Tips:
- When flying from Lisbon, Spain to Paris Orly Airport, sit on the right hand side of the plane to be able to see the Eiffel Tower.
- Business class in intra Europe flights is the same size seats as economy except there are only 2 assigned person for 3 person seats.
- From Paris Orly Airport, it’s a fix rate for taxi and there is a line just outside of the airport. To get to the left bank, it is Euro 32 and to the right bank, it is Euro 37. Make sure to ask the hotel to reserve a taxi when you go to the airport as summer is a busy month and can be hard to get taxi. It will be an extra charge of Euro 7.
- There are 2 lounges in Lisbon, you should definitely pick ANA lounge instead of TAP Portugal lounge as it is much bigger, better food selection and stronger AC as it gets really hot in summer
- Buy the SIM card when you get to Paris as it’s much cheaper and for 10GB, 30 days, it cost only Euro 15.49. Just ask your hotel concierge where to buy the SIM card. For us, it was a store which sold cigarettes.
- The SIM card didn’t worked automatically when we flew to Rome and we had to call the company. Looks like all SIM card should work throughout Europe and we just need to turn on roaming. Best investment of our trip was to get his SIM card as it helps us to take the Metro and gets us to all the destination that we want to go.
- Always ask the taxi driver if they take credit card before you get on the taxi as it’s too late if you ask in the car. Our taxi drive in Rome said that he only take cash and luckily we had exchange some Euro before we left Paris.
- Our hotel concierge told us that by law, all taxis should take credit card although most of them don’t like to.
- Cost of taxi from FCO airport in Rome to our hotel is Euro 50. Highly recommend taking a taxi instead of Metro as it’s very hot in the summer and you will have to walk from the metro station to your hotel and the roads in Europe are on cobblestone and slight hills which are hard to walk. Each taxi can take up to 4 passengers and 4 large checkin luggages.
- For Metro in Rome, it’s very easy to use like Paris. You can buy a pass for 5 trips or more so that you can use the same card instead of paying a 50 cent charge for each individual trip you buy.
- Paris is cooler than Rome but still pretty hot in July as it is around mid 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Paris. I highly do not recommend to come to Rome in July or August as it’s near 100 degrees Fahrenheit and humid as well.
- Cars in Europe normally don’t stop for pedestrians but there are some drivers who do and are greatly appreciated. One driver ran a red light and also hit us in front of the US embassy. Good thing is that they drive in the right side of the road which is the same as US roads so we are familiar with it.
- No need to rent a car in Paris or Rome as they have a good metro system and are easy to take. But the metro stations are pretty dirty and some trains don’t have any air conditioning at all.
- Take the white taxis in Rome as they are licensed and cheaper than the black taxis
- Quite a number of people likes to cut in line and also honk while driving. People seemed to be in a rush and doesn’t have much patience. Streets are very dirty especially in Rome and litter everywhere and graffiti on historic buildings which is very sad as we should preserve history instead of destroying them.
- There are many scammers in tourist places and be watchful. Some of the scams that we saw
1. People giving you flowers for good luck and once you take the rose, they ask for money
2. People putting bracelets on you before you could say anything and tie a dead knot so that you can’t remove it and have to buy it
3. Old lady with a cane walking very slowly asking for money. We fell for this one and our tour guide later told us they are scammers and makes Euro 700 each day.
- They are also many other vendors trying to sell stuff to you to buy but at least when you say no, most of them won’t bother you except a few persistent ones. There are signs asking tourists not to buy things from them.
- Brand name items are much cheaper than US, so a good place to buy if you are interested in the luxury brands. Just make sure to get the tax refund forms from the store where you purchase the items so that you can get the tax refund in the airport.
- Highly recommend booking the tours in advance. The tour guides are very knowledgeable and gives a lot of information on the history of each place as well as skipping the line to enter. Definitely worth the extra money that you have to pay.