S/o let’s discuss Europe for people without travel points/status

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Book as soon as you know your dates and it should be cheaper. We paid about $450 rt total for 4 people for a trip later this month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

That kind of flight? Its only like 7 hours there!

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.

We just flew Polaris to Europe & no one slept because it was so ungodly hot.

[Anonymous]

We are usually Airbnb people but wanted to return to AC after a day of sightseeing. Family of four. Was able to find rooms in London with 2 queens. (Leonardo Royal hotel St. Paul’s 986£ for 4 nights.). Then in Paris, it was really difficult to find a 2 queen room that fit 4, but eventually found a family suite at the Hotel Balmoral. 1500 euros for 4 nights.

[Anonymous]

We just came back from London/lake district with four people for 7 days - we spent 8,000 total. I think we did pretty well and stayed in nice places. I think you can do London+Paris for 15k for about 10 days-2 weeks. Need some planning though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are usually Airbnb people but wanted to return to AC after a day of sightseeing. Family of four. Was able to find rooms in London with 2 queens. (Leonardo Royal hotel St. Paul’s 986£ for 4 nights.). Then in Paris, it was really difficult to find a 2 queen room that fit 4, but eventually found a family suite at the Hotel Balmoral. 1500 euros for 4 nights.

Wow that is cheap! We couldn't find anywhere in London for less than 500 pounds per night to fit in four people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

Book as soon as you know your dates and it should be cheaper. We paid about $450 rt total for 4 people for a trip later this month.

OP here - sorry to be dense, I haven’t been to Europe in 25 years…you are referring to the train between UK and France?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

Book as soon as you know your dates and it should be cheaper. We paid about $450 rt total for 4 people for a trip later this month.

OP here - sorry to be dense, I haven’t been to Europe in 25 years…you are referring to the train between UK and France?

Yes, the Eurostar. Takes about 2hr 20 min nonstop.

[Anonymous]

We love a modern, inexpensive hotel. In London we’ve done Premier Inn - St. James Park was super nice , Z Hotels, there’s a new Zedwell Piccadilly!

You can have a nice modern room for low cost. Clean, extremely clean!

[Anonymous]

It is usually cheaper to fly in and out of paris and get a return flight or eurostar to London from paris.

[Anonymous]

OP here. So, I'm LOVING these hotel recommendations. Here's the problem though. They say they will take 2 children, but then they all say a "child" must be 12 or younger. So my 15 year old will be an "adult" and when I try to put 3 adults and 1 child it won't let me. But the rooms have 2 queens which is plenty of room! Ugh.

Will American chains (marriott, etc.) let me do this?

[Anonymous]

In general, once you're in Europe, everything will be cheaper than the same level things in the States.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So, I'm LOVING these hotel recommendations. Here's the problem though. They say they will take 2 children, but then they all say a "child" must be 12 or younger. So my 15 year old will be an "adult" and when I try to put 3 adults and 1 child it won't let me. But the rooms have 2 queens which is plenty of room! Ugh.

Will American chains (marriott, etc.) let me do this?

The British queens are US twins. Everything is tinier there.

[Anonymous]

We had great luck at Residence Inn Kensington in London. Fit family of four with kitchen and unlike AirBnB, we could cancel until last minute.

[Anonymous]

Go on Marriott.com and search and put in the ages of your kids, it will tell you what the exact charges are, and it will always be cheaper than the same Marriott on Booking.com

Marriott has 30 brands, one of their bigger ones in Europe is AC which I love.

[Anonymous]

Residence Inn is part of Marriott btw.