12 DAYS LONDON PARIS ITINERARY WITH KIDS

Our first trip to Europe with the boys was back in 2017 to London, Paris and NYC. The boys were 4.5 & 7 and did an incredible job on the flight and trip itself. After 2020 shut down our big travel plans we had, we have been waiting to travel internationally again because due to all the different travel restrictions from country to country.

With everything finally being 100% open, restrictions gone and finally getting Judes passport, we started looking at flights for the five of us to get back to Europe ASAP! We normally find increible travel deals at the end of November so we always aim for that time frame. We found flights to London, on a red eye and direct from Toronto for $600 round trip. We booked them 3 weeks before we left! That was the shortest time frame I’ve ever booked a trip! We fly out of Toronto a lot for international flights because it’s normally cheaper than flying out of Detroit.

A visit to London and Paris is a classic European trip and easy to do, especially because they are only a few hours away by a high speed train. From the London eye, Harry Potter World and transportation museum to the Eiffel Tower, a stroll up Champs-Elysees, or a visit to the world-class Louvre, there is so much you can pack into 10 days. I’m here to show you how to do it with kids in tow and enjoy every minute of it! With this London Paris itinerary, you can visit two of Europe’s grandest cities and make some lifelong memories. (At the time when we went again my kids were 12, 10 & 2).

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 1 & 2

travel day

If you are coming from the states or Canada, I highly recommend taking a red eye so you can try and sleep on the flight since you’ll normally wake up in London first thing in the morning and hopefully not be too jet lagged! This is what we do every time we fly anywhere in Europe. We flew into Gatwick instead of Heathrow because it was cheaper and honestly I’m glad it worked out this way, Heathrow can be a mess! Our Airbnb was in Chelsea and about a 45 minute car ride or train ride from the airport. Our host let us check in early which was nice after a night/day of travel already. We dropped our things off and headed out to a local place to grab dinner. We ended up down the street at L’ANTICO for a late lunch and then walked over to the Chelsea football stadium to see it in person since they were away that night. We grabbed some food at the supermarket nearby on the way home and settled in for the night to relax and get ready for the next day.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 3

Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Whitehall, HAMLEYS

We got up and headed to central London. We hopped on a double decker bus and ended up getting off before we needed because the bus drivers were changing shifts. We popped into a Harry Potter store called House of Wonders. As we were walking we saw some Royal guards and other parliament people heading into the Royal Mews entrance. We kept walking and saw Buckingham Palace and more fancy royal things happening. I’m not 100% sure what was going on that day but there was a lot of movement and it was really exciting to witness! We headed over to St. James playground for the kids to run around before we headed over and saw Big Ben. You can also see the London Eye from here as well. We chose to not go in it but it would be incredible to do at night time! We made our way to Westminster Abbey where I thought the kids might be bored walking through but I was pleasantly surprised! They had these iphone type handheld devices for everyone but there was a kids setting that walked them through the entire place and explained things to them in ways they could understand. Everyone was so into it! Afterwards we walked over to The Clearence Whitehall for a late lunch. Get the fish and chips! After we jumped in an Uber and headed to the Hamleys which is a 7 or 8 story toy store. Jude slept through the whole thing but the boys went wild and loved it. We headed back home to grab dinner and rest for the night.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 4

TOWER OF LONDON, LONDON BRIDGE, Borouch Market

Got up and headed to the train station to go to the Tower of London. We stopped and grabbed lunch first at a little french restaurant, Cote St. Katharine Docks before we headed into the tour. It was raining so it was nice to dry off for a bit as well. If the weather was nicer we would have walked across the bridge but instead we hopped in a cab and went to Borough Market. I was a little bummed because it was towards the end of the day and things were closing but we got some incredible pad thai and tacos from the food trucks. We walked back to the train station and headed home for the night to relax and eat. (If the weather was better we would have walked and done the mini tour at the London Bridge but we were water logged and not having it)

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 5

M&M store, lego storE, LEICESTER SQUARE CHRISTMAS MARKET

We got up and walked down our street to get pastries and coffee while heading to the bus stop and heading back into central London. Grabbed some souvenirs on our way in and Sky was excited for the hot dog he got, it’s the little things! We promised the kids we would go to the Lego and M&M store, which were right by each other, so we headed there. We then headed over to Leicester square that had a Christmas Market that just opened and my heart was so, so happy! We tried to find all the different statues as well but some were blocked by the market tents. We grabbed dinner on the way home and relaxed the rest of the night.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 6

TRAVEL TO PARIS

We packed up and headed out to St. Pancras International train station. Stopped and grabbed brunch at Bill’s Victoria Restaurant and had a great meal and espresso martini before we took the train to Paris. The train ride is great, we’ve done it before and it’s so smooth and our prefered way of traveling around Europe. We arrived and headed to our Paris Airbnb. We made the kids dinner and ordered in for us while we figured out our plans for the next day.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 7

JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG, PSG STADIUM TOUR

We got up and headed out to the Luxembourg gardens, it was maybe a 7 minute walk from our Airbnb. We all got coffee, hot cocoa and some chocolate croissants and wondered around. Jude and Sky chased the pigeons for what seemed like hours and we took some photos before heading back to the Airbnb. We grabbed lunch and some things from the grocery store on our way back. We had booked a tour of the PSG stadium in advance and were really looking forward to it! We took the metro and a bus to the stadium and spent a few hours there, all 5 of us loved it and would highly recommend to any soccer fans! We now want to do more all over Europe! After we grabbed some dinner and ice cream and headed back in for the night.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 8

louvre, Jardin des tuilerie, EIFFEL tower

Today was a big walking day so we got up and headed to the Louvre. I loved where our Airbnb was because we could walk to a lot of different things that we couldn’t the first time we were here. As much as I want to go into the Louvre and explore I will save that for when Jude is a little older so we can enjoy it and aren’t chasing her around. We did still walk around the whole area, take photos and remensis about our last time there with the boys. It started raining so we popped into the cafe in the area (Cafe des Marronniers) to try and wait it out. We headed out and walked to the Eiffel tower, it was a little bit of a hike for the kids but we took our time and got to see a lot of other things along the way. We took the metro home and grabbed dinner on the way back.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 9

disneyland paris

This day started off rough. We slept in longer than we wanted, or I will say, the kids and I did, Jerek was up ready to go! We jumped on the metro on a train that we thought took us straight there but we got on one that diverted us so we had to backtrack to the right train. We didn’t get to Disneyland till almost 1pm and we were starving. We had bought tickets ahead of time to do both parks so we started with the smaller park thinking we would get through it fast. We ended up going to the 2nd park when it started raining even harder so a lot of rides closed down for a bit. I also had read you didn’t need to buy the skip the line passes and while 30-40 minutes isn’t that long to wait for a ride, it is for a 2 year old and impatient 10 year old. If we do it all again I would only do the Disneyland park and skip the Walt Disney Studios park. We headed home around 8ish and all agreed we wish that day had gone differently. You live and you learn though and that is what traveling is all about!

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 10

Arc de triomphe

We got up and went to the market to grab breakfast and walk around town and ended up coming back to the Airbnb and sleeping for hours. We all didn’t feel 100% and it was still raining so we rested for a while. Once we were all feeling a little better we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Hot tip, take the underground walkway and buy your tickets there, this way you aren’t trying to play frogger with all of Paris in the roundabout. The views from atop the city and the Eiffel tower are beautiful and a must see! My suggestion is to skip going up the Eiffel tower and go up the Arc where you can get a view OF the Eiffel tower, plus its much cheaper and you don’t need to book ahead of time! We then walked down des Champ-Elysees and went into Bistro des Champs and had dinner. Ended the night with a walk home and to pack to go back to England in the morning.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 11

back to england

We flew in and out of Gatwick airport so I booked us a hotel in the train station across the street from the Airport to make it easier on us. Great idea, but I booked THE smallest room for 5 people I could possibly book and we had 2 nights in it. We got back to Gatwick in the evening, grabbed dinner and tried to not kill each other in the hotel room and watched a movie.

LONDON PARIS ITINERARY: DAY 12

brighton day trip

With one more day in England we wanted to get out of the London area and explore. There was a few different options but we thought Brighton would be fun with only a 40 minute train ride. We arrived and it was, you guessed it, raining still. Our goal was to get to Brighton pier, rain or not. We popped into some shops along the way and made it to the pier soaking wet. There was a huge arcade with tons of different games we spent a few hours there playing and drying off. We walked further down to have a late lunch at the Palm Court Restaurant. I think we were the only ones there for a while. I got one last fish and chips and we watched the workers start putting up Christmas decorations. We grabbed an ice cream on the way back to the train station and passed by the Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museum & Art Gallery that I’d love to come back to another time.

The next morning we got up and ready for our flight at 11am. Since our hotel was right across the street from the airport and we didn’t check bags the morning was so chill and relaxed! Weird to say those words in the same sentence talking about getting 3 kids to the airport but it really was! We then had a 9 hour flight back to Toronto and a 4 hour drive back to Detroit and the kids were INCREDIBLE. I mean, maybe 1 meltdown from our 2 year old the entire 13 hours of travel!

I hope this gave you some ideas on how we try and focus on doing family activities and not just kids activities. This is a trip for kids and adults of different ages and we want it to be fun, a time to learn things, explore and enjoy together! Also, remember that you don’t have to pack your days full to the brim when you are traveling with kids. There will be days that are more exhausting and you just can’t fathom another full day of walking so implement rest days (or 1/2 days) as needed! There are a TON of things we still haven’t done or seen in the 2 times we have been to London and Paris but we know we will be back and the kids will be older and we will save things for then.

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