re: Europe Trip

Love your passion for Paris. I think I'll definitely keep that on the list. I like your suggestions of the day trips too.

I'm leaning more towards 2 cities after all the responses.

My first Europe trip was the same itinerary. It’s a lot but i enjoyed it.

3 days in London, 4 days in Paris, and 3 in Barcelona.

My favorite was Barcelona followed by Paris.

Take the earliest flights between the cities. Sucks waking up at 3:30 am but you will have the entire day at each place

For travel between London-Paris-Barcelona-Amsterdam (whichever cities you choose), take the train. It’s so much less hassle and more comfortable than flying. And time wise, about the same when you realize railway stations are in the city and airports are 45 minutes outside.

Seat61 is the definitive guide to European train travel. Download the Loco2 app to buy tickets in advance. You can buy same day at the station (most Europeans do), but if you have a definitive itinerary you can score a good deal on first class tickets- which gives you assigned seats.

Train between Barcelona and Paris is about 5 and 1/2 hours, so Barcelona is the most difficult logistically.

I would do London first and then either Paris or Amsterdam. Amsterdam is small, so you can cover most of it in two full days.

I say London first because it is less stressful and intimidating. Makes for a good comfortable start for your first trip across the pond. Load up on 1 pound coins for the pay toilets. No gas stations or fast food places to dip into when you gotta go!

Plenty to see and do. Best taxis in the world, so don’t bother with Uber. For a quick cheap meal, go to Pret A Manger. They’re all over the place.

On European hotels, there are few chains in the cities - which is a good thing. I’m not an Airbnb type. Mrs Springbok likes her boutique hotels. You should too.

Read Lonely Planet to figure out the neighborhoods. If you like edgy, stay in Soho. Try the Soho Hotel (pricy but amazing) or the Nadler. You can walk to Hakkasan Hanway Place. Catch Book of Mormon or another show.

After London, you will be more ready for Paris. Paris was built to impress you with French wealth, power and art. You want to stay on a quiet walkable street in a neighborhood. But when you get out of the neighborhood, Paris is huge. The buildings are massive (not tall; broad and oversized); the streets super wide; the traffic insane. It makes London look old fashioned, quaint and a bit dowdy. That’s why I say go to London first (and London is so comfortable that it’s my favorite city).

Get a private tour of the Louvre. Expensive but so worth it!

Fly into LHR. Fly out of CDG (or Amsterdam if you go there instead of Paris).

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kciDAtaE

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That's a lot. I definitely don't think we'll be doing that much.

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Leaning more towards London and Paris

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Not sure if you want to rent a car, but if you go London to Paris, you could drive down from London to the coast, see Stonehenge on the way, take a ferry across and see Mont St Michel and drive north along the coast and see Normandy/Omaha Beach, etc and then over to Paris.

You wouldn't want to keep the car in Paris, but that could be an option for maybe 2-3 days of the trip.

Mont St Michel is amazing if you're not familiar with it. It has some of the largest tidal changes day to day in the world.

LINK

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took a melatonin

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Also helps me. Highly recommend. The degree to which you can sleep when sitting virtually upright crammed into a coach cabin will be a factor in how much sleep you get. Also, perhaps a flight that departs later at night might help.

Consider balancing your big city time with some smaller towns and/or side trips out of the cities. Out of Paris, you can easily add two nights in Bayeux to visit the DDay landing area. Monets gardens in Giverny will be closed by Nov, otherwise I’d suggest that.

Resist the urge to rush about....do your homework/reading in advance so you’ll appreciate what you see. Two or three books read in advance will often make you better prepared than a mediocre guide.

Fly into London, take the Eurostar, fly home from Paris. Or do the reverse.
I do not recommend taking a car from England into France. This is dumb, and expensive. If you need to rent in both places, do two separate rentals. But you may find that regional rail gets you where you need to go.

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That's a lot. I definitely don't think we'll be doing that much.

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Understood. It just developed into that. I was meeting some family in Rome for a week and the plane flights were so much cheaper into London. So I went to London for 48 hours to explore by myself.

Then I found out a friend was surfing in Portugal the day I was leaving Italy, so I added an extra week to vacation to meet him and we did Lisbon/Barcelona for a week.

Same deal flying out of Europe. Dublin was ridiculously cheap so I added a few days by myself. The solo parts were the best.