I have two choices of hotels to stay in: The Renaissance Paris Hotel La Defense (60 Jardin de Valmy Boulevard, Circulaire No. 7) or Courtyard Paris Neuilly (58 Blvd. Victor Hugo Neuilly sur Seine). Which one should I stay in for the 5 days that I will be there? Which one is more accessible by metro and safer? I can only stay in those two location since I am redeeming my Marriott points.
Thanks!

..I would not stay at the Defense..not my(or anyones??) favorite area of Paris. Neuilly is quiet and a very upscale area, (tres BCBG). If you are in walking distance of the metro, it would be very convenient as this line is the one that runs parallel to the seine on the r bank (the louvre, st. paul ect)..I know nothing about the hotels.

Hi, I believe you were given this advice also on virtualtourist.com.

If the La Defense hotel is nicer (which I think it is, as the other is pretty ordinary, a Courtyard), I would choose the one in La Defense for a couple reasons. The area is not exciting, but it is more convenient to metro for Paris. YOu probably aren't going to want to hang around your hotel's neighborhood in any case.

The Courtyard Marriott in Neuilly is perhaps five blocks from the Anatole France metro stop. That is line 3, not line 1 and not that convenient.

I'd stay in La Defense. They both are safe enough.

..actually,i think the courtyard is halfway between line 1(which i was refering to) and line 3. You might try trip advisor to see if any specifics about the hotels

Fabsam- If you have points to burn, you might want to try the Marriott on the Champs. It's very close to a lot of sights and both the bus and Metro are within a block.

And even if you have points to burn your chances of getting the Marriott on the Champs are practially NIL. I have tried. I think they have very few free rooms and book up about 11 months in advance.

I actually looked into this. Wound up paying for Paris and using Marriott for London.

don't know from being there, but it isn't halfway between lines 1 and 3 on on my Parisian metro area map -- it's about 1/2 mile to Anatole France and about 2/3 mile to Les Sablons metro stop. Either is too far for me to want to stay at for good metro connections, even if it were in the middle. I'd still vote for La Defense.

What about using your points at a better hotel in a different city? For me I don't think staying on the outskirts for that many nights is worth the free room. I guess if you really have to use your points in Paris then the Neuilly location is better than La Defense.

The Renaissance La Defense comes up very often on Priceline for bids in the $60-90/night range. See http://www.biddingfortravel.com .
I don't know if that makes a difference in how many points you might want to use up, but I thought I would mention it for evaluation purposes.

Sorry about the delay in this response - I was on a two week business trip and couldn't remember my Fodor's password, and the reminder was sent to my home computer.

Anyway, to respond to your question, we stayed at the Courtyard Neuilly last April with Marriott Reward points. We had a two room suite with a small kitchenette, so it was a very good place for our family of four. It's a ten minute walk to the No. 1 and No. 3 Metro lines. The No.1 line is the one that goes to the Louvre, etc. The hotel also had a shuttle bus that took us to and from the Metro. The neighborhood is upper middle class and very safe and quiet. There are restaurants about two blocks away. La Defense is not too far away from the Courtyard Neuilly. If you are into brutalist modern architecture, you'll love it.

I stayed at the Renaissance a while back. It is a short walk to the metro (line #1). I travelled by myself and felt relatively safe, but it's like anywhere else: don't stay out too late.

As I recall, I could get to the Champs Elysee within 20 min. Not much worse than if you were on the left bank. I remember that the hotel had a decent restaurant and that the staff was extremely nice. However, it does look like the Courtyard is closer - so it's a toss-up. I think that either one is good.

TripAdvisor reviews on Courtyard:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...de_France.html

And on Renaissance:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...de_France.html