London- Paris- Amsterdam is a good mix of cultures, and easy to do via train. Fly into London and out of Amsterdam.

Hi LG,

You only have 12 days.

You can visit London and vicinity, or you can visit Paris and vicinity or you can fly into one and out the other and enjoy yourselves.

OR you can "see a lot" and come home exhausted and with little to show for it but being on trains.

My suggestion is to fly into London (5 nights), take the train to Paris (6 nights) and fly home.

I thought you were going alone, in February, for your 32nd birthday. Is this a different trip?

Yeah thats a different trip.

Just realize that it will be crowded at the major attractions in August, we actually did quite a bit outside of Paris when we went a few years ago. Some restaurants will be closed for their vacation.

I would fly into London, Eurostar to Paris and fly back from Paris....that is exactly what I did on my my 2nd trip to Europe years ago! Worked out well.

I 2nd the London, Paris, Amsterdam open jaw idea. Have fun with whatever you do.

If the 12 days includes your travel days (ATL-LHR), London-Paris), Paris-Amsterdam, you really only have three days in each city. Not a lot of time to find and enjoy the action.

You may have trouble finding rooms for that many people at that time of the year. As you no doubt know, most European hotel rooms are very small and will hold no more than two people, so you will need a hotel that can give you four rooms at the height of the tourist season, or you will have to split up among several hotels. It is going to be stressful to try to do this in three separate cities.

I am going to join the chorus for London and Paris only, or London and Amsterdam only. If you do London-Paris, definitely take the train. It is incredibly easy and not expensive if you reserve in advance. Flying looks better on paper but by the time you pay to get to and from the airport, add in the time etc, it isn't worth it for a trip that short.

Traveling with 8 isn't easy. Are you doing all the planning? Do you have input from the group? It isn't easy to get consensus among 8 people.

I agree with those who suggest London and Paris only. WIth only 9-12 days and including travel, you will not have too much time. I would split the time evenly between the two cities and take the Eurostar from one to the other. And I would make decisions soon so that you can get decent hotel arrangements.

Once you have decided on your itinerary, we can be of some help.

Hi leanguy!
Last september we were in London,Paris and other cities with 7 additional friends(for a total of 9 persons). We had great fun and everithing went ok.
We travel London to Paris via Eurostar ,fast and easy. For the days you have, I assume it is better to do London and Paris only. Enjoy your planning and let us know if you need anything.

I agree with the others - pick two locations max. There are tonnes of things to see in and around those 3 locations, so pick two and enjoy what they have to offer. I have travelled with a group of 7 and it is like herding cats, so the less logistics you have to deal with the better in my experience. Once in these locations people can do what they are interested in.

Any combinitaion would work, but open jaw flights will max your time and min your cost.

We were 8 for our family trip for a week in Paris a few years ago.
Note 1.It isn't easy to find restaurants UNLESS you make reservations.
Note 2. Not all may want to do the same thing every day.
Note 3. Engage a guide--Michael Osman
Go no more than 2 cities. You need to have a LOT of meetings with these folks and decide what you want to do, how much you want to spend, where you want to go.
Personally if no one has been before, you are biting off a huge bite to chew.

Moving 8 people around as a group is a bit of a challenge. I would keep it to only 2 cities because of the size of the group.

Solo it would be easy to do Amsterdam/London/Paris. One person can move quicker and with less hassle than 8 people going together.

Thousands of people a day move between major cities in Europe why should it be difficult for 8 to do it.

>>>Thousands of people a day move between major cities in Europe why should it be difficult for 8 to do it.

Eight people all at once, same time, same place can be a challenge, at best. Many of the reasons are listed above. I'm planning a trip with only four, and it's proving to be a lot more work than with one or two.

<<Thousands of people a day move between major cities in Europe why should it be difficult for 8 to do it.>>

That makes no sense. Just because huge numbers of people move all over Europe every day doesn't address the question of particular groups of people traveling together.

Have you ever, e.g., tried to herd 8 people onto the Paris métro or the London tube and make sure they all get on the same car and off at the right place? I have. It can be a nightmare. Just walking down the average street in Europe with 8 people together is a challenge.

I've also given culinary tours in France for groups of people. They get up in the morning and, despite the planned agenda, one of them needs to go the Post Office, one of them decides he wants to rent a bike, one decides she has to visit an antiques store she saw yesterday, one doesn't eat eggplant, one gets carsick, one is coming down with a cold...and on and on.

It's not a picnic.

Are you the designated travel planner for the entire group? Will the others be happy to accept whatever you come up with, or will they want to complain and make changes?

Planning for eight adults is difficult. Making all of them happy, all the time, is going to be impossible. There will have to be some compromises.

First of all, does everyone have approximately the same budget? If one is on the budget level of hostels and another on the budget level of four-star hotels you have a problem. If everyone is on the same budget, fine. I would advise you to decide on things like how to split a restaurant bill before you get to the restaurant.

Does everyone have the same interests? If two want to go to museums, two want to go to concerts, two want to go to the beach, one want to go to a sporting event and one want to sit in a cafe and people-watch, you will either have to split up for the day or compromise. Do not expect everyone to enjoy everything. Give them some free time to do their own things.

Does everyone have the same physical health? If someone can't walk as fast or carry as much it may cause problems and slow everything down. You should probably warn everyone that they will have to carry their own luggage.

Don't make any plans that can't be changed (without paying a large amount of money) until everyone has agreed to the plans. Make sure that it will be possible to cancel one or two of the flights and hotel rooms, without cancelling all of them, if parts of the group drop out sometime between now and August.

Yes, I have herded people through Europe and the public transportation was one of the easiest parts. You are adults how hard is it to get on the train. If the people you are traveling are heaver than your 26inch bag, loose them they will learn how to follow directions after that.

I suggest that you try to sort your group into two groups based on the interests/capabilities of the people and try to find someone to share "sheparding" responsibilities with you. That way you can plan days where the groups split off and come back together as interests and energy levels, etc. dictate. The size of the groups might vary from day to day. If this idea appeals to you, I'd be happy to offer further suggestions.

"loose [sic]them they will learn how to follow directions after that."

Well, yes, but you may not be friends any more.

That may not matter.

The other problem is that when people get dependent on a leader, they tend not to pay any attention to their surroundings. I am going to make a huge generalization here and suggest that people under 40 are so used to being in touch by text or phone that they are especially prone to this.

If the OP is okay with leaving the late sleepers in bed or the window shoppers on the platform, fine. But he will spend a fortune -- maybe hundreds of dollars -- on text/phone if he tries to be open to the stragglers staying in touch to catch up the way he would at home. He would really have to suck it up and let the latecomers fall by the wayside as you suggest, and this isn't easy for a lot of people to do.

The OP should get PAplumber to do his tour.LOL
I am at a loss to know how someone who has never been to Europe can plan a trip for 8 people. Sorry, just my opinion.

AND once in Paris, every unit should be totally on their own, gathering if they want to, but having a meeting place for dinner--with reservations.

No one stays mad at there plumber A funny but true story, the first time we took people with us to Europe, we were staying in Amsterdam. After showing them around for the first couple of days we had a free day to do our own stuff. One couple left the hotel with out picking up a business card, they spent hours looking for the spire/tower that was located outside our hotel. That travel mistake almost broke up that couple, but we are still friends decades later. We gave them a framed picture of the towers/spires of Amsterdam, have not seen it in there home.

If you are talking about taking another couple, it isn't hard. If you are talking about 8 people, none of whom are travel savvy for Europe, you are talking about a whole 'nother thing. My opinion.
We took another couple, and tried to adjust to the wife liking to sleep in. Finally said, we are off. We taught them how to use the Metro, and agreed to meet at night.

For a group of 8 you definitely need to be willing to split up into singles, couples or at least smaller groups. 8 people doing every single thing together for 9-12 days isn't going to work very well.

Suze has great advice.

Hopefully you'll all still be friends at the end of this trip