Planning for any type of trip can be difficult; planning an overseas trip to a country you’ve never visited can be downright intimidating. I’m traveling with two friends to London, Paris, and Amsterdam in a month, and the trick has been trying to keep the budget as small as possible. Additionally, we had to carefully calculate the most efficient way to maximize our time in each city. The two biggest time savers we found have been to purchase flights to each city instead of taking public transportation, and pre-purchasing all of our event tickets online.
Purchasing attraction tickets online forced us to sit down and truly determine what is feasible to do in the time we have allotted. This turned into a well plotted daily itinerary worked in Google Sheets; but more on our crazy and somewhat overly-researched planning later. I’ll leave the technical details for a later post.
Today is to celebrate our itinerary! Check out the list of sights and attractions we are seeing in each city, listed below. This being our first time in Europe, we are eager to do a mixture of educational/historic activities and downright touristy attractions.
London
- Visit Kings Cross Station, Platform 9 3/4 (I am an unashamed Harry Potter nerd)
- Harry Potter Studio Tour
- Tour Westminster Abbey
- View Buckingham palace; watch the changing of the guards
- Tour the Tower of London
- Go up in the London Eye
- Visit the British Library
- Visit the British Museum
- Tour of Stonehenge
- Tour of Bath
- Tour of Roman Baths
Paris
- Catch a train to Vernon
- Tour Giverny
- Visit The Louvre
- Visit Montmartre
- Spend a day at the Palace of Versailles
- Visit Notre Dame and climb up to the belltowers
- Go to the 3rd floor of the Effiel Tower
- Wander through the Catacombes
- Shop (because it would be so cool to be able to say “I bought this scarf in Paris”)
- Eat, and eat, and eat…. and then eat some more
Amsterdam
- Tour the Anne Frank House (a bucket list item for me!)
- Visit the Van Gogh Museum
- View the National Holocaust Monument
- Drink at Heineken Brewery
- Wander the Red Light District
- Visit coffee shops
- See the city by canal
Some of these listed items are grouped together and have been turned into day trips from the city center – Giverny for example is actually outside of Paris in Vernon, and is an hour commute by train. Stonehenge is also an hour from London, and we opted to arrange a day trip that provided transportation to Stonehenge, and Bath, with access to the Roman Baths.
Have you ever been to any of these locations? Do you have any travel hints or trips? Tell me in the comments!
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13 Comments
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Oh my gosh, this sounds PERFECT! I love that you’re doing loads of HP activities in London! I think your Amsterdam itinerary looks incredible! I’ve never been there, but you have all of my top things on it! Anne Franks house is really high on my list along with the Van Gogh Museum and touring the city by canal. Seriously, it sounds like you’re going to have an incredible time! I’d love a Guest Post from you when you get back, if you’re interested! I cannot wait to follow this trip!
How could I be in London and not do ALL the Harry Potter Things? There are actually more, I just can’t find the time! I am already planning a return trip to London to geek out 😀
I would LOVE to do a guest post!
Skip the Louvre in Paris and do Musee d’Orsay instead. Also, be sure to spend more time just sitting in the cafes people watching than seeing the sites. The food and the people are where beauty is found in Paris!
I think we are going to try and squeeze in Musee d’Orsay as well. Why would you recommend skipping?
Much people watching and coffee drinking is planned!
I’ve been to all three cities and they are all awesome! I bet you will have the best time ever!
What was your favorite place? If you can pick one, that is!
I’ve been to France 2 times, definitely one of my fave European countries. I don’t know how much time you have there, but I recommend you making a road trip to Trouville & Deauville. Those are lovely oceanside resorts and not far from Paris.
Thank you for the recommendations, I’m definitely going to look into it!
Having been to those 3 cities myself I think you ve got great choices. The Ann Frank house is so moving. I reread the book (in book club) just before our visit there. I really enjoyed the Van Gogh museum – we ate at their restaurant while there. loved Bath- went there by train from London- so fascinating to see the roman baths. Versailles is definitely worth the trip.
I had no idea Stonehedge was only an hr from London. That s still on my bucket list.
You ll need to give time for napping and adjusting to the time zone the first day. Its always harder flying east.
I need to reread the Diary of Anne Frank before my visit – I am fascinated with the holocaust and have the ‘original’ version of her diary. Such an amazing period of history.
Thankfully we got a night flight, so the first day there won’t take as much adjustment – or at least, that is the hope!
I’ve never been to Europe, but I hear the Roman Baths as beautiful! Have fun next month. I can’t wait to hear all about it and see all the wonderful photos of you and your friends.
oh i LOVED london and paris! can’t wait to visit Amsterdam ! look forward to your trip posts!