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London + _____ ?

I just got back from a study abroad course for my master's degree. We traveled within Italy to Rome, Bologna, Florence, and Venice. I loved it, and I definitely have the travel bug! 

I graduate in December and would love to plan a trip to Europe with my husband.

Our top two choices are London or Paris. Is it possible to do both at the same time? Or England, Scotland, and Ireland?  

We would plan to be gone around 7-12 days.

Is it realistic to do this for $5000?

I spent $3500 for my study abroad, so I am skeptical that it can be done for that price, but we did do a lot of city-hopping so that may have been what drove up the cost.

This study abroad has been my only international travel experience, so I have never planned anything myself. Any advice you could give would be great!  

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Re: London + _____ ?

  • I love Ireland, but for the sole reason for ease and convenience, I'd say Paris.  The Eurostar is such a pleasure to ride as compared to getting on a plane to Ireland.  You can take the train to other parts of England and Scotland just as easily but I would imagine it is freezing in December.  Paris will be cold too but not as cold.

    I love Paris, it's a must see for me. You can do half your time in London and the remaining half in Paris.

  • imagemavjen:

    I love Ireland, but for the sole reason for ease and convenience, I'd say Paris.  The Eurostar is such a pleasure to ride as compared to getting on a plane to Ireland.  You can take the train to other parts of England and Scotland just as easily but I would imagine it is freezing in December.  Paris will be cold too but not as cold.

    I love Paris, it's a must see for me. You can do half your time in London and the remaining half in Paris.

    I agree with all of this...Ireland really deserves a trip of it's own (not that England and France don't) and if your top 2 choices are London and Paris you could def do them and split the time between the two.  Depending on how many days you have in each you may even have time for a day trip outside of one or both of them.

    Your budget may be tough....it's really going to be most dependent on how much your plane tickets are....anymore that has really become the bulk of my budget for European travel.

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  • Agree with mavjen.
  • imagemavjen:

    I love Ireland, but for the sole reason for ease and convenience, I'd say Paris.  The Eurostar is such a pleasure to ride as compared to getting on a plane to Ireland.  You can take the train to other parts of England and Scotland just as easily but I would imagine it is freezing in December.  Paris will be cold too but not as cold.

    I love Paris, it's a must see for me. You can do half your time in London and the remaining half in Paris.

    Yes
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  • We did London for 4 days, and then went to Ireland for a week. We missed a few things in London that we wanted to see, and we only saw the southern part of Ireland. And IMO Dublin wasn't worth the 3 days we spent there, so I wouldn't suggest a London-Dublin trip. Ditto PP who said that Ireland needs its own trip. 

    If we had another 2+ days in London we would've taken the train to Paris. 

    image
  • I think $5K is a completely realistic budget if you plan well.  My DH and I did 3 weeks in Ireland, Scotland and England for 4K all-inclusive except for our RT air from the US which we purchased with AMEX points.  We were half-tempted to take the train to paris for a day or two, but we just couldn't fit it in.  I would recommend everything we did though - I have a blog entry about it if you want to look at it:

    http://stephsfavoritethings.com/category/travel/europe/ 

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  • Another vote for the London and Paris combination. On my second trip to Europe I spent a week in London followed by a week in Paris. It was awesome to be able to spend so much time in each city plus have enough time to also complete a few day-trips (i.e. Windsor, Versailles, Chartres, etc).
  • + Paris.

    Experience Paris in the Winter- beautiful and all of the lights are up. 

    We went to Paris in Dec 2010- links in my blog.

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  • London+Paris seems like a practical and worthwhile trip.

    I think your budget is practical depending on flight to/from Europe.  I would suggest renting an apt instead of hotel to save on lodging costs (look into VRBO.com, homeaway.com, staycity.com, etc).

  • imagehz80408:

    London+Paris seems like a practical and worthwhile trip.

    I think your budget is practical depending on flight to/from Europe.  I would suggest renting an apt instead of hotel to save on lodging costs (look into VRBO.com, homeaway.com, staycity.com, etc).

    Agree with all of this! Scotland is fantastic, but December is about the worst time to come here. If you look at an apartment rental and live on the East Coast, I think you can definitely stay in budget if you make some sacrifices. Just avoid any Christmas-time travelling, that will take up most of your budget in flights.

    TTC #1 since Aug 2010 * BFP Aug 2011, EDD April 16 2012 * MMC @ 7w5d, D&C @ 10w5d
    BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks
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  • Based on December, I agree London + Paris. You could also add another city from the Eurostar list, like Lille, Brussels, or Bruges.
  • Yes you can do London and Paris (the train is easy and fast), and yes you can do it for under 5k. Have fun!

    image

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