Great Paris Food Blog

To all my fellow travelers to Paris, Paris by Mouth is an excellent resource for locating interesting restaurants, wine bars, bakeries, pastry shops, and ice cream shops by arrondissement. Just click on their Our Guide to Paris link to view their guide. So far I have found several interesting restaurants and bakeries located in the 7e, very close to my hotel. The site also has daily pictures, newly opened businesses, editor choices, a daily blog, and numerous articles all centered on Parisian culinary delights.

appréciez !

Finding Lodgings, Who Do You Trust

I find that as I've grown older my need to stay in cheaper, hostel like accommodations has diminished severely. Yes, I will admit it, I have become a lodgings snob. I don't mind paying for nice views, quaint surroundings, a whirlpool tub, and a big flat screen when they are available. Yet despite my new found willingness to pay for the better things, I do want to make sure I maximize the return on my hard earned money. So when I look for lodgings, a few things are absolutely critical for me, cleanliness, WiFi, and a quiet room. I want to be able to sleep, stay connected to the outside world, and not worry about getting sick from unsanitary conditions.

Once I have decided what city or cities I will be traveling to, I like to use several options for identifying what lodgings would be most suited to my personal taste. The first task is to see what accommodations are available in the subject city using a review site such as TripAdvisor or Fodors. TripAdvisor has a great feature that allows you to view all the available hotels, B&Bs, and restaurants on an interactive map. To use this feature, type in the name of the subject city, then click on View Map of... option beneath the map on the right side of the page.

Once I have all of the hotels displayed, I start to look at specific areas of the city near major sites or features such as train stations, palaces, or specific streets. I then note which hotels look interesting, have received high rankings, and are in areas I want to stay in (this requirement might need additional research on your part before you get to this stage of planning). Once I have a list of the hotels I like, I then try to locate websites for each one. I tend to only stay in lodgings with websites. I know this limits me, but it is one of my personal preferences and it increases the chance that the place has some level of tech savvy staff or owners. Once I have located their website, I look into the pricing for the given season (high versus low) and use this to further reduce the size of my list based on my budget.

At this point I have should have several locations that I want to find more information about, so I return to TripAdvisor and look up the reviews to each of the entries on my list. Customer service is an important consideration of mine, if I read a lot of recent reviews bashing a hotel for lack of customer service I tend to move on. I also like to look at the pictures provided by the reviewers. Hotel provided pictures tend to promise a lot more than they really can deliver on, but the average TripAdvisor reviewer is one of us and therefore has no qualms about showing cracks in the bathroom tiles or dust on top of a window ledge. Likewise, you can usually trust a fellow reviewer when they show off a great view from their window or balcony.

Once I have been through all the reviews and pictures, I make my selection. I also identify a backup (number 2) because while I may have my mind set on one place, other travelers may have had the same idea before I did and there might not be any vacancy. The identification of a backup allows me to still proceed with my planning process without having to make definitive reservations until I am absolutely ready. I have used this strategy in the past, only to decide to change cities in my itinerary. Had I made my reservations from the start, I might have been stuck our lost out on a deposit. Waiting until I am happy with the entire itinerary and having backup options ensures flexibility during planning and reduces the risk of losing suitable lodging choices for my trip.

European Transportation, Know Before You Go

So now that you have your destination picked out, have you figured out how to get around? Before I begin formalizing my itinerary, I like to familiarize myself with the layout of a city and learn how to use available public transportation (trams, light rail, buses, and subways) to get between sites. Once I have a clear understanding of the available routes, I can begin to group the sites together in geographic clusters that make sense. You do not want to bounce between sites, crisscrossing a city, it is much more convenient to walk to locations within close proximity to one another and use public transportation to get to the major geographic clusters. Not only will this strategy save you time and money, but it will also reduce the wear and tear on your feet. 

Below you will find resources for some of the major cities in Europe, including route/journey planners and public transit maps, that may be useful for your own planning process. If your destination is not included, do an internet search on "[INSERT NAME OF CITY] Journey Planner" or  "[INSERT NAME OF CITY] metro Map." The government provided planning resources tend to be the most accurate, often reporting delays and closures due to construction or accidents. In addition, if you use an iPod/iPad or have a WiFi enabled Android phone, look for route planning apps that you can use at your hotel or internet cafes.

Amsterdam
Amsterdam Route Planner
Amsterdam Metro Map 
Berlin
Berlin Journey Planner
Berlin Metro Map 
Brussels
Brussels Router Planner
Brussels Metro Map 
London
London Underground (Tube) Map
London Docklands Light Railroad (DLR) Map
London Oyster Rail Map
London Visitor's Map
London Journey Planner 
Munich
Munich Metro Map
Munich Journey Planner 
Paris
Paris Route Planner
Paris Metro Map 
Rome
Rome Metro Map 
Rome Route Planner 
Zurich
Zurich Transportation Map 
European Rail Planning Sites
French Rail Planner
Swiss Travel Planner
German Rail Planner (great for all European train travel)

Travel Insurance, Plan for the Worst

I've run across the question of "Do I really need travel insurance" a lot on travel forums. The way I look at it is if you have the money to walk away from your trip, health insurance that will cover you overseas, and $500k to cover emergency evacuation, then no. Otherwise, then definitely!

While I do not get trip insurance for domestic US trips, I do elect for coverage on all overseas trips. I like the warm fuzzy (i.e., security blanket) feeling I get from knowing that if I get hurt, delayed, or inconvenienced, my trip will be salvageable. How many travelers stuck in Europe in 2010 wished they had trip insurance? While hindsight is 20/20, who could have envisioned Eyjafjallaj would have caused so much chaos?

Most travel insurance policies tend to be customizable for your own level of comfort and selection of options. These options include collision, flight accident, additional medical, cancel for any reason, cancel for work, and sports coverage for prepaid items (greens fees, tickets, etc...). I usually opt for the basic coverage, but if you know of any potential conflicts with work or your personal life, it may be advantageous to consider these supplemental options. The basic rule of thumb to use when selecting trip insurance is expect to pay at least $4 to $8 for every $100 you spend, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what discounts your eligible for.

Travel Insured International is a company I have used multiple times, but to date I have not actually needed to request a claim. I like their price point and they offer discounts to some customers. For example, their Worldwide Trip Protector plan provides trip cancellation up to the price of the trip, trip interruption up to 150% of the trip price, $750 for trip delays, $50k for emergency medical, $1500 for lost baggage, $300 for baggage delay, and $500k for emergency evacuation or repatriation of remains (hopefully never needed), per person. Make sure you specify how many travelers and their ages when requesting a quote. The good news is that coverage for kids is free.

Here are some of the various vendors offering trip insurance:

• Travel Insured International
• Travel Guard
• Access America
• Travel Insurance Center

My recommendation is do your homework. Decide what coverage makes you happy, then compare pricing. I would even go so far as to call them up and let them fight it out to reduce the price they offer through direct competition. Keep in mind, trip insurance is for your own peace of mind, so select the options that will put you most at ease. You should be worrying about what to try on the menu or which cobblestone street to journey down. It is important to note that trip insurance must be purchased within a very short time (i.e., 7 to 21 days) of when you buy your airline tickets, even if your other costs are undetermined. So keep this in mind before you buy your tickets.

Watching the Euro (slip through my fingers)

Sometimes currency conversion can be kind to Americans, other times not so much. One of the major factors in planning a European trip is accounting for the potential for the Euro to increase it's value against the United States Dollar (USD). Of course none of us are professional currency speculators or else you probably would not be reading my blog, you would be paying someone else to do it for you. I digress, for those who do not have a background in financial planning I will share my personal strategy that usually works out favorably.

When I'm sitting down defining all of my costs, I split out the items that are in USD (airfare, parking, trip insurance, and pet boarding) from those in Euros (lodging, transportation, sites, estimated daily spending, and meal allowance). I then identify the highest historical value of the Euro against the USD in the last 5 years (see Yahoo! Finance's Euro to USD 5yr Conversion Chart). You can also check on how the USD is performing against the Euro by entering "Euro to USD" into a search engine. This will result in a conversion value that indicates how much a single € will cost you in USD. For example, at today's rate, €1.00 costs $1.41824 ($1.42).

Using this number, it is possible to calculate the cost in USD for your Euro specific items. When it comes time for your trip, look up the actual value of the Euro to USD and recalculate your Euro specific costs. Unless a major devaluation of the USD has occurred, you should be in a position where your actual Euro specific costs are less than or very close to your previously estimated Euro specific costs.Let's setup an example that demonstrates this process. Assuming you are departing today, confirm the actual costs using the following values:

Estimated Euro Specific Costs:  €5000
5 year maximum conversion rate: €1 =  $1.57 (from July 7, 2008)
Estimated Euro Specific Costs in USD:  $7850
Today's actual conversion rate:  €1.00 costs $1.42
Actual Euro Specific Costs in USD: $7100
Difference (between estimated and actual) in USD: $750

This means, if you planned for the worst case scenario, you would have been able to over compensate leaving  an additional $750 to spend or bank. Of course, this strategy is not flawless, it is possible that unforeseeable events could upset the balance of the currency market and the cost of each Euro could increase above historic levels. If the differential is important to you, I would recommend checking in on the conversion rate from time to time (at least every month) to get an idea of the rate fluctuation.

Another thing I  like to do is compare the cost of purchasing an activity/tour in Euro's directly from the vendor or supplier versus purchasing through a third party such as Viator. Viator's offerings tend to fluctuation based on the value of the Euro and the demand for the specific activity. So when it comes time to buy, I will do an on the spot comparison to determine which of the two is cheaper. Sometimes you can also find a discount code for Viator that makes it a better deal, even when the Euro is down. Hopefully, these strategies will save you some money, like they have for me.