Honeymoon in Paris

What an amazing trip! I'm jealous and excited for you. I'd certainly rent an apartment in Paris for at least a week. $1800/week for two for everything aside from airfare is enough to get by, but will go faster than you think, as Paris is expensive (more expensive than anywhere else in France) - but there are ways to make it cheaper. Having an apartment will allow you to buy fresh baked goods from bakeries and do breakfast at the apartment, pack picnic lunches some days, and even cook dinner with fresh-bought ingredients from local markets sometimes. You'll save a ton by eating in sometimes. Of course eating out is one of the pleasures of Paris, but in my experience I like to splurge on a few carefully chosen restaurants as opposed to sit down meals all the time at cafes or restaurants, particularly near major tourist attractions, which are always more expensive than they should be and quickly eat into your budget. Since you're museum fans, a Paris Museum Pass will save you time and money. Figure out what museums you want to go to, and how many on which day, and what days they are open, and plan accordingly for a 2, 4, or 6 day pass. Personally, I'd opt for a slightly shorter trip with more money to spend more day than a longer trip that has to be super-cheap when it comes to time in Paris. But I'm a foodie/wino so those things eat into my budget, maybe less for you. 10 days in Paris sounds perfect, and then traveling to Brittany/Normandy or Alsace or Provence for a few days. Thanks to the TGV you can reach any of those places in a few quick hours. Cont.

As to where to go for your jaunt - it really depends on your interests. In Normandy/Brittany you have Mont St. Michele, the Bayeux Tapestry, D-Day beaches, the particular culture and food of that region. I've only visited Brittany briefly but loved it and hope to visit again. Provence is amazing and could easily take up a whole 3 week trip itself, but you can get a nice taste of it in a few days. I'd recommend reading Rick Steves' France book for ideas about all your options. But for art, food, markets, and charm Provence is hard to beat. And beaches if that's your thing! For a really different taste of France, Alsace is also really cool. Totally different culture (and historically, different language!) food, and so on. Very quaint half-timbered villages, unique and tasty wine, hearty "Germanic" food, my own favorite Cathedral in Strasbourg, and beautiful countryside make it an appealing option too. Alsace is the cheapest of the regions in my experience with regard to food/hotels, but all of them are cheaper than Paris. I'm sure others will weigh in with more info about other options, these are just places I've been able to briefly experience that I all think would make wonderful excursions from France - and all locations have fantastic museums, of course.

I think 2 weeks in Paris and a week somewhere else is a good option. I love many areas of France, but I especially love Paris. I've spent a month or two there on vacation many times and still wanted to stay longer. It's completely personal and subjective how long you should stay, everyone's gonna have a different answer for you. My favorite day trips while staying in Paris, aside from Versailles, are: Vaux le Vicomte, Malmaison, Fontainebleau and Giverny. Paris is a great choice for a honeymoon! Enjoy!

I love the Normandy area.... lots of historical sites. I would not go overnight however. Spend a few days there and take time to explore the towns and WW II sites. There are litterally hundreds of museums in France.... many of them focusing on WW I or WW II. I know you said huge museum freaks, but do you have a specific era or event that really speaks to you? That could impact where you go and what you see. And congratulations on your marriage!! What a great way to celebrate.

$250 a day won't go far in Paris. Apartment, meals, transportation, activities, tickets, lots of expenditures. I was there last June and as others report extremely $$$$$$$. Book the apartment and take that cost out of the equation, then figure out what you will have to spend per day. Just double the U.S. costs for food and that's Paris. 10 days is a good amount of time in Paris. Now, day trip to Brussels or spend a few days there. A quick train ride away. Enjoy!

$250 a day is a piece of cake in Paris.

For super budget travelers, sure, $250/day is a lot, but for people who want to eat more than crepes and croque monsieur you'll want to plan the money more carefully. Say they're lucky and get an apartment that averages out to about $100/night - doable, but on the cheap side, surely - that leaves them with $150 for 2 per day. Or...120 euro. Now this is doable but it's a low enough figure that you'll definitely want to watch your money and how you're spending it. You can easily spend half that on dinner for two at a "moderately" priced restaurant by Paris standards. The less money you have, the more planning you should do in advance. Advance research will let you scope out good restaurant deals, know where the supermarkets are, and so forth. I feel like money goes fastest in Paris when you find yourself hungry and exhausted and desperate in the Latin Quarter at 8pm. A little advance planning means you can avoid the overpriced restaurants more easily.

Wow - thank you so much everyone! We really appreciate the advice. We have adjusted our budget and have decided to spend 2 full weeks in Paris, giving ourselves a $2,000 budget for lodging - we have found several apartments that fit this range. We are planning on only "eating out" for lunches and cooking most of our own meals - my fiance is vegetarian and we don't really drink. Do you all think this will make a difference in our food budget? We want to plan on $120 per day for food. Is this unrealistic? Our overall budget is $5,000 maximum (again - plane ticket is not included in this price) Another question - what would you say a good budget would be for transportation - taxi or train to Paris center? Buses within Paris? We want to go to Versailles and Giverney for day trips - possibly Chartres as well? Thanks so much for continued advice!!!

Stephanie for transport within Paris you have several options. You can purchase a pass called a Navigo,, its good for a week , monday thru sunday, anywhere in Paris bus or metro, its about 19 euros plus a 5 euro start up fee, then you can reload it for second week. Personally I am not expert on that as i usually just walk and take metro occaisonally,, so I buy a "carnet" which is simply ten single use one way tickets.. For two weeks I use about two of them. They are 12 euros for 10 I recall. For Versailles its just under 7 euros for a return ticket on |Line C of the RER. Easy. For Giverny I took a bike tour, Fat Tire Bike Tours and it was absolutely a hoot. But, you can just take a train to Vernon and then a bus to gardens. Since I was on the bike tour I didn't pay attention to train details( they had the tickets for us when we met at train station) so I would post that as a seperate question here. There is a great site you need to look up, its called "Paris by train" and will tell you EVERYTHING it is the single best site I have found for information. It tells you exactlly how to take the RER , metro, bus, what the maps means, what the tickets look like, what the ticket machines look like, i mean everything!

If you're planning on eating almost every meal but lunch at your apartment, I think you'll be fine within that budget, most likely you'll spend far less honestly. Not drinking and your partner not eating meat will keep things cheaper as well.

I budget about 100 euros a day for food for two people, that would exclude any fancy dinners,, but breaks down to 5 euros each for breakfasts9 in an apartment you will not have to worry about that ) , lunch 20 euros each, dinner about the same.. throw in an ice cream.
I cheap out and have a sandwich or crepe for one meal if I want to splurge a bit on the next one. I most certainly did not find food in grocers to be twice as expensive as where I live, perhaps food is very cheap in the States? I keep in mind on holiday I am not buying the big economy sizes of food,, and often shopping in small grocers that even in my city charge more then big box stores etc. One tip someone gave me that I thought was good, instead of having to buy a 5 euro thing of a spice to prepare a meal in the apartment,, that you will use twice,, pack a bit in your luggage from home. It will take up about as much room as two or three small pill jars to put 5-6 different ones in your bag and could save you 20 euros right there. 2-3 tablespoons of something versus a big jar etc.

Stefanie, I don't have any personal information to pass on regarding your budget, etc. But, I just wanted to pass this on. It's the single best thread I've seen here about Paris and has so much good information from the "experts". I'm going to Paris this summer and I learned so much from this thread that I will use when I go. Just search on this recent post: If you knew then what you know now about Paris Check it out if you haven't already,. Congrats on your wedding and have a wonderful honeymoon in Paris!