US Family holiday in the UK + France

US Family holiday in the UK + France

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h0b0

Original Poster:

7,616 posts

197 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
Thank you for all the input here.london is back on. Ended up with a Mews house off portobello road. This one has parking as well so we may do Windsor as a day trip.


You guys have done a great job selling the UK because we are leaning towards not going over to France. Right now we may tour a lot of the suggestions but I’m keen to not make it a driving holiday. I’m going to look at grouping and see if we can hit a lot from a couple of strategic locations. I’m tempted to rent somewhere in central Manchester as I can drop in places easily and my father can visit us. It also means places like Chester are within easy reach.

Probably going to have a 3rd base in Edinburgh. Researching that now.

theplayingmantis

3,800 posts

83 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
Zod said:
theplayingmantis said:
Vaud said:
theplayingmantis said:
went on a school trip to futuroscope 15 years ago. it was crap and boring then!
It's probably changed a little bit since then to be fair... looks like a pretty good set of attractions for younger kids:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futuroscope
also it was all in french....!
Yes, well now you can stay in the UK, like a good little monoglot Brexiteer.
whoosh...

edit.retracted, apologies i cant read!

Edited by theplayingmantis on Wednesday 28th February 14:22

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
I love PH.

Vaud

50,577 posts

156 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
SpeckledJim said:
I love PH.
Only in a pleasant Q&A about a potential holiday could you get a mix of helpful genuine advice.

And then a minor shoot out.

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
Vaud said:
SpeckledJim said:
I love PH.
Only in a pleasant Q&A about a potential holiday could you get a mix of helpful genuine advice.

And then a minor shoot out.
Based on an unwarranted non-sequiteur remoaner-related insult, and then compounded by a reading error!

Great work team. Go UK!

theplayingmantis

3,800 posts

83 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
SpeckledJim said:
Vaud said:
SpeckledJim said:
I love PH.
Only in a pleasant Q&A about a potential holiday could you get a mix of helpful genuine advice.

And then a minor shoot out.
Based on an unwarranted non-sequiteur remoaner-related insult, and then compounded by a reading error!

Great work team. Go UK!
apologies i cant read.

also had to google monoglot.

although my education wasnt entirely to waste as i had assumed it meant one langauge from the compound words, despite my a* in gsce french, it is true though i forgot it all. But hey its the lingua franca (ironic) that what comes with ruling the world. once. up the brexit.

on topic educational and in foreign language, not one for young kids imo, and no longer relevant as hes mugging france off.


theplayingmantis

3,800 posts

83 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
i wouldnt stay in manchester, i would stay in wilmslow or alderley edge. the country side of the cheshire plain is nice and you in easy reach of manchester and the peaks, and theres some very nice rental houses (palaces) around there.

Zod

35,295 posts

259 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
quotequote all
theplayingmantis said:
apologies i cant read.

also had to google monoglot.

although my education wasnt entirely to waste as i had assumed it meant one langauge from the compound words, despite my a* in gsce french, it is true though i forgot it all. But hey its the lingua franca (ironic) that what comes with ruling the world. once. up the brexit.

on topic educational and in foreign language, not one for young kids imo, and no longer relevant as hes mugging france off.
I was a bit short-tempered this morning.

h0b0

Original Poster:

7,616 posts

197 months

Friday 2nd March 2018
quotequote all
theplayingmantis said:
i wouldnt stay in manchester, i would stay in wilmslow or alderley edge. the country side of the cheshire plain is nice and you in easy reach of manchester and the peaks, and theres some very nice rental houses (palaces) around there.
My father used to own TV shops in the Wilmslow area so spent a lot of time. I know its a nice area so will look into it as an option

The next challenge is renting a car. I once rented the exact same car I owned at the time. My kids could not understand how we drove our car to the airport, got on a plane and flew for 2 hours to then be greeted by our car. They concluded it was in the luggage hold and I did not correct them for the entire holiday.

I have gone with Volvo XC90s in the past but since the new model they are not available to rent or are too expensive. This being Piston Heads I want to rent something decent. At the moment I am looking at $1200 for a Merc E class for 2 weeks. Not really that thrilling though. Does anyone have advice on renting decent cars in my budget from Heathrow?

h0b0

Original Poster:

7,616 posts

197 months

Friday 2nd March 2018
quotequote all
Our flights are booked for heathrow now. It was a bit of a “surprise” booking. I think it was Tony Blair that put the taxes up for flying out of the UK it made a 400 pound flight into 6-700 pounds. We found it cheaper to fly into the UK and out of a European country. This time though, we found flights out of Heathrow that were cheapest so jumped on them. Our last stop will be London as I found a 4 bed house in Nottinghill for reasonable money and jumped on that. It comes with a parking space.


Agreed with airport rentals being more expensive. Some places are charging $200 convenience fee. But, with small kids taxi and uber isn’t ideal as we would need to put their car seats in. Trains are workable and that’s one reason why I was looking to stay near Victoria station originally.

I hoped to make trips out to Windsor while in London as well to justify the car. However, in the past I have rented a car to drive to accommodation and then dropped it off. When leaving I rented another car for the day to
Drive to the airport. Not ideal but not that expensive when compared to taxis and much easier with car seats.

In the states, I have a Cayenne. we have rented Touregs previously but strangely only in the US. If they were available to rent in the UK I’d look for that as a benchmark.

The pieces are coming together. We are still undecided on France or Ireland.

leyorkie

1,641 posts

177 months

Sunday 4th March 2018
quotequote all
Just remembered this place, if you are into castles and stuff. Western France Vendee region.

https://www.puydufou.com/en

jonny996

2,618 posts

218 months

Monday 5th March 2018
quotequote all
leyorkie said:
Just remembered this place, if you are into castles and stuff. Western France Vendee region.

https://www.puydufou.com/en
i was there a few years ago, brilliant