The 6 Tips You Must Know for Visiting Paris
Paris is named the city of love and has been a centre in Europe for many years. Visiting Paris is on many people's travel bucket list, however, can be awfully expensive.
We found there isn’t an option for cheap eats at all unless it was a deli counter/café sort of meal. There are certain things we picked up on when visiting Paris to make your trip even better and more enjoyable
Try to Speak French
I studied French at school and cannot remember anything apart from hello and my name. But when travelling, I find it embarrassing trying to speak other languages because I have always been so rubbish at it.
I read somewhere that the French are much nicer if you attempt to speak their language even if you aren’t very good. It is also courteous to try and speak another person’s language, especially in their country.
During our trip around Europe, the one thing we learnt was that the English are very ignorant when it comes to languages. I felt embarrassed that all of these European people where ever they worked could speak my language and I had no clue of theirs.
I tried to make more of an effort as the trip went on and when visiting Paris, I did find people were politer if you tried to speak their language. However, some were still not very nice at times.
2. Don’t Expect to See All of Paris in a Few Days
We spent 3 days in Paris and we still didn’t see everything. Paris is a very large city and even using the metro it took time between places.
Ed and I are quite happy walking around and seeing stuff compared to going to a museum all day when we don’t have much time somewhere.
When we first got to Paris, I thought we could walk everywhere. When looking at a map, Paris was much larger than I thought and quite difficult to walk between things. It could easily take 45 minutes to walk from one place to another.
There is also a lot to see in Paris and when it’s nice weather, it is so easy to sit on the seine and soak up the view, or simply sit or lie on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower.
3. Use the Metro
Using the Paris metro system is the obvious gateway to quicker travel. As I’ve said above, I thought we could just walk all over the city. But clearly not
You can buy metro tickets for a single trip, a day, or a few days depending on what you want, and you can buy tickets at any metro station. The only thing is that it can be very very busy.
One time on the way to our Airbnb it wasn’t rush hour and every metro was jam-packed. Worse than the tube in London in rush hour. Ed and I ended up waiting for the third metro (which was jam-packed also), and just decided to push our way on.
Ed ended up in a different compartment from me, but we just made a plan before we split up and he made sure I was on the metro first with my rucksack.
You just have to try and get on either way; the metro system is a well-known nightmare day or night so be prepared for that.
4. Cost of Meals and Alcohol
As you know by now, I love to use Tripadvisor for a lot of things. Especially where to eat. In cities, there are so many places you can eat, and if we’re somewhere for only 1 night or a few nights we don’t want to waste one on a meal we won't enjoy as much.
The good thing is you can often look at prices before you go. But you can’t do that in Paris. Everywhere is expensive. The cheapest meal we got was above £20 each and it was a wrap and chips. A pint of beer was easily over 6euro too. So I would check out menus first. Some did 3 courses for £30 and stuff which wasn’t too bad, but overall food and drinks were so extortionate.
It was obviously a little cheaper away from big attractions, however still on the expensive side compared to other Western European cities
5. Don’t Put a Lock Just Anywhere…Please?
Throughout Europe, I started to get annoyed. The ‘putting locks on the bridge’ was always a big thing in Paris, which was a great idea and they now do it in Amsterdam too
There are thousands and thousands of locks on the bridge in Paris and have been for a long time, where the tradition started. However, when people start putting locks on random metal railings or a metal bin in Rome I think it’s going a bit too far
If you want to put your names on a lock please do it when visiting Paris or Amsterdam, everywhere else is getting a bit ridiculous and starts to ruin what it represents. You can also buy locks from people on the bridge or nearby shops
6. Don’t Stay too Far Away Due to Cost
Although we’re all about saving money in anyway we can. Paris is a very large city. It's very easy to look at cheap hotels just outside of Paris or slightly further away.
If your hotel ends up near Disney you could be on a metro for over 40 minutes getting into the city every day. Disney is also outside zone 1-2 which would cost you nearly 40euros a day to get into the city for 2 people.
We booked an Airbnb, which was just a metro ride away and in-between 11th and 20th arrondissement (area). So still inside central Paris just far enough away for a good deal. We paid £72 a night for a lovely apartment which was perfect.
Where to Stay in Paris
Paris is a great city, and very tourist orientated and therefore lots of places to stay and a range too!
There is also so many AirBnbs which we stayed in and it was great! I find you can get a good feel of the city when staying in an Airbnb and in Paris more so
If you're looking to save more money, maybe the hostel is for you! Hostel World have some of the cheapest prices around and vary in price and facilities
Paris is a very big city that should be included in anyone's travel bucket list. We were disappointed with was how expensive it was however, but it was expected. I pride myself on the ability to find cheap amazing eateries and exploring cities on a budget. But in Paris, this wasn't really possible.
Please comment on any other tips you may have or may find useful to other readers!
