Paris & London recommendations please.

[chelle84]

Hey! Only three weeks now till I go we are getting very excited now!!

We are having a bit of a problem with our hostel in Paris though.. It sort of slipped our minds that we are actually there on Easter weekend and when we went to book our hostel there was practically NOTHING available.. (Well, Friends Hostel is but the reviews make me think sleeping in the street would be better.)

So I have just found a hostel which has rather mixed reviews on hostelz.com - its called Blue Planet, Just wondering if anyone has any personal experience with it (recent if possible!)

Also we have booked Balmers Herbege for Interlaken, Barcelona Mar, Flying Pig Downtown for Amsterdam. We are still however slightly stuck on Paris. We want to stay in Kensington I think. Does anyone know of any good hostels in that area?

Are we risking to much not booking anything else yet? We don't want to be tied down to an itinerary the whole way and while we are limited with regards to time we still want to have the freedom to change/skip/stay longer in a city at the last minute

[madamtrashheap]

Easter in Paris is pretty cool, especially if you'll be there for Good Friday as that's the only time (once a year) they display the "Passion of the Christ" relics in Notre Dame. The relics that were brought to Paris after the Crusades (and housed in Sainte-Chapelle) are placed on display inside the cathedral and presided over by 3 priests who bless people as they file past and kiss (if you want) the pieces that are claimed to be a piece of the cross, a nail from the cross and the Crown of Thorns. If you go, make sure you take the inside line (there are two) as the outside one just lets you in the cathedral, but doesn't access the special area roped off for the relics.

Now, let's find you some accommodation! There have been posts just recently on Paris Hostels (on page one of this section, eg pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Accommodation&action=display&n=1&thread=6662 ) so have a look for some other options, otherwise if it's getting tight, try the TimHotel chain ( www.timhotel.com ). They are more than hostels, but have good locations and might get you out of being homeless in Paris!

For London, WillTravel had some good recommendations in this post:
pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Accommodation&action=display&n=1&thread=6648 which might help.

As for booking ahead, you're going at the time when things are getting busy, so if you want specific hostels you'll have to book ahead to guarantee getting in. I know I've written this before, but look at booking in the major places so you know you have somewhere, that way you're still free in the smaller areas to be flexible with time. It's always a gamble, but if you're not fussed on where you sleep then you can leave it til later - however you may find the same issue as you're getting in Paris as Spring is now popular for travelling.

[chelle84]

Thank you! After all that I found a hotel on hostelbookers that worked out to be $45 AUD each and its in a pretty good spot.. Not much to look at i'm sure but so long as the roof isn't caving in on my bed and the bed isn't full of bugs its much better than that hostel we booked at first :-)

For London we were looking at a few good ones but ended up choosing Astor Hyde Park, because it was cheaper lol.. But I suppose it's London so thats what you get.

As for Paris on Good Friday- we actually arrive there on Good Friday at 7 in the morning. So we will make sure we check that out at Notre Dame.

So exciting - only three weeks and I'll be almost in Paris :-) Just not looking forward to the flight from Brisbane to Paris.

Still tossing up if we should book ahead though. What is holding us back is we have been thinking about maybe going to Vienna and Belgium - just can't decide yet :-(

[madamtrashheap]

chelle84, I had another thought (as you do!), and forgive me if I've already mentioned this, but you'll be in Europe during what I like to call "peak public holiday period" (ie there are a rash of public holidays around this time - Easter, May Day, Ascension, etc) so it might be worth checking something like www.feiertagskalender.ch/index.php?geo=0&jahr=2007&klasse=5&hl=en&hidepast=0 to help plan your journey and days.

Glad you found places in Paris and London to stay, and you know our thoughts on booking ahead on these boards! ;D

[chelle84]

Thats a good idea, I hadn't actually thought of travel days on public holiday - this was the reason we chose this time of year though we get 7 weeks off work I have 5 weeks holiday owing to me plus 4 public holiday I only have like 8 unpaid days off work!! YAy..

While we are talking about it though, do they generally cut services altogether or limit them for the trains on public holidays?

Our flight from Geneva to Barcelona is on 9th April - Easter Monday. We will either be in Geneva or Bern on that day so i'm guessing because its a public holiday it might be safer to be in Geneva since our filght is from there? And in Barcelona getting from the airport to the hostel - Barcelona Mar do they have a train from the airport or do we take a bus?

I do want to book ahead yet don't want to at the same time. Took your advice though and we have booked our hostel for Rome - 3 nights (Thurs, Fri, Sat) at Yellow Hostel then our last two nights we will be pampering ourselves in a nice hotel :-) - Any good recommendations there? We will spend up to $200 AUD each per night.

[herrbert]

It depends a little bit on the day, and if these days are really celebrated or not. Most days you will find that public transport will be in service, but they run accordingly to the sunday shedule. (in most cases less frequent, and maybe ending the service earlier in the evening). For some days like Koninginnedag in the Netherlands (30th of April), you will find more trains going to Amsterdam, as it is a big event.

These will be your options to from the airport in Barcelona (el Prat) to the city:
www.barcelona-airport.com/eng/transport_eng.htm

[madamtrashheap]

I wasn't really referring to public transport during public holidays, more the opening and closing times/days of museums and sights. But as you've brought that up to, you'll find that the only days that public transport completely shuts down (strikes notwithstanding) are Christmas and New Year, and even then that's not true for every city. Easter sees a limited schedule, particularly for Italy, Spain, southern Germany, etc, but services still run (you'll find less trains/busses in Paris on Good Friday, but they still run - 212.99.40.193/web/site/lang/en )and Herrbert has provided you with the details for arriving at Barcelona, so you're set.