S/o let’s discuss Europe for people without travel points/status
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Anonymous
Hilton is great when it comes to booking multiple rooms - you can confirm connecting online without having to cross your fingers and hope you get them upon checkin. |
Anonymous
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I would look for air bnb but if you want cheap convenient clean not tiny hotel rooms in London you should check out Premier Inns.
For airfare I would just start tracking it so you get a sense of what’s a good fare and then buy when you find one. Think about whether you are willing to travel outside the weekend and with connections (eg Iceland). Also note that London-Paris travel is a mess now, not sure if it will be better by next summer or if Paris-London is easier. |
Anonymous
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I've not traveled to London recently but I have traveled to Europe. I do have 1 travel credit card (chase sapphire preferred) but you have to spend I believe 3k or 4k in 3 months time and you earn a TON of points, I believe it is worth like $700 on just that. We have childcare costs so I took out an FSA for my childcare 5k a year, put childcare on the credit card (paid it off immediately of course), put groceries, a few bills, and we just continued doing this instead of getting a different credit card and earned tons of points. We used our original big point rewards years ago and then saved up points the past 2 years, not really trying to maximize points but had more than $2500 worth of travel reward points which covered our flights. We could have gotten a 2nd one and started using that instead but my husband is uncomfortable with it so we just have the one soo not too crazy!
Mostly for saving money this is what I do: Search EARLY for flights - scott's cheap flights, google flights, skyscanner. Put in alerts and be ready with your dates to JUMP on flights. I mean, if a deal comes up...you book it right then and there but it helps if you know if you are looking at a great deal or not. I've seen some low-cost flights from DC-London so deals do exist! I think I've seen under $400 if you are willing to accept a layover---make sure it is a longish layover; often they want to sell one with a 1 hour layover, too risky! Do carry-on only (if you are like me and find yourself buying some new clothes/shoes, ect it limits how much you will buy, saves time, money, and heartache since a lot of luggage is being lost). Lodging: airbnb or booking.com. I've found in Europe there are tons of great airbnb and booking.com apartments. I just carefully look at the reviews and make sure the reviews are recent and from people who have made multiple reviews around the world so they are more legit. I also put in "free cancellation" which limits your search somewhat but I've never not found an awesome place....I typically look for places under $200 a night but will splurge on $250 for a few nights if there is nothing else available. ex: portugal this month almost all lodgings ran about $130-145 a night. Christmas eve/DAY in Paris is more expensive $262 for an apartment in Le Marais but Alsace is $181 a night and heidelberg, germany $123 a night so it balances out....$196 a night over Christmas so find a great deal or balance it by spending a little time in a more affordable spot. Food: You can often buy your own food and prepare it yourself or plan to have one meal out a day if you want. London is probably a place that is so expensive that you will want to cook it yourself. Tours/tickets: buy in advance, often there's discounts for kids, sometimes you can do bundles to save money. Honestly, you don't have to do TONS of tours to have a good time. There's tons of free things in every city. If your children are young like mine, they will be super low-cost. Plot out the playgrounds in the city. I spent probably about $150 on tours on my last trip. Those are my tips. |
Anonymous
Try looking for lodging options through Accor Hotels. They have special family rates for multiple rooms and lots of good mid-range options in Paris, especially. I’ve stayed at some decent places for under $150/night. Don’t fly out of LHR. The departure taxes are very high. Better to fly into LHR, stay a few days, take the TGV to Paris, stay a few days, then fly back home from CDG. |
Anonymous
| So you don't want to hear about how I flew business class and stayed at the Hyatt for practically nothing by using my husband's miles? |
Anonymous
Haha, I think she's posted about it in every forum on this site! |
Anonymous
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We just did this. Family of 4. Bought economy tix to Heathrow back in January. Ended up being $3800 total once we paid for all the little things like being able to select seats, etc. Can’t recall why we flew back out of Heathrow. Think was more $ to fly home out of Paris.
4 nights for 2 rooms in modest but very well reviewed hotel in South Kensington - a little over $2k. 3 nights for 2 bedroom Airbnb in Marais district in Paris - $1,500. I got a rewards card right before we left and am going to put every single expense onto it. Never want to do that kind of flight in economy again. |
Anonymous
That kind of flight? Its only like 7 hours there! |
Anonymous
Yep. That’s what I said. Only managed to sleep for about 2 hours on the way there. It’s more like 8 hours on the way back. My DH is tall and the person in front of him reclined their seat almost immediately, right into his knees. Objectively, it was do-able, but not pleasant. |
Anonymous
The “deals” are only for those who really travel a lot. If you’re like most, which include myself, you can help yourself in small ways and you don’t have to spend $100,000. The Hilton AMEX is a card I’ve had for years. I forget which one I have- it’s the one with a $95 annual fee. While I don’t like annual fees the card has some nice perks. They usually have a decent sign-on award. It’s usually about 75,000 points after you spend $4,000. Additionally, if you spend 15k in a year you get a free reward night at any Hilton property in the world. We get this perk every year and it’s always really easy to use- no restrictions. This reward you obviously use on nice properties and not the Hampton Inn next to the interstate. The card also gives you Gold status, which isn’t really that big of a deal. I’m Hilton Honors Diamond and unless you’re at a Hilton property with an executive lounge, the perks aren’t that great. |
Anonymous
| It will be cheaper to fly into and back out of the same airport rather than a multi destination ticket. Therefore aim to get a return to LHR and then hop on the Eurostar from London to Paris for a few days and Bob’s your uncle. That’s what we just did and it worked out nicely. |
Anonymous
Was just going to say this. Fly to either and back from Same. Flights should be between 700-1200 depending on your willingness to do connections. I think hotels in London will be 300/night and up. You can find two beds. I know several of the Marriott properties have them. Try the Marriott Kensington. Paris is a little trickier (we were supposed to go but had to cancel so I had planned all this). I had a harder time finding rooms for 4. Try searching “quad room.” You also may want to consider getting a Marriott visa for the bonus points and charging to it because you might have enough for the Courtyard Garde du Nord (not my fave location but it could do) pretty quickly. |
Anonymous
| Hotels in Europe are so expensive right now and you will need two rooms. |
Anonymous
No. I only posted that in two forums. But what a great deal, right?!? |
Anonymous
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You’ll want to budget for the Eurostar tix as well if you go that route - it cost us $1500 for RT (family of 4) in standard premier class
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