Okay, so 1st off. I have been up and down these forums for about two weeks now trying to find answers to my questions before I posted. So I apologize in advance to anyone I annoy. My husband and I will be in Paris, flying out on Oct 11 arriving 9:20 on the 12th. Leaving October 19. This is our first time. So super excited. Learning a bit of French to get around, we dont want to be the annoying gesturing tourist. Anyhow, not knowing the next time we%26#39;ll be in Europe, I searched for cheap airfares to neighboring countries for overnight trips. Found Venice for under 100 per person, found Barcelona too.... Would flying out early morning and returning the following day be too much for Venice or Madrid, Rome or maybe Switzerland? Could we see enough to satisfy a bit of curiosity. Or should we stick to a day trip to Brugge or Amsterdam, or London. We dont mind hustling a bit and leaving early morning to get the most out of our day. Keep in mind, we%26#39;re not sure when we%26#39;ll be back in Europe and out of shallowness, it would just be great to say we%26#39;ve been to two European countries. We%26#39;re into architecture and history mostly, and we%26#39;re already going to Versailles for the day. Someone also suggested taking the train to Luxembourg, because of all the castles and beauty. We%26#39;ve already prepaid our hotel on Hotwire and got such a great deal at the Paris Hilton for 100 per night, so we really cant go away for anymore than one night since it%26#39;s prepaid. It would be a total waste of money, but we dont mind paying for another hotel for the night somewhere else out of France Any suggestions would be great.
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Of all the places you are talking about, I would choose Venice without a moment of doubt.
Get an early flight, spend most of 2 days and come back with the early evening/late afternoon flight.
Bruges is great too but the train ride will be longer than a flight to Venice.
I have to confess that Venice is my second favorite place after Paris.
I would definitely skip Luxembourg. It is interesting , has a lot of history and charm, a beautiful countryside but is not worth a detour on such a short trip. Part of my family is from/in Luxembourg, I have been there A LOT but trust me on this, on a scale of 1 to 10, it is not a 9, am 8 or even a 7 !
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I think that you%26#39;re underestimating the charms of Paris. Leave wherever else for your next trip - there will be a next trip. Do a day away at Versailles, and perhaps one to Giverny, and give yourselves a real chance to enjoy Paris.
Also - you may find that with all the walking that Paris involves you really aren%26#39;t as energetic as you thought you would be - after all, you%26#39;re still going to have jet lag to contend with.
Bon voyage.
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If you are coming for 7 days and already spending one in Versailles, I think that you%26#39;d be frustrated with only four in Paris. I also think that it would be a shame to spend so much of your trip in airports and dealing with transportation. (If you go to Venice, for example, you will need an hour to get to the airport and will need to arrive about 2 hours before your flight, plus the hour flight, and the taxi/bus ride into Venice. Calculate r/t and you%26#39;ll spend 10 waking hours, or approx. 10% of your holiday in transport, IF all yor flights are on time and everything goes as planned).
I say, keep it to France. I know it is hard, but perhaps you could just console yourself with a one day trip to Champagne or Normandy.
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If you really want to visit another country, then the nearest are either London on Eurostar, or Thalys to Brussels, going on to Bruges if you want to. You could do a day trip, though you won%26#39;t have long enough to do much when you%26#39;re there. At that time of the year it%26#39;ll probably be dark for at least part of the return journey, but the trip%26#39;s quite relaxing anyway and you can treat it all as %26#39;down-time%26#39; and catch up on writing postcards! If you do decide to go, book online as soon as possible, as you%26#39;ll get cheaper rates then.
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If you really feel that you must go to another country/city also, then London would be my pick.
The train ride from Gare du Nord to Waterloo Station is 2 hours and 45 minutes, and you get to see some of the French landscape as well.
I checked out the prices, if you take the cheapest fare (non-flexible ticket) and why shouldn%26#39;t you as it is such a short trip, the roundtrip fare is only £ 47 = 68,82 euros pr. person.
It may also be interesting to compare these two capitols - there are some big sights in London: Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Tower, Tower Bridge, St. Paul%26#39;s Cathedral, the pretty canal-area behind the Tower: Saint Katharine%26#39;s Dock, the extremely interesting Cabinet War Rooms in the basement of the Treasury, St. James%26#39;s Park with the pelicans, Buckingham Palace..... and going to pubs go get some really good beer !
Leave as early in the morning as you can - and return in the evening (just remember that the last metro is at 00:30, if you don%26#39;t want to go with taxi)
www.eurostar.com
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For a day trip i would say London or Bruges (you will get the most going to Brugge so you will have time to really see a lot of it in one day), you will only see a tiny part of London.
Forget about the plane to Venice, it is really beautiful but going to the airport plus check-in plus the flight, it won%26#39;t leave you much time there
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If you really wish to visit 2 countries, I%26#39;d pick London. As GitteK says it%26#39;s a quick trip and without even leaving the South bank and all within walking distance of Waterloo. You can ride the London Eye, an awesome trip. Visit the Tate Modern, shop at Oxo Tower for things from some unusual English designers, and take a ride on the Thames. Well, maybe you can only board on the other side. And there are lots of pubs/restaurants where you can eat before you head back to Paris. You can also walk the Millennium Bridge and if you don%26#39;t walk off it, you%26#39;ll still never really leave the south bank.
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Your first time really a week dedicated to visiting Paris would be ideal. However, if you want to do an overnight trip to another country, I recommend also a visit to Belgium. Brugge is very beautiful although some say they find it a bit too touristy. Another suggestion is to visit Brussels. Amsterdam is 4.5 hours away from Paris via Thalys high-speed train so that%26#39;s another idea.
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London seems to be the big winner here, but I did Barcelona once and absolutely loved it. It was an overnight trip and we left really early in the morning and arrived back the following evening. It was great. Just enough time to get a taste of the culture. Glad we did it, because we returned a year later and stayed for a week.
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If you leave early one morning and return late one evening, you should be able to do Venice. It is lovely, though I prefer Florence. Barcelona is nice also. Being from the US, London may be nice, but there are far more interesting places to visit besides, not that London is not intersting, believe me, there%26#39;s tons to do, but it is a bit of a standby, I can say this because I was born there....Amsterdam is also a great choice. How about Monaco! Keep in mind airport check in times.
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