Just received tour roster and new itinerary.
I am wondering what some of my fellow tour members have found regarding Christmas dinner as I am having a difficult time trying to figure this out without spending €150.
Any wisdom of your experience is greatly appreciated and I look forward to meeting everyone😊
Chris (Christine)
Chris,
I would call the RS office and ask your questions. They are very helpful and I’m sure they will set your mind at ease. Your tour guide will have suggestions as well.
You’ll probably find that many of your fellow tour members don’t know about the forum.
If you can share which hotel some of us might be able to suggest something in the area.
This is a wonderful tour!
Hello Chris, I will be joining you in Paris for Christmas. After doing some basic research re: Christmas in Paris and learning that most restaurants are closed, I was disappointed to learn that this is the solution that RS has left us with. I am willing to bet on a Falafel stand or something being open. My plan was to just wing it! Having said that if you or other tour members find a suitable place to reserve, I'm in. Thanks for posting. I am also looking for someone to share airport transportation to the hotel. I will be arriving @ 8am on the 24th Noel ! Susan
I cant speak for Paris, but I have had no trouble finding a restaurant for Christmas dinner in Rome, London or Budapest. Dont know why Paris would be any different. Just get a list of places from Trip Advisor or similar and start looking at websites for Christmas hours. Failing at that send out a few emails. Sure, my experience was half were closed, but that left the other half.
I Googled and got this Yelp hit: https://www.yelp.com/search?finddesc=restaurants+open+on+christmas+day&findloc=Paris . I haven't been to Paris in ages and cannot vouch for any of the listed spots.
Sorry to be getting back to everyone so late. I did call the tour office and spoke to a very helpful young woman. She was able to give me some ideas of eateries that would be open and I was able to find a couple that reservations could be made.
Cafe Constant which is near our hotel will be open but does not take reservations. Two that looked interesting are Les Antiquaires near the Musée D’Orsay and Bouillon Chartier in the 9th. I also discovered that a favorite of mine is taking reservations for Christmas after 6 pm.....Au Bougnat in the 4th ....around the corner from Notre Dame....so I feel there are options.
I was a little concerned since a couple of our itinerary days are swapped and so now on Christmas we are to visit Montmartre and have a Seine cruise but not the dinner....which could be another night. The young woman felt the guide had some discretion as to timing of the cruise so not to worry about reservations. Christmas dinner was never on our itinerary and was always up to us to plan for.
Just fyi, Café Constant is one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. Food is amazing and prices are reasonable.
If you get there by 5:00-6:00 (or 1:30 ish for lunch) you have a good chance of getting a table.
I have heard a lot of good things about Cafe Constant and it is a plus since it is near our hotel👍🏻.
Pam...we are staying at Hotel de Londres Eiffel.
James.... I had been looking at TripAdvisor but was getting overwhelmed knowing there are thousands of eateries to dig through and find on a map. Part of my anxiety is that I will be a solo traveler and did not want to wander aimlessly once on the ground.
Also not all have websites of their own.....they may use FB or Instagram...neither of which I subscribe to. I hadn’t found any that noted specifically that they would be open Christmas Day. However...I did notice that TA’s booking engine would show whether you could make a reservation or not...some are only open for lunch and some only open at 6 pm.
Chris, filter by a location close to where you are staying, then filter by price and then start researching. Its half the fun. OR! change your plans to Budapest and I will send you a list of 15 or so great places open on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Here's the Paris by Mouth guide to what's open during the holidays. The article is from 2017 but midway the article there is a current calendar of what's open on which day.
James E...Budapest....🤣🤣🤣 ....sadly not this year but have looked at the Prague/Budapest trip. My memories of Budapest are from 1974...before the Curtain fell.
Just Travel....thank you for that link....I was looking for that since the young lady at RS tour office was giving me info over phone from PBM but when I went to site I could not see what she saw.
Just finished the RS tour in Paris . You are in for a treat! The area around the Hotel Londres Eiffel has tons of restaurants and cafes of all kinds. Cafe Constant is great, but I’m guessing that there will be other options once you are there on the ground. Also, once you are there, the hotel staff and the tour guide might be of assistance.
You could really go anywhere in the city since the Metro is so easy to use and you will have a one-week pass. The Sacre Couer area also had many options. Another idea - Look at restaurants in large hotels. They often keep their restaurant open for there own guests since they have to eat somewhere! I have used this solution in the US.
On our tour, the guide handed out the tickets for the Seine cruise and let people choose to do it whenever they wanted - day, night , early, late, this day, that day. The tickets are actually good for almost two years. So just ask him for the ticket to use at a different time if the group cruise interferes with a special dinner.
In our group, we had three solos traveling alone, a set of sisters, a set of best friends, and several friendly couples, gay and straight. I was one of the solos and never found myself without companionship for meals or free time. I went out with various groups of 2 to 6 people. So it’s unlikely that you will be wandering around on your own (unless you want to as I did one day.)
Have a wonderful trip! Wait till you see how Paris is decked out for Christmas!
Thank you Renee...another solo and I have made contact so I feel less concerned.
Hi we did this tour over Our Thanksgiving a while back & really enjoyed it. Good luck with your Christmas plans. I was interested to see you got your final roster a few days ago. We are eagerly waiting ours for our Rome trip coming up in Dec.
I also really like Cafe Constant.
However, on my last trip I had a fantastic meal at Bouillon Racine in the Latin Quarter. It's an Art Deco place from the early 1900s and quite wonderful, especially if you want something special for Christmas. I don't know if it's open for either Christmas Eve or Day but it's definitely worth checking out.
We were in Paris last year Christmas Eve before flying home on Christmas Day. We encountered the same problem with attempting to find an open restaurant without the exorbitant price tag. We finally did find a nice Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant that gladly welcomed us:
The food was good and plentiful and the owner/family were happy to have us and made us welcome all along the way. And the price was normal - definitely not that ridiculously overpriced Christmas Eve menu that so many places have.
Rick's "Europe Through the Back Door" has a ton of restaurant-related links. Food tours, local reviews and recommendations, meal sharing, etc. Many of them in Paris.
spottedbylocals.com
timeout.com
mealsharing.com, eatwith.com
