8 Days Europe Highlights — London, Paris & Amsterdam

Land at Heathrow and be met by your tour manager. Transfer to your hotel in Central London — Zone 1, walking distance to the Thames. Freshen up and take an evening walk along the South Bank: the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern, and the lit-up City of London skyline across the river. Fish & chips and a pint — welcome to England.

Full London day: the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (11am, most mornings), Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Walk across Tower Bridge with the Thames below. The Tower of London — Crown Jewels, Beefeaters, and 1,000 years of history. Borough Market for lunch (the best food market in the UK).

Board the Eurostar from St Pancras International — 2 hours 15 minutes under the English Channel and you emerge in Paris. Transfer to your hotel in the Marais or near the Champs-Élysées. Afternoon walk to Montmartre — the hilltop artist quarter with its white-domed Sacré-Cœur basilica and winding streets of galleries and crêpe stands.

Eiffel Tower — up to the summit (276m) for Paris laid out below. The Louvre's highlights (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory) without getting lost for days — your guide knows the route. Afternoon Seine river cruise, gliding past Notre-Dame (reconstruction ongoing), the Musée d'Orsay, and the Grand Palais. Evening at a classic French brasserie.

Day trip to the Palace of Versailles — 45 minutes from Paris by RER. The Hall of Mirrors (357 mirrors, 20,000 candles' worth of chandeliers) is overwhelming in the best way. The formal French gardens stretch for kilometres — rent a golf cart to cover the grounds. The Grand and Petit Trianon palaces. Return to Paris for a final evening on the Seine.

Morning Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord to Amsterdam Centraal — 3.5 hours through the flat Dutch countryside. Check in to your canal-side hotel. Afternoon evening canal boat cruise through the UNESCO-listed canal ring — 165 canals, 1,500 bridges, 17th-century merchants' houses leaning at improbable angles.

Anne Frank House — book in advance, powerful and moving. The Rijksmuseum's Rembrandt and Vermeer masterworks. Vondelpark afternoon (Amsterdam's great green lung) with coffee and stroopwafel. The Bloemenmarkt floating flower market on the Singel canal. Evening in the Jordaan neighbourhood — dinner at a brown café (bruine kroeg) by the canal.

Optional morning: rent a bike and cycle Amsterdam like a local (the city has 400km of cycle lanes). Then your tour manager transfers you to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport — one of Europe's most efficient airports — for your flight home. Eight days, three capitals, memories you'll be drawing on for years.