Tower Bridge over the Thames at sunset, the London start of the 9-day London to Paris tour
London to Paris in 9 days · United Kingdom, France · land only For India · 2 countries · 9 days · land only · 2 self-guided days · no paid entries bundled · Daiga and her team in our own minibus end-to-end

UK & France · 9 days

2 countries · 9 days · land only 💶 €730 Land + Guiding only · pay on arrival ⛴️ Ferry / Channel Tunnel crossing (Day 5) 🛌 2 self-guided days (Day 4, Day 8) 🎟️ No paid entries bundled 🚐 Our minibus point-to-point · no rush-hour Tube 🛂 Two visas · UK + Schengen (we help) 👥 Min 7 · max 14 · Daiga and her team 👶 Child car seats supplied free with notice 🥬 Indian food + provisions on request
Reserve with zero deposit €730 per person · Land + Guiding only · · + taxes (EU VAT / India GST) loading INR…
Photo: Tower Bridge, London (stock, Unsplash)
Duration
9 days · Day 1 LHR meet → Day 9 CDG drop
Group size
Min 7 · max 14 per departure
Length options
9 default · reverse · 12-day extended
Pricing
€730 Land + Guiding only · 5 guided days × €130 + ~€80 ferry/Tunnel · no paid entries bundled · + taxes (EU VAT / India GST)
Operator
Fully insured EU operator · Daiga and her team

Highlights

Daiga and her team meet your flight at London Heathrow on Day 1 in our minibus and stay with you on-tour until the airport drop-off at CDG on the last day of the tour.
Minibus point-to-point in London and Paris on the guided days: AC, comfortable, drops you at the door of each headline. Elderly guests can nap on board between stops; shopping bags ride in the minibus between locations.
20+ UNESCO + TripAdvisor sites — we take you to the free ones (Westminster, Tower of London exterior, Buckingham, St James’s + Hyde Park, the Cotswolds villages, Amiens Cathedral, Tuileries + Champs-Élysées + Trocadéro + Sacré-Cœur + Seine + the Versailles gardens). Every paid interior is an optional upgrade, not bundled — we keep the published price honest and let each guest decide.
Min 7 guests per departure (under 7, we reschedule). Max 14 in our minibus. Daiga and her team end-to-end across both countries.
Child car seats supplied free with two weeks’ notice (infant, toddler, booster). This is the seat itself, not the child ticket free. Child tour price is discounted on the venue-ticket saving only — transport and guiding cost the same per head.
Indian provisions on advance request (frozen paratha, ready-meal sachets, masala packets) + restaurant-booking help in London and Paris. Specific desi picks live in the Indian-food FAQ block below.
Day 2 walking tour of London + minibus point-to-point: Westminster Abbey exterior, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the 11am Changing of the Guard, St James’s Park
West End theatre on request — tell Daiga at booking what kind of show you fancy (musical, drama, family-friendly, a name actor on a limited run); she sources London theatre tickets at a discount and will help find good seats. Day 2 or Day 4 evening fits best.
Day 3 day-trip in our minibus: the Cotswolds villages — Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury, Stow-on-the-Wold — all free outdoor, slow country lanes, an optional country-pub lunch (a Sunday roast if your dates fall right). Bath UNESCO town walk is a request swap.
Day 4 self-guided rest day in London (not charged). Free museums (British Museum, V&A Nehru Gallery, RAF Museum London), the paid interiors at each guest’s pace (Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the Shard view from the top, afternoon tea), a stadium tour (Wembley, Lord’s, the Oval or Wimbledon Museum), a signature walk (South Bank via Borough Market, Brick Lane subcontinent corridor, Notting Hill / Portobello, Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner), or central London shopping (Oxford, Bond, Covent Garden, Knightsbridge / Harrods). The London Pass through us at the corporate rate covers most of the paid stops in one go. Daiga and the minibus are off that day; she is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.
A self-guided rest day every 3 days (Day 4 in London, Day 8 in Paris) keeps the trip pace humane and lets each guest decide what an entry ticket is worth.
Day 5 cross-channel road trip in our minibus — London → White Cliffs of Dover viewpoint → ferry or Channel Tunnel → Calais → lunch break at Amiens UNESCO Cathedral → Paris hotel
Place du Tertre Montmartre portrait sitting on Day 6 by Sacré-Cœur — the licensed artists’ square where Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo worked. Pose for a charcoal portrait or street-scene painting while you watch (~€30-80, direct to the artist). A longer Day 8 self-guided return is the unhurried version.
Day 6 walking tour of Paris + minibus point-to-point: Tuileries, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Trocadéro view of the Eiffel, Sacré-Cœur, Seine + Notre-Dame exterior
Day 7 day-trip in our minibus to Versailles UNESCO — Daiga walks the group through the gardens, the Trianon estate and the town of Versailles (all free); the palace interior (~€20 at gate) is an optional upgrade each guest can take through the Paris Museum Pass we pre-buy at the corporate rate. Tuesday opening for the quietest crowd; the Grandes Eaux Musicales summer fountain show is optional on weekends.
Day 8 self-guided rest day in Paris (not charged). Free museums (Petit Palais, Musée Carnavalet, Musée Bourdelle), or the paid interiors at your own pace (Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Guimet Asian-art, Eiffel summit, the Versailles palace interior if you didn’t do it on Day 7). The Paris Pass® Plus or Paris Museum Pass through us at the corporate rate covers most of the above. Daiga and the minibus are off that day; she is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.
Movie-themed London afternoon on request — Bollywood (DDLJ Trafalgar Square, Namastey London Tower Bridge, Brick Lane), Hollywood (King’s Cross Platform 9¾, Leadenhall as Diagon Alley, Notting Hill blue door, Paddington Bear), or both. Daiga writes the route.

Why nine days, two countries, two self-guided days, nothing paid bundled

London and Paris are the two cities most Indian travellers want to see in Europe. Five guided days cover the routes and the free outdoor places; two self-guided days (Day 4 in London, Day 8 in Paris) sit between them so every guest can pace their own holiday and decide what is worth a paid ticket.

Every paid attraction sits as an optional upgrade. The Tower of London, the Shard, Westminster Abbey interior, the Louvre, the Eiffel summit, the Versailles palace interior — none of them are in the €730. We pre-buy the city passes (London Pass, Paris Pass, Paris Museum Pass) at our corporate rate (~20% below gate) and pass the saving on. If you don’t want any of it, you don’t pay for any of it. That’s why our published price is lower than a coach tour that lumps in tickets you may not use.

The Day 5 channel crossing happens entirely in our own minibus — ferry from Dover or Channel Tunnel from Folkestone, decided on the morning. A White Cliffs viewpoint on the way out, a lunch break at the UNESCO-listed Notre-Dame d’Amiens on the way in, then Paris by evening. Land only, end to end. The same vehicle that picked you up at Heathrow on Day 1 drops you at CDG on Day 9.

Food options

Both London and Paris are food paradises for anyone willing to venture out for a gastronomic adventure — modern British, French bistros, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, Spanish. We’re happy to help with table bookings, send the minibus to pick the group up from the hotel and drop the group at whichever restaurant the group has chosen for the evening, and bring everyone back afterwards.

On the practical side, we recommend booking accommodation close to a big supermarket and a small cluster of restaurants — most central London and central Paris areas meet that bar comfortably. If the apartment or hotel room has a kitchenette, fridge or microwave, that opens up plenty of cook-in options too. We can carry a small selection of Indian provisions from our base on advance request (frozen paratha, frozen samosa, ready-meal sachets, masala packets, instant filter coffee) if you’d like home-comfort flavours on hand for a quiet evening in.

Specific desi-food picks — South Indian veg restaurants, Indian provision stores, Gujarati halwai shops, the supermarket aisles worth knowing about — live in the Indian food + provisions FAQ below so this part of the page stays open. The main itinerary leaves the evenings flexible; tell us what you fancy and we’ll make it happen.

A film or two to set the mood before you go

A handful of films Daiga recommends if you want to soak up either city before the flight. None of these are essential; they just put a bit of texture under the rooftops you’ll see from the Trocadéro or the South Bank.

Paris. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004) is the obvious pick — Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy walk from the Shakespeare and Company bookshop along the Seine to a courtyard off rue de l’Ancienne Comédie in real time, ninety minutes, no cuts. You could trace the route on the Day 8 self-guided day. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) for Montmartre — the Café des Deux Moulins on rue Lepic, the Sacré-Cœur steps, the small grocer on rue des Trois Frères. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011) for the Marais after dark, the Pont Alexandre III and the rive gauche cliché reframed kindly. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007) if you’re travelling with kids — the kitchen scenes were filmed in real Paris restaurants in pre-production sketches; the rooftop chase covers the Île de la Cité.

London. Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999) for W11 itself — the blue door at 280 Westbourne Park Road, the Travel Bookshop (now closed but the location remains), the Portobello Road market. Paddington and Paddington 2 (Paul King, 2014 and 2017) for west London and Paddington Station — the bronze Paddington Bear statue on Platform 1 is a half-minute photo stop on Day 4. About Time (Richard Curtis, 2013) sits half in Cornwall and half in Bloomsbury — the Fitzrovia streets you cross between Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street are most of the London half.

For the trip seam: the older British film A Canterbury Tale (Powell & Pressburger, 1944) shoots the Kent country you’ll cross on the Day 5 motorway down to Dover; Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) gives the Gare du Nord and the Gare Montparnasse a 1930s spell that mostly still holds. Watch one or two on the plane.

Detailed travel schedule — day-by-day

The first two days show in full by default; tap the button at the end of the visible days to read all of them.

Day1
UK · We meet your flight in our minibus

Day 1: London Heathrow pickup in our minibus, central transfer, hotel check-in

Daiga and her team meet your flight at LHR with a Barefoot Baltic sign. Drive in our minibus to your central London hotel (Kensington, South Kensington, Marylebone, Bloomsbury or Westminster, depending on what you’ve booked). Help with bags, check-in.

Rest of the day is yours. If you land in the morning and you’re up for it, Daiga can take the minibus into central London for a half-day intro: Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery’s free entry. The bundled airport pickup covers either pace.

Day 1 photos

Day at a glance · ~2,500 steps · ~25 km LHR → central London in our minibus, ~45 min outside rush hour · bundled (not charged separately)

Day2
UK · Guided walking tour of London + minibus point-to-point

Day 2: London with Daiga — Westminster, Buckingham, the Changing of the Guard

Our minibus picks the group up from the hotel after breakfast and drops at Westminster Bridge (Big Ben in front of you, Houses of Parliament on the right). On foot from there: the Westminster Abbey exterior (UNESCO; the interior is a ~£27 optional upgrade for the coronation chair and Poets’ Corner), then a loop past Parliament Square.

From there on foot: Whitehall, the Cenotaph, Horse Guards, Trafalgar Square, a coffee inside the National Gallery (free entry, the Rembrandt + Van Gogh + Turner rooms if there’s time). Up The Mall to Buckingham Palace exterior for the 11am Changing of the Guard (free, daily in summer, alternate days in winter). Wander into St James’s Park for the pelicans. Lunch at a Westminster pub.

The minibus then picks the group up from a Westminster pickup point and runs everyone point-to-point to the afternoon choice — Hyde Park + Speakers’ Corner at the north-east edge (the open-air free-speech tradition since 1872; Marx, Lenin and Orwell spoke here), a Knightsbridge walk past Harrods (free to enter; the food halls, the Egyptian Escalator, the Mughal-style Diana & Dodi memorial; expect 90 minutes if you wander the floors), the Tower of London exterior (interior ~£32 optional for the Crown Jewels and the Koh-i-Noor), the British Museum Asia Galleries (free entry, rooms 33/33a/33b for the South Asian collection), or the V&A Nehru Gallery of Indian Art (free entry, Tipu’s Tiger and the gold tiger-head finials). Shopping bags from any morning stops stay in the minibus between locations; elderly guests can nap on board between stops with the AC on. We avoid Underground rush hour entirely.

Evening is yours. Tell us what you fancy and we’ll either send a table booking or send the minibus to drop the group at a restaurant and bring everyone back. A West End theatre show fits a Day 2 evening well — tell Daiga at booking what kind of show you fancy (musical, drama, family-friendly) and she will help find good seats. She knows how to source theatre tickets at a discount; let her know early so she has time to work it. Indian-restaurant options live in the Indian food + provisions FAQ below.

Day 2 photos

Day at a glance · ~10,500 steps (less than a typical guided London day; the minibus cuts the walking) · minibus point-to-point and on foot in Westminster and the parks · 9+ sites (Westminster Abbey ext., Big Ben, Parliament Sq, Whitehall, Trafalgar Sq, National Gallery, Buckingham Palace ext., St James’s Park, Changing of the Guard) + one afternoon optional (Hyde Park + Speakers’ Corner / Harrods / Tower exterior / British Museum / V&A) + optional West End theatre evening

Day3
UK · Cotswolds villages day-trip in our minibus

Day 3: Cotswolds villages — Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury, Stow-on-the-Wold

~8:30am pickup from your hotel in our minibus. ~2h north-west on the M40 + the A40 to Bourton-on-the-Water, the “Venice of the Cotswolds” for its low stone bridges across the river Windrush. Park near the green, walk both sides of the river, stop at the Cotswold Motoring Museum exterior (the interior is a quirky paid option ~£7.95 if anyone fancies it). Coffee at the Bakery on the Water.

~25 min on to Bibury, the village William Morris called “the most beautiful in England”. Arlington Row — the 14th-century weavers’ cottages along the Coln — is the photo most people know without knowing it’s here. The walk is short; the village is quiet; the row is on the front of a UK passport. Free to wander.

Country-pub lunch optional. The Swan at Bibury or the Trout Inn at Lechlade both do a Sunday roast that explains the British weekend (~£18-26 per head; tell Daiga the day before and she books the table). On a weekday, a ploughman’s or a fish-and-chips lunch lands cheaper.

~25 min east to Stow-on-the-Wold, the wool town on the highest point of the Cotswold escarpment. The market square + the Norman door of St Edward’s Church (the famous yew-tree door, lit by the side window) make a 40-minute walk; a coffee at the Old Stocks Inn anchors it.

Return drive ~2h to London for the evening. The Cotswolds are all free outdoor — no entry tickets to anything — which is the whole point of Day 3 sitting here. The country lanes, the dry-stone walls and the cream-tea pace are why people fly to England in the first place.

Day 3 photos

Day at a glance · ~8,500 steps · ~340 km in our minibus (London→Bourton→Bibury→Stow→London, ~5 hrs driving) · 3 villages, all free outdoor · country-pub lunch optional · no paid entries bundled

Day4
UK · SELF-GUIDED day in London (not charged)

Day 4: Self-guided London — premium paid activities and free museums at each guest’s pace

This day is not charged. Day 4 sits after Day 1 (arrival), Day 2 (walking tour of London) and Day 3 (the Cotswolds villages day-trip) so the group has done three days back-to-back — this is the rest day to keep the trip pace humane and the trip cost down.

Free museums in central London. The British Museum (Asia Galleries for the South Asian collection), the V&A Nehru Gallery (Tipu’s Tiger) and Tate Britain are all free entry and walkable as a half-day loop. The RAF Museum London at Colindale (NW9) is also free entry — a substantial Battle of Britain + WW1/WW2 aircraft collection with an Indian-Air-Force / Royal Indian Air Force room that surfaces the South Asian pilots who flew with the RAF in both wars. Tube routes written up in advance. A free London day done right can easily out-museum a paid Louvre trip later in the week.

Or the paid interiors, at your own pace. Day 4 is the day for the bigger optional interiors — none of these are bundled in the €730; the published price stays honest and you pay only for what you want:

  • Tower of London interior (~£32) for the Crown Jewels + Koh-i-Noor + Yeoman Warder tour. ~3 hours.
  • Westminster Abbey interior (~£27) for the coronation chair + Poets’ Corner.
  • The Shard view from the top (~£32) — the 244-metre observation deck at 32 London Bridge Street, the highest viewing platform in western Europe; book a sunset slot in advance for the lit-up city at dusk.
  • Buckingham Palace State Rooms (~£32, August + September only) when the Royal Family is away.
  • Afternoon tea at Sketch, Claridge’s, Fortnum & Mason or the Wolseley (~£60-80 per head, advance booking required — tell us at booking and we’ll secure the table).
  • Kew Gardens UNESCO (~£22) — the world’s largest collection of living plants, a green day out for anyone tired of pavement.
  • Greenwich Maritime UNESCO half-day — Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory + prime meridian, Painted Hall.

Citypass through us at the corporate rate. The London Pass (Go City) bundles 80+ of the above (Tower of London, Westminster Abbey interior, the Shard, Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle, hop-on bus) on a single digital pass. Gate price ~£169 for 3 days adult; our corporate rate ~£135. Tell Daiga at booking which days you want the pass valid for; we pre-buy and you collect on Day 1. If your group skips the bundle, that’s fine too — the published €730 doesn’t pay for any of it.

Or a stadium pilgrimage — London is a sport-fan’s working museum, and the four headline grounds all run year-round behind-the-scenes tours bookable in advance:

  • Wembley Stadium tour (~£25, Brent, north-west London) — the FA Cup, England football, the Royal Box, the player tunnel. Same Tube line as the BAPS Mandir Neasden, so pair them in a half-day.
  • Lord’s Cricket Ground tour (~£32, St John’s Wood, NW8) — the home of cricket since 1814, the Long Room, the MCC museum, the Ashes urn. ~100 minutes; book a morning slot.
  • The Oval tour (~£25, Kennington, SE11) — Surrey CCC, the gasholder backdrop, the OCS Stand. Less famous than Lord’s, often where international Test history actually happened.
  • Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum + tour (~£28 combined, SW19, ~45 min from central London) — the trophies, Centre Court if no match is on, the museum’s Indian-tennis section. The championships run late June into early July; museum-only days are quieter.

Or a London signature walk — four walks Daiga keeps recommending, all free and all walkable from central:

  • London Bridge to Royal Festival Hall via Borough Market — ~2 km along the South Bank. Borough Market for the food stalls (open Tuesday to Saturday, free to wander), Shakespeare’s Globe + the Anchor pub, Tate Modern (free), the Millennium Bridge with the St Paul’s view, the Royal Festival Hall on Southbank Centre. One of the best free London afternoons anyone can build.
  • Brick Lane subcontinent walk — the East End migration corridor. The Brick Lane Jamme Masjid (1743 Huguenot chapel → 1819 Methodist → 1898 synagogue → 1976 Bangladeshi mosque, all one building); the curry-mile of Bangladeshi-Sylheti restaurants; Old Spitalfields Market for the street food and the vintage stalls; the Whitechapel Gallery on the High Street. The clearest reading of South Asian London in a single afternoon.
  • Notting Hill + Portobello Road — W11 pastel-coloured houses, the Portobello Road antiques and food market (best on a Saturday), the Travel Bookshop / blue-door corner from the 1999 film, Westbourne Grove for the design shops. Light, slow, photogenic.
  • Hyde Park + Speakers’ Corner on a Sunday — the open-air free-speech tradition is busiest on Sunday afternoons; Karl Marx, Lenin, Orwell and CLR James all stood and spoke here. The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the Serpentine Gallery (free) are a 20-minute walk west.

Or a movie-themed London afternoon — tell Daiga at booking which films your group cares about; she will write you a routing.

  • Bollywood London — DDLJ’s Trafalgar Square + the Indian High Commission on Aldwych, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham at the Bluewater Shopping Centre arches and Hounslow Gurdwara, Namastey London’s Tower Bridge + Trafalgar, Brick Lane (the 2003 Monica Ali novel + 2007 film).
  • Hollywood London — Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross + Leadenhall Market as Diagon Alley (Harry Potter, both free), the Notting Hill blue door + the Travel Bookshop site, Paddington Station for Paddington Bear and the bronze statue on Platform 1, MI6’s Vauxhall Cross building for Bond, the Borough Market footbridge for Bridget Jones.
  • South Indian on screen — Slumdog Millionaire’s St Pancras + the Tube night-shoots; The Lunchbox London-release event sites; Life of Pi’s Tilda Swinton interview locations. Niche, but possible.

Or central London shopping at your own pace — Oxford Street (the high-street flagships), Bond Street (the luxury houses + the Burlington Arcade behind), Covent Garden (the Piazza, the Apple Market, the street performers, Neal’s Yard), Leicester Square + the West End cinemas + M&M’s World, Knightsbridge / Harrods for the food halls and the Egyptian Escalator. The minibus is off on Day 4 but the shopping FAQ block further down this page covers the outlet centres too (Wembley Park, Bicester Village, Ashford for the Dover leg, Lakeside in Essex).

Or one of the Indian London neighbourhoods at your own pace — BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Neasden (largest Hindu temple outside India, free entry, ~1h Tube from central London), Southall “Little Punjab” with the Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara, or the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid (covered in the signature-walk list above). Tube routes written up in advance.

Evening: a West End theatre show fits this day well. Tell Daiga at booking what kind of show you fancy (musical, drama, family-friendly, a name actor on a limited run); she knows how to source London theatre tickets at a discount and will help find good seats. The earlier you tell her, the better the seats.

Daiga and the minibus are off on Day 4. She is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.

Day 4 photos

Day at a glance · self-guided rest day · Daiga and the minibus off · not charged · free museums (BM, V&A, Tate Britain, RAF Museum London) or premium paid interiors (Tower of London, Westminster Abbey int., afternoon tea, Kew, Greenwich) or a stadium pilgrimage (Wembley, Lord’s, the Oval, Wimbledon) or a signature walk (South Bank via Borough Market, Brick Lane subcontinent walk, Notting Hill / Portobello, Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner) or a movie-themed London afternoon (Bollywood / Hollywood routing) or central London shopping (Oxford, Bond, Covent Garden, Knightsbridge / Harrods) or Indian London neighbourhood walks (BAPS Neasden, Southall) · West End theatre evening on request — Daiga sources discount tickets

Day5
UK → FR · Cross-channel road trip in our minibus

Day 5: London → Dover → ferry or Channel Tunnel → Calais → Amiens UNESCO Cathedral → Paris

United Kingdom → France (the seam of the trip)

This is the land-only crossing day, end to end in our own minibus. We make the call on the morning — ferry from Dover to Calais (~90 minutes water, an open deck and the seagulls) or Channel Tunnel vehicle shuttle from Folkestone to Coquelles (~35 minutes through the tunnel, no sea sickness, faster on a rough-weather day). Both are bundled into the €730 Land + Guiding only price for the minibus and all seats; we book on the morning based on conditions and the next available crossing.

~8am Daiga picks the group up from the hotel. Luggage in the minibus, breakfast served on board if you didn’t have time at the hotel. Out of London on the M20, ~2 hours south-east.

~10:30am stretch + photo stop at the White Cliffs of Dover. We pull off at the Langdon Cliffs viewpoint above Dover, ten minutes off the motorway — the chalk cliffs, the ferries leaving for France in the distance, the lighthouse on the headland. Good 20-minute leg-stretch and a photo before the crossing. On a clear day the French coast is visible across the Channel.

Midday crossing. Either pull onto the Dover ferry as foot-passengers-with-vehicle (the minibus parks on the car deck; the group goes up to the passenger lounges; light lunch on board, duty-free if you want), or drive into the Channel Tunnel vehicle shuttle (the minibus parks on the rail car; the group stays in the minibus or steps out to stretch; the tunnel is 35 min). We arrive in France around 2pm local time (your watch moves forward an hour from UK time).

~3pm lunch break at Amiens. ~1h south of Calais on the A16 motorway. We park near the cathedral and walk a short distance to the Notre-Dame d’Amiens UNESCO Cathedral (begun 1220, completed mostly by 1270; one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in France, twice the volume of Notre-Dame de Paris; UNESCO since 1981; free entry). 30-minute walk inside, look up at the stone-carved west portal scenes, sit for a moment in the nave. Late lunch at a Place Gambetta brasserie outside the cathedral square — pizza, salad, plat du jour, whatever the group fancies.

~5pm on to Paris. ~1h 30min south on the A1. Daiga drops the group at the Paris hotel (Marais / Saint-Germain / 10th arr / 1st arr / 9th arr, depending on what you’ve booked) around 6:30pm. Slow evening to settle in. We’ll suggest a quiet bistro near the hotel if you want; or take a Marais walk on your own after sundown for the orientation.

Day 5 photos

Day at a glance · ~5,500 steps · ~570 km in our minibus end to end (London→Dover ~2h, crossing ~35min Channel Tunnel or ~90min ferry, Calais→Amiens ~1h, Amiens→Paris ~1h 30min) · ~9 hours door-to-door including cathedral break · bundled ferry / Channel Tunnel essential · 1 White Cliffs viewpoint + 1 UNESCO cathedral break stop

Day6
France · Guided walking tour of Paris + minibus point-to-point

Day 6: Paris with Daiga — Tuileries to Sacré-Cœur via the Trocadéro Eiffel view

The Paris walk Daiga has refined. Our minibus picks the group up from the hotel after breakfast and drops at the Tuileries Gardens (the 1564 Catherine de Médicis gardens, the Maréchal Joffre statue), then Place de la Concorde with the Luxor Obelisk (gifted by Egypt 1833, the oldest monument in Paris). On foot up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe exterior (the climb to the roof is optional ~€13).

The minibus picks the group up at the Arc and runs everyone across to the Trocadéro for the headline Eiffel Tower view from the right angle — no Metro line change with shopping bags. Lunch in a Marais or 7th arr bistro (table booked in advance by Daiga). Shopping bags from the morning ride in the minibus between stops; anyone who needs a sit-down rests on board with the AC on.

Afternoon Seine walk — Banks of the Seine UNESCO, Notre-Dame de Paris exterior (the cathedral reopened December 2024 after the 2019 fire; interior queue is now substantial but free), Île de la Cité, Berthillon ice cream on Île Saint-Louis. Minibus to Sacré-Cœur Montmartre for the Paris skyline at golden hour, then a short walk down to Place du Tertre — the small square behind the basilica where the licensed Montmartre street-painters set up their easels. Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo all worked from this neighbourhood; today the registered artists hold daily-rotating tableau spots on the square. A sit-down portrait or street-scene painting while you watch takes ~20-30 minutes; prices are negotiated direct with the artist (rough range €30-80 for a charcoal portrait, more for oils). Tell Daiga in the morning if anyone in the group wants to sit; she will give you the realistic timing and which artists guests have liked. Then back to the hotel.

Evening is yours. Restaurant bookings on request — both French bistros and Indian options sit in the Indian food + provisions FAQ below.

Day 6 photos

Day at a glance · ~12,500 steps (the minibus cuts the long Metro changes) · minibus point-to-point + on foot in Tuileries, Champs-Élysées, Marais & Montmartre · 9 sites (Tuileries, Concorde, Champs-Élysées, Arc ext., Trocadéro Eiffel view, Seine + Notre-Dame ext., Île de la Cité + Berthillon, Sacré-Cœur, Place du Tertre artists’ square) + optional portrait sitting on the square

Day7
France · Versailles gardens day-trip in our minibus

Day 7: Versailles UNESCO — gardens, the Trianon estate, the town

Our minibus picks the group up at 8:30am and drives to Versailles ~45 minutes south-west of Paris (we park at the Avenue de Paris long-stay car park, walk five minutes to the palace gates). We default to a Tuesday departure when possible — Monday is the palace’s closed day; Tuesday is the quietest weekday on the estate. Daiga walks the group along the entrance court, gives the history of the chateau from outside, then heads straight for the gardens.

The morning at the Versailles gardens — 800 hectares of formal Le Nôtre design, the Grand Canal, the Apollo fountain, the Bosquet de la Reine, the long walk west to the Trianon estate (the Grand Trianon + Petit Trianon + Marie Antoinette’s Hameau de la Reine hamlet). The gardens are free entry outside fountain-show weekends. Lunch in the small town of Versailles outside the palace gates, then a longer afternoon back in the gardens or the Hameau de la Reine.

The palace interior is optional, not bundled. Gate price ~€20 (~€32 with Trianon and the gardens on a fountain-show weekend). If any of the group want the Hall of Mirrors, the State Apartments and the Royal Chapel, two routes:

  • Buy at the gate on the day — we drop you, you queue, you come back to the gardens afterwards.
  • Take it via the Paris Museum Pass through us — the 4-day Paris Museum Pass (gate price ~€80, our corporate rate ~€64) covers Versailles palace, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle and the Arc roof. Tell us at booking which guests want it; we pre-buy and pass the saving on.

From late spring to early autumn, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the Grandes Eaux Musicales fountain show runs in the gardens (~€11 extra, optional). Late-afternoon minibus back to Paris. Free evening.

Day 7 photos

Day at a glance · ~14,000 steps · ~80 km in our minibus Paris→Versailles→Paris (~1h 30min driving total) · gardens + Trianon estate + town walk (all free) · palace interior optional — ~€20 at gate or covered by the Paris Museum Pass

Day8
France · SELF-GUIDED day in Paris (not charged)

Day 8: Self-guided Paris — premium paid activities and free museums at each guest’s pace

This day is not charged. Day 8 sits after Day 5 (the channel crossing), Day 6 (walking tour of Paris) and Day 7 (Versailles) so the group has done three days back-to-back — mirror of the Day 4 rest day in London. Same logic, same purpose: keep the trip pace humane, keep the trip cost down.

Free museums in central Paris. Paris has more free museums than London does — the Petit Palais (the city’s art collection, free entry), the Musée Carnavalet (the museum of Paris history, free entry, recently reopened after a renovation), the Musée Bourdelle (the sculptor’s old studio in Montparnasse, free entry), the Maison de Victor Hugo on Place des Vosges (free entry). Daiga and the minibus are off on Day 8; guests make their own way (Metro routes and a walking map written up in advance).

Or the paid interiors, at your own pace. Day 8 is the day for the bigger optional interiors — none of these are bundled in the €730:

  • Louvre Denon Wing (~€22) for the Mona Lisa + Italian Renaissance + the Venus de Milo + the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
  • Eiffel Tower summit lift (~€30) for the lit-up Paris view at sunset — book the timed slot in advance.
  • Musée d’Orsay (~€16) for the Impressionist collection (Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Manet, Cézanne).
  • Versailles palace interior (~€20) if you skipped it on Day 7.
  • Musée Guimet Asian-art galleries (~€11.50) — one of the strongest Indian sections in Europe; Chola bronzes from Tamil Nadu + Pala-period stone Buddhas + Gandhara sculptures.
  • Sainte-Chapelle stained glass (~€13).
  • Seine bateau-mouche evening cruise (~€15) with the Eiffel lit up against the dark sky.
  • Shopping — Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, Le Bon Marché, La Samaritaine. Or La Vallée Village outlet on the way to Disneyland Paris.

Citypass through us at the corporate rate. The Paris Pass® Plus (Go City) 2-day bundles 50+ of the above on a single digital pass — the Louvre, Versailles palace, Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc roof + a guided Eiffel climb + a Seine cruise. Gate price ~€179; our corporate rate ~€143. The slimmer Paris Museum Pass 4-day (gate ~€80, our rate ~€64) covers the museums only. Tell Daiga at booking which guests want either; we pre-buy and pass the saving on.

Or the Montmartre return — back up the hill on the Metro line 2 to Anvers + the Sacré-Cœur funicular, then a longer slow afternoon on Place du Tertre than Day 6 allowed. Sit for a full portrait with one of the licensed artists, browse the easels, lunch at one of the square’s old cafés (La Mère Catherine has been open since 1793; it’s touristy but the building is the real thing), wander down rue Lepic past the Café des Deux Moulins (Amélie, 2001) and the Moulin de la Galette. The whole afternoon can be done on foot.

Or the Indian-Paris stops — the Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam Tamil temple on rue Pajol in the 18th arr, the 10th arr South Indian veg restaurants, the Tagore bust at the Cité internationale universitaire in the 14th arr. Metro routes written up in advance.

Daiga and the minibus are off on Day 8. She is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.

Day 8 photos

Day at a glance · self-guided rest day · Daiga and the minibus off · not charged · free museums (Petit Palais, Carnavalet, Bourdelle, Victor Hugo) or premium paid interiors (Louvre, Eiffel summit, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Guimet, Sainte-Chapelle) or Indian-Paris stops

Day9
FR · Paris morning + CDG drop in our minibus

Day 9: Paris morning walk + CDG drop in afternoon

Slow morning depending on group energy: a Marais walking tour with the Picasso Museum exterior + Place des Vosges + Carnavalet (free entry), or a Canal Saint-Martin amble in the 10th arr, or the Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam Tamil temple on rue Pajol if you didn’t do it on Day 8. Coffee at a Marais terrace.

Mid-afternoon minibus drop at Charles de Gaulle Airport for the overnight flight back to India. ~45 min drive Paris → CDG outside rush hour. Daiga and her team see you to the terminal; the trip ends there. Bundled drop, not charged separately.

Guests are welcome to stay on in Paris beyond Day 9 and make their own arrangements — tell us at booking and we’ll skip the airport drop for you.

Day 9 photos

Day at a glance · ~5,500 steps · ~35 km in our minibus Paris→CDG · 2-3 optional morning sites + bundled airport drop

Overall budget options

Land + Guiding only is the same across all three tiers. Accommodation flexes. Tap to compare hostel, poshtel and 3-star totals end to end.

Show the three-tier breakdown
What you pay for Hostel / dorm tier Poshtel / private en-suite 3☆ hotel tier
Land + Guiding only (per person) Same across all tiers. Pay in person on Day 1. €730 €730 €730
8 nights central London + Paris — per person, by occupancy
Solo (1 person per bed or room) €280–440 €960–1,600 €1,600–2,800
2 sharing a private room (per person) €280–440* €480–800 €800–1,400
Family of 4 in a family room (per person) — €320–560 €530–920
Your India ↔ Europe return flight Book direct with the airline so miles and refund line stay yours. €890 €890 €890
Optional citypass through us (London + Paris) London Pass 3-day at our corporate rate ~£135 (~€160) + Paris Pass® Plus 2-day at ~€143. Skip the row if you don’t want it. €300 €300 €300
Typical total trip cost per person (with optional citypass)
Solo €2,200–2,360 €2,880–3,520 €3,520–4,720
2 sharing €2,200–2,360* €2,400–2,720 €2,720–3,320
Family of 4 in a family room — €2,240–2,480 €2,450–2,840

* Hostel-dorm beds are sold per bed, not per room — the per-head cost does not change with the number of guests sharing the dorm. Citypass row is optional — skip it and the totals drop by €300. Hostel / dorm tier: shared dorm bed in a central, well-reviewed hostel, £35–60 / €35–55 per night. Poshtel: upscale hostel with private en-suite rooms at hostel prices; family rooms often available. 3☆ hotel: standard mid-range hotel with reception desk, daily housekeeping, breakfast included; family rooms commonly bookable. Ask us for well-reviewed properties in any tier; central London (Kensington, Marylebone, Bloomsbury) or central Paris (Marais, Saint-Germain, 10th arr). No commission to us either way.

What’s in the €730, what’s not

What “Land + Guiding only” means: all internal road transport in the UK and France including the ferry / Channel Tunnel crossing + Daiga and her team as your two-person guiding crew + our own minibus throughout. No paid attraction entries are bundled — every paid interior (Tower of London, the Shard, Westminster Abbey, the Louvre, the Eiffel summit, the Versailles palace, etc.) is an optional upgrade you decide on, and we offer to pre-buy the matching citypass at our corporate rate (~20% below gate).

Excludes: flight tickets / hotel stay / food / tips / paid attraction entries (all optional).

Land + Guiding only ledgerPer person
5 guided days × €130 Days 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 — Daiga and her team on the ground €650
Ferry or Channel Tunnel crossing Minibus + all seats, amortised per person on a full group €80
Total per person, Land + Guiding only €730

No paid attraction entries are bundled. Every paid interior (Tower of London, the Shard, Westminster Abbey, the Louvre, the Eiffel summit, the Versailles palace, etc.) is an optional upgrade you decide on; we pre-buy the matching citypass at our corporate rate (~20% below gate) if you want it. Bundled or not charged: Day 1 LHR pickup, Day 9 CDG drop, Day 4 self-guided London, Day 8 self-guided Paris (Daiga and the minibus are off those days). Extra: flights, hotels, food, tips, paid attraction entries.

Included in €730 (Land + Guiding only)

  • LHR airport pickup on Day 1 in our minibus, with a drop at your central London hotel
  • CDG airport drop on Day 9 in our minibus
  • Day 5 cross-channel road trip in our minibus — London → Dover viewpoint → ferry or Channel Tunnel (we book on the morning) → Calais → Amiens UNESCO Cathedral lunch break → Paris hotel
  • Our own minibus on every guided day — London point-to-point on Days 2 and 3 (Cotswolds villages day-trip on Day 3), the Day 5 channel crossing, Paris point-to-point on Days 6 and 7, the Day 1 LHR pickup and Day 9 CDG drop. AC, comfortable, 14 seats. The minibus is off on the Day 4 and Day 8 self-guided days.
  • Daiga and her team as your two-person crew across all five guided days, end to end (Day 2 London, Day 3 Cotswolds, Day 5 channel crossing, Day 6 Paris, Day 7 Versailles gardens)
  • Our European-licensed driver for the minibus throughout
  • Bottled water on board the minibus every day
  • Full tour insurance under our operator policy

Not included — optional citypass through us at the corporate rate

  • International flights to LHR and from CDG (we can book these for you on request)
  • Hotels for the nights you’re on the ground — pick your tier from the cost table above (we book on request)
  • Food and drinks. You order directly at restaurants and pay them.
  • Tips for Daiga and her team (entirely your discretion)
  • UK Standard Visitor visa fee (~£115) paid to the UK consulate via VFS Global
  • Schengen short-stay visa fee (~€90) paid to the French consulate
  • Personal travel insurance, which both UK and Schengen visa applications require (~€30,000 minimum medical + repatriation cover)
  • All paid attraction entries — we don’t bundle any so the published price stays honest. Gate prices: Tower of London (~£32), Westminster Abbey interior (~£27), the Shard view from the top (~£32), Buckingham Palace State Rooms August-only (~£32), Bath Roman Baths interior (~£26), Louvre Denon (~€22), Eiffel Tower summit (~€30), Musée d’Orsay (~€16), Musée Guimet (~€11.50), Sainte-Chapelle (~€13), Versailles palace interior (~€20), Versailles weekend fountain show (~€11), afternoon tea at Sketch / Claridge’s / Fortnum & Mason (~£60-80). The London Pass and the Paris Pass / Paris Museum Pass through us at our corporate rate cover most of the above at ~20% below gate — see the citypass table below.
  • Loire Valley + Champagne châteaux entries on Panel 3 (Chambord ~€16, Chenonceau ~€16, Clos Lucé ~€19, Épernay tasting ~€25-30)

Available on request (free or at cost)

  • UK Standard Visitor visa: application paperwork, supporting documents, VFS Global appointment guidance Free assistance
  • Schengen short-stay visa: application paperwork, supporting documents, French consulate appointment guidance Free assistance
  • Hotel booking in London + Paris — hostel, poshtel or 3☆ tier (see cost table) Free assistance; hotel charges apply
  • Flight booking Free assistance; airline charges apply
  • Restaurant booking help — French bistros, modern British, Italian, Lebanese, anything you fancy. Plus Indian-veg picks listed separately in the Indian food + provisions FAQ below. Free assistance; restaurant charges apply
  • Frozen Indian provisions carried from our base (frozen paratha, frozen samosa, ready-meal sachets, masala packets, instant filter coffee) At cost; advance request
  • Jain meals Private departures only; advance notice. On group departures we manage pure Indian vegetarian only.
  • Minibus drop and pickup to / from any restaurant the group has chosen for an evening Free; included in the minibus availability
  • Indian helper accompanying the tour Nominal additional fee
  • Child-minders at the hotel or at kid-friendly attractions Nominal hourly fee; request for any tour date and we’ll arrange if logistics allow. Self-guided days (Day 4, Day 8) are easiest; we’ll try on guided days too.
  • Child car seats (infant 0-12 months, toddler 1-4 years, child booster 4-12 years) in our minibus Free with two weeks’ notice. This is the seat itself free, NOT the child tour ticket free — child tour price is discounted on the venue-ticket saving only.
  • 9-day reverse Paris → London (Panel 2) Same €730 pp, Land + Guiding only
  • 12-day extended Loire + Champagne by minibus (Panel 3) From ~€1,250 pp, Land + Guiding only, indicative
  • 12-day Scotland Edinburgh extension From ~€1,350 pp; East Coast Main Line + Highlands day-trip
  • 12-day Ireland Dublin extension From ~€1,350 pp; Ryanair London-Dublin + Cliffs of Moher
  • Citypass pre-purchase at our ~20% corporate-rate discount — London Pass 3-day (~£135 vs ~£169 gate), Paris Pass® Plus 2-day (~€143 vs ~€179 gate), Paris Museum Pass 4-day (~€64 vs ~€80 gate). See the citypass table below for what each covers. Tell us at booking; we pre-buy, you collect on arrival, you keep the saving.
  • Day 3 Bath UNESCO town walk swap — instead of the default Cotswolds villages, we run Bath instead (Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge, Pump Room exterior; Roman Baths interior optional at the gate or via the London Pass) Free swap; tell us at booking
  • West End theatre ticket sourcing — Daiga sources good seats at a discount for a Day 2 or Day 4 evening (or Day 6 / Day 8 on the reverse panel) Free assistance; ticket charges apply, paid direct
  • Stadium tour bookings — Wembley (~£25), Lord’s (~£32), the Oval (~£25), Wimbledon Museum + tour (~£28) Free assistance; ticket charges apply
  • Place du Tertre Montmartre portrait sitting — we point you at favourite artists; you negotiate direct on the square (~€30-80 charcoal portrait) Free guidance; portrait fee paid direct to the artist
  • Day 4 Bicester Village outlet swap — we drive the group to Bicester Village (~75 min by minibus) and back +€130 per person; min 7 guests; tell us at booking
  • Day 4 Lakeside Essex outlet swap — we drive the group to Lakeside Shopping Centre (~40 min by minibus) for a half-day +€65 per person (half-day); min 7 guests
  • Day 5 Ashford Designer Outlet detour — on the channel-crossing day, we leave London 90 minutes earlier and add an Ashford stop before Dover Free; tell us 2 weeks ahead
  • Day 8 La Vallée Village outlet swap (Paris side) — we drive the group to La Vallée Village (~45 min east of Paris) and back +€100 per person (half-day); min 7 guests
  • Neuve-Chapelle Indian war memorial as an optional day Available on the 12-day Loire + Champagne extension
  • Group customisation: days, pace, destinations €130 per guided day per person + actual essentials, private quote

Citypass through us — our corporate rate is roughly 20% below the gate

We don’t bundle paid attractions into the €730. Instead, if a guest wants the bigger ticketed interiors, we pre-buy the official city pass at our operator-corporate rate and pass the saving on. Tell Daiga at booking which guests want a pass and for which days; we order ahead, you collect from her on Day 1. The default published price doesn’t pay for any of this — you only spend what you want.

Indicative 2026 prices below. Children typically price at roughly half the adult rate on each official pass; we pre-buy at the same corporate discount on the child rate.

Pass (official operator) What it covers Gate adult Our rate You save
London Pass 3-day (Go City) Tower of London, Westminster Abbey interior, the Shard, Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle, 80+ others, plus the hop-on bus ~£169 ~£135 ~£34
London Pass 6-day (Go City) As above, longer validity for slow groups ~£229 ~£183 ~£46
Paris Pass® Plus 2-day (Go City) The Louvre, Versailles palace, Musée d’Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc roof, 50+ others, plus a guided Eiffel climb and a Seine cruise ~€179 ~€143 ~€36
Paris Museum Pass 4-day The Louvre, Versailles palace, Musée d’Orsay, Arc roof, Sainte-Chapelle — museums only, no Eiffel summit or hop-on bus ~€80 ~€64 ~€16

We don’t take a margin on the citypass either way — the saving is yours. If your dates slip or your group cancels the pass before activation, we cancel and refund at the same rate.

What to expect

The day-to-day rhythm, and how this differs from a packaged coach tour.

This is your hosted week, land only. walking tour of London with our minibus running point-to-point, a Cotswolds villages day-trip on Day 3, a self-guided London day, a cross-channel road trip by ferry or Channel Tunnel with a Dover viewpoint and a UNESCO cathedral lunch break at Amiens, walking tour of Paris with the minibus on call, a full day at Versailles in the gardens, and a self-guided Paris day. You hand the planning over to Daiga and her team when they meet you at Heathrow on Day 1, and we hand you back to your overnight flight at Charles de Gaulle on Day 9. In between, you don’t plan a thing.

Most of our Indian guests arrive with what we call decision fatigue — long working weeks, school runs, a calendar that doesn’t stop. The whole point of a hosted week is that the decisions are already made. Where to eat. Which Cotswolds village pub does the best Sunday roast. When to walk and when to take the minibus. Daiga has done this route enough times to know. Lean back; let the holiday happen.

Daiga is a European citizen, thoroughly familiar with both London and Paris from running this route herself. She and her team do the entire week with you. The crew you meet at Heathrow on Day 1 walks you up to your gate at CDG on Day 9.

The whole week runs on our own minibus — left-hand-drive, EU-registered, 14 seats, AC. In London we use it for point-to-point hops between the headlines (Westminster → Buckingham → afternoon optional → restaurant), which keeps Underground rush-hour out of the equation, lets elderly guests nap on board between stops, and means shopping bags ride between locations instead of weighing the group down. Same minibus does the Cotswolds villages day-trip on Day 3, the Day 5 channel crossing (ferry from Dover or Channel Tunnel from Folkestone, decided on the morning), Paris point-to-point on Day 6, the Versailles gardens day-trip on Day 7, the optional pickups during the Day 4 and Day 8 self-guided days, and the LHR / CDG drops. One vehicle, one crew, end to end.

One transparent Land + Guiding only price, €730 per person. That’s €130 per guided day × five guided days (€650), plus the ferry or Channel Tunnel crossing for the minibus and all seats (~€80 amortised per person on a full group). No paid attraction entries are bundled in. Day 4 self-guided London, Day 8 self-guided Paris, Day 1 LHR pickup and Day 9 CDG drop are bundled or not charged.

What we handle without asking: the Heathrow minibus pickup on Day 1; the Cotswolds villages route + an optional country-pub Sunday roast table booked on Day 3; the ferry / Channel Tunnel booking on Day 5 (ferry vs Chunnel decided on the morning based on weather and the next available crossing); the Amiens cathedral lunch break; the Versailles gardens + Trianon walk on Day 7; the CDG drop on Day 9. What we handle on request, free: UK and Schengen visa paperwork; restaurant booking help including the minibus drop to / from the restaurant in the evening; child-minders for an evening out; an Indian helper riding along if grandparents are travelling; citypass pre-purchase at our corporate rate (London Pass, Paris Pass® Plus, Paris Museum Pass). Child car seats supplied free with two weeks’ notice (this is the seat itself free, not the child tour ticket). Frozen Indian provisions carried from our base on advance request, at cost. What costs extra and is yours to pick: any paid attraction interior. Buy at the gate, or take the citypass through us at our corporate rate (~20% off gate) — full table above. Indicative gate prices: Tower of London (~£32), Westminster Abbey interior (~£27), the Shard (~£32), Buckingham Palace State Rooms in August (~£32), Bath Roman Baths interior (~£26), the Louvre (~€22), the Eiffel Tower summit (~€30), Versailles palace interior (~€20), afternoon tea (~£60-80), the Versailles weekend fountain show (~€11).

If a week feels rushed, we run a 12-day extension by minibus that drives south after Versailles to the Loire Valley (Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise) and continues to Champagne (Reims Cathedral and a small-house tasting at Épernay), from ~€1,250 pp on a private quote, no paid attractions bundled. Two further 12-day options for groups of 7+: a Scotland extension via the East Coast Main Line train to Edinburgh (UNESCO Old Town + New Town + Castle exterior + a Highlands day-trip with Loch Ness), from ~€1,350 pp; and an Ireland extension via a short London-Dublin Ryanair hop (Trinity College Old Library exterior, Cliffs of Moher), from ~€1,350 pp. All three extension prices are indicative; the final number comes back on a quote.

Self cooking / Heat & serve options

The main itinerary stays open for guests who want to venture out into French and modern British cuisine — both cities are food paradises for anyone curious enough to wander. For the desi side, here’s what we can do and where the reliable places are. This is the long version; the short version is “tell us what you want, we’ll make it happen”.

What we can carry from our base, on advance request

We drive from our base before the tour starts, which means we can put a small selection of Indian provisions in the minibus on the way over — tell us at booking and it’s already on board when we meet you at LHR on Day 1:

  • Frozen paratha (plain, methi, aloo)
  • Frozen samosa (potato + pea, lamb keema on request)
  • Ready-meal sachets (palak paneer, chana masala, dal makhani, butter chicken — MTR / Haldiram’s / Patak’s brands)
  • Masala packets (chai masala, garam masala, pav bhaji)
  • Instant filter coffee + Brooke Bond / Wagh Bakri tea bags
  • Pickles + papad on request

If your accommodation has a kitchenette, fridge or microwave (most central London serviced apartments do; most Paris Airbnb listings do), these turn into a quiet evening in. We can also drop the group at a supermarket for fresh bread, fruit, milk on arrival.

Where to buy Indian provisions on the ground

London: the Indian-aisle in any large Sainsbury’s, Tesco Extra or Waitrose has the basics (basmati, dal, frozen samosa, ghee, paneer, MTR sachets). For the deep stuff — whole spices by weight, fresh halwai sweets, kg-bags of atta, idli/dosa batter — you want Wembley (Ealing Road), Southall Broadway, Tooting High Street or East Ham High Street North. Daiga writes you a Tube route on Day 4 if you want a shopping run.

Paris: the 10th arrondissement around Gare du Nord — Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, Passage Brady, Rue Cail. South Asian groceries with fresh halwai sweets, masala by weight, basmati and frozen options. One Metro stop from most central Paris hotels.

South Indian veg restaurants we book on request

London options: we have a working shortlist of South Indian veg restaurants in Tooting, Wembley, Hammersmith, Drummond Street near Euston, and Brick Lane. Tell us what cuisine (Tamil, Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarati, Punjabi) and we’ll book the right table — or pick a Brick Lane Bangladeshi-Sylheti curry-house if you prefer the East London tradition.

Paris options: the South Indian veg cluster around Gare du Nord (10th arr) has reliable Tamil restaurants we can book. The Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam Tamil temple on rue Pajol (18th arr) also runs a small free annaprasadam community lunch on festival weekends.

For a free langar lunch — the Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara on Park Avenue, Southall, serves vegetarian langar daily to anyone who walks in (covered head, washed hands, no shoes). Free, all day. One of the largest Sikh gurdwaras outside India.

How the minibus side works

If the group wants to go out for dinner to any restaurant in either city, tell us and we send the minibus to pick the group up from the hotel and drop you at the restaurant — and come back to collect you afterwards. No taxi-queue, no walking back in the rain. Particularly useful for a multi-generational family with grandparents in tow, or after a long day of walking. Free; it’s already part of the minibus availability you’re paying for.

Jain meals

Jain meals are available on private departures only with two weeks’ advance notice — the kitchen prep at the restaurants we work with takes that long for proper no-root-vegetable, no-onion, no-garlic cooking. On group departures we manage pure Indian vegetarian only.

🛍 Shopping in London and Paris — the full picture

The main itinerary doesn’t organise shopping for you, but a lot of guests want a clear read on what’s where. This block covers the central-city streets you can walk on the guided days or your own time, the four outlet centres around London worth knowing about, the Paris equivalents, and the practical bits (VAT refund post-Brexit, baggage allowance, what the minibus can carry). The minibus does the bag-shuttling between stops on the guided days.

Central London — the headline shopping streets

Five clusters, all within a 25-minute walk or one Tube hop of each other.

  • Oxford Street (W1) — ~1.9 km of high-street flagships. Selfridges (the food hall is the highlight), Marks & Spencer Marble Arch, John Lewis, Primark Tottenham Court Road for end-of-trip cheap basics. Pedestrianised at the eastern end most weekends.
  • Bond Street (W1) — the luxury houses (Chanel, Hermès, Burberry flagship, Tiffany, Asprey, Louis Vuitton). Step into the Burlington Arcade off Piccadilly for the older Royal Warrant brands (Penhaligon’s, William & Son). Free to wander either way.
  • Covent Garden (WC2) — the converted 1632 fruit-and-veg market Piazza, the Apple Market crafts stalls, Neal’s Yard (the small dairy + the colourful courtyard), Seven Dials for independent designers and Monmouth Coffee. The street performers play on the south side most afternoons.
  • Leicester Square (WC2) — the West End cinemas, M&M’s World (4 floors, free; useful with children), the LEGO Store, the Theatre Tonight half-price ticket booth (cash + card, no booking fee — useful for last-minute theatre seats if Daiga hasn’t pre-sourced them).
  • Knightsbridge / Harrods (SW1) — the 1849 Harrods flagship (free to enter; expect 90 minutes to walk the seven floors), the Egyptian Escalator, the food halls (the bakery + the cheese hall are the standouts), the Mughal-style Diana & Dodi memorial at door 3. Harvey Nichols is on the same corner. Sloane Street south of Harrods runs the luxury houses again.

Outlet centres around London — four worth knowing about

UK outlet centres usually run discounts of 30-60% off the regular high-street price. Best for end-of-season stock and the heritage brands (Burberry, Mulberry, Barbour, Cath Kidston).

  • London Designer Outlet (LDO), Wembley Park (HA9) — 50+ brands at the foot of Wembley Stadium, ~30 minutes by Tube from central. Nike, Adidas, Polo Ralph Lauren, GAP, Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Skechers, Boss. Mid-tier rather than luxury. The pairing with a Wembley Stadium tour on Day 4 (the tour is ~£25 and runs daily) makes a clean half-day.
  • Bicester Village (OX26) — ~90 minutes from London by car or the direct Chiltern Railways service from Marylebone (~75 minutes). The premium outlet most international visitors come for — 160+ luxury houses (Gucci, Prada, Burberry, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Loro Piana, Tod’s, Mulberry, Coach). The minibus can run a Day 4 Bicester swap for groups of 7+ who want a dedicated shopping day — tell Daiga at booking; we leave London ~9am and are back by ~6pm. The Cotswolds villages are 45 minutes further west, so a Bicester + Cotswolds combination day is also possible.
  • Ashford Designer Outlet, Kent (TN24) — ~90 minutes south-east of London on the M20, the same motorway as the Dover route. 80+ brands (Polo Ralph Lauren, Boss, Calvin Klein, Coach, Kate Spade, Le Creuset). Most useful as a Day 5 detour: if you tell Daiga at booking, we can leave London earlier and add 90 minutes at Ashford before the Dover White Cliffs viewpoint and the channel crossing. The minibus carries the bags across with you to France.
  • Lakeside Shopping Centre, Essex (RM20) — a full enclosed mall + retail-park complex on the M25, ~40 minutes east of central London. 300+ shops including Marks & Spencer, Next, H&M, House of Fraser, Lakeside Outlet Park next door. Less luxurious than Bicester and less heritage than Ashford; useful if guests want UK high-street density in one location. The minibus can run a half-day Lakeside swap on Day 4 for groups of 7+.

Paris — the headline shopping streets

  • Galeries Lafayette Haussmann (9th arr) — the 1893 grand department store with the stained-glass Belle Époque dome. Worth walking into for the dome alone (free). Watch shows on the central catwalk at noon some afternoons. Rooftop terrace with a free Opéra Garnier and Sacré-Cœur view.
  • Printemps Haussmann (9th arr) — next door to Galeries Lafayette; the smaller, slightly higher-end neighbour. Free rooftop view with a brasserie.
  • Le Bon Marché (7th arr, Saint-Germain) — the 1838 original Parisian department store, now LVMH-owned. La Grande Épicerie de Paris next door is a food hall of impressive depth.
  • La Samaritaine (1st arr, Pont Neuf) — the recently reopened 1870 art-deco building. The interior architecture is the highlight; the brand mix is mid-luxury.
  • La Vallée Village outlet (Marne-la-Vallée) — sister to Bicester Village, ~45 minutes east of Paris on the RER A (same train as Disneyland Paris). 110+ luxury houses at 30-60% off. The minibus can run a Day 8 La Vallée Village swap for groups of 7+.

The minibus side — how we handle the bags

On all the guided days (Day 2 London, Day 3 the Cotswolds villages, Day 5 the channel, Day 6 Paris, Day 7 Versailles gardens) the minibus is parked nearby with locking storage. Drop your morning shopping bags in the boot at the next stop and they ride along until you check into the hotel that evening. No carrying through the National Gallery, no carrying onto the ferry, no carrying up the Eiffel Tower. On the Day 4 and Day 8 self-guided days the minibus is off; if you’ve done a Bicester / Ashford / La Vallée day with us (the minibus-swap options above), the bags are with us until evening drop-off at the hotel.

VAT refund — how it works in the UK and France for Indian passport holders

UK VAT refund. The UK removed tax-free shopping for international visitors in January 2021 (post-Brexit); the previous Retail Export Scheme is closed. Some London luxury stores still ship purchases abroad on a different mechanism that ducks the UK VAT, but you can’t reclaim VAT at Heathrow on your way out. Don’t expect the old refund line.

France VAT refund. Still works. Indian passport holders shopping in France can claim a VAT refund (TVA détaxe) on purchases over €100.01 in a single store on the same day. The shop fills out a bordereau de vente; you process it at the CDG PABLO kiosks before check-in on your departure flight. Effective refund ~12% of the purchase value after the operator fee. Bring your passport when you shop.

Baggage allowance on the way home

Most India-bound flights from LHR or CDG allow 23 kg checked + 8 kg cabin in economy. Premium economy and business get more. If you’re shopping heavy, factor that in — an extra-bag fee at the airport is ~£75 or ~€90 per leg on most carriers. We’re happy to weigh suitcases at the hotel the night before the airport drop so there are no surprises at check-in.

Group of seven or more? We’ll build the trip around you.

The minimum-seven floor opens up the full menu of route customisation. Length (7 guided days, a fortnight, the 12-day Loire + Champagne extension, the Scotland or Ireland 12-day variants), destinations, pace.

  • Lake District swap for the Cotswolds? Done.
  • Mont-Saint-Michel swap for Versailles? Done — we drive the route ourselves and pre-book the abbey.
  • Slower pace for grandparents? We rework the day timings — later starts, longer lunches, fewer afternoons on your feet.
  • The Neuve-Chapelle Indian war memorial as a half-day from Paris? Yes, available on the 12-day Loire + Champagne extension.
  • Hampton Court Palace gardens + Kew Gardens UNESCO half-day from London? Yes, ~£25-35 entry per site.

Same operator, same crew, same minibus. Pricing stays €130 per guided day per person plus the actual transport essentials (ferry / Channel Tunnel crossing + any cross-country fuel), with Day 1 LHR pickup, Day 9 CDG drop, and the Day 4 + Day 8 self-guided days not charged. No paid attraction entries are bundled in either — we offer the citypass through our corporate account at ~20% off gate if your group wants the bigger interiors. We send you a transparent per-person quote on the same logic as the public tour — no inflated “custom premium”.

We’ve hosted Indian families before

Past Indian guests have come from India, the US, the UK and Singapore — multi-generational families, couples on anniversary trips, solo women, friend groups. Most shapes you can think of, with most appetites you can think of.

References available on request. We share contact details of past Indian guests who agreed to be referees, so you can ask them what we were like to travel with. Just ask.

Request references on WhatsApp

Women-led, with safety and privacy built in

Barefoot Baltic is a women-led tour company. Daiga runs the company and leads every guided day on this route. She is a police academy graduate with a law degree, and that training shows up in how the tour is run. When you book with us, the person you message is the person you’ll meet at London Heathrow on Day 1.

Privacy is a written rule on this tour: guest names, room numbers, routes and photographs don’t leave the group without explicit consent. The group WhatsApp is opt-in. For solo women, the hotel room sits on the same floor as Daiga’s, never above, and the front seat in the minibus is yours if you want it. A women-only departure is available on request for groups of seven or more.

Frequently asked: questions Indian travellers send us

Yes. Daiga and her team are with you for the five guided days — Day 2 walking tour of London and minibus point-to-point, Day 3 the Cotswolds villages day-trip in our minibus, Day 5 the channel crossing (London to a Dover viewpoint, ferry or Channel Tunnel, Calais, an Amiens UNESCO Cathedral lunch break, then Paris), Day 6 walking tour of Paris and minibus point-to-point, Day 7 Versailles gardens (palace interior optional). Day 1 LHR pickup and Day 9 CDG drop are bundled airport runs in our minibus. The two self-guided days (Day 4 London, Day 8 Paris) sit between the guided blocks; Daiga and the minibus are off those days. She is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.

Because the UK left the EU in 2020 and is no longer in the Schengen area. The Schengen short-stay (Type C) visa does not cover the UK days; the UK Standard Visitor visa does not cover France. Both have to be valid for the dates of travel.

UK Standard Visitor visa: ~£115 consulate fee, 3-6 week lead-time (longer for India in the May-September peak), applied via VFS Global in multiple Indian cities.
Schengen short-stay (France): ~€90 consulate fee, 15-30 day lead-time (up to 45 days in May-August), applied via the French consulate.

Apply UK visa first — it’s the harder of the two; if approved, file the Schengen. We help with both applications at no extra cost; you pay both consulate fees directly. Around ~£205 / ~€235 in visa fees + ~8-12 weeks of total application lead-time for the pair.

Day 5 of the tour. This is a land-only quote — no Eurostar. We cross with our own minibus by ferry (Dover → Calais, ~90 minutes water) OR by Channel Tunnel vehicle shuttle (Folkestone → Coquelles, ~35 minutes through the tunnel). We pick the option on the morning based on weather, sea conditions and the next available crossing. Both are bundled into the €730 Land + Guiding only price for our minibus and all seats.

Day 5 shape: ~8am leave London, ~10:30am stretch and photo stop at the Langdon Cliffs viewpoint above Dover for the White Cliffs glimpse, midday crossing, ~2pm arrive Calais, ~1h south to Amiens for a lunch break at the Notre-Dame d’Amiens UNESCO Cathedral (one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in France, free entry), then ~1h 30min on to Paris for hotel check-in. Door-to-door ~9 hours including the cathedral break. Same minibus and same crew the whole way.

Why land only? Two reasons. First, a continental left-hand-drive minibus is what gets us point-to-point in London and Paris on the other guided days — we wouldn’t use the Eurostar even if we wanted to, since the vehicle has to cross with the group. Second, the crossing day itself becomes a proper experience — Dover White Cliffs, the cathedral lunch in Amiens, the open road across northern France — instead of a 2-hour rail tunnel.

Five guided days × €130 = €650, plus a ~€80 ferry or Channel Tunnel crossing for the minibus and all seats (amortised per person on a full group of 14). Total €730 per person, Land + Guiding only. No paid attraction entries are bundled in.

What that pays for: Daiga and her team on the ground every guided day; our own minibus throughout (London point-to-point, the Cotswolds villages day-trip, the Day 5 channel crossing, Paris point-to-point, the Versailles gardens day-trip, LHR pickup, CDG drop, and on-call ferrying during the Day 4 + Day 8 self-guided days); the ferry / Channel Tunnel crossing; our operator insurance.

What that does NOT pay for: any paid attraction interior. Tower of London, the Shard, Westminster Abbey interior, the Louvre, the Eiffel summit, the Versailles palace interior — all optional upgrades. Buy at the gate, or take the London Pass / Paris Pass / Paris Museum Pass through us at our corporate rate (~20% below gate; full citypass table sits in the schedule body above).

The two self-guided days (Day 4 London, Day 8 Paris) are not charged. Day 1 LHR airport pickup and Day 9 CDG drop are bundled airport runs, also not separately charged.

Not included: international flights (you book), hotels (you book — pick your tier from the cost table above), food and drinks (you order direct), tips, the two visa consulate fees (~£115 + ~€90), personal travel insurance, and optional paid upgrades — Tower of London interior, Westminster Abbey interior, Buckingham Palace State Rooms in August, Bath Roman Baths interior, the Louvre Denon Wing, the Eiffel Tower summit, afternoon tea, or the Versailles weekend fountain show.

Our minibus and our cost base both work above seven. Below seven confirmed, we either reschedule the departure or refund you in full and help you onto a later date. Our minibus seats fourteen; seven to fourteen is the working group size.

The minimum-seven rule keeps the per-guest price honest at €730. At five guests, the same Daiga and her team, the same minibus, and the same ferry / Channel Tunnel fee for the vehicle work out closer to €1,100 per head. We say it in the hero, the quick-facts row and again here so there is nothing buried.

Close enough that the morning departure works without a sprint.

For London: hotels in Kensington / South Kensington / Marylebone / Bloomsbury / Westminster (and Pimlico if you like quieter) sit within a 15-minute walk or short Underground hop of central pickup. Avoid Stratford, Greenwich and outer-zone postcodes — they add 40+ minutes to every day.

For Paris: the Marais (3rd/4th arr), Saint-Germain (6th arr), the 10th arr around Gare du Nord, the 1st arr near the Louvre, or the 9th arr near Opéra all work — central, walkable, well-served by the Metro. If you book a hotel out in La Défense or Saint-Denis, we may ask you to meet the group at a central morning pickup point on your own.

We share a hotel shortlist on request — specific picks we’ve walked into ourselves, at three price points each.

Currency. GBP in the UK, EUR in France. Visa and Mastercard work almost everywhere in both countries, contactless tap-to-pay is standard, RuPay International on the Discover network usually works at card terminals. Carry £100 and €100 in small notes for tips and the rare cash-only café. ATMs are easy to find.

Plugs. UK Type G plug (the big three-pin) for the UK days, EU Type E or C (round two-pin) for France — bring both adapters; voltage is 230V in both, the same as India, so the chargers themselves need no converter.

Time. The UK is IST minus 4:30 in summer / minus 5:30 in winter; France is IST minus 3:30 / minus 4:30; France is always one hour ahead of the UK. You move your watch forward an hour on Day 5 as our minibus rolls off the ferry or out of the Channel Tunnel and into France.

Both cities are food paradises for anyone willing to venture out for a gastronomic adventure — modern British, French bistros, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, Spanish. We’re happy to help with table bookings, and the minibus can pick the group up from the hotel and drop the group at any restaurant the group has chosen for an evening, then come back to collect afterwards.

For desi cravings, we have everything covered. We recommend booking accommodation close to a big supermarket and a small cluster of restaurants — most central London and central Paris locations meet that bar. If the apartment has a kitchenette, fridge or microwave, plenty of cook-in options open up. We can carry a small selection of Indian provisions from our base on advance request (frozen paratha, frozen samosa, ready-meal sachets, masala packets, instant filter coffee) for home-comfort flavours.

Specific desi picks — South Indian veg restaurants in both cities, where to buy frozen paratha and provisions, Gujarati halwai shops, the gurdwara free langar at Southall — live in the Indian food + provisions FAQ block separately on this page so the main itinerary stays open. Jain meals are available on private departures only, with two weeks’ advance notice.

Six sections of background reading. The British East India Company at the British Museum Asia Galleries and the V&A Nehru Gallery (Tipu’s Tiger and the gold tiger-head finials). BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Neasden (the largest Hindu temple outside India). Southall “Little Punjab” and the Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara. Brick Lane Jamme Masjid (the building that was a 1743 Huguenot chapel, then an 1898 synagogue, then a 1976 mosque). The lived-in Indian London neighbourhoods (Wembley, Tooting, Hounslow, East Ham, Edgware Road). And the Compagnie française des Indes orientales 1664-1954 at Pondichéry, Karaikal, Mahé, Yanam and Chandernagore on the Paris side.

Plus two supplementary mentions: the Koh-i-Noor (at the Tower of London interior, optional £32 upgrade), and the Neuve-Chapelle Indian war memorial (90 minutes north of Paris; available on the 12-day Loire + Champagne extension).

Click Reading London and Paris through Indian eyes above to open the full version with sources.

The pattern reduces cost and gives every guest control over their own pacing.

After Day 1 (arrival) + Day 2 (guided walking tour of London) + Day 3 (the Cotswolds villages day-trip), Day 4 is yours — sleep in, go to the BAPS Mandir Neasden or Southall on your own (Daiga writes you a Tube route), or pick the group free-museum option and walk through the British Museum / V&A Nehru Gallery together. Day 4 is also when each guest pays for the bigger optional London interiors at their own pace (Tower of London ~£32, Westminster Abbey ~£27, the Shard ~£32, Buckingham Palace State Rooms August-only ~£32, afternoon tea ~£60-80). The London Pass through us at our ~£135 corporate rate covers most of those.

Day 5 cross-channel travel resets the rhythm, then Days 6, 7 are guided Paris + Versailles gardens, then Day 8 is the second self-guided day for the Paris paid interiors (Louvre ~€22, Eiffel summit ~€30, Musée d’Orsay ~€16, Musée Guimet Asian-art ~€11.50, Versailles palace ~€20 if you skipped Day 7’s optional). Paris Pass® Plus / Paris Museum Pass through us at our corporate rate covers most of those.

The self-guided days are not charged. They give the group rest after three back-to-back guided days; almost every group needs that anyway. Daiga and the minibus are off those days. She is reachable on WhatsApp for emergencies.

Yes. Tell us at booking — infant, toddler or child — and we supply the right car seat in our minibus free of charge with two weeks’ notice: infant car seat (0-12 months), toddler car seat (1-4), child booster (4-12).

Important clarification: the car seat is supplied free, NOT the child tour ticket. The tour base price is the same for everyone in the minibus — transport and guiding cost the same per seat whether it carries a grown-up or a child. The family saving sits where the actual saving is, in the venue-ticket child rate: most official city passes (London Pass, Paris Pass, Paris Museum Pass) price children at roughly half the adult rate, and when we pre-buy through our corporate account that ~20% off applies on the child rate too. Indicative tour-base price (same all ages):

  • Adult: €730
  • Teen (10-17): €730 (same; venue saving sits in the citypass child rate)
  • Child (3-9): €730 (same; venue saving sits in the citypass child rate)
  • Infant (0-2): €730 (same; no seat fee discount — the minibus seat is still allocated)

Child-minders on any tour date. We arrange a professional child-minder at a nominal hourly fee by advance request, not only the Day 4 / Day 8 self-guided days or evenings — ask and we’ll try to set it up if the city we’re in that day allows. Natural History Museum and Science Museum in London, Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris are examples of well-tried child-minder destinations; hotel and evening minders are arrangeable in most cities.

Late May to mid-September is the peak summer window: long daylight, manageable temperatures (London 18-25 °C, Paris 19-27 °C), the Cotswolds at its best with rapeseed yellow + hedgerow flowers, Versailles fountain show running Saturdays and Sundays, English Morris dancing in the Cotswolds on May Day weekend.

Mid-October is the off-peak shoulder with cooler weather and lower prices.

Winter (December to February) is shorter days and London Christmas markets; we run private winter departures on request.

Tap water is safe in both countries; our van carries chilled bottled water as well. Most cafés will refill your bottle on request.

Mobile data: Indian roaming packs (Airtel, Jio) work in both UK and France though pricing varies. For a nine-day trip we usually recommend a multi-country EU eSIM (Airalo, Holafly) that includes the UK — cheaper than roaming and works on day one. Free Wi-Fi in all hotels and most cafés.

We keep moving. The British Museum or the V&A covers a wet London day. The Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay does the same in Paris. The Cotswolds villages are walkable in a rain jacket; we have spares, and the country pubs we use for lunch (the Swan at Bibury, the Old Stocks Inn at Stow) keep good fires going in the wet months. We only shuffle the day if a heavy storm lands on a planned outdoor segment. Bring a light rain jacket or a small fold-up umbrella.

Yes, for both visas. Schengen rules require €30,000 minimum medical and repatriation cover; the UK Standard Visitor visa doesn’t specify a minimum but you should carry the same. We share trusted Indian provider names during the visa-help step. Our tour itself is separately insured under our operator policy.

If you arrange your own flights and hotels, you confirm your seats with no upfront payment; you pay the full €730 fee on arrival at Heathrow on Day 1 when our minibus picks you up at the terminal. We hold the seats once you submit an enquiry, share basic ID details, and confirm your itinerary length and start date. If you ask us to book hotels or flights for you, or to pre-buy the London Pass / Paris Pass through us at the corporate rate, those carry their own deposits set by the provider (the tour fee itself can still be paid on arrival).

Short version: central London streets (Oxford, Bond, Covent Garden, Knightsbridge / Harrods) and four outlet centres (Wembley Park, Bicester Village, Ashford, Lakeside) on the UK side; Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine plus La Vallée Village outlet on the Paris side. The full breakdown — including the minibus-swap options (Bicester or Ashford or Lakeside on Day 4, La Vallée Village on Day 8) and the VAT-refund + baggage-weight details — is in the dedicated shopping block on this page.

The minibus carries the bags between stops on the guided days. The UK no longer offers a VAT refund to international visitors post-Brexit; France still does (TVA détaxe, ~12% effective refund on purchases over €100.01 in a single store).

Yes. The London West End is one of the things we don’t want a guest to miss if they’ve never seen it. Tell Daiga at booking what kind of show your group fancies (musical, drama, family-friendly, a name actor on a limited run; sometimes a date matters — an Indian-diaspora playwright’s opening week, a touring production from Mumbai or Delhi) and how many tickets. She knows how to source London theatre tickets at a discount and will work the deal for the group.

The earlier you tell her, the better the seats. Last-minute is still possible — the TKTS booth on Leicester Square sells half-price same-day seats for some shows, cash + card, no booking fee — but the long-running musicals (Les Misérables, The Lion King, Hamilton) sell out weeks in advance for evening shows on Saturdays.

Day 2 or Day 4 evenings are the best fits on the default 9-day; the Paris-side mirror is Day 6 or Day 8 on the reverse panel. The minibus can drop the group at the theatre and collect afterwards — useful for the late-evening run back to the hotel.

All on the Day 4 self-guided menu. London runs behind-the-scenes tours year-round at the four headline grounds:

  • Wembley Stadium tour (~£25, Brent NW10, ~30 min Tube from central) — the FA Cup, England football, the Royal Box, the player tunnel. Pairs neatly with the London Designer Outlet at Wembley Park and the BAPS Mandir Neasden on the same Tube line.
  • Lord’s Cricket Ground tour (~£32, St John’s Wood NW8) — the Long Room, the MCC museum, the Ashes urn, the dressing-room balconies that everyone in India recognises from a TV cricket commentary. Book a morning slot ~100 min.
  • The Oval tour (~£25, Kennington SE11) — Surrey CCC, the gasholder skyline, the OCS Stand. Less famous internationally, often where the actual Test history happened.
  • Wimbledon Museum + tour (~£28 combined, SW19) — the trophies, Centre Court (when no match is on), the Indian-tennis section of the museum. The championships run late June into early July; museum days are quieter.

The RAF Museum London at Colindale (NW9, free entry) is a substantial Battle of Britain + WW1/WW2 aircraft collection with an Indian-Air-Force / Royal Indian Air Force room that surfaces the South Asian pilots who flew with the RAF in both wars. Free entry, ~3 hours.

Movie-themed London is a tell-Daiga-at-booking thing — she writes a routing depending on which films the group cares about. Bollywood London (DDLJ Trafalgar Square + the Indian High Commission on Aldwych, K3G Hounslow Gurdwara, Namastey London Tower Bridge, the 2007 Brick Lane film + neighbourhood). Hollywood London (Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross + Leadenhall Market as Diagon Alley for Harry Potter; the Notting Hill blue door + the Travel Bookshop site; Paddington Station and the Paddington Bear statue; MI6’s Vauxhall Cross building for Bond; Borough Market footbridge for Bridget Jones). All of these can be done on foot or with the Tube on the Day 4 self-guided day.

Place du Tertre is the small cobbled square ~50 metres behind Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre — the corner of Paris where Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo all worked in the early 1900s. The square holds ~140 daily-rotating spots licensed by the City of Paris to the registered street-painters (the licences are inherited or hard-won; new ones rarely open). On any given day ~60 artists are working their easels.

You walk up, pick an artist whose style you like (charcoal, pastel, oil, caricature; some focus on portraits, some on Paris street scenes), agree the price direct with them, and sit while they work. Rough price range €30-80 for a 20-30 minute charcoal portrait — oils take longer and cost more, caricatures are quicker and cheaper. The artist’s licence number should be on the easel; the unlicensed touts on the steps below the square (with a folder of pre-made sketches) aren’t the registered Place du Tertre artists — politely decline and walk up to the square proper.

The Day 6 visit is brief (we’re there as part of the Sacré-Cœur golden-hour stop). A longer Day 8 self-guided return is the unhurried version — back up on Metro line 2 to Anvers + the Sacré-Cœur funicular, full slow afternoon on the square and the surrounding rue Lepic / Café des Deux Moulins (Amélie, 2001) / Moulin de la Galette walks. Tell Daiga in advance if you want a specific artist booked — she has favourites she’ll point you towards.

Yes. Pricing stays €130 per guided day per person + actual essentials (ferry/Channel Tunnel only; self-guided days are not charged). Default 9 days at €730 pp, no paid attractions bundled.

Pre-priced extensions for groups of 7+:

  • 12-day Loire Valley + Champagne extension (Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise + Reims + Épernay, all in our minibus) from ~€1,300 pp.
  • 12-day Scotland Edinburgh extension (East Coast Main Line train to Edinburgh + UNESCO Old Town + New Town + Castle + Highlands day-trip + Loch Ness) from ~€1,400 pp.
  • 12-day Ireland Dublin extension (Ryanair London ↔ Dublin + Trinity College Book of Kells + Guinness Storehouse + Cliffs of Moher) from ~€1,400 pp.
  • Reverse Paris → London mirrors Panel 1 at the same €730 pp.
  • Day 3 Bath UNESCO swap — instead of the default Cotswolds villages day-trip, we run Bath instead (Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge, Pump Room exterior; Roman Baths interior optional at the gate). Free swap; tell us at booking.

For private groups of 7+ we also tailor the route — Lake District, Mont-Saint-Michel swap for Versailles, Neuve-Chapelle Indian war memorial as an optional day, optional Hampton Court Palace gardens or Kew Gardens UNESCO. Final number on a private quote with references from past Indian guests.

Deeper context worth a read

Longer pieces guests have asked us about over a hotel-bar evening. None of it is on the headline itinerary; tap whichever interests you.

Why this tour vs. doing London-Paris on your own Self-planned vs. coach tour vs. our hosted week, said plainly

London and Paris are the two European cities Indian travellers see most. You can plan them yourself with a guidebook and ten browser tabs, you can join a packaged coach, or you can hand the week over to us. Here’s the honest trade-off.

Self-planned

The advantage is total control. The cost is that every booking, every queue, every train, every restaurant reservation, every museum timed-entry slot, every visa form is on you. You will spend day one of London staring at a Tube map. You will likely lose three hours of Versailles to a queue you could have skipped with a pre-booked entry. The UK Standard Visitor visa and the Schengen short-stay visa are two separate consulate processes — both have to be valid for your dates of travel, and the UK one is the slower of the two. If you enjoy the planning, this is a real option — the Lonely Planet guidebooks are solid. We hear from guests who tried it and would rather not do it again.

Packaged coach tour

The advantage is that everything is organised and the Land + Guiding only price is low. The trade-off is the size of the group (often 40 or more), the pace, and the upselling on the day — the optional Seine cruise, the optional Versailles upgrade, the optional dinner show — that quietly doubles the Land + Guiding only price by the end of the trip. Indian-market coach operators add a mandatory shopping stop and a sometimes-rude tour manager from a different region of India to the mix.

Our version

Minimum 7 guests, maximum 14, hosted end to end by Daiga and her team across both countries. Day 3 is a Cotswolds villages day-trip in our minibus (Bourton, Bibury, Stow — all free outdoor); Day 7 is the Versailles gardens with the palace interior as an optional upgrade. We pre-book one essential only: the Day 5 ferry or Channel Tunnel crossing for the minibus and all seats. No paid attraction entries are bundled into the €730 price. If a guest wants the Louvre, the Shard, the Tower of London or the Versailles palace interior, we pre-buy the matching citypass (London Pass, Paris Pass® Plus, Paris Museum Pass) at our corporate rate — roughly 20% below gate — and pass the saving on. We also help with the UK Standard Visitor visa and the Schengen short-stay visa at no extra cost. Indian veg meals on request through Apollo Banana Leaf Tooting, Saravanaa Bhavan Wembley, Brick Lane curry-mile, Sagar Hammersmith, the 10th arr Paris stalwarts. The whole week runs in our own minibus, which crosses with us on Day 5 by ferry or Channel Tunnel. One transparent Land + Guiding only price (€730), no surprise extras — the OTA route (GetYourGuide / Viator) would lump in tickets we now leave optional, push the price up, and pay 30% commission on the inflated total. We don’t.

Who it’s not for. Anyone who wants a 40-person coach. Anyone who wants luxury hotels rolled into the Land + Guiding only price (we book hotels on request, but they sit separate so you choose your own comfort level). Anyone who can’t commit to the minimum 7-guest departure floor.

Two cities, by the numbers UK and France at a glance — population, languages, currencies, time zones, the two-visa rule, one good fact each

Two cities, two countries, two currencies, two languages, two power plugs — and, on this route alone, two visas. Most other things between them are similar.

United Kingdom

Days 1–5 of your tour (LHR arrival to Day 5 channel crossing morning)

  • Population ~67 million; Greater London ~9 million, including ~1.5 million people of Indian origin (the largest Indian diaspora in Europe)
  • Language English (your tour runs in English throughout)
  • Currency Pound sterling (GBP, £)
  • Time zone IST − 4:30 (summer BST) / IST − 5:30 (winter GMT)
  • London has 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Tower of London (1988), Westminster Palace + Abbey + St Margaret’s (1987), Maritime Greenwich (1997), Kew Gardens (2003). Bath (UNESCO 1987) is within day-trip range as a Day 3 swap; our default Day 3 Cotswolds villages day-trip stays free outdoor.
  • The West End runs ~40 active theatre productions on any given week; Lord’s Cricket Ground (1814) is the home of the laws of cricket; Wembley Stadium (the 2007 rebuild) seats 90,000 for FA Cup finals and England football.
  • Visa: UK Standard Visitor (~£115, 3-6 week lead-time) — required for Indian passport holders. The UK left the EU in 2020 and is no longer in Schengen; the Schengen visa does not cover the UK days. Apply UK first.

France

Days 5–9 of your tour (channel-crossing afternoon to CDG drop)

  • Population ~68 million; Paris metro area ~12 million; the French Indian community traces back to the Compagnie française des Indes orientales (1664-1954) at Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahé, Yanam and Chandernagore.
  • Language French (your tour runs in English throughout)
  • Currency Euro (EUR, €)
  • Time zone IST − 3:30 (summer CEST) / IST − 4:30 (winter CET); always one hour ahead of the UK — you move your watch forward on Day 5 as our minibus rolls off the ferry or out of the Channel Tunnel into France
  • The most-visited country in the world by international tourist arrivals (~100 million per year, UNWTO). Paris has two UNESCO sites: Banks of the Seine (1991) and Versailles (1979).
  • Place du Tertre Montmartre licenses ~140 daily-rotating easel spots to registered street-painters — the same square where Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo worked. A charcoal portrait while you watch runs ~€30-80 direct to the artist (~20-30 min).
  • Visa: Schengen short-stay (Type C) (~€90, 15-30 day lead-time) — required for Indian passport holders. France is in Schengen; the UK Standard Visitor visa does not cover France.
Reading London and Paris through Indian eyes Six sections — the East India Company at the British Museum and V&A Nehru Gallery, BAPS Mandir Neasden, Southall and the Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara, Brick Lane’s migration-story building, the lived-in Indian London neighbourhoods, Pondicherry and the Compagnie française des Indes in Paris

London has the largest Indian diaspora in Europe — roughly 1.5 million people of Indian origin in Greater London alone. The six sections below are optional reading. None of them is on the headline itinerary; they are background context for guests who want to plan a Day 4 stop on their own (Daiga writes you a Tube route in advance). Sources at the bottom.

1. The British East India Company at the British Museum and V&A Nehru Gallery

The East India Company was incorporated by royal charter on 31 December 1600 and dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1874. East India House, its London headquarters, stood at Leadenhall Street from 1729 to 1862; the site is now the Lloyd’s Building (Richard Rogers, 1986). A commemorative plaque on the Lloyd’s Underwriting Room marks where the Company’s court of directors used to sit. The City of London walking-walk takes ten minutes from the Tower of London exterior on Day 2.

The two museums where the Company’s legacy is most visible are both free entry:

The British Museum Asia Galleries (rooms 33, 33a, 33b on the lower floor) hold the most comprehensive South Asian collection outside India: the Amaravati Marbles (a stupa cycle from Andhra Pradesh, 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE), a substantial Gandhara collection, Ashokan rock-edict casts, Mughal miniature paintings, Hindu and Buddhist bronzes. The Mughal manuscripts in the King’s Library include illustrated copies of the Ramayana and the Akbarnama. Provenance is openly debated in the room labels; the museum makes no attempt to hide where things came from.

The V&A Nehru Gallery of Indian Art at South Kensington opened in November 1990 and was named for India’s first prime minister. It is the largest dedicated Indian-art gallery outside the subcontinent. The headline objects are Tipu’s Tiger (the wooden mechanical organ that depicts a tiger mauling a European soldier, made for Tipu Sultan c. 1793 and seized at the fall of Seringapatam in 1799 — the operator can still be cranked on request) and the gold tiger-head finials from Tipu Sultan’s throne. Plus Mughal jewellery, the Indian textile collection, and the woven Salar Jung shawls. Both museums sit comfortably in Day 5 or in a wet-day shuffle.

2. BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Neasden — the largest Hindu temple outside India

Opened on 20 August 1995 and consecrated by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the BAPS Mandir at Neasden in north-west London is the largest traditional Hindu temple outside India. The mandir was carved from white Italian Carrara marble + Bulgarian limestone by ~1,500 artisans in Gujarat and Rajasthan, then shipped to London in 26,300 pieces for assembly — no steel reinforcement, the stones hold each other up by weight and geometry. The marble carving sits on a Bulgarian limestone outer shell that handles the English weather.

Free entry. The morning aarti is at 7am; the evening aarti is at 7pm; the temple complex also runs a free permanent exhibition on Hindu culture, an Akshardham-style courtyard, and a vegetarian Shayona restaurant on site. From central London it is roughly an hour each way on the Underground — Bakerloo Line to Stonebridge Park, then a short walk along Brentfield Road. Daiga writes you the route on Day 5 if you want to go.

3. Southall “Little Punjab” and the Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara

Southall in west London is the original Indian quarter, settled by Punjabi migrants from the 1950s onward when the local Woolfs rubber factory recruited workers from across the subcontinent. Southall Broadway is the lived-in Indian London at full strength: gold and sari shops, halwai sweet shops, mithai stalls, jalebi smells in the air, the famous Brilliant restaurant on Western Road (Punjabi, family-run since 1975).

The Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara on Park Avenue opened in March 2003 and is one of the largest Sikh gurdwaras outside India. The main prayer hall holds ~700 people; the langar hall serves free vegetarian food to anyone who walks in (covered head, washed hands, no shoes — the standard gurdwara protocol). Open all day. Daiga’s Day 5 Southall walk pairs the gurdwara with a Broadway stroll and a Brilliant lunch.

4. Brick Lane Jamme Masjid — the migration story of East London in one building

The corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street holds a building that has lived three religious lives in three communities — the same structure, the same walls, different stories carved on top of each other:

  • 1743: built as La Neuve Eglise, a Huguenot Calvinist chapel, by French Protestants fleeing religious persecution under Louis XIV.
  • 1819: converted to a Methodist chapel (the Huguenot community had assimilated).
  • 1898: became the Machzikei HaDath Spitalfields Great Synagogue as the Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish community settled in the East End.
  • 1976: converted to Brick Lane Jamme Masjid (the Friday Mosque) as the Bangladeshi-Sylheti community moved into Spitalfields in the 1970s.

One building, four communities, three faiths, two and a half centuries. The sundial high on the Fournier Street wall is original to 1743 and still reads Umbra Sumus (“we are shadows”). The interior is open to respectful visitors outside prayer hours. The surrounding Brick Lane curry-mile — predominantly Bangladeshi-Sylheti rather than Indian — is the optional Day 2 evening dinner alternative to Tooting or Wembley.

5. The lived-in Indian London neighbourhoods

The Day 5 free day in London is the day to wander one or more of the working Indian neighbourhoods. The shorthand version:

  • Wembley (north-west London) — Gujarati community, the BAPS Mandir Neasden is adjacent, the Saravanaa Bhavan flagship is here, the Ealing Road has the best mithai shops.
  • Tooting (south London) — South Indian Tamil and Sri Lankan community; Tooting High Street is one of the best stretches of South Indian veg in Europe.
  • Hounslow (west London) — Punjabi community; Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Hounslow holds the second-largest gurdwara congregation in the UK after Southall.
  • East Ham (east London) — Sri Lankan Tamil + Mauritian community; the Sri Murugan Temple on High Street North is the largest South Indian Hindu temple in the UK.
  • Edgware Road (central London) — Marathi community + an early Saravanaa Bhavan; the Indian YMCA on Fitzroy Square sits a five-minute walk away.

Daiga can write a routing for any of these in advance of Day 5. The Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines reach all five.

6. Pondicherry and the Compagnie française des Indes — the French side of the story (Paris)

The Indian thread in Paris is quieter than in London, but it’s there. The Compagnie française des Indes orientales was chartered by Louis XIV and Colbert in August 1664 — sixty-four years after the English East India Company. It held Pondichéry, Karaikal, Mahé, Yanam and Chandernagore as French enclaves on the Indian subcontinent. France ceded the four southern enclaves to India by treaty on 1 November 1954 (de jure 1962, after the French parliament ratified); Pondichéry today still has French as a co-official language, French street signs in the old colonial White Town, and a French-Indian community of ~10,000 holders of French passports.

In Paris itself, the optional Indian-Paris stops on the Day 8 self-guided rest day are:

  • The Musée Guimet at Place d’Iéna (the national Asian-art museum, founded 1889 by Emile Guimet). Holds one of the strongest Khmer + Chinese collections in Europe, plus a serious Indian section with Chola bronzes from Tamil Nadu, Pala-period stone Buddhas from Bihar/Bengal, and Gandhara sculptures. ~€11.50 entry, ~90 minutes.
  • The Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam on rue Pajol in the 18th arrondissement — a Tamil Hindu temple opened in 1985 by Sri Lankan Tamils, dedicated to Ganesha. The annual chariot festival in late August or early September is one of the largest Hindu street processions in continental Europe.
  • The 10th arrondissement around Gare du Nord, especially Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis and Passage Brady — the South Asian groceries, sari shops and a cluster of reliable South Indian veg restaurants. Sits one Metro stop from Gare du Nord and well-served by buses from the Marais and Saint-Germain.
  • Tagore in Paris — Rabindranath Tagore lectured in Paris in 1921, 1926 and 1930 with audiences that included Henri Bergson, Romain Rolland and the literary circle around the Nouvelle Revue Française. There is a bust of him at the Cité internationale universitaire in the 14th arr.

Plus: two additional mentions worth knowing about

The Koh-i-Noor. The 105-carat diamond sits in the Tower of London Crown Jewels exhibit (surrendered by the eleven-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh in 1849 after the Sikh Empire fell). India has formally asked for it back several times; the UK has so far declined. The Tower of London interior is an optional ~£32 upgrade on Day 2 afternoon or Day 5; from outside the walls (the default Day 2 exterior walk), you don’t see it.

The Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial. About 90 minutes north of Paris by car, in the Pas-de-Calais village of Neuve-Chapelle, sits the Indian Army’s main First World War memorial in France. Designed by Sir Herbert Baker (the same architect as Lutyens’ Delhi’s Secretariat buildings), opened in October 1927, it carries the names of 4,742 Indian soldiers who died on the Western Front and have no known grave. We add it as an optional day on the 12-day Loire Valley + Champagne extension; not on the 9-day default.

Sources: BBC History + Tower Hamlets heritage records (Brick Lane Jamme Masjid building history 1743 / 1819 / 1898 / 1976); BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir official site (Neasden marble figures, 26,300 pieces, 1995 opening); Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall official site (gurdwara opening 2003, langar service); British Museum and V&A collection catalogues (Asia Galleries, Nehru Gallery); Historic Royal Palaces (Crown Jewels, Tower of London); Compagnie française des Indes orientales archives (1664 charter, Pondicherry cession 1954); Musée Guimet official site; Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man; Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Neuve-Chapelle Memorial). UNWTO international tourist arrivals data (France ranking).

The Day 5 channel crossing and how the Paris leg runs Why we chose land-only (ferry or Channel Tunnel), where our minibus is at every point, how the Paris days work, what’s pre-booked vs. optional

Four days of touring in France on the default 9-day shape (Days 6–9), preceded by the Day 5 cross-channel road trip in our own minibus. Same vehicle the whole way.

Why land only — ferry or Channel Tunnel, not Eurostar

This is a land-only quote. We cross the channel with our minibus — the same vehicle that does London point-to-point on Days 2-4 and Paris point-to-point on Days 6-8. Two practical options for the crossing: (a) Dover → Calais ferry (~90 minutes water, the minibus parked on the car deck, the group up in the passenger lounges with light lunch and duty-free); (b) the Channel Tunnel vehicle shuttle from Folkestone → Coquelles (~35 minutes through the tunnel, the minibus parked on the rail car, the group stays on board or stretches out). We decide on the morning of Day 5 based on weather, sea conditions and the next available crossing. Both are bundled into the €730 Land + Guiding only price.

The Day 5 shape also turns the crossing into a proper experience instead of a 2-hour rail tunnel — a stretch + photo stop at the Langdon Cliffs viewpoint above Dover for the White Cliffs glimpse, the crossing itself, then a lunch break at the Notre-Dame d’Amiens UNESCO Cathedral on the way south to Paris.

Where our minibus is at every point in the trip

Our minibus is left-hand-drive, EU-registered, 14 seats, AC. It picks the group up at LHR on Day 1, does London point-to-point on Day 2, drives the Cotswolds villages day-trip on Day 3, sits out the Day 4 self-guided rest day, does the Day 5 channel crossing with the group on board, does Paris point-to-point on Day 6, drives Versailles on Day 7, sits out the Day 8 self-guided rest day, and drops at CDG on Day 9. One vehicle and one crew across all guided days.

Daiga and her team, end to end on the Paris leg

The crew you meet at Heathrow on Day 1 walks you through the Tuileries on Day 6, drives you to Versailles on Day 7, and sees you off at CDG on Day 9.

Day 6 walking tour of Paris + minibus point-to-point — the walk Daiga has refined

Minibus from the hotel to the Tuileries Gardens. On foot west through Place de la Concorde, up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe exterior. The minibus picks the group up at the Arc and runs across to the Trocadéro for the Eiffel Tower view from the right angle — no Metro line change with shopping bags. Lunch in the Marais (a bistro Daiga has used for years, name on request). Afternoon at the Seine on foot, Notre-Dame de Paris exterior + Île de la Cité + a Berthillon ice cream on Île Saint-Louis. Minibus to Sacré-Cœur Montmartre at golden hour, then a short walk down to Place du Tertre — the licensed-artists’ square where Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo all worked. A 20-30 minute portrait or street-scene painting (~€30-80, direct to the artist) is the optional add-on while the group browses the easels.

Day 7 Versailles — we’ve picked the quietest day

The default departure is on a Tuesday (Mondays the palace is closed; Tuesdays the morning crowd is thinnest). Our minibus picks up at 8:30am from the hotel and drives to Versailles ~45 minutes south-west of Paris. Combined palace + gardens ticket (~€20 per person) is bundled into the Land + Guiding only price. The Hall of Mirrors, the State Apartments, the Trianon estate, the gardens. Anyone needing a break returns to the minibus parked nearby. From late spring through early autumn on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the Grandes Eaux Musicales fountain show runs in the gardens (~€11 extra, optional). Late-afternoon minibus back to Paris.

Pre-booked vs. optional, on the Paris side

Bundled essentials (pre-booked, in the €730 Land + Guiding only price): the Day 5 ferry or Channel Tunnel crossing only. No paid attraction entries are bundled — every paid interior (Versailles palace, the Louvre, the Shard, Tower of London, etc.) is an optional upgrade, available at the gate or through the London Pass / Paris Pass / Paris Museum Pass we pre-buy at the corporate rate.

Optional Paris-side upgrades (you pick, you pay): Louvre Denon Wing (~€22 with the Mona Lisa and Italian Renaissance), Eiffel Tower summit lift (~€30), Musée d’Orsay (~€16), Musée Guimet Asian-art galleries (~€11.50, the Indian-Paris stop), Sainte-Chapelle stained glass (~€13), Versailles weekend fountain show (~€11), an evening bateau-mouche on the Seine (~€15). Most of these get done on the Day 8 self-guided day at each guest’s pace.

The legal entity

Ronda Sprints Solutions SIA, a fully insured EU tour operator. We handle the transport, the ferry / Channel Tunnel booking and the day-to-day logistics across both countries directly. Nothing on the ground is subcontracted to third-party tour operators. The minibus + insurance is the same vehicle that runs every other en-in route we offer in continental Europe. Paid venue admission (Versailles palace, Tower of London, the Louvre and the rest) is via each venue’s published ticketing; you pay direct at the gate or Daiga pre-books for you on request, at our corporate citypass rate where available.

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