Paris and the Alps in a week?

Choose one or the other. Seeing and enjoying Paris in only 5 days is cutting it very short. You won’t get an Alpine feeling in Annecy and to get from Paris to Chamonix involves train and bus. I feel that teen daughters will be sad if they get “stuck” in the Alps and have hardly seen anything in the City of Light.

Not a good month for the Alps, between winter and summer seasons. Muddy, wet. And a lot shuts down.

Is it feasible to spend 2 days in Paris seeing the sights and then take the train to Chamonix or Annecy and stay there for 3 days?

Feasible? Yes, if you’re willing to spend more time in transit.
Enjoyable and satisfying? Probably not.

Do your daughters have specific ideas about their top sights in Paris? Are seeing those sights feasible in just 2 days? Have they crossed that many time zones before and experienced jet lag?

I agree with Phillip. I’ve not been to the Alps, but getting there would eat up a lot of valuable and very limited travel time.

I am a bit biased because j’adore Paris! Five days for a first time visit would be a lovely introduction to this wonderful city, but may leave them wishing they had more time. If you feel like you need a break from Paris, you could do a day trip.

We were in Paris in early May. It was my third visit, and we had just 4 full days there, the shortest visit I’ve ever had in Paris. It was at the beginning of a nearly month-long trip, so we don’t regret our brief time in Paris. There is always more to see and experience in Paris.

I'm confused about your timing. Do you mean 5 days plus US departure day and Europe departure day? Since most flights are overnight, that means that your first day in Paris would be a bit of a blur due to jet-lag. But then you know that from the trip you did with your daughters in 2018.

I'm with those who say to stick with Paris. Two days is barely enough time to get over the jet-lag, much less experience much of the city. If you rented an apartment for the 4 of you and spent the entire time there, it would be time well spent.

I can say that because the last time we were there, we rented an apartment for a week. And because we've also been to the Alps. We rented a car and spent 2 weeks driving in the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, then finished up in Annecy. Annecy is lovely, but not exactly the Alps. Chamonix most definitely is in the Alps, but we didn't go there.

It was June and we got snowed in at a hotel on a high pass in Austria. Zermatt was okay, but cold and clouds often obscured the Matterhorn. We had a clear pavement and sky drive through the Dolomites, but the weather was too bad for us to drive over Stelvio Pass. I include these weather details as an example of the possible weather conditions you might experience in April or May. It'd be a bummer to go to Chamonix and have a ton of snow on the ground plus some possibly falling so heavily or it being so cloudy that you couldn't even see the mountains. That's what happened to us in Austria.

IMHO, 5 days split between Paris and Chamonix is way too rushed, especially considering that it's about a 7 hour train trip from Paris to Chamonix with a minimum of 3 train changes enroute. At about 4 hours Annecy is a shorter trip with 0 or 1 change which could be to another train or a bus, but that would still take a huge chunk out of a day. And the train trip from Annecy to Chamonix is about 2 1/2 hours each way with 2 train changes, so not exactly day-trip friendly.

Prioritizing is the hardest part of any trip I plan, so I totally get the dilemma. 🥴

Thank you so much for all your kind responses to my question. They were very helpful and I have officially decided to spend the whole week in Paris!
No Alps this time and I think it will be much more relaxing not doing all the traveling between locations.

Thank you for the insight on travel times between cities as well, that is very helpful. Does anyone have any insight on if going to the Loire Valley for 2 days would be doable from Paris? We could maybe extend our trip a bit… or if Paris in itself is enough then we won’t add on the Loire extension.
Thanks again!

I think Paris itself would be plenty.

Does anyone have any insight on if going to the Loire Valley for 2
days would be doable from Paris? We could maybe extend our trip a bit…
or if Paris in itself is enough then we won’t add on the Loire
extension.

When you say you could extend your trip a bit, what does that mean? How many more days? 2 more days, 5 more, etc? Knowing that would help you decide whether to go to the Loire Valley or not. If you only have 7 days on the ground (not including your air travel days), I'd suggest staying in Paris and do a day trip or two (at most).

There are many worthwhile day trips you can take from Paris, as others have suggested. I suggest choosing those that require no more than 1.5 hours each way. More than that and you'll barely have time to appreciate what you came to see. Assume a day trip will take the better part of the day. Just figuring out which train(s), buses, etc to get to your destination takes time and energy. It can be exhausting, even though you'll be going to places that you'll enjoy.

If you can extend your trip to longer than a week, you might consider the Loire Valley. Even so, it's about 2 hours via TGV from Paris to the Loire. That may not seem like much, but you lose precious time when you change to a new location (getting to train station, travel time, getting to your new hotel, etc), leaving you little time to enjoy the area. For example, if you decide to go to Loire for a two-night stay, that only leaves you one full day. Not worth it in my opinion.

I agree with others who have said that less is more. I'll join the chorus that believes that even 7 days in Paris is not enough, especially for a first visit. On my first trip to Paris, I was there for 11 nights, giving me 10 full days to explore this beautiful city and Versailles (my one and only day trip). I realize you may not be able to extend your trip for that long, but my point is that, depending on your family's interests, there is plenty to see and experience. I also agree with the person in your other thread who emphasized that because your teens are really interested in seeing Paris, this is your golden opportunity to have a meaningful adventure as a family. Carpe Diem!

Thank you so much Lynn for that insightful response, I appreciate it. Besides Versailles, does anyone have any day trips they recommend that are within an hour and a half out of Paris?
And if anyone knows of good foodie tours while in Paris, I would love recommendations.

Everyone is so helpful on here, thank you!

For trip planning (and while in Paris, of course), I highly recommend the RS Paris guidebook, especially if you have decided that you'll stay in Paris for the entire trip. There is a detailed "Day Trips from Paris" chapter with various suggestions to nearby places, including travel duration, how to get there, and descriptions of the sites or towns themselves. You'll also find info re: food tours in the Paris guidebook.

I suspect the most common day trips from Paris are Versailles and Giverny, which is why you can expect large crowds in May. Disneyland-type crowds, especially in the morning through early afternoon. Not trying to discourage you, just want to prepare you. Chartres, Fountainebleu and Vaux-le-Vicomte are nearby. The latter two are less crowded than Versailles, from what I've read (never been).

Versailles will likely take an entire day, depending on how much energy you have and what you want to see there. (I never made it to the Grand Trianon, which is a 30 min walk from the Chateau.)

Monet's House and Garden in Giverny are crowded any time in May (peak season), but especially so in the morning when the tour buses arrive. We were just in France and saved Giverny for our final 2 nights at a lovely B & B before flying home on June 3. This made it possible for us to visit Musee des Impressionnismes in the AM, have lunch at their nice brasserie, and visit Monet's garden at 3:30 pm when it was less crowded and the light is wonderful. That gave us more than 2 hours before the 6 pm closure, which was ample time to see everything. The village of Giverny is small, compact, and very walkable. You could do all that in one day, but it will be a long day. Or, you can just visit Maison de Monet, have lunch nearby, and head back to Paris.

If you are considering visiting one of the Impressionism Museums in Paris, going to Giverny would be a perfect complement. We visited Musee de l'Orangerie (also crowded) to see Monet's beautiful water lily panels, which he painted in Giverny. Not trying to hard sell you on Monet or Giverny, just mentioning in case this is of interest.

Personally, I do not like to do a day trip right after my arrival or the day before a long flight. You and your fam may be more resilient than me, but that is my pro tip to anyone (of any age) to consider! It is indeed difficult to pick and choose what you can do in a short amount of time, and this is why I do not recommend more than 2 day trips for a brief, first time trip to Paris. Just one would be better, IMO, so that you don't run yourselves ragged and miss out on valuable Paris time. It is not possible to see everything on your bucket list this trip, so as a wise man says, "assume you will return."

Thankfully, you are planning this trip nearly a year in advance, so there is plenty of time to research, involve your daughters in the planning, etc. Bon Chance, Lynne (with an E)

Thank you Lynn! Great ideas here for our trip.
Appreciate it!

Abby

As Lynne had listed, Chartres. For a day/evening or an overnight visit, you can enjoy the Cathedral Light Show. Chartres en Lumieres, https://www.chartresenlumieres.com/en/.

Enjoy your trip.

Besides Versailles, does anyone have any day trips they recommend that are within an hour and a half out of Paris?

Reims. Cathedral with a great history, site of the surrender at the end of WWII, tours of champange houses.

Thank you again for your responses everyone!