Please help me with Paris Hotel
 

Please help me pick a paris hotel.

I really dont want ot pay more than 85 maybe 100euros at most a night for 5nights, I do want to be in or very near to 1st district.

I am close to putting down a deposit on Hotel Flor Rivoli, but want to know if this would be my best deal. I am not expecting luxury, but somewhere convienient, clean and safe.

My friend recently traveled to Paris and recommended that I wait and not book anything until I arrive and then get a better hotel at a cheap rate through last minute booking services at paris tourist centre. I am a bit anxious about that. Any recommendations?

I cannot give a recomendation, but we are trying the hotel J'eanne D'arc in the 4th based on previous recomendations here and on trip advisor. We will be back on the 22nd and I will try to post my impressions soon after. It is confirmed at 84 euros including taxes but not breakfast. I do not expect much but cleanliness for this price. This hotel would be within 400 metres of the river by Isle St. Louis.

If you look up above and click on destinations, then on hotels and sort by price, you can see what Fodors recomends. Then you can search the travel talk for other testimonials.

Hi

I would recommend you to book a hotel before you get there. I have been to Paris and spending time looking for a place to stay and it is no fun. My wife and I stayed at TimHotel Tour Eiffel and I think it was about 85€ per night. I have posted a review of the hotel with pictures in my Paris trip report http://gardkarlsen.com/Paris_France.htm :d

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Is there a particular reason you want to be in the 1st. I have stayed there and a) it is not filled with many budget choices, b) it is rather dead at night except for a string of tacky souvenir shops alone the Rue Du Rivoli that stay open fairly late selling keychains and t shirts galore c) there are many other arrondissmonts that will open your choices to decent places in your price range, there are more expenisive places in the 1st, less cheap .

PS Did you check out reviews on this hotel . Two easy ways to do this, first you could just google the name fo the hotel and the word reviews, you will pull up serveral sites with reviews,or, you could just go to Tripadvisor.com and read the reader reveiws.

Hi Thankyou,
thanks for the tip about destinations/hotels

I had checked trip advisor and was reasonably happy with reviews for the Flor Rivoli.

Friends had suggested the 1st district as central area close to Louvre and walking distance to other attractions.

Would you recommend another district? I would be interested in staying somewhere where there is nice cafes and a little night atmosphere for the young of heart but not of age. We like to walk but want to feel safe, had read some scary gypsy stories in other threads! which I had not realy considered.

Any other suggestions on districts that might be more suitable would be welcomed.

Hi G,

>I would be interested in staying somewhere where there is nice cafes and a little night atmosphere for the young of heart but not of age.

Try the 4th, 5th and 6th.

>We like to walk but want to feel safe, had read some scary gypsy stories in other threads! which I had not realy considered.<

The tourist part of Paris is very safe. You are unlikely to be mugged.

Do watch your belongings in crowded areas - there are pickpockets.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

For five nights there are many apartments in your price range that may well be nicer than a low priced hotel. They will certainly be larger. Unless you really want hotel services you should consider that route.

I also would suggest the 4th, 5th or 6th.

Me too, the 4th, 5th, 6th, and even the part of the 7th that is on the border of the 6th. I like that area a lot.

The 1st in that area is dead in the evening, and the rue de Rivoli, especially as it runs through the 1st, can be a long and tedious stretch of walking. I would not choose it.

Many folks like the Jeanne d'Arc and you certainly will have an abundance of shops, cafes and restaurants around you if you stay there.

I have never seen a scary gypsy in Paris. (I know that the word gypsy is wrong, but I'm trying to respond to the OP's concerns.) Pickpockets, but they are so NOT scary looking. Their trick is to be so unobtrusive that you will not notice them. You can run into them in any part of Paris, and especially in the crowded Metro.

I wouldn't wait until I arrived because I just would not want to spend my vacation time going to the tourist office and trying to find a hotel -- without being sure what you'd get. I am sure you'd get something at this time of year.

But I will comment that I have never heard that you get last minute discounts by booking a hotel at the Paris Tourist Office? Is this just an assumption your friend made up, or does this friend know that for a fact? Maybe if a hotel had empty rooms, they might quote the TO a lower-than-normal rate, but I've just never heard that and be aware that very cheap hotels do not have a big margin to cut. Paris hotel room rates are actually fairly regulated, you don't find a hotel with ten different rates for the same room like you can in US cities. I do know they have some ability to lower rates, like some participate in Priceline, but I still wouldn't count on it at the tourist office -- and especially not for really cheap hotels.

The only "Gypsys" we seen were at the Eiffel tower and St.Michel last Sept. They try to hand you a card while asking if you speak english. I know it's a scam but I don't know what it is?

Just got a hotel on Priceline for 124/ nt. **** hotel. I would try them.

I'll be staying at Hotel St. Jacques in the 5th for 92 euro a night for a single in March.

The Hôtel de France at 102 Boul. de la Tour Maubourg in the 7ème is my favorite.

I wouldn't recommend the hotel Flor Rivoli for the same reasons others have mentioned.

And can we please avoid the "gypsy" stereotypes? It's particularly offensive among a group of well-heeled international travelers who really ought to know better.

Thanks everyone for being so helpful - I will try some of the other districts mentioned.

I do apologise for the 'Gypsy' reference, I meant no offence, I was just espressing my surprise and I guess naivety to see this raised as an issue in other threads related to where people had chosed to stay in terms of feeling unsafe or spoiling their trips. I had not given consideration to this as an issue for Paris.