Where to meet my travel partners at CDG Airport?

There is absolutely no need to sit around at the airport for 4 hours inside customs, where there is no place to get food or drink. Find out what terminal concourse they will arrive at and go there after leaving the secure area. Find a nearby bar or restaurant to hang out, then meet them outside the arrivals door, where they will emerge after passing thru Customs.

Fallback should be to meet at the hotel. There's really no need to pre book a taxi at CDG. All taxis from the official taxi queues (but ONLY from the OFFICIAL taxi queues) at CDG have a fixed rate to and from central Paris. This would be easiest for someone tired from jet lag or who hasn't travelled to Paris before. Cheaper, but requiring more effort would be to take the RER train into the city, then the Metro to the stop closest to your hotel.

4 hours is a long time. I'd meet them at the hotel -- you could go out and get a nice bottle of wine or snacks or get things set up and have a stroll around the neighborhood to find the bakery and cafes and such.

Meet at Starbucks airside terminal 2f. That airport has free wifi so you can communicate by email.

And you could install the FlightAware app, and enter their flight number in "My Aircraft". Then you could track their progress and see if they are on time, late, or whatever. Also if one of them pays for the inflight wifi, they could communicate with you during their flight. You might want to communicate to them that you found a really nice cafe with excellent wine and cheeses near the hotel.

All excellent info. Thanks!

I will just add that when you arrive in Paris you are channeled into the Border Control/Immigration area with no choice unless you have a connecting flight. There is no place to wait or eat on these routes as they want you to enter the country and move out of the airport.

After you go thru Passport control you go to Baggage claim.

At that point you are channeled into the Customs area where you just walk thru to the exit for that terminal.

You can then go to other terminals but you’d meet your friends outside their Customs exit.

I vote for you to go to your hotel by taxi as explained above. Have your hotel name and address written on a 3x5 index card plus the amount of the flat rate to that area. Show that to the taxi driver and hold up either your phone and say Apple Pay? Or a credit card and ask OK?

If you will tell us the hotel the forum members can tell you the cost of the flat rate.

If you can’t check into your room yet the hotel will hold your luggage whike you walk in the neighborhood.

Yet another vote saying go on to the hotel and that nobody needs to prebook a taxi. The airport is humongous, very tiring, your friends’ plane could be late. Go stake out the territory near your hotel for them.

I swear I am not stalking you, lol, BUT I saw your post on another thread where you asked about getting to the Gare Montparnasse area.

I just wanted to assure you that this is a good area if you are a first timer and on your own for a few hours. If your hotel is in this neighborhood there are tons of restaurants including a whole street of creperies. IF you are there on a Wednesday or Saturday morning there is a Market set up along Blvd Edgar Quinet behind the Edgar Quinet Metro entrance. Last Fall, on the advice of friend and forum member Sharyn I bought several striped shirts from a vendor at the Bastille Market BUT he is also at this market on the days listed.

https://www.visitparisregion.com/en/marche-edgar-quinet

Paris cemeteries are also very interesting and there is an excellent Montparnasse Cemetery just along the way on Blvd Edgar Quinet.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-visit-in-paris/history-heritage/articles/171720-a-little-tour-of-the-montparnasse-cemetery

There are also some nice cafes and restaurants in the area:

https://francewithvero.com/blog/le-select/

All this to encourage you to go ahead and go in to Paris and do some easy exploring before your travel partners join you!

The 3 of us plan to meet there and travel together by shared pre-arranged taxi to our Paris hotel.

Getting a pre-booked taxi at CDG is never a good idea, and for you and your friends arriving 4 hours apart, it is a terrible idea.

Take a taxi to your hotel. For the official taxis, follow the signs from the customs exit to the curb outside the terminal, taxis are a fixed flat rate to central Paris. Do not accept any offers of "taxi" from individuals in the airport terminal or as you walk to the official taxi rank.