EddScott

In September I'd like to take my GF to Paris for her birthday. Plan would be to drive from West Wales (as trains are pants out here) to Newport and take the train from Newport to St Pancreas. I've been looking at train times to ensure theres about an hour between mainland trains and the Eurostar just in case.

Eurostar has standard and standard premier - is there much difference?

Can anyone provide recommendations for hotels? Had a look on Expedia who offer prices for Eurostar and hotel. Would like a hotel within walking distance of the traditional sights etc.

Presumably the price of everything in Paris is high?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Give me 5 and I will give you the perfect hotel/train combo

and yes my review is on expedia

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Just get standard eurostar tickets, it's a shortish journey. Stay where ever you like in Paris as getting around via the Metro (underground trains) is dead easy and everything is only a short journey away. I like the Latin Quarter (tacky end of town) for its atmosphere and café bars restaurants. I have also stayed in the posh part over by St germaine boulevard , it's classy. Paris has everything. To keep costs down choose small cafe restaurants and get breakfast elsewhere from the hotel you stay at, it's only coffee croissants generally. You will be busy trying to take it all in over one weekend 4 days more preferable.

Note, in August Paris effectively shuts down as locals **** off to the coast , as it becomes very hot.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

We did this in May and although you are going when it seems to be more expensive (we did it mid week) it is still great value if you book via expedia the hotel and train.

But you can go to the eurostar and they also provide package deals so check them out as well.
Either way the hotel I suggest is the Hôtel Garden Elysées, 4 star.

Below is a link to expedia package
https://www.expedia.co.uk/pub/agent.dll

Also here is the link to my review.

Enjoy

Graz

We went to Brussels on the Eurostar on Valentines day, there was some sort of a promotion going on at the station (Waterloo back then) and we won an upgrade to first class. Great start to the weekend as we got fed on the train + all the wine we could drink.

Wouldn't bother with paying for anything other than standard though as it doesn't take long to get there.

Devildog

Can recommend this place - we were there in October.

http://www.lamaisonfavart.com

Great boutique hotel, close to the Opera, fantastic service.

Paris is expensive but totally worth it .

1 large beer, one large glass red (decent) on the Champs Elysees could cost you £30.

jods

Cheers fella

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

try this

http://www.expedia.co.uk/Paris-Hotel...dma-wave862261

tony de wonderful

The Champs Elysees is a horrible tourist magnet a bit like Oxford Street in London. There are better places to relax and have a beer or glass of wine.

tony de wonderful

Paris is amazing but expensive. I'd avoid the worst tourist trap stuff and 'chillax' as much as you can in cool bistros and eat in nice restaurants. The whole street/cafe culture is very different than the UK. People will just get a coffee and sit outside a bistro/cafe. They might read a paper, watch people go past, meet friends, or just pose in the latest fashions. Speaking of fashion, everyone tends to be very style-conscious in Paris and 'well dressed'. Scruffy Brits and Americans tend to stand out lol. Parisians like to be noticed for their sense of style that is for sure.

I'm off to Berlin and also Amsterdam next month. I was in Paris last year.

netbeast

My first question is - how old are you and what is your expectation?

I went to Paris in May together with my GF, we are both 28, but we were on a budget, so, I went with a coach - Ecolines, from London Victoria, to Paris Gallieni.

Pricewise - 10 quid one way per person, 2 week advance booking compared to 150 quid one way per person 2 week advance booking.

Just to avoid some crossfire - I must say, the coach ride was not the worst, there were no longer then 2 hour rides with rest stops and the most annoying bit was getting out of London at 8am, but the story is not about that.

I was very disappointed with the underground railway system - it is not comparable to London in terms of ease of use, as well, as it is very, I must say, very dodgy. In the city center you will experience bums sleeping inside the tunnels past the ticket gates, and **** and p!ss stench traveling to the entrance. there are a lot of beggars inside the metro tunnels and a lot of people use them as toilets. I think I was scared the most, when I was going back from the Eiffel and trying to find a metro station and managed to find myself in an area next to a station called Bir-Hakeim https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/...6c79a410cb20b8

something very Deja-vu in terms of french crime movies.

When arriving at the Eurlines termini, you had to go from a nice underground arrivals area, through a smelly, dark, ~~100m long tunnel, walls covered in graffiti towards the metro entrance area, and it was very confusing, this spoiled my experience to begin with.

The overground entrances/signs are not very easy to notice either, some of them look like they are there for 30 years without maintenance.

My general advice would be - if you have the budget to spare, avoid the Metro system in Paris, it will spoil your romantic experience no matter what other people are trying to say here.

Be careful of thieves, pick-pockets and scammers. mostly they are eastern european (romanian?) girls, that walk around in bunches of 3, the moment you will start looking at what they offer you, there will be a 3rd hand roaming your personal belongings (heard a story of a person being poured over with water and "helpful" people offering towels just for the guy to realize his rucksack had been cut open and valuables gone).

Due to the fact that i was on budget, initially I was looking to do AirBnB or couch surfing, but due to certain issues with registrations on those sites etc, I chose to use a site called - Housetrip.com

I ended up booking this - http://www.housetrip.com/en/rentals/277859

A nice studio flat in Le Marais, just opposite Pompidou and a 5 minute walk away from Notre Dame De Paris.

The flat itself had everything - kitchen, nice shower, washing machine, internet, TV, a nice, big, comfortable bed etc and, the best part, at a price of 40 quid per night for the whole flat. that is like 20 quid Per Person per night. just a steal. lots of shops around, lots of restaurants around, nice area, very close to the city centre and all of the nightlife. thoroughly enjoyed.

Just my 5 cents.

Oh, I did a free Paris tour from Sandeman's new Europe tours, well, relatively free, you had to tip the guide (they do a great London tour as well, if anyone is interested). Our guide was an american guy called Arnaud, and he was brilliant. showed us all of the scammers and their tricks, as he sees them every day anyway. highly suggested, and cheap.

http://www.newparistours.com/daily-t...free-tour.html

regarding the eurostar, however, no difference at all, especially if you go early hours. went to Brussels on Eurostar, and the train was completely empty, I was alone in like 4 seats and could chose whatever I wished.

tony de wonderful

That's funny 'cos I found the Metro really efficient and cheap. I used an ipad app to help me navigate it, it would tell you how to get from a to b the best way. It was certainly no worse than the London Underground and it was definitely cheaper.

netbeast

yes, I agree, and forgot to mention the price, wanted to in my first edit, it is really cheap, however, for a 1.5 eur entrance fee, you cannot wish much more, compared to the zone dependent fares in London...

It might be efficient as well, but so is London Underground, however, it is maintained at a much lower level, you must admit it, and as said, I did not enjoy it for that reason alone, hell, I even saw a bum looking down at me from above the rails where he had set up his bed on top of a scaffold.

I have no idea how much a bus or a taxi would cost, but from what I heard in the coach, it is not superbly expensive, if you know which companies to use.

I challenge anyone who goes to Paris to count how many policemen they see around the regular tourist traps - padlock bridge, champ's d'elysees, louvre etc and then compare to a regular day in London.

We even got warned not to go towards Champs D'Elysees after dusk because you could get mugged there so easy (champs d'elysees is not just the huge shopping street, it goes from the Arc of triumph down to those parks with the greenhouses where Napoleon used to grow his oranges, and there are a few shady areas there).

but this goes in to a huge off-topic, as said earlier - if you have money to spend, enjoy as much as you can without thinking a lot of where to cut it and why, that will just cause trouble in Paris.

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

Much has been said already so I'll only add - the Eiffel Tower is best at night. Take a tour of it just before dusk and then enjoy the views from the top at night. With Paris lit up you can see many of the main attractions that you'd be hard pressed to spot during the day. Then after you've left the tower you can look back at the spectacular light displays it hosts. A good camera is a must. Enjoy yourselves.

Shaid

Paris IS expensive.

Every street trader will try to rip you off.

Some won't stop pestering you.

If someone forces a wrist band on you then demands €5 Euro each stand your ground and politely tell the to foxtrot oscor...they will eventually get the message. Although try intimidating you first.

Food IS expensive. Think motorway services x 10! Roughly... Man maths.

Get there early and get Eiffel Tower out the way first.

SJ_Skyline

Stayed here a couple of years back:

Villa Opéra Drouot
2 Rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris
France

Took the Eurostar from St. Pancras and walked it at the Paris end. No complaints, everything was expensive but then it's the middle of a major city.

Edit: we bought weekend passes for the open topped tour busses. Not just a great way to see the sights but also pretty damn useful and inexpensive for getting around!

Hope you have a great time!

ScoobyJawa

Keep your eyes peeled when walking, dog **** everywhere

tony de wonderful

Again I didn't notice that. Manchester otoh...

netbeast

I personally would not suggest the Eiffel tower at all, just to walk there and look at the heavily armed military guards patrolling the area. To see the light shows, you do not need to be very close to it, but they start at 21:00 and happen every hour until midnight, they are approx 5 minutes long.

The main problem with the Eiffel is that the queues are just spectacularly long and after you have climbed finally up there, well, you do not see the tower itself.

My suggestion is - Montparnasse tower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Montparnasse
why? because it is the ONLY high rise building (59 floors) in central Paris (La Defense in the background of Eiffel is not central Paris, it is the business quarter, something like Canary Wharf), apart from Eiffel itself and it only costs 10 eur to visit and if you buy a ticket in advance, you skip all of the queues, just go straight through the door, in to the elevator and are up there. It has quite a lot of interactive stuff going on there as well as you can climb up to the roof and look at everything from the top.

This is a picture I took while being up there. Mobile phone, though.

SJ_Skyline

If you spot any of the street sellers giving people a hard time, find a bunch of other tourists heading in the same direction and tag on behind them. When they get accosted you just keep on walking. (The linebacker method)

EddScott

Thanks for the replies guys.

Somewhat in two minds about going now. Not overly bothered with cost and had a budget of a grand for the weekend. £600 to get there and hotels and £400 spending. But to be honest, I don't want to go and have any sort of grief (having said that I'm going to Ukraine in October which I can't see being completely smooth sailing!) and it will be the first little break me and my GF have been on so I want things to go just right.

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I have stayed here - http://www.hipotel.fr/en/hipotel-par...-,hotel-5.html

It is a small hotel with only about 25 rooms which run at about €150 per room per night. If you look in the first slidehow image, the access to "port de bagnolet" metro is right outside the front door.

Did all the tourist thing from there - Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees, Arc De Triomphe, Louvre (which was closed due to a strike), Siene dinner cruise, Sacre Coeur, Jardin du Luxembourg, pere-lachaise cemetary (burial place of Honore Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Jim Morrison) etc etc

The hotel is not in any way grand or pretentious, it is however enitrely functional and comfortable and a good base from which to navigate your way around the city. Any time I travel, I treat hotels as somewhere warm, dry, safe, quiet and comforable to spend a few hours asleep, and to grab a good breakfast.

Don't be put off by the negatives - it's like any big european city, go to the the wrong place alone after dark and trouble will find you, follow the mainstream and you will be fine. It is expensive - nothing in Paris is cheap, plan your route - the Parisiennes are not keen on being asked for directions.

hodgy0_2

yep, I agree - it is easy to paint any large European city in a bad light - and Paris is full of French after all, so doubly so

but just being sensible negates 99% of the problems

maybe Amsterdam if you really want something a little more laid back

I was drinking around Kings Cross last Saturday and boy that place is "challenging"

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Amsterdam is lovely, very laid back nice restaurants bars etc etc.
Great architecture aswell.

Devildog

Of course its a tourist magnet, just like every tourist attraction in Paris or any other major city - but if its your first time you're going to do the tourist bit.

andy97

iTrader: (1)

With the greatest of respect Edd, if you're going to put off by a few negative comments about beautiful city, stay at home and never go further than your back yard. God man, grow a pair and get out and experience life, culture! Even if it is a negative experience, it is life

Here endeth the sermon

EddScott

I know, I know.

I'm going to Chernobyl in October - assuming no more planes get shot down and Ukraine doesn't completely dissolve into outright war.



A few dodgy frogs should be nothing in comparison! This is my first GF in a long time and the first "thing" we've done as a couple so was aiming for a smooth ride.

netbeast

Chernobyl is FAR from Donetsk, where all of the mess is happening right now. literally the other end of the country. It is very calm around those areas anyhow.

what did you lose there, by the way? just on a trip or are you working on the sarcophagus?

EddScott

Its nowhere near any of the problems I know - just amusing when you first tell people here where I'm going.

Its for no other reason than I've always wanted to go. Theres a group of 30 ish going and I'm tagging along with them. Don't know anyone else but I sort of wanted it that way so its just me alone in the "Zone".

I am a bit of a pansy though - when asked if I'm worried about the troubles or the radiation or anything like that I said I'm more worried about being robbed by one of the lap dancers in the hotel (pre-GF concern obviously) We don't stay in a hotel - we rent apartments off the locals who go and stay with friends for the week. Buddy up with a couple of others and its just a place to crash in between trips to the reactor and Pripyat.

Devildog

Edd,

I've been to Paris a few times now and its a beatiful place. Never had any trouble from street sellers. I doubt you'd have any grief whatsoever.

Perfect for your first little break