freberta

I thought I posted this message a few hours ago, but it's nowhere to be found on this forum, so it must be floating around cyberspace! We're flying into to CDG and want to take the RER from the airport into Paris (around 9 or 10 a.m.) and then take a cab to our hotel, Hotel Bonaparte, 61 rue Bonaparte, in the 6th. Is it better to take the RER to the St. Michel station or the Luxembourg station? Where will it be easier to catch a taxi to the hotel? Thanks, and hopefully this message will find its way to the right message board.

ira

Hi f,

www.ratp.fr will give you directions for public transport throught the Paris region.

We used to take the RER to St. Michel and transfer to the metro line 4 direction Porte d'Orlean to the St. Sulpice stop.

Until we got caught in a train strike.

My Lady Wife now insists that we take a shuttle van or a cab - both ways.

freberta

That's how I feel (it must be the name -- I'm a Roberta, too!), but my husband wants to take the RER and then a cab from there. We're even taking the Metro to Reagan Washington National Airport. In Paris we never take cabs, but I don't want to do the Metro with luggage (I'll do the RER, however). So, is there a taxi stand at the St. Michel station where we can get a cab from the station to Hotel Bonaparte? I can't imagine it would take more than 10 minutes or so, even in rush hour traffic.
Thanks.

almcd

Walk out the CDG and take a taxi. Considering you are spending over $2000 to get to Paris, what is another €40 for a taxi direct to your hotel. At 10.00am, the worst of the rush hour will be gone and the prospect of carrying luggage long distances to catch a train after a long, tiring flight is not my idea of a good way to travel.

adrienne

Yes there are taxis near Place St-Michel. You could probably walk it in 10 minutes. I'm assuming you won't have much luggage since you're taking the metro in the US and the RER.

I would figure out how much the RER fare is from CDG. The taxi will be about 10Euro. A shuttle direct to the hotel is 32 Euro for both of you.

freberta

I think the shuttle makes the most sense. We did it a few years back for five of us and it worked beautifully. And back then 4 of us were on USAir and 1 came in on American Airlines. I'll check previous posts for shuttle companies since I can't remember who I used back in 2004. Thanks.

yk

I vote for RER then taxi or walk. If you get a shuttle, there's a chance you are sharing it with other pax and they may get dropped off before you, so you end up sitting in the shuttle going around and around.

Just beware that for taxis, there's surcharge for each luggage. I think it's €0,90 a piece.

The RER fare is €8,40 per person.

adrienne

YK - how did you get the RER fare? I looked on ratp and only found the bus info. Is the price the same for RER and bus? Thanks!

Travelnut

http://www.stif.info/IMG/pdf/Guide-tarifaire-2008.pdf

Pg. 3 has the RER-CDG rate

yk

We took the RER B from CDG to Gare du Nord 2 weeks ago. We paid €8,40 a piece for our tickets. I assume the fare from CDG to St Michel would be the same.

As far as I could tell, the RER ticket is good for RER and/or RER+Metro (as long as one stays within the "correspondence" area). We took the RER to Gare du Nord then change for a bus; and we used a metro ticket for the bus because I assumed our RER ticket won't work for the bus.

adrienne

Thank you!

ira

HI f,

www.paris-blue-airport-shuttle.fr/index_en.php
www.parishuttle.com
www.beshuttle.com

freberta

I took Adrienne's advice and made reservations with Leader Shuttle at 16 Euros per person. To me, that makes more sense than trying to figure out the RER and how to catch a taxi once we're in the city. And what if it's raining? That's not the way anyone would like to start a vacation.