Is 14 days too many for London?
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Anonymous
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DH has a cousin in London and we either go alone to visit or visit with our children. Typically we stay 8 days. I’ve been thinking of stretching it to 14 days but DD who is 15 is declining to come because she feels it’s too many days for London. Siblings are elementary age and prefer active play spaces/activities and toy stores, DD prefers shopping to activities on trips.
I’ve seen a good number of people make a longer trip of London just doing everyday activities - playgrounds, museums, restaurants, landmarks as well usually do while DH cousin is at work. Is 14 days too many for London for you and your family? I enjoy cities, restaurants, shopping, eating and museums. I could explore any city for days and just enjoy trying new foods. An alternative that we have briefly considered is that DH has a family friend in Switzerland, in Geneva, that we could visit but I’ve seen Geneva is a city people spend only a few days within and getting to/from during a London trip with kids may be more work than fun? She has expressed an interest in seeing us for many, many years but we have yet to go out there. I’ll add that I have never done a multi-city trip alone or with family. I didn’t travel as a child, grew up locally in DC and as an adult have been traveling to single destinations rather than multiple flights/trains/cities in one trip. |
Anonymous
Yes 14 days is too many for our family. And how many toy stores do you really want to go to? But London is one of the easiest jumping points in the world so you can break it up. Take the Eurostar train to Paris for two days. Take day trips to Windsor Castle, the Roman ruins at Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge, or the Cotswolds. I don't know what you mean by an "active play space", but the entire country can be an active play space if you plan it right. |
Anonymous
| I would throw in same day trips if I had 14 days, but in general the answer for me is 14 days is definitely not too many! London is huge!! We just spent just spent 10 days there ran out of time. There are still 50 other things I’d love to do and I need to go back. |
Anonymous
| Some people actually live in London, so 14 days isn’t too many for them. |
Anonymous
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14 days too many.
Do day trips or take a few days and go outside of London. There are so many nice places outside of London. Bath Cotswolds South Coast - Jurassic Coast Oxford Maybe even a few days in Paris via the Chunnel. |
Anonymous
Sure, if OP was going there to go to work or had oodles of money to just shop all day in expensive London, that would be true. |
Anonymous
| I live in a small city (San Francisco) and there's absolutely enough to do here to fill 14 days, and yet tourists whirlwind through in two days and think they've seen the entire city. Dig in, hang out, find favorite places and go back to them, etc. London's quite big - plenty to do for half a month. |
Anonymous
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14 days is too long if you are going to be dragging her to toy stores and active play spaces every day. It needs to work for everyone with some compromises all round. Is she confident enough to do stuff on her own, maybe one parent accompanies her to do other things, or leave her at home some days?
A few days in Geneva would be a good compromise. You could do some boat trips, spend the day in little towns like Montreux or Vevey, visit Chateau Chillon and swim in the lake. |
Anonymous
| Will your husband's cousin (and his family) be there when you're visiting? If so, 14 days is about 10 too many days to impose on your family. Even if you take day trips, it's too much. But if they're not got going to be be there, then I agree with poster who suggested day trips. The Chunnel train to Paris is so wonderful and fast. That would be my main recommendation. |
Anonymous
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Plenty to do in London over 14 days!
But it’s also a great point to fly in and out of, and do a trip in between- Paris via Eurostar is a great option as are parts of the UK. |
Anonymous
For Geneva, could also go there but rent a place nearby in France with more fun activities, like Lake Annecy or Lake Bourget, or mountain towns like Chamonix. All within 90 minutes drive of Geneva. |
Anonymous
| I'd love to spend 14 days in the UK, but that's too many in London. This is a great chance to either take day trips or spend a few days in another part of England, travel up to Scotland, etc. |
Anonymous
| 14 days is too many to spend in London proper, but there is no shortage of day trips within a 2-3 hour train ride of London. You could break the two week period up with a few of those. |
Anonymous
eh, DH is from the UK and lived in SF for a while, so I'm familiar with SF and London. 14 days in SF and London alone is too long. I would venture out of SF and go up to wine country, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, but I would not spend 14 days in SF city as a tourist. Same for London. |
Anonymous
Eh I am telling you that if you can't fill your time in my tiny 7x7 mile city of SF, then you aren't looking for fun things to do while in it. |