The Paris Traveler

Timely Travel Tips

by Kim on May 9th, 2008

Many of you are gearing up for summer travel and some of it might include Paris.  Lucky you if it does! I myself, hate traveling at this time of year as everything from security check points, flights, hotels, restaurants, landmarks, the metro—everything is jammed.  But we keep doing it as that’s when we can get away just like the rest of the world.  There are ways to maintain your sanity in all this and I have found some sites that will offer professional pointers on how to survive.  

First, visit the TSA website to become familiar with what you can expect from the “actual travel” ie: plane ride. It makes no sense to get to the airport unprepared and have to hand over toiletries and gadgets that they won’t allow on the plane or even in your checked luggage.  If you have a specific issue, health or otherwise, it’s really wise to be informed.  Take nothing for granted.  My youngest daughter is a diabetic and wears an insulin pump.  When her carry on goes through the scanner, lo and behold, there are all sorts of needles and odd looking tubes that she requires.  You can imagine the scene that ensued the first time we went through security with all that.  She buzzed and had to be patted down numerous times and special officials had to come and look at all her supplies. When we moved there for our year abroad, we carried on a whole suitcase with nothing but insulin, needles and whatnot to get us through the year.  That, my friends, required a lot of paperwork.  You will probably not run into anything quite like that, but at least familiarize yourself with the basics:  security, customs, carry-on’s.  In addition to the TSA site, be sure to visit your airline’s site to find out what their specific rules and regulations are as well as making dietary meal selections. No sense starting the whole trip on the wrong foot!  

Traveling with young children is especially challenging as it seems tiny creatures require a ton of stuff for plane trips.  When I traveled with my twins as infants, they sat on our laps and I threw a collapsible stroller in the overhead compartment.  Bottles and diapers went into a big purse I carried and that was it.  Not any more.  I saw a young couple with twins traveling over the holidays and could not believe the amount of things they had to carry to accommodate their travel. I might be staying home if I had to carry all that stuff!  It couldn’t hurt to visit Flying with Kids for some helpful hints regarding seat requirements and activities to keep toddlers busy.

Currency can be complicated.  I am sure you know, France uses the Euro and right now the exchange sucks so everything will be expensive.  Even the things that shouldn’t be.  Know that like here, many places don’t take American Express.  During my most recent trip I was hoping to put most of my expenses on my AE card and that just wasn’t going to happen.  My advice, although there are professionals out there that might tell you differently, would be to change just enough dollars to Euro either through your bank or at the airport (they will kill you on the exchange!) to get you through the cab ride or whatever transportation you take from the airport and meal money (200-300 euro depending on the size of your group) if you need to stop for breakfast while possibly waiting for your room to be ready.  Surprise–those flights that get you into Paris at 8:30 in the morning don’t work well with the 3:00p.m. check in time.  You might be tired and a bit cranky and have no place to lay your head the minute you get there.  Just a head’s up from someone that was tired and cranky and had no place to lay her head years ago!!  Back to currency–we use our debit cards and take cash out as we need it once we are at our destination.  The exchange can be a bit better and you’re not walking around with oodles of cash that you might not need.  But, know this.  You will need to prepare yourself for sticker shock when your credit card statements from the “trip” make their way to you!  A  typical 25 euro lunch for just me ended up being $38.  It adds up fast.  

That was a lot to throw at you and I am still not covering it all.  Next week I’ll continue and share some of what I have learned through trial and error so you don’t have to go through the same thing.  I have several friends that travel the globe for work and have been doing so for about 25 years and still have things not go right for them.  For additional information, I would check out the Travel Channel’s resident expert, Mary Jo at Fly Away Caféfor specific tips from someone in the know.   

Photo credit:  flickr,  Flip Barrientos

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