Oh Paris! The city of lights and love. The city of escargot and champagne. The city of expensive hotels and overpriced everything. Pairs is one of the most expensive cities in the world, making it difficult to visit on a budget. Three words that usually don’t go together – cheap Paris trip. But guess what? We succeeded at visiting Paris on a budget and we wanted to share our tips on how you can enjoy Paris on the cheap. And no, we don’t mean hostels and baguettes kinda cheap…we mean luxury hotels, world-renowned museums, and gourmet food kinda cheap. Here is how to book an affordable luxury trip to Paris:

Happy Anniversary my love @alexandras.atlas ❤ 5 years goes fast when you travel to 31 countries together, live internationally for almost a year, and grow to become one another’s best friends and life partners. This year has been incredible with our tiny island wedding in Bora Bora, our road trips around the US and our current European expedition. I can only hope that this coming year is equally as memorable. Thank you for your love, your support, your brutal honesty and your fidelity. I love you more than all of the pizza and gelato we are about to consume in Italy this week. Travel tip: get to the Eiffel Tower at 08:00 and you’ll have the lawn to yourself. It probably didn’t hurt that the clouds and fog were covering the top of the tower and that it was freezing outside.

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How to Have an Affordable Luxury Experience in Paris (Cheap Paris Trip)

Luxurious, but cheap hotels in Paris

Hotel La Tamise Esprit de France! Hotel La Tamise offers travelers 4 Star luxury at 2-3 Star costs. Rooms start around $200 a night, which is extremely affordable for a luxury hotel in Paris.

Parisian hotels are known for being cramped, overpriced, and honestly a bit mediocre. Hotel La Tamise has relatively spacious rooms, delicious breakfast, excellent (and friendly) staff, and is walking distance from the Louvre and other sites like the Opera of Paris.

Morning coffee with a great view from our room at Hotel La Tamise

Cheap food in Paris

Paris is, of course, famous for its cuisine. Paris is home to some of the nicest restaurants in the world, but they’re all extremely expensive. Even the mediocre food in Paris is generally overpriced. Our goal when we got to Paris was to find delicious, local, cheap food. We succeeded and have a couple tips for you in finding cheap food in Paris.

1. Have a picnic – guys, if you’re taking your significant other to Paris, plan a picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Most girls dream of this, so not only will it be a romatic gesture, you’ll also be saving yourself a ton of money. Got to a local grocery store and grab some cheese, bread, and fruit. There is a bio grocery store call Supermarche Bio Nouveau just near the Louvre that has loads of healthy snacks.
2. Cook at home – If you choose to stay in an Airbnb or a hotel with a kitchen, you can grab local food at a farmer’s market and enjoy fresh local cuisine at a fraction of the cost.
3. Minzon – Eat at local favorites like Minzon. They have the most delicious pitas in Paris and some of the best food in Paris that we ate on our trip. Their ingredients are always fresh (so things tend to be sold out and the menu can vary), beef bourguignon pita, the falafel pita, and the roasted cauliflower. This place is a must!
4. La Crete – There is an affordable Greek restaurant in the Latin Quarter that is very highly rated. We had dinner here one night and the owners were as authentically Greek as the food was. It was delicious and affordable.
5. Oni Coffee Shop – Oni offers both healthy food (breakfast and lunch options) as well as delicious coffee and tea. If is quite affordable and makes for a great brunch spot.

The city of lights living up to its name 🇫🇷✨ #Paris #cityoflights #cityoflove

A post shared by Alex | California (@alexandras.atlas) on May 19, 2018 at 8:48am PDT

Free things to do in Paris

• Visit the Eiffel Tower (and as metnioned, have a picnic!)
• Watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower at night. This occurs every hour (for 5 minutes) after sunset.
• Drive or walk around the Arc de triumph
• See Notre Dame
• Walk around and give yourself a tour of the city – Our favorite way to see a city is ALWAYS on foot

Cheap things to do in Paris

• Louvre Museum – this is probably the most famous and magnificent museum in the world and it only costs €15 to enter
• Musee D’Orsay
• Stay in shape at Neo Ness gym (€15/day) – we always make a point to find a gym when we travel. That is one of the ways we stay in shape while traveling.

Cheap transportation in Paris

Nothing beats walking. Not only does walking 10 miles a day help one to avoid holiday weight gain, it also mitigates in city transportation costs, and provides the opportunity to see more of the city. Paris is very walkable, so take advantage of this.

The Metro is super cheap and easy as well and provides a fast mode of transportation across the city.

Uber is relatively affordable and readily available. Be cautious as it does surge throughout the day. But if you catch it at the right times, you should be able to leverage it without incurring much cost.

If you want to splurge a bit…..

Maybe you’ve followed our tips and you have a little extra cash to spare?

• Cafe de la Rotonde – This is a very traditional Parisian restaurant that offers delicious escargot and filet mignon. For non-meat eaters, they have lovely fish and vegetarian options as well.
• Angelina – Angelina is one of the best cafes in Paris, serving delicious pastries, coffee, tea, and food options. They have freshly squeezed juices and much more. The prices are a bit steep and there is often a queue outside, but they have been thriving for over 100 years, so they must be doing something right.