Great 'MoneySaving city guides, part 1: Paris' Hunt

barnetboy_2

Hi all, I am currently booking a stag do to Paris to watch the horse racing for a group of 15 of us. I have had some great bargain hunts which I thought I would share.

1. By far the most comprehensive hotel chain is accor, they run loads of brands via accorhotels.com. You should be able to get 15% cashback through topcashback.co.uk for booking via their website.

2. If you are going at the weekend you can get some really good deals if you stay in the Defense district. I have booked a 5 star hotel for £70 per head with breakfast. La Defense is a business district , modern , and a little like Canary Whaf in London. So not quaint, but it is well connected via the RER.

3. Best bargain of all is horse racing. The Arc is the best horse race in the world, the facilities are similar to Ascot, but the cost to get in is just 8 euros. Women are usually allowed in free if they wear a hat !

jud!th

- couchsurf out of the city centre and get the RER in

- walk or bus around Paris centre

Couchsurfing in Paris was brilliant for us and our 2 girls (5 and 7) - we stayed for free with a lovely family who gave us breakfast and an evening meal every day. We then had plenty money to get the RER in to Paris every day, and travelled around Paris by bus rather than metro, because you can see loads from the bus and and you get a better idea of the city. Couchsurfing means you can really experience french culture and food, and meet the real locals. Then you can choose who to host from the requests you get back to stay at your place.

scarymary_2

If you want to save some money, get this book Frommer's Paris Free and Dirt Cheap from amazon.

Also don't eat out too much. There are perfectly nice supermarkets you can get nice takeaway food in, and they will accept UK debit/credit cards without charging the earth.
I'm off there next week, but my friend owns a flat there...so that saves tons of money too!!
It's a bit like London. If you eat in or use places where all the tourists go, it costs more. If you go slightly off track, you can save pounds....and Do watch out for the scammers, they're much worse than any other major city I've been to:)
xx

hollydays

For cheap,fast ,all you can eat type buffet counter,nutricious dining in France look for the well known cafeteria chain Flunch
http://europeforvisitors.com/paris/articles/flunch.htm
here is a link.You can get the menu express, £6.50,a choice of 3 different meals eg steak hache ( 100% meat hamburger) chicken,or fish,plus help yourself buffet style to as much potatoes,chips and veg ,salads,as you want,plus a drink The steak hache is cooked to order and can take ages,might be worthwhile having a look at their website before going if you dont speak too much french.you pay for the meal of your choice-first-then go to the counter and get the chicken,fish etc from the server then help youself to the veg etc
http://www.flunch.fr/ah-la-carte/formules/menu-express.aspx
any questions ,please ask.


Also look out for the shopfront of the bakery/cafe chain PAUL,black shopfront with gold logo






Their cafes sell lovely reasonable stuff,and I went to one recently in the val d-europe shopping mall,east of paris and they did fab fixed price menus,almost gourmet,but without the restaurant prices.They also sell bread,quiche etc to take away.about 70of their shops have restaurant/ tearooms

tara747

newtothemoneytips wrote: »

My only sad face is that the super good value for money (McDonalds) breakfast for 5 euro is no longer available.

It was: coffee or tea, orange juice, yoghurt, fruit, pastry and a bacon thing. Bring it back! (and if anyone knows where to get a cheap filling breakfast in Paris, let me know!)

You can get a tasty, filling, good value breakfast in Paris for any morning of the week! I have a few favourite places in the Latin Quarter which serve breakfast consisting of tea/coffee, croissant/tartine, omelette and orange juice for around 5-6 euro.

I can't believe that anyone would go all the way to beautiful Paris and eat in McDonald's. And if that makes me a food snob, then so be it.

tara747

I love this thread btw, top tips everyone!

My own tips:

Rent a Velib' bike, a whole day hopping on and off costs next to nothing and you get to see all of Paris much more quickly than on a tour bus! And it is great fun. The drivers are more considerate of cyclists than in the UK as well. And on Sundays the quays are closed to cars, so they are a joy to cycle along.

In summer, get some good wine from a little neighbourhood bar - they will fill up a plastic water bottle from a barrel and will usually let you sample first! Then get some delicious fruit, jambon, cheese and bread from a market, a little something sweet from a patisserie and you're set for lunch! There are so many open spaces to sit and eat; ah, bliss. This goes for dinner as well if you're a on a really tight budget.

In the evening, set menus are ridiculously cheap and, in general, delicious.

If you drink coffee and wine, you will have a cheap enough trip as these are the lowest-priced drinks. Tea and all other alcoholic drinks are extortionate!!!!! Most bars have happy hours which last half the evening, so visit then. At all other times they are to be avoided (cocktails, spirits and beer can cost anything up to 15 euro in Paris :eek:).

Don't buy expensive bottles of water from kiosks; get one plastic bottle and refill it from the public water fountains which are plentiful.

If you must travel by bus, don't bother with the rip-off open-top buses. Get a bus route map, there are lots of routes that go past the 'big sights' and you can hop on and off as much as you want with a day pass.

Not MSE, but I agree with those who say 'avoid the metro', you will never get to know a city by travelling underground - and Paris is beautiful, well worth taking a bit longer to get around.

There are so many free things to do! Visit Pere Lachaise, wander around Montmartre and the Boulevard St Germain, Jardins de Luxembourg, Jardins des Tuileries (beside the Louvre), sit in the gardens below the Eiffel Tower etc. In summer, Paris Plage turns the quays into a beach in the city.

Or simply order a coffee and people-watch for a while. For a brilliant view of Paris, go up to the Sacre Coeur or to the top of the Tour de Montparnasse - unlike being up the Eiffel Tower, you can see the Eiffel Tower! All very cheap.

Then spend the money that you're saved on a Berthillon ice cream and an exquisite pastry from Pierre Herm!! http://www.pierreherme.com/

megsykins

amy72 wrote: »

Under 26yrs get into lots of museums and galleries free or at least at reduced prices. This is a government-subsidised initiative so take your ID along and always ask!

Echo this - we got into everywhere for free - Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, etc. Only exception was Eiffel Tower (which was still reduced)

jaynepaz

This is such a useful thread!

A friend and I have decided to go to Paris for the first time during the end of August/beginning of Sept for her birthday. Obviously we are on a tight budget (probably not the most sensible place to choose to visit!) but I have noted down all of your suggestions which I'm very excited about.

The main thing I want to know is, where would you recommend on staying? We are only looking at one night and want somewhere of easy access to the main attractions of Paris.

Also we are contemplating on whether to stay for an extra night and visit Disneyland for the day however it's much easier said than done. Does anyone have any recommendations on this?

Thanks!

John_Pierpoint

Disney land is deliberately designed so that you think you can "do it" in one day but you cannot.
It is a good way of filling the expensive hotels at a rack rate.

Pandrea

Just got back from Paris, wish I'd seen this before I went.

for a brilliant view of Paris, go up to the Sacre Coeur or to the top of the Tour de Montparnasse - unlike being up the Eiffel Tower, you can see the Eiffel Tower! All very cheap.

True, but even cheaper, go up to the top floor (23rd?) of the Galeries Layfayette (department store) just behind the Opera and there's an amazing public balcony for a great free view.

The bikes are brilliant. The website is in English, so check it out before the trip to work out how to get them, but basically you can get passes for one day, 3 days or week by putting your credit card into the machine. It's 1.70E for a day, plus about a euro an hour that you have a bike out (but you can keep putting them back in and getting another out, eg when stopping for lunch/to see something, so you're only paying for when you're cycling), they also put a hold on 150E as a deposit, cancelled when the bike is returned. The only tricky part is that the machines don't quite explain that after they've issued you a one day ticket, you have to type in its number to be given permission to take a bike, but once that's done you just choose one, type its number and its released to you from the stand. Cycling in Paris is very easy because there are lots of cycle lanes and unlike here, they are separated from the traffic by a small strip of pavement, so it feels MUCH safer. However it's pretty essential to buy a Velib map showing where all the bike stations are (there are several hundred). This doubles as a good map of the city in general though and I got one from a newsagent for about 2.50E.

The Jardins du Luxembourg seem to have quite a few free concerts on in their bandstand, we caught two - one was Chopin, part of a festival I think, the other was a brass band playing pop songs. Loads of seats under the trees, great way to spend the afternoon. If you go just a little way up from there to Jussieu area, there are lots of cheap places to eat because it's a university area (ie not right next to the Sorbonne, nearer the other university there).

Shakespeare & Company bookshop has at least one or two events (in English) every week, eg book launches and author talks, which are free though you might end up buying the book.

Versailles is incredibly busy. We queued for nearly two hours to get tickets then another half hour to get in, so I really wished I'd booked in advance online - next time. It costs about 6E more on Saturdays and Tuesdays due to an extra charge for a musical thing where they play music of the time from hidden speakers throughout the gardens, however it's rather nice and very atmospheric so I felt it was worth it. Best way to get there from Paris is the train from Montparnasse. The gardens stay open later than the palaces so best to go round them first if you are pushed for time and then wander outside. But the distances between things there is further than you think, so you can waste a lot of time getting from the palace to the trianon and back, for instance. You are not supposed to take your own food inside but no one seemed to mind that I had some, so you can save on the refreshments which aren't particularly cheap there.

Even with all the tips, Paris is NOT cheap. Take as much money as you can! And do NOT stay at the Holiday Inn at the Porte d'Italie even though it is only about £50 a night (there is another one at the Place d'Italie which may be better, I don't know). It's not worth it, the place is horrible - broken showers, view of a motorway, dirty towels, etc - and in the middle of nowhere so you keep having to get metros into town, plus it feels unsafe at night. We booked it through the Secret Hotel site and I can really see why they keep it a secret. Unfortunately having paid in advance we couldn't move somewhere else. Still it was a great holiday nonetheless. Bon voyage!