My wife and I will be staying in Paris for four days. It%26#39;s our first time. We won%26#39;t have a car, so we%26#39;ll be using cabs and public transport. What would be a convenient area for us to stay in order to see the sites? We expect to do a lot of walking, so a safe area (night and day) is important.
|||
For first-time visitors most people agree that it%26#39;s best to stay in any of the single-digit arrondissements. All of them are centrally located; an easy walk or metro ride to the tourist attractions. The 5th or 6th, near the river is a great location for a first time visit. All of central Paris is quite safe, even for after-dark strolls or late-night returns to hotels on foot if you exercise common sense.
|||
Pasquali:
You don%26#39;t want a car in Paris! Public transport is great, I%26#39;ve never actually needed to use cabs, but I%26#39;ve taken a few here and there for convenience.
Happy is correct - for a 1st trip, any of the single digit Arrondisements are probably best. Almost anywhere you stay will be close to a Metro, so you can probably get anywhere in the city within a half-hour. Almost all areas of Paris are safe, even late at night! Some would argue that Pigalle might not be as safe as others, BUT.... Most anywhere you decide to stay in Paris will be safe. Safer than New York or Boston or San Francisco!
Your profile says you%26#39;ve been to Italy - if you can manage that, you%26#39;ll be fine in Paris.
It would appear the majority of people here perfer the Left Bank (5th, 6th %26amp; 7th) as opposed to the Right Bank (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th %26amp; 9th). However, many here would also recommend the 4th (Marais %26amp; Isle St. Louis).
Tell us a little more about your interests (AND budget) and we can tell you where the best place to stay for your interests is.
|||
Our first trip was in 2001 and we stayed at a hotel in the 1st and there are Metro stations all over. When we returned in 2007 for two weeks we still stayed in the first in an apartment that we rented. We like the 1st because it has the Louvre, the Opera, Arc de Triomphe, high fashion stores, and is very safe. The apartment was 5 minutes from the Louvre and one block from the Tuilleries.
I would also suggest you purchase a good travel book. We love the DK books because they give you information by areas. You can walk anywhere within a few minutes. If you are using taxis you miss so much of the flavor and uniqueness of Paris. I would also suggest that you try to plan what each day will be. Most of the places don%26#39;t open very early and Paris as well as France do have strikes from time to time. When we were there in 2001, the Musee d Orsay had a one day strike and we didn%26#39;t know anything about it until we got to one of the doors and found a handwritten note.
We are in the middle of planning a trip to France in 2009 and will end up in Paris for 16 days, so you can see how much we really love this city. Enjoy!!!
|||
My wife and I love the architecure in the Marais, 3rd and 4th arron., it escaped Hausmann%26#39;s wrecking ball in the 1870%26#39;s and has a lot of old world charm. It%26#39;s where the pre Versaille Kings lived. All of central Paris is very safe. This is a web site for the Marais that will provide you with some idea what different hotels will cost. There is a nice link to some great restaurants, and it has some very useful cultural tips that may come in handy. If you find a hotel that interests you than do a TA review.
http://www.parismarais.com/index.htm
Or you could stay on an island on the Seine. There are four hotels on the Ile St. Louis: Jeu de Paume, St. Louis, Lutece, and Deux Iles. Lutece and Deux Iles are owned by a M. Buffat who owns two other hotels, the Galileo in the 8th and the Henri IV Rive Gauche in the 5th.
Paris-hotel-lutece.com/en.html
http://www.henri-paris-hotel.com/
Wear comfortable shoes, you will get your wish.
|||
We have stayed on the Isle st Louis in hotel St Louis which was pleasant and central, but also touristic. However, we also stayed in Montmartre in Hotel Regyn%26#39;s which no one has ever heard of including taxi drivers. We had a small hotel room with a view over Paris, walls upholstered in French Toile fabric, lovely cafes and restaurants, a feel of the real Paris, access to Abbesses metro at the doorstep and, provided you avoid the nightmare of Place du Tertre, a wonderful place to stay, with local cafes frequented by the locals. With the Metro no place within the Peripherique of Paris is too far away to access quickly.You can get to the single digit arrondisements really quickly if you wish. An inexpensive and lovely place to stay.
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 1:20 pm, October 11, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment