US Family holiday in the UK + France

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My family and I are heading over to the UK the August. I grew up in northern England but my wife and kids are American. Im looking to do the most touristy thing possible outside of London. My kids like castles and places like Disney I.e. normal kids. Chester was a 1 day hit with the wife as it felt like the reality Disney may have based parts of Epcot on.

Anywhere in the UK except London due to having that leg booked. Plan is to also spend time in Paris and rural France as well. Any similar suggestions? Budget in rural France is open as I would consider a chateaux in the champagne region and have my UK family meet up with us.

Kids are 4 and 6 and budget is around 400 pounds a night for uk.

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nickfrog said:

Yipper said:

Edinburgh (castle).
Chamonix (Mont Blanc).

Logistically very rational

Getting some great ideas.

I have to say Yipper surprises me with every post. We did Chamonix last year and the kids loved it. I will warn people with younger kids though that the altitude at the top of Aguil de Midi screws with little minds and sends them crazy.

Edinburgh is also under consideration. It came into the list because you can get cheap flights from NY state to EDI. In the end we are flying into Heathrow though. To add some further details, I have offices in Glasgow and Bournemouth and I’m considering relocating to either place. I could stay in Portsmouth and day trip to Bournemouth for example. Or stay in Bournemouth if it had enough to offer.

I like the idea of Wales. I considered Cotswold as well. Is Windsor worth visiting? Renting a car no issue but would fly if it’s further than Manchester.

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On the Chamonix and Annecy point. I used to go to La Clusaz every year. It’s just down the road from Annecy.

As I mentioned before, the kids loved Chamonix. We took a gamble on an air b&b with terrible photos and it turned out to be fantastic. Getting there was a bit of an ordeal as the connection in a Frankfurt wasn’t possible. This meant by the time we arrived in Geneve the hire car place was closed. Lesson learnt there. Had to get a car from the usual suspects and ended up with a “V-Class” merc. I.e. a Vito with leather seats.

By the time we got to Chamonix it was dark and the kids were asleep. In the morning we flicked the shutter switches and were met with the best view of Mt Blanc possible. The kids still want to move to Chamonix.

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TVR Moneypit said:

Add in a couple of days at Portmerion https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/ and spend your time telling people that you are not a number, you're a free man. Snowdonia is only a stones throw away.

From there you could head a bit North to Liverpool if you were so inclined, or across to the beautiful Peak District with all that Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds https://royalarmouries.org/leeds/leeds-things-to-s... has to offer, (including a church steeple gone wrong at Chesterfield) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_an...

Whilst your in this neck of the woods you could also visit Matlock Bath and the Heights of Abraham http://www.heightsofabraham.com/, Eyam, where the great plague was brought to a halt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam and Chatsworth, Haddon or Hardwick Country Houses and Peveril and Bolsover Castles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatsworth_House
https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/things-to-do/cha...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddon_Hall
http://www.haddonhall.co.uk/
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardwick-hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peveril_Castle
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/pe...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsover_Castle
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/bo...

Whilst your here, you might as well have a proper Bakewell Tart from Bakewell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakewell

And not forgetting Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, planned at Revolution House in Chesterfield, (I used to live just around the corner from there)

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g209...
http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/revolution-hou...

Perhaps the kids might enjoy a bit of Robin Hood at Sherwood Forest?

https://www.forestholidays.co.uk/locations/heart-o...

Or motor racing, (including the amazing museum) at Donnington Park? http://www.donington-park.co.uk/

And if you are in this neck of the woods, all of the above links are within a 50 mile radius. Added to which the breathtaking scenery, many, many very good local restaurants, friendly locals, great locally brewed beers, http://www.mitchellswine.co.uk/home/about_us/ (I used to deliver beer to there), cheap prices and did I mention some of the best driving roads in the world?

As for France? fk France. It's full of French. Spend your extra time right here in the Peak District instead.

You can thank me when you get here


fk France, it's full of French. Spend your extra time in the Peak District instead are trademarks of TVR Moneypit Tours Ltd


Edited to add;

If your kids like castles, you won't find many much older than this place, the Stone Age fort at Carl Wark, just outside of Hathersage, about 10 miles south from the centre of Sheffield; http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=5510

Which if you're walking up to, you'll likely pass this, the Toads mouth; https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/toads-mouth

After which, you'll be wanting to get something decent to eat, so I'd highly recommend here; https://www.vintageinn.co.uk/restaurants/yorkshire... I went there last week for Sunday lunch)

And whilst you're nearby, you can visit the crash site of several aircraft;

Gloster Meteor at Millthorpe; http://nicwhe8.freehostia.com/millthorpe/1955/1955... ( I used to lie there)
B29 Superfortress, (like Enola Gay which bombed Hiroshima) http://www.jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex/B29%20crash%20sit...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXw7pVI3kKA (from 6.30)
In fact there has been that many within a 25 mile radius of here, I might as well just direct you to this site https://paulbesley.blog/2017/05/08/aircraft-wrecks...

Maybe ancient Pinfolds is your thing? http://www.derbyshireheritage.co.uk/Menu/Archaeolo... like the one in Barlow, (I used to live there)

Or hows about a row of shops 1100 years old? Well, there's some in Dronfield, on Church Street, opposite the church, which itself dates from 1125.
After which, a spot of lunch at the Blue Stoopshttps://www.bluestoops.co.uk/ , (both me and my Mum used to work there), or the Green Dragon http://www.greendragondronfield.co.uk/ which Michael Caine used to own ("Your only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!")

Perhaps visit Blue John cavern? https://www.bluejohn-cavern.co.uk/

Alton Towers ain't that far away either https://www.altontowers.com/

I'm starting to get bored selling the area to you now. In a nutshell, this neck of the woods is a wonderful place to visit.

Edited by TVR Moneypit on Saturday 24th February 21:30

We really appreciate the time you spent on this. Will be doing a lot more research based on this.

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numtumfutunch said:

^^^^^^ kind of what he said but with emphasis on the Chatsworth bit
Colonials love it
House and gardens are great, food outlets pretty good and adventure playground excellent for kids

For the France bit the Loire would deliver
Chateaus (yes, I know) by the shedfull inc a few claiming to be the inspiration for Disney, loads of wine related stuff and the tank museum in Saumur is ace

I went to Chatsworth as a kid so may take the kids and relive my childhood. We could do style mill as well.

Wine you say?.......if I rent an auto my 6 year old could drive.

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Not sure about driving to France yet. Will look into insurance issues.

It looks like my accommodation in London has fallen through so looking for a 3 bed place with ac in locations suitable for tourists. The place I had booked was near Victoria and had 2 parking spots. If I have parking, I don’t mind renting a car for the full 2 weeks and getting something nicer.

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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.

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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?

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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.