BigLar

Trying to book an award stay. The website (and customer service) indicates that they can give me a jr. suite, but it comes with a 150 euro/night surcharge, which I find not to my liking.

As a Marriott Platinum, I guess I expect to be upgraded. I'd hate to have to pay this when I could get it for free.

Has anyone had experience with this property yet? We'd be going in October, so I'd think the demand may be down a little.

alohadvc

Traveling to London then Paris next month for the first time in over 20 years and need lots of info.

Anyone stay at the Paris Parc Trocadero recently and can give a quick review?

What is the best way to get to the hotel from CDG?

Thank you!

Jen

LessO2

Which day of the week, what time of day are you arriving, how many people in your party and is cost an issue?

alohadvc

We arrive at CDG at 6:30 pm on Friday. Party of 2. Like to be cost conscious but easy of travel is more important.

Jen

LessO2

Right in the heart of rush hour. Would suggest the RER train, but here are your options:

Taxi: Normally about 60 Euros, might be more with traffic.

Air France Bus (anyone can take it, not just AF pax): 15 Euros one-way, 24 roundtrip. Will need to take about a 10-Euro taxi ride from Etoile (Arc de Triomphe).

RER Line B and Metro Line 2: 8.40 Euros per person, each way. Take to Gare du Nord station, walk to La Chappelle Metro station (don't have to go on surface street, they're connected), take Metro Ligne 2 (your RER ticket is good for this), direction Porte Dauphine, you want the Victor Hugo station.

Side note, Metro Line 2 (along with 13) is not a great place to be late at night. The time you're traveling is okay, though.

Hope this helps.

star_world

If you are travelling by train, this journey planner is very helpful:

http://www.ratp.info/touristes/index...at=itineraires

alohadvc

Thanks for the replies. I like the Air France option. Will look into the RER train too but coming from a place with no rail/trains, the bus option sounds more comfortable, especially with luggage.

Jen

longwaybackhome

I was coming on to recommend the RER train as well, as I did the CDG-Renaissance Le Parc Trocadero journey back in April, but it's an especially long walk from where the train arrives at Gare du Nord to La Chapelle station, as in, I was making jokes that I'd walked to central Germany.

Also, if you have a lot of bags, it's not a good idea to take the Metro because there are very few escalators and elevators. My father thankfully came to pick me up at the airport, and he had no bags because he'd already been in Paris for three days.

So yes, take the bus.

EVA Air

I second taking the bus or a taxi.

In mid-January, we arrived around noon on Saturday at CDG. The line to purchase a RER ticket was ridiculously long. It was slightly shorter if you had a credit card with a microchip.

The hauling of luggage up and down stairs was brutle.

When we took the taxi to the airport on Sunday morning, the price was around 48 Euros.

kerl

Is Air France bus still the best option to reach the hotel (besides an expensive taxi)? We land around 9:30am on Sunday. We are traveling very light with only a carry on bag.

We found the following link on this service:

http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/e...air-france.htm

Is Line 2 the correct one to take to the hotel? Also does anyone know how long does it approx take?

Merci!

dwcatty

I have to add my praises for the Le Parc Trocadero. We just spent seven nights there and this was a lovely property. As a gold we were upgraded to a larger size room (a one level upgrade) which was huge by Parisian standards. We received complimentary breakfast every day, either the buffet or anything on the al la carte menu, and free internet. I expected to pay a small tax based on the web page booking, but the only charges we had on check out were the small tips we left at breakfasts (this was an awards redemption).

We found the staff extremely helpful. After two days of walking into the bar and asking for just a glass of ice (there are no ice makers in the hallways like American properties), Georges, one of the bartenders, would see me coming and have a glass full of ice ready by the time I got to the counter. When I asked about buying a shirt with a Roland Garros logo (the stadium shop can only be accessed by ticket holders during the French Open) one of the desk clerks called several stores trying to locate one for me. We were running late for a dinner reservation one night and the concierge gladly called the restaurant for us to let them know we were just leaving the hotel, and made a reservation for a taxi that took Visa when we left for the airport. They held our bags when we arrived early and they were waiting for us in the room when we returned, and held them again the day we left and we never even saw them get loaded into the taxi as we departed.

The room, besides being spacious, was more than satisfactory for our needs. The bed slept wonderfully, and had plenty of pilows for sitting up in the mornings. The light inside the closet was a nice touch, there were ample drawers and shelving for the two of us to unpack for a week, a half stocked refrigerator so there was room for our purchases, and a small safe. Our room faced the road but we hardly heard any noise from the 5th floor, and we could see the top of the Eiffel Tower if we got close to the window and looked out at an angle. There was a flat screen tv we never turned on once.

The bathroom featured the standard European half panel glass shower door, and we never quite mastered how to keep the floor from getting wet. They have switched to Tokyo Milk toiletry products. The towels were full and fluffy and changed every day even when we hung them to dry. I have seen pictures of towel warmers in online reviews, but our room did not have one.

There were two glass glasses in the bath and two more in the bedroom, and two ceramic mugs with the kettle and coffee/tea supplies. There were numerous electrical outlets, and I had taken an adaptor and an extension cord with a three way end so we were able to charge all our devices each night. We did have to relog in to the wi-fi every 24 hours.

My only quibble was the coffee. It wasn't, if you'll pardon the pun, my cup of tea. There was a complimentary pot on the bar the first morning, but it was so bad I never went back. The coffee in the restaurant was not much better. We could have ordered expresso but that is not our preference. (We don't mind the runny eggs, but I do like a good cup of strong, black coffee, not expresso.) We ended up making cups in the room with the Nestle instant packets and the provided kettle, but the maid frequently didn't refill the holder leaving us only decaf and having to call the front desk to have more packets sent up to the room. My thinking was if this was our only complaint we were doing pretty good.

Location was great. We discovered the Victor Hugo metro stop is the closest, Trocadero the most fun for people watching, and Boissière a third choice. From near the hotel we caught the 22, 30, 32, 63 and 82 busses, and one morning walked downhill to get the 72 along the Avenue de New York. Our only nearby dining experience was having soup and a glass of wine at Carette in Place du Trocadéro one night, although we had a fabulous dinner at Caïus just across in the 17th one night. There is a small grocery store open on Sundays a half block towards the Trocadero on the same side of the street as the hotel, just across Rue Lauriston.

I have no comparisons to any other Marriott properties in Paris, but we were extremely happy we chose this one. We'd go back in a heartbeat.

(I'm not sure how this ended up here - I posted in the 'Marriott-family hotels in Paris, France' thread. Odd.)

boss315

We stay there four/five times a year...can only echo what you say....I would move in there and live there 365 if I could afford it.

alfahund

Going there tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the detailed review. Sounds like a lovely property. I'll also update the exec lounge sticky to reflect a new date on the breakfast portion.

Re: why it was switched. Several months ago the decision was made that questions such as "I'm going to be in Paris; which property should I stay at" & answers to such should go in the 'family' threads, but that specific trip reports such as yours would get moved into 'individual' threads that might already exist re: a property or start a new thread re: the property if one doesn't exist. This makes it easier when FTers do a search & also means that in some cases they don't have to read 11 pages or more of a thread to get an individual report.

Cheers.

dwcatty

Ok, makes sense to me. Thanks for the explanation.

I didn't mention the nightly turndown service with two miniature Toblerone bars, or the paperback picture book of Paris and a thank you note from the concierge staff in the room our last night thanking us for choosing their hotel as our home in Paris. This was a classy joint, and I only wish it wouldn't take me ten years to earn enough points to stay there again.