Would anyone like to critique my loose London/Paris Itinerary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved Churchill War Rooms. Loved Stonehenge which I don’t recall seeing on your list. I found Tower of London boring but worth an hour.

In Paris loved the on and off boat. Cooking classes were a highlight for us.

I feel like some of your days are light with activities but you might like a slower pace than we do.

OP here. We already have two “day trips” from London. Harry Potter for the kids and Cambridge for DH so I thought on a 5 day trip we shouldn’t leave town again?

I do think we are light on actual activities which is why I posted. Younger DD is not that into museums and general sightseeing - I just don’t really know how much I can do about that. We take plenty of other beach and theme park vacations for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
London:
Day 1 (arriving on the red eye) - Big Bus Tour (getting off near BP/Cenotaph/Whitehall/Parliament/etc.) and London Eye
Day 2 - Afternoon time slot booking at Harry Potter Museum in Watford. Taking the train.
Day 3 - British Museum, Covent Garden/Neal's Yard, maybe afternoon Tea this day? (any suggestions that aren't 70 pounds per person??)
Day 4 - Cambridge, punting along "the backs" (DH wants this, he studied abroad there ages ago.)
Day 5 - Tower of London/Tower Bridge in the morning. Afternoon??? - ideas are: Westminster Abbey, one of the many gardens, Churchill War Rooms or see a musical.

Paris:
Day 1 (arrive on a morning chunnel trail from Paris) - see Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe
Day 2 - Saint Chappelle/Notre Dame, Musee D'Orsay, Montmartre in the afternoon
Day 3 - Versailles
Day 4 - Louvre, Marais District, maybe take a Macaron class?

I think you have a good itinerary! A few suggestions from our recent trips with our teens:
For Day 1, we did a Harry Potter walking tour on our first day, "Tour for Muggles." We all really enjoyed it - it kept us moving on that first day, and you walk by some of the main sights in the City of London area. It was a great way to get oriented. https://www.tourformuggles.com/

Our bike tour with Tally Ho was another highlight, and another great way to easily see a lot of the main sights.

For Day 5, we started at Tower of London and were there about 2.5-3 hours. We had lunch, then toured Tower Bridge. From there, it's an easy walk over to Borough Market, if it's still open.

St. Paul's Cathedral is worth a visit, and I highly recommend the Triforium tour (need to book in advance). It's kind of a behind the scenes tour with a small group, and it would definitely be good with teens.

We all liked the Churchill War Rooms, and it can be easily visited in an hour. For a musical, we got same day tickets to Back to the Future at a very reasonable price using Today Tix - it was really fun.

For Paris, one of the highlights for all of us was doing this bike tour of Versailles - https://www.fattiretours.com/paris/tours/vip-versailles-bike-tour/. My kids' favorite part might have been shopping at the market and then having the picnic lunch with our items. We saw so much more than we would've seen on our own, and we had a great guide and group. They also have a larger group tour at the same time, and we joined up with them for the portion that covered the King's Apartment, and it seemed like the larger group would also be a good option.

In Paris, we also did a cooking class (French desserts) with Le Foodist, and it was great.

Have a wonderful trip!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try doing something that isn't a tourist attraction where you won't just see other tourists.

Unless you are going to suggest something your comment is useless and unhelpful.

OP can go to chatgpt to look for suggestions of less crowded attractions that appeal to her family

If pressed I'd say visit the Tate or the Tate Modern or St Dunstans in the East or Camden or Little Venice or Brompton Cemetery or Hampstead Heath or Richmond or Henley or one of the premier league football stadiums or the Brighton Pavilion or Kew Gardens or get a tour from a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. Visit the Wallace collection. Watch the buskers at Covent Gardens for a while. Go and get a good pub lunch or a curry outside the centre of London. This won't mean much to Americans but a friend and I spent a whole day visiting every location on the British Monopoly board from Old Kent Rd to Mayfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try doing something that isn't a tourist attraction where you won't just see other tourists.

Unless you are going to suggest something your comment is useless and unhelpful.

OP can go to chatgpt to look for suggestions of less crowded attractions that appeal to her family

If pressed I'd say visit the Tate or the Tate Modern or St Dunstans in the East or Camden or Little Venice or Brompton Cemetery or Hampstead Heath or Richmond or Henley or one of the premier league football stadiums or the Brighton Pavilion or Kew Gardens or get a tour from a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. Visit the Wallace collection. Watch the buskers at Covent Gardens for a while. Go and get a good pub lunch or a curry outside the centre of London. This won't mean much to Americans but a friend and I spent a whole day visiting every location on the British Monopoly board from Old Kent Rd to Mayfair.

Wow you’re so quirky!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try doing something that isn't a tourist attraction where you won't just see other tourists.

Unless you are going to suggest something your comment is useless and unhelpful.

OP can go to chatgpt to look for suggestions of less crowded attractions that appeal to her family

If pressed I'd say visit the Tate or the Tate Modern or St Dunstans in the East or Camden or Little Venice or Brompton Cemetery or Hampstead Heath or Richmond or Henley or one of the premier league football stadiums or the Brighton Pavilion or Kew Gardens or get a tour from a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. Visit the Wallace collection. Watch the buskers at Covent Gardens for a while. Go and get a good pub lunch or a curry outside the centre of London. This won't mean much to Americans but a friend and I spent a whole day visiting every location on the British Monopoly board from Old Kent Rd to Mayfair.

Wow you’re so quirky!

Not really, I just don't like queuing up with bus tours of people being processed through the top 5 attractions. I lived in London for a couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try doing something that isn't a tourist attraction where you won't just see other tourists.

Unless you are going to suggest something your comment is useless and unhelpful.

OP can go to chatgpt to look for suggestions of less crowded attractions that appeal to her family

If pressed I'd say visit the Tate or the Tate Modern or St Dunstans in the East or Camden or Little Venice or Brompton Cemetery or Hampstead Heath or Richmond or Henley or one of the premier league football stadiums or the Brighton Pavilion or Kew Gardens or get a tour from a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. Visit the Wallace collection. Watch the buskers at Covent Gardens for a while. Go and get a good pub lunch or a curry outside the centre of London. This won't mean much to Americans but a friend and I spent a whole day visiting every location on the British Monopoly board from Old Kent Rd to Mayfair.

Wow you’re so quirky!

Not really, I just don't like queuing up with bus tours of people being processed through the top 5 attractions. I lived in London for a couple of years.

And I’m from London, but that means that you and i would do different things if we visited compared to a first time tourist. Not very helpful to suggest a monopoly tour for a first time visitor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try doing something that isn't a tourist attraction where you won't just see other tourists.

Unless you are going to suggest something your comment is useless and unhelpful.

OP can go to chatgpt to look for suggestions of less crowded attractions that appeal to her family

If pressed I'd say visit the Tate or the Tate Modern or St Dunstans in the East or Camden or Little Venice or Brompton Cemetery or Hampstead Heath or Richmond or Henley or one of the premier league football stadiums or the Brighton Pavilion or Kew Gardens or get a tour from a Chelsea Hospital pensioner. Visit the Wallace collection. Watch the buskers at Covent Gardens for a while. Go and get a good pub lunch or a curry outside the centre of London. This won't mean much to Americans but a friend and I spent a whole day visiting every location on the British Monopoly board from Old Kent Rd to Mayfair.

Wow you’re so quirky!

Not really, I just don't like queuing up with bus tours of people being processed through the top 5 attractions. I lived in London for a couple of years.

And I’m from London, but that means that you and i would do different things if we visited compared to a first time tourist. Not very helpful to suggest a monopoly tour for a first time visitor!

Maybe. But getting squashed by crowds in the Rosetta Stone room of the British Museum or queuing for ages for the London Eye is pretty unpleasant.

[Anonymous]

What about a fun walking tour, either based on history or literature or food? My teen and I like those. Personally, I would skip Versailles and spend more time just hanging out in Paris. There’s so much to do and see and eat.

In London, I would go to hatchers or some other bookstore and pick up a book as a souvenir. In Paris, I would pop into a couple of clothing stores and get a souvenir.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about a fun walking tour, either based on history or literature or food? My teen and I like those. Personally, I would skip Versailles and spend more time just hanging out in Paris. There’s so much to do and see and eat.

In London, I would go to hatchers or some other bookstore and pick up a book as a souvenir. In Paris, I would pop into a couple of clothing stores and get a souvenir.

Not OP, but does anyone have specific walking tour recommendations in Paris that you've done with kids? Going in a few weeks and my 9yo likes this sort of thing (the 7yo, not as much, but can be bribed with ice cream afterwards).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a fun walking tour, either based on history or literature or food? My teen and I like those. Personally, I would skip Versailles and spend more time just hanging out in Paris. There’s so much to do and see and eat.

In London, I would go to hatchers or some other bookstore and pick up a book as a souvenir. In Paris, I would pop into a couple of clothing stores and get a souvenir.

Not OP, but does anyone have specific walking tour recommendations in Paris that you've done with kids? Going in a few weeks and my 9yo likes this sort of thing (the 7yo, not as much, but can be bribed with ice cream afterwards).

We enjoyed the one we did, it was Get Your Guide. But just look online, find one for a neighborhood that interests you, and see if the tour has food you like - they pretty much spell out everything plus usually a "mystery" food. We did a basic one with a cheese, a croissant (regular or chocolate), a fancy pastry, etc so we figured our kid would eat most of it. Also I made sure to book one that allowed full refund if cancelling within 24 hours in case of bad weather - not all had the easy cancellation policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks all, this is great.

And to answer OP. I'm not sure what we are doing about hotel checkin. We plan to go there straight from Heathrow to drop our bags but it will be like 9am so I don't have an expectation of a room for many hours after that.

You may feel pretty bad the first day. I don't sleep on planes and arrive in Europe feeling blah.

Yes, west to east is worse for jet lag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if we’re at war with the UK and France in June?

Or, not at war, but they impose sanctions and suddenly require a visa, instead of just letting you in?

Not going to happen. UK lost most tourists since Brexit, Paris has been biggest tourist destination in the world for decades. Now they need foreign money more than ever. Residency permits are a different story !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if we’re at war with the UK and France in June?

Or, not at war, but they impose sanctions and suddenly require a visa, instead of just letting you in?

What if you take your delusional rants off to the Politics Forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My teen likes the used record stores/stalls and jewelry stalls at Camden Market and Camden Passage. And food at Borough Market.

If you want to work in some history but not the entire British Museum (which I love, but it can be crowded and overwhelming), consider the Museum of London. The Docklands site is relatively small but very interesting. (The regular museum is also terrific but much larger and longer time period.) Or maybe the Portrait Gallery.

Free lunchtime concerts at St Martins in the Field might be another option if your kids are into music.

Yes to both of these recommendations (can't wait for the full Museum of London to re-open. Also the Globe Theater.

[Anonymous]

Op, we never sleep on planes. So we book the night before and check-in first thing when we get there, sleep until noon and then step out. Maybe you guys are better if not that is what I would recommend.