quick trip to paris this weekend.... should i take a plane or train? and where should i stay?

October 20, 2008 10:47 AM

i'm throwing together a trip to paris for the weekend to visit a friend. i live in garmisch, germany. should i fly or take an overnight train out of munich? and where should i stay in paris? i checked the hostels online but they seem to either be booked or badly located. i'm very interested in budget hotels, willing to pay up to 60 euros a night for 4 or so nights. any suggestions?
posted by badish to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

airberlin.de shows 408 EUR for a round trip flight Munich/Paris. less than 2 hours each way.

bahn.de: about 360 EUR for about 6.5 hours each way.

Fly.
posted by chillmost at 12:25 PM on October 20, 2008

KLM/Air France has a flight on Friday morning (Air France 1123) and back Sunday evening (Air France 2522) for less than €290 per person return with taxes and fees (about 2x that for both of you).

Can't find a way to link to the itinerary itself, but I just went to the KLM website and played around with it.
posted by mdonley at 1:32 PM on October 20, 2008

Don't know about the getting there. But as for where to stay I've never had problems following this procedure:

1) Search hostelworld.com for budget hotels
2) Read the reviews for available ones with over 75% rating
3) Select one of the available hotels based on the reviews.
4) Cross fingers
5) Book stay.

In Paris we ended up at Hotel Darcet. It is in a good location a couple blocks from the metro station and not far at all from the action (touristy action at least). Back in October '06 we payed 56 Euros per night during the week and 62 on the weekend.

The only thing keeping me from fully recommending it to you is they are worse overbookers than any airline so you can count on them sending you to a different hotel the night of your arrival (and sometimes even more according to the latest reviews).
posted by fjom at 2:17 PM on October 20, 2008

In comparing flights and trains, bear in mind that an overnight train can mean one less night in a hotel - so factor this into time / price considerations.
posted by timmow at 3:29 PM on October 20, 2008