itineraryman

We plan to be in Paris and Barcelona for three weeks. My wife usually handles this but I promised I would take care of the next trip and I'm falling behind. Could anyone recommend a trusted travel agency that could lay out a reasonable itinerary that includes hotels, restaurants and art. Thanks a lot.

Rubicund

So you said that you'd "take care of it" but what you want is for someone else to do it!

Come on, get a move on and tell us:

Have you been to either place before?
Does your 3 weeks include travel?
Where are you travelling from?
What's your budget for a) airfare b) hotels c)restaurants

There are lots of "art" possibilities in both places, any guide book will give you those.

nukesafe

You will find that most of the posters on this Forum do their own planning and seldom, if ever, use travel agents. If you have specific questions we will be happy to help, but we would need to know what activities interest you and a rough idea of your budget before we could make specific recommendations. A travel agent would want to know these same things, of course.

Judy

When is your trip?

itineraryman

We leave 4/20. First time in Paris was 5 years ago but never been to Barcelona. I'm not very good at this and would rather just pay someone to arrange. 4 or 5 star hotels and same for restaurants. Art as in museums, paintings, architecture, history, monuments

Michael

You can go to this site and get hotels and restaurants: http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

The mode of transportation you plan to use will to some degree define your stops between Paris and Barcelona.

Iahawk

8 nights Paris with day trips to versailles, bayeux, giverny

4 nights Work your way southeast towards Beaune, Avignon, Lyon, Marsailles....bicycle, take in the wine country

7 nights Barcelona (look at an H10 hotel) with a day trip or two along the costa brava

Suggest you book lodging sooner than later; I use the website venere.com to book our hotels in europe. you should be able to take trains I believe between the major locations.

itineraryman

We plan to fly from Paris to Barcelona. We stayed in the 3rd last time so maybe the other side of the Seine would be good this time so hotels in the 5th, 6th, 7th. I'm seeing a lot of nice hotels in the 8th also. We've been to Versailles and Giverny but will consider one trip outside Paris if we have time. What do you think of Hotel Buci, W Paris, Le Cinq Codet, San Regis, Prince de Galles are those good options? Thanks.

BigRuss

W is a well-known high-end chain.

itineraryman

She made it look easy. This is more complicated than I thought. Where would you like your husbands to take you? I'm much better at paying.

nukesafe

This is your trip too, itineraryman! Where would YOU want to go? Perhaps your dear wife wants a husband who makes decisions on this trip, not just a credit card.

Christina

Maybe the wife doesn't care about personal characteristics, just wants it done. That is resourceful, and coming here is, also.

I could suggest an itinerary but given the desire for high end hotels, I thikn a travel agent could help, actually. And the OP has been there before.

My tip is look at Conde Nast Traveler magazine for top travel agents by country, and check out the Paris/France ones. They even have an online travel agent finder
http://www.concierge.com/tools/travelagentfinder/about

They list 2 for Paris, a guy in LA (Howard Lewis) at protravelinc.com and a woman born in Paris, now in Beverly Hills. they suggest a minimum of $500 for howard, which whould be doable for you (meaning you will spend at least $500 a day on everything), while the other wants a minimum of $700 a day. Your hotels are pricey, you should be in that range.

itineraryman

That's why I'm here I obviously need help.

itineraryman

Great thanks a lot. I'm budgeting 1k euros per day including lunch, museums, dinner

RM67

Go to Booking.com. Put in your travel dates. You will get available hotels come up and can use the photos to guide you toward something you and your wife might like. Cross-reference your short list with Trip Advisor to read customer reviews and see traveller pic s which may be more revealing than professional ones.

Click on my name and you will see a list of Trip Reports - one is for Barcelona. That might give you some ideas on what to do while you're there.

itineraryman

Christina by all means please suggest an itinerary if you don't mind. I'll be more than happy to hear it.

RM67

I think it's unreasonable to expect anyone to plan the entire thing for you, but by asking some pertinent questions and giving us an idea of your likes and dislikes you can get lots of tips on here.

You say architecture? Then I would recommend all the Gaudi sites in Barcelona obviously - if you get the Lonely Planet Discover guide for that city it actually has a self-guided walking tour of most of the Gaudi buildings you can do in a few hours. You'd also probably like the Joan Miro institute in Parc Montjuic - stupendous artwork in an amazing Bauhaus building.

RM67

And picking up on something Nukesafe said - it is really lovely when someone has done a bit of research and arranges things they think you might like when they're taking you out and about - do not underestimate the value of your own effort and input - simply relying on everyone else de-personalises the trip to some extent.

itineraryman

Sorry for the confusion. I wasn't expecting anyone to plan the trip hence the travel agency referral. Thanks RM67 that's the kind of info I'm looking for. My wife and I pretty much like the same restaurants so I can gauge that pretty well and anything providing a unique experience. She's more the art lover than I so can use some help with that. Thanks and I don't mean to annoy anyone.

RM67

If she likes classical art then the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay are the obvious choices in Paris. However, if modern art is more her thing, she'll perhaps prefer the Pompidou Centre (great views from the top as well, and a pretty decent restaurant to boot). You could also look to see if anything like The Affordeable Art Fair is running in either city when you visit. On my first trip to Paris I went to an exhibition of student artwork (held in the now defunct Samaritaine department store) and bought a couple of pieces. Something like that is an unusual take on the art aspect. Or look up museums of advertising and design, or use Time Out to view temporary exhibitions that might be on.