A Tale of Two Family Friendly Cities: London & Paris Tour

It was a wonderful trip. We had not been to London before and our hotel was an ideal location. It was approximately 2 blocks to Buckingham Place and a pleasant 20 to 30 minute walk to Parliament and Trafalgar Squares. The tube was also very accessible and easy to use. Our tour guides for a ½ London orientation tour and for the Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge were exceptional.

In Paris, the hotel was more of a business hotel than a location for tourists. It was located between two Metro stops but on a residential street and many homeless people gathered in the evening at the church at the end of the street.  Therefore, travel to museums was several stops including transfers to other lines and we were not comfortable walking in the neighbor at night. Our day trip to Normandy was unforgettable and very emotional. We like travelling in a small van with four other tourists and a drive rather than a large bus. Our driver/guide was very congenial and gave us sufficient time at each site to explore on our own. He was new to the tour and not a certified tour guide as was the case in London.  He was knowledgeable but I question the accuracy of some of his statements. For example, “body parts and equipment still wash up on the shores of Normandy today.”

We were disappointment in the travel company's attention to detail concerning our trip. They never told us that breakfast was included with our hotels. The London hotel told us upon arrival and we had to ask at the Paris hotel. The staff at the Paris hotel did not know and had to check on it. We did not receive any tipping guidance on tours/trips that were pre-paid by our travel company. Were the gratuities included with the transportation to and from the airport, or the London and Paris tours?  We did provide our driver/tour guide with a gratuity but had no way of knowing if it was adequate. For our Normandy trip, we did NOT have a either a receipt or a confirmation number and the driver/guide requested payment for the trip. We told him it was paid for by the travel company and he checked back with his office and both he and his office apologized for the error. In addition, it would have been nice to know that dinner was included on our 17:01 pm trip back to London. Due to our late arrival in London, we ate a late lunch, so we passed on the pre-paid meal offered on the train.

The description of our ½ day London tour read, “½ day tour of London. The (morning) tour includes a panoramic drive around the city to see many of the well know landmarks.”  From this description, we did not know that we would stop and enter paid attractions. We did not plan to use the 2-day London Pass because we did want to waste it on the only a afternoon that would count as a full day.

 The travel company uses a pre-written itinerary and just drops in the traveler’s information. The never asked about our interests or the type of vacation we envisioned. 

Working with Zicasso was great!  Our contact person was responsive to our questions and got us a sample itinerary quickly.  She was very helpful in adjusting the itinerary to meet our family’s needs.  She was also helpful in guiding through what would be reasonable expectations in terms of days in each city, day trips that might work with our locations and re-arranging the order of the cities to help with flight costs.

Once we started our trip we had another contact.  She was amazing!  She was quick to respond whenever we had questions.  On the day we arrived in Paris, we were supposed to meet a tour group on a street corner for a tour of the Eiffel Tower.  Unfortunately, the meeting place was changed and we were not informed.  The street corner was quite a distance from the Eiffel tower so we couldn’t just ask at the information desk as we were no where near it so we just waited.  Eventually, when we were 15 minutes past the meeting time, I emailed and called our contact.  She got back to me pretty quickly and figured out that the meeting place had changed.  By that time, our tour group had left.  We were pretty frustrated, but our contact made some quick phone calls and got us added onto another group at a later time.  We were really grateful as we didn’t really have any significant down time in our schedule to come back to see the Eiffel Tower another day.  She even offered to reimburse us for a dinner for our trouble.  Amazing customer service.  In regards to the mix up to begin with, I don’t know if you have any say in meeting places, but our original meeting place on the street corner was a bit odd as it was a good 15-20 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower and it doesn’t really seem to make sense why it was so far away when there were obviously many groups meeting right at the base of the tower.

London - This may have been our favorite part of the trip (but it was all amazing so it’s hard to pick!).  We were thrilled with the location of our hotel - in the theater district.  It is a lovely part of town and we walked around a lot.  We were also right next to a tube station which was handy.  The hotel itself, including the staff was fantastic.  The meeting places for various tours was clear and it was pretty easy to get around (really glad we didn’t rent a car as the driving looks terrifying!).

Paris - The hotel was very pretty, but incredibly ornate and the rooms were small, a little less kid friendly than the other hotels.  Honestly, the small room size was actually what we were expecting in all the cities, so it wasn’t a big deal.  Our day trip to Versailles and Giverny was excellent.  Our guide was very good.  The walking tour of Île de la Cité was also very good - it would be good to mention the amount of walking for certain tours.  That day we had the walking tour in the morning, about 90 minutes break, then the Louvre tour in the afternoon.  We decided to walk from the hotel to  Île de la Cité which was probably a 45 minute walk.  We ended up walking for probably 8-10 hours, including walking the 400 some steps to the top of Notre Dame, that day and were exhausted (it also happened to be 90+ degrees out).  If we had known how much walking we’d be doing that day, we would probably have taken a taxi.  The Louvre scavenger hunt tour was probably our least favorite event of the trip.  The guide was very nice, but the scavenger hunt was not that great.  Our kids are 11, 15 and 18 and I think are a little too old to have been very engaged by it.  It also seemed like we were just rushed from one part of the museum to another looking for the next “clue”.  There were some things we weren’t interested in and others that we would have rather spent more time.  There was a lot of walking there and after spending the morning walking in the heat, I think we were pretty tired.  The Louvre is so big that I don’t know of a better way to see it, but those were our thoughts.

Barcelona - The hotel was very nice - it’s too bad they limit the air conditioning because it was very hot there too.  We did expect the heat, but were a little surprised at how few places had air conditioning (or kept it at a pretty warm setting).  The hotel staff was nice, but some of them didn’t seem very knowledgeable regarding locations of restaurants or meeting places.  The one thing we would have liked to have known ahead of time is regarding Park Guell.  We had an open afternoon and there suggestions on our itinerary to go to the beach or to Park Guell.  When we asked about the beach, we were told that the only one that was recommended was about an hour away by bus - we were told the others had a lot of vendors and that at those beaches, we could expect to be approached to buy things every 30 seconds.  When we asked about Park Guell, we were told that tickets need to be purchased a day in advance (on the itinerary, it seemed like we could just show up, get a ticket and walk around).  Luckily, we were able to work it into our schedule because it was worth it!

Rome - The hotel rooms were small, but nice.  The staff was pretty nice, but not especially helpful with our transportation questions.  On the day we were to see the Colosseum, we planned to take a taxi as it was pretty far to walk.  We asked the front desk staff the night before about getting a taxi (because there were 5 of us) and were told we just needed to come to the lobby when we were ready and they would call one.  That day, we found out that if we wanted a taxi for 5, it should have been scheduled in advance.  We were basically told to walk to the taxi station on the corner and hope that one with enough seats came by.  After a bit of a wait, we did get one, but it was pretty stressful since by then it was much too late to walk and get there on time.  In general, transportation was the biggest issue in Rome since none of it other than shuttles to and from the airport was arranged.  We loved the city itself.

We had a very enjoyable trip. All the guides were very good and personable. The Louvre and the Versailles guides talked non-stop and gave so many details that it was more than we could absorb in a couple of hours, but they were pleasant. The food guide was outstanding.

The first two hotels had our rooms overlooking busy streets and it was a bit noisy early in the night. Other than that, it was great. The first hotel had an exceptional breakfast.

The location of the third hotel at the airport was great.

We returned home earlier this week and we are so energized from the amazing Europe trip. We are very grateful and thankful to our travel agency for planning a very customized, relaxed, fun and amazing time.

To begin, London the hotels location was great as well the room. We enjoyed the trip up to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath. Lots to see an enjoy. We also visited the Tower of London on our own time and would recommend others to visit as well. 

Then Paris with the dinner cruise on the river was very beautiful and delicious. We also enjoyed visiting the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. 

In Venice we liked the quite hotel location even though it was a slight walk from the city center. We enjoyed the food tour as well the private tour which gave us great insight about the beautiful town! 

Finally Rome, the location was great although the rooms could use upgrade. The most memorable part of our trip was the Pasta class. My husband  was so excited he came home and made some pasta already.

Again thank you for planning our trip and setting us up in the best parts of town. We also found the private transport to be a big relief - especially in Venice!

Overall, it was a good itinerary, as we got the most out of our trip. The hotels were good. Breakfast was paltry in Paris.

We didn't get to the summit due to technical issues. We are supposed to have some money refunded, but it will probably go back to the travel agency.

A last-minute change in the itinerary (a couple of days before leaving for the trip) by the private boat tour company on the Seine River threw our plans off a bit. Professional photography was planned after the boat trip, with a big time gap to return to the hotel and get ready. With this new change, these two things were back-to-back and difficult to achieve. We had to call the boat company on our own and reschedule for another day. Unfortunately, the only other time that worked for us was from a port that was further away from our hotel. It added transportation costs and time constraints.

Some of the scheduled tours (Versailles meeting point, chocolate meeting point) were far from our hotel. We had to take a taxi both times and got stuck in traffic each time. We would prefer to be close to these meeting points next time.

The chocolate tour advertised wine and cheese in addition to chocolate, but we walked around for three hours just trying little bits of chocolate. In my opinion, with young kids, this was not worth the time and money.

We did the bike tour in Versailles, which was difficult with younger kids. We didn't realize that you had to walk a bit to get to the bikes and then bike through a busy area/market all the way to the palace. There was traffic and pedestrians. It was not easy with younger kids on bikes (it was a bit stressful!).

Thank you to Zicasso for pairing us with our travel agency and their representative, who was wonderful and attentive. She checked in on us during the trip and surprised us with complimentary champagne for our 30th anniversary! She made sure everything during our 14 days around London, Jersey (an English Channel Island), Normandy, and Paris was very smooth, with professional tours, private drivers, and seamless connection points.

We couldn't have asked for better private and small-group guides, and I highly recommend them all. The guide in London was extremely knowledgeable, patient, and flexible while showing us around Soho and downtown. Another guide gave us background on past and present events for the tour of Windsor Castle. He was hilarious and an absolute treasure. Our other guide was a fantastic historian and showed us around Mont St. Michel on its 1,000th anniversary. Another guide took us on the most delicious Normandy cheese, cider, and Calvados tour, educating us on the processes. Our Giverny guide got us into Monet's Garden early, before the crowds, allowing for gorgeous pictures. Lastly, our St. Germain Secret Food tour guide took us to a Basque restaurant, where food and wine were so good you never want to leave.