camille6

Has anyone taken a Paris day tour on either Golden Tours (GrayLine) or Premium Tours? We are looking for a tour that is partially guided, but we also want a few hours of free time to visit the Louvre. We are having a hard time getting an answer from either company on how much free time either tour provides. Any suggestions or experience with these tours?
Thanks!

janisj

You can easily do this on your own w/o paying a 3rd party. Take the Eurostar train and then jump on a Hop-on-hop-off bus tour. You will see all of the major tourist sites plus can get off wherever you want -- including at the Louvre.

Robespierre

See my detailed DiY bus tour guide. The Ho/Ho buses come along once an hour, so your mean wait time is 30 minutes. City buses, every 5 or 6 minutes.

http://tinyurl.com/2zsw8z

janisj

R: there you go again - where do you get the idea the tour buses only come around once an hour? You keep repeating the same thing about both London and Paris H-o-H-o's. Absolutely 100% not true. On busy days - one bus pulls away just as the next one drives up. Otherwise the wait can be as long as 15 minutes. But not an hour on any of the l' Open Tour routes.

camille6: It doesn't matter to me one way or the other which mode of transport you use. But don't worry that if you DO decide on the bus tour, you'll be stuck on the side of the road for an hour at a time. My personal opinion -- for a lightening day trip to Paris it makes more sense to take the open-top buses w/ English commentary. Otherwise you end up trying to figure out the bus schedules/routes in French.

Robespierre

The brochure says (on page 2) &quot;Buses every 10 to 30 minutes.&quot; I take those numbers to be <i>mean</i> values, so the base values are 20 and 60. And if you find yourself in a traffic &quot;situation,&quot; all you can do is sit (or bail out and throw away the rest of the ticket).

But the city bus numbers stand. And you can get off at any stop any time.

The RATP Tourist Bus Map gives you 99% of the information you need. You are traversing a modern city, not Darkest Africa.

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...=bus_touristic

Hey, I missed you at <i>Mensa in London</i> last time. Social schedule too full?

laustic

I've done ho/ho in Paris, Madrid, Sevilla and London. There were never any hour long waits. Some (lesser frequented) stops took a bit longer than others, but I think the longest was maybe 15-20 minutes.

On the other hand you could also just pick key sites that you want to visit and use the metro or bus system to get around.

Like Janis says it doesn't really matter how you do it, but you shouldn't be scared off from doing ho/ho if you're interested in that option. And like Janis (as usual!) I would also recommend staying away from a tour group. You can defnitely do this on your own and enjoy yourself much more in the end.

prue

On the other side of the coin my son took one of the Golden Tours to Paris in June last year and enjoyed it a lot, as he was on his own and a bit intimidated by the thought of Paris.
Obviously it could be done easily on your own but if you prefer being collected at your hotel, put on the train, etc then the tour is for you.
Once in Paris they did a tour of the major sites, went up the Tour and had a cruise on the Seine. They had a couple of hours free time before travelling back to London on the late train.

GeoffHamer

I'm baffled by Robespierre's arithmetic. If buses run every 10 minutes, average waiting time is five minutes. If buses are every 30 minutes, average waiting time is 15 minutes.

ira

Hi C,

You can book RT/one-day fares (usually the cheapest) at www.eurostar.com

janisj

GeoffHamer: shhhh Mensa won't be happy - them thar brainiacs don't allow no math errors. . . . .

Robespierre

<i>I take those numbers to be mean values, so the base values are 20 and 60.</i>

If you can't grasp this, I don't know any way explain it to you.

bozama

Robespierre has not taken the HOHO buses and has some funny math in his head. He is simply not correct on this particular issue.
I have taken them.
Longest wait was 20 minutes, often less.
Take Eurostar into Paris, HOHO stop is right outside Gare Du Nord, hop on, pay for day ticket( 26 euros I think, check website for L'Open Tours ) and relax rest of day. Hop on and off at all major sites,, there are 4 routes and not really enough time in one day to do all so the best route is the one that goes by the Eiffel Tower , Notre Dame etc. Look on website for name. Buses are yellow and lime green , easy to see.
Have fun.

Robespierre

Who said I haven't take the hoho? (Answer: only a jerk.) Here is the view from the OriginalTour stop upstream from Westminster Abbey, where we stood for 55 minutes:

http://www.boringstreet.com/boringst...p?image_id=245

Maybe we picked the worst day in history, but our average wait was over 30 minutes.

laustic

Robes - Based on the other replies it looks like you had an unfortunate and unique experience. I can appreciate that. It would be a big bummer to have to wait half an hour or more for your bus to come pick you up. But it does seem that your experience isn't the norm. My only bad experience with ho/ho was in Madrid. (a) I thought we might die of heat stroke because it was so hot that day. I'm from Texas so I can take a lot! (b) Our driver stopped for what seemed like a bathroom break and took forever while we cooked in the non-a/c bus. We took photos of ourselvs languishing on the bus and it actually has made for quite the funny memory these days

Giovanna

I'm not suggesting Camille6 not take the hop-on/hop-off in Paris, but the one time we used it we had to wait well over half an hour for pick-up after our first stop. It was drizzling rain, so no chance to sit atop. The redeeming factor was a nice couple and their daughter from Tuscany endured the wait with us. When the bus finally arrived it was filled with other Italian tourists, and they were delighted to meet the couple from Tuscany and an American couple of Italian descent. Cheered up the rather dismal day considerably.

PalenQ

Eurostar trains also offer package one-day tours involving train, bus tour and free time

camille6

Thanks for the info,everyone!