Our Guide: England And Paris, France With Kids

The Eiffel Tower twinkles only at certain times of night, make sure you look up when before you go!

The Gist: 

• Flights: Flew into London Heathrow and out of Charles Du Galle Paris to come home. Delta and Air France (through Delta). GSO - ATL - London Heathrow. CDG - ATL - GSO.

• Schedule: 3 nights London, 4 nights Taunton, England with family, 4 nights Paris

• Where we stayed: Hyatt Place London East (2 adjoining rooms on points), The Shed, Hotel L’Echiquier Opera Paris (King “suite”). 

• Highlights: food in London, WB Studios Tour, Six, the English countryside with family, Tea, Catered Dinner, Disneyland Paris, Eiffel Tower, Saint Chappelle

• How we got around: Love the Underground in England, hired car and also train to and from London to Taunton. Eurostar to Paris. We walked or ubered in Paris but took train to and from Disneyland. We find the signage for the Metro (subway) in Paris confusing and not a whole lot faster than Uber  (where in London cars take a long time by comparison) and using the Metro we find to not be as easy, you have to purchase separate tickets for Metro versus using touch/credit card or apple pay for underground.

• What we would do differently: maybe stay a little closer into town in London (although I would stay where we stayed again), checked more bags on the way home from Paris due to airport special rules regarding carry ons. 

Overview and flight RDU to LHR

This summer we got to travel as a family to England and to Paris. While this is not the first time we have traveled with the kids to England, there were still many firsts on this trip. It was the first time that they had been to Paris, been to a country where they did not speak the same language, and the first time we had done a multi-city trip with them overseas. 

Jeff has family in England, he has an aunt and uncle as well as cousins and their families there. Visiting them has been impetus behind past trips and was the foundation of this trip. For this reason, the time that we traveled was chosen for us as their schools don’t get out until the end of July and our schools start back in August, so the end of July it was! We planned to visit with Jeff’s family in the countryside, about 3 hours drive (no, we did not drive, I’ll get to that) or 2 hours train ride west of London in the Somerset area outside of a town called Taunton. And we added 3 nights at the front of the trip in London and 4 nights at the end of the trip in Paris. 

This is a really nice time weather wise to visit England, it was the first time we did not ever have rain in England, and we had great weather in Paris also, it is hotter there this time of year, but not hot hot to us North Carolinians. This is also common knowledge and it means extra crowds. We actually only felt this in really popular areas within London.

Going over, we flew Delta, Greensboro, NC to Atlanta and then Atlanta to London Heathrow. The flights going east are typically red eye and we left out of Atlanta around 10:00 p.m. I prefer a little earlier departure time as they then offer dinner service on the plane so it is hard to get settled to attempt to sleep or rest and we eat dinner before we get on the plane. But this actually worked quite well as when we landed at 11:00ish, our bodies it did not feel like it was the middle of the night, just that we had had a terrible nights sleep! I will tell you that we used Delta points to upgrade to Comfort Plus and this is the most I have slept on an international flight ever. I am a head bobber and the extra recline made all the difference for me. Jeff is 6’3” and he really appreciated the extra legroom. 

Day One -arrival in London + Double Decker Bus Tour:

We were met with a 4-5 hour line for border security when we deplaned in London Heathrow due to a security issue in baggage claim. Fortunately after about an hour wait we were told if we had no checked luggage that we could be transferred to another terminal for border security and we all carried on on the way over so we were able to then leave easily. My understanding is that it usually only takes about 45 minutes give or take. 

From London Heathrow we took the underground to our hotel with one transfer. Just a heads up that we had a woman stop us as if she worked for the airport and was trying to be helpful and she asked us if we knew what train we needed to take. It took a minute but we realized that she was actually just trying to sell us tickets to the train through her company, which would have been more expensive. The Underground is very affordable and easy to use in our opinion once you get your bearings. Everyone in your family will need their own credit card (teens can use parents card) or phone with apple pay to tap in with (kids under 11 can travel free with a paying adult) for what is what we think the easiest way to do it. 

We stayed at the Hyatt Place London City East, it took as about an hour to get here from the airport including any transfer and walking time. We booked two king deluxe rooms using points that we transferred to Hyatt from our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card and asked for them to be adjoining, which they honored. It is not easy to find rooms in London that can accommodate a family of four (but they do exist!) and I could have hunted for one, I’m really glad we ended up with the two rooms as having two bathrooms made getting ready for a sight seeing trip really easy.

Check in was not until 3:00 but they were able to accommodate and early check in for us, if not we were going to ask to leave our luggage there and find lunch. We headed out for lunch after dropping our things off and quickly learned that pubs close kitchens down by around 2:00 so the place I had spied for us was not serving lunch nor was the next place we tried. This pub pointed out a pizza place across the way and said we could bring it back to their pub so that was what we did. Did I think we were going to eat pizza ever in England or on this trip? No. Was it the best pizza I had ever had? Absolutely not. But at that point we really needed to eat as the hot pocket Delta fed us on the plane for breakfast was really wearing off. We had great beer and sat on the roof of the pub and it is one of the kids favorite memories from the trip. 

I firmly believe and have learned that you need to stay up all day the day you get when flying overseas west to east to help you start addressing jet lag. If you go to bed too early or take a nap, you won’t have the sleep drive to make it through the night and you will be up in the middle of the night as if you had just taken a nap at dinner time at home….ask me how I know. I also believe being outside in the sunlight is essential for your body to start computing the sun’s place in the sky. But at the same time, you are all so tired and snappy and cranky, so you don’t need vigorous activity or anything you really need to pay attention to. So we opted for a double decker bus tour in London to spend the rest of our afternoon/evening. We could be outside, see sights, but not have to make our kids walk a whole lot thus risking an egregious amount of whining. This was a good choice of activity but with issues with Big Bus Tours that I won’t get into here, I will just say that we would recommend not using that company, there are dozens to choose from. We got to see the London Tower, Parliment Building (Big Ben), The London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace among others. 

Buckingham Palace

If you climb on the fence of Buckingham Palace the guard will yell at you…ask how we know…

After our tour we went back to the room to change and then went to dinner for our 7:30 dinner reservations at The Standard on Bricklane. At home we eat dinner pretty early, but the goal here is to keep everyone up, so a later dinner reservation helped keep everyone going. Evie started to fall asleep at the table and we gave her one of our phones to play a game on and that did the trick for getting her over the hump. We enjoyed a nice long dinner of appetizers and entrees and drew it out. We walked around afterward and found chai teas and dessert. Bricklane is beautiful at night, lit up with Bistro lights between the buildings and everyone out and about, just lovely. 

Everyone made it up until 11:00 and we were all grateful for bed!

Day Two - London: Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, best fish and Chips, Vaudeville theater to see Six

We all stayed asleep through the night, that was the goal, and we set alarms for later morning so we could start getting on the time, Jeff and I woke at 9:30 and we woke the girls up at 10:00…never in my life have I been able to say, that, sleeping in at home in the summer for my kids is 7:30ish. 

We grabbed coffees and variety of croissants from a nearby coffee shop to have in the room for a light breakfast so we could be ready to eat by lunch time…again…workign on getting on the new time. And then we headed out for the day. We were going to see a show, Six, at the Vaudeville theater at 4:00, so we went ahead and dressed in what we wanted to wear to the show. Casual dresses for me and the girls and a nicer collared golf shirt and nice casual pants. We took the tube to Embankment station and checked out the view from Golden Jubilee Bridges. You can get a great view of the London Eye and Parliament building from here. 

Trafalgar Square was our next stop, which is fun to see when it is not super crowded with an event like it was on this day. There was a festival so it was hard to take in the square as a whole. We still got pictures next to one of the cool Lion statues. We continued on from here towards Picadilly Circus but started to get hungry and stopped at a pub for lunch called The Coach House. This was hands down the best fish and chips we have ever had in England on any trip and the atmosphere was great and the beer was traditional British style, luke warm and not very fizzy. 

We kept on to Picadilly Circus (think a little like Time’s Square in New York) and ran right into a Trans Rights march with over 100,000 people marching. We watched for a while and it was amazing AND it was super crowded, so difficult for the girls to take in what Picadilly was really like. We stopped at a quintessential tourist trap souvenir shop for key chains for Evie and her friends, and a Boots so Lola could check out local pharmacy brands and items. Everyone had fun shopping. Then it was time to check in for our show. 

The Vaudeville theater was beautiful and we loved that you could get a discount on individual Hagan Daaz ice creams with the purchase of a bubbly rose - we will take two please! Something to note about the theaters in London is that some seats are much smaller than others in these old theaters. With Jeff being 6’ 3” and an all around big guy, I researched which seats would have more leg room etc. For the Vaudeville it was the stalls (we had seats E 5-8) and these were outstanding seats for the show. Six was amazing, we all loved it,  and I would watch it again in a heartbeat! It was also great that it was only 1.5 hours. 

Vaudeville Theater London

Six was outstanding, reserve seats in the “stalls” for more roomy seating to accommodate larger and taller bodies.

Then we went to Harrods via underground. The outside of Harrods was under construction so unfortunately our kids didn’t get to see it’s neat outside. We did go to the toy department and had a lot of fun seeing the cool displays and toys. 

From here it was time for dinner, we stumbled upon a really wonderful Lebanese restaurant called Beruit (Beruit Knightsbridge). We sat outside and had a really fantastic meal that all four of us enjoyed. From here we did one of my favorite things to do in London and that is to walk around at night and see the beautiful lit up streets. The Knightsbridge and Sloane areas are beautiful and so we walked from here to Sloane Square and caught the underground the rest of the way back. 

Day Three: London & Warner Brothers Studio Tour

We woke up to a 9:00 alarm and woke the kids at 9:30. Today we did the breakfast buffet at the hotel, which was pretty good. Our big plan for the day was to go to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, which is all Harry Potter original sets, props and costumes. You have to go out of town for this and we will write a more detailed post but a big lesson learned was that you want to make sure to get on a DIRECT train from Euston Station to Watford Junction (about 45 minutes) AND if we had to do it again, we would have planned time in to grab lunch at Watford Junction at O’Neals next to the Watford Junction station. I think this would have made things feel a little more easeful and we would not have had to rely on the fine but not great food offerings at the WB Studios. Once you arrive at Watford Junction, you take a double decker Harry Potter bus to the studios (about 15 minute ride but you have to wait for the bus). You can read more about getting there here. 

In short, this was an amazing experience, we all loved it, even I did and I’m not really a Harry Potter fan. You need to buy tickets for this in advance, I would say as soon as you know you want to go and have potential dates figured out. We spent almost 4 hours there, I would budget for at least that puls travel to and from. A detailed write up about this is coming. 

This night we went right back to where we ate the first night and did takeout from The Standard and ate in our rooms and packed as we were headed out the next day. 

WB Studios Tour London

I’m not even a Harry Potter fan and I found this experience to be incredible. Leave at least 3 hours for walking through alone.

Days Four through Eight - London to Taunton/Somerset area (countryside) and stayed

We woke up early the next morning and took the Elizabeth Line back to Heathrow to meet up with Jeff’s mom. From here we hired a car service to drive us to Taunton area to meet up with family. The car service was great for accommodating everyone’s mobility and also all of our luggage. The train from London to Taunton seemingly would have been faster (2 hours versus 3.5 hours drive with traffic) but would have also required underground transfer to train as we will later find out, the trains can easily be delayed. The car service worked well, we used UK Airport Taxi for an 8 person van based on reviews and we would use them again. 

We spent four days in the countryside with Jeff’s family and we rented this house. At this point it was a much needed reprieve from the hustle and bustle, sights and sounds of the city. I know some families can go hard in the city for a number of days, but this trip confirmed that that was not us, we enjoyed our time in London and we left at the right time for us, 3 nights was perfect. 

The house that we stayed in was incredible. We booked it because there was so much to do for the kids on property (heated indoor pool, hot tub, trampoline, playset, movie room) and there are other smaller rentals on the same property, which helped in our case as we could not all fit into the one big one and Jeff’s cousin wanted to bring his dog who loves to snatch things off tables so they thought shorter visits from the dog might be better with all the opportunities for snatching. 

Jeff’s family was able to do the driving, which we appreciated. We do not try to drive in England and not only due to the whole opposite side of the road and steering wheel on the opposite side of the car situation but also due to the incredibly narrow roads in the countryside. I’m talking roads that two cars going the opposite direction (and people on bikes) are meant to be able to both navigate and yet often you may be on what appears to be a one lane road with either tall bushes or stone walls on both sides with almost no buffer.

No thank you. 

Because we had Jeff’s family we were easily able to do things like get groceries, visit Sheppy’s cidery (this area is known for its apples and cider) where I had the best raspberry cider, and have tea! I think my favorite thing we did other than just hang out together at the house was hire a caterer to come in on our last night and create a wonderful meal for us. They did make your own pizza’s with the kids and then a three course meal for us that included options for each course that we were involved in selecting. They decorated the table and they did all the clean up. This was not inexpensive and yet it was not that much more per person than it would have cost for us to eat a nice meal out but being at home allowed us to more easily fellowship as a family. We bought some incredible wine for this meal with the help of a sommelier at a wine shop in Taunton (we walked here after having tea).

Taunton, England

Proper tea incudes finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, beautiful pastries…and of course, tea. My favorite? The scones with clotted cream and jam all. day. long.

Day Eight - Travel from Taunton to Paris

We took the train from Tuanton Station to Paddington Station then underground from Paddignton to St. Pancras and then over to St. Pancras train station (easy walk underground, well signed) to catch the Eurostar to Paris. I had researched this trip and asked on Tripadvisor forums and was encouraged to allow time between trains for if something went wrong yet understood the trip from Taunton to Paddington to be pretty reliable from those who took that train regularly. Well on this day it was way late. We had bought our tickets from Trainline per the advice of our cousin and I’m glad we did as Trainline sent updates regularly. The other thing I’m really glad we did was pack sandwiches and chips to take with us as our window for eating lunch at St. Pancras prior to check in for our Eurostar was closing. We ate lunch on the train and I internally stressed about what I could not control. We hustled when we got off the train and made it in line in time for check in for the Eurostar.

At the time of our travel, Eurostar advised arriving 75 minutes prior to your train departure (you will see this on your ticket when you purchase it). You do go through security similar to airport security, and if you are crossing country borders, you also go through border control. While all of this is a thing you have to do, we thought it went very smoothly. There are a couple of shops on the other side of security (you can get croissant, coffee, beer, last minute souvenir and snacks) but not a lot of options and there are a lot of people waiting for their trains so it is crowded. If you have the time, St. Pancras station is supposed to be nice and you can find more food and beverage before security (I have been told that the world's longest champagne bar can be found here). 

We made it in enough time to grab croissants/snacks, sodas for the girls and beers for Jeff and I for the train. Once we were settled on the Eurostar, we relaxed for the easy, 2 hour trip to Paris. 

In Paris we stayed at the Hotel L’Echiquier Opera Paris in a King Deluxe Suite. This was essentially two hotel rooms that were turned into a suite with a large casing between the rooms you could close off with a pocket door with a king bed and good sized pull out couch that was all made up for the girls already on our arrival. Again, the two bathrooms came in clutch when it came to getting us all out the door to see the sights. We were able to walk here from Gare due Nord, which is the train station that the Eurostar arrives at from London.

This hotel was a great stay and we would stay here again. We don’t like to stay really close to the big sights as our hope is that we will find less touristy shops and restaurants around us. And yet we don’t like to stay so far out that we have to spend so much time traveling in. This hotel was about a 24 minute walk to the Louvre, and from the Louvre we had an easy walk to Saint Chappelle and Notre Dame. Anywhere else we wanted to go we needed to take transportation and that suited us just fine. 

After we checked into our hotel we got some recommendations for dinner and decided to eat at Brasserie Rosie Lou and snagged a last minute 8:00-ish reservation. It had a very cute atmosphere and service was good although it felt a little rushed. Our meal experience here was fine, we would not go back, and we are beginning to wonder if we just make bad restaurant choices or if it is us and that we just don’t love french cuisine. 

Day Nine - Paris, Louvre and sightseeing (Sainte Chapelle, Seine, Notre Dame)

Months before this trip we booked a private tour of the Louvre with Mue’s Clues. It was a scavenger hunt that was geared towards kids. We thought for not only our girls but also for Jeff (not huge museum fans) and I that this would be a neat way to experience the Louvre. While we thought the scavenger aspect of this tour was weak, three out of the four of us thought this tour was great. 2-ish hours with selected specific pieces to view and tell us about, it was informative and interesting and for us, the perfect amount of time. Not only did we find huge value in this aspect of the tour but we also loved not having to wait in line to get into the Louvre, something we had heard from others took hours. Because it was a private tour booked through Mue’s Clues, we walked right into the Louvre through a separate entrance AND during the tour we were taken by an obscure bathroom that did not have a line. We also really enjoyed learning about the history of the building of the Louvre itself, and of course, it was neat to see the Mona Lisa and our guide explained to us how to navigate that crowd well also. We would recommend this tour, if you can swing the money, we believe this is a good place to spend it. 

Louvre in Paris, France

We did a private tour that catered to kids with Muse Clues. It cost a lot of money but was well worth it in our opinion for a first time Louvre visit.

Jeff’s and my favorite way to eat lunch in Paris is a sandwich from a boulangerie (ham and butter for me!) with a bottle of wine in a park. So from here we grabbed sandwiches from the Eric Kayser stand near the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. They put olives in the bread of their sandwiches and it wasn’t the typical baguette we expect from a french sandwich, and we were not a fan of either, so while convenient, we would not grab sandwiches from here again. We did however love sitting in the park near there and dog watching with a view of the Eiffel Tower!

From here we walked along the Seine with ice cream cones to Sainte-Chapelle. This is on the same island in the Seine as Notre Dame. We did buy tickets in advance to go inside for a 2:30 time slot, 19 euros each for Jeff and I, the girls were free. There was still some waiting once we got to Sainte Chapelle, but not bad. There is not a lot to see at Sainte Chapelle but what you do see in my opinion is astonishing. It is just so beautiful and unique. The fact that it did not take us long to enjoy was a good thing as my crew was starting to fade and hit their limit on looking at old stuff. So we cruised by Notre Dame and then called an uber to head back. 

Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France

The stained glass was breathtaking. This is a quick visit, buy tickets ahead of time for a beautiful and less crowded visit to a chapel.

A note on Notre Dame. You can a reservation to go inside Notre Dame, the website explains when they release them. We did attempt to get tickets, it was remarkable how we could not get them as there are 10,000-15,000 slots released daily. Reservations are released a few hours before entry. Perhaps a less busy time of year would mean you can snag a reservation. Another note - hang onto your stuff here even if you are only viewing from the outside, it is a very crowded and common pick pocket area. 

After resting in the hotel room for a bit, we walked to dinner and ate at Zazza just a couple blocks from where we were staying. This is Italian food and it was fantastic! All of us loved our meal and we wanted to go back again but they were closed our last night. We particularly loved their focaccia starter and the Zazza spritz! The kids tried Organia here for the first time and loved the drink and the cute glass bottles they came in. 

Day Ten: Disneyland Paris

I will do a separate write up about this but for here I will say that we LOVED Disneyland Paris. There are two parks there right next to one another and their version of Disney Springs right outside the parks. We only did their Disneyland Park (the one with the castle) and I am afraid it may have ruined Magic Kingdom for us. The park was easy, we did not need a fast pass thingy for the day even though we were there at peak time, and it is easy to navigate. We liked the rides even more, there were ones we don’t have at our parks in the States, but we also felt like the Disneyland Paris versions of rides we have in Florida were better. Quick service meals were better and….there is a champagne cart. The day was truly enjoyable and it is a pretty easy train ride from Paris to and from. We will go back here again one day for sure. 

On this night we did take out in our rooms. It was Sunday and we actually hoped to go to Zazza again but they were closed (even though Google maps said they were open) so we (and by we I mean Jeff) ended up picking up food from a Turkish spot near Porte Saint-Martin called L’Amour de Kebab. The food here was amazing. The chicken, rice, bread, salad, chips, all of it, SO GOOD!

Disneyland Paris

It might be my favorite castle for it’s asthetic, the Minecraft trees, and most of all, the dragon underneath.

Day Eleven: Eiffel Tower

This was another day that we really loved in Paris, that morning we Ubered to the Eiffel Tower. We bought tickets in advance for an 11:00 entry (2 weeks in advance)  to walk up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. We also tried the week before when tickets were released again to get tickets for Evie and Jeff to the top (I was sure as heck not going up that high) and we just couldn’t get them. I will do a write up about this also, just know that getting tickets is a thing and we highly recommend buying them in advance. We also had no issues with making the climb. We stopped at the first floor on the way up and down (we would also recommend this) but wouldn’t have to to make it. It is work on the legs, but doable for able bodied individuals and we saw kids much younger than ours doing it. I also don’t like heights and I was able to manage if I directed my gaze appropriately. 

The first floor of the Eiffel Tower is the really enjoyable floor in our opinion. It is larger, still has great views, and has quick service coffee and gelato and champagne and other sit down restaurants. Around the quick service area there is seating and it is beautifully decorated. On our way up we stopped for coffees and lemonades and sat and took in the sights and the proceeded to the second floor. And on our way back down, we stopped and had champagne and gelatos. The second floor views are also very cool and not to be missed, it is just more about the view up there and less of a vibe. 

We took the stairs back down. Just to give you an idea on timing, it took us under 15 minutes total to go up to the second floor and about 20 min to come down. Overall we spent from 11:00-1:00ish at the Eiffel tower with a lot of luxuriating.

From here we walked over to Rue Cler neighborhood to find sandwiches and wine and fruit for a picnic. We keep a travel folding blanket on us for just such an occasion. We have learned that on Mondays many shops and restaurants close in Paris and this was what we ran into looking for lunch. If you have the flexibility, I would not plan to be in a Paris on a Monday if you are going for less than a week. 

We took our sandwiches to the Champs de Mars, which is the park below the Eiffel Tower, and had a wonderful picnic and people and dog watched. You can drink alcohol anywhere in Paris, there was even someone walking around selling bottles of wine in the park. So if you like wine and champagne, bring a bottle…or two…and keep some plastic cups in your bag alone with that picnic blanket. There are public bathrooms at the Champs de Mars, you may wait a while for them. 

After we stopped at the the Pharmacie. Pharmacie’s in Paris are a skin care lovers Meca. You can find incredible products at inexpensive prices. And then we Ubered home, rested, and packed to leave the next day. 

That night we ate at Francette but we first had our Uber drop us off at Jardins du Trocadero to take some pictures. It’s just a great view of the Eiffel Tower…and everyone knows it. There are also a lot of people here, hang onto your stuff! Francette is a restaurant on a barge out in front of the Eiffel Tower. They have two seatings, in the summer you want the later seating if you want to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle. The view was lovely and the food was ok. Going back again I would look into other Eiffel tower view options for restaurants if that was important to me. 

Eiffel Tower Paris, France

Best thing we did to make the Eiffel Tower a great experience for the kids (and us!) was to slow it down, and stop at the first level for a treat on the way up and on the way down.

Day Twelve: Paris to ATL to GSO 

We flew Air France out of Charles du Galle. We ubered to the airport early morning and left plenty of time, and thank goodness because this airport was challenging to say the least. There was a weight limit for our carry ons that we were not told about until we were in line for security so we then had to go back to ticketing to check our carry ons (it is determined by some group math based on length and height and weight of our bags collectively  and we were told that we could keep three bags but had to check one) then back in line again. In security we were told we had to put our toiletries in THEIR plastic bag but we did not know this until we were putting our things on the conveyer belt, so that was a thing. Not all of our toiletries fit in their plastic bag so we had to pass from one to another. If I had to do it again I might consider just checking everything on the way home to not deal with all of this. At least certainly make sure to check anything remotely heavy (like toiletries) to cut down on weight and not deal with the particulars. 

We got to the airport about 3 hours early and I’m glad we did, CDG is a cluster, there is no nice way to say it. 

Once you are through security there are not a lot of eating options at the terminal we were in and I understand this to be the case for the airport as a whole. We were able to get coffees and breakfast, but not a lot of choices. This surprised me honestly for a country that seemingly makes the most mundane enjoyable. We had plane delays and they had to bus us to our planes and it is just a lot. Gerd your loins for this travel back! We paid $50 a seat to upgrade to Air Frances economy seating with more leg room, which is a must for Jeff, but that was where the comfort ended. I thought the seats were hard and mine did not recline at all (but the rest of my families did). Jeffs in flight entertainment screen did not work, we were a little underwhelmed with our first Air France experience but we will still likely fly again and hope for a better experience. The food was good and that was nice.  

In Summary:

We loved this trip. The pace was nice and there was little that we would change. If you were only wanting to do London and Paris, you could do it in a week. Now that is one family’s opinion who doesn’t feel the need to see everything that a place has to offer. I have definitely heard people say they could spend a week in London alone, that is too much city at one time for us but it works for others! The great part about traveling is that you learn a lot about what is unique about you and your family!