We are travelling to Rome-Paris-London at the end of May / early June. A friend wants to take her teenage daughters to see the big three before they go off to college and we are going with. We are doing 3 - 4 days in each city. At the end of that stint our friends are heading back and my wife and I will have 3 or 4 days to spend. We are going to end our trip either in London or Paris, so we can spend those extra days doing some exploring in either England or France. We have been to London and Paris before, albeit briefly, and other than spending a day in Bayeau have not spent any other time in either country. We enjoy history and visiting towns, so southern and southeast England and many areas of France appeal. Anyone want to sell me on one or the other?
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by
Portland
3644 posts
One practical consideration; if your group time ends in London, why not stay in England? You would avoid the time lost to travel and its accompanying hassles. You could do any number of day trips from London, or make a short move to a different base in the south.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14824 posts
I agree with Rosalyn. Add time where you end. You’ll waste most of a day if you have to travel to Paris from London with that short time frame.
Posted by
Land of La
9264 posts
How old are the daughters?
Depending on the family’s interests there’s obviously history, small towns, shopping, museums, cafes, parks in both.
I’m biased as I love London. I think meandering about Brick Lane, Camden Market, Spitalfields and Carnaby Street and along the Thames Path might interest everyone. Research London Walks
( walks.com ). An hour by train from London is Whitsable on the coast. Train Day trips to Rye, Salisbury, Oxford or Winchester.
So much to see and do in London as well. Different neighborhoods Greenwich, Richmond, Vauxhall, Chelsea to name a few.
Museums, shopping, food booths, street markets, theatre, art galleries, parks, architecture and pubs.
As I said biased. Been visiting London for nearly 50 years. Always changing, always the same. Never disappoints.
Posted by
OP
IN, USA
22 posts
Just to clarify, we can adjust our itinerary to end in London or Paris, so that is not a concern. And we will have three days in London with the full group and I'm interested in what to do when our friends leave. So where my wife and I should spend the extra few days.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14824 posts
Oh, I see.
Well, I would choose to spend time wherever you end.
If Paris, I would stay there and do day trips to Chartres if you have any interest in Gothic cathedrals or Giverny if you like gardens or Monet. To me, 3-4 days is not enough time for Paris so I would always add more time there. I can easily spend several weeks there and not run out of stuff to do in town.
If you end in London, you could consider 3 nights in Bath or Salisbury. For Salisbury, 1 day for Stonehenge and the other full day for Salisbury itself. If Bath, 1 full day for Bath and 1 day perhaps for a Mad Max tour of the Cotswolds. I can easily spend 3-4 days IN Bath as I find much to do there! I might could do 3 nights in Canterbury but that’s because there is a Battle of Britain Museum I want to see in a nearby village.
Posted by
Land of La
9264 posts
I still say in a London neighborhood.
Richmond is 25 -30 minutes away from central London by Tube or Bus.
Pleasant town, excellent food options, great huge park, quiet pubs and you can walk along the Thames Path to the Ham House and Garden. Kew Gardens is in Richmond as well. If you need a museum the Water and Steam museum might be of interest.
Stayed the entire of month of November in Richmond. Never bored.
Try a pint and have lunch at the Angel and The Crown pub located down the alley by the Tesco Express. Buy children’s books at the Alligators Mouth, cheese at Teddington Cheese on Hill Rise,
enjoy a rowing lesson on the Thames, make a reservation for dinner at the Dragon Inn, and walk along the Thames Path to the White Cross Pub.
Go to visit the Eel Pie Island artists enclave.
Or stay in Paris and see my relative’s burial site in Napoleon’s tomb. He was one of Napoleons generals.
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6713 posts
Yes, stay where you are when the others go home. Either dig deeper into London or Paris, or plan one or two day trips nearby. Don't uproot yourselves for another part of England or France unless you've already spent so much time in the big city that you'll be bored. (No one on this forum has had that problem as far as I know.)
Lucky teenagers, the big 3 before college. Maybe they'll return for some study abroad.
Posted by
8325 posts
Consider day trips to any of these places from London:
Cambridge, Canterbury, Windsor Castle, Oxford, Bath, Salisbury, Winchester, Stonehenge
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
You can easily spend a week in each of your three cities, so as others have said, add your extra time to wherever you end up. Three/four days in London or Paris with barely scratch the surface, even without any day trips to Windsor, Versailles etc etc.
Due to Covid, my recommendation for the past two years has been to ideally stick to one country. Introducing a fourth country would unnecessarily add potential stress.
Posted by
Freedonia
16413 posts
No one knows what the Covid situation will be. If you stay in the UK, you won't have any Covid hassles returning to France.
You could stay put in London and take day trips out.....Windsor, Oxford, Cambridge, Hampton Court, and Canterbury are all short train trips from London. A little further along is Bath or York. And of course, there is probably more to see in London as well.
Posted by
FL USA
1561 posts
Recommend doing a search for festivals being held during the three days you have open. We have found festivals open a door to an engaging travel experience typically not encountered. Some of our best travel memories have come from stumping upon festivals so we now seek to determine what is available during our journey.
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england/festivals