Our Trip to England and France
Traveling with my son has always been a priority for me. We’ve taken some amazing trips over the years and I wanted this one to the BEST YET. For his graduation gift, I planned a two week trip to England and France. I originally reached out to a travel agent for help, but once she heard my budget ($10,000) I got a nice “break-up” email saying it wasn’t possible with her level of hotels, etc. So, I decided I would do it on my own and let me tell you, we stayed in some beautiful places for less than $300 night.
I first laid out an agenda on paper listing where we would be each day, how we would get there and where we would be staying. I then filled in with details on what we would be doing that day and if we needed to purchase tickets, make reservations, etc. Here’s an example of one of our days in London:
June 13 - Day 6 (M) - LONDON
11:00 - Buckingham Palace (Changing of the Guards)
12:00 - Cabinet War Rooms *purchased tickets*
Lunch & London Eye (play by ear)
Thames River Cruise *purchased 24-hour ticket*
3:00 - Tower of London *purchased tickets*
6:30 - Dinner Reservation @ The Ivy
I referred back to this document so many times and even took a printed copy with me. Each evening, I would refresh my memory of what we had planned for the next day.
We traveled via Delta Airlines from Tallahassee to London. I requested an early check-in at our VRBO so we could take time to rest and I’m so glad I did. We stayed at a cute flat in a very quiet residential area of London called “Pimlico”. I had my own bedroom and Wes slept on a fold-out couch. It wasn’t fancy, but the location was close to restaurants, shops and the Victoria train station was less than a 10-minute walk.
We stayed in London for five days and hit all the major sites. My son is a huge World War II history buff so we focused a lot of visits on that, including a visit to the Churchill War Rooms. We also visited the British Museum, Tower of London, Victoria and Albert Museum and saw a show. I highly recommend the Citymapper app to help you get around the city. It was a life saver! Use the underground (London subway) as much as you can, but the taxi cabs are great in a pinch or you’re just too tired to walk.
During one of our London days, we took a day trip to visit Stonehenge and Bath. I booked with Evan Evans and had a great experience with them. I only wished we had a little more free time in Bath, but two destinations in one day limits that. I highly recommend you plan a trip or two out of the city to truly experience other parts of England.
Once we conquered London, we headed north to Durham, England. My sister recently moved there so we wanted to spend a few days with her family. We took an easy train ride and enjoyed the views along the way. I booked another great flat through Airbnb and it was so cute. The owners had an interior design business below so I loved that and we enjoyed exploring Durham that first day. The next day we took a quick train ride to York and had another day of exploring this quaint town. Again, I highly recommend visiting other towns in England as it’s a totally different experience from London. The train rides are easy and most were very economical.
It was then back to London for one night and COVID tests before heading to France. If I had been more aggressive with my planning, we could have traveled straight from Durham to France (via train) but it would have been a very long day. My biggest piece of advice is to arrive at least an hour before your train departs when you are traveling between two countries. You have to go through two security/passport lines and they are LONG. Also, bring drinks and snacks with you.
Our train arrived in Paris and we had to transfer to another station for our trip to Bayeux. Touring all of the WWII D-Day sites were on the top of our list and Bayeux was the closest town to do that. After a long day, we arrived at our beautiful hotel - Hotel d’Argouges. It was picture perfect and the service was impeccable. We stayed in a “Classic Apartment” room which gave us our own bedrooms. Each afternoon we would have wine and cheese in the garden with a visit from Gloria, the dog of the owner. I highly recommend!
We spent an entire day doing a private tour with Overlord Tours visiting all the D-Day sites across Normandy. It was breathtaking, emotional and something we won’t ever forget. I left that day feeling proud to be an American and sad we lost so many lives on those beautiful beaches. Having our own tour guide was worth the extra money as we were able to do a few things the larger groups couldn’t do. We also had our BEST LUNCH that day. The crepes in France can’t be duplicated in America.
We spent three nights in Bayeux and I honestly wished we could have stayed longer, but it was time to start wrapping up for our final leg of the trip. We took a train back to Paris and arrived in time to visit the Louvre before checking into our hotel - Hôtel des Deux-Îles. We only had one night in Paris, so I splurged a little on the hotel. The location was perfect and even though the room was very small, it was clean and comfortable. After a yummy dinner and a good night’s rest we toured another military museum for most of the day before heading back to London. It was a lot cheaper to fly home from London from Paris, so I booked us a quick flight. Between the travel time to the airport, the flight delay and the flying time we could have traveled by train in same amount of time. Again, another lesson learned!
We arrived back in London and stayed at a hotel that was connected to Heathrow Airport. We had a surprisingly good meal at the hotel and enjoyed the cold air conditioning we had been missing. None of the other places we stayed had A/C and they all had heavy down comforters on the bed. I learned quickly how to remove a duvet cover!
Our flight from London left at 11:30 and even with arriving 2 hours before our flight, we barely made it to the gate in time. Our experience at the Paris airport was so much easier than the one we had in London. They had “line managers” everywhere keeping people moving and lines short. It was great.
I highly recommend this travel bag from Calpack I purchased for the trip. I took it on every train and plane ride. It slid right on top of my rolling luggage and then fit under the seat in front of me. It holds so much stuff!
If you have ANY specific questions, please post them in the comments below. I went through all our travel expenses the other day and I’m happy to say we were way under budget for this trip. It was worth every penny for the time I got to spend with Wes and for all the amazing things we experienced together. If you can, TRAVEL! It’s not only good for the soul, it makes you appreciate your home even more.
Thanks for Reading,
Jennifer