stay (Lucerne is one option). The alternative would be to follow the advice in the above comments and stay in London and Paris the whole time, and from those places you could take some pretty nice day trips - you would certainly have enough to do and it would make for a nice trip.

I would suggest fly into London, train to Paris (2 1/2 hours), train to Zurich (4 hours, and on to a destination you want to visit, (Luzern?)), fly home from Zurich.

Hi tanleblanc,
I agree with majority. Even if in your 10 days are not a day of arrival and day of departure I would divide it between London and Paris with some day trips. And if you count days of arrival and departure into your 10 days then you would make it just a big hassle by adding Switzerland.

Thanks for the replies. Maybe Switzerland is too ambitious but we would like to see one other country. This is our first trip to Europe and we may not get back for years so we would like to see as much as we can. Any suggestions on maybe adding Belgium, Luxembourg? Our flights are already purchased so we can't change that. Maybe take Eurostar on the Monday and head to Paris on the Wednesday?

Yes, you could go first to Belgium for a couple of days before Paris, but after many visits to London and to Paris, and a couple to Belgium, I really think that those two wonderful cities have so much more to offer than Belgium.

Do you really have 10 full days on the ground? Youll be jetlagged for a day or two, so you probably won't make full use of the first, and maybe even the second, day.

You say your flights are set and you are flying in to London, but you did not say where you were flying home from. With the TGV, you have a lot of places that are only an hour or two from Paris. Burgundy (Dijon), Alsace (Strasbourg). Even your original plan of Basel is only 3 hours away, although I would not go to Basel for the sole purpose of saying I was in Switzerland.

I loved my first trip to Belgium and plan to go back, but I've been to London and Paris. If you want to add a third country (really a third city), Amsterdam or Brussels would be close enough to squeeze in.

But, if you think of your trip as visiting cities rather than countries, I would agree that London and Paris with a couple of daytrips to other cities would be less rushed and you'd have a more varied experience of each country.

I agree with most of the posts, adding a third city would not serve you well. As others have said, 10 days is not as much time as you think. You don't mention if you have been to London and Paris, but if you have not you are in for a huge (great) surprise! There are tons of things to do, museums, parks, walks and places and pubs to see in London. Paris is an amazing city with wonderful museums and 3 days is a very small amount of time. Plus taking into consideration, time to get to Europe and leave and the train time between the two cities and checking in and out of the hotels and getting to the train and airports. Plus jet lag and all the walking you will do. You will need to rest at times. Just look at the RS week long tours for both cities and they will show you what there is to do and see. Read the RS London and Paris guide books and outline the days of what you want to see and do and you will see that there is so much you will see and all that you won't be able to get to see. That being said, going to London and Paris will be wonderful and leave out taking a plane to Switzerland and go another time. If you don't like the city of London then there are day trips that others have suggested and Paris too. But there is plenty to see just staying in London and Paris. I have been to both cities a few times each and can't wait to go back. Just waking and taking photos of the streets, rivers ( Seine boat ride and Thames boat ride) and bridges could fill a day in each city. Have a great time and bring a jacket and good walking shoes!

Ok, ok, I yield!! Just London and France! Now I need a new itinerary...just checked Eurostar and prices have already gone up. Thoughts on where to go outside of Paris. Loire valley or Burgundy and how we might plan that given we fly out of Paris on the 25th? Booked Eiffel Tower tour on Thursday. Would like to leave London the Monday the 19th. This is hard work!

First of all, there are lots of great day trips from both London and Paris. Or you could take the TGV (very fast train) to Strasbourg for 2-3 nights. There are several lovely towns in this wine country (especially Colmar), accessible by either train or car - or even a drive across the border to Germany's Black Forest. But who would want to leave Paris after only 3 days?

Glad you are sticking to London and Paris. There is so much to see and do in these cities, I don't think you will need to go anywhere else. There are great side trips out of Paris though, Versailles is the first one I would recommend, Chartes is another good one (great cathedral and lovely town). I took a Grayline bus tour of Loire Valley that was great. Though you say you may not get to return to Europe, I think once you go there you will find a way to return -- as I have for over 10 years!

bon voyage.

If you really feel the need to go elsewhere I like Chani's advice. Strousbourg is beautiful and might be just what you are looking for. Other suggestion would be to add a day to London and do a day in the Cotswolds to get a totally different look at England... not just London, then spend the rest of you days in Paris.

We agree with the previous post. We booked Gray Line day tours in London and Paris. Gray Line subcontracts their tours to local city tours. You can go on Gray Line Tours.com and see the choices. Sometimes we have booked our tours before leaving home; sometimes we book the tours after arriving. We did tours to the Cotswold's, Windsor Castle, day tour of London, etc. We also took trains out to Cambridge (twice), Oxford, and Wimbledon. Gray Line Tours uses Evan Evans Tours in London. While we were in Paris, we went to Giverney, Versailles, Mont St. Michel, the Loire Valley, day tours of Paris, Normandy Beaches, etc. They were all thorough tours. The Paris tour was just a small van, which was really nice and personable. We also took day tours in Switzerland.

From London do an overnight in someplace like Winchester. From Paris do an overnight in a place like Auvers sur Oise. But other than that London and Paris will keep you plenty busy.