Rail travel

When is your trip?

Paris and Barcelona are both exceptionally high-demand destinations, so there's a very large risk that the favorite hotels suggested to you here will be booked pretty solidly at least through September. It may work better for you to use a website like booking.com to see what might be available in a fairly central location for your dates, then ask for input here.

In any case, for the most useful suggestions, please tell us your nightly hotel budget in euros and confirm that "we" just means two people.

You can see Rick's top sightseeing suggestions right on this website. Go to these links and then click on At a Glance:

Sights in Paris

Sights in Barcelona

Note that Barcelona has a lot of attractions so popular that you really need to have your tickets in your hand (or on your smartphone) when you approach them, because the ticket lines can be very long, and tickets may run out before the lines do. These are the problem sites I'm aware of in Barcelona:

La Sagrada Familia
Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Casa Batllo
Parc Guell
Picasso Museum
Palau de la Musica Catalana (English tours can sell out)

Paris lodging: our favorite has been the Hotel Famila in the Latin Quarter. They also have a sister hotel next door, the Hotel Minerve.

Barcelona lodging: we found the Hotel Denit a fabulous place to stay. Good location, very good breakfast included, and a nice price.

For rail travel start here https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Amsterdam.htm#Amsterdam-Paris

Sorry I was a bit sparse in my message earlier. We are going in October this year and heading to Barcelona for a week long Mediterranean cruise. We haven’t booked the train yet as the ticketing wasn’t opened a few months ago. So advice on rail travel would be great and hotel recommendations especially Paris. Our budget isn’t high but which areas are convenient. Not out in the suburbs. Thanks for replies so far.

Advice on rail travel is easy. Book Amsterdam-Paris at www.thalys.com and Paris-Barcelona at www.sncf-connect.com and if you need any further information, www.seat61.com is a great source of information.

I would think Paris to Barcelona would be an awfully long train trip, why not fly?

I would think Paris to Barcelona would be an awfully long train trip,
why not fly?

There are direct high speed trains between Paris and Barcelona, flying will not save that much time.