One Week in London and Paris

Most flights from the United States to Europe are overnight. I personally never get to sleep on a plane, so I plan for a super relaxed first day in London. Hopefully your room will be ready on arrival, especially when booking through me! The first activity of the day is a nap to help adjust to the time change. Wake up in the afternoon and get ready to explore! This is the best time to explore the area around your hotel and grab a bite to eat. After dinner, I recommend a bus tour of London. This is very relaxing and only takes an hour or two. Drive by the main sights for a unique view and get excited for what’s to come!

Hopefully you are well rested and ready for a full day of exploring. On this day, I did a full day tour to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath. Our guide was very insightful and informative on the bus ride to each destination. We even had the opportunity to explore on our own. Windsor Castle is one of the main residences of the Royal Family. We were able to go inside the State Apartments and St. George’s Chapel. Inside the chapel is where the Queen is buried along with other royals. The highlight of Windsor for me was seeing the Changing of the Guards. Yes, this is the same tradition as at Buckingham Palace! Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace alternate days for this ceremony, with it taking place at Buckingham Palace on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

After Windsor, the bus took us to Stonehenge. This monument is a big mystery. How did people get the stones in its place even before the wheel was invented? What is its purpose? Make your own conclusions as you wander around this marvel. You can also take part in their photo challenges posted around the monument.

Next up is Bath. Take an audio tour of the ancient Roman Baths to learn more about its history, ending with the actual bath itself (no, you can’t go swimming!). The town of Bath has super cute, old streets with unique shops and restaurants. You could easily spend a weekend here and still not see everything! One fun fact I loved, was the most recent Willy Wonka movie starring Timothee Chamalet was filmed here in the park. Kids skipped school to watch the production, so the crew gave the entire school free tickets to see the movie in theaters!

When you arrive back in London, hit up a pub for some dinner! I chose to go to the Black Dog in Vauxhall. It was around the corner from my hotel, and the namesake of one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs.

Back in London for a full day of sightseeing! Use this day to go back to the main areas you got a preview of on the bus tour or explore somewhere new. I spent the morning walking around the Victoria & Albert Museum. After grabbing some lunch, I browsed around Harrods which is right down the street. The architecture alone is amazing, but their spread of souvenirs on the bottom level is insane! Everything from stationary to purses, dishware to Christmas ornaments. Harrods is one of Europe’s largest department stores and it is always bustling with crowds from near and far. After doing some shopping, we went over to Buckingham Palace for some pictures. It is open to the public from the middle of July to the end of September, but we opted to see more sights since we had already gone inside Windsor Castle.

After a historical morning and early afternoon, we went to Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden for some shopping and to see the colorful buildings. Neal’s Yard was down an alleyway which opened up to a plaza with cafés, stores and unique buildings. The last activity of the day was dinner. We went to Emilia’s Crafted Pasta in St. Katharine’s Docks. This homemade pasta spot is to die for! The capacity is very limited, so a reservation is recommended. After dinner, walk around near Tower Bridge for unique views from directly next to the iconic landmark. I also walked up on the bridge to snag some pictures walking across it.

Enjoy your last full day in London! This day is best to go back to spots you wished you had more time at or go outside the city center. I suggest heading to Notting Hill to wander through the neighborhoods or browse Portobello Road Market. The market has vintage finds, unique jewelry, as well as basic souvenirs. After spending the morning in Notting Hill, you can take a public transport bus to Camden Market. This area is eclectic and definitely worth visiting! Each stall has a wide variety of items, such as memorabilia of pop culture icons, handmade items, vintage clothing, jewelry or art pieces. They also have food stalls where you will feel like you’re at a fair!

Travel from London to Paris via Eurostar. The Eurostar takes you from city center to city center in just under three hours! You do have to arrive early as if you were going to the airport. The trains run very frequently. I took a 12:30 pm train from London and arrived in Paris by 4:00 pm (there is a one-hour time difference). Checked into our hotel then grabbed some dinner next door at Ricci. I arrived on a rainy day, but if the weather was better, head out and explore! By the time the sun set, it had stopped raining, so we headed up to our hotel’s rooftop to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. It never gets old!

Cheers to the first full day in Paris! We had a morning tour to the Palace of Versailles and its gardens. This guided tour taught us all the secrets of the Palace. We saw the King’s and Queen’s private apartments and learned about the history of how they were built, as well as how they started as a hunting retreat and then evolved into what it exists as today. After the guided tour, we had free time to roam around the gardens. You can explore by foot, golf cart or mini train. We chose the golf cart. Besides seeing the gorgeous grounds, it was super fun to drive the cart around and have the freedom to stop and get out, explore and take pictures where we wanted.

The drop off from this tour is a short walk away from Champs-Elysee. We walked down to see the Arc du Triomphe and had a bite to eat before going shopping! We ate at Brasserie des Champs. This was my mom’s favorite meal of the trip! After shopping at the luxury stores, we walked down the street and shopped at the largest Paris Olympics 2024 store. Despite not going to any Olympic events, it was interesting to see the set up for the games and the signage all over the city. To end the day, we changed into our evening attire for dinner at Bambini. A short walk away from Bambini is the dock for Bateaux Mouches. You can buy a sightseeing cruise ticket and use it for any date or time within two years of purchase. We did our sightseeing cruise down the Seine after dinner during sunset. This hour-long cruise ended at 10:00 pm and we got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle from the water. What an incredible sight to see!

This was the last full day of our whirlwind trip. We started off by going to the Louvre Museum to see the Mona Lisa and other priceless works of art. After walking around the museum, we had lunch overlooking the glass pyramid at Le Café Marly. We had no plans for the afternoon, so we chose to take a Tootbus, a double decker hop-on, hop-off bus. The loop on this bus took about two hours and had great commentary as we drove around the city. We hopped on at the Louvre, stayed on for the whole loop, then got off near the Eiffel Tower. As with London, a bus tour is a unique way to see the sights from a different perspective. The Tootbus also comes with an app where you can get off at certain stops, then have a walking tour of places the bus can’t get to. We had the best weather this day, so sitting on top of the bus and sightseeing was such a peaceful way to end our trip. After heading back to our hotel to pack up our things, we ended with dinner at Ferdi.