I think I am understanding this correctly, but wanted to confirm. I leave Portland, OR, change planes in Iceland (IcelandAir) and arrive in CDG. I'll go through immigration in Iceland, so in Paris I only need to go through customs/baggage?
If true, would it be reasonable to expect I could land at 4:30pm and arrive (via Taxi) at Hotel Dauphine St. Germain within about 2-2.5 hours?
Thanks so much! :-)
Hi Stacey -- you are correct. You will clear Schengen area passport control/immigration in Iceland. When you arrive in Paris, you will pick up your bag and just walk through a hallway to clear customs, i.e. it's a non-event.
I can't comment on the taxi travel time except to point out that this will be during the afternoon rush hour so the taxi travel time may be a little bit unpredictable. If you are traveling light or comfortable on the RER, this would be a fairly easy trip to make via the RER B.
2 - 2.5 hours is reasonable (not certain). I've flown through Iceland to Paris four times. Two on Wow and two on Iceland Air (at least one Iceland Air landed at Orly instead of CDG). Because you're coming from another Schengen country, you may not land at the same terminal as other "international flights". I probably ignored the sign that said to go a different way if you have something to declare and walked straight to ground transportation.
When you get off in Iceland, you are routed through the airport - pretty much straight through to your connecting gate. One stop is at passport control. Iceland is a Schengen country so this counts for arrival in France. Even though I've never spent more than five minutes in line (usually no line), I barely have time for a quick snack in Iceland before boarding my connecting flight.
I pack only a small shoulder bag so I go straight to the RER. I've found it takes me right at one hour to get to the RER station, buy a ticket from the machine and be leaving CDG on a train into Paris. It takes another 45 minutes to get generally downtown. Add up to 20-30 minutes on the metro and ten more walking to my lodging and it's in the 2 to 2.5 hours range getting downtown.
For you, I'd plan 1 1/2 hours to get your bags and get to a taxi (hopefully not too much more) and about another hour to get to your hotel by taxi. No telling what traffic will be like getting downtown. Follow the ground transportation signs to the taxi stand in front of your terminal.
Thanks for the replies! I appreciate the insights. Being that it's our first time in Paris, and with landing after an overnight flight, we decided not to spend effort figuring out public transit and just take a taxi. :-)
Your taxi will be a fixed rate of 55€ from CDG airport to your Left Bank hotel for up to four people and your luggage. Ignore the people who will approach you in the terminal offering you a taxi — follow the overhead signs to the official taxi stand. Have the name and address of your hotel written out on a piece of paper with 55€ written on it.
What day of the week and what time of day are you arriving? The nice thing since they fixed the taxi rates is that even if traffic is horrible, you don’t have to worry that it’s costing you an unknown arm and a leg (it’s just the horribleness or sitting in traffic that you have to bear!)
Assuming your flight from Iceland is reasonably close to on-time, you've got plenty of time. Given that you don't have to go through immigration, and that Customs takes no time, you might be out of the terminal w/in 1/2 hour. Traffic will be horrible, and I'd normally say to take Le Bus Direct or the RER, but I understand why you want to take a taxi.
We arrive on a Friday, 4:30pm. I'm sure there will be traffic, it's OK, we will be in Paris! :-)
Taxi will be quicker than the bus but the RER B only takes about 35 minutes or less to reach Châtelet. Any add on métro travel will add less than 30 minutes. Overall, the RER B/métro combination is generally faster than other forms of travel from the airport.
