My family is choosing a summer vacation. I have been to both London and Paris before, when I was much younger, and so has my father, but my two other family members have never been out of the country.
We are ages 45, 45, 18, and a precocious 12.
We like history, a unique culture/flavor to the area, beautiful architecture, good food, and interesting things to see.
Which destination do you suggest for an entertaining, relaxing one-week trip?
1. Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, etc
2. London and Paris
3. London, Cornwall, the New Forest, etc in Southern England
Thanks so much!!
I can agree with bigmomma in most she says.
For practical reasons, London and Southern England will give you a good choice. Stay in London for a few days, take the train out of the town and pick up a rental car, and drive from a midsize town.
You can train it all in England too, I have done often and you can reach almost every famous sight. But having a car for four is not that much more expensive and would give you much more freedom to combine places.
The Netherlands and Belgium is also a nice area, (there my opinion is different) but you need to combine towns/cities with nature and villages to enjoy it to its fullest extend. You can even base yourself in one or two towns and do your traveling as daytours from there. Amsterdam-Brussels is about 3 hours trainjourney or drive when there are no traffic jams.
I would advice against just London and Paris, as you miss much that makes the countries.
If you have more than 3 weeks you can combine London, south east England, north west France and Paris, but do not do it in less time, waste of the travel, (as I see it.) And in rural France and England you will find much more history than in both capital cities.
Food in Belgium and France is great, but you will find much to like in England and the Netherlands too, specially if you are not shy in trying out different things.
If you travel in summer by public transport you will need reservations, if you travel by car is it a good idea to have reservations, as the summer is when all Europeans take their summer holidays too.
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December 28th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Having lived in England before and coming from Europe, we travelled a bit of England and Europe. I have been to Brussels and Brugges, but was not impressed that much by it.
If you plan on visiting Louvre Museum, be advised that it is absolutely HUGE! Several floors, we only managed to go through one floor of it and it took us 3 hrs! The entrance fee wasn't expensive at all, although can't remember how much now. Something like 9 Euros. If you travel to France, I would also recommend a town east of Paris called Reims, beautiful town with pretty side streets with cobbled roads…
As for London, I lived there for over a year and another 2 years just outside of it. It certainly has a lot of history but it is so overwhelmingly busy that you will most likely end up having a bad headache more than a historical adventure. But if you planned on staying in London for say 2 days, then it shouldn't be so bad
Now, as for southern England, that's something you will probably like very much, the English countryside with tiny villages along the coast, especially the county of Devon and Cornwall… ah, that's something!
The New Forest - I have driven through it, and you can see the wild ponies grazing in there, beautiful sight.
Paris - France in general is one of our most favourite countries, so beautiful, people are so friendly, although they can't and don't really want to speak English, but will always be polite to you. We liked Paris, although driving in it was so manic, as if there were no rules, especially on the roundabouts
So if I were to suggest a holiday in Europe, I would definitely say France and southern England. That's my answer, hope you like it…
References :
December 29th, 2008 at 5:44 am
I can agree with bigmomma in most she says.
For practical reasons, London and Southern England will give you a good choice. Stay in London for a few days, take the train out of the town and pick up a rental car, and drive from a midsize town.
You can train it all in England too, I have done often and you can reach almost every famous sight. But having a car for four is not that much more expensive and would give you much more freedom to combine places.
The Netherlands and Belgium is also a nice area, (there my opinion is different) but you need to combine towns/cities with nature and villages to enjoy it to its fullest extend. You can even base yourself in one or two towns and do your traveling as daytours from there. Amsterdam-Brussels is about 3 hours trainjourney or drive when there are no traffic jams.
I would advice against just London and Paris, as you miss much that makes the countries.
If you have more than 3 weeks you can combine London, south east England, north west France and Paris, but do not do it in less time, waste of the travel, (as I see it.) And in rural France and England you will find much more history than in both capital cities.
Food in Belgium and France is great, but you will find much to like in England and the Netherlands too, specially if you are not shy in trying out different things.
If you travel in summer by public transport you will need reservations, if you travel by car is it a good idea to have reservations, as the summer is when all Europeans take their summer holidays too.
References :
I am Dutch, I travel often, I go to England about twice a year but have also spend much time exploring Belgium and France, including Paris.