XP: @ Help me plan our trip to London/Paris!

[lynn07]

We booked our flights to London! I was originally planning on Christmas, but ended up booking for late May because we weren't sure of our extended family plans. The trip is 11 days (not including flights). We are flying in and out of London. I was hoping to fly in to London and out of Paris, but the cost difference was way more than I was willing to do. After my other post about it, we settled on just London and Paris, with a day trip or two out of the cities. So now I have a million questions. It'll be DH and I with our 13, 11, and 7 year olds.

Would Airbnb/Vrbo be the way to go for both cities? Any good Aparthotels? Or are there any reasonably priced hotels where it won't cost a crazy amount to do connecting rooms?

Day trips - after one posters suggestion, we were thinking day trip (or maybe 1 night?) to Belgium. Trying to decide which town would be the best. Brussels, Ghent, Bruges? Also planning to do a day in Versailles from Paris. Is there a good day trip out of London? I hear the Cotswolds are awesome, but is that a day trip? Or Brighton?

Would you try taking the train from London to Paris the day you fly in (flight is supposed to get in at 11am) so that the first half of our trip can be Paris and then second half will be London for easier travel when coming home, or would that be too much? Are there any special holidays end of May/beginning of June I need to know about?

The tube/metro systems are overwhelming to me for some reason. Should I get/fill Oyster cards ahead of time? What's the best way to do the Paris train system? mrsukyankee - I feel like you'll have good tips for this!

Thank you for any guidance you can give! At first I was so excited to book, but now I'm overwhelmed looking at the options, lol

[tvlmm]

This is where we stayed in Paris a few years ago: www.adagio-city.com/gb/hotel-6790-aparthotel-adagio-paris-centre-tour-eiffel/index.shtml

I have a very thorough trip report from when we went. PM me with your email and I'll send it to you, if you want.