kate

Planing a trip to Paris for our honeymoon, departing May 01, 2001. Probably about 8 nights. Are we better off to purchase an air/hotel package or to book hotel independently? I normally do tons of research, but am also planning a wedding, busy at work, and don't have time to research the death out of all my options! Not complaining, though...

Have seen some decent deals on go-today.com...but am not familiar with the hotels.. does anyone know of these?
De lausanne
Lautrec Opera HOtel
Hotel D'Orsay

I don't mind small hotels. Would like to find a nice location... convenient to metro, and in a nice neighborhood where we can walk to restaurants, etc.

Please, someone, tell me where to start. I think I can get a decent airfare if I book soon.

AC

Hi Kate:
Congratulations!
Try Air France Vacations www.airfrance.com I've used them twice (not for my honeymoon!LOL) but they have packages set up especially for honeymoons. Good Luck!

kate

Thanks! I did try airfrance... but they don't show anything past March 31 at this time.

AC

Hi Kate:
Try calling them directly 1-800-2 France
Good Luck...Enjoy Paris!

Christina

Kate, I understand your needs, but the most basic packages are little more than air + hotel and often offer no advantages over booking yourself except sometimes slightly in the hotel price--the problem is, it doesn't save any time as most of the them give you a range of hotels and you must pick one, and you should do minimal research even if they only offered you one. That's about all you would have to do on your own, except they give you a starting point of a hotel list to narrow it down for you. Go-today offers very cheap packages, but there is a reason--they have one of the strangest, cheap hotels offered I've ever seen, I really do not recommend them for that reason unless you do not care at all about where you stay. Those hotels you selected are very budget hotels in the 9th arr., nothing you would choose on your own. If you do want a package to Paris, I would suggest another firm. I don't care for Air France's usual packages either as their hotel list is not very good, very limited and mainly modern, business hotels. The French Experience in NY city has very good rates and packages and knows this market well; the only problem is their web site currently does not give much info on all of their packages and hotel choices, they have a problem with their web site (sometimes they are even unreachable by email), so if you want to save time dealing with them may not be a solution (the list some packages on their site now with only a couple hotels, but I KNOW they usu. have a much more extensive list of hotel choices). This narrows it down to several I would suggest as preferable for you: www.france-vacations.com, www.newfrontiers.com (www.jetvacations.com also specializes in France and has a lot of choices, but their rates do not seem so great to me). New Frontiers is a French firm and has been around a long time and has a good selection -- looking at their hotel list I would suggest you choose from the "Superior" category, these are pretty decent 3-star hotels (if you don't have time to research, pick the Cadran, Clos Medici or La Tour Notre Dame and you will prob. be happy). France Vacations also has a good list of hotels, ordered by price, pick the $800 and up packages (5 nights Spring pkg), the Hotel St Paul in the 6th would be a good choice. If you do choose Air France, I think their Libertels are the best for tourists, the Libertel Bellechasse is nice and near the Musee d'Orsay, I think it's among their best choices (if Libertel Price de Conti or Conde is on their list, they would do, also). For a rate comparison, for example, New Frontiers offers air+5 nights in the Hotel Cadran for $735 vs. Jetvacations at $900 for the same hotel for 6 nights, both out of NY on Air France during Jan-March. These are per person rates assuming double room, so $170 more PER PERSON for one night by Jetvacations is not good. If New Frontiers suits you (and they can arrange air fares all over US), I'd go with them. The other little things packages include are worth little or easy to do on your own or your hotel can easily tell you how to do those things when you arrive (ie, transportation from airport, city bus sightseeing tour by Paris Visions or a river cruise, are usu. the only extras except a free map which you can get anywhere)--for two people, just take a cab from the airport for ease, it's not that much. In short, I would not use Go-Today.com given your desire to not research hotels, and would not assume you can pick one of their hotels and be satisfied without finding out more, until you get in their MOST expensive category.

scigirl

Planning a wedding is so much work. If the cost difference is a few hundred dollars, you are really swamped, and you know you are getting what you want - it might be worth the convience. However, I think the other posters made a good point. You might want to check hotelboulevard.com - they book hotels is Paris (no cost), have reviews by people who have stayed at the hotels, photos, and allow you to search by name, cost, star rating, or area.

I used them to book a hotel for a recent trip and I was very happy with their service. I was able to arrange everything over the internet, which really saved me a lot of time. (Plus I live in Hawaii - so phone calls are difficult to manage due to the time difference.) They will also recommend hotels for you if you email them regarding what you want (e.g. a particular area, something romantic, how many stars, etc.). If you are not familar with European hotels and the star system - I'll just add that you will probably want something 3 star or better.

Congratulations on your pending nuptials.

kate

Wow. Thank you for taking the time to provide me with so much good information.

Actually, since my last post, I have changed my approach. Have booked decent airfare via the internet and am now looking at several hotels. Looking at several that are in both the guidebooks and on these posts. (Okay, I can't resist the research..)

I appreciate the advice. I actually do prefer to plan things more independently. Looking at a few packages kind of gave me an idea of what things would cost, then I went out on my own to try and see if I could put together my own, better package. I've got the airfare, plan to book the first 4-5 nights (out of 10) in the 5th or 6th arr in Paris, and will kind of wing the rest once we get there.

Questions on hotels, side trips, and travel to Nice to follow in other posts.

Thanks again!

Meg

For Christina -

Great Post!!! Thanks for the info

Meg

Ken

Greetings...During May- 1999 ,as newly weds we stayed at the Lausanne (go-today)..We liked it so much , we are going back this May & are again staying at the Lausanne. It is not the Ritz, but a very clean ,small Hotel with a friendly staff. Excellent location, very safe..For the $$ it is a very good value. CDG airport is terrible, but a transfer is included which is a big plus..Please e mail me if you need any more info.....Regards, Ken