Best of Europe in 14 days - Aug 31–Sep 13

It probably depends on how you feel after your international flight. That may depend on if you've flown internationally before and know how you usually feel after the long flight and if you are flying to Paris from the US East Coast, West Coast or somewhere in between.

For me, I would not want to be as far as Versailles is from the hotel during that first day in case I have a slump and have to take a short nap. Many here suggest powering thru til 9PM or so in Paris but I can't count on myself to be able to do that. I would think definitely the Eiffel Tower would be great as you would be out in the sun. You could also walk along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame and climb the towers there too if you are up for it. Or you could walk from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc d'Triomphe and go up in that.

Depending on what time your meet-up is on the first tour day, you might consider doing Versailles that day. If you meet in the early afternoon, I would day no. If it is 5PM, then you would probably have time. You do want to be on time to your meet-up.

Have fun! This will be a wonderful tour.

thank you for the response! yes we are gonna play Versailles by ear and maybe sneak it in before the Eiffel Tower if we feeling up to it, we coming from NY but still a long overnight flight. I believe the tour starts at 2pm on the 31st so its prob not possible to see Versailles before the tour start.

If the tour starts at 2, then I would not go to Versailles that day. Seeing the palace and the grounds is an all-day excursion in my mind and I think it would rush you too much to try to do it and get back by early to mid-afternoon. Playing Versailles by ear for your first day I think is a good plan. There is plenty to do in Paris as well!

wanna try one more time to see if anyone else on the forum is going on this tour! almost a month away from departure and so excited!

Hello! My wife and I are going on this tour and we are also coming in the day before. We decided to go all in and head over to Versailles. Our flight arrives very early, but figured we would just power through out drowsiness to see this site. Unfortuntely, we weren't able to get tickets to the Eiffel Tower, but we are still trying. We are also excited and can't believe it is so close! We look forward to meeting you!!

Thats great!, we were able to get the tickets online, but there are other options, viator.com does a Eiffel tower skip the line tour which is a little more money, or I heard you can do the stairs which is a shorter line because most people prefer the elevator if you and your wife are able to do it. We are gonna play the Versailles day trip by ear depending on how we feel we are taking the redeye from NY and getting in Sunday morning the 30th so it might be rough but we are young and I think we can do it. Are you staying in the same hotel as the tour Sunday too?

Thanks for the info...we'll have to look into it! I don't think we would mind climbing the stairs if that's what we have to do in order to get that experience. We do plan on staying at that hotel, it's in such a great location!

Hi! My husband and adult kids took this tour in June 2013. We arrived in Paris around noon, checked into our hotel (the one we stayed in on the tour) walked the neighborhood and found a cafe for lunch. We had reservations for the Eiffel Tower at 5. Reservations save a ton of time! It would have been a lot to go to Versailles (tickets purchased ahead) and spend the time necessary to fully enjoy it on the day we arrived so planned to spend the whole next day there. Got there early and stayed all day and we still could have stayed longer.

One more big question to ask people who went on the best of Europe 14 day tour that I was thinking about, how much extra spending money would one need per person per day for the trip? How much extra cash and how much can be paid with credit cards?

I think Rick recommends something like $50/day for extras. I found this number to be high for me, but I was traveling solo and not eating big dinners in nice restaurants for the meals that were not covered on the tour.

I do recommend you do everything optional your guide offers. In Switzerland, your guide will likely organize a trip up the Schilthorn which is fairly expensive but he/she will tell you on the bus as you travel to Switzerland how much it will be for the cable car ride and will recommend how much to withdraw from the ATM in Swiss Francs. They will make an ATM stop for you. There will also be an optional gondola ride in Venice and perhaps some other things along the way. On my 21 day tour I think there were 2 occasions where the guide arranged optional dinners for us and really they were less expensive than we would have paid on our own.

In general, I think I wound up averaging about $28 a day but I had budgeted for $50. I still budget for $50 even though I know I will be under that.

I usually paid cash for any lunches, snacks, independent museums I went to and perhaps did a CC for a big meal. Usually I got out 300€ and spent it until it was almost gone, then hit up another ATM, lol.

I would not recommend trying to do Versailles the same day as you arrive in Paris, it is just too much. You should plan a full day to truly enjoy it, and not when you are tired from an overnight flight.

One really fun Paris option is to rent Velib bikes and ride along the river or in the park near the Eiffel Tower. You will find these bike stands all over the place. Simply go online and get an access code. It also helps to watch the short video on how to use.
This gives you a nice overview of the area and the activity helps keep you awake!