What it cost us to travel in Paris

Paris is by far the most expensive place on our itinerary. We knew this going in. I fell in love with Paris in my younger days. I went once in 2017, with family (my first trip to Europe!). I returned in 2011, while I was studying abroad. And as we were planning this trip, I really wanted to go back. We figured it would be a great kick-off to this adventure. We definitely tried to keep our spending in check by Paris standards, but we also allowed for some splurges. I’ll get into those below!

City to City transit (this will account for planes, trains, buses, etc, that we use to get from one city to the next. We’re tracking local transit, like metro rides within a city, in a separate count): $2334.94 for two roundtrip tickets

This was one of our largest single expenses of this entire trip- round trip airfare for two people from New York’s JFK airport to Charles de Gaulle in Paris. We went round and round about whether to buy a one-way ticket to Paris and wait to buy return tickets. Because of the uncertainty around airfare costs, and how they’ve continued to go up, we decided to go ahead and lock in the price on the front end. These tickets CAN be changed, which was important to us, should we need to come back earlier or want to stay longer. 

Additionally, we heavily weighed opting for a discount airline over a better-known carrier. There’s an airline called the French Bee that offers low cost flights from New York to Paris. It’s no frills, but we’ve seen nonstop service from Newark to Orly ranging from $300 to $600 roundtrip. That being said, we read a decent number of negative reviews. With how messy air travel has been this year –  flight delays and cancellations – we felt more comfortable booking on an airline we’re familiar with and one that allows for changes. While we’ve got some flexibility in all this, we didn’t want to end up stuck in NYC for several days and miss out on the time we had planned in Paris. 

Accommodations: $153.70 per night

This is likely to be our most expensive Airbnb on this trip. And it was honestly tough to find something even at this price point. Out of all our options, we did pay slightly more to have AC since it was going to be pretty warm when we were there. The place was small but cute and clean. While we didn’t really take location into consideration during our search (we were mostly focused on budget), we ended up LOVING the neighborhood we were in. I can’t recommend enough staying in or exploring Paris’ 10th Arrondissement. It’s not as touristy as other areas. It’s bustling and full of restaurants, cafes, bakeries, markets and cute shops. And it’s known to be a bit more bohemian than other districts. 

I will say, you can find budget hotels for decent prices in Paris! We wanted something with a kitchen and washer, so we went the Airbnb route.

Average Daily Spend (minus accommodations): $124.52 ($62.26 a person)

a breakdown of what this went to below! 

I should mention, we’re hoping to keep this average daily spend closer to $80 ($40 a person). Our first stops are short and we’re treating them a bit more like vacation than long-term travel, but we anticipate getting closer to that target once we hit our longer stays, buy more groceries and get into a groove. 

Local Transit: $8.71/day 

This accounts for around $20 spent the first day taking the train from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Gare du Nord. We were able to walk from there to our Airbnb. Despite walking A LOT in Paris (we hit 28,000 steps one day), we also used the metro on several occasions to save time getting around the city. 

Food and Drink (this will include all meals and drinks at restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and bars): $86.07/day  

We ate out every meal in Paris and found food and drink to be pretty affordable! Breakfast and a couple espressos for both of us ran between $10-14. We could often share a baguette sandwich for lunch for around $10. We did seek out salads a couple days (needed some veggies in our carb diet :)) and that would run closer to $16 for two salads. We ate dinner at a couple kebab spots (I love kebabs and they’re a cost effective option). We also ate at this ornately decorated traditional French restaurant in the 10th that serves delicious food at great value, Bouillon Julien. Dinner ran on average around $30 for the two of us. Drinks wise, it all felt more affordable than the U.S. You can find beer and wine between $2-5. We did splurge and visit the beautiful rooftop bar the Hotel Grands Boulevards, which I had been eye-ing on Instagram for years. 

Groceries, toiletries, etc. (this will include any meals and drinks consumed on our own, outside a restaurant or bar, plus toiletries and household items): $16.15/day 

This total is likely to be higher than other spots since it was our first stop and we purchased conditioner (Airbnb didn’t have any), bar soap, dry shampoo and other toiletries. I also bought a straightener here for $20. We didn’t do as much true grocery shopping as we plan to do in spots we’re staying for a full week. For our Airbnb, we bought coffee, some light snacks and a bottle of champagne. We also bought a few bottled waters while out and about, plus boxed wine and snack food for our evening spent watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle while sitting along the Seine. 

Tours: $63.00 

Again, a bit of a splurge on this first stop regarding tours. We paid for two tickets to my favorite museum, l’Orangerie, at around $12 a piece. We also took a happy hour Seine River cruise at $19 a piece, including one drink each. You can find cruises without a drink included for around $14 a person. Honestly, both of these excursions were SO WORTH IT. 

Souvenirs and Gifts: $5.00 

Just bought a few postcards!