Annie and Elyse have a short list of favorite value boutique hotels in Paris and in the Dordogne. You may think value and boutique don’t go together, but nothing could be further from the truth! In Paris, most hotels are privately owned or belong to small chains. They cultivate the “boutique” feel because they are too small to compete on name alone. We have found several of these gems in the areas around Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter that we can heartily recommend, see links below.
But first, let’s set something straight. Most of us don’t spend that much time in our hotel rooms on vacation, but you should consider your hotels carefully because hotels that do not meet your needs will lead to a miserable vacation, and nobody wants that!
What Are You Picky About? Make a List!
I know people who can sleep well anywhere, and others who have a terrible time sleeping away from home. What are YOU picky about? This is Annie’s list of what matters to me. Take a minute to make you own list!
- I need a comfortable bed.
- I can’t sleep if I don’t have 4 pillows.
- I don’t like to be near bars and popular nocturnal hang-outs.
- I want an elevator (unless I only have to go one flight of stairs).
- I like a centrally located hotel near public transportation.
- I bring camera gear so I need a safe where I can stash it when not in use.
- France gets hot! Between May and September I always book a room with air conditioning.
- I don’t care about the hotel lobby.
- I know that the room is going to be small (most hotel rooms in Paris are barely bigger than the bed!), so I try to pack light.
- I never have my meals at the hotel, so I can ignore that.
- My French is, well, fluent, so I don’t care if they speak good English. But I pay attention to that when I go to countries where I don’t speak the language!
- Do you care about the quality of the hotel WiFi? You should if you don’t make special arrangements to have cell data while in France. More and more people buy a few days of international data from their home providers. I think that’s worth looking into before you come to France.
Hotels We Recommend
Annie and Elyse and all our fans try a lot of hotels. We are always on the look-out for the best value boutique hotels in Paris and elsewhere. There are also safe-choice chain hotels, but they are rarely located where we’d like them to be, so we can’t recommend them as often. Below is a collection of value boutique hotels where we’ve stayed and that we can recommend without hesitation.
How About Renting an Apartment?
As Air B&B gains in popularity, lots of listeners choose to stay in apartments. Some people like to rent from Air B&B, others prefer renting through more classic channels. Either one is fine, but keep in mind that it’s harder choosing an apartment than it is choosing a hotel! Apartments are worth considering if there are more than 2 of you or if you are staying longer than 2 weeks. Otherwise, we recommend you stay in a hotel.
Some of these links are affiliate links where a commission is earned. You don’t pay a penny more and we thank you for your support.