Western Europe in 2+ Weeks with Family
brian796
2006 summer vacation including husband, wife, 13-yo son and 11-yo daughter.
Oct 20, 2007
based on 12 votes
Introductory family trip to Western Europe, highlighting London, Paris, Normandy, Barcelona, and Rome. Also explores some of the key attractions outside of some of these cities. Note that this is fast-paced with limited down-time.
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Explore locations featured in this Traveler List:
London, Amesbury, Bath, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Windsor, Canterbury, Dover, Paris, Bayeux, Haute-Normandie, Caen, Basse-Normandie, Normandy, Colleville-sur-Mer, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Versailles, Barcelona, Rome
- Category: Recent trip
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Traveler type: Culture, Sightseeing, Active/Outdoors
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Appeals to: Families with teenagers, Tourists
- Seasons: Summer
- Tags: England, London, Paris, Normandy, D-Day, Barcelona, Rome, Family
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Home base for a week in England. Spend time seeing the attractions, but also make time to walk around leisurely to experience the city and find hidden treasures. Expect high prices for everything from food, to attractions, to lodging. |
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| The primary purpose of a hop-on / hop-off bus like this is to learn the layout of a city, learn where the major attractions are within the city, and to quickly hit the highlights in a day or two. The attractions within London are so tightly packed and the subway extensive enough that we really didn't get much value out of the bus here. |
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| You'll see it plenty of times without going out of your way to do so. We enjoyed seeing it at different times of the day. Lots and lots of pictures with varying light. |
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| Like the Big Ben, you'll see it plenty of times without going out of your way. We never went inside and found the outside interesting enough. |
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| Like Big Ben, you'll see the exterior a lot while getting around London. We didn't go inside. |
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| Explore the entire cathedral, including the basement and walking to the top for spectacular views. |
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| A nice place to take some pictures and rest while walking the city. |
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8. British Airways London Eye
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| We went late (near closing) and the lines were not too terrible. This is NOT a must-see, but is a nice view of the city if you have time to kill. At the very least, get underneathe the attraction and get some nice pictures. |
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| We arrived at opening and found that to work well. Plan to spend half a day here as there are lots of buildings and museum artifacts. Get started with a guided tour. Find out what the schedule is for the exhibitions and try to work at least one in, they are great. |
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| Catch this intersection during a walk through the city. |
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| Spend some time strolling along the river. The south bank has some attractions and restaurants. The north bank is more picturesque. If convenient, use the Millineum Bridge at least once. |
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| Not a must-see, but interesting if you are walking around and are in the area. |
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| Interesting to see the inner-workings. Good for kids and adults alike. |
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14. Britain at War Museum
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| This is a fantastic experience. It really brings alive the Londoner's WWII experience. Recommended for kids and adults alike. |
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| Catch this during a walk through the city. A good place to rest and snap some pictures. |
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| Closed when we were there, otherwise we definitely would have taken a tour. |
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| We found this fairly interesting. We did the Royal Mews after seeing the changing of the guard. If you do the changing of the guard, find a tour group to do it with. Our hop-on / hop-off bus tour provided a tour ("Royal London Walk"). We found a fish-and-chips place across the street from the Royal Mews for lunch. |
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| Very nice museum containing a lot of WWII artifacts. Several tanks and a V2 rocket are the main attractions. Stroll the park surrounding the area if you have time. If you don't take a cab, you can take a tube and then walk for a ways. |
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| This was great! We went here with Premium Tours (Tour #2) so that we could walk right up to the monuments and take pictures without any other tourists around (before opening time for general admission). I highly recommend this tour. |
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This was part of our Premium Tours #2 guided bus tour. The town is very nice. My wife ditched the Roman Baths early on and really enjoyed walking through the quaint town searching for tea and scones. This was her favorite part of our England trip. |
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| You can spend a lot of time here if you want. We probably spent a little over an hour, skipping a lot. Get the self-guided tour audio units. Easy to use. |
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| A must-see. Lots to see in here, so pace yourself and make sure you hit the highlights at least. We found the cases and cases of jewelry and everday items boring, but there are plenty of highlights otherwise. |
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| Just another aquarium, but we went here late one day when looking for time to kill on the south side of the Thames. |
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| We did Warwick Castle on the Premium Tours No 5 all-day guided tour. We felt the timing was a bit off, as we would have liked to have spent more time at Warwick Castle. We did enjoy the archery demonstration and the trebuchet demonstration. The dungeon was far overrated and we should have spent time elsewhere. It was cold here in July (even in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt) and I wished I had brought a jacket. |
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| We did Stratford-upon-Avon on the Premium Tours No 5 all-day guided tour. Way over-rated. Way too many tourists tripping over each other. This was worse than Disneyland. |
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26. Shakespeare's Birthplace
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| We did this on the Premium Tours No 5 all-day guided tour. Way over-rated. Way too many tourists tripping over each other. Moved through this place like cattle with everyone crammed tightly and moving quickly. |
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We did Oxford on the Premium Tours No 5 all-day guided tour. What little time we spent in Oxford was nice. Might have been worth a slow half-day wandering around and resting. |
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28. Christ Church College
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| We saw this on the Premium Tours No 5 all-day guided tour. Seeing the Harry Potter highlights was nice. The dining hall was nice. |
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| Spent a half-day in Windsor on Sunday. After going to church in London, we grabbed a train for Windsor and went to the castle. Walked around the town a little, but didn't have much time here. |
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| Nice, sprawling grounds of a modern, working castle. We caught the changing of the guard by accident, wish we had been prepared for it. This castle was not our favorite. |
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| We did a day trip to Canterbury and Dover using the trains. It was a very nice trip. Canterbury was enjoyable. There are a lot of shops, restaurants, and attractions catering to tourists. |
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| Outstanding!!! The cathedral was perhaps one of the best (if not the best) that we saw the entire trip. The gardens and grounds around the cathedral were spectacular. Count on spending time here wandering around. I would not want to do this as part of a rushed tour group. |
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| This was interesting, especially for the kids. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for adults, but it was entertaining enough while taking the tour with the kids. |
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| Reached Dover via train after visiting Canterbury. The walk to the castle was a bit of a hike, which I enjoyed while my daughter did not. Make sure you have an idea of where you are going before heading here. We didn't have problems, but were prepared. |
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| We really enjoyed this castle. The walk up the hill was pleasant and peaceful. There were very few people at the castle (it was a Monday), so we pretty much had the grounds to ourselves. |
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We had low expectations for Paris after hearing horror-tales of how Americans can be treated, but were pleasantly surprised. Everyone was very nice and pleasant. It is a great city to leisurely take walks. After a hectic week in London, we slowed down a lot in Paris. We cancelled many of the attractions we had planned and did a lot of walking as well as just driving around the city on the hop-on / hop-off without stopping.
We reached Paris on the Eurostar high-speed train from London. It was a nice way of travelling, although the wait in the train station beforehand was a bit of a hassle (we got there too early and were not impressed with our eating options).
My family swears that the best meal they had was lunch at Pizza Pino (avenue des Champs-Elysees location). I contend that they were just so hungry and tired, that it just seemed like heaven, but maybe there was something to it? |
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Ave price:
$334
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Great hotel! We could see the Eiffel Tower from our balcony. Very modern and spacious rooms. Concierge was very helpful. Close to the subway (about 3 blocks). Highly recommended.
Head southeast along Ave de Suffren to try some of the local restaurants for dinner. It's a bit of a hike, so be prepared for a walk and travel in a group just to be safe. |
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38. Notre Dame Cathedral (Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris)
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| We enjoyed this working cathedral, although we decided not to spend much time here. |
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39. Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel)
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| We went to the tower late in the afternoon so we could watch the sunset from the top. Unfortunately, the elevator to the top deck was sold out, but we climbed the stairs to the middle deck and had a great time watching the city and waiting for the sunset. Our favority picture from the trip is one of our family standing on the deck with the city in the background. |
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40. The Catacombs (Les Catacombs)
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| Arrive here prior to opening. We reached the catacombs abour two hours before closing only to discover that we had arrived too late to be admited. The subway trip out here was a bit of a hassle (probably in large part due to us not speaking French). Might have been worth a taxi. |
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| We took a train from Paris to Bayeux so that we could spend a day touring Normandy on a guided tour. It was a nice, sleepy town. If you're a runner, strap on the shoes and head out into the countryside for a very relaxing run. |
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Ave price:
$130
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Very small and utilitarian, but clean, modern, a good base for sleeping. Dinner was expensive, but good. Room rate were very reasonable. |
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43. D-Day Beaches (Plages du Debarquement de la Bataille de Normandie)
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Absolutely the highlight of our entire vacation was Overlord Tour's guided tour of the Normandy sites. This is the ONLY way to do Normandy. Overlord Tour provided the combination driver / historian / tour guide to take us among the various sites and provide the history and significance of what we were seeing. For the entire family, this was an outstanding day for all of us and extremely memorable.
We had the kids watch the beginning sequence of Saving Private Ryan before our trip so that they had an appreciation for what had happened here. After the trip, we watched Band of Brothers and enjoyed seeing all of the sites again. If you're a reader, also read The Bedford Boys and Stephen E. Ambrose's book on D-Day. |
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44. Normandy Museum (Musee de Normandie)
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| Nice museum with much of the equipment used during the Normandy invasion. |
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45. Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial
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| Very moving and special. An absolute must-see. |
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| Come here with a tour guide. |
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| No trip to Normandy would be complete without it. |
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| Part of our tour. Not the highlight. |
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| Come with a guide. Don't miss it. |
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| Took the train from Paris to Versailles to go see the palace. |
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52. Versailles Palace (Chateau de Versailles)
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| Spent the day at the palace and the surrounding gardens. The palace was nice. Lots to see. |
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53. Gardens of Versailles
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| The gardens were spectacular. We took a lot of pictures here and some of our best of the trip are from here. |
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Barcelona is one of my favorite cities. There are a number of very nice parks. The food and drink are excellent. A nice place to relax for a couple of days. Many of the best attractions are spread out and not easily reached. Eat at least one meal of tapas.
Note: If you come here for the beaches, expect both partial and full nudity. After discovering this, we found other things to do. Everyone was pretty bummed after hauling our swimsuits all over Western Europe for two weeks in anticipation for the beaches in Barcelona. I guess I should have done more research. |
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55. Eurostars Cristal Palace
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Ave price:
$318
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Excellent hotel in an excellent location. We stayed in a family room next door and it was a great value. The hotel computers were very busy, so sometimes a wait was required and then time was self-limited knowing that others were waiting. |
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| This hop-on / hop-off bus is the best way to get around Bareclona's main attractions in 1 or 2 days. I've done this tour twice now, once alone on a business trip and once with the family. Highly recommended. The red and green routes hit the most interesting attractions for us, with the blue route not as interesting. |
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| Excellent place to stroll, people-watch, and spend some time. We found the evenings more entertaining than the daytime. Come for the artists, entertainers, and other people in the streets. |
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58. Church of the Sacred Family (Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia)
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| Beautiful! A must-see for anyone travelling to Barcelona. We took a long walk to get here, but another good option is the hop-on / hop-off bus. |
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59. Guell Park (Parc Guell)
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| Another must-see on any trip to Barcelona. Spend at least a couple of hours here, if not the entire day, strolling the paths, walking to the top of the hill for a nice view of the city, and spending time in the public areas. |
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60. Gothic Quarter (Barri Gotic)
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| A nice part of town to stroll during the daytime and see the gothic architecture. |
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| An excellent attraction. Go at night so you can see the show. We walked here, stopping halfway here to eat dinner at an outdoor cafe, which is a great way to spend some time in this city. The fountain show at night is a must-see. |
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| A definite tourist trap, but worth spending a half-day here if you have the time after seeing the other main attractions. |
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63. Columbus Monument (Monument a Colom)
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| Way over-rated. Very cramped and not much to see. |
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| This major intersection is worth a stop. |
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65. Olympic Stadium (Estadi Olimpic)
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| Interesting, but not one of the top attractions. |
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66. National Art Museum of Catalonia (Museu Nacional d`Art de Catalunya - MNAC)
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| We did not go inside, but instead wandered around outside admiring the architecture. |
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Rome was a 36-hour layover for us on our return home. We crammed as much in as we could into a single day, which was probably not smart after an intense 2-week vacation. The family was ready for mutiny about halfway through the day. |
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Ave price:
$243
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Excellent location near the main Ancient Rome attractions. Price was competitive for this part of the city. Rooms were very, very small, but clean. Nice breakfast. |
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Crowded, but a must-see and well worth the hassle. We used a tour group to get in without waiting in line, then ditched the group fairly quickly. We should have done the colosseum first so that we could have used the same tour group for the Roman ruins.
For a great picture, as the sun starts to set but is still above the horizon, go down the street towards the west (stay up high near the subway station) and take a shot of the colosseum as it is completely bathed in sunlight. |
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70. Roman Forum (Foro Romano)
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| Come here as part of a tour group after the Colosseum. We came without a tour group, but we thought we were well-prepared with book and self-guided tour from internet, but were disappointed to find that things are not marked well-enough to do self-guided tours. |
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| See above. Come here as part of a tour group after the Colosseum. Spend plenty of time exploring, however, as there is a lot here to see. |
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| We walked from the Colosseum to the Pantheon. It was beautiful, but didn't really warrant much time inside. Go outside and rest by the fountain. |
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| After a long day at the Colosseum, Ancient Rome, and the Pantheon, wander over to Piazza Navona to eat a leisurely dinner at one of the outdoor restaurants. Enjoy the fountains and ambience. If it suits you, have a sketch drawn or watch one of the artists. What a perfect way to end 2+ weeks of intense European vacation! |
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Compliment brian796
