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UK/France/Spain in 9 nights?
We are planning on a 9 night Europe trip in late September. We are planning on having kids soon so this could be our last big trip for a while. Unfortunately we cannot do more than 9 nights due to work schedules.
Originally, we had planned on just Spain and France.
However, we are considering adding London. This is because we are doing
this vacation with another couple. This couple is attending a wedding
in London, and then meeting us in Paris. If we do London, we could fly
with them to London (traveling with friends is always fun!). Added bonus- flying to UK will save us about $400 in airfare instead of flying to Paris.
What do you think about fitting
in these countries in 9 nights? What would you recommend? We are just
in the preliminary stages so not sure how we would split up the
countries, and not exactly sure what we want to do within each country
yet.
Also, how much priority would you put on booking a non-stop flight?
thanks!
Re: UK/France/Spain in 9 nights?
Of course you can physically go to 3 countries in 9 days, but it won't be the most relaxing trip! What about just doing London and Paris? That's a really popular and easy trip and you would have a fabuous time. Otherwise, you 'could' fly into London, stay for 2 days, train to Paris, stay for 4 days and fly to a city in Spain for your remaining 3 days and fly home from wherever you end up in Spain. That really sounds like a stressful trip though.
And I've paid a lot of extra money for a nonstop flight. Particularly for a short trip, it saves so much time and you'll arrive feeling so much better than you would after having layovers in whatever airport.
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
Spain is our priority out of the group (I have a college friend who lives in Madrid). It's also the top choice for our friends we are going with. London would be the dropped city because DH once spent 2 weeks there. So he is willing to go there (for me) but it's his last priority. If we do drop London, we would just fly to Paris and have our friends meet us there after their UK wedding. Or maybe fly to London and take the train to Paris, due to the airfare savings?
I wouldn't try and push doing three countries with only 9 nights. Yes it is technically feasible, but you are losing some time with traveling between locations and it will just be really rushed. I would just pick two places and split your time between them. Having four or five nights in each location will give you time to explore each city and maybe do a day trip from each place to somewhere else.
To save the $400, you might want to consider London/Paris, London/Barcelona, or London/Madrid. If you are thinking you might want to skip London and not save the $400, you could do Paris/Barcelona, Paris/Madrid, or Paris/some other city in Spain.
I think it's doable; although to make the most of your limited timing, I would reduce travel time by (FYI- We're doing Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and London, a somewhat similar trip in 16 nights):
-Fly into one city and out another
-Take the train from London to Paris
-Consider taking the overnight train from Paris to Spain (Barcelona or Madrid?). When I looked at this, the tickets were kind of pricey; $235/person, but you would have one less night of hotel and also maximize your day time to see things instead of be traveling.
I've learned from our trip...we booked a one way flight from Paris to Barcelona (via Vueling) and a one-way flight from Barcelona to London (British Airways) and it was more expensive than I anticipated; about $150/person per one-way flight. I'd consider this when debating booking at roundtrip flight to/from London and also if you'd consider an overnight sleep train. The costs might end up working out such that you'd get almost another day of sighting.
I hope that makes sense. If you have questions, feel free to ask
eta: I prefer non-stops; especially for a long trip when travel/sight-seeing time is limited.
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How close to the wedding are they flying to London? If you fly with them, they will surely need one or two days in London before the wedding plus the day of? So, let's say you can even it all up and spend 3 nights in each city, that's limiting your options quite a bit.
I think that since you originally wanted to just do France and Spain, you should stick with that plan. It will still be traveling with them and you get to then meet up with them in a foreign city! As you get more into the specifics of what you want to do & see, you'll most likely wish you had more time in each place and not less. Then I think you should fly into one, out of the other to save time.
I do prefer non-stops, but it's been a while since the cities I've flown into have given me choices (there are either no non-stop options or many non-stop options), so I don't know how much I would spend to get it.
I think you'll be exhausted. UK & France together are doable as the Eurostar makes it a cinch to get between Paris and London. Adding Spain to either France or the UK is getting a little hectic, but doing all three seems like you'll just be frantic and rushed.
There IS traveling after kids. Don't pressure yourself to see everything before you have children. Paris is particularly child-friendly, in my experience. I brought DD here when she was 15 months old for the first time and now we've been living here for the last 3 months (she's now almost 4).
The train from Paris to Madrid is kind of miserable and with the proliferation of cheap airlines like Vueling and Easy Jet, I think it's actually more expensive now to take the train than to fly.
I flew Paris-Madrid last weekend r/t and it was about 50 Euros each way, 2 hours & something flight time, plus a lot of time on the runway in Madrid when we landed.
Thanks for the comments all. It does sound like this would be not ideal.
Perhaps London/Barcelona/Madrid or Paris/Barcelona/Madrid would be easier than my original plan of London/Paris/Madrid?
I agree with pps, it doesn't sound like it would be an enjoyable trip trying to hit three countries in 9 days. I'd stick with France and Spain as your original plan. Travel between cities can really tack on time - flights or trains can be delayed, transportation to your hotel, check in/check out, etc. Our trips are usually 7-9 days and changing hotels every 2-3 nights would be stressful and tiring.
As far as paying extra for nonstop flights, it depends. For an international flight, I would probably pay up to $200pp extra to get the nonstop because it is so much easier and cuts down on travel time. It would depend on the options. I do place a premium on comfort and convenience (because it is a vacation!) but not to the point where it would affect the amount of travel we can afford to do.
I don't think you'll save as much this way as you think. You'll have to get from Heathrow to the train station which is like $30 each and then the train can be quite expensive. You'd spend a whole day travelling as well.
I would fly into Paris and out of Madrid/Barcelona to save a ton of time. It's not always more expensive and you won't have to pay the circular travel costs.
Check out http://www.low-cost-airline-guide.com/ and www.skyscanner.net for the low cost airline options between these places. Just make sure you know exactly what airport they use (sometimes cheapie airlines use an airport out of the centre) and add in any extra costs (credit card fees, baggage fees). I always travel carry-on only but it's much smaller in Europe and they will weigh your bags (usually) so be careful of this.
I do agree that a rushed trip isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but travelling across the ocean takes a day, then it's usually a full day each time you switch locations (particularly with flying as you have to get there early for security and everything) and that's just a lot of time in airports in a week.
There are tons of trains between Madrid and Barcelona so that part's easy although we looked at doing this once and were pretty surprised at the prices. Personally, I would do Madrid OR Barcelona and leave times for day trips in the area (Toledo for example) or the countryside around Barcelona.
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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