Do not ask to tell about Paris -
How can I convey the fragrance
Nina Ricci's Kiss of Love
And the Van Gogh red sunset?
T. Vorontsova
Indeed, reading and talking about Paris is a thankless task! Well, how do you say the words about the city, sung
poets and writers, ancient and modern, romantic and pragmatic? You can read all the books about him, but only a trip to Paris will help you understand what kind of city it is and fall in love with it for the rest of your life.
Alone or “supervised”?
You can go on a trip to Paris, first of all, by buying a tour at a travel agency. This option is suitable for beginners, as well as for those who are very busy and cannot organize a trip to Paris on their own. For those who already have the experience of wandering and are not afraid to make decisions, it will not be difficult to make such an independent tour, and there are much more advantages to such a trip compared to a package tour from a tour operator.
What are the advantages? We list the items:
1. You decide when, by what type of transport you will go or fly.
2. Nothing limits, except for the date of the visa, the length of your stay in France.
3. You are free to choose where you will live: in a hostel, hotel or rent an apartment.
4. With an open Schengen multivisa, you can go for a few days, for example, to Italy or Spain.
5. With self-processing of all documents, booking tickets and accommodation, you can several times reduce the cost of travel. For example, a travel agency offers to spend a romantic weekend together in Paris for 77,000 rubles. This amount includes accommodation in a 4-star hotel and flight. Additional costs for a visa, medical insurance and aviation fuel surcharge will amount to about 10,000 rubles. Thus, a romantic weekend in the French capital will cost 87,000 rubles per person. Experienced travelers have estimated that by applying for a visa yourself, choosing cheaper tickets (flights with transfers or early in the morning) and a less star hotel, you can save from 9,000 to 20,000 rubles each. Impressive?
We talked about the positive aspects that an independent trip to Paris will bring, now about what actions
you need to take everything to go as planned, and the journey left only wonderful memories and emotions.
When is the best time to go?
At any time of the year, the French capital will be able to surprise you, charm and fall in love with yourself. However, if a trip to Paris is organized by you yourself, and you want to save money, it is better to hit the road after the New Year and before mid-March or at the end of September and catch it before Christmas. At this time in the French capital, the "low" season, which implies a fall in prices for air travel and hotel rooms.
We collect documents
Before ordering tickets and booking a hotel, you need to find out what official papers you need to collect to obtain a visa, check the validity of your passport. Detailed information on what documents are needed, where and how to apply for a French visa can be found on the website of the Embassy. The requirements for documents are the same as when applying for a Schengen visa to any country: airline tickets or a reservation, a valid passport with a 3-month period of validity and mandatory three blank pages, documents confirming financial capabilities (certificate of employment or bank account statement) . Health insurance and hotel reservation confirmation is required. Now, first things first.
We reserve accommodation
Before proceeding to this stage, it does not matter if you are planning a weekend trip to Paris or for a whole month, decide in which area of this big city you would like to live. Prices for accommodation in the French capital are very different: from 15 euros per bed in a hostel in a suburban area to very large sums in luxury hotels.
If you plan to walk a lot, as well as visit the suburbs of Paris, then it is worth considering options for hotels located near the East or Lyon train stations. For example, hotels Helvetia or Hôtel de l'Aveyron, located in the Lyon station area, will cost about 80 euros per night.
Despite the rather low prices, do not book hotels located in the rather criminal Parisian district of Gare du Nord, near the North and West stations.
In the event that a trip to Paris is planned for Disneyland, then it is better to focus on hotels near this huge entertainment park. The cost of rooms in such hotels, located within walking distance, starts from 100-110 euros.
Where and how is insurance issued?
The list of documents required to obtain a visa to France must include a medical insurance policy for foreign travel. It is quite simple to buy such a policy, and the French Embassy has a list of insurance companies with consular accreditation.
If you are planning a trip to Paris for two, you can buy it either at the representative of the insurance operator, or use the web resources of insurance companies known or accredited by the French Consulate and apply for the policy online.
The resulting insurance policy must always be with you. In addition, before the trip, it should be scanned and stored in your e-mail box, so that in case of force majeure circumstances you can easily access it.
How to get to Paris?
Today, the capital of France can be reached by bus or train, which is quite tedious for a long time, or you can fly to Paris by plane. Regardless of which mode of transportation is chosen, this is the most expensive stage of the upcoming trip. For most tourists, a trip to Paris begins with air travel.
We will not dwell on how to buy a bus tour in Europe with a visit to France and get to Paris by train. By plane, although more expensive, but much faster. You should select the departure date in advance and book a ticket for one of the scheduled flights. There are direct and connecting flights (with one change) to Paris from many Russian cities, primarily from Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as from Rostov-on-Don, Tyumen and many others.
In order to save some money on excursions and other pleasant entertainments, when an independent trip to Paris is organized, it is better to buy tickets both there and back. The final cost of travel documents will be lower.
When searching for and booking tickets, pay attention to the airport of arrival. It is important that it be within the city limits, since public transport in Paris is not cheap. The most successfully located Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
Paris transport
An independent trip to Paris, most likely, will not do without moving around the city. Of course you can rent
either take a taxi, but both options are quite expensive. And besides, the public transport system in the capital of France is very well developed. For buses, trams and metro, tickets of the same type are provided, which are subdivided only by the number of uses. You can buy them both at the box office and from the driver. The latter option will cost a little more.
According to the Parisians themselves, the most convenient metropolitan transport is the metro, which is connected to the RER suburban train network. On the subway map, they are marked with letters from A to E.
Another convenient mode of transport for travelers are buses. In Paris, in addition to the usual city routes, there are special tourist routes that pass through the historical part of the city and cover most of the sights.
If you are planning a budget trip to Paris, the fare on such tourist buses will please - it is one of the cheapest! You can save on one-time tickets: for example, one ticket for a trip costs 1.70 €, but a set of 10 will cost only 13.70 €.
Tram service in the capital of France is not very developed - there are only four lines. And only tram number 3 runs through the city, all the rest serve the suburbs.
Where to go and what to see?
For those who have dreamed about a trip to Paris for most of their lives, this question is not worth it: the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Versailles, Fontainebleau and Montmartre. Each has its own list of attractions!
If you want to see everything at once, but it is difficult to determine the order, then you can use the services of various travel agencies and Russian-speaking guides.
Holidays with kids at Disneyland Paris
For those traveling with children, a trip to Paris to Disneyland will give kids a fairy tale, and adults for some
time to feel like children. Before heading there, be sure to study the attractions and their location, and do not forget to buy tickets for at least five days online. Such forethought can save you up to 30 euros per person.
In general, the price of tickets to the entertainment park is different, and they can cost from 55 € to 145 €. True, it should be noted that their validity period is from 6 months to a year.
If you want to further reduce the cost of a trip to Disneyland Paris, then it is better to plan it at the end of September - mid-December, as well as pre-book a hotel near this entertainment center. In the event that you live in the center, you will have to spend time and money on the road, as Disneyland is located in a small Parisian suburb - Marne-la-Vallee, located 35 kilometers from the capital.
So, if you go to Disneyland Paris on your own, you will have to spend 250-300 € for a flight, 75-100 € for a night in a hotel, 55 € for the cheapest ticket to the park. The result looks like 400-450 € without a visa and insurance. The price may increase slightly, but only because of the location of the hotel, as you will have to pay for travel when staying away from Disneyland. Tour operators offer to pay for such a vacation from 700 € without taking into account the cost of a visa, medical insurance and various additional fees.
It is worth visiting Paris at least once in your life, to be imbued with its romantic atmosphere of narrow streets, the beauty of the Seine and its bridges, to understand all the writers, artists and poets who have sung this beautiful city. And how much to pay for all this is up to you!