You can easily spend $500 a day or more in Paris just for the basics of lodging, food, transportation, and attractions. But you can still see Paris for less than $50 a day or even $25 if you're extremely frugal. Here are some suggestions for minimizing the cost of your Paris vacation. My intention is that you pick and choose the suggestions you're comfortable with in order to tailor the cost of your trip.

When to Go, and When Not To

1. Go in the off season, October through mid-May. Airfares will be considerably lower, and many hotels will offer somewhat lower off-season rates. September is not part of the off season because big trade shows tend to fill up the hotels.

Getting There

Airfare can be your single largest expense, so it pays to pull out all the stops to find a good fare.

2. Don't depend on any one source for finding good fares. Check travel web sites such as Expedia and Travelocity, individual airline sites for the major transatlantic carriers (American, British Airways, Air France, United, Lufthansa, KLM, etc.), and packaged tour offerings of these airlines and independent touring companies such as Trafalgar Tours.

3. Don't assume you'll find the best deals on the web. Frankly, I've always gotten better deals through travel agents than through the web. Find a good travel agent who specializes in European itineraries.

Lodging

4. If you enjoy the "lifestyle," stay in a youth hostel. You'll have to suffer with shared bathroom facilities, but many hostels now have rooms for two. Prices can be as low as $12-15 per night, including continental breakfast. Most hostels have done away with nighttime lockouts. For information about a typical hostel, see auberge.artinternet.fr/ . For more general information on Paris hostels, see www.luckyyouth.com/index.htm . The quality of information sources about hosteling varies widely, so be careful.

5. Stay in a "cheap" hotel. Check our Sandra Gustafson's great travel book, Great Sleeps in Paris, (older editions were named Cheap Sleeps in Paris,). She lists more than a hundred hotels ranging from no stars to three stars, with prices to fit various budgets. We (a couple) recently stayed in a Gustafson selection right on the Seine with a view across to the Louvre, two blocks from the Museé d'Orsay, in a large room (by Paris standards) with private bathroom for less than $100 per night, including breakfast). Gustafson lists much less expensive and much more expensive rooms with varying levels of accommodation.

6. If they charge extra for breakfast at your hotel, they're probably charging way too much for bad coffee, a hard roll, and a stale croissant. For an alternative, read on.

Food

7. Breakfast at your hotel is convenient, but it's usually overpriced. Try to find a nearby boulangerie or cafe where the offerings are likely to be cheaper and much better than bad coffee, a hard French roll and/or stale croissant. If you're really intent on saving money, stand at the bar or get your coffee and sweet to go, as prices are lower than if you sit at a table. Don't even think of ordering at the bar and then sitting at a table unless you want to learn how to swear in French.

8. Picnics are a great alternative to a restaurant for lunch and/or dinner. Because of government subsidies, bread, wine, and cheese are very inexpensive, but pretty much all groceries are reasonably priced.

9. For good but relatively inexpensive restaurants, I suggest you check out another of Gustafson's travel guides, Great Eats in Paris (formerly Cheap Eats in Paris). One of my Gustafson favorites is La Cordonnerie, where you can get an excellent traditional French dinner for less than $20, very reasonable by Parisian standards. Gustafson lists much cheaper and much more expensive restaurants to suit your budget.

Transportation

10. Walking is one of the best ways to get around Paris. Tourist attractions are clustered in a few areas, and with careful planning you can visit all the attractions in a given area on foot even if you have to take the metro to get between your hotel and that area.

11. Even so, public transportation is relatively inexpensive. You can buy individual metro or bus tickets for about $1 each or unlimited single- or multi-day transportation passes called "Paris Visite" for as little as $5 per day. For more information, read my review Using Paris's great public transit system, or check out the public transit web site at www.ratp.fr .

12. Getting from the airport to your hotel is usually a significant expense, especially if you take a taxi. By using the suburban trains (RER) and the metro, you can get to your hotel for only $8 or so per person. This is particularly convenient at Charles de Gaulle airport because the RER stations are right in the airport's terminal complex. For details, check my review Getting from CDG airport into Paris. Getting to and from Orly Airport is only a bit more complicated. Check out the RATP web site listed above or the Paris airport web site at www.adp.fr for all the transportation alternatives.

Attractions

Visiting lots of tourist attractions and museums can set you back quite a bit. If that's what you plan to do, there are two things that can soften the financial blow.

13. The Paris Visite pass mentioned under Transportation entitles you to discounts on more than a dozen attractions. Read the list carefully before you buy it. It's available on the web at the RATP site.

14. A special pass, the Carte Musée offers free and priority access to permanent collections of 65 museums and monuments in Paris and the greater Paris area for 1, 3, or 5 days. The card can be bought in advance and used at any time, and the number of visits is unlimited. For more information, check out the web site www.paris.org/Musees/mmc.html .

Money

15. As much as possible, use your credit card to pay for all your purchases. You will get an excellent exchange rate. If possible, get a credit card that doesn't tack on extra fees for foreign purchases. Many of the most popular credit cards tack an extra 2% to 3% fee onto all foreign transactions.

For my review of a credit card that doesn't charge extra, click Avoid the foreign transaction ripoff with this credit card.

To see how the most popular travel card is a poor choice for foreign travel, click Citibank AAdvantage charges extra fees on foreign transactions, then hides them.

For a detailed overview of this widespread foreign transaction ripoff, click Credit card issuers hide their dirty billing secret on foreign transactions: GREED.

16. Do not use your credit card for cash advances. You start paying high interest immediately. Use a debit, check, or ATM card. Any such card with a Visa or Mastercard logo is likely to work. Make sure your card has a four digit PIN.

17. If possible, avoid using travelers cheques or US cash. You will lose a minimum of 5% (often 10-20%) when you exchange them for local currency. If you do have to exchange currency, do it only at a reputable bank or currency exchange, never at a hotel, restaurant, or merchant.



Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov