Paris Honeymoon: How Long?
 

Hi!

We are planning our honeymoon for October and are seriously thinking we want to go to Paris. We have 2 1/2 weeks total off of work and after we pay for airfare we are looking at having 3K to 3500 to spend on hotel/food/sightseeing etc. How long would you recommend in Paris? We are looking at hotels that are in the $125 - $150/night. We also plan on taking a day tour to the champagne region and another day tour to Normady. Should we/can we take time to go spend a few days in Belgium or Switzerland? I am a little confused on where to go from here!! If you had the above money/time what would you do?

With the dollar where it is now, you may need to tailor your destinations to expenses. But hopefully (for us all) it will be better by then.
The first part of October in Paris is the fashion shows and hotels can be tight so make reservations in a timely fashion.
A day trip to Normandy is possible--but very long and tiring.
Belgium and Switzerland are pretty expensive (compared to France). Just to keep in mind. And while I love the Swiss Alps, the cities are pretty "sterile" to me.
Rather than go to another country, why not spend some time in another part of France. Or perhaps Amsterdam--easily accessible by train.
And your hotel range is about 100E+, just to keep the perspective. Very possible and for nice places, but don't make the leap of equality of the E and the dollar.

Even if the Euro gets back to the 1.25 range, your budget is pretty tight. $3500 = 165eu/day (17 days). After meals, transportation, museums your hotel budget is about 100eu/day at most.

What about an apartment? If this is your first trip, you might prefer to get a hotel for the first 4 days while you get your bearings. Then move to an apartment for 2 weeks.

The day trip to the Champagne region will be very easy since there will be a new high speed train linking Paris to Reims in just 45 minutes.

it might help your budget to just stay in paris the whole time. there are many, many things (often free) to keep you occupied. plus it's a great place to lounge; in cafes, museums, bridges, parks, your hotel/flat (another good idea). after all, relaxing is an itegral part of a honeymoon, right? you're so lucky to spend it in paris!

that's intregal...

i knew there was an "n" in there somewhere.

must need more cafe...

let's say, "important part of" instead.

thank you

hi,
RENT an apt. for 2 weeks - much better than hotels ( and cheaper).
It is nice to make coffee in the morninig and have more space than one little room.

You can visit the south of France and/or Provence from Paris (train).

Hi W,

>Paris Honeymoon: How Long?<

Until you are exhausted. :)

$3500 is about 2650E.
For 14 days, you will have about 200E/day.

For a honeymoon, I would raise my hotel budget in Paris to about 125E (not $).

6 nights will be 750E.

PREMS fares to Dijon are 20E pp.

An apt in Dijon can be had for about 85E/night. For example, see www.myhomeindijon.com/

6 nights will be 510E.

This leaves you about 100E/day.

You might want to consider 6 nights in Paris and 4 nights in Dijon.

You will have about 130E/day.

Fly into Paris, train to Dijon, train back to Paris for your last night.

Check www.kayak.com and www.mobissimo.com for airfare.

I think that prices will drop around the end of January.

Happy honeymoon.

((I))

If you are wanting to include Switzerland you can take the train in about 5 hours down to Geneva or Lausanne for a few days. There are a few moderate places to stay in Vevey or Montreux. This is a very beautiful area right on Lac Leman (french-speaking part of the country).

As suggested your hotel budget is a little low imo. Translate and start thiking in euro (or swiss franc) rather than dollars. Everyone's different but for me I like a comfortable place to stay and would rather skimp a little on food and skip expensive activities.

The champagne region makes a fun side trip. I did it in 3 days/2 nights with my husband and dad and saw quite a lot. You could take the train to Reims (as previously suggested) and then rent a car or book a tour. It's worth at least 2 days/1 night.

If you've got more than 2 days, try to get to Troyes if you can (less expensive and much more charming town than Epernay - we liked Troyes, Reims and Epernay in that order). BTW there is outlet shopping in Troyes, as well as a fascinating "museum of tools" (if one of you is an engineer or Mr./Ms fixit). Have a look at the following link for my trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34845706

In Paris, Best Western Hotels are worth checking out as an affordable option, and they often have a lot of character. Best Western offers good rates on cancellable reservations.

I'd suggest that for the Paris part of your trip, you should research when the fashion shows are - and then avoid flying to Paris or staying in Paris at that time, even if it means postponing your honeymoon a little. (Actually, I recommend postponing the honeymoon if you can - why not recover from the wedding on your employer's time and then take off on holiday once you've caught up on your sleep and all those tasks you dropped while getting ready for the wedding? We took our honeymoon about 8 days after our wedding.)

But I digress. Back to booking hotels in Paris. Do your research for the affordable hotel of your dreams on this board and on tripadvisor.com. Book it relatively soon, making sure that you can cancel without penalty at least up until 72 hours in advance (preferably 24 hours in advance). Then monitor room rates at your chosen hotel and other favourites to see if a better deal materialises. Then, if you are a bit of a risk-taker, consider booking 3-5 days of your visit through priceline.com (where you can bid for an area and a quality level but don't know which hotel you get until your bid is accepted). Don't use priceline unless you've done your research on betterbidding.com or biddingfortravel.com. You can get burned with a poor quality hotel at a so-so price. And the booking can't be cancelled or refunded - so you're stuck with it. But if you know what you're doing and have a bit of luck, you can stay at a fabulous hotel (one you wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford) for what you'd planned to pay for your bargain hotel (or even less). Don't bid until you're absolutely certain you're going to be in Paris - I usually don't bid on priceline until 2-3 weeks before the departure date (at most). And bid for a quality level that is higher than what you could ordinarily afford (e.g. bid for 4* if you normally would stay in 3*) - that reduces the risk of being disappointed with what you get.