I will be travelling for 6 weeks by myself in France and
wonder if a Europass is my best bet for travelling. I will
be using the train at least 6-8 times. When I am not with
friends should I use hostels or 1 star hotels? In Paris I
have heard varying tales of which metro passes to get.
Which one is my best deal? If you have any other hints I'd
be happy to hear them.
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firstly, i would recommend staying in hostels when you are
not with friends if you want to meet people. hotels don't
really give you as much chance to have some company, however
are good when you do want some privacy and to get away from
the hustle and bustle of some hostels. in terms of getting
around, a europass should work out cheaper than buying
single tickets for 6-8 trips, however work out what
the individual trips might cost, and compare them to a
europass.
It all depends on how far you will travel and where you now
live: if you are EUROPEAN, you can buy EURODOMINO for 3/5/8
days unlimited train travel in the month. If outside:
EUROPASS/EURAIL is generally much more expensive. Check
distance: it cost around 10 us cents/km for a single. If
you stay in France long enough you can buw much cheaper tix
from SNCF (=French Rail) itself. Paris metro: for the
occasional trip: buy a â•ŸARNET'of 10 tix for FRF 40 Or so),
which is just $0,50/trip. Or check: www.sncf.fr for rail-
info.
It seems to me that a pass will likely pay off. It really
depends on your plans. I found footloosetravel.com to be
quite helpful with this kind of question.
we went to France and Italy and found it much cheaper to buy
individual rail passes for both of these countries rather
than buying a Europass. Look into that before you decide.
We are over 26 so would have had to buy a first class
europass, so that may be different to your situation.
I would recommend staying in hostels to meet more people.
If you're under 26 years of age and not a student you can
purchase a Euro under 26 card, valid for most museums etc in
France, but not on the metro. We had a eurail which was
great for getting ariound france/europe although didn't
cover parisian CBD.
Hostels are definetly better when you are alone, if you're
sharing with one other person and need to get away from the
crowds cheap hotels are great for a little privacy. A great
town 88km sw of Paris is Chartres, with a very clean hostel
well signposted from the station. Versailles is on the way
so good idea to visit Versailles in the morning then head to
Chartres in the evening/afternoon, cheaper, quieter
accommodation...really pretty place with amazing church....
not many Western backpackers around but lots of French
tourists....
Happy travelling :-)