FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - A little bit of a lot of Europe: Nov 2013 Family TR w pics
Old Dec 23, 2013, 6:07 pm
  #3  
KennyBSAT
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Antonio
Programs: AS MVP
Posts: 2,276
- Paris -

As soon as I had the tickets booked back in March, I turned back to the blogs and FT for points hotel ideas and quickly found that all the trip reports on the Park Hyatt Paris neglected to mention that award stays are for 2 adults only and that a 10 year old is an adult. I started a thread on family hotels http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...el-europe.html and then added IHG and Barclay Arrival cards to Bonnie's next AOR. IHG appeared to have 4 person rooms available, but no such luck online or over the phone except at a couple suburban hotels only accessible by car. So we settled on Novotel Paris Les Halles, a decent looking hotel right next to a station served by both RER and Metro trains, where a 4 person room with internet, breakfast and a pair of boat tickets cost 27,500 Arrival points.

It looked so easy on Google maps - walk out of what appeared to be the main entrance to Châtelet – Les Halles and straight into the hotel. However, there is a gigantic underground mall above the train station that is designed to be a trap. You can check out, all right, but you can't leave. At least not until they finish the construction that is going on at the ground level. Eventually we found an open exit, a maze of construction barricades and finally our hotel. The front desk staff took our bags since we couldn't check in yet, and gave us our boat tickets and a Metro map. We made our way to the Eiffel tower, tried some delicious pastries and decided the boat would be the best place to stay warm.


The boys enjoyed the river level view of Paris with us while we half wished we could join them:


I don't think I'd have paid for the ride from Bateaux Parisiens, but it was a nice introduction to the city. We found a restaurant near the tower for a late lunch before heading back to the hotel to check in. In what will be a recurring theme, I didn't take enough pictures of our accommodations for a trip report. Anyway, our room was about the same size as a standard 4-person room in the U.S. and had a good view of the construction project at Les Halles - I'm sure it will be a great view at some point.

Last edited by KennyBSAT; Jul 8, 2014 at 7:35 am
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