Plan my London & Paris trip

[Deleted]

I will have 2.5 days in both Paris & London in March, not including travel time to & from each place. We have 3 nights in each city. 

I will be travelling with DH, my parents & my 20-month old (i guess 22 months in March).

Help me plan what to do with the limited amount of time in each city (if it were up to me, we would be in each city 4-5 days but the trip is paid for by DH's work so little to no flexibility).

In Paris, we are staying at the Westin Paris Vendome.

In London, the Intercontinental Park Lane.

[alleinesein]

London Zoo
Kensington Gardens- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground. It has the pirate ship from Peter Pan for kids to play on.
Borough Market boroughmarket.org.uk/

[lolo]

The natural history museum in London is also really cool for kids

[Deleted]

I've never actually been here, but every time I walk by it's super busy.


www.goldenhinde.com/ 

The Harry Potter Studio tours is also amazing. It's an hour north of London, but really easy to get to. I'm not an HP fan and I was really impressed. 

[frlcb]

Here is what I always tell people to do in London with kids - choose what can work in your time frame Also Borough Market is fabulous!

The Science Museum in South Kensington is awesome - in the basement they have a whole section with hands on stuff for kids 5 and under. You could also do the princess diana memorial playground and kew gardens, and if you do that you could do theKew Bridge Steam Museum. In Wimbledon there is a great kids theatre called Polka Theatre that has plays for kids of all ages. There is also one in Kilburn called Tricycle Theatre that has childrens programming. There is another playground in Regents Park called Hanover Gate that is supposed to be good and one called Paddington Street Gardens Playground. Battersea Park has a children's zoo as well. Hummingbird Bakery in Chelsea and in South Kensington has great cupcakes! On weekends the Tate Modern has family events. And Coram's Field, in Central London, would be good. Or a boat ride down the Thames.

The London Eye is fine, but it takes like 30 minutes to go around and you wait in line and he may get bored!

[anna7602]

I am going to ponder small kid indoor activities in Paris since everyone has focused on London. Most of the stuff I did with DD there when we went for the first time at 15 months was outdoors because it was summer. If the weather cooperates for you, you could take your LO to the Jardin de Luxembourg or the Champ de Mars to play and ride the carrousel and even check out the Guignol- the marionette theater. At 15 months, DD was ale to sit through about 1/2 of a Guignol show. I also really love the Tuileries gardens and there's a great playground there.

You could go to the big underground Aquarium or the Musee en Herbe (a kids' hands on museum) or the science museum at Parc de la Vilette if you're really looking for more specifically kid-centric stuff, but I found that I could take DD around to the things I really wanted to see like the Musee D'Orsay and it was pretty interesting for her, too. There's a little train you can ride around Montmartre that thrilled DD even up to the age of 5. The locks at the Canal St. Martin are also fun for kids to watch.

Going out for crepes is another Paris must, especially with a child.

[caddywompus]

We went to Paris when my nephew was about the same age. My sister had an umbrella stroller for him, and we hoofed it all over town. He was fine with everything we did. He loved going upo the Eiffel tower, eating crepes, running around the park behind Notre Dame, and even enjoyed the Louvre for awhile...then he started getting antsy. I know there are boat rides/dinner cruises down the river, too.

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2014 21:20:42 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I am going to ponder small kid indoor activities in Paris since everyone has focused on London. Most of the stuff I did with DD there when we went for the first time at 15 months was outdoors because it was summer. If the weather cooperates for you, you could take your LO to the Jardin de Luxembourg or the Champ de Mars to play and ride the carrousel and even check out the Guignol- the marionette theater. At 15 months, DD was ale to sit through about 1/2 of a Guignol show. I also really love the Tuileries gardens and there's a great playground there.

You could go to the big underground Aquarium or the Musee en Herbe (a kids' hands on museum) or the science museum at Parc de la Vilette if you're really looking for more specifically kid-centric stuff, but I found that I could take DD around to the things I really wanted to see like the Musee D'Orsay and it was pretty interesting for her, too. There's a little train you can ride around Montmartre that thrilled DD even up to the age of 5. The locks at the Canal St. Martin are also fun for kids to watch.

Going out for crepes is another Paris must, especially with a child.

I love your blog.

Thanks for the tips!

I should have specified that I'm not necessarily looking for "kid-centric" Things to do - just things that are kid friendly.

My parents have never been to either city (and rarely travel outside of Canada) so we will have to the Eiffel Tower - but how kid accessible  is it? I think the Musee D'Orsay is another good choice. 

I don't think we will do the Louvre as neither my parents nor DH are big fans of museums.

Any particular restaurants/food recs for the crepes?

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2014 20:09:00 GMT -5 jamaicam said:

London - I'd pick one museum (my 21 month old nephew loves the science museum), one historical site (Westminster Abbey, Tower of London etc), one outside kid focused activity (the Diana garden or the Zoo) and then one 'tour' (probably a boat tour but maybe a bus one). I think that would give you a good oversight in the tie. You have available.

I think we should do Westminister Abby and maybe the Diana garden or something like that, plus a tour. Like I mentioned in another post, I don't really care to do kid-centric things, just things my parents and DH would enjoy that are kid-friendly.

I think we are close to Buckingham Palace at our hotel, so we will do that. We are also close to some parks.

[anna7602]

The Eiffel Tower is pretty impressive to a small child. While we were living in Paris, we had lots of small visitors and they were all in awe of it. You can go whole hog and go up the Eiffel Tower ( I would recommend getting tickets in advance so you're not standing in line forever), but note that it will be windy up there. How your kid does depends on his/her attention span. Once you're up there, it is hard to get back down quickly. With most of our visitors, we just walked around under the tower and admired it from the champ de mars esplanade or from across the way at Trocadero (the picture in my avatar was taken at Trocadero).

For crepes, you could theoretically hit any crepe stand in the city, but I really like the creperies on the Rue Du Montparnasse (not to be confused with Boulevard du Montparnasse). They're nice, sit-down places with a bunch of options and are generally family friendly. My favorite one on that street is probably Creperie de Quimper, both because of the service and the selection (the salty ones are all excellent and the Mars Apollo makes for a decadent dessert with chocolate, caramel and vanilla ice cream). But really, most of the ones on that street are great places to eat.

[mbcdefg]

We went to London in 2010. I recently sent my itinerary to a friend who traveled there this summer, so here you go:

Day 1: arrival at Heathrow, took Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station and walked to hotel on Edgware Road. Checked in, then walked to the visitors’ center to get the London Pass ... we passed through Picadilly Circus and Oxford Street. Poked around in a Boots pharmacy store (good lip balm and lotions). Meat pies for dinner at King’s Head Pub on 10 Stafford Street.

Day 2: all-day bus tour to Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. Neat, but skip this if you are short on time.

Day 3: took the Tube to Westminster; got off the subway directly under Big Ben; walked around the outside of the Palace of Westminster (Parliament) taking photos; self-toured Westminster Abbey for a couple hours (fee not included in London Pass). Also saw the Churchill War Rooms Museum nearby (MH really loved it, I was "meh"). Walked to Kensington Palace to look around the park and then we had tea at The Orangery (about £20 per person if you present the London Pass). Then we took the Tube to the St. John’s Wood station (I think?) and walked up a hill toward Abbey Road for a photo crossing the street (no stoplight, so be REALLY careful ... and there didn't appear to be much else around there so if you're short on time and don't particularly care about The Beatles then I'd skip this). MH walked to Seashell near our hotel for fish & chips takeout dinner.

Day 4: took the Tube to the Tower of London for the guided tour (admission included in the London Pass); very entertaining, budget at least 2‐3 hours for this; had lunch at Wagamama’s nearby (Asian chain restaurant); took photos in front of Tower Bridge. Then we took the Tube to Saint Paul’s Cathedral to look around the church and then we climbed to the top for great scenic views of the city (tight,
winding staircase; we did this in lieu of the London Eye); budget about an hour and a half for this.

Then we took the guided boat tour (included in London Pass) up the river and got off in Greenwich; we walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory (Prime Meridian is located here) and then had beer and prawns at Meantime Pub at the bottom of the hill. We missed the last free ferry since it was late at night, so we got on a commuter clipper to take us back into London (we had to pay a small amount but we received a discount with the London Pass).

Day 5: checked out of the hotel, walked to Paddington Station, and took the Heathrow Express back to Heathrow Airport to fly to Dublin.

[Deleted]

I'm going to suggest the on-off double decker bus pass since it is your first time. You can see a lot of sights and get on and off as needed for London

For Paris, I'm going to suggest a rive boat cruise of Seine

[frlcb]

Jan 8, 2014 10:20:44 GMT -5 @lauriergirl28 said:

Jan 7, 2014 21:20:42 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I am going to ponder small kid indoor activities in Paris since everyone has focused on London. Most of the stuff I did with DD there when we went for the first time at 15 months was outdoors because it was summer. If the weather cooperates for you, you could take your LO to the Jardin de Luxembourg or the Champ de Mars to play and ride the carrousel and even check out the Guignol- the marionette theater. At 15 months, DD was ale to sit through about 1/2 of a Guignol show. I also really love the Tuileries gardens and there's a great playground there.

You could go to the big underground Aquarium or the Musee en Herbe (a kids' hands on museum) or the science museum at Parc de la Vilette if you're really looking for more specifically kid-centric stuff, but I found that I could take DD around to the things I really wanted to see like the Musee D'Orsay and it was pretty interesting for her, too. There's a little train you can ride around Montmartre that thrilled DD even up to the age of 5. The locks at the Canal St. Martin are also fun for kids to watch.

Going out for crepes is another Paris must, especially with a child.

I love your blog.

Thanks for the tips!

I should have specified that I'm not necessarily looking for "kid-centric" Things to do - just things that are kid friendly.

My parents have never been to either city (and rarely travel outside of Canada) so we will have to the Eiffel Tower - but how kid accessible  is it? I think the Musee D'Orsay is another good choice. 

I don't think we will do the Louvre as neither my parents nor DH are big fans of museums.

Any particular restaurants/food recs for the crepes?

Borough Market, Portabello Rd Market, and I would do the V&A or the Science Museum. The Tate is good too.