Just a small 'trip report' on our post-river cruise tour of Paris. The Viking sponsored tour (3 days, one tour, no food for $1,700!) was full (luckily, because it was so pricey, and didn't offer much beyond someone to blame if things didn't work out...transportation, hotel and one tour), so I did my own (4 days). Worked out great. After adjusting for 4 vs 3 days, hotel, transfers, tours, ran us about $700, not including food.
Booked a SNCF train before I left from the Chalon sur Saone to Paris Bercy ($116 for both). $ Viking calls the taxi for you, which was nice. They even offered us lunch on the deboarding day (we left at 11:30).
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Originally Posted by rodi
More importantly- did you enjoy Paris?
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Yeah! I did climb up and visit the gargoyles up close and personal.
This post was the one that got me going on that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by rodi
The things I enjoyed the most in no particular order:
- Notre Dame. I took the tour that takes you up to the bell tower - it was cool because you could see the gargoyles up close.
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That took me to CityWonders tours.
Booked 3 morning tours with CityWonders (Eiffel summit+1hr Cruise, Notre Dame w/belltower, Louvre - $375 for the 2 of us, 3 tours which included admission tickets). I figured I'd need someone to tell me what I was looking at, lol! Took the Metro to each. No problemo. Enthusiastic, likable guides.
Got the hotel as a PriceLine Express Deal. I looked-up the hotel that the Viking group was staying in and picked the the same geography in PriceLine. Ended up in a quirky boutique hotel that was quite fancy, but with a tiny room. It was quite reasonable at $126/night, less than half of what the hotel Viking was using would have been.
The food seemed pretty expensive, but we shopped the 'Monop' for breakfast items, and did a couple of picnics. Diners ran from $60 to $80 (that's food only). We could easily have spent a lot more. They're real proud of their beer...could hardly find a sizable one for less than 8 euro.
We did not get a GSM phone and data plan, so just planned while on the hotel wifi. The Parisians were very nice, even the ones that we asked for directions, lol!