Can anyone give me advice on a good place to stay in Paris that meets my needs. I do not mind splitting rooms as some of the kids are older teens. Also, price is an issue, but to the kids, so is being located in a "cool" area.
Thanks in advance for help!
Have you considered an apartment? It may be more economical than 2 (or more! Paris hotel rooms are small) hotel rooms, it will be roomier, and you have the added bonus of having kitchen facilities, meaning you won't have to try to find table space for 7 at a restaurant 3 times per day. The Slow Travel board has members' apartment rental reviews, and some are very economical. You might also browse the forums for threads about inexpensive apartments--thre have been many, and I don't think people always bother to post an official review.
http://www.slowtrav.com/france/vr/reviews.asp
I hesitate to recommend a "cool" area because I'm not sure what cool is to kids and teens. For instance, the Marais is a hip, vibrant area but for kids who can't get into nightclubs and might not like the inexpensive ethnic eateries, it probably wouldn't seem that cool. There are a lot of teens always hanging out around Les Halles and that big underground mall but you couldn't pay me to stay there! Too MANY teens, t shirt shops, and tacky touristy stuff. If you have younger kids too staying near a big, nice park like Luxemborg Gardens might be nice.
I would agree with the apartment if you can find a good one. If you cannot locate one, then I would recommend the Hotel Royal Phare in the 7th. It's just around the corner from Rue Cler, has a metro right at the front door and is about a 3 minute walk to the Eifel Tower. There are lots of restaurants around the area, bakeries for breakfast, outdoor vendors for bedtime crepes on the Rue Cler.
This little hotel is clean, small, and very affordable. We just took a group of 20 high schoolers there last June and it was a wonderful place.
Last Christmas I stayed at the Citadines Voltaire Republique one block away from the Parmentier Metro station. They have one bedroom suites that come with a kitchen, separate toilet and tub/shower/ sink rooms, a bedroom with 2 comfy beds,a living room with a large pull out couch that is very comfortable and 2 very large closets.
It was great. The area has many shops and is quiet in the evenings. Citadines has
16 other hotels in Paris - check their website for more information.
I booked through Booking.com which holds the reservation for you and you pay once you get to the hotel. The price that Booking.com offered me was exactly what I paid!
Also check out Trip Advisor for reviews on any place you plan on staying. I have always looked up reviews and weighed them against my own requirements and I have never been disappointed in my final decision. Good luck and enjoy Paris - it is a wonderful city!
I highly recommend that you use Priceline.com and Biddingfortravel.com to reserve two 4* hotel rooms in Paris. I was able to get two rooms at the 4* Le Halle Novotel hotel in Paris during Christmas 2005 for less than a 2* room for 4 people.
Doesn't Priceline only guarantee one bed per room though? They'd need four rooms!
I agree, from my personal experiences I would stay away from priceline whenever you are traveling with a group.
Have you looked at
Hotel Residence Quintinie ? This might be something you can use.
Agree on apartments. We stayed with our family of five and it was great to relax with wine and cheese in our lounge or on the terrace. Easy to cook a simple meal.
It was definately the best price wise for us. We couldn't really afford to stay in even cheap hotels and the ability to go to a market/shop and buy a few things to eat helped alot. try googling Paris Apartments and see what you find.
I would suggest an apartment rental for that many travelling...check out www.homelidays.com and also just google" Paris apartment rentals" and a whole host of sites comes up...there is alot available! Of course it depends how long you are staying but a week in paris you can see a lot and still not all ! You can also negotiate prices if you are going in off-season...good luck
Do note, many apartments will have only one bathroom, which for 7 people can be a bit stressful.
We try to stay in apartments wherever we go and have found some great places this way. It is a great option with kids- you can have space to spread out a bit, relax (other than in a cramped bedroom), plus cooking and usually laundry facilities as well. Many places will rent for less than a week.
Try vrbo.com or holiday-rentals.co.uk for starters.
My husband and I camped at "Hutopia" in Versailles this summer with our 2 dogs. They have cabins which you can rent, a restaurant, pool, games, and showers. The cabins may have showers in them - we stayed in a tent so I don't know. There is a shared shower/toilet area.
Here is the website: http://www.huttopia.com
We took the metro into Paris which was very easy. From "Hutopia" we walked to the metro station and I think it was a 30 minute ride into Paris.
I don't know if this is "cool" area though!
Have fun,
Ann
You might consider a Novotel Inn. My wife and I have 2 teenage sons with normal teen-age appetites so we attempt to pay the least combined amount for lodging and a big breakfast that will last a long time. We usually find that sleeping 4 in a room saves money. We stayed in a Novotel in London in 2007 and were pleased with the simple clean comfort, professional and courteous staff, and proximity to a London Underground station. It offered an English-style (i.e., big) breakfast for all of us. We arrived early on our first day and Novotel has a room where travelers can leave luggage until check-in time. Another plus was the variety of nationalities who were also hotel guests.
We are going to London and Paris in April 2009 and we determined that the Novotel Paris Les Halles is located in a central location convenient to Gard du Nord, a Metro station, and the other sites at the top of our list. Another factor was that, at the time we made our trip plans, Novotel was offering discounts for early booking http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-deals/index.shtml.
We tried something that you might consider. We created our own personal Paris map on Google Maps (if you haven't done this before, try it because it so simple that we learned how to do the first time). We placed markers on our Paris "hot spots" and placed markers at potential hotels. On a second computer screen we brought up a Paris Metro map showing the location of stations and the direction of the Metro lines. Having those two items simultaneously available visually helped us identify several hotels that were located more central to our desired spots.
