Paris and London end of march

In my view ~anytime~ is a good time to do to London and Paris, lol!

I was in Paris this last March - arriving on March 27. I thought the temps were comfortable with 2 layers of either a short sleeved or long sleeved tee and a LS dri-fit quarter zip over it. Occasionally I had on a puffy vest but many locals were still wearing their heavy winter wool coats. I DID have a waterproof jacket with a hood which I always travel with and according to my notes it was more useful for wind and occasionally for rain. It seems like it was less rainy in March and April than this last October when I was back.

Here is a link to my Trip Report (there is a section on weather and a packing list) which included Paris, Belgium and Netherlands for 3 weeks.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/trip-report-rs-belgium-holland-4-6-4-16-2019-plus-time-in-paris

It looks like you are from San Francisco so you'll be prepared with waterproof outerwear so I'd have no hesitation with going at this time to either city.

Thanks a lot Pam for your reply and a wonderful trip report. We will be starting to plan for the end of March for London and Paris. We are looking at open jaw - fly in to London and fly out of Paris. Thanks so much!

We’ll be in London in early to mid-March. Bringing rain coats, and prepared for it to rain the whole time. If there’s some fair weather, that will be a bonus!

Just London for us, this trip. But you guys enjoy Paris, too. What a great experience for your niece!

Sally, that's a good plan. Go ahead and start looking at Eurostar tickets as well from London to Paris. Bookings open about 180 days ahead so you are in the purchase window already. Prices only go up - not sure if there will be any kind of deals over the next few days. I went ahead to the Eurostar site and see some fares left on random days in March for $61 which is very good.

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

I would never go to London or Paris at that time of year, but I'm highly weather-focused because--though I spend a lot of time in museums--I love walking around outdoors. The chilly+wet combination is undesirable for that activity. A bigger issue for me, because it's a dead certainty, is that the days are still rather short in March; I tend to hibernate at that time of year. It's clear that the majority of travelers don't have the problems I have with off-season travel, which is good for all of us because it evens out the visitor flow to some degree.

To take a look at the range of weather you may experience, go to timeanddate.com and look at 3 to 5 years' worth of its actual, day-by-day, historical weather statistics for London and Paris. They will give you a much better (and more up to date) idea of expected temperatures than the monthly averages found elsewhere. I've linked to London's data for March of this year.

Looking at a holiday weather website, it suggests that London gets half the amount of rain that San Francisco gets in March.

The weather hasn’t followed any typical weather pattern this year, however, with some months having much less than average rain and some months having double the average. Late March is before most U.K. schools take their 2/3 week Easter holidays. It’s as good a time to travel as any.

Flights within Europe and the Eurostar train tickets have been available for some time, so the cheapest tickets will have gone by now. Prices only head in one direction.

Thanks a lot for all your replies. The end of March is my niece spring break so as much as April would be better as maybe days would be a little longer, we will have to go with March. Cold is ok but hoping for light rain but then we won’t know till the time comes.

You are right Emma. Whatever the weather, we will make the best of it.