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hostel or inexpensive paris recommendations??
Submitted by skyllo on August 29, 2005 - 3:54am.
Hi, my friend and I (both 27 yr. old females) are going to Paris Sept. 30th-Oct. 10th and I need some recommendations on where to stay on a budget... Any help would be appreciated, there are so many hostels and hotels to choose from, which would be a better deal? I know Hostels are about 20-30/night per person and include some sort of breakfast, and some hotels are 60-70/night.
Help!!
Sarah
Help!!
Sarah
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Bridge in Paris
Bridge in Paris
VIsa Question below
Don't know why I can't answer the Visa question by clicking on Reply. It tells me the question no longer exists . . . but there it is!
At any rate, US citizens do not need a visa to visit France for up to 90 days in any six-month period. If you are just going over from the UK for a few days, you do not need a visa, just your passports and you may not be asked for those.
Staying in France
Staying in France
Hi Patrick. You don't say what your citizenship is but if you are not a member of the EU, you are limited in the time you can spend in France. France is part of an international treaty called the Schengen Agreement (Treaty) and the USA is not a signatory. If you are a US citizen, you may only spend 90 days (3 months) within the Schengen territories. At that point you are required to leave the Schengen area for a full 90 days (another 3 months) before you are allowed to return to the Schengen area. You can stay longer but you will need a visa for that and will have to apply to your nearest consulate. You must have the visa BEFORE you leave the US.
If you are not a US citizen,m you will need to check whether your country is a Schengen country or not. You can get much of the information you need at http://www.schengenvisa.cc/ or at http://www.eurovisa.info/SchengenCountries.htm
You might consider 3 months in France instead of 6 months if you don't want to apply for a visa. For inexpensive housing, check http://www.gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites
This is Gites de France and they rent everything from in-town apartments to houses out in the country. If you are a long-term renter, you can often negotiate excellent rates, especially out of tourist season. Don't be afraid to ask about special long-term rates. We've gotten some great bargains that way. Gites de France is regulated by the French government so they are very reliable. (You may have to pay a bit higher rate during the Christmas holiday season but if you are staying for 3 months, make a point of it and see if they will relent on "high" season.) The rest of your time should be low season nearly anyplace.
In Burgundy, Beaune is a favorite town. It's small enough to get around easily but large enough to have things to do. You didn't mention the Loire valley but may I suggest that they are rumored to have the "purest" French in the country. At least anyone from the Loire will tell you that. 8^)
Tours is a large university city in the Loire and very centrally located. Nearby are many lovely villages. We spent a month recently in Montrichard and loved it. Azay-le-Rideau is small and very nice with enough shopping for your needs and reasonably priced. Check the Gites-de-France web site for both areas to see what you find and if you want to ask about any of the places, post again here.
Good luck.
You might want to try http://www.lonelyplanet.com and click on the Thorn Tree Forum to see if anyone there can help you.
You can find the hotel by clicking on the blue and red france.com above. This will take you to the home page. Scroll over to the right and find the hotel search box. Scroll down to the Latin Quarter and then click on the Search button. (You can also type Sorbonne into the search window at the top left of your screen.) We book through France.com all the time and have never had any problems with it.
If you don't want to pay 60 euros (which is a very good price for Paris), you can also click on the blue and red france.com at the top of this page to go to the Home Page. Once there, again scroll right and you will see a list of words, i.e. Hostels, Airfares, Rail Travel and others. Click on the top one which is Hostels. This takes you to a selection of hostels and very inexpensive hotels. We haven't used any of these so I can't personally recommend them, but it will give you an idea of what is available and the cost. Then you can go to a site like Virtual Tourist or Trip Advisor and get reviews to see if you want to try a hostel. I've seen some highly recommended on other forums so it might be worth a try. Just be sure you are in an area close to a Metro and that should be pretty easy.
Good luck.
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