Pre cruise hotel in Paris

[telebax51]

Will be arriving in Paris 3 days before my cruise next August on the Mardi Gras am looking for a hotel in or near city center to walk to tourist attractions any ideas.

[CruiserBruce]

Hilton Paris Opera. Great, classy hotel close to virtually everything. 

[Hlitner]

You may be aware there are over 5000 hotels in Paris not to mention many B&Bs, short term rental apartments, etc.  It can be a daunting task to choose the best option...even for those of us who are very familiar with the city.   So let me offer a strategy.

 

Before you look at hotels, look at neighborhoods (in Paris they are called Arrondissements).  The system in Paris is actually pretty simply as the Arrondissments are arranged in a circle around the center with Nrs 1 - 7 being towards the inside.  For a first time visitor we suggest sticking to that inside circle (closer to most of the main tourist sites).  You can further divide that into the so-called Right Bank (Nrs 1-4) and Left Bank (5-7).  Personally we prefer to stay in the somewhat more laid back Left Bank but many others prefer to more center city Right Bank.  But sides of the Seine have their pros and cons and both have tourist attractions.  By using your feet and sometimes the Metro (subway) you can easily get to just about any tourist attraction or around the city.  I generally suggest that folks choose a hotel that is within a short distance (perhaps 2-3 blocks) of a Metro Station.   Since you are going to Paris in August I would also suggest you limit yourself to hotels that have Air Conditioning (many older Paris hotel lack this perk).   My personal favorite areas are on the Left Bank in either the 5th (Latin Quarter) or 6th (St Germain des Pres).   I find these areas a bit more quaint then the Right Bank.  I also choose this area because it is a bit more residential then the 1st and 2nd and we prefer the restaurants in this part of Paris.

 

There are other considerations.  If you are in Paris on a Sunday, many of the stores/shops are closed.  But the Marais area (Right Bank 3rd and 4th) is an area where many of the shops are open for shopping on Sunday.  So a shopper who is in Paris on a weekend might look for a place in this Marais area so they can easily walk from their hotel to the shops.   

 

Hank

[CruzinNoony]

We will be in Paris, pre cruise in September, 2020.  I'm thinking it would be convenient to be near a hop-on hop-off stop.  Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced hotel that we could walk to the ho-ho stop? 

[CruiserBruce]

That vaguely defined "reasonably priced"...what does that mean? Paris is not cheap.

 

That being said, there are several hop on, hop off routes with many stops. But, hop on hop off stops are almost always near major tourist sites, and hotels near tourist sites are not usually cheap. But hopefully you will find something. The hop on, hop stops were just about 3 blocks from the Hilton Paris Opera I recommended in post #2.