Here I go again, booking another trip to Europe. I’m going to London and Amsterdam on business and adding some personal time in Paris before I head home. I'll be traveling for two and a half weeks in June.
I’m getting this down to a bit of an art form but there’s
always a curve. This time it’s Amsterdam. I haven’t been there. Paris, on my
budget, is also a challenge! But I’m very comfortable with the almost routine arrangements
involved in a trans-Atlantic trip to London.
Let me back up to the actual purpose of the trip. I need to be in my company’s office in London
for a week for some collaborative work and then I’m going to a conference in Amsterdam. Lucky
me – my flights from Canada to Europe and back, and my transportation expenses
for the Amsterdam trip are all covered by the company. Yay!
I’m staying with a friend in London and the company will
make all the Amsterdam arrangements, so I’ll just tell you about the flights to Europe and my Paris
plans.
Carpe Diem
I’m a big believer in seizing the day… taking advantage of opportunities… carpe diem. Ever a travel opportunist, as soon as the business trip was confirmed I started racking my brain trying to come up with a nice holiday side trip adventure for myself while I’m over in Europe.
I asked my Facebook friends, mostly in Europe, what they thought about Brussels for a weekend.
It’s close to Amsterdam and easy to get back to London if need be (Eurostar). But I was laughed off my own timeline over
that idea! “FSS Brussels?!” said one guy.
(Ya, it took me a minute to work that one out too: For F*ck Sake”.)
Then a friend suggested Paris. I thought, mon dieu, why didn’t I think of
that in the first place?! That’s a brilliant idea.
Well, I actually did think of it. But I’ve been to
Paris but never Brussels. And Paris is notoriously expensive. And it’s further from
Amsterdam. I also thought Amsterdam would be more convenient and cheaper to fly
back to Vancouver from. (I was wrong
about that…. I’m working up to my travel tip of the day!)
I’ve been to Paris twice. Once on my own and once a friend
from London met me there after I’d been in Prague on business. So I kinda have the lay of the land. And as a Canadian I speak and understand a
little French. (Of course the French
speak better English than my French so that is probably what I’ll speak there!)
Before I ramble on forever, I do have some actual travel tips for you today.
1. European railways have gone paperless!
This is great because now you don't have to book online waaaaaay in advance so they have enough time to MAIL your paper tickets to you. I'm old enough to remember when airline tickets were several pages with red carbon paper between them. You had one page for each leg of your journey. Airlines haven't ticketed that way for a long time now. Now a lot of people just scan a barcode into their smartphone so they don't have to worry about travel documents. So it's about time the European rail system joined the 21st century ;)2. Transat's wants to fly you to Europe this summer!
My other big tip is: Air Transat not only flies to Vancouver from Paris, it’s cheaper to return from Paris than from London! At least on the journey I just booked. I think it was about $1250 to fly Vancouver to London Gatwick return. That’s at least $300 – $400 cheaper than BA and Air Canada. But when I booked the trip as a “multi-destination” trip the return price was only $1066. I think Transat must have only recently flying in and out of Paris so they’re promoting that route. They have definitely been advertising lots of European destinations other than London lately. And it was an email from them that gave me the idea to return from a different city than I flew to.
I know, I know… I’ve ranted about Transat before and swore I’d
never fly with them again. But I think I’ve said that about every airline at
one time or another lol The bottom line
is bottom line. Transat has great fares to Europe this summer so even though I
know they herd passengers around like cattle I’m going to grin and bear it and
save my boss $400.
As always I was happy to pay another $25 each way for seat
selection. It’s WELL WORTH $25 to know
you’re not going to be sandwiched in a middle seat or crammed into a window
seat. I’m strictly an Aisle Man! Gotta be able to get up without consulting
with my neighbour, even if it means I get bumped all night by passers-by. (Read
my advice about strategic seat selection.)
Fast train to Amsterdam
So, what I ended up saving by flying home from Paris more than covered the fast train I booked from Amsterdam to Paris. It was only $70 and I think just another $25 to upgrade to Premium (usually worth it IMO… in the UK anyway…)
The train is called the Thalys. Have you heard of it? It’s
one of those amazingly fast European trains that whizzes through the countryside
connecting major cities. I travelled
from Germany to Paris once on a fast train and I’m sure the announcement said
we were going 350 km/hour. Felt like
that at least – the passing scene was just a blur. I expect this trip to be the same but from
the photos it looks comfortable. Of course there’s a bar and café. And it’s
only 3 hours – 3:20 – 6:25. I can cope!
Lol
Is 'Budget Hotel in Paris' an Oxymoron?!
Finding a decent hotel in Paris for under €100 was challenging, but I did it! In my next blog I’ll tell you how I found a great little hotel around the corner from the Louvre for €70/night. For now I'll just say that it hadn’t been for travellers’ reviews on TripAdvisor.com I almost booked myself into what turns out to be a dive. Whew. I find it hard to search for hotels on TripAdvisor but it’s great for real, honest travelers’ reviews so I use it all the time. I've also posted lots of hotel and restaurant reviews there. I'll also tell you another great source of reviews that I found where I least expected it!
Happy trails…
The Travelin’ Man
