Where to Stay in Paris

ABOVE: A hotel façade in Paris.

Paris is a large city by European standards, with tourist attractions and museums that are scattered along the Left and Right Banks of the River Seine. What's more, the city is served by three airports (one to the north, one to the south, one in the distant exurbs) and more than half a dozen major railroad stations. This makes the question of "Where do I stay?" trickier than it might seem at first glance. To find the right answer, you need to consider factors such as:

1. How long are you in Paris?

If you're in Paris for a week or two, "neighborhood appeal" may be the most important consideration in where to stay. But if--like many tourists--you're spending only three or four days in the city, a location that's easy to reach from your arrival or departure point (such as an airport or railroad station) may be equally important.

2. How much do you have to spend?

Hotels in rich, fashionable quartiers are likely to cost more (all other things being equal) than hotels in middle-class districts. Restaurants, cafés, and bars will also tend to be more expensive. If you're trying to control expenses, stay away from the kind of neighborhood featured in movies like Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear), French Kiss, and Le Divorce.

 3. Do you like to walk?

Paris is a walkable city, and most of its leading museums, churches, and tourist attractions are within easy walking distance of the River Seine. For this reason, we urge you to stay in the inner arrondissements unless you have a good reason for going elsewhere (e..g. because you love the "village Paris" atmosphere of Montmartre or you have an early-morning Eurostar departure from the Gare du Nord).

In the following pages, we'll offer advice and recommendations on two major topics:

• Types of accommodation, such as hotels, apartments, and youth hostels.

• Main tourist areas, with an emphasis on arrondissements  that are convenient to the leading sights.

In this article, we'll link to local maps from Venere, our booking partner, which show locations of hotels and other accommodations that Venere represents. (These maps are useful not only for finding hotels, but also to get an idea of how many hotels are in a neighborhood.)

We'll also point you to other resources at Paris for Visitors, such as articles on apartment rentals, hostel listings, and other listings from our Paris Accommodations Directory.

Finally, if you use third-party resources like TripAdvisor and VirtualTourist, we'd suggest that you read our warnings and tips about hotel review sites. "User reviews" can be helpful, but only if you know how to read between the lines--and only when you can be sure that they're written by real travelers and not by hotels, their advertising and PR agencies, or their competitors.

For more information on where to sleep in Paris, go to the next page or use the navigation links below.

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