Flights to Europe

Hello, I will be going to Europe December 20th - Jan 4th of this year. Our plan is to to do London and Ireland for sure and we would like to see France and maybe Germany. Does anyone know where would be cheapest to fly into during that time of year? Or what airline you would suggest? I am flying from Toronto. Do you think seeing those 4 countries would be to much? Any advice would be geat! thanks

You are going for two weeks with three public holidays in that period, it sounds like your are trying to fit too much into too short a period. You are also flying at the MOST EXPENSIVE time of the year so asking which would be the cheapest way to do it is a bit pointless, doing the trip a few weeks earlier or later is the answer to that. Doing an open-jaw trip from Toronto is one possibility to save money; Ryanair and easyJet are the largest two budget airlines from the UK, just make sure you understand all their terms and conditions, they say what they mean but they also mean what they say and those who cannot figure out that this applies to them usually end up paying a high price for it, like Ryanair requires you to print your own boarding pass, warns you with e-mails to do it, and if you ignore them charges you a fortune.

Thanks for the advice. My friend and I both get our Holidays on that 2 week period so we need to go during that time. I realize it is expensive I just thought maybe someone had done it before and was able to find a better way.

There's expensive and then there's Christmas, but hey ho...

Given you have only 15 days and there are 3 bank holidays in the way including one where everything shuts down (Xmas day - I do mean everything), I'd stick to max 4 destinations (as in locations, not countries). Getting around will be problematic (pricy, and/or lots of roadworks and rail engineering stuff going on). :-)

Bear in mind that London alone could keep you occupied for a week, ditto Paris.

PS - Flying around on Xmas Day itself is surprisingly cheap, but getting to/from the airport is surprisingly difficult.

Do you think seeing those 4 countries would be to much?

16 days for 4 countries=4 days per country... even less once you exclude travel time among countries as well as your arrival and departure days...
With your timeframe, I would suggest to focus only in one country or in a region within it.

oh dear - please check a map. You could 'do' quite a lot of London in that time. But as others note, all that rushing around just won't work, especially in those two weeks.

don't fly on Christmas Day and remember that EVERYTHING will be shut then. No transport in London at all and probably none in other places either.

London is not a country !

Basically you want to see 4 cities, you are not going to see Germany, France and Ireland in that time schedule. If you are going to visit different cities, the airlines you want to look at are easyjet, ryanair especially if you starting and finishing in London. www.skyscanner.net is good.

But as others have said the time of the year and the time you have, it's a bit crazy to think of doing this. What's wrong with actually visiting other parts of the UK, London is not the UK

Book flights early even now on most routes and definitely UK / Ireland destinations. Expect little public transport on 26th December - Boxing Day (St Stephen's Day) in Ireland.

The assumption is that you only have walk on luggage otherwise you will find you pay dearly particularly on the budget airlines. Important to read those T&Cs as others have pointed out.

UK train services do not usually announce engineering works until 12 weeks before Christmas.

Expect it to be dark after 4.15pm in UK at that time of year which may be pertinent for some sight seeing.

R

If you still plan to go to Germany:

everything will be completely closed at 25th, 26th of December and 1st of January. Whole day!
24th and 31st of December: only half days for shops, other attractions might be closed (germans celebrate Christmas on the 24th in the evening, that's when we get our presents.

It will be high season, if you plan to go, definetly check hotels now!! and make reservations!

The received wisdom is "Don't even think about it"

One factor not mentioned is the unreliability of the weather.

Frequently weather in both London and Paris is very similar. - if you do want to see more than one city, then surely London and Paris on an openjaw ticket but your best option is a single country, maybe including the People's Republic of Yorkshire.

Edited by: Grahamapoole

I agree it sounds rediculous but if you insist on seeing all four then you could consider flying into Dublin, then fly to London, take Eurostar London to Paris (quicker than flying and book it now!) also nice to look out of the window. Then train onto Germany and fly out from there. However that'll only be west Germany.

I went to Bruge for Christmas once and it was really nice, there were even shops open on the 25th, owing to the main celelbrations being on 24th!

To be honest you won't want to see much of the countryside at that time of year. Best to concentrate on UK with trip to Paris (ideally at end or beginning) and save the rest for another trip!

one thing no one has mentioned - the lack of daylight hours. Gets dark around 4.00 p.m. and light around 8.00ish.

Try skyscanner!

Finding the cheapest flights to Europe requires multiple and sometimes-concurrent Internet searches. For travel flexibility avoid peak summer travel months or being enrolled as a full-time student may produce the best rates available. Because sales and deals can appear quickly, a different search platform can produce the cheapest European ticket with each new search. The same website or method may not work twice in a row.