Paris is one of my favorite cities to visit! After living in Germany for 11 years, I am sure that I have visited Paris well over 35 times. With Paris being only a 2.5 hours train ride from the city I lived in, it was very easy and inexpensive to visit frequently.
While visiting my mother in Kaiserslautern, Germany, my two friends and I took that 2.5 hour train ride to Paris for a short, impromptu day trip. This blog post will detail how we planned and executed our itinerary of sightseeing and photo taking, with only a few hours in Paris.
Book a day stay hotel (optional)
We arrived at Gare de l'Est (Paris Main Train Station) at 10 a.m. and departed at 7 p.m. Using the DayUse app, we booked a hotel for us to freshen up at and leave our belongings in while we explored the city. We booked at the Midnight Hôtel, which was a four minute walk from Gare de l'Est. For 70 €, we were able to use the room from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. We checked out at 3 p.m. and then left our bags at the front desk. We grabbed our bags at 6:30 p.m. and then walked to Gare de l'Est for our 7 p.m. train ride home.
In hindsight, I think we could have done the trip without booking the hotel. I originally thought we would need a place to change clothes for taking photos, but we actually only changed once. So we brought along extra wardrobe changes, but did not even really need all of the extra clothing and baggage. A backpack could have sufficed.
Plan out the locations you want to visit
Research locations
I searched on google “best spots to take photos in Paris”, from there we selected our top 6 spots that we wanted to visit.
Create a Pinterest board for the type of photos you want to take
I pinned photo ideas and inspiration for my desired locations on my Pinterest board. Which was really handy at the locations.
Compile details in a presentation
I created a google slides presentation with the following on each page:
Name of the location
Address
Photo inspiration
Photo of planned outfit
I arranged the locations in a logical order for traveling.
What is the best way to get around?
Depends on the amount of time you have and your budget. My original plan was to purchase a bus pass for the day, to get us to our desired locations. But once we got there, we realize that for time sake, it would be faster to take taxis and Uber‘s to our destinations around the city
Uber
I actually thought that uber was no longer available in the city of Paris, so I didn’t even take that into account as an option when planning. Surprisingly, my friend whipped his phone out and requested us an uber and it worked!
Taxi
When all of our phones died, we resorted to taking taxis. From Our hotel to Trocadéro, it was about 25€
Metro
Add more text here….
Hop on Hop off Bus
Paris, like many cities, offers hop on/hop off bus Passes for local sights and attractions. My original was to purchase bus pass for the day, to get us to our desired locations. But got there, we realize that for time sake it would be faster to just take taxis and Uber‘s to our destinations around the city. The 24 hour day pass was 35€, so we figured that so time sake plus 35€ * 3 = 105€ it would roughly be about the same price and more convenient\ less time consuming to use taxis and Ubers.