Suggestions for European trip, May 2017

We booked a wonderful Grand European river cruise with Scenic that was to be have been preceded by a 10-day eastern Europe land tour. It started in Prague with three days, three days in Berlin, two days in Warsaw, and two days in Krakow ending in Budapest where the river cruise started. The 15-day cruise ended in Amsterdam and we had added an extra night there. Our airfare has already been purchased separately through a travel agent.

Yesterday a Scenic manager called to let us know that the 10-day land portion of the cruise has been cancelled. He offerered an alternative cruise that we are happy about with some land days before and after the cruise. It will start in Prague and we can still use the ticket for the trip over there as the dates match. There will be three days in Prague prior to the cruise starting in Budapest. It is not on the same ship as before, but on one just like it and since the balcony cabin category we had chosen is sold out, they'll upgrade us to the next size cabin. The river cruise is the same itinerary and ends in Amsterdam. Then we'll take a train to Paris and spend three nights there as part of the total tour package. The tour ends May 27.

Scenic will pay the airline ticket change fee for the return portion of our trip up to $350/person. Our return ticket is for June 1 from Amsterdam to London and then non-stop from London to Las Vegas. We want to at least keep the non-stop to Las Vegas part of the flight.

So now for some suggestions on where to go/what to do from May 27 in Paris to June 1 in London. We have five days to plan for, and we're open to all suggestions on how to best use our time. We're interested in seeing sights in Switzerland & northern Italy & maybe we could see more of France. We could fly to London from any other European city to connect with our flight home which leaves at 12:30 pm on June 1, and we wouldn't be opposed to spending the night before in London if necessary.

We'd so appreciate any advice from all you experts on Europe.

wow. that is a lot to cover in 5 days. I was in Paris/France/Switz this summer. What we did for 4 days, which took a lot of planning, but was actually very easy:
Train Paris-Strasbourg France (2.5 hrs), stay over or store your bags at the train station, see the Cathedral, old town, very nice. Train to Colmar 45 minutes (hotel for 1-2 nights), day trip by train (back-tracking, but didn't know what to do with luggage) to fabulous Haut Koenigsbourg castle (35 minutes), return to Colmar (we stayed at BW Bristol right at train station, very nice, great restaurant, easy, safe walk to old part of Colmar), train to Luzern, Switzerland (if via Basel, store bags and walk to old part and across the river) before continuing to Luzern. There are likely lower cost flights out of Basel than Zurich. We have also trained (another trip) to Wengen, and liked that a lot, if you want to be up in the Alps. If you are in Switz, it's an easy connection to Lugano, aobut 3 hours from Zurich.
Another option is to train to Dijon, spend the night and then continue in a day or two into Switzerland. Study the train lines to see your options. If you book the day trains schedules come out, you can save A LOT. We paid only $16 PP from Paris to Strasbourg, Zurich-Milan ($25). I think you could just hop off at Lugano and then buy a local ticket to continue to Milan another day. There are many flight from Milan to London, if you choose to go to N Italy.
Another option is to stay in the Disney Paris area, as it is a great base for exploring France. We rented a car and drove on country roads to Meaux (great WWI museum), Provins (13th century town-you can also take a bus directly there from Disney Paris train station), Fountainebleu (45 minutes). We stayed at the Marriott Ile de France--it's fabulous. We enjoyed the beautiful villa, plus it was fun to shop at a french grocier, butcher, patisserie (all in the town a 10 minute, very nice walk away) and cook our french dinners. If you stay in the Paris/France area, I would just Eurostar to London.
With a 12:30 flight, you should plan to be in London the night prior. Don't risk it.

If you've never done Normandy, it is a must do in my opinion. One of the most memorable places I've been to in Europe. I think it's best to rent a car rather than take a tour bus, however.

If you don't want ot rent a car, or only want to spend 1 day in Normandy, we did Bayeux-shuttle's one day tour for a DDay beaches tour. We trained the night prior from Paris, spent the night, did the tour and then returned to Paris that evening and continued to outside of Paris via local train. Excellent tour, but a very long day.

I would spend more time in Paris unless you've been there several times. Every time we go, we find new things we didn't know about or didn't have time for. London is the same way; I'd spend some of the time in London exploring--it's got more to see than you could manage in weeks.

For me, seeing places in a bit more depth gives me more memories than managing a lot of different spots.

We're kind of leaning now to spending more time in France and doing a tour of the Normandy beaches. We're thinking of taking the train to Bayeux and spending the night there before doing an all-day tour. Not sure what to do next--spend another night in Bayeux or take the train back to Paris or ???

We've done the Eurostar from Paris to London so our thinking is to change our ticket with British Airways and fly to London from Paris and then on to Las Vegas. It seems like getting to Heathrow and just changing planes would be easier than taking the train to London and then getting outselves to Heathrow.

We're looking forward to spending more time in Paris than we did on our one and only trip there in 2003 for just a day trip from London on the Eurostar.

Any more suggestions?

Bayeux has another wonderful attraction-the Bayeux Tapestry, which was embroidered following the Battle of Hastings in 1066; it is 70 meters long and totally amazing.

Some other interesting sights between Normandy and Paris are: Mont Saint Michel (not to be missed IMHO), Chateau Gaillard (Richard the Lionhearted's ruined castle towering over the Seine), and Giverny (Monet's home).

We had a car to get from place to place-not sure how you could do it by train.

Enjoy!

one issue is whether the DDay tour will end in time to go back to your hotel and get your luggage prior to taking the train back. As I said, it's a long day. I would likely spend another night and then decide the next AM whether you want to spend more time in B or take an AM train back to Paris.
We really enjoyed seeing Fountainebleu. There is a train, bus to F, or you can take a day tour, or, if you stay outside of Paris, it's a very easy drive. No crowds (even in July), lovely grounds, as well. We also drove by and viewed the outside of Vaux le Vicounte, which would make a very nice full day added to F.
Again, we really liked staying in the DisneyParis area for a few days. No need to do anything related to Disney--they just have very good tourist infrastructure with ease of train, bus connections, and ease of renting and driving on country roads well outside of Paris.
If your ticket can be linked and you can check your bags through the LV, then that would be OK. If the BA is a stand-alone ticket, ask them what happens if the Paris flight is delayed. If it is considered a totally separate trip, I still would not fly in that AM for a 12:30 flight.

For those of you who have rented cars in France, how was it? Do they drive on the right side of the road like in the U.S.? How are the roads?

driving is fine, right side. plan out your routes prior to getting in the car. We would not drive anywhere near Paris (either on the outer freeway loop or inside it), but the Disney Paris (15 miles outsdie of Paris, I would guess), is very driver-friendly, easy car rentals, and more of a resort-suburban feel. We had no issues driving to Fountainebleu and many roads were through farmland. I would think that driving in Normandy would be OK. I would NOT recommend getting a car in Paris. It's SUPER easy to train to DisneyParis (20 minutes) and pick up a car there. I think you could also get a car in Caen or Bayeux, as well. Other options would be to trian to Djion and get a car there. For any, you could then return the car to the aiport. ORY will be more convenient if you are traveling to Dijon area. CDG will be better for DisneyParis area, but I might also just take the Magic Shuttle to CDG, if in the Disney area.
Most cars are manual, so make sure to reserve automatic. We rented from SIXT and then didn't care if we had an international DL, but we had one anyway, as I didn't wantto get to the rental car counter and be turned away. You can get one from AAA.

I would add another vote for Mont St Michel. We loved it and wished we could have spent more time in the area.

lynne1956 said:

Bayeux has another wonderful attraction-the Bayeux Tapestry, which was embroidered following the Battle of Hastings in 1066; it is 70 meters long and totally amazing.

Some other interesting sights between Normandy and Paris are: Mont Saint Michel (not to be missed IMHO), Chateau Gaillard (Richard the Lionhearted's ruined castle towering over the Seine), and Giverny (Monet's home).

We had a car to get from place to place-not sure how you could do it by train.

Enjoy!

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Here's some info about the Battle of Hastings and the Bayeux Tapestry:

Battle of Hastings Re-enacted by 1,000 Soldiers for 950th Anniversary
- From the Press Association/ Heritage/ The Guardian/ theguardian.com

"Invasion that transformed England in 1066 is commemorated in English Heritage’s once-in-a-lifetime restaging.

More than 1,000 soldiers have re-enacted English history’s defining battle on the site in East Sussex where it took place 950 years ago.

Swords clashed, arrows flew and maces swung on Saturday as a group of chainmail-clad participants played out the 1066 Battle of Hastings – a conflict that changed the face of England...."

Richard

MULTIZ321 said:

Here's some info about the Battle of Hastings and the Bayeux Tapestry:

Battle of Hastings Re-enacted by 1,000 Soldiers for 950th Anniversary
- From the Press Association/ Heritage/ The Guardian/ theguardian.com

"Invasion that transformed England in 1066 is commemorated in English Heritage’s once-in-a-lifetime restaging.

More than 1,000 soldiers have re-enacted English history’s defining battle on the site in East Sussex where it took place 950 years ago.

Swords clashed, arrows flew and maces swung on Saturday as a group of chainmail-clad participants played out the 1066 Battle of Hastings – a conflict that changed the face of England...."

Richard

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We visited the re-enactment yesterday, it was very good. The event was sold out so there were thousands of visitors exploring the abbey and the various camps around the battlefield. At 3 o'clock they staged a re-enactment of the battle with hundreds of 'warriors' from all over Europe taking part.

Karen G said:

For those of you who have rented cars in France, how was it? Do they drive on the right side of the road like in the U.S.? How are the roads?

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They drive in France on the same side as the US. The roads are very good, much better than most of the major one's I've driven on in the US. You may come across some smaller, narrower roads in the country which may take some getting used to.

What kind of things do you like to do on vacation? As I said above, for us, Paris--as well as London--has weeks worth of new things to do: wonderful museums, great places to eat, cathedrals, strolling, people watching, gardens to look at, left bank booksellers, the Holocost Memorial......I could go on and on. Normandy was in our plans for Aug/Sept., but a mix-up with airline tickets resulted in our not getting there.....but next time.

For me, your 5 days isn't excessive for Paris itself, and Normandy may use 2 days, or even three. If you take the train and rent a car when you get there, you can see the museum the afternoon you arrive and schedule a beaches only trip for the following day and make the return to Paris more easily than if you do the beaches and museum in the same day.

PStreet1 said:

What kind of things do you like to do on vacation? As I said above, for us, Paris--as well as London--has weeks worth of new things to do: wonderful museums, great places to eat, cathedrals, strolling, people watching, gardens to look at, left bank booksellers, the Holocost Memorial......I could go on and on. Normandy was in our plans for Aug/Sept., but a mix-up with airline tickets resulted in our not getting there.....but next time.

For me, your 5 days isn't excessive for Paris itself, and Normandy may use 2 days, or even three. If you take the train and rent a car when you get there, you can see the museum the afternoon you arrive and schedule a beaches only trip for the following day and make the return to Paris more easily than if you do the beaches and museum in the same day.

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We like to do the same things you do! The more I learn about Paris, I can see that we will have ample sights to see & enjoy.

This link is for one of our very favorite finds in Paris: Musée Jacquemart-André

It's a private residence (and not soooo grand that you couldn't possibly imagine real people living in it), and not only is the home beautiful, but the art is wonderful. The headphones (in English) are included in the entrance fee, so don't forget them. This couple some years spent more on art than the Louve, and there were times they told their agents to "Let the Louve have that one."

It's not on the main, must-see list for Paris, like the Louve/Notre Dame/etc., but we found it to be wonderful and really meaningful.

Another little visited site is just behind Notre Dame, out on the point: The Holocaust Memorial: http://francerevisited.com/2014/03/...-the-shoah-memorial-and-the-holocaust-center/ It takes only a minute or two to walk to the point after leaving Notre Dame, then you go down the stairs you see, and there is a small area at the bottom of the stairs-----very poignant, very moving.

Mont St Michel

We spent 10 days in France a year ago, starting in Giverney (well worth it) then on to the area around the Normandy Beaches. Took a day trip to Mt. St Michel which we had been to many years ago. One word of caution: anyone with mobility issues will not really enjoy this visit. My husband is mobile but very unsteady and we basically had lunch at one of the lower restaurants and that was as far as he could go. The street is cobblestone so the wheel chair we had for him was useless. Other family members were able to hike up to the top so we just went back to the car park to wait for them. Fortunately we had been there in healthier times so it wasn't a huge disappointment for us. It was a lovely day so the views were spectacular. We loved the whole trip.

Having been to both Paris a number of times and London at least 20, I'd opt for London every time. I always found something new to see or do every trip. I would spend the "extra time" in London and perhaps take a day trip to Cambridge or Oxford. Nothing wrong with Paris but I find the history and relations between the USA and Great Britain more relevant.

Both University Cities are an hour train ride from London and well worth the visit. A friend and I just returned from a week in London and we took a day trip to Cambridge and the American WWII Cemetery/Memorial outside of town. She went punting on the Cam whilst I visited a Pub that had many many memorabilia of various Air Forces from WWII to the present day. We visited many of the Colleges associated with Cambridge University and heard about the historical figures like Newton and John Harvard and others who were there during their University years.

Either city is a fabulous place but London gets my vote.

Cheers

BTW, I always stay at the Hilton at Terminal 3 if I have an early flight from that Terminal. As a Hilton Gold, I usually get a upgrade and Executive Lounge Access.