I planned for a trip for 2 people; myself and my mum.
You really need to read this before you book ANYTHING.
So the best time to start planning is EARLY AS POSSIBLE.
The Green parts labelled will be important tips you need to take into consideration.
I will go through
1. how I planned it and why
2. what I missed
3. what I would have done differently
I first tried to plan it by city.
But you really need to consider what time of year you are planning to go.
I think prime time is going 25th of May onwards.
I went May 14th till the 29th and we were so freezing our butts off till around the 22nd of May.
Once you have your dates into Europe and out of Europe sorted, you must plan which country in and which country out you will take.
My mum chose to go in to Paris, France and come out via Milano, Italy.
Going into Europe you must consider what time of day you will be landing.
We took off from Seoul South Korea and landed in Paris around 6:30PM.
You have to check with your accommodation site if they will allow late checkins.
A lot of airbnb places in Europe will charge you extra for late check-ins.
So you might want to consider a proper hotel if you are having to check in late.
We got to Paris 6:30PM but didn't get to the city till maybe right before 8PM.
France is not such a safe place at night so I didn't want mum and myself to be wondering in the streets with our luggage in the middle of the night. So I ordered a private pickup.
Those guys that stand at the airport with your name. Yeah, it was real cool. They pick you up, take offer to help you with your bag and you go riding to the city in a mercedez benz. My mum liked that very much.
I looked up a lot of shuttle buses and other options but this was the best as it was late night, I didn't want to share a ride and risk getting to our accommodation later than it was already.
I used these guys and paid through paypal.
(THROUGHOUT YOUR BOOKINGS I highly advise you to prepay everything as much as you can)
http://comfort-cars.fr
We were dropped off and it was surprisingly bright. It was surprisingly bright in Paris at 7:30PM. We were dropped off at our airbnb and we got inside. THERE WERE SO MANY DOORS. One of the common things I noticed around Europe's airbnb and small hotels were that the main front doors are extremely heavy, you will have to go through a minimum of 1-3 more doors after that to get to your room and there are many many narrow stairs and sometimes no elevators. The airbnb in Paris was quite expensive as I was considering to get one right in the middle of it all.
Now another thing to consider when choosing your accommodation is that if you are using a tour bus, that you book it right next to or close to one of the bus stops. That way it is less walking. I booked the BigBus tour 1-day ticket so that my mum and I could get around with less walking. Now, looking back mum tells me that it was the best decision ever.There are so much to look at in Paris and we had a day and a half to look at it all. The closest pick up stop for us was stop-3 (opera house). So we walked up there and took some photos, went to our stop,
and started with the Red Route. We should have stopped at stop-5 Louvre but got off at the wrong stop; stop-4 and walked there. There are so many things to see at stop-5 not just the Louvre. There are the fountains and buildings. We spent a good time there taking photos at all angles. Then we got back on to the bus and stopped at stop-6; Notre dame. Oh dear it was so blocked off. I was so disappointed. We couldn't go anywhere near it. It was heavily guarded by police meters away. We managed to go further out and get a photo but it wasn't the way we wanted it. BUT, don't be disappointed just yet. There are so many souvenir shops right in front of stop-6. We bought these magnets that was shiny and were so beautiful 5 for 8 euros. I should have bought more. I was thinking I can get more stuff in other countries but my advice is, get the souvenirs bright and early, especially if you can get them cheap!. Now after this, we went on the upper deck of the tour bus and stayed there till stop-10; Trocadero. Mum had to go to the toilet really bad so I suggested we stopped there and go into the museum and use their toilet. It was free.
NOTE: Many toilets around Europe will charge you a fee of 0.5 Euros or 0.8Euros so go every free chance you get!
We went upstairs and went to the toilet. Afterwards I sat on the couch area and we could see the Eiffel Tower from there. We decided to take our puffy jackets off and take some photos. Since it was mid May it was freezing. We then walked out to the main part where EVERYONE takes photos. Beware of pick pockets here. So we didn't spend much time here but more on the way to the Eiffel Tower, right before crossing the bridge. There are a lot of people selling things on the street and approaching you right infront and around the Eiffel Tower.
Beware! Don't get fooled if someone comes to you and tries to sell you something or make conversation. If someone says "let out our hand" or gives you a rose or bottle of water, don't take it. They will trap you and demand money for it. Just say no and walk away in another direction.
We got back on the bus on stop-2 and didn't stop till stop-4. We got off to grab a quick bite to eat and then got back on the blue route bus to explore the Sacre-Coeur. Now, the walk up to the Sacre-Coeur is steep. Get some gelato if it is hot on the way up and then some cookies on the way back down. I liked the cookies.
I think we had the second worst experience on the way to the Sacre-Coeur. There are two stairways up there. Both were heavily congested by black gypsy men. They were standing there, waiting for people to come and they would approach them and block them.
I had explained to my mum what to do if they approach her and touch her. They did approach us, five tall men and blocked our way. they tried to grab my mum's arm and she had to violently shake them off. I grabbed her hand firmly and stormed through like a boss saying "NOOOOO!".
It was beautiful, the view. Going back down we didn't was to face them again so we decided to closely follow this old couple in front of us, hoping they would not try it again and we could just go through. They didn't approach us on the way back down. It was almost like a lost cause to them so they didn't bother.
We stopped at Gare Du nord thinking we may get the train the next day to get back to the airport, but after all that I didn't want to. I wanted to get an Uber and so we did.
Now, I don't think I would ever go back to Paris for the Eiffel tower or their souvenirs, but I would for this one bakery. It is not even on google maps. I knew that the bread in France was good and I tried Croissants from 5 different places but nothing compares to this place.
I would go back just for their Croissants. It was MAGIC. There were two types of Croissants. Get the more expensive one.
I am still in the process of writing....
