Once we had our hotels booked and dates secured for where we would be and for how long, I started to research things to see in each city. Of course I had ideas of things I’ve had on a bucket list for years but really started to research where things were located in relation to our hotel and how I could layer certain things everyday. Obviously, traveling with our kids (age 5 & 2), I also wanted to make sure that the things we saw were also kid friendly and/or doable for them as well.

I started by making a list of historical places that were my “must see” and then did some research into the amount of time people typically spent there. If the place required a paid ticket reservation for a specific window (most places did), I made note of that as well. Once I had my list of must- see items, I prioritized them based off how far they were from our hotel and then from one another- grouping things that were close together for the same day if possible.

Because traveling with kids requires flexibility, I only booked one “timed-entry” tour per a day. This is something I definitely recommend if you’re traveling with kids! It just makes the day more relaxed and less stressful knowing you only have to be at one place by a certain time. I also planned these things to be the first thing we did so that we weren’t rushed and by the time we finished, we could do the other things on the list at our leisure.

I’m going to do a general overview of each day and what I planned as our must-see places, and then when I get into the city specific posts, I’ll give more details into the actual places and also where we ate! I didn’t plan or look up places to eat- this was a total wing it situation based on where we were when we all started to get hungry. I had a list of recommended spots from a girlfriend who lived in London for a few months, so whenever we ended our day, I would look at the list and see where we wanted to go and if they had reservations. We’re really not foodies in our family, so we don’t care if we don’t eat at the hottest spots lol, I know that’s disappointing to some people, but want to get that out there! Details on where we ate in the daily posts to come!

What I’m going to do now is type out what I put in my notes as I planned day to day activities. I’m very proud of the itineraries I created and believe it really made our trip so much better! As mentioned, you’ll notice that there’s typically only one timed entry event per day, so the rest of the day was spent walking around at our leisure. Of course we filled our time and actually ended up doing much more in between the monuments and places I noted, which I’ll detail in the actual city posts coming up! But for the sake of simplicity, these daily itineraries are the must see places I planned for each day, shopping & snacking filled the time between!

Everything that required a reserved ticket, I booked a week before we left the states! Most of the websites recommend booking in advance as day of reservations are rarely available. So for bigger “ticket” items, or things I absolutely had to see, I bought at least one week prior.

LONDON DAY I

+ Buckingham Palace : changing of the guards @ 11 am // FREE, lasts typically 45 min-1 hour

+ walk through St James Park // FREE, cafes around park for snacks, coffee, etc

+ Big Ben & Tower of London // FREE, views!!

+ Westminister Abbey Tour : requires paid ticket & arrival window // booked our tour for 2:30-3 pm arrival, people usually spend at least 1-2 hours here

+ London Eye & River Thames Cruise : open 10 am-830 pm // cruise lasts about 40 minutes // time around on London Eye, about 30 minutes : this we DID NOT DO! It was the last item on my itinerary and it was wayyyy to cold out in London for the River cruise and I felt we got a good enough view of the river from London Bridge. The London Eye is a giant ferris wheel and after seeing it from the bridge, my daughter said she didn’t want to ride it- so it was scraped! See what I mean about flexibility? Filled the day with things and was totally fine with not doing something if it didn’t agree with my kids.

LONDON DAY II

+ Tower of London & Crown Jewels Tour : requires paid ticket & arrival window // booked our tour for 10:30- 11 am, people usually spend 3-4 hours here (can confirm, because we spent 4!!)

+ The British Museum // FREE, ticketed reservation required for the day // open 10 am-5 pm : this we DID NOT DO! We actually called a taxi from the Tower of London to take us there and we were kindly told that no one was driving that way because Britain was actively having it’s largest public protest and protesters had lined the streets making it impossible to drive! We did not want to be around protests (although they were civil), so we pivoted!

+ St Paul’s Cathedral // FREE // check website for hours, they differ on the day of the week

LONDON DAY III

+ London Zoo // buy tickets online in advance, timed entry window, admission $$ depends on the day // open 10 am- 6 pm // bought our tickets for 10 am (you can arrive at any time after the time of your ticket, just not before)

+ Natural History Museum // FREE, requires ticketed reservation // open 10 am- 5:50 pm

+ Kensington Palace & Gardens // I had a big question mark on this just because I didn’t want to overload us, so I didn’t buy any tickets for tours of the palace, although you can! It became more of a, if we feel up to it, let’s explore thing. We ended up walking the gardens and enjoying the scenery, seeing the palace from outside the gates, and finding the Peter Pan Statue! Which I actually didn’t know existed until we walked the garden!

LONDON DAY IV

+ Notting Hill & Portobello Market // FREE, walk around farmer’s market type vibe, super cute!!

+ Emirates Stadium Tour (if we did not get tickets for the game) & Arsenal game if we did get tickets!! No matter what we planned on going to the stadium to shop and of course just get to see it! We found out 24 hours before that we got the tickets for the game, so after Notting Hill, we ended up going back to SoHo to shop and then we ended up having time to get back to the hotel and rest before changing and heading to the game!

Overall, I loved our time in London so much and really do hope we get to go back one day. There’s definitely more to explore and see! Literally from the time we left our hotel in the mornings, we were out ALL day walking around, exploring the city and buildings between the museums and activities. It was so much fun.

PARIS DAY I

+ Eurostar to Paris, arrive Paris 10:30 am , check in to hotel

+ Jardin de Luxembourg // FREE, walk around gardens & lakes // hours 7:30 am- 9:30 am // WE DID NOT DO! Once we got settled and checked into the hotel, we started to walk to the garden and stopped at a cafe for lunch, while at the cafe, I got hit with something, I’m not sure if it was the travel or what, but I got super lightheaded and felt like I was going to pass out. Because of this, we walked back to the hotel to rest and literally everyone fell asleep for about 3 hours. I woke up feeling like a brand new person to say the least.

+ Eiffel Tower Tour // requires paid ticket and pick arrival time in advance online // bought tickets to get to the 2nd level for 5 pm arrival and DID NOT MAKE IT! We slept through the reservation time and skipped it. But hey, you know what, you have to listen to your body and our bodies clearly needed some rest.

+ Seine River Cruise // paid ticket & arrival time // we bought these day of, like 2 hours before the tour which started at 10 pm. If you do a river cruise, I HIGHLY recommend doing a night cruise! They time it out so that you’re right in front of the Eiffel tower when it starts sparkling every night!! I’ll never forget that moment, I started crying.

PARIS DAY II

+ Louvre Museum // requires paid ticket & arrival time // bought tickets for 10:30 am tour time // people typically spend 2-4 hours here (you could spend ALL day if you wanted too!) *definitely get your tickets ahead of time!!!

+ Petit Palais // FREE, no reservations required // hours Tue-Sun 10 am- 6 pm, cafe on site

+ arc de Triomphe // FREE to see from street, paid ticket for tour and to walk to the top // we only walked around and saw from the street, did not purchase tour tickets

+ Champs Elysees Street // famous shopping & designer shopping

+ Carette // must stop for famous hot chocolate!!

+ walk to base of Eiffel Tower for picnic!

PARIS DAY III

+ Palace of Versailles // paid ticket and arrival time // bought the 11 am tour time // people typically spend 4 hours here (could spend all day for sure!!) // open 9 am- 5:30 pm, closed Mondays

+ Notre Dame // FREE // hours 7:50 am- 7 pm, tour time slots are released 3 days in advance to get a reserved ticket, otherwise, there are stand-by waiting lines, we got in via stand-by and did not plan a tour or get tickets in advance

PARIS DAY IV — DISNEYLAND PARIS DAY I

+ check in to hotel, drop off luggage

+ Disneyland park hours : 9:30 am-10:40 pm

+ shows // Disney Stars on Parade, daytime parade 11:30 am, lasts 33 minutes // Disney Tales of Magic Firework show : 10:40 pm, lasts 22 minutes

+ dinner reservation for Captain Jack’s at 6:45 pm

DISNEYLAND PARIS DAY II

+ Disney’s Adventure World park hours: 9:30 am-10:40 pm, extra hour for hotel guests, entry at 8:30 am

+ shows // Sunflower Festival Celebration (World of Frozen) , check times online, roughly 20 minute show // Disney Cascade of Lights (pm water show) // Mickey and the Magician, check times online, 30 minute show

+ dinner reservation for Bistrot Chez Remy at 5:15 pm (THIS TOOK ME 3 MONTHS TO BOOK!!, book way wayyy wayyy in advance! I checked the app everyday and finally got lucky with one reservation that opened up and booked it ASAP!)

DISNEYLAND PARIS DAY III (a.m. only)

+ spent the morning back in the parks for some crepes and one last view of the castle before leaving for the airport!

SARDINIA DAY I & II

*the retirement portion of our trip* literally no itinerary, just stayed at the hotel the entire time

+ beach

+ pool

+ beach

SARDINIA DAY III

+ boat tour of the islands!

SARDINIA DAY IV

+ breakfast buffet at the hotel

+ head to the airport

Okay that was the general “skeleton” of what each day looked like! I can’t wait to get into more detail and to share more photos!