After this trip, I won't be such a novice, but for now I must ask. We are doing a thirty plus day trip mostly by car. But we will not be picking up our car until we are done in Paris. We will have to check out of our Paris hotel ( not yet chosen) and still have a half of day left to sight-see before heading to the car rental office. The question is this... will hotels/B&B's hold your bags after check out for a few hours? What are options to avoid carrying your bags the rest of the day? (Yes, we pack light.) Thanks,
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Leave them at the hotel. It's common practice. But, are you going to be comfortable driving from the car joint back to the hotel before heading out? Nord has car rental places and offers an easy escape route, especially toward the northwest quadrant. It also has luggage storage. Another option is to get the car and leave it parked with your junk in it Hive out the hotel, fess up to where you're going, then reask the question. The answer's going to be simple.
Posted by
OP
USA
47 posts
I didn't plan to drive back to the hotel. I thought it would work like this...check out of the hotel in the morning, store our bags with them (now that I know this is "common practice"), finish our site seeing, go back to the hotel and pick up the bags, go to the car rental in the late afternoon, and then leave Paris toward our next destination... Is that a workable plan?
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Yep.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32921 posts
Just don't do it at the rush hour.
Posted by
Des Moines, IA
2193 posts
Cynthia: Yes it's workable, and it's very common to leave your bags as Ed suggested. Not only have I personally left bags at hotels in Europe (and everywhere else, including here), I've done exactly what you are planning on doing in Paris. It was pretty easy, because our hotel was in central Paris, and so was the car rental office...short walk. For a variety of reasons, I personally found driving out of central Paris in the middle of the day more challenging than driving back in during evening rush. Still, I agree that's it's always best to avoid rush hour anywhere whenever possible to make things as easy as they can be. Make sure you have a good navigator...needs to quickly read the street signs on the buildings (good vision helps) ?.