I am in the early stages of planning a family vacation for our family of four – 2 adults and 2 daughters who will be 8 and 11 at the time of travel. We are considering a 2 week vacation during winter break (2009-10), spending the first week in Paris and the 2nd week at a French Caribbean island (likely St. Martin). My questions include:
1) is this even a feasible itinerary? I can’t seem to find any references to others who have combined these 2 destinations, although it seems to make sense to me.
2) are we crazy to go to Paris in the winter? Our priority would be to explore museums at a leisurely pace, and perhaps a day trip to Versailles.
3) We would likely fly American Airlines but may need to find a one-way charter flight from Paris to the Caribbean. Anyone have experience with this?
Thanks for any insights!
Thanks for any insights you can share with us. I look forward to hearing from you.
Kelly
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Hi KJA8789, Try kayak.com for search and look into Air France web site. They fly to French islands in carribean. AA would get you back to Miami and you would probably be able to connect to carribean there.
Enjoy !!!
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I doubt if anyone here has done a similar trip - it would probably involve flying Chicago - Paris - St Martin - Paris - Chicago.
I%26#39;m interested that this itinery makes sense to you - what%26#39;s the logic behind that??
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%26quot; 1) is this even a feasible itinerary? I can’t seem to find any references to others who have combined these 2 destinations, although it seems to make sense to me.%26quot;
Why not !! You can have two different type and special vacations within one lengthy time span. Especially if you have the resources or miles available. Life can be too short !!!
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Wizard, I assume the OP will do Chicago - Paris - Saint Martin - Chicago as he asked for a one-way charter from Paris to the Caribbean!
Corsair is a charter company with Caribbean destinations : http://www.corsairfly.com/corsair/promo.do;jsessionid=3BF21C318603DD991CE4158D61A6A452?structure=BonPlan%26amp;id=528
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KJA8789 !!
I did a check on google, and there were flights with AF, Continental and a few others. The AF was non stop, so here is one for your info,dates are just arbitrary
Depart – Wed 31 Dec 2008
Air France
Flight 488 Departs: 10:40a
Ch. De Gaulle (CDG) Arrives: 2:30p
Princ. Juliana (SXM)
Coach | Airbus Industrie A340-300 (Wide-body Jet) | 8h 50m
Have fun planning !!!
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KJA: If the itinerary makes sense to you, then go for it. Here are a couple of things to consider ....... [also, I wrote all this before I saw that UrbanNYC hit upon the Air France flights, so disregard, the flight layover stuff if you go with AF --- the shortest path between two points is a staight line, or in this case a %26quot;non-stop%26quot; flight].
- it looks like AA uses JFK, Miami, and/or San Juan for flights from Paris; so, going from Paris, you%26#39;d fly into one of those, then on to Princess Juliana Airport (SXM) on St. Maarten. If you happen to have to make a stopover on San Juan, then you%26#39;ll be making a change to a smaller plane (turbo-prop) to continue on to SXM.
You%26#39;ll want to make sure you, and your kids, are comfortable with flying in turbo-prop.
- This is a LOT of flying during a 2-week vacation with kids. In looking at some schedules for getting from Paris to St. Maarten, you%26#39;re talking about anywhere from 16 hours to over 24 hours of %26quot;travel time%26quot; (don%26#39;t forget that getting from Chicago to Paris for the first part of your trip will have been long, then, at the end, getting from St. Maarten back home to Chicago will be a long travel day, too). It is also one of the most expensive types of trips to takes, since you are basically taking one-way flights to each destination (in the eyes of the airlines).
- Also, going to Paris in the winter-time can be fun, if not cold, (low-season, except for the xmas and new year%26#39;s celebrations), BUT, winter-time is HIGH season in the Caribbean for folks from cold areas of the country -- like Chicago!!
Obviously, nobody knows your family here as well as you do. If you feel your family will have a great time with this vacation itinerary, then why not? At those ages, your kids will definitely remember it --- and you, too!!
If you do plan on this, keep in mind that commercial flight reservations can only be made 330 days out from your proposed trip (that includes the day(s) for your return flights). So, if your trip is planned for, say, Dec 27, 2009 thru Jan 10, 2010, then you%26#39;ll be able to secure flight arrangements for the whole trip starting from Feb. 11, 2009 (this coming February). Of course, since each of your trip segments are one-way, you could, effectively, wait the 330 days out from the first jaunt from Chicago to Paris, buy it, wait a week, buy the flights from Paris to SXM, then wait a week, and purchase your return flight from SXM to Chicago.
Lots of logistics involved, but do-able. I would suggest using a %26quot;real-life%26quot; travel agent to assist you in making these arrangements, and finding one who has booked MANY, MANY international %26quot;circle trips%26quot;. Also, comprehensive trip insurance may be your friend on a trip like this.
Bonne route! Je vous souhaite un très bon voyage!
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;3) We would likely fly American Airlines but may need to find a one-way charter flight from Paris to the Caribbean. Anyone have experience with this?%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
With a two(2) week time frame it%26#39;s certainly %26#39;..feasible..%26#39; the question is do you really want to spend that much time and expense on air travel and connections. There is always the possibility of an %26#39;..open jawed..%26#39; flight itinerary Chicago/Paris/Martinique/Chicago avaailable from Air France or perhaps American Airlines....but connections would probably be a nightmare and I shudder to think of what the airfare might be multiplied by four(4).
A more practical alternative might be Paris and a destination on or in the Mediterranean.
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Surprisingly, when I entered the open jaw possibilities on kayak.com, the prices for the open jaw, ORD-CDG-St Martin-ORD, ranged from $1100 to $2400 per person, for that time of year, with multiple airline choices.
There were 2 non stops possible, on the first two legs with AF.
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I dont know how you would find them but there are a few charter cos that fly from France to SXM. I spend a lot of time sitting in that airport en route to St Barth and watch them coming and going....
they probably advertise in the web sites associated with French newspapers - or at least the travel consolidators would advertise.
there used to be a kayak type site for just European discount airlines, but I dont have the url here and not sure if it would include charter cos
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We own timeshare on St. Martin. It%26#39;s half Dutch and half French. Very pretty and lots of fun, and totally different from Paris. We just returned from Paris. As for combining them - why not! I would definitely go to St. Martin after Paris. Then you can enjoy the beach and rest up before flying home. I see no reason to go back to Paris again before returning to Chicago. That makes no sense. American Airlines flies to St. Martin, so I wouldn%26#39;t be surprised if you couldn%26#39;t make it in a big loop - Chicago - Paris - St. Martin - Chicago. You could go through customs in Chicago like we just did. Enjoy!
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