Paris Hotels

I look at TripAdvisor for hotels and reviews. I can also suggest 2 Paris hotel for you to check out: Hotel Cluny Sorbonne - our room was on the courtyard side so there wasn't a great view but it was very quiet, which is maybe the most important aspect of a hotel for me. We paid about 100 euros per night for a room for 2 people, with an ensuite bathroom. The room was clean but very small, and the bathroom was clean but hadn't been d since maybe the 1980s. Hotel Londres Eiffel is just a couple blocks from the Eiffel Tower. We had another courtyard room so again, it was nice and quiet. We paid about 200 euros a night for the same setup. This hotel is fancier than the one above - it was very clean, with an d bathroom.

The Rick Steves guide lists good hotels in various price ranges in particular neighborhoods that he likes. My experience following his advice in Paris and elsewhere has been good. But there are many other good choices of hotels and neighborhoods. You might look at tripadvisor.com for reviews by other travellers, and booking.com for comprehensive listings with filters that help narrow your search. When you book a room, try to specify a quiet location, which usually means on the back side or facing a courtyard, not facing the street. On our first trip to Paris we stayed at the Hotel des Grandes Ecoles in the Latin Quarter, http://www.hotel-grandes-ecoles.com/, which certainly meets your criteria of clean and quiet. We loved it. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of others just as good or better. You'll hear about more from subsequent posters. On subsequent trips we've rented apartments through sites like homeaway.com, vrbo.com, airbnb.com. This means dealing with individual owners and paying in advance. You don't get the convenience of a staffed front desk to help you on a daily basis, and you may have to figure out plumbing and appliances that don't work quite like we're used to (which can be a source of entertainment, up to a point). But you get more room to spread out, a kitchen to save money on meals, often a washer and dryer, an an experience more like actually living in Paris. An alternative worth considering for a weeklong stay.

hi, as mentioned above RS books and others covers places to stay. regarding a car. You really dont need one in Paris. But if you want to sit in rush hour traffic, they will accomodate you on that! Their subway system is great. their buses arent bad either. Walking isnt that bad if your fit, but it takes more time, but you get to see more too. You may want to get a map of paris and plot out your activities and see if you can find a "central" place to stay. "booking.com" is one hotel web site. there are others. you can filter out things like cost, lodging types and such. it will also map them out too. everyone and their dog will give you recommendations on their favorite place to stay. if thats what you want, you will get it. happy trails.

The main internet site for hotel reviews is Trip Advisor. But beware: anyone can post a review. So some positive reviews are posted by the proprietor's brother, and some bad reviews are posted by a competitor. Hotels.com and Booking.com require that you have booked a stay through their websites before you can write a review, so they aren't as easy to manipulate. I'm also fond of Eurocheapo: http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/. Even if you stay in hotels other than the ones they recommend, they have lots of other useful tips. Scroll down on the page I linked, and you'll see neighborhood descriptions; this is particularly useful. Do look at Rick Steves Paris, and other guidebooks as well. If you're staying for a week, you'll want good guidebooks in any case. "Our biggest priorities like most people are clean, and quiet." Actually, many people have all kinds of other priorities. People want a hotel located close to sights or transportation; they want smoking or non-smoking rooms guaranteed; they want free WiFi; they want a free breakfast that includes eggs rather than just "continental"; they want rooms for four adults (not always easy to find in Europe); they want rooms that won't charge extra for a child (also not usually found in Europe). And that's just a short list. So, you can't just look at the star ratings, but you actually have to read reviews to see if their needs match yours. Watch out for silliness, like people who choose a hotel that does not have an elevator (and never said that it did), then complain about the lack of an elevator in their review. Of course, if the website says the hotel has an elevator and it turns out they lied, that's quite different.

The Rick Steve's Guide and tripadvisor.com are good places to start. If your plan is to travel during the summer you will want to get reservations made quickly - the most desirable places book early.