First off be wary if you do decide to buy tickets online. By shopping around I found that many websites charge a hefty surcharge, IN ADDITION to selling you overpriced tickets. Secondly, I can%26#39;t say that the Paris Vision Tours were worth the money even though I bought my tickets at their office. I chose the tours because my mother was having trouble getting around and thought bus tours would be a good idea. I would definitely recommend a tour around Paris just to see the city, but don���t feel I got my money���s worth on either tour I took from Paris Visions.
The 4 hour tour of Paris included Bus ride, boat ride, and ended at the Eiffel Tower. The bus ride was okay. At first I wanted more commentary and information, but by the end I was bored and overloaded with information (some people are never happy). Also, even though we were on the top level of the bus, we couldn%26#39;t see the tops of towers or monuments. The boat ride was a huge diesel barge; between the noise and the fumes it was very unpleasant. At the Eiffel Tower, tour groups get to cut in line so that was a bonus, but there was still a huge queue for the last elevator. Finally the tour ends at the Tower, I knew this but some people were misinformed by the Tour staff. Unfortunately, I underestimated the walk we would have from the Tower to the bus stop and exhausted my mother.
Instead of this tour I would try the L%26#39;Open bus and Batobus boat tour, where you can get on and off at your leisure (so I understand). I would also recommend going to the Eiffel Tower, first thing in the morning to avoid crowds, I really wanted to go to the top of the elevator but the wait would have been too much for my mother.
I also booked the guided Versailles tour. This was where I really felt that I wasted my money and have submitted a review about it. I think if you have time and want to see Versailles; it is worth the entrance fee, but not the money I paid for the ���guided��� tour (OUCH!).
|||
Sorry about your bus experience. We did the L%26#39;opentour bus hop on hop off. It was great to be able to get off, walk around, eat lunch and catch the next one.
|||
%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;First off be wary if you do decide to buy tickets online. By shopping around I found that many websites charge a hefty surcharge, IN ADDITION to selling you overpriced tickets. Secondly, I can%26#39;t say that the Paris Vision Tours were worth the money even though I bought my tickets at their office.%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
This has been oft-repeated advice both here at TA and at most other Paris forums. Most of the on-line sites offering tours are merely acting as agents for various tour companies and make their money by tacking-on their own premiums and surcharges to the regular price. The major Paris tour operators offer direct, on-line reservations systems which are usually the same price as if you were to walk into their offices.
It has also been oft-recommended here and other places, that at least for basic Paris city/sights tours and to popular in-close destinations such as Versailles that you are usually better off just doing-it-on-your-own. The hop-on/hop-off tour buses do a good job, though the taped commentarcan often be difficult to hear or understand. A bit of your own personal research and a good guide book will usually fill-in the gaps. The basic tour commentary of these escorted tours is usually just that, %26#39;..basic..%26#39; and the tour will only be as good as the individual guide assigned. For places like Versailles, even the most %26#39;..directionally-challenged..%26#39; tourist can make their own way out to the chateau and then either rent an %26#39;audio-tour%26#39; device or take one of the escorted tours that the attraction provides. The net result is usually a cost that is approx. 1/2 what the escorted tour companies charge and a better tour experience (certainly no worse).
Over the years, we%26#39;ve taken some of the escorted tours that the major operators (ParisVision and Cityrama) offer and always been at least %26#39;..satisfied..%26#39; with what was provided and in several instances%26#39;..quite pleased..%26#39;...but in every instance where we were %26#39;..quite pleased..%26#39; it was largely due to the efforts of the individual tour guide. Some will really %26#39;...work at it..%26#39; to make sure that they are getting things across and others will simply %26#39;..phone-it-in..%26#39;. The only time that we were ever dissatisfied was largely our own fault. It tuuned out the it was the only day iin our itinerary that we could do it and so we took a multi-language tour out to the Loire chateaux (I refuse to drive in Europe) The bus was a mix of American, Italian, Spanish and Japanese tourists. The guide for this particular tour must have been selected primarily for her foreign language skills rather than her knowledge of the history or architecture of the Loire or the chateaux there. As a result, everything she said had to be repeated in English, Italian, Spanish (with some Catalan thrown in..though she admitted to not being quite fluent) AND Japanese (in adddition to this she kept up a running conversation with the bus driver in French) Her foreign language skills were indeed impressive. If someone asked a question, she repeated the answer in all four languages By the time she was through translating, there wasn%26#39;t much time for anything else. Had we realized, we would have selected another tour, another time. It was OUR decision and OUR mistake...and really difficult to fault Parisvision for.
|||
We taken may tours with both Cityrama and Paris Vision. The first one was an illuminations tour ending with dinner at the Eiffel Tower. It was included as part of a package we had purchased and it was ok but not something I%26#39;d do again because we could do it easily for ourselves.
To get to places outside of the city like the champagne region we really liked going with them. It was very stress fee and enjoyable. We haven%26#39;t gotten up the nerve to drive there on our own yet.
We took a tour with only 6 people in a mini van with two delightful guides, to the Loire and enjoyed it very much.
We went to Brugges which we loved, but going by bus with a tour did not afford us as much time as we would have liked there, so we are going by train next time.
Versailles and Fountianbleau are accessible to even a novice traveler. However, if you go with Parisvision to Fountianbleau you get to stop in the delightful village of Barbazon.
I know how difficult traveling with an older parent can be. I%26#39;ve done it. When I took my mom to Paris I was relieved to have these options available. I did not even consider taking mom to Versailles. She could not walk that much and we%26#39;d all have been miserable. I let my sister take her to the Louvre. Ha!
|||
I have only been on one guided tour in Paris. It was a walking tour of the Marais with walksofparis.com It was delightful. I hadn%26#39;t thought about doing another one this trip but maybe I will.
|||
I have only been on one guided tour in Paris. It was a walking tour of the Marais with walksofparis.com It was delightful. I hadn%26#39;t thought about doing another one this trip but maybe I will.
|||
Ooooh. They have a walking tour of the DaVinci Code! Pretty corny, but I LOVED the book. Has anyone taken this tour?
|||
portlandBeth, be careful you may be opening a new can of worms. Some people have very strong opinions about what I considered a harmless, but very entertaining book of fiction and yes, I did go look at that church on my last visit. I don%26#39;t think I%26#39;d spend the money to do the tour though, just not my cup of tea
|||
Gephura, i know the type of barges used by Paris Vision, you recommend the Batobus but they are very similar boats...I guess you may have been unlucky because i have never seen any fumes on these types of boats, ever, and i am a tour guide myself so i have taken many boats...
|||
I took the full day Paris tour and the Versailles day trip with Paris Vision, and I was satisfied with both tours, though they were unexceptional, and the guides really do need some practice with their English. Their accents are very thick and the Versailles tour guide actually referred to the son of the French King as the %26quot;Dauphin, you know, like the sea animal%26quot;, lol. I also had a problem where one woman at the Paris Vision office declared that she could not comfirm my tour because it was not offered on the day I claimed to have booked it, even though I had the confirmation letter. It turned out that she was wrong, of course. All in all, I did get to see what I wanted to see, more conveniently than if I had gone on my own.
|||
I took the Cityrama Loire Valley tour recently; omigod the guide was good and brought the history to life. Handled 2 languages and spoke engllish with a thick Portugese accent, but wow. Hope somebody tips her better than I was able to, under some peculiar constraints at the moment...
No comments:
Post a Comment