help me!

Not sure if I understand your timing. You have the apartment in Paris for 8 nights, but you plan to spend one of those nights in London and another two of them in Bruges? Because of your limited time, I would skip Bruges and maybe spend two nights in London, if it's important to them. You are going to spend about a half day just getting there. That would basically give you one full day and part of another in London (if you stay two nights).

If London is a priority for your 3 friends who have never been to Europe before, then I would suggest giving it more than just 1 night. Bruges, while lovely, is very compact and all the major sights can be seen in one full day. Why not cut Bruges to 1 night and add that extra night onto London?

I agree with the two PP. while Bruges is beautiful, if the priority is London, then spend 2 nights there. With only one night, even if you spend 2 full days, then you pretty much arrive in Bruges to sleep that first night. If Bruges is really important to you, give it one night, otherwise eliminate to streamline your trip. You're packing 3 countries into 8 days, that's a lot. 3 days in London and 6 in Paris (including Travel) sounds realistic to me. While in Paris, if you get bored (highly unlikely) then you can branch out to Versailles, the Loire, Chartres, etc.

Thanks, all. I did not make my itin clear. Arrive in Paris on Sat, be there or surrounding all week, and leave for London either the following Sunday or Monday. I agree, 2 nights would be good. Then back to Paris-or surrounding. I guess my concern was not showing my friends enough, or they might think it was TOO much time in Paris. Thoughts?

Again, forgot to say we will be there until Saturday or Sunday, so we effectively have 2 weeks total. Again, thanks!!

Hard to spend too much time in Paris but if you have most of two weeks, I'd spend more than a night or two in London. How about adding the two extra nights to London? You could do a day trip from London if you think that is too much city time.

Linda, are you flying in and out of Paris? Are you locked into the first 8 days in an apartment already? Paris and London are both cities worth spending several days in, so I would suggest that you stay in Paris for 6 or 7 nights, go to London for 5/6 nights and then finish in Paris for the remainder. of your time. With each location change you lose valuable touring time so I would save Bruges for another trip. You could do day trips out of both London and Paris during the time there. Troyes is an easy day trip by train out of Paris and has wonderful medieval buildings, churches, gardens and food. London has many places within a short train ride for day trips as well. Deborah

linda, Thanks for the additional info on the time frame. With two weeks, that will allow 12-days for touring. Am I correct in assuming that flights and apartment rental are now booked? When will this trip be taking place? If there's any flexibility in your Itinerary, I would have suggested flying into London and start the trip with two or three days there. That would provide an easier "transition" to Europe for your friends, while you all recover from jet lag. Then take the EuroStar to Paris for the eight days in the apartment. There are lots of possibilities for day trips from Paris. Which ones are you planning? The travel time to Bruges is ~2H:30M, so with a two-week trip a day trip to Bruges should be possible. To plan your touring most efficiently, the Paris Guidebook would be a good resource. Is your group planning to buy Paris Museum Passes? Happy travels!

I am not sure i understand the need to get back to mparis. Each time you travel you lose a lot of sightseeing time. Do your 8 nights in Paris- then to london for 5 or 6 nights and fly home from London. Or if you are locked into flying into and out of paris, return from London to Paris by Eurostar and go directly to CDG for the flight home. That last day is wasted already If you can find 8 days of sightseing in and around paris, London is easily good for the remainder of your two weeks

Thanks everyone! You are all right about the wasted time. London will be a nice add on at the end, and then a flight home. No time for wasted time during travel!!

If you have 2 weeks, you could easily take Eurostar to Belgium for a couple of days in Bruges, then on to London 4-5 days and home. When are you planning to go? Next summer, London will be crazy because of the Olympics. My experience has been that London is more expensive than Paris, Bruges less. If you buy nonrefundable train tickets 90 days in advance, you can get them really cheap. The current price is €34 from Paris to Brussels or €50 Paris-London. This is roughly 1/3 of the full fare. There are few tickets sold at these prices and they go very quickly.