Winter trip: Great Britian

[justHB]

We're starting to think about what vacation we're going to take over Christmas (yes, I know, nearly a year away, but I tend to need that long to make decisions), and London is the top contender. We'll likely have 10 days for the trip. I know we want to go to London, but 10 days *in* London sounds like a long time. Given that I was thinking of a combination of things and would love your input.

- 5 days in London, 5 days in Dublin
- 5 days in London, 5 days traveling around England
- 5 days in London, 5 days in Paris
- Combo of London, Dublin, and Edinburgh

I should mention that we recently returned from a 7 day trip to Italy - 5 days in Rome, 2 in Florence. I thought 5 was sufficient for Rome, and 2 was sufficient for Florence (would have loved more days to see Tuscany and Venice, however).

All that said, what would your commendations be?

[Rosebud]

Oh man-- that's a tough call!

If you've never been to Paris before, my vote would go to a London/Paris combo. It's so easy to get between the cities, and both are lovely in winter. And I think Paris is the greatest city ever... :D

I think 5 days is a little too long for Dublin (I haven't been there yet but am going in May and have been doing tons of research). I think you'd want to do a day trip or two out of the city in that length of time-- perhaps to Trim, Powerscourt or Glendalough? But if you're going to go to Ireland, the really amazing sights are out in the west of the country. I'd probably suggest waiting and doing a longer trip to Ireland another time.

Haven't been to Edinburgh yet but hear it's amazing. I'll let someone else weigh in on that.

[bookworm]

I agree with Rosebud--if you haven't been to Paris, then a London/Paris trip would be lovely. 5 days is enough to get a good flavor in each city. The only thing with that is that it's 10 straight days of big city. I'd enjoy that, but it's not for everyone.

I've been to Dublin a couple of times, and think a weekend is enough to see the city. My favorite "day trip" destinations were in the west (i.e. not convenient from Dublin).

You could do 5 days in London, day and a half in Dublin, then take the train (about 3 hours, if I recall correctly) to Galway and use that as a base for some lower-key day trips--Aran Islands, Connemara, etc.

Of course, Ireland is really not at its lovliest in the winter. So maybe I wouldn't do that after all.

I haven't been to Edinburgh (I'm not sure how, since I spent a year in London and it would have been so easy). It's on the someday list, but since I tend to be in London mostly for long weekends now, it's hard to carve out the time from my oh-so-important theatre agenda :).

[SweetRed]

A few years back, I worked in London for a week in mid-December and took a short trip to Paris afterwards. While I've been back to both cities at other times of the year, seeing them for Christmas time was very special. I would highly recommend both, and as others have said, taking the Chunnel is very easy. The weather was a bit cool, but I could still walk around outside for hours without problem.

DH has been to Dublin during December a few times (also for work), and while he likes the city, he thinks the real reason to visit Ireland is the countryside. I think it depends on whether you want to drive around or stay in a city.

[justHB]

The only thing with that is that it's 10 straight days of big city. I'd enjoy that, but it's not for everyone. Since I went to college over 10 years ago, I've *only* lived in a city, so I think I can handle it. ;)

[Amuse Bouche]

Well, yes, you can handle big city, but as another urban dweller, I think it's sometimes nice to break it up a bit on vacation. London Paris would be a very nice trip, but in some ways it would be very ... typical. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love the English countryside, and there are some really wonderful places to visit that often don't get visited by Americans, who tend to hit up the big cities. The Cotswolds is absolutely picture perfect, and can mostly be accessed by train. The town of Burford is really lovely. The South around Salisbury is also a fun area to visit, or you could go north to York.

[cynder]

I would vote for number two -5 days in the city and 5 days elsewhere in England. It's really easy to travel to Paris with the Eurostar Chunnel train but Paris has so much to see that you might be sad at only having 5 days for either city, really. I went for to Paris from London for 4 days and it was way too short. Of course this could be said of any vacation, in my opinion.

I agree with Amuse Bouch in that there are a lot of nice places besides London that you could pair your city stay with. I vote for Wales and Cotswolds which are gorgeous from when I visited (but that was in summer months).

[Myra]

I would do your fourth option--London, Dublin, Edinburgh and save Paris for the next vacation. I haven't been to Dublin, but Edinburgh is such a fun city, it would be a shame to miss it.

[lil_geek]

I like your fourth option....

3 years ago we did Edinburgh, London and Paris 3 nights in Edinburgh, 3 nights in London and only 1 in Paris. Edinburgh we did pretty welll (the city proper) considering I lost an entire day to being sick. You can spend an entire day walking up and down the Royal Mile, Edinburgh castle, etc. Another day doing the conservation area and a little more of the city. It was our favorite on the trip!

London in 3 days was tough. But we did all the 'big' things and it will be on our 'return to' list. We only did things pretty much walking distance from Buckingham Palace.

I think 10 days in the 2 of them.. with maybe a day trip out in the country (or drive from one to the other with a night or two on the way) would be perfect.

[HeatherFL]

I'd definitely do Dublin over Paris anyday! I've been to both and hands down, prefer Dublin!

~H.

[justHB]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I still have a ton of time to plan since we're so far out. It looks like our timeshare is not going to cooperate, so we may have to rework our length of stay and budget. I *will* make this trip happen, somehow. =D

[bookworm]

Have fun planning! Sometimes that's almost as much fun as the trip (says the woman about to book a cruise from Istanbul to Athens, via Egypt :) ).

[Lindsan]

I don't think I'd do Dublin in December to be honest. I was there in early March and it was horrible, very windy and rainy and cold. I think December would be even worse. I took a trip where I spent one week in Edinburgh, one week in Dublin and then finishing it off with one week in London. I loved Edinburgh and well, London is London. :)

So my recomendation is to do a combo of London and Edinburg/other parts of Scotland.