You've gotta go to London! As a Londoner I'm a little biased here but it's such a great city you need to allow for at least a few days here. Also, from London you can travel to France and Belgium by Eurostar (if you book early on www.eurostar.com you can get really good deals. Also if you guys are under 26 at time of travel you can get cheaper fares as a 'youth' passenger) Alternatively, you can travel from London to anywhere else in Europe with cheap flights from Gatwick, Stansted or Luton airports. Again, book early, Easyjet is best but Ryanair can be a bit cheaper - not as comfortable though!
While in London, it doesn't really matter too much where you stay but the more centreal the better. The tube network goes all across the city and runs almost round the clock so you'll be fine almost anywhere. London theatre is one of the main attractions of the west end and well worth doing. I work for a holiday company and I deal with London theatre. You can check out my blog there at http://blog.show-and-stay.co.uk/ for details of London shows. Also, they do sell good value tickets if you're interested The tickets are for show and hotel or show and meal, prices start from about £34 for dinner and top show tickets (www.show-and-stay.co.uk). Just added a couple of arrticles to this blog that you might be interested in: one is about cheap travel around London, the other is about free days out in London - if you're on a budget there are some good suggestions of what you can do in London for free.
I agree with Aristeidis, head to the Mediterranean - South of France is well worth a visit. Nice is amazing and it's just next to Cannes and Monte Carlo. You can visit the beautiful hills of Provence, take a trip into the Alps, go to the casino in Monte Carlo or go to the North of Italy by train. In Nice, the best place to visit is the old castle on the top of the hill. The views are amazing, you can see the old town & beach from one side and the port from the other side. It's really beautiful but is a good old walk up the steps. In the port in Nice there is a great chocolate factory (le confiserie florian), they do free guided tours in english then at the end of the tour you can sample everything. The chocolate there is seriously the nicest I've ever tasted, 100% natural, handmade and incredible! Also, while in Nice, the best ice cream can be found at 'Crema di Gelatto' next to the Palais de Justice in the Old Town. Seriously the best ice cream in the world! Quite often in summer people sit on the steps of the palais de justice late in the evening eating ice cream! Head to Waynes bar just 2 minutes from Palais de Justice (along the road from Crema di Gelatto) for a great night out. It's an American bar but they have good live music and a great atmosphere. If you're in the area in May, see if you're there for the Cannes film festival - good opportunity to go star spotting, and the Monaco Grand Prix (you can get tickets on day for 60 euros or pre-race days, usually the Friday, are much cheaper, around 15-30 euros). If you go to Monaco grand prix, get there early (trains get v busy) stay in Nice because MOnaco will be hideously expensive and DO NOT buy tickets from touts, it is illegal and they are pretty much all fake!
While you're in Paris, I would definitely recommend getting the train out to Versailles. It was the highlight of my trip to Paris. You can see the castle and the home of Marie Antoinette. Before you go to Versailles I'd recommedn renting Marie Antoinette (starring Kirsten Dunst) to get an idea of the story of her life at the castle. Will make your visit much more interesting.
Hope you all have a great time, enjoy your first trip to Europe! Let me know if you guys want any more suggestions or any more detail about Nice, South of France or London. Lived in Nice so can answer any Q's about that region of the Med.
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