cwra

There will be 6 of us arriving at Terminal 1 next Friday at 5PM. In the past when visiting Paris there are only 2 of us and we arrive in the early morning after an overnight flight from the US, so we take either the RER or Roissey bus depending on where we are staying.

I assume traffic into Paris on a Friday afternoon wouldn't be too bad and a taxi might make sense for the 6 of us. I can't find good current information but it seems like there are taxis that will take up to 7 people and it would be a flat fee of around 70 euros to the 10th. Does this sound about right?

We won't have much luggage and could handle the train if that makes more sense.

Thanks.

greg

Here is the description on fixed taxi charge from CDG.
http://www.parisaeroport.fr/en/passe...paris-cdg-taxi

Yes, I have ridden a van taxi with a seat for seven from the the 4th to CDG. It appears there are surcharges 5 or more. I have never traveled with that many people in one car.

I have also taken taxi from CDG to the 6th on Friday afternoon. The traffic was very bad. The highway was a parking lot, and I had to listen to the taxi driver cursing other drivers all the way into Paris.

You can fire up google map while in CDG to see how bad the car traffic is into Paris. On very bad day, like the Friday afternoon I took taxi, the A1 is solid dark red soon after leaving CDG.

jamikins

I haven't taken a taxi on Friday night in Paris but I have in other large cities and traffic is usually horrendous. I would definitely take the RER.

Christina

Traffic is almost ALWAYS bad around a big city like that, so don't expect traffic to be good. Of anything, I'd think it would be worse due to perhaps people coming home for the weekend or tourists arriving at the end of the week. It wasn't bad once when I went to CDG around 5-6 am. You never know, but if it's a flat fee, what difference does it make?

You may have to wait for a van for that many people, but it should be 50 euro + 12 euro for the extra passengers (4 each for 5+), so 62 euro.

neckervd

If your plane is more than 2 hrs late, taxi may be a good solution. Otherwise take the RER

cwra

Thanks for all the replies. I thought that most of the traffic would be leaving Paris.

We are going to be in Paris only a couple days and are looking for the quickest way to our hotel. Even if it costs no more, sitting in traffic for over an hour is no fun at all, so it looks like the train for us.

Any thoughts on getting back to the airport Sunday evening with a 9PM flight?

neckervd

Similar situation:
I you have to be at CDG at 7pm, RER is faster

jkbritt

Traffic is horrible at that time. Take the RER. I have driven in Paris at that time. NEVER AGAIN! RER to the airport also.

cwra

We are back from our vacation to Munich and Paris and want to report that traffic is terrible on Friday afternoons and almost as bad Sunday early evening.

As it turned out we took a taxi both ways. One of our friends had a recently badly sprained ankle and wanted to keep her walking to a minimum.

On Friday we picked up our luggage at about 5:20. We had to wait about 5 minutes for a taxi that held 6, but we were heading into to town by 5:30. Traffic was awful but we made it to Hotel L'Echiquier in the 10th by 6:30. The fare was 58 euros total.

Sunday it took about 50 minutes to get to Terminal 1 from the hotel and the fare was 62 euros.

For the return flight to Munich there was 100% id check to get to the gates. Even with that it took less than 30 minutes to get to the gate. In Munich on Friday it took less than 15 minutes to do the same and there was no id check.

WoinParis

Traffic is not bad as indicated above.
Doing 10th - CDG in 50 min is great and 1h 20 is still ok.
RER would be similar esp if you need to find your way. And buy tickets etc
After a long flight take a taxi easier.

cwra

People's opinion differ on what is bad traffic. I consider 22 km with 16 km on motorway in an hour to be bad traffic.

I'm not saying don't take a taxi just be prepared to sit in traffic not moving for minutes at a time.

Michelin maps says it should take 32 minutes without traffic. Checking right now Michelin says to expect 9 minutes of traffic impact for a total of 41 minutes.

fuzzbucket

I guess the problem is that many people think CDG is much closer to central Paris than it actually is.
ORY is only about a 20 minute ride to central Paris - that might be the misconception.