Let’s work our way down to the details. Round-trip tickets are generally cheaper, but you can get comparable one-way fares by booking well in advance with flexible dates, by which I mean you can fly into London and fly out of Paris or Geneva/Zurich. Currently, May’s cheapest fares, whether round-trip or totalled each way, are about Rs 50,000 per adult, and only about Rs 5,000 less for a child below 12; I’m rounding that off to Rs 1.5 lakh for the transcontinental ticketing. Do book ahead for the best deals, and opt for the round trip if it’s much cheaper than the cost of returning to London from the last place you visit (about Rs 40,000 for the three of you) and a likely night’s stay before you take your flight out (about Rs 10,000).
Europe’s train network will serve you best through your trip. One-dayEurailpasses are good if you are arriving and departing from a destination on the same day, but point-to-point bookings are cheaper if you are only disembarking for the day. The UK and Schengen visas (covering both France and Switzerland) will altogether cost about Rs 50,000 for the three of you. This leaves you with over half your budget for accommodation, local transport, food and sight-seeing. I’m recommendingrental apartmentsor B&Bs over hotels to stay within your budget. Trycrosspollinate.comfor places to stay in Paris and London. Tryhitrental.ch,escalea.com,vrbo.comorflipkey.comfor your Swiss stays.
Three days in London, three in Paris plus a week in Switzerland, and a day or two for inter-city transfers, should make for an evenly paced itinerary, even with a frisky four-year-old in tow.
Some ofLondon’s best sights don’t cost anything: the changing of guard outsideBuckingham Palace, Harrods, Trafalgar Square, theVictoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, theNational Gallery, theTate Modern, and the walks downOxford Streetand theMillennium Bridge. Other (ticketed) must-visits include theTower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussaud’s, and theLondon Eye(book ahead online to avoid the queues). PurchaseOyster TravelCardsto whiz around the city at the cheapest fares.
Paris, too, will leave you gasping for more time: must-sees include theArc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, the beautifully landscapedJardin des Tuileries, theEiffel Tower, the incomparableLouvre, theNotre Dame, Galeries Lafayettefor a spot of shopping, theSacre-Coeurat Montmartre, a cruise on theSeine. Trypariscityvision.comfor their night tours and hop-on hop-off day tours, and pick up a Paris Métro pass for local commuting during your stay.
Switzerlandis well networked with roads, trains and ferries.ZurichandGenevahave the best arrivals and departures, and the latter is prettier. Divide your stays between any of your key halts, getting around with aSwissrailpass (swissrailways.com) for unlimited access to key stops on your itinerary, and cherry-pick from the options here. Start withLucerneand do a day trip toZermatt, the scenic town at the foot of theMatterhorn. Go boating on Lake Zurich, walk by theBahnhofstrasse, and theLimmatquai, the most famous of Zurich’s quays. Visit the old town ofAltstadt, the Gothic cathedral ofGrossmünster, and if you love art, see one of finest collections in Europe at theKunsthaus Zürich. Lucerne itself is delightfully walk-friendly and its museums are lovely, though most tourists make a beeline for the scenicMount PilatusandRigion its outskirts. Or begin withInterlaken, taking the cogwheel train toJungfrau, and the longest aerial cableway in the Alps toSchilthorn. A trip toMt Titlisand theGlacier Park would take up all day.Bern’s medieval architecture, a Unesco site, is 90min from Lucerne and best seen as a walking tour.Genevais less than an hour away and best done by walking its old town. Return directly from Geneva, or pick a convenient connection back to London.
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