The holiday season is always busy for everyone, between shopping, decorating, work parties, weather changes, and TRAVEL! It’s great that my wife is a teacher because we know she’s off at the same time as the kids; however, I have shift work, and the holidays generally offer overtime. I have no doubt I will swing a few overtimes in as the holiday approaches, but this year we are going to have a Parisian Christmas vacation. I cannot wait to go back to Paris (check out our day in Paris here), but this time we get to take the kids and give them a very different Christmas experience.
Our typical holiday traditions:
We usually go to Manhattan, or as native New Yorkers call it, “The City”, for the typical Christmas events, and since we live just outside Philadelphia now, we have our own annual Philly Christmas downtown day where we go to Dickins Village at the Wannamaker Building, carousel rides at city hall, Macy’s light show, and dinner/drinks at our favorite bar, McGillin’s Olde Ale House….If you find yourself in Philly sometime, make it a point to grab a pint at 1010 Drury St, take a picture, and tag us, or invite us for a drink!
I’m not saying we won’t do some of our usual traditions this year, but on Christmas Day, when the kids are exhausted from presents and playing with new toys, we will take a nice ride up the NJ Turnpike to Newark airport and its wheels up to Paris on our maiden voyage flying French Bee. We will fly overnight and arrive in Paris on December 26. Don’t worry; we will keep our readers updated with the experience. Here is an insight into our itinerary and how much each is costing.
The flight and hotel:
Once we booked the flights and hotel on American Express Travel via our Amex platinum card. It’s not always the best way to book, but we had the whole trip priced, and it ended up being just as good to book it as a package at Amex. The trip totaled $870 per person, which is mostly the cost of the flights; details are below…
French Bee Airlines
Depart 12/25/22 from Newark-Liberty (EWR) to Paris-Orly (ORY) – Nonstop
Return 12/30/22 ORY to EWR – Nonstop
Novotel 17 at 34 Av. De la Prte d’Asnieres
Check-In 12/26/22
Check-Out 12/30/22
Our Plans:
Tuesday:
On Tuesday the 27th, we will head to The Palace of Versailles or Chateau de Versailles if you prefer. Since we are going early, we will uber. Public transportation is available, but it takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes; Uber is about $35 and takes around 25-30 minutes. Four tickets for the skip-the-line 90-minute English-guided tour came to $143. A typical travel hack for Versailles is to book breakfast there, and you can skip the lines that way. It’s not cheap, and we prefer to grab un café et un croissant on the go. However, when we return from Versailles, we’ll head over to EL&N for lunch; our daughter will surely love the all-pink of this restaurant.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday the 28th, we have four tickets to the Louvre. Two scavenger hunts are available for digital download to entertain the kids at the Louvre. Still, I haven’t decided on one to use yet. Perhaps I should get both and review them? Depending on the morning, we will go to Du Pain et des Idees to eat; this may be before or after the Louvre.
Thursday:
On Thursday the 29th, we will take the kids to the Chocolate Museum. I’m sure the kids will love the all-you-can-eat chocolate, so four tickets to sugar heaven for $45 s’il vous plait! Since Thursday will be our last night, something I want to experience is the ballet at Palais Garnier. If you haven’t been to the ballet, I find it a unique experience, but I will admit it’s not for everyone. I doubt my son will sit quietly through it, so we debate if we should get four tickets or just two for my daughter and myself; this seems more likely. We will see Swan Lake for about $15-$30 each, depending on where we sit. Tickets are not on sale yet, but I set up an alert for them.
So, we have a few things set up for our visit, but we like to keep the schedule open to see where the streets take us. I’m sure they will take us to many sites for pictures, the catacombs, Pont des Arts for the kids to find our lock, and possibly the Musee d’Orsay (another scavenger hunt). We debate Disneyland Paris; my wife says yes, and I lean towards no. FYI, four tickets to Disneyland Paris, about $475…for ONE DAY! What do you think? Have you been? Let us know in the comments what we are missing and what you love or would love to do in Paris. All of our purchased tickets are from Viator; use the link and search for where ever you are or where ever you are going.
I’ll leave you with this, L’Atelier des Soeurs is a café we went to when we were first in Paris, actually immediately after arrival by rail, and now we think it’s where we have to go at least once every time we are there. There is no website, but check it out. Here are our pics…
Au revoir for now.
Check out our Benable page for our recommendations in Paris.
You look stunning! Paris is on my bucket list- I’m living vicariously through you guys !! Keep posting
Thank you! I may not agree with stunning, but I’ll take the compliment haha!
Sounds like a magical trip esp round the holiday season. I’m taken your wife’s side on this and say go to Disneyland! I’m sure the kids will love it! Cant wait to hear all about it 🙂
Ya sis! Disneyland could add to the magic of our Paris vacation!
Sounds like the best Christmas vacation to have! You will absolutely love Versailles and from what I remember from my day as a kid at Disneyland it was worth all the money!
Yes to Disneyland seems to be winning, maybe I should make a poll…or start a go fund me for it haha. It just seems like so much money for one day and the it’s all based on how exhausted the kids are that day.
What lovely Christmas travel plans. You seem pretty organised and we’ll prepared. All these events sounds great. Paris is on my bucket list of places to visit with my bestie and we can’t wait for that time when we can. She’s already done most of the planning for it.
As Audrey Hepburn said, “Paris is always a good idea.” We’re excited fo you to get the chance to go! The summer olympics will be there in 2024 and the restoration of Notre Dame is planned to be completed to reopen for it.
Ikr , Paris is like a must visit place. Hmmm, 2024 sounds like a wonderful time to go visit.
Besties trip to Paris sounds amazing! I hope you can go soon!
I’m excited and actually kind of terrified at the idea of taking the kids to the Chocolate Factory, lol.
All you can eat chocolate should give them enough energy to keep walking for the day or drive us crazy! They have workshops where kids can make chocolate but the age to participate starts at 6 and our son is only 4.
Right exactly lol. It could go either way. I’m worried about the Freshman in high school or even the middle schooler, but my third, the 6 year old, she might just take us to the ringer
I live in NYC. Christmas here is fun and festive. It would be interesting to experience my favorite holiday in Paris. I would definitely be exploring the food culture. Hope you get to share some of foods from your upcoming trip.
We’re from NYC also, visited Rockefeller Center and all the other sites every year as a kid. We are thinking about taking our kids this year, they haven’t seen the tree yet! We will definitely share food from our trip. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Paris is somewhere I REALLY want to see someday. It looks like such a good trip. Thank you for sharing.
I feel like Paris is everything like the way it portrayed in movies and books. I don’t feel like very many places are quite so true to expectations.
Always wanted to visit Paris – this sounds amazing!!
Check out French Bee airlines, prices are way better than the typical airlines.
I once traveled to Paris once during Christmas season. It was lovely!
We are so excited for it!
I haven’t been to Paris since I was in my 20’s. Thanks for sharing all your helpful tips!
Hope they will be useful!
I love traveling at the holidays. This will be added to my holiday travel bucket list, too.
This is our first time traveling over Christmas, we are very excited !
I can’t wait to see your wonderful timer in Paris over Christmas, how fantastic! Exciting times! Thank you for these awesome recommendations too!
Thank you! We are so excited to share out trip with our readers.
It would be so wonderful to be able to do something like this at Christmas (especially as my birthday is soon after). I think there is a lot of places that do special festivals/fairs, etc. at this time of year so I will have to see if there is anything like this locally to attend. Fab post!
Thanks so much! I hope you are able to find something exciting to do for your birthday!
What a fabulous pre-travel post. Can’t wait to see all about the actual trip. Visiting you from Blogging Boss Chicks and wish you a marvelous Christmas journey. Nancy Andres @ Colors 4 Health
Thanks for reading! We cannot wait to share out experience!
This sounds like an amazing vacation! Can’t wait to read more about it!
Thank you, we can’t wait to update everyone!
I’d love to spend Christmas in Paris!! Great Post 😊
Thanks so much! We can’t wait!
Love this! Paris will be absolutely stunning at Christmas time – next time you visit, I’d recommend a day/night trip to Lille, France’s fourth largest city! It’s absolutely stunning and melds in Belgian architecture as it in the former Flemish region (you’ll notice similarities with Netherlands too).
For dinner also, I’d REALLY recommend the bouillons – they are a type of restaurant that offer a formal dining experience for a fraction of the price. They are open 24/7 and you can’t book a table – but the food and setting are Devine. The famous one is Bouillons Chartier, but there are others dotted across Paris too.
We haven’t heard of the bouillons, thanks for informing us, we will definitely try to eat at one. We will add Lille to the list!
Thank you for the information! We will definitely check out the Bouillons!
It sounds like you have some great plans for travelling over Christmas. A great way to enjoy the festivities. Thank you for sharing!
Lauren
We’d love to spend Christmas in Paris!
Christmas in Paris is absolutely beautiful indeed!
We are so excited !
Paris is amazing but I’ve never been at Christmas! I’ll have to add it to my bucket list!
We cannot wait! We will have a follow up post, I hope you read it!
I would love to visit Paris during Christmas time, I wish that
you have more photos. Thanks for sharing your experiences..
Fun article 🙂
One thing I noticed that I think is not correct: public transport to Versailles. I took the metro to Versailles many years ago and remembered it being about 20 ~ 30 minutes, not an 1 hour and 45 minutes. To be sure I checked on Google Maps and (depending on your stay) it should be between 20 to 40 minutes at best!
Thank you so much for informing us. I will have to double-check from the location of our hotel. I appreciate it!
This sounds like an amazing trip. Thank you for sharing these plans with us!
Enjoyed the conversational tone! It’s like talking to a friend😊
Awe, thank you!! Keep an eye out for our follow up post after we return!
i am so excited for you and your family, and slightly jealous too! i love paris but have never been there during the holidays. i can’t wait to read about your experience!
We will have a follow up post, check it out and maybe it will encourage you to go during the holidays!
Sounds like an exciting trip. Have a wonderful time!
My favorite was chocolate museum haha! I don’t think I can do ballet too. I haven’t been to Paris since can’t gauge the price package. But Disney one seems too overpriced. I would miss it too. Nice details! Xx
Isa A. Blogger
Unfortunately, the ballet was sold out! We did pass on Disney, just could not justify the cost.
That sounds like it was an amazing trip!!! I hope you had a fun time!!