We are flying from CDG to Munich on a Saturday in early June. Our flight leaves at 12:05 and we are staying on the Ile de la Cite. We're flying on Lufthansa and we need to check bags since we're carrying hiking poles. I'm thinking we should arrive at CDG by 9:30, and leave our accommodations at 8:30 to do so. Am I allowing enough time for all of this?
Posted by
la la land...
1266 posts
Sounds about right. Personally I would leave the hotel by 8 AM if only to grab a quick bite at the airport, a coffee...but your timing works OK...
I err on the "rather be too early" side of it when it comes to these sorts of connections. On our last trip to Paris, the taxi ride to our left bank hotel took 100 minutes...traffic was awful...in all our years of making this journey, that is the longest ever.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2979 posts
If you are not going through passport control, and flights to Munich from France do not, you should be at CDG 2 hours before your scheduled departure. I would leave Paris no later than 09h00.
Posted by
OP
Southern California
517 posts
Thank you for the responses. I will probably err on the side of caution and ask for an 8 a.m. pickup time. I too would rather spend time exploring the airport or having a snack than sweating it in traffic and wondering if I'm going to miss my flight.
Posted by
Paris
10907 posts
Are you flying only to Munich, or is Munich your connecting point for an onward flight ?
Posted by
OP
Southern California
517 posts
@Kim. We're flying to Munich then taking the train to Salzburg. I had thought of taking the train all the way, but it was getting so complicated--especially since the SNCF website was showing construction work and possible train time/station changes for the day we were going to travel--that I opted for plane/train connections.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
7689 posts
Flying from Paris to Munich takes more or less the same time as the train, city centre to city centre. Then you still have to add the trip to Salzburg. SNCF won't sell you any tickets outside the area they operate, they won't even show the options. Using DB, www.bahn.de, you can see all the options. It can usually be done in around 8 hours. Although my recommendation for Paris to Salzburg is the overnight train, you find more information about that at www.nightjet.com
Posted by
OP
Southern California
517 posts
Thanks Badger. I got a lot of advice on the Paris to Salzburg trip with my original question under Transportation. I liked the idea of the night train, but it doesn't run from Paris TO Salzburg on Saturday (at least not when I was looking at it), the day we will travel. In the end, though I know it would take about the same amount of time, I choose to fly/train since it was the simplest option for me at the time. We've had a number of family crises over the last few months, and having something "done" with the least amount of effort is helping keep me sane.
Posted by
43 posts
CDG is one of the most crowded airports in the world. I almost missed a flight home after arriving 3 hours ahead of the flight. Be conservative in your flight time estimates
Posted by
Paris
7555 posts
Saturday, June 7 is the start of a 3-day weekend for many people in France, so leaving at 8:30 sounds good. You'll get to the airport at 9:20 latest, leaving plenty of extra time. Staying on Ile de la Cité, if you are mobile and don't have big luggage you could take the RER if there are no works that day (RATP app will tell you), as the station is...right there. Leaving at 8:00 feels excessively cautious, and it makes it harder to get breakfast.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
558 posts
So this may vary from airline to airline, whether you are able to download your boarding passes (or not), whether you are checking baggage and whether you need to go to the airline ticket counter in the terminal for any reason. If so, I’d say plan on 3 hours at CDG, plus another 60 minutes travel time to get there - minimum.
FWIW here is our saga involving British Airlines and CDG two years ago. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/departure-from-cdg-a-cautionary-tale-for-british-airways-travelers
We’ve only flown BA a few times, but I have had more bad experiences with them on the few journeys than with dozens of carriers on hundreds and hundreds of other trips. Too often, we found BA to be rude, condescending, poorly staffed, poorly equipped and behind schedule - particularly at CDG.
Posted by
OP
Southern California
517 posts
I forgot about the Whit Sunday holiday weekend, but we're arriving in Paris by train on June 7 (Bruges to Brussels, then Brussels to Paris via Eurostar) and leaving by plane on June 14. Flying Lufthansa, and hopefully checking in online, though we will need to visit the counter to check our bags. I'm still going to plan on 8 a.m. since I get nervous about missing flights. I'm the one who shows up 4 hours early for my international flights. :-)