I've already been told by a tour guide in Paris that this is not a good idea, so I will probably go with that. I just wanted to see if anyone here had different thoughts.

I am supposed to arrive from NYC in Paris at 8:50am on a Monday. I then depart at 6:25pm for Athens. Would attempting to leave the airport and see something be total stupidity? I know it would also depend on if I actually land on time.

Good morning,
A lot of your decision should be based on what you think you want to see in the few hours you have. If you have a specific destination in mind, say a quick visit to Notre Dame or the Eiffel tower, you could do it, but keep in mind that you will be pinched for time and probably not able to relax and explore as much as you would like. Consider that taking a cab from the airport to the city center will probably run you no less than 50 euro (each way). You can do trains/metro into town, but that cuts down on the amount of time you have to spend sightseeing. If it were me, I'd do it just because you'll be in Paris and seeing some of Paris beats not seeing it at all. I had a similar layover last year in Munich and chose a couple hours walking around the city instead of sitting in the airport. Well worth it.

Melissa

That layover is an eternity--don't waste it in the airport.

We had an even shorter layover a couple of years ago on a trip to Naples. Arrived Paris around 10am--took a cab into the city for lunch at Guy Savoy--cab back to the airport for a 4pm flight to Naples. Had plenty of time.

You probably won't be able to "see" many sights, but you'll have enough time to see something and grab a great meal!

Can anyone advise me on the public transport that I could take?

my goodness. that sure is a layover! i wouldn't want to be in airport unnecessarily.

if you DO get in on time, take the RER to town and enjoy yourselves.

If I had to decide, I would pick the one or two things I would enjoy seeing.
It would probably be a good idea to pick the sights close together.
Then, I would buy a round trip RER ticket and know which line I needed to take after arriving in Paris.
Spend your time sightseeing, have a nice lunch, and return to the airport.
Even if you didn't arrive in Paris until noon and departed for the airport at 4:00, you could have a heck of a break.
Good luck.

definitely the RER ..take an express. It actually wont be any longer than a cab (and can be shorter if traffic..) get off at St Michel..you will be literally a stone's through from Notre Dame..that alone is worth the trip. Are your bags being checked through? That will be a huge help. if your plane is on time you should be at Notre Dame by 11:30..just be sure you are back to the airport at 5pm LATEST! Roissy is a very slow..

When people have only a few hours and want to try to get into town, I advice againstit because I'm a worrier.

That said, yours is an eternity! I would definitely figure out something to do. Whether going by taxi or public transport, just to get into the city and see a couple things and have lunch would be worth it, were I in your shoes.

Why does ou tour guide say it is not a good idea? Did they give you a specific reason(s)? 9 hours is WAY too long to hang around CDG.

If 0850 is your arrival time and your bags are checked through (so no need to retrieve and re-check) it would be easy to take the RER into town. You should plan to be back at the airport no later than 4:30 to check in for your Athens connection. That still leaves you a few hours that you could spend in town. Have you visited Paris before?

Buy 1-day, 5-zone <i>Paris Visite</i> pass at the RER station at the airport. This will cover <u>all</u> of your transport for the day. The train is both the fastest and cheapest way of getting to town.

Ride RER B to Gare du Nord. Don't wait for an express, because the <u>next</u> train - express or local - will get to Paris <u>first</u>.

Get on a bus tour: http://tinyurl.com/c2tgo

This would be my first time in Paris. The tour guide stated that it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hrs to get into Paris.

Here's an excerpt from the e-mail:

&quot;If you were arriving by Eurostar (the high-speed train from London),
I'd say yes, since you'd be arriving and departing right in the center
of Paris; in fact, I've done day tours with people coming in from
London on the Eurostar.

However, by air, everything is different. CDG is about 30 km north of
Paris, and it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours to get into
town. The same amount of time is needed to get back out. If your
plane is late getting in, you have even less time, and you have to
take into account check-in and security going back out. So with a 9
AM arrival and a 6 PM departure, you'd have so little real time to see
anything in the city that it wouldn't be worth the effort. I
generally recommend that if someone has a layover with both flights
the same day, it's not a good idea to try to come into the city,
unless the flights are really, really far apart (like 7 AM and 10 PM).
There are too many possible sources of delay, and any one of them can
make you miss your connection.&quot;

I say go for it! Paris is the most wonderful city in the world and CDG a dreadful airport, especially for 9 hours. If you do as Robespierre suggests and by a one-day, 5-zone RER pass, you can get in, around and out of Paris in plenty of time to spend 5 hours there. You can walk around, see some of the sights, have a nice lunch and plan your next trip to Paris.

well, the tour guide is being conservative and if I were a tour guide that is what I would do, also.

Of course it depends when you land, if your plane is a couple hours late, then I might rethink the thing. It also depends how good you are at figuring things out, do you know French, are you familiar with public transport systems, can you read a simple map, etc. Some people who aren't used to these things have trouble just figuring out how to use the RER or the metro, how to buy tickets, or how to even know where to go (it is like most large city's metro systems, but some have never used them). YOu are going to have to read up on how to use the system, tickets, etc. Some people don't even know that you put tickets in turnstiles, for example.

The RER train takes about 45 minutes to central Paris. That guide is right that it could possibly take 3 hrs if you were on the streets in either bus/taxi and some acccident closed down the road or something. It is possible if the train stops or is halted or crashes (I have been on RER trains that were delayed or stopped for some time due to problems, but it is usually 15 min or less). Three hours would be really rare, though, only extraordinary conditions.

Your tour guide isn't being conservative. He/she is being a blithering idiot

It doesn't, cannot and it's inane even by the standards of the travel industry even to think that it might, take up to 3 hours to get into Paris. Anyone could cycle it in in less: any fit person could run it in about half that. Check in for Athens flights on AF closes 30 mins before departure: this is a domestic departure, after all.

The only risk of missing your flight on to Athens comes from either your realising, as you painlessly get off the RER, what an utter lunatic is giving you this advice and getting a heart attack at the thought that someone, somewhere might even pay this person money (If you are, demand it back. Now)

I - and thousands of other people very day - regularly arrive at CDG later, go into town for a day's meeting, trade show or boozy lunch and get an earlier flight home. It wouldn't cross anyone's mind to have second thoughts about it.

Would you take seriously anyone who told you you couldn't go to New York or Atlanta, go into town for a meeting, and get back to the airport for a flight home the same day?

Obviously, if you have boarding passes for your outbound flight and your luggage is checked through, you have a lot more time to play with.

If you're coming in from JFK, consider buying your <i>Paris Visite</i> pass at the RATP boutique there. Then you can come out of French customs and get right on the train. http://www.ratp.fr/corpo/evenements/jfk/

The scheduled time on the RER between CDG and Gare du Nord throughout the day is 31 minutes.

I will be coming in from Newark. I don't speak any French, but am studying Italian- maybe that will help a bit in recognizing signs. I generally am a very independent traveler and figure things out quickly. I will have to keep my carry on light if I attempt to do this (this is usually a problem for me).

Now that I look at my itinerary, my Paris to Athens flight is on Alitalia. The 1st leg is Air France- what is the likelihood that they will check my luggage all the way through?

Well, speaking French isn't necessary, I just mentioned that as it would help, of course, but recognizing some words on signs will, also. If you are from Newark and used to trains/the subway, should be fine.

I don't think the tour guide is an idiot, I just think they are being responsible for giving advice to all kinds of people who are going to vary a lot in their capabilities and travel savviness and a tour guide does not want to risk people complaining about missing flights or that they were advised it was really easy to do all these things, and then have problems. I bet anything some would if someone couldn't figure out how to use the RER, got on the wrong line and missed the station, etc (yes, there are two RER lines up that way), got busted by the metro police because they didn't have the right kinds of tickets or threw the tickets away before exiting, got pickpocketed, etc. YOu know how people are, they would complain.

Oh, yeah. Don't throw away the ticket that comes with your <i>Paris Visite</i> card. It's what actually gets you into the trains and buses - the card is just window-dressing.

The PV is accompanied by a coupon book, but it probably won't do you much good, because it's mostly twofers (unless you get lucky, of course!)

But do check out the Paris City Passport at http://en.parisinfo.com/

So, Christina, this &quot;guide&quot; isn't concerned with her clients' enjoyment. He/she's motivated by fear of being blamed.

He/she's a liar rather than a fool. Either way, he/she is simply not to be trusted. In anything.

AP6360 is trusting someone who's fundamentally untrustworthy.

3 hours from CDG to central Paris would mean something *really* out of the ordinary was going on. By taxi it took us about 45 minutes, if I remember correctly.

IF your luggage isn't checked thru, IF your arriving flight is way behind schedule, IF there is some complication because you are flying on two separate tickets/carriers, IF you are a very nervous person by nature... you might want to sit tight at the airport.