Looking for a nice hotel for a week in March and was wondering what the best area for Americans would be.

What's your definition of "best area for Americans?" Are you actively seeking to be near other Americans, is that it? Anyway, no matter what your reason, there's no "best area for Americans." What's the best area for French people where you live? Sorry, I don't get this.....

People who follow the Rick Steves guidebooks swear by the 7th. That seems to be a popular one for first-time American travelers.

Not sure how one area is better than others for Americans versus say, Germans.

Hi
the best arrondissements for first-time visitors are generally considered to be the single-digit ones, especially the 1st,4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. Why?
Because they are very central, there are lots of hotel and restaurant choices in all price ranges, transportation is convenient, and many important sights are within walking distance.

If you can say what hotel budget you had in mind and what size room you are looking for, there are many suggestions to be made. If you're just starting to browse, click at the top of this screen on Hotels. Fodors offers their own picks, and past guests have offered comments. Ditto, www.tripadvisor.com for guest comments.

In addition to the hotel resources Elaine has mentioned, I also like the Venere website ( www.venere.com ). The reason I like it is that one can sort hotel information in a given city by number of stars, geographic zone, etc. The page for a given hotel also has comments by guests who have stayed there.

Once I've identified a hotel on one website (Fodors Talk, Tripadvisor, or Venere), I like to do a search for it on the other two websites and see how much consistency there is in the reviews.

Another resource I like is the Euro Cheapo website ( www.eurocheapo.com ). As the name suggests, it caters to budget-conscious travellers. However, I think it provides useful information for better heeled travellers too. For a start one can organise Euro Cheapo's hotel information by geographic district within a city. For most cities that Euro Cheapo covers (only the largest, most heavily touristed ones) it provides a good description of each neighbourhood. Unfortunately it does not seem to have neighbourhood descriptions of Paris, but one still can look up Paris hotels by neighbourhood. Euro Cheapo lists 1-star, 2-star and 3-star hotels. Since my budget falls into the 3-star range, I look at Euro Cheapo's 3-star listings and compare them with the comments at Venere, Tripadvisor and Fodors Talk. If complimentary remarks are made about a hotel on all 4 websites, then the chances are good that it's a winner.

Elaine provided an excellent thumbnail sketch of the most central arrondissements. For a bit more detail, here is a map of central Paris and an explanation of the characteristics of each arrondissement:

http://www.parisnet.net/parismap.html

In the previous discussion thread that you initiated, you said that you'd be arriving in Paris in the morning, and you wondered what you could do with your luggage while you started your sight seeing activities. It's a rather common practice for hotels to store their guests' luggage prior to check in, but enquire about this at the time that you make your reservation and check whether or not your chosen hotel does in fact offer this service.

Actually, if one had the time and inclination, it would be possible to determine the "best" arrondissment for Americans by taking a map and pinpointing all the locations in famous American novels, films and biographies set in Paris, and seeing where the greatest concentration of pins turned out to be. Given the influence of the "lost generation" on literature and film, I suspect it might be the 5th, 6th or 7th, but that's just a guess. Perhaps there are other factors as well, such as the location of the offices of U.S. companies. We could have the makings of a PhD thesis here.

Hi, I agree with St.Cirq. I don't really know what you mean. To me there is no one specific 'American' district.

Maybe the one with the most Pizza Huts per squate km? I would travel to Paris to be among Parisians and not worry about which arrondissement is best for you as an American. All the inner arrondissements are better for tourists, regardless of nationality.

I am in the 19th eme, the fifth time in Paris, the first on a home exchange. I like it after about three days. You can find out in my journal which is posted here someplace.
I think the 19th is overlooked by seasoned travelers and I feel it would be right for first timers.
I spent today doing what first timers would do and I came back to my warm, cozy home. You cant beat that!

I don't think where American expat writers or musicians lived in the 20s makes any difference, but I think the advice to read Rick Steves and follow his suggestions might be the most suitable for this type of question. Rick Steves followers are all pretty much Americans, I think, and he doesn't give very comprehensive hotel advice in his books so only recommends a couple areas so there will be a lot of Americans in them and his favorite hotels. They might not be "nice" enough, if that means more upscale.

I have no idea what it really is asking, I'll admit, as I've never thought of looking for a part of a city for Americans when going to Europe. First time visitors, sure, or typical tourism activities, but I don't think that's what jabberwocky is asking.

I, too, don't quite get the question - the joy of visiting Paris (even for a first-timer) is immersing yourself in the city and letting go of the familiar - but the 9th arrond. around the Opera and the big department stores is very tourist-friendly, there will be lots of other Americans in the big chain hotels in the area, and there's a Hard Rock Cafe that's always full of Americans.
That said, that's about the least appealing Parisian experience I can think of.

Jabberwocky, I think when you say you're looking for an area that is suitable for Americans, I think you may mean first time visitors. You also may mean English speakers who don't know French and want to be in a district in which the people who interact with tourists (hotel staff, waiters, etc.) speak some English. I saw in the previous discussion thread that you started that this will be your first trip to Europe, so that's why I'm guessing those are your meanings.

Speaking for myself, and most especially if I'm going to be in a city for a short time, I like to be centrally located.

English is widely spoken by residents of Europe's cities, so I don't think you should let that concern determine your location. It's more a question of being conveniently situated with respect to the main attractions.

If one is going to be in a city for longer, say for 2 weeks, then a central location is less important, because one is less pressed for time. Besides that, European cities do have wonderful public transportation systems.

From your other thread I gather you're going to be in Paris for about a week. Obviously that's longer than the 1, 2, or 3-day visit that some first timers pay to Paris. So I think you could give yourself a little more leeway in terms of where you stay. You could contemplate a location that's not <b>quite</b> so centrally located. However, if it was my trip and I was going for a week, I still would want to be in quite a central position.

When posters answer a question, it really helps them if they understand the context of the question. As you probably can see from the responses, folks have had a hard time understanding where you were coming from when you posed your question. But this is only the 2nd thread you've started at Fodors. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon.

Don't let these responses put you off. This is a great place to get information. Keep your chin up, and keep coming back.

In other words, let's hear further from you so we can get this all straightened out rather than forcing us to assume what you mean, OK?