Paris surprise - can I make this work?
 

Asked my husband where he would like to go for his 50th birthday and he said surprise me. On impulse I booked flights to Paris for a week in May. (still don't know what got into me) Haven't traveled much, never to Europe. I don't plan to tell him where we are going until we get to the airport. (he will be expecting Vegas or Tahoe)
...Is Paris something we can do with a guidebook and no French language skills? Or are tours a must for the first timer? I have two months to plan, I hope Paris was a good choice?

I think you'll want more than "a guidebook" but I'd never recommend a tour for one city! Paris is a wonderful city for first-time Europe travel.

Do get a guidebook or two (the library is a great place to look to see what you like). Read about all the wonderful things to do in Paris, then come back here and do some searching. Read as many posts on Paris as you can. There are plenty discussing Paris hotels in all budgets (but book now - the best budget and moderate hotels may already be fully booked for May, or are at least close), Paris restaurants, Paris attractions, and Paris neighborhoods.

Once you've done lots of reading, come back and post specific questions that you've come up with, and we'll be happy to help! :)

Paris is very easy to do on your own and I recommend it. As you sit at a cafe and watch the tour buses roll by with the people staring out looking like prisoners, you will be happy you did. Of course, I'm sure that some people enjoy tours and that is fine, but Paris is a great city to do it on your own. Any book; Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, Eyewitness, Time-Out, etc. has all that you will need. Make use of the metro and the museum pass. Do alot of walking. Have some basic French phrases on hand, realizing that most people in Paris will understand basic American phrases. I don't know what area you plan to stay in or what type of accomodations you are looking for, but I recommend the Marais and an apartment. There are alot of apartment rental agencies. Do a search on fodors. I have used rentparis and been satisfied. Renting an apartment gives you the feeling of really living in a neighborhood. You can shop in the markets and foodstores and bring back wine,cheese, pate, etc. for snacks or even prepare dinners. It is much more relaxing than staying in a hotel. If you go for a hotel, a good one in the Marais is Hotel de la Bretonnerie on rue Ste. Croix de la Bretonnerie. Good luck and have fun planning. The planning is almost half the fun of the trip for me.

Critical matter: Do you both have valid passports? If not, you need to get on it right away for travel in May. Your Congressman probably has an office near you and they can not only walk you through the process, they can expedite for you.

Paris is a great choice, you'll be fine!

Do not delay in choosing a hotel, the popular favorites book up fast.

In case you DO need passports, no need to involve your congress-person, everything you need to know is here:

http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html

You'll get lots of answers, and I'll be they will all be positive. Paris in May will be lovely. My first visit to Paris was exactly what you are planning--some study of guidebooks and no French language skills--and it worked out just fine. There's lots of English spoken. But if you can, try to squeeze in some study of some key French words and phrases; the French will appreciate it, even if you feel you are murdering their language.

Some other tips:
-Have the exact street address of your hotel, including the arrondissement, clearly written on paper and make several copies of it---hand to cab drivers and others who might need to know.
-Make your hotel reservations soon. For May, lots of places will already be booked.
-Learn a little about the Paris Metro. It's one of the best subway systems in the world, and it will get you anywhere in a flash without your having any knowledge of French except for words meaning "up, down, entrance, exit, floor/level," and a few others. Even without that knowledge, you can get around, though.
-Learn a little about the euro and what the money looks like.
-Get a good city street map.
-If you can stay at least a week, you'll have time to enjoy things.
-Depending on how long you have, plan to schedule a one-day general city tour at the beginning of your stay. There are lots of tour companies that can do that.
-Though Paris will have enough for you to do and see for a long period of time, you might consider a day trip to a nearby spot that caught your special attention while reading guidebooks.
-Take a couple of compact umbrellas.
-Plan each day to include one or two special visits to places of interest, but leave lots of time in each day for just wandering around.
-Maybe you've already figured out how to get tickets without his knowledge, but passports are also a necessity for travel to France. If you both don't have them, better start soon. And that will probably give away the secret.

If you can keep this a secret until reaching the airport, I'll be impressed. Packing, for instance, would have to take into consideration the climate. Vegas and Tahoe, if they are your "pretend" destinations, have very different climates. You need to think about which of those is more like Paris. I'd suspect it's Tahoe, in terms of temperature and rainfall.

Others will give you lots of suggestions. I think it's a wonderful present, and I wish my wife would surprise me with something like that (my birthday is next week, so I suspect there's no such surprise in store). Congratulations to your husband on his birthday, and have a great time.

Yes, Paris is a very good choice. You can book tours at your hotel and those are good for first-timers.
You didn't mention if you need a hotel and if you do need one it depends on your budget. But for a really special visit, you can't do any better than staying in St. Germain des Pres (the 6th district or the 7th district that borders the 6th). There are many nice hotels here and this is one of the best neighborhoods in Paris to stay.
However, I think you should mention your plans to your husband before arriving at the airport.

I think that jenifer meant not a "packahe tour" for a one city trip. But a 1-2 hour, or half-day bus "tour" to get oriented to the city is often mentioned as a useful thing to do. My parents did on a brief "pass-through" Paris (they were only there about 24 hours, as part of a larger itinerary - - moving around a lot, for what it's worth!) - - and I think it proved a good idea for them.

Best wishes,

Rex

Thanks for the info. We are ok on passports, my husband has one because of business travel to South America and I have one just hoping I would need it someday. Regarding hotels, I've been successful with Priceline and Biddingfortravel for stays in the U.S...thought I might investigate their options along with the suggestions I am receiving here. Regarding the shock value of finding out at the airport, he is the type that is always up for anything. (We've been married for 27 years - he's the impulsive type and I am the conservative) His biggest shock will be that I did something like this on my own. (Although it looks like this site has an army of experts to help me.)I will start my research from your helpful posts and I am sure I will be back with more specific questions.
Thanks again...what a wonderful response.

Here's one of the better Paris URLs for the first time visitor

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/paris/

Since your husband is the impulsive one then no, don't tell him ahead of time. He will be surprised for sure!

Euroscope offers a good half day city tour, lunch at Noces de Jeanette restaurant, and a walking tour of Montmarte with their minivan pickup and dropoff at your hotel. They've got some other good tours too. We took this particular tour last month and it was pretty good.

If you do need hotel advice anytime, there are alot of people who can help you here.

Have a great time-May is a very nice time to see Paris!!

You go, girl! Lucky husband! Go to www.biddingfortravel.com and scope out the Paris situation for PriceLine, then come back here for specifics.

Oh please keep us posted on your trip plans and give us a trip report when you return.

By all means keep it a secret until you get to the airport!

Bon voyage

I'd recommend Rick Steves for a Paris first-timer. Make sure you use his most up to date guides--2004 if they're available, 2003 if they're not.

paris in may is positively perfect. (sorry for the alliteration)your choice is wonderful! you need to do a bit of research beforehand as others have posted. we usually travel to one destination at a time by ourselves and one tip i can give you is to take the sightseeing bus the first day. all the big cities have them and they are usually about 30euros for 24 hours. they are usually hop on- hop off types. we just stay on because we are jet lagged and get an entire " lay of the land" so to speak. you find out where you are in staying in relation to the sights and briefly view them all. then we go back to our hotel, or stop at an uncrowded sight, for some planning,picking and choosing what we will do. The other tip i will tell you about paris is enjoy it by walking a lot. it is a great city to walk in.

Yep, thanks for clarifying rex - I did mean not a package tour. Short guided tours of some kind can be a GREAT introduction to the city.

As to priceline - do check out biddingfortravel, but I will say that I have been very unimpressed with priceline for Paris. I used it succesfully for London last year and was very happy with it, and have also used it in the US with great success. But the Priceline zones for Paris are quite large (except the opera zone I think). They cover more area than I would be happy staying in. Also, the winning bids posted on biddingfortravel are not terribly impressive to me. People are getting 2-3* hotels for $90-$120/night. I can find several hotels that are well-located and have lots of charm for that price, so I'd much rather go with the hotel suggestions on this web site if you can find any availability left.

On the other hand, if the most desirable hotels were all booked up, priceline might be a decent way to still get something at a good price.

Have fun planning!:)

From what I've read here, the hotels Priceline offers for Paris are not going to be in the best locations, and probably won't be very 'French' in flavor.

A good place to look for hotels is on www.france-hotel-guide and www.cybevasion.com. These have photos, prices, and maps, and cybevasion has comments, if any were entered. Another site, www.venere.it, also has hotel reviews. You probably want to stick to the arrondissements ('districts') of 75005, 75006 or 75007 for a first-time visit. These areas have a lot of hotels - make a 'short list' and then search for them by name in the search box on this forum to read what Fodors posters may have said about them. Also check for reviews in www.tripadvisor. Whittle the list down, ask for opinions here if you like, then make your reservation as soon as possible. This task is the most time-consuming one !

Use the online sites of Fodors and/or Frommers under their 'Destinations' section, and pull together a sightseeing plan outline. I like the Eyewitness Guide line of books for their photos and diagrams. Though Rick Steves can be kind of hokey sometimes, he compiles what he thinks is important for a first-timer, and provides good (sometimes humorous) historical perspectives and walks. Spend an afternoon in Barnes&Nobles or the like, and wade through a handful of guidebooks to see what appeals to you. Know that you can't 'see it all' and there is plenty to see and do for a week. Pay attention to the closing days for museums, usually Mondays or Tuesdays.

Learn a few basic French 'polite' phrases - all guidebooks have a section for this. Doing this will be fun and enhance the feeling of "I'm in Paris!" and is the courteous thing to do. If you want to buy a good street guide ahead of time, I like "Paris MapGuide" by M. Middleditch (good street index). For a laminated version, I like the City Flash map of Paris, pub. by Hallwag Intl. It covers more territory than any other laminated map I've seen - I think you can order it online at www.travelguidewarehouse.com for about $6-7.

I recommend that you just plan on using a taxi between the airport & hotel, which will be more expensive but will require no planning other than to schedule one thru your hotel to pick you up on your last day. Plan on about 40-50Euro each trip. The next best is to schedule a shuttle in advance - you do not have to pay online or in advance. It is usually about 18Euro pp for 2 riding. You may share the van with others, so the trip is less direct to your hotel, but then again, you are seeing Paris as the driver winds you thru the streets. Here's a reliable service:
http://www.parishuttle.com/

Here are 2 sightseeing services that you can book when you arrive:
http://www.cityrama.com/
http://www.parisvision.com/fr/index.cfm

Some good websites about Paris have been listed on other threads, if you do a search for "paris and web" you should be able to find it. Here are some:
http://www.parisdigest.com/default.htm
http://www.paris-touristoffice.com/index_va_v2.html
http://www.paris-tourism.com/
http://www.gotoparis.net/

A great resource might be to locate the thread for "100 things to do in Paris". I will close this note and try to repost with that thread link.

People here will know for sure, but your passport must be valid for either a year or six months past the time of your travel. Make sure you check it if it has just been sitting in a drawer for some time.

Isn't it fun to do spur of the moment trips? Don't worry you will have a wonderful time.

Here is that thread ("100 things to do in Paris"):
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1277898

How do you transfer a thread like that?

Just wanted to add my two cents-I just moved to LA after living in the Marais for the past 3 years and I think most of the advice on this thread is excellent for first time visitors-I would back staying in either the 75006 (6th-Latin quarter-lively studenty, but also great for first time 50th b-day visitor),7th (eiffel tower-but quieter and generally walking distances and metro connections aren't quite as easy at the 6th) or the Louvre/Marais area (75001 or 75004)-but make sure in this areas that you stay near the river-otherwise I think that transportation connection get really hard......if you stay near the metro stops of Louvre, Hotel de Ville or St. Paul you should be good-in general the "1 line" east west is a great line (but busy or the "4 line" north south through the latin quarter are great lines.

I actually think that deciding your philopshy of hotels is the most important next step to your trip planning-do want a place just to crash-or an elegant money is object (which in Paris can be sky high) kind of room...there are tons of great neighborhood/hotel recommendations on this board so I won't even try to list any. However, be aware that Rick Steves for example tends be for the more price sensitive/who like just a place to stay versus other guides that would be more upscale (the Fodors lists for example).

BUT-I will say that I personally would not book an apt. for a first time visit in Paris especially with no French-I have had at least 3 friends who have bad expriences with this-examples of the reasons: noisey babies or other tenants below waking them at 4AM-smoke filled apartments, which can happen in hotel rooms as well. But at least there you can ask for a room change or change hotels. Most apts. want a week minimum (which is the full lenght of your trip!) and may want you to pay small electric/utility charge (no joke-happened to 2 friends), use phone cards to use their phone, etc. So in general if you aren't happy, you tend be stuck for the week. If you are in a hotel you don't like that time of year-you can always get another room easily just by picking one you like and changing hotels-May isn't generally that hard...versus July for example.

In terms of sightseeing-there is also a bus line for tourists (around 14 euros a day last I knew) where you can step on and off buses that run by all the big tourist sites-I forget the name but I am sure folks here know it-they are big yellow open air doubledecker buses and a have english tapes running but are more flexible than a formal tour. A great way to conserve energy if you are tired of walking-I also love the bus when you aren't in a rush because you get a much better sense of the city and where things are how neighborhoods are connected, etc.

For me-the couple "not to be missed things of the moment" (besides the museums and great eating of course) are: make sure you see the Eiffel tower light up at night-it is spectacular-I went with a friend visiting Paris to the cafe Marley in the Louvre & sat outside-drank a grog and watched the tower-what a great memory. I would also make sure to see the OLD opera house (opera Garnier) since it was just cleaned and re-gilded-really beautiful and you can check out the new first Starbuck's in the area or better yet, go for coffee in the newly renovated cafe de la paix across the street in the intercontinental.....also I would be sure to spend time on rue Lepic near the moulin rouge area-a very cool little shopping/market street-as a matter of fact, if you haven't seen it, rent the film Amelie before you go-it will be a subliminal hint to your hubby about the destination and make seeing the areas in the film really fun for you :)