How to save $$$ Italy/France

[eeyoresmom]

I can't believe you didn't like Versailles! I loved it and only went to the gardens! Couldn't agree more with Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic food, but also very crowded.

OP: when you go to the eiffel tower, there will be people like vultures trying to sell you crap or get you to sign petitions and all sorts of nonsense, just ignore them, no eye contact and a firm no will be good. Pick pockets are everywhere at the eiffel tower so be careful. Enjoy the ride up, the view is cliche but worth it. I also recommend climbing the steps at the Arc de Triumph, beautiful view, maybe even a bit more magical than the eiffel tower.

BTW: did you ever watch the show Merlin?

No, I haven't. Is it a TV show????

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I knew I was right to post here. You guys are sooo helpful! I did add a night to Venice so we will have almost 4 days in Venice, 3 days in Florence and a full week in Paris. I am about to book a well reviewed hotel across from the Academia in Venice. For Paris , we are leaning towards an apartment rental as we love to cook and will definitely get the museum pass for there. Just being able to skip some lines makes it worth it to us. I am now going to look up Hotel Romagna in Florence as that is next on my list of things to reserve. I welcome all suggestions for restaurants, tours, etc. Three European cities is a lot to plan for in a relatively short amount of time!

Personally, I think 4 days in Venice and 3 in Florence is excessive. You don't need anywhere near that much time to see everything of interest. I'm surprised you would visit these two cities and skip Rome.

If you are going to take the train between cities, book ASAP. It's cheaper the further out you book.

I second the recommendation to check out Viator Tours. My husband and I have taken tours run by them in a number of European countries and South America, and they were all great. I believe they have tours set up for Italy which will take you to the cities you mentioned. Look for discount codes online.

Read up on scams in Paris; the dropped ring, handing you an item then insisting you pay for it, etc. Ignore these people and keep walking.

 

[Bucky1306]

Thank you for this. It seems we have similar eating habits while on vacation . We love to eat street food, picnic, etc. We have booked a studio apartment in the Marais so that we can cook some meals. Do you speak French? Also, I have read that wine is inexpensive and food is more expensive compared to the US in cafes. What was your experience? I am going to research the two tours you recommended. . We are looking into buying the museum passes for Paris. Did the official Louvre tour you took include admission? Again, thanks for the specific advice. It is really helpful

Oh, man, I enjoy thinking about the trip. It was just amazing! (I made it my personal mission to compare and test as many baguettes and macarons as I could. For the record, best macaron was at Gerard Mulot - the honey nougat. Ammmmazing) I don't speak French...we tried to learn some phrases (hello, goodbye, please, thank you, how to order coffee, say that we didn't speak French, ask for tap water, and my personal favorite, how to ask for an undercooked baguette, haha) but for the most part, after our initial attempts to speak in French, most people were able to communicate with us in English. It really wasn't bad to get around or anything like that. In fact, it was a fun adventure!
As for costs - like I said, we learned to ask for tap water to avoid paying for bottled water. That saved a lot. Wine was incredibly cheap (like, two or three bucks a glass! There were some downsides to being there while pregnant...) - WAY cheaper than soda. As for food costs, I actually was really impressed with the cost of most of the food. Again, we were fans of street food and getting snacks at lots of places versus lots of sit-down meals. In general, most places have a really reasonably priced plat de jour, which is usually an entree with a dessert and drink or appetizer and drink. We tended to get that, if we weren't grabbing a sandwich somewhere. I would avoid eating on Ile Saint-Louis...that was our biggest disappointment. The food was ok, but really overpriced. We'd gone there to visit Berthillon, a really well-known ice cream place. (We were actually pretty disappointed in that, too - honestly, I prefer l'Artisans de Glace at Epcot, but they might not let me back into Paris if I say that too loudly...) Anyway, try out the plates of the day, stick with wine, and I think you'll be happy with your food costs! (Also, for breakfasts, we tended to go to the coffee shop in the bottom floor of our apartment building and then stop at a boulangerie as we were walking around)
The Louvre tour did not include admission - we had the museum pass and then went downstairs and signed up for the tour. Again, WELL worth it. My background is not in art, history, or anything related, so I absolutely would not have appreciated what I was seeing. Granted, we didn't see as many things as you would just walking through on your own, but it was amazing to learn more about the building itself as well as the art. So worth it.
And I literally cannot recommend the food tour highly enough!
Other general information, with the corollary that we are big walkers: I thought the wait to go up to the top of Notre Dame was worth it, was less impressed with the Arc de Triomph. The view from Musee d'Orsay was beautiful. We walked up to the second platform on the Eifel Tower (cheaper than paying for the elevator) but I was too chicken to go all the way up to the third platform. We did the evening boatride on the Seine, but didn't look for the times when the sun was actually setting. We went on a 9:30 or 10 pm cruise and it was still broad daylight. That was a little disappointing because the whole point was to see the lights of the City of Lights. So we just hung around until it was dark enough for them to turn the sparkly lights on at the Eifel Tower. Totally worth the pregnancy exhaustion.
I could (obviously) go on about this forever. Any other questions or thoughts? Sorry for the novel!

 

[Bucky1306]

I can't believe you didn't like Versailles! I loved it and only went to the gardens! Couldn't agree more with Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic food, but also very crowded.

Well, in fairness, the gardens were lovely, but it was approximately a billion degrees when we were there I think the castle part was just not our thing. It was impressive (and the Hall of Mirrors was beautiful), but I think we were disappointed in paying so much for it. It's on lots of people's Must See lists, and I just felt like with limited time, it was pretty skipable. Maybe for a repeat visit, but I personally just enjoyed the cafe culture of Paris so much that I wished I was sitting at a cafe the whole time we were looking at the...ornate furniture

 

[redsonja76]

No, I haven't. Is it a TV show????

Yes it's a show from the BBC, had a rather large following in the states. Anyway, it was filmed at a palace in a town called Pierrefonds about 45 minutes outside of Paris. We took our daughter there for her 18th birthday, she was a big fan of the show. It's amazing, and the village is stunning. I thought maybe if you were fans of the show you might be interested. It's called Chateau Pierrefonds.

 

[mommycrawford]

In Paris, I would recommend seeing d'Orsay Museum, the catacombs, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Saint Chapelle is also quite beautiful, and is the only man made structure that has made me inexplicably weep. I stayed in a basically French business hotel (not fancy,) but very near the Jardin de Luxembourg, d'hotel Jean Bart: very affordable.

...also, if you are going to the Palais de Versailles, if you want to see the fountains on, research which days they are: it was only Sundays when I was there. Do be mindful of local holidays as well, so your touring will go as planned.

In Venice, do take to time to see the Palace of San Marcos (inside!) The art an architecture are beyond impressive; it is worth reflecting on the tools of the time that created such masterful work, and the tools we have available now, and the crap we churn out.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Personally, I think 4 days in Venice and 3 in Florence is excessive. You don't need anywhere near that much time to see everything of interest. I'm surprised you would visit these two cities and skip Rome.

If you are going to take the train between cities, book ASAP. It's cheaper the further out you book.

I second the recommendation to check out Viator Tours. My husband and I have taken tours run by them in a number of European countries and South America, and they were all great. I believe they have tours set up for Italy which will take you to the cities you mentioned. Look for discount codes online.

Read up on scams in Paris; the dropped ring, handing you an item then insisting you pay for it, etc. Ignore these people and keep walking.

We have been to Rome. We originally planned on spending the entire 2 weeks in Paris/France, but having never been to Venice or Florence, this is a good way to see those cities. Thanks for the Viator tip, I will research them.

 

[parkaroo]

We got awesome flight prices from Boston to Paris and are going for 16 days late Sep/early Oct to celebrate my 50TH We really want to see Venice and Florence as well, but to book an open jaw ticket way waaaaaay more expensive so we are considering landing in Paris and taking a low cost airline to Venice. We will spend 3 days in Venice, train to Florence, spend 3 days there then fly to Paris from there. I am 99% sure we will rent an apartment in Paris. Can any of you budget gurus give me some money and time saving tips? We are definitely not on a "stay in a hostel" type budget but have a big family Disney trip to pay for in the spring. TIA

We have traveled to Europe many times and had wonderful experiences with Airbnb last summer. We like to stay in small villages. On our first trip to Italy after we arrived we took a bus from Florence to the town of Impruneta and stayed at RELAIS VILLA L'OLMO and took the bus back down the mountain and explored Florence. It is a beautiful town with many good restaurants. Like others have said we visit markets and street stands and then enjoy a nice evening meal.

 

[rosiebean]

One note about wine in restaurants: yes, it's very inexpensive! It was quite funny, during our Thanksgiving trip several years ago (before kids), we got tired of wine one day and had beer instead during our sit-down lunch. We almost had sticker shock at the price! We'd just been in Germany and Belgium the week before, where beer was so reasonable, lol. We still talk about those two 10 euro beers .

 

[CluelessDisFan]

We also loved the secret food tour, our tour was also in Montmartre. We did that early on during our trip and I highly recommend it.

 

[beansmom]

Personally, I think 4 days in Venice and 3 in Florence is excessive. You don't need anywhere near that much time to see everything of interest. I'm surprised you would visit these two cities and skip Rome.

and i totally disagree! I could spend a month in both Venice and Florence. I would agree that staying in Venice is the most convenient way to enjoy the city. We stayed here http://www.cadeiconti.com/ and thought it was very nice and very convenient. Very close to St Mark's. We did the Secret Tour of the Doge's palace and truly enjoyed that...it was very cool seeing the rooms where Casanova was imprisoned and hearing the harrowing tale of his escape.

In Florence we stayed in a hotel that was older but it was also the former servant's quarters of a Medici palazzo and that was pretty cool. The palazzo proper was around the block from us. I wasn't impressed with the David but was absolutely enthralled with the Pieta at Della Academia.

We did an airbnb apartment in Paris. I did not like Paris. It was too crowded and rush rush rush for my taste.

I hope you have a wonderful trip.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Our hotel in Venice is very close to San Marco. I'm not finding many attractions we want to do here, more just enjoy the city itself. Surprisingly, I can't fit in all I want to see in Florence! I would love to do a day trip into the countryside. I love NYC so I think I will be fine with the hustle and bustle of Paris.

 

[beansmom]

when we were in FLorence, we did an overnight to Siena. Lovely little town...

I think you HAVE to go to the Rialto Market...it is just wonderful. And just wandering around Venice is so much fun.

 

[eeyoresmom]

when we were in FLorence, we did an overnight to Siena. Lovely little town...

I think you HAVE to go to the Rialto Market...it is just wonderful. And just wandering around Venice is so much fun.

We have the Rialto market on our list for our last day. The first 2 days we are there they are closed I am hoping to find other markets open on Sun or Mon but I'm not counting on it.

 

[duketennisgal]

Speaking of Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, a great tip we received was to take the metro to Lamarck Caulaincourt instead of the ones that are typically recommended. The walk from the metro to the back of Sacre Coeur is absolutely beautiful, the streets are much less crowded, it's not a steep uphill walk and the neighborhoods are so nice. And you avoid all of the scammers!!!!