In January I went to Italy with my hubby, who was traveling for work. Since its been my DREAM to go to Paris one day, we opted to add a few days onto the Italy trip in to swing over to France, as it would be MUCH CHEAPER to do that than plan a whole new trip.
We were travelling during a non-peak time, so we didn’t make too many plans in advance as we just wanted to go where we felt like on any given day. We had a list of places to go but were pretty open on the plans.
First up - hotel. A few weeks before we left I did a Google search on “hotels near Eiffel Tower.” As you’d imagined, most were around $300—$400/night, and I didn’t want to pay that! Buuuuut there was a listing on Expedia for this hotel that was only about $150/night.
*NOTE: hotels in Paris are typically SMALL - they are not the giant hotel rooms that we are normally used to. I knew this going into the trip, but just so anyone else reading this is aware.
Most importantly, I read the reviews for this hotel, both on Expedia and Google Maps app. (Reviews are gold y’all!) Both mentioned smaller room sizes for this hotel, they mentioned that the hotel was right across the street from the Metro station so it was a louder area, and that the breakfast buffet was not automatically included in the cost of the hotel. The Expedia listings showed several price options for the hotel, not only based on bed size but also room size, and with or without breakfast. We opted for a larger double room with breakfast, because in the morning Momma just needs her coffee stat! So I booked via Expedia that day.
Next up I asked the Googles all that I could about Paris. The most important things I took away from it (aside what I already knew about travelling in Europe):
~Beware of pickpocketers
~Getting around via Metro/RER
Y’all - Paris is a BIG CITY. Its a major tourist area. So yes, there are going to be unsavory individuals preying on unsuspecting tourists. (Its so bad that the loudspeakers in the airport, Metro stations, AND all tourist attractions all tell you to look out for pickpocketers! I wish I was joking about this!) If you are aware of your surroundings and not flashing large amounts of cash/goods around, you’ll probably be just fine. I had my phone (iPhone X) out a lot for taking pics, translating and navigating, but made sure to store it zipped inside my crossbody purse any other time and it was fine.
First up: Getting to our hotel
Although we knew our hotel was right across from the Metro station, figuring how to get there from the airport was our first challenge. Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport is the 7th largest IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Its huge. I found lots of people that told exactly how to get to the Eiffel Tower from CDG, and lots of YouTube videos too (the Bir Hakeim Metro station that was right across from our hotel is the main Metro station that you‘d get off at to see the Tower, so Googling “how to get to Eiffel Tower from CDG“ was an effective search for us). We had it all planned out, which trains to take and which stations to get off at, but in the end we opted to take a taxi because we each had a large checked bag, carry on bag, and personal item. It would be a bit harder to navigate the RER and Metros with that much baggage, especially if the cars were full with people. It was only 55 euros to take a cab, so that’s what we did.
The hotel staff were AMAZING. Our hotel was a cute little hotel that you would probably miss, even if you were walking by the entrance. But honestly we weren’t in Paris to sample the hotels, so a big flashy hotel wasn’t high on our priority list... I just wanted to be able to walk to the Tower. The only out-of-the-norm thing about the hotel was that when you were leaving to go sightsee, you had to leave your room key with the front desk. When you came back in, you’d just have to ask for it and no matter how many times you came and went, they never got annoyed. All of the staff we came in contact with were fluent in English, so communication was never an issue [its worth noting that both of us only remembered a small handful of words/phrases from high school French classes].
*IMPORTANT: lots of areas in Europe do NOT have washcloths in the hotels. Out of the 3 hotels we stayed at in Italy & Paris, none of them had washcloths. So glad we knew this before we went! We bought these disposable ones from Amazon and they worked FABULOUS! They were super strong yet soft, we had more than enough and could even give some to one of the people in our Italy group.
Next up: How to navigate around the City
I so wish the USA‘s mass transportation system was as awesome as Europe’s! I was so impressed at how easy it is to get around. Thanks to Google, I knew to get to about any other major tourist attraction we needed to take the Metro/RER. I also knew that you could buy a one time ticket or multiple rides ticket or even tickets for multiple days. We opted to buy 2 day unlimited tickets, since we weren’t locked in to any plans and could do whatever we wanted at any moment. Each one of these passes were about 20 euros, and we bought them very easily from the machine at the Metro station (there is a language option on a lot of ticketing machines that we came across). Looking back, we would have saved some money getting a 10 ride ticket, but we wouldn’t have known that at the time.
Figuring out how to get on the Metro was fun - but in the end we opted for the ”stand here at pretend we know what we’re doing but we are really watching the other people at the turnstiles” approach :P You put the ticket in at the bottom of the reader, and then it spits it out at the top and allows entry.
But how do you know which Metro to take to get anywhere? There’s this awesome free app called Citymapper that I discovered in my Google searches, and let me tell ya, this app is AMAZING. All you do is type in an address/location and it will tell you EXACTLY how to get there from where you are - it will tell you which station to walk to, which Metro to get on, how long until the next Metro arrives (they are usually every 5 mins or so), which car you should get on, how many stops until the one you want... oh my gosh it gives it all to you! I wouldn’t be surprised if locals used it too.
iTunes link: Citymapper app
Google Play link: Citymapper app
We used that app ALL THE TIME. It was a life saver! Even when we got a bit mixed up on which side of the platform to be on, we were still able to figure it out (there’s usually 2 tracks side by side - the Metro will come on both tracks and one will go one way and one will go the other, so you have to pay attention to which way you want to go).
Google Maps was also a super handy app to have. We looked up restaurants and peeked at the reviews and found some that would be right up our alley, and they surely didn’t disappoint! A couple we went to based on reviews were: Ristorante de la Tour and Le Volante Basque. They were both DELICIOUS! Reviews for both mentioned that the staff also spoke English well so we knew we wouldn’t have any problems communicating - both even had English translations on their menus too.
Ristorante de La Tour:
Le Volante Basque:
Its worth noting that for both of us to eat at most of the nicer restaurants in Paris it cost around $70-$80 USD per meal; however we just picked restaurants that sounded great, and we knew we would spend more $ on food. There are of course more budget friendly options in lots of places, but for us it was so nice to sight see all day long and then have a nice dinner and head back to the hotel for the night. And this was our dang vacation! Also, if you use your debit/credit card in another country (or even online at a company that is based in another country), you may also have a small foreign transaction fee, a percentage based on whatever the initial charge is [some credit cards may not have a foreign transaction fee - its worth the research to see if your card waives the fees or not]. The initial charge is also put through as euros so you may not know the exact total in USD for a couple days until the charge is finalized. For us, these fees were better than walking around with a wad of cash and were probably less than the fee to withdraw cash would be. A LOT of places took Visa/MC so it was very easy. We had a little bit of cash too just in case (the airport in Amsterdam was so helpful - the currency exchange there was just under 4 euros to exchange, and they also had an ATM that would dispense in several different currencies; when we researched how to exchange, these were suggested as some of the most inexpensive options).
One thing we had a hard time getting over is not really tipping in Europe. There is usually a 1-2 euro charge per person added onto the bill, but that’s about it. When you use your card there isn’t even a line to write in a tip! Just something worth mentioning.
After the trip was over, we opted to take another taxi back to the airport, and the hotel staff arranged it the evening before we left (we had to be at the airport by 7am). The cost was the same but there was an additional 7 euro fee for the taxi to pull up into a spot at the airport, but the taxi meter reflected that charge so it wasnt a surprise. (Oh - the taxis do NOT take cards, so make sure you’ve got cash for that).
One of my main worry’s for traveling in Europe was being able to communicate, and our trips showed us that you do NOT have to be fluent in either language to be able to travel, even in the smaller non-touristy areas. I think this was a huge revelation for me, and now I won’t have that fear in the future. We also used the Google Translate app and that helped us read; we didn’t need it on this trip to be able to have a conversation with someone, but we knew it was there if we did. That app is also FREE and super easy to use!
Our short time in Paris was absolutely amazing, and we would definitely do it again in a heartbeat! We are penciling it in to go again when we both can speak French ;)
Have you ever been to Paris or want to go? I’d love to hear about any of your international trips!
—Sara :)
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