Towns Outside of Paris
 

Hi everyone,

My family will be traveling to France next summer and I need help figuring out where we should stay outside of Paris. We don't want to be too far from the city. We're open to hotels and VRBO/Airbnb. We are a family of 5.

TIA!
Daphne

Any reason you are avoiding staying in Paris if you are planning to visit the city? If it is because of the price of accommodations, in the outer arrondissements, you can find very acceptable places for less than 70 euros a night.

Welcome to Fodors. I agree with kerouac -- we need to know why you are looking to stay outside of Paris before we can give any sort of useful advice. Have you been to Paris before and just want to explore other areas instead? Or will you be visiting Paris and its sites and for some reason think it is better to stay outside the city?

Yes, I was concerned that staying in the city with a family of 5 would be pricey. We want to stay for about 10-14 days.

Just quick -- travel in and out of Paris for a family of 5 for 10+ days would add a lot of €€/$$ plus time and hassle and could be a false economy.

What is your budget for accommodations?

Our budget is $200-250 a night.

Use AirBnB or VRBO to find an apartment to suit your needs in Paris. You should be able to find something for under $250/night,

I second the suggestion of finding an apartment in Paris - there are plenty of legitimate licensed apartments within your price range - and by doing so you will save on transportation (and time) traveling in and out of the city, as well as being able to have some meals in your kitchen, especially breakfast. Having a kitchen is a great way to save money, especially for a family. Also so much more room to spread out in an apartment rather than hotel rooms, and you can choose a neighborhood in Paris that will offer a good experience.

If you look at airbnb, make sure there is a license number, and also look for "superhosts" to rent from. We've had great luck doing this.

Agree with the suggestions to stay within the city. You've got a good head start for finding a place for next summer. I just had a quick look at random two week dates next June and saw several AirBnB properties that would met your needs. At your price point it will not be luxurious but there are places that are more than adequate. Based on our years of experience in renting apartments in Paris, I'd suggest you keep these things in mind:

• location (residential vs commercial, how far to closest public transport, metro or bus, grocery, bakery nearby, laundromat if no washer/dryer in the apartment?) Your price point may restrict you to other than the most central areas, but if you are close to a Metro stop you'll be fine.
• square footage (usually expressed in square meters, each of which is roughly 10 sq ft) urban European properties tend to be more compact than in the US
• number of beds/baths - suggest you look for two bathrooms - may be billed as shower room/salle de douche and bathroom with tub/salle de bain - as well as two WC's. In many places the WC will be separate from the shower/bath room.
• on which floor of the building (European first floor = US second floor) and is there an elevator if on a higher floor?
• If the place overlooks a busy street, are the windows double glazed?
• You can add filters for number of beds and baths as well as max nightly price. The composition of your family (ages, gender) would affect the number of bedrooms you would need.
• Air conditioning will limit options/raise price but if you are traveling in the summer it may be worth it. We've been in Paris during a heat wave in a non-A/C place and it was pretty miserable

Once you've found a few possibilities you can come back and ask about the specific properties (providing a link to the property makes it easier for Fodorites to respond.)

Seamus, good analysis!

+1

Seamus, you nailed it.

The new Résidhome apart-hotel at Rosa Parks has one bedroom apartments for less than 150 euros, just as an example of being away from the center.

Residhome Rosa Parks, hotel-type residence Paris 19 La Villette, Hotel in PARIS

In 2019, just before the world was hit by Covid, we spent Christmas in Paris, with our family. We were a group of seven. We had a great deal of difficulty finding a legal apartment in Paris for a group of that size. We ended up staying in Bagnolet, just outside of Paris. In fact, Paris was just a few steps away.

The apartment we rented was the Paris Express. It was a lovely apartment. The owners lived in a separate house on the same property. There were three bedrooms, two baths, a living/dining room, and a large well-furnished kitchen.

This location has multiple transportation options, including two metro stops, a tram, and an express bus. It's very convenient to CDG airport. We just happened to be there during a transportation strike, which created some mobility problems, but we managed.

Some people in this group had warned us about Bagnolet, but we enjoyed our stay there very much. It's a working class neighborhood, predominantly immigrants, but it was a lovely street, with nice shops and several restaurants.

I wrote a trip report of that trip to Paris, which has many details about the neighborhood, and our favourite restaurant, La Fleur des Lilas. I highly recommend this restaurant, as you'll understand if you read my trip report!
​https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...eport-1696828/

Reading it over again brought back many memories of our state of mind during our long lockdown. If you read it, you can skip post number 8, because I accidentally copied all of it at the beginning of post number 9.

Paris Vacation Apartments
 

I’ve been renting from PVA and or Cobblestone for years. They have apartments in different parts of town. One of the things I like is that they have washing machines and dryers thus cutting down on the amount of clothing you have to carry for two weeks. There are bakeries everywhere and grocery stores where you can get what you need for breakfast and snacks which will save you a lot on breakfast alone. They provide dishes, cookware and generally have spices and coffee, tea bags and things like that.

Loads of great advice here. To add my twopenn'th having an apartment in a reasonably central position makes going back to your base in the late afternoon much easier than it would be if you were staying out in the sticks which can be very useful especially with children [not sure if you have any in tow or not]. That has certainly served us well over the years.

All other things being equal, I also prefer a central location. Sometimes you just want to drop off purchases, and sometimes just changing your shoes totally recharges your energy. Let's not overlook the pleasure of a postprandial nap.

​​​​​I also really prefer a hotel to an apartment in normal circumstances. I don't like shopping for toilet paper, making the bed, or cleaning the bathroom sink when I'm on holiday. Some people like pretending to be "locals", shopping for radishes, and whipping up exotic dishes in a foreign city, but I prepare at least ten tasty meals a week when I'm at home, and I thoroughly enjoy eating two meals a day in a nice restaurant when I'm traveling.

However, when traveling with a family group, I change all of my priorities. Then my main priority is a place where we can gather together in the evening to talk and laugh and play rummy. At least a small kitchen is an advantage, so that we can accommodate varying opinions about what constitutes a decent breakfast.

Finding a large and affordable apartment in the center of a large city is usually a problem, so we are willing to consider the outskirts. In this case, we usually make do with one trip into the centre each day. This may require eating meals in the apartment from time to time, which gives more points to having a kitchen.

Having a kitchen gives you access to the amazing products from Picard.

Near the supermarket where we usually shopped when we were staying in Bagnolet, there was a shop that sold only frozen food, ready to thaw and eat. It took me a while to realise that was all that they sold. It might have been Picard. We bought some frozen meals there a few times.

Thanks!