04 May 2008

Planning Where to Stay

The most time consuming aspect of planning a trip abroad is figuring out your hotel arrangements. This is even more tricky (or actually frustrating!) when you need the hotel to be accessible - an elevator/lift is a must for me! This afternoon I started comparing different resources I have found on hotels in Paris.

Paris is one of the places I'm looking forward to visiting the most during my time in Europe. Like other tourists, I am pumped to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Although I've heard mixed things on the city of light, I'm excited to see it for myself soon.

A really handy book is Rick Steve's Easy Access Europe: A Guide for Travelers with Limited Mobility, Rick includes information and advice on hotels, restaurants, shopping, attractions, and transportation. He even breaks things down into fully accessible, moderately accessible, partly accessible, and not accessible at all. In his book there are full descriptions of what each level means.

There are tons of neighborhoods to choose from in Paris, so I'm attempting to narrow down my options. This is the hardest part because you don't want to be in the ghetto nor do you want to go over your budget to stay in a tiny room that you will spend a very little time in. Rue Cler is the area I'm leaning towards now, because it is supposedly in close proximity to the Eiffel Tower and other famous attractions. I also read that there are wonderful restaurants and shops, which is always a plus! It seems like a quaint area that is truly symbolic of the city's culture.


Obviously, I want a place that is near popular attractions yet not be swamped with tourists. But like one site stated, when is Paris not swamped with tourists? So, therefore, location is my biggest concern. Since it will be only mom and I traveling to Paris, we are trying to stay near the train station we take from Strasbourg so that we won't have to get a taxi. Unless Paris has van taxis that is our only good option. I'll report back once we have reached a definite decision.

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