For a first trip that takes in both cities in a week, spend four nights in London and three in Paris. Fly into London and home from Paris, and cross on a mid-morning Eurostar on day five. The jet-lagged first day then falls in an English-speaking city with a direct train from the airport, and the UK's departure tax stays off your flight home.
Things to Know Before
- Split the week four nights in London and three in Paris, with the Eurostar on the morning of day five.
- Book one ticket into London and home from Paris: UK Air Passenger Duty on a long-haul economy seat is £102 to £106 from April 2026, against a €40 French levy.
- Most visitors need a £20 UK ETA before they fly; registration with the EU's Entry/Exit System for the Paris leg is free and happens at St Pancras.
- Every Eurostar border check happens in London, and Standard gates close 30 minutes before departure.
- Put the London days on Wednesday to Friday and the Louvre on the Monday, because the Louvre closes every Tuesday.
- Tap one contactless card in London, capped at £8.90 a day in Zones 1 and 2; in Paris, buy €2.55 tickets on your phone or a €2 Navigo Easy card.
The Week at a Glance
| Day | City | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1, Tuesday | London | Land at Heathrow, Piccadilly line to a base in Bloomsbury, early night |
| 2, Wednesday | London | Westminster Abbey, the Churchill War Rooms, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square |
| 3, Thursday | London | The Tower of London at 09:00, Borough Market, St Paul's Cathedral and the South Bank |
| 4, Friday | London | The British Museum, then the Natural History Museum or the V&A in South Kensington |
| 5, Saturday | London to Paris | Mid-morning Eurostar, bags to the hotel, Montmartre in the afternoon |
| 6, Sunday | Paris | The Eiffel Tower, then the Seine on foot |
| 7, Monday | Paris | The Louvre at 09:00, then the Tuileries Garden |
| 8, Tuesday | Paris | RER B to Charles de Gaulle and the flight home |
That is seven nights, with the flight home on day eight.
How Should You Split a Week Between London and Paris?
Give London four nights and Paris three. Day one in London goes to the flight and jet lag, and the Eurostar takes the morning of day five, so the split leaves three full days in London and two and a half in Paris. That is what a first visit needs for each city's main sights without a daily sprint.
London takes the extra night because its big sights sit in three separate areas that each fill a day: Westminster, where the Abbey and Parliament are; the City and the river, with the Tower and St Paul's; and the museums of Bloomsbury and South Kensington. Paris puts its two booked sights, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, on one morning each, and fills the rest of each day with walking that costs nothing: Montmartre, the Seine and the Tuileries.
If Paris matters more to you, flip it to three nights in London and four in Paris. London then loses its museum day, which is the easiest one to drop, because the British Museum and the Natural History Museum are free and will still be free next time.
Which City Should Come First, London or Paris?
London, for most visitors flying in from North America, Australia or New Zealand. You land tired in an English-speaking city with a direct Tube line from Heathrow, you ride the Eurostar once, and you fly home from Paris, which keeps the UK's Air Passenger Duty off your long-haul ticket home.
The Piccadilly line runs from Heathrow to Russell Square in Bloomsbury and on to King's Cross St Pancras without a change, for £5.90 at peak times or £4.00 off-peak on a contactless card at 2026 fares. A hotel in Bloomsbury then does two jobs: it is a short walk from the British Museum, and it is 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the Eurostar terminal, so day five starts with a walk rather than a transfer with suitcases.
If your fares point at a different London airport, compare the transfer cost before you commit. Our breakdown of which London airport to fly into costs all six, and only two of them sit inside the Tube's fare zones.
Paris first makes sense in two cases: when flights into Paris are much cheaper, or when a fixed date such as a show or a match anchors the end of the trip in London. The plan works the same way in reverse, with one difference covered below: Eurostar checks your UK ETA before you board in Paris.
Fly Into London, Home From Paris
Book one multi-city ticket, often called an open-jaw, into London and out of Paris, rather than a return to London. You cross the Channel once instead of twice, you do not spend the last morning of the trip on a train back, and your flight home leaves from a country that charges less departure tax: roughly £70 (about US$90) less per economy seat.
The UK charges Air Passenger Duty on every flight that leaves a UK airport. From 1 April 2026 it is £102 (about US$135) in economy to Band B countries, which include the United States and Canada, and £106 (about US$140) to Band C, which includes Australia and New Zealand, according to HM Revenue and Customs' published rates. In premium economy and above the rates are £244 and £253.
France's equivalent is its solidarity levy on air tickets. Since 1 March 2025 it has been €40 (about US$45) in economy and €120 in business on flights to countries whose capital lies more than 5,500 km (about 3,400 miles) away, which covers all four of those countries, as the French government's public service site sets out.
Both countries add airport and security charges on top, and airlines price multi-city fares separately from returns, so compare the full fare for both shapes of ticket before you book. The tax gap simply means the open-jaw ticket starts about £70 ahead.
What Paperwork Do You Need for London and Paris?
Most visitors from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU (Irish citizens aside) need a UK ETA, which costs £20 and must be approved before you board. For the Paris leg, non-EU travellers register with the EU's Entry/Exit System at St Pancras, which is free. ETIAS, the EU's own travel permit, is not running yet.
The UK ETA
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation costs £20 (about US$27) per person, children included, and lasts two years or until the passport it is linked to expires. Apply on the UK ETA app or on GOV.UK at least three working days before you fly. The airline checks it before it lets you board, so it cannot be sorted out on arrival. Our guide to the UK ETA covers who cannot hold one, dual British citizens among them, and what the £20 does not buy.
EES at St Pancras
The EU's Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, and it replaces passport stamps with a digital record of your face and fingerprints. On the Eurostar, France runs its border inside St Pancras, so non-EU travellers register before boarding: a passport scan, a face image and four fingerprints at a self-service kiosk before the ticket gates, then a French officer completes the record. Children under 12 give no fingerprints, and EU citizens skip the step entirely. It costs nothing, and Eurostar's recommended arrival time already allows for it.
ETIAS
ETIAS is the EU's planned €20 travel authorisation for visitors who do not need a visa, valid for three years. It was scheduled for the last quarter of 2026, but the EU's official portal now says only that it is not in operation and collects no applications. Check the EU's travel portal when you book, and ignore any site that offers to process an ETIAS today.
How Does the Eurostar From London to Paris Work?
Eurostar runs from St Pancras International to Paris Gare du Nord in about two and a quarter hours on the fastest trains. Every check happens in London: ticket gates, security, the UK exit check and French entry. You step off in Paris with nothing left to do. Standard and Plus gates close 30 minutes before departure.
Arrive by the time printed on your ticket, which carries the latest recommended arrival time and at St Pancras is usually more than an hour before departure; Eurostar's own check-in page tells you to go by the ticket rather than a fixed rule. Queues build quickly when several trains leave close together, and reaching the gate after it closes means a missed train, not a rushed one.
Book the Eurostar the same week as the flights. Fares are priced like airline seats, with the cheapest Standard fares selling first, and weekend trains are the busiest. Paris is an hour ahead of London all year, so a mid-morning train from St Pancras reaches Gare du Nord in time for a late lunch.
Luggage is the easy part. In Standard each adult can take two large bags up to 85 cm (about 33 inches) long plus one piece of hand luggage, with no weight limit and no liquids rule, which is more than most airlines allow on the flight you arrive on.
The London Days: Three Areas in Three Days
Spend the three full London days by area: Westminster and royal London first, then the Tower, the City and the river, then the museums of Bloomsbury and South Kensington. Start on a Wednesday. The Tower of London opens at 09:00 only Tuesday to Saturday, Borough Market closes on Mondays, and Westminster Abbey has no sightseeing on Sundays.
That is the shape of our three-day London itinerary, which times each stop and prices every ticket, and it slots into this week unchanged. A Wednesday start also puts the museum day on a Friday, when the British Museum stays open until 20:30.
Two bookings decide whether the Thursday works. Sky Garden, the free viewing garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street, releases its tickets every Monday morning three weeks ahead, so that reminder goes in your calendar before you fly. The Tower of London sells timed tickets at £37 for an adult (about US$49), and the 09:00 slot is the one to hold.
For getting around, tap the same contactless card or phone on every ride. Transport for London caps the fares automatically: no day in Zones 1 and 2 costs more than £8.90 (about US$12), and the day you arrive from Heathrow caps at the Zones 1 to 6 rate of £16.30. Two cards, or a card and a phone, count as two separate payers and cap separately.
The Paris Days: Two Bookings and a Lot of Walking
Paris gets an arrival afternoon and two full days. Put the Eiffel Tower on the Sunday and the Louvre on the Monday: the Louvre closes every Tuesday, which on this plan is the day you fly home. Most of what fills the time between the two, from Montmartre to the banks of the Seine, costs nothing.
Day 5: Montmartre, Without the Suitcases
Go to the hotel before you go anywhere else. The Eiffel Tower does not admit large luggage and has no left-luggage office, and a suitcase is a poor companion on Montmartre's steps. Montmartre is within walking distance of Gare du Nord, and Sacré-Cœur at the top of the hill is the view for a first evening in the city.
Day 6: The Eiffel Tower and the Seine
Book a timed ticket on the Eiffel Tower's official site. In 2026 an adult pays €36.70 (about US$42) for the summit by lift, €28 to climb the stairs to the second floor and take the lift from there, and €23.50 for the second floor by lift. The tower warns that the summit can close in severe weather or at peak times, so take the earliest slot you can reach. Afterwards, walk east along the Seine.
Day 7: The Louvre at Opening
The Louvre opens at 09:00 and closes on Tuesdays. Since 14 January 2026 an adult from outside the European Economic Area pays €32 (about US$36), against €22 for EEA citizens and residents, and under-18s go free. The museum recommends booking a time slot for everyone, free visitors included, and every exit is final, so eat before you go in or at one of its cafés. On Mondays it closes at 18:00; its late openings, until 21:00, fall on Wednesdays and Fridays, when this plan has you in London. The Tuileries Garden, free to enter, runs west from the museum towards Place de la Concorde.
Getting Around Paris
Paris gives visitors no automatic daily cap on a bank card. A single Metro-Train-RER ticket costs €2.55 (about US$2.90) in 2026 and covers 120 minutes across the metro and RER, according to the 2026 Paris transport fares. Buy tickets on your phone in the Bonjour RATP app or Apple Wallet, or on a €2 Navigo Easy card from a station machine. A €12.30 day pass pays for itself from the fifth ride. The regular ticket does not reach the airports: for Charles de Gaulle on day eight, buy the €14 airport ticket and take RER B, which stops at Gare du Nord.
What to Book Before You Leave Home
Book the UK ETA and the Eurostar first, then the timed tickets that sell out: Sky Garden, the Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Everything else on this plan, from the British Museum to Montmartre, can wait until you are there, though the free London museums also offer timed tickets that shorten the wait at the door.
| Booking | When | 2026 price per adult |
|---|---|---|
| UK ETA | At least three working days before the flight | £20 (about US$27) |
| Eurostar, London to Paris | The week you book the flights | Priced by demand |
| Sky Garden | The Monday three weeks before your Tower day | Free |
| Tower of London, 09:00 slot | Before you fly | £37 (about US$49) |
| Eiffel Tower summit | Before you fly | €36.70 by lift, €28 by stairs and lift |
| Louvre time slot | Before you fly | €32 from outside the EEA (about US$36) |
| eSIM covering the UK and France | The week before you fly | Varies by plan |
One Phone Plan for Two Countries
Check your own phone plan first, then buy one regional eSIM that names both the UK and France if your plan charges for either. The UK sits outside the EU's roam-like-at-home rules, so a plan built for travel within the EU can still charge extra the moment you land at Heathrow.
Install the eSIM at home over wifi and switch it on when you land; many travel eSIMs, Airalo's among them, start their validity on first connection rather than on purchase. A UK-only plan is cheaper per gigabyte but covers only four of your seven nights, while a regional plan covers the whole week on one profile. Our round-up of which eSIMs work in the UK also explains the three cases where you should buy nothing at all.
What If You Have Five Days, or Ten?
With five days, spend three nights in London and two in Paris, and give up the London museum day and one of the two big Paris bookings. With ten, give each city five nights and add a day out from each: Windsor, Oxford or Bath by train from London, and Versailles from Paris.
The advice on the order of the cities, the open-jaw ticket and the paperwork holds at any length; only the number of sights changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a week enough for London and Paris?
Yes, for a first visit that sticks to the main sights. Seven nights gives London three full days and Paris two and a half, enough for Westminster, the Tower, the British Museum, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. It is not enough for day trips, which need ten days or more.
Do I need a UK ETA if I arrive in London by Eurostar?
Yes. Since 25 February 2026 Eurostar, like the airlines, has been required to check UK ETAs before boarding, so a trip that starts in Paris needs the ETA approved before you reach Gare du Nord. It costs £20, lasts two years and covers every visit to the UK in that time.
How early should I get to St Pancras for the Eurostar?
Go by the arrival time printed on your ticket, which allows for security, the UK exit check, French entry and EES registration. At St Pancras it is usually more than an hour before departure. Standard and Plus gates close 30 minutes before the train leaves, and anyone who arrives after that misses it.
Can I take a big suitcase on the Eurostar?
Yes. In Standard each adult can take two large bags up to 85 cm long plus one piece of hand luggage, with no weight limit and no liquids rule. That is more than most airlines allow, so the Eurostar leg will not limit what you pack for the week.
Do I need ETIAS to visit Paris?
Not yet. ETIAS, the EU's planned €20 travel authorisation, is not in operation, and the EU's official portal takes no applications. Non-EU visitors register with the Entry/Exit System instead, free, at St Pancras before boarding. Check the EU's travel portal when you book in case a start date has been set.