One of the first things to do is to begin reading short (specifically short and not detailed) descriptions of Paris. This will give you a brief picture of what the city is all about and how much time you need to spend there. Well, Paris is everything (definitely more than the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, cafes, bistros and escargot). And there’s never going to be enough time to experience it completely.
One of the first things you will encounter in your planning is accomodation. Hotels are always an option (often an easier one). But do consider an apartment/vation rental.
Here are a few other pros and cons of an apartment as opposed to a hotel or a B&B.
Pros:
- It’s much, much larger than a hotel room. Hotel rooms in Paris are notoriously small. Some don’t come with wardrobes and the cheaper ones barely have room for two people to move around at the same time.
- It’s much, much cheaper than a hotel room. A good hotel room isn’t very cheap. Weekly rates for apartments are also much lesser than daily rates. With a hotel, it’s almost always a fixed price that you multiply by the number of days you stay.
- It’s more than just a room. Sure, you can cough up your family’s fortune on a hotel suite but for travelers who don’t have surnames that end with Trump, it’s out of the question. An apartment is a home. Even the tiny ones come with a living room, dining space, an open kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom. Even a studio measures up better than a similarly priced hotel room (if you do actually find one that’s liveable at that rate).
- You get a kitchen. If you like cooking (and eating), that’s just perfect. The thought of cooking up your own breakfast or a nice dinner or a midnight snack is just too good to exchange for room service.
- Everything you need is only a few doors away. There are bakeries, cafes, patisseries, grocery stores, pharmacies, fresh fruit… You could dial room service a easily pay twice as much for a croissant . But think about actually standing at a bakery, picking what you want and waking up in the middle of the night slightly hungry and finding a basket of croissants waiting at the dining table.
- Appliances. For coffee drinkers, there's nothing like refilling your cup whenever you want to. If you’re staying longer, nothing beats having your own washing machine and dryer. Or a microwave to warm up a little leftover that’s sitting in your refrigerator.
Cons:
- Cleaning up. You’ve got to do it all yourself, just like you would at home. Some apartments have cleaning up help (which you need to pay for as extra).
- Linen. Your linen isn’t changed every day (or alternate day) like it is at a hotel. Want your linen changed? Wash it, press it and change it yourself.
- Dishes. Although almost every apartment comes a dishwasher, you need to do the dishes yourself. You’re not eating every meal at home, so it isn’t really a huge chore.
- Essentials. Toilet paper, shower gel, shampoo, dishwashing powder, detergent, soap, etc., you have to get yourself. Although many apartments come with a few bare essentials to get you started right away, you need to get the rest yourself during your stay. No elf that replaces used bottles of shower gel or shampoo while you’re away spending the afternoon with a naked Venus at the Louvre!
- No room service. 3 am hunger pangs? Sorry but there’s no quick dial on the phone to order a sandwich.
- No bellhops. Some apartments have elevators, some don’t. That’s something to think about while packing every item of clothing you own.
In the end, it all comes down to the kind of holiday you want. A hotel works great for some people. For others, an apartment is more originally Parisian.
These are a few places to go to where you can get a good overview of Paris. Of course, there are plenty of others, so make sure you go through a few of them for a couple of days.
Brief overview of Paris
Visiting Paris on tripadvisor.com
Apartments
Honestly, there are millions of places that can help you out. Here are a few to get you started.
Lodgis: It’s an agency that throws great options. Just remember while dealing with an agency, there’s an agency fee that you need to pay as well.
AirBnB: Great place if you need to get in touch with the owners directly. AirBnB has listings for entire apartments as well as B&Bs or rooms with apartments that you can share with guests. There’s a small fee attached with the service.
All Paris Apartments: Again a great place to find an apartment (a tad less pricey than the others).
Holiday Rentals: Great prices, loads of options. You can contact the owner directly so there isn’t an agency fee attached.
Feel Paris: Nice user-friendly site, average prices and some really good apartments. Again, it’s an agency, so there’s an agency fee to cough up.
Paris Attitude: A fairly good collection, lots of price brackets to swing between.
Vacation in Paris: Lots to pick from, fairly good prices.
Homelidays: Great place, great apartments, lots and lots of options. This is actually a listing where owners list their apartments, so you deal with the owner directly.
Things to remember:
- Do a bit of reading before you go hotel or apartment hunting. It’s going to give you an overview of the different sections of Paris so you can decide which area suits you best.
- Really, really do consider an apartment over a hotel.
- It’s tasking but go through a million apartments before you decide on the one you want.
- Make a shortlist of about 8-10 apartments and then begin contacting the agency or owner to check availability, extra costs, etc.
- Once you’ve found one, don’t ever, ever, ever look at another rental site! You will find more interesting ones and it just doesn’t ever stop.
- Important: Don't judge the quality of an apartment by either the quality of the website that it's listed on or the quality of the photographs.
Coming up next: You know where you're living, so now what?