On 14 Mar 2003 06:27:05 GMT, [email protected] (jacob atienza) wrote:

    >My girlfriend jumped the gun today and purchased us plane tickets to Europe...
    >Paris, specifically. Quite a deal at under 500. each, round trip. We're
    >suppose to be leaving on April 15th for a 10 day trip, she's planning on 3 or 4
    >cities since we have such limited time, probably 3 days in Paris to rest and
    >see the sights, possible a couple of days in a few Italian cities, and back to
    >France.
    >Anyway, I'm terrified. While my girlfriend is a "free spirit" type, I tend to
    >be way to practical and can't bear the thought of going without a well thought
    >out plan. Can anyone here help? We have about 1500. between us for the trip
    >proper. Any advice on places to stay (hostels or cheap hotels, privacy
    >preferred), cheap eats, safe forms of travel, amount of time recommended for
    >certain cities, a good itinerary...basically anything!! Is it tough to get by
    >with nothing but a French/Italian phrase book? Would most places accept my
    >Visa check card? Help reduce my anxiety, please.. .

1) I stayed at the Hotel de Nesle once and really liked it. It has a great
location (quiet but very much in the center of things). I'm not sure it's in
your price range, at @$75 per night for two people including taxes. But for a
couple, it might be worth the comparative high expense of getting an inexpensive
hotel as opposed to a hostel.

http://www.hoteldenesle.com/

2) My favorite "cheapie" guide to Europe is the "Let's Go" series. If you need
to go less than @ $75 per night for accomodations, it will give you the lowdown
on hostels.

3) Personally, I wouldn't advise travelling to Italy on your budget and
timeframe. London is great, also, but IMO it is really expensive compared to
Paris.

4) If you are under 26, you really might do well to stay in France, because you
can get a great bargain on 4 days of second-class train travel for $164 each.
Here is one itenerary:

Day One: Arrive Paris 10 am. Board train to Aix-en Provence. Find hotel in
Aix, relax.

Day Two: Aix (young people seem to love Aix even more than us oldies -- it is
full of students and clubs, as well as museums etc.)

Day Three: Aix, maybe take a bus tour to someplace cool nearby such as Abbaye de
Silvacane (there is a good inexpensive bus to the village of Roque-d'Antheron,
which would be a great place for lunch)

Day Four: Grab an early train to Nice

Day Five: Nice. If you get the urge to travel, there is a fantastic
super-cheap bus that runs up and down the coast.

Day Six: Grab an early train to Arles or Avignon. You really should have one
day in an historical center, and both of these qualify.

Day Seven: Return to Paris
Day Eight: Paris
Day Nine: Paris
Day Ten: Return home

I would compromise between your feelings that you want thing organized in
advance and your girlfriend's more flexible attitude, by getting accomodations
reserved in advance for the first night and the last few days in Paris, but
leaving the middle days open -- that is, have a fixed plan for Day One and Days
7-10, but leave Days 2-6 more or less open to revision. You might make friends
who are going somewhere, or see something you like and want to stay, or hear
about someplace you want to visit, or get bored where you are and want to move
on. You should be able to find a hostel/hotel without too much trouble in
Provence in April.

Other than this, I will say that Amsterdam is not a bad idea.

Please don't get me wrong -- I absolutely love travelling to Italy and you would
have a great time there. But being that you have tickets to Paris, limited time
and a limited budget. I would advise making this a "trip to France".
--
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
- Abraham Lincoln

Hi,

    > Anyway, I'm terrified. While my girlfriend is a "free spirit" type, I tend to
    > be way to practical and can't bear the thought of going without a well thought
    > out plan. Can anyone here help? We have about 1500. between us for the trip
    > proper. Any advice on places to stay (hostels or cheap hotels, privacy
    > preferred), cheap eats, safe forms of travel, amount of time recommended for
    > certain cities, a good itinerary...basically anything!! Is it tough to get by
    > with nothing but a French/Italian phrase book? Would most places accept my
    > Visa check card? Help reduce my anxiety, please.. .

The best advise I can give is: take it easy. Don't try to do too much in
so little time. Paris is easily worth a week itself, though you can
indeed leave after three days if you're really short on time. Point is,
what do you enjoy more: city-hopping and never having the feeling that
you've really really arrived before you have to leave again; or maybe
arrive in a city, take it easy, see some sights, have the odd coffee and
just enjoy the sunshine sitting in front of Sacre Coeur?

Don't forget that there is quite some distance between Paris and Italy
and it will take you ten hours just to get to Firenze (Florence).
Firenze is my recommendation for you, if you want to include Italy on
your trip. It's not a city of the North like Milano - the North is very
industrialised and doesn't have this "Italy" feeling (chaos, lots of
people, sunshine). Florence is not too deep in the south, either: you
can still reach it within reasonable time. It is perhaps the city with
the best art collections in Italy and, saving the Louvre in Paris, in
Europe. I've been to Firenze for four weeks and just loved it.

If you still feel unsatisfied after that (can't imagine so), then you
can still take the express train to Rome for a day or two. It just takes
1,5 h from Firenze.

Ralph