Planning a trip next summer. June into July,
and we want to hit these 3 cities, and stay 10-12 days.
Any suggestions on where to start? How many days in each city?
One of us has been to Paris, but neither to the UK or NE.
thanks,
Maplewoody
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Hello, may I suggest you make your trip at least 12 days. What with travel , jet lag etc. it is nice to not have to rush too much.
Where I am from airfare is much cheaper to London and Amsterdam, then Paris, so I would fly into one of them, then, if in London, take the Eurostar to Paris , then train to Amsterdam. If you are lucky you can find an air carrier that doesn%26#39;t charge too much more for a ticket that has you flying into one city and departing from another.
Book Eurostar exactly 90 days out ( you can%26#39;t book earlier online) and use the Eurostar site. I flew into London, and took the ES to Paris and booked online and picked up my tickets at Waterloo( the station ES leaves from) Book a return ticket even if not using the second half, they are cheapest usaully. Also book on a tues, weds or thurs, during non peak times. Our tickets were only 45 euros!
I like all three cities, but of course would choose to spend an extra day in Paris as it is my favorite. It also depends on if you plan on doing any daytrips out of the city. Warwick Castle or Bath for London, Versailles, Chartes, Giverny, D Day beaches for Paris, and for Holland , well I did a bus tour that hit a small Dutch village, a wooden shoe place and a Delf factory, ( quite frankly the Dutch day trips were the least interesting). So I would most likely choose 4 days London, 5 days Paris, and 3 days Amsterdam. It really comes down to you doing a lot of research and figuring out what YOU like to see.
Good luck!
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I spent some time in London a number of
years ago, Paris (5 trips-last time in 2005) and
this past July in Amsterdam.
If I had 12 days on the ground, I would spend 3 in London,
6 in Paris and 3 in Amsterdam [in that order].
Best Wishes
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You could even see Amsterdam in 2 days if you had to, giving yourself a day to travel from Paris to Amsterdam (I believe it takes 4 1/2 hours by train). Amsterdam is cozier than London and Paris, the central area that interests most tourists is smaller and easier to access on foot. If you are a serious museum goer, then you%26#39;ll need a full day to see the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, but they are practically side by side. Also worthy of seeing are the Anne Frank house and Rembrandt%26#39;s house.
I have been to Paris and London, and agree. Spend at least 5-6 days in Paris. There%26#39;s so much to see and do there, and it will be the %26quot;jewel%26quot; of the three cities. London is awesome, so four to five days there also makes sense.
By the time you get to Amsterdam you will be exhausted. Use this smaller, cozier, but slightly less impressive city to just poke into shops, take canal rides, and absorb the Dutch atmosphere. Leaving from Amsterdam is less hassle than leaving from Heathrow or CDG airport. The Dutch have their act together when it comes to shuttles to and from Schiphol Airport.
Typical Dutch food to try in Amsterdam are poffertjes, pannekoeken, and an Indonesian Rijstafel (which is really the Dutch notion of what Indonesian food should taste like.)
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I wonder if the Londoners would feel that Paris really deserves that much more time than Paris, or if we are simply prejudiced over here? For a first trip, I%26#39;d say 3, 4 and 4 with Amsterdam getting the short shrift, only because it is a smaller city. BUT one of our best trips ever involved renting bikes at the train station and taking the ferry to N. Amsterdam for a ride along the dykes, through pastures, past windmills to quaint little villages.
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I agree with joan1....London first, then take the Eurostar to Paris...then on to Amsterdam.
I%26#39;m excited for you. I love Paris and Amsterdam. Have no desire to go to Lndon....but taking the Chunnel is cool!
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Other than the D%26#39;Orsay and Louvre, the Kroller-Muller Museum
outside Amsterdam is one of the finest and most enjoyable
museum I have ever visited. It has over 60 Van Gogh paintings
and over 160 Van Gogh drawings in addition to Renoir,
Monet, Mondrian, Rubens, Picasso and on and on.
The sculpture garden is fantastic.
The museum is in the middle of a forest.
I would go back to Amsterdam just to visit this museum.
In fact, the next time I return to Paris, I will fly to Amsterdam,
take in the museum and some other things and then
take the train to Paris. What a great way to avoid CDG.
Also to be appreciated in Amsterdam is the Tulip Museum
across the canal from the Anne Frank House and
the humungous Tulip Center.
That%26#39;s my rational for 3 days in Amersdam.
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Kperea,
What is your reasoning for not wanting to go to London. I am contemplating a trip to London/Paris and like Maplewoody, am curious as to how to designate number of days between the cities . I have only been to Paris and I know I adore Paris and that I could spend oodles of time there. I have not been to London, so am interested in your thoughts regarding London! I have been told London has a lot of history.
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I agree with phread that London deserves every bit as much of your time as Paris. There is at least as much to see and do in London, and in reality since it is more spread out, it could be argued that you should give it more time rather than less. It%26#39;s a long way from Windsor or Hampton Court to Greenwich just as one example, and farther from the museums in South Kensington to the Tower of London than it is from the Eiffel Tower to the Bastille to give you another. London has a history that is perhaps even richer than that of Paris.
You can eat at least as well in London as in Paris, though it is still easier to get a bad meal there, and less easy to eat as well as inexpensively as you can in Paris, but you can still eat well without spending a lot if you know what you are doing.
Weather-wise there is really not much to choose between them. On any given day London%26#39;s weather can be better, or worse, or just about the same...
The theatre scene is more lively in London, and for most Americans the language issue is not a problem as it is in France.
If you possibly can, I%26#39;d suggest adding a couple of days to your trip and making it at least five days each for London and Paris, two or three days for Amsterdam.
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Randy, We spent a weekend in Arnhem (sp?) Holland to explore the area and the Hoge Veluwe park, including the Kroller Muller Museum. We LOVED it and spent endless hours riding through the park. But I don%26#39;t recall it being anywhere near Amsterdam. Perhaps you can give some info on how to get from one to the other (we drove straight from Paris, so I have no idea).
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I%26#39;m a bit confused. Folks are suggesting places outside of each city, which is why they suggest tacking on more days in various combinations. But I believe the question was: How many days should I allocate for each CITY, and in what order should I see them?
Having visiting all three, I would say that depending on where one stays (central areas of each city) Paris proper has more area to cover. The Louvre and Musee d%26#39;Orsay alone would take days and days to sightsee. The Rijksmuseum, though grand and wonderful, has nowhere near the square footage. And London, well, it is grand too, and deserves proper attention, but I recall being satisfied with seeing sights in London before being satisfied with covering all of Paris. I would definitely spend less time in Amsterdam, which has a cozier street and canal configuration, and is easy to see in a short span of time.
If you are suggesting trips outside the city proper, then I would allocate the same amount of time for all three cities, as they all sit near fabulous sights that can be seen in a day.
If you must fly into England, consider flying to Gatwick as we did once. Yes, you%26#39;ll need to take a train to London, but Heathrow is chaotic, and going through customs there is awful. Charles de Gaulle Airport is hectic too, and unless you know how to take the train to Paris, you will either pay an enormous sum on a taxi, or take an enormous amount of time riding the bus through Parisian traffic. Schiphol is by far the easiest airport to fly in and out of.
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