Weekend trips for daughter studying abroad in Cambridge, UK

A weekend? As in, leave Cambridge late Friday afternoon, travel to the closest airport serving their destination ( perhaps Stanstead). Arrive at destination late Friday night. Then reverse this process Sunday. Leaving 1 day at destination. Seems like a poor use of funds for the average cash strapped student. Surely there are places of interest in the UK
But if funds are ample and she will have 3-4 day weekends, then check the flight departures from Stanstead or Luton (the 2 closest airports) to see places she may be interested in.

Paris will be pretty easy via the Eurostar train. Train to London's Kings Cross station. Work her way to the International Station at St Pancras which is connected to Kings Cross. Eurostar to Paris. The Olympics are in Paris this summer so hotel prices are very high. Might want to look at the costs there to see if you can find something reasonable BEFORE you book trains.

They should get the Eurostar tickets soon-ish. Tickets are already on sale thru Oct 31 and the cheapest tickets go quickest. Purchase on www.eurostar.com website. She should download the apps for Eurostar and for Great Northern Train Company at the very least and add her tickets to her Apple Wallet or Android Wallet.

Mom-

I know you want to help your daughter but honestly, I would just get information on what is available and then let her decide. Maybe I'm old fashioned but if your daughter is old enough to study abroad, then she's old enough to plan her own excursions and know what she likes.

So definitely gather all the information but let her decide-that way if she doesn't like it she can't blame her parents.

So I hope this is helpful, but in no particular order...

Would you be able to tell us a bit more about your daughter and her interests? History? Shopping? Wandering? Foodie?.... You mentioned 'they', is she traveling with someone specifically in a large or small group? And dare I ask, what do the others want to do? HA. If I were doing the planning, I would require they sign a 'Do not complain' contract!

Personally, I would skip Paris, as France is hosting the Olympics this summer and prices will be sky high, and the crowds will be worse than they've been the past few years of 'Revenge Travel'. Do they like crowded big cities? A serious question, there's a LOT beyond the biggest cities that could be lovely.

What weeks in summer? June will be much cooler than August! I would skip Rome in July/August and at least head to Florence, (marginally better, make sure they have air con) or better yet up into at least the Lake District.

If you use the search bar at the top of this page, 'Croatia Forum' and confine it to maybe the past 2 years, you will get a lot of info.

Frankly, if in July / August, I would head as far north as they're interested. As someone else mentioned, so much to do in the UK!! Or head north, Denmark, Norway & Sweden, or Eastern Europe north of the Alps. Good luck & they're so lucky to have your help!

PS, This, I think young guy, took some really great long weekend trips during his studies in London (?) , I see to recall. This is just one example, but he writes in detail about each destination and the pitfalls of cheap airfares getting cancelled and staying in youth hostels. I enjoyed his writing style and it might give you some other good ideas! (If you click on his name, and then just look at the posts he started, you can search all his posts, I seem to recall he went to Lyon & also Eastern Europe.) Amsterdam & other destinations in the Netherlands might be a good place for them to get their feet wet, if they're newbie travelers. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-4-5-days-in-amsterdam-utrecht-zaanse-schans-and-haarlem

London deserves a minimum of six nights and is one of Europe’s greatest cities. When you say weekend how many nights is a weekend? Here’s the UKs train website: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/live-trains/ and London is a direct 1h train ride away. A train from Cambridge to Stansted airport is direct and takes 30m.
Fortunately, there are direct trains from Cambridge to London’s St Pancras International train station. Here she can transfer to the Eurostar to get to Paris (2h 30m). Paris deserves a minimum of five nights. The earlier the train tickets are purchased the cheaper they are, especially the Europstar.
There are nonstop flights from London Stansted to Rome and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Other nonstop flights from London Stansted include: Edinburgh, Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Malta, Budapest, Lisbon, Athens, Prague, Venice, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Copenhagen, Santorini, Milan, Seville, Stockholm, Porto, Naples, Glasgow, Reykjavik, Krakow, Salzburg, Hamburg, Oslo, Helsinki, Bordeaux, Nice, Belfast and Cologne.
Also, Rick Steves son Andy wrote a book for college students studying abroad: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/andy-steves-europe-city-hopping-on-a-budget.

Check out Ryanair out of London Stansted (STN). This will be her closest and most convenient airport. Although they often advertise cheap flights, watch the add-ons, luggage restrictions, and seat selections. Also, some destinations are a lot pricer than others, With high demand, the days of getting a flight to Europe for £9.99 have gone, but if she is flexible with her destination, there are still good deals to be had. Some Ryan Air flights will land in smaller airports outside of major European cities, so just factor in the time and cost of traveling to her final destination.

As for exploring England, buy rail tickets ahead and don't travel during peak hours. Trains in the UK have become quite pricey. I have also just booked a EuroStar return ticket for Belgium for this June and it was $200 return, so keep that budget in mind for Paris.

the Great Northern nonstop to London goes into Kings Cross. That is significantly faster than the Thameslink into St Pancras which takes 10 minutes longer. The Eurostar check in area is just across the street from Kings Cross exit.

National Express also run a good 24 hours a day bus service from Cambridge to Stansted. Useful for the very early flights and very late arrivals back, when the trains aren't running.
There are also railcards for those under 30, to save 1/3 off train fares off peak.
National Express also do an under 26 coachcard, to save 1/3 off fares.
The cheapest train fares to London, by quite a margin, are on the slower Greater Anglia trains to Liverpool Street, then 10 minutes on the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras, or 25 minutes on the 24 hours a day bus 205.

Some considerations:

--Things will evolve naturally. That means she and some friends or people she meets might spontaneously want to go somewhere and do something. Pre-planning every weekend is not helpful.

--Travel time. Sticking to reasonably close destinations still requires a lot of travel time!

--How much there is to see. As in, from Cambridge you can easily do things like London, Stonehenge, Coventry, Dover, more London, Peak District, Lake District, Wales (Cardiff, Swansea Anglesey, Snowdonia . . . ), more London, Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon, and many more places--and that doesn't even get her to Scotland!

--Money. Once in the UK, she will likely be using British pounds, so not having to change to get Euros or other currency might make life easier.

--If she is thinking abroad, then Brussels and Paris are easy options from London by train, and shorter flights to Dublin or Belfast might be good choices.

--What else is going on? Are there festivals that might be of interest to young people or deter them from visiting a certain place? Two major events in Europe this summer are the Euros (UEFA championship--men's soccer) in Germany in June and early July and the Olympics in and around Paris in late July. On the flip side, it can be exciting to visit a city during a cultural event (Pride festival, street festival, carnival). So those are considerations.

--Weather. It is really brutal to visit Rome in the summer; doable, but less pleasant than other places. Croatia can be quite warm as well, depending on where one goes.

--Maybe after the 6 weeks she could stay on a bit and do some traveling rather than the limiting weekend trips?

Florence is actually hotter than Rome in the summer.

Things to check before committing to a weekend trip:

• Availability of reasonably priced lodging. Take a look at booking.com to be sure there are affordable options. Taylor Swift is doing a bunch of concerts in Europe this summer, driving hotel rates in some cities up over $500 a night.

• Ease and expense of traveling from destination airport into the city. Some places are a lot easier than others. The budget airlines sometimes use secondary airports (Girona rather than Barcelona, Bergamo rather than Milan, Treviso rather than Venice) that are quite some distance from the big-name city. As it happens all three of those places are worthy destinations themselves, but the folks on those flights are probably planning to visit Barcelona, Milan and Venice.

Having studied abroad myself I’m in the “let things evolve and don’t plan too much” camp. Your daughter will make friends she doesn’t even know yet and they definitely will do things together. What if these friends spontaneously decide to go to London one weekend, but your daughter can’t go because you booked her to go to Rome?
I also can’t help but feel that you underestimate the size and scale of Europe. Croatia and Italy are definitely too far for just a weekend trip.

Hi everyone! Thank you to those of you that answered by question and offered suggestions. As for those of you that offered some unsolicited parenting advice well... :) I don't remember there being so much snarkiness in these forums when I was last on them...

A few points for clarification... Her study dates are June 26-Aug 3. She and I talked last night about me going over with her a week or so before she begins classes for us to explore London. Neither of us have been to London!

• Her roommate from home will also be participating in the same program so that is the "they".
• I had forgotten that the Olympics are in Paris this summer so that's a solid point to keep in mind. They may decided to embrace the crazy for a chance to experience that or avoid the area all together--something to think about.
• She will not have classes on Fridays so every weekend is a 3 day weekend
• As far as expense: she pays her own way so that's her business. She knows how to manage her money.
• To be clear, I would NEVER insert myself into her plans with out an invitation. Yes, she is old enough to plan these things herself and quite capable. However, the text she sent me was "will you plan our weekend trips?". She knows I am a great trip planner and that I love to do it. Also, she would never complain or blame me if something didn't go as planned--she's a good human.
• Lastly, thanks for the geography lesson--I have a firm grasp on the size and scope of Europe! :)

She is an extremely busy law student and knows this is an area that I enjoy so it's a win win for us.

If her schedule allows, she may extend her trip at the end to visit Croatia. Some of you have offered some wonderful advice! Thank you so much, it is most appreciated.

It’s quite popular and usual to do a 2 or 3 night city break within Europe. I’ve done it several times and hope to do another one later this year. Yes, there’s some travelling time but it’s worth it. I guess it takes about 6 hours door to door to get to a major city in Western Europe. You only need to be at the airport an hour beforehand if you take carry on only.

Look at flights from Stansted and start there. There will be weekend flights to pretty much every destination. Ryanair and EasyJet both use the airport. EasyJet are better in terms of customer service.

Excellent! Sounds like a good division of labor all around & you get to enjoy the planning, which I also love. Thanks for the explanation about who and when! My Swedish niece in law traveled with friends by train to Italy, 2 of 4 bailed in July in N Italy because of the heat, she was left with one friend to make their way back to Sweden, and these are well-traveled girls. I guess just to emphasize the heat of the summers is increasing!

I did feel a pang suggesting she skip Paris, it's SO special. Maybe make the hotel booking soonest to avoid higher cost? Since she's arriving in late June, she could just about see Rome before it gets TOO hot if she travels there first with her friend? There are ways to escape the heat if they plan their days well, I think there's a decent Youtube here about it - https://youtu.be/arf7eQPbsyE?si=wqGyY4U7COtrPKyH.

I really liked her garden suggestions, and was just across the street but didn't notice it, next time! https://youtu.be/72fOJBwa2eM?si=ThYNWCPJxuDKna3m