All five stars… except the following which we...
France
|
Oct 5 - Oct 13, 2025
All five stars… except the following which we submit to help both KimKim and your future customers:
Transfer from airport to hotel was perfect. Hotel wonderful, quirky and close to the train station. Tell your customers to learn the train early to avoid pricy taxis.
While waiting for the hotel to be ready, we walked to the Big Bus and did a two hour lap around Paris. Excellent. But the hotel was not ready for us so we sat way too long. If I hadn’t been a bit pushy we might still be waiting! Finally we got a room at past three PM. They promised us noon!
Louvre and Notre Dame in one day was too much. Guide Ed was absolutely fantastic. Use him as often as you can.
Trip to Versailles was ok. We have seen palaces before and this one was similar. However the guide had too many people and she was often talking French to other people so our ear pieces were confusing. Back to Paris for a brief moment before dinner at Eiffel’s place. Fantastic. But you could suggest customers not flash the pink ticket to get off the elevator at the first stop and go to two for free for a couple of minutes. Then back to one for first rate dinner and view.
Transfers from hotel to train and from train to new hotel went well.
Hotel in Arramoush (sp) beautiful and we thank you for adding the breakfast. Both excursion trips were good and the free day on Sunday was a welcome break but a great day. Transfer to ferry went well and the driver helped us to the check in area. He received our last 5 Euro note!
We arrived in England broke! But found our hotel and an ATM.
I forgot to comment on Champagne; great tour. Great guide.
D-Day tour was great. But arrival time for lunch was so late, all restaurants were closed/soldout.
Mount St Michael has over 300 stairs and we are both still sore! Guide, Lou, was very good and interesting (and a cutie).
Thanks, Liz. We appreciate everything you did.
When in Southampton, or anywhere probably, don’t use MOXY by Marriott. Room smaller than a cruise cabin. No shelves, storage, phone, safe. Also no A/C!
Hotel Reviews
Fantastic views. Waving to the dinner boats as they went by was fun. Slightly disappointed that they didn’t have our room ready. At 9:30 they promised noon and even advised that the previous guests had already checked out. We napped by the pool and finally were invited to our room at 3:15 PM. Extremely long day as we flew overnight and were in France at 6 AM. Excellent breakfast three days but missed one day because our Champagne tour started early.
We thought the commute to the meeting place in Bayaux was inconvenient but we are so lucky to have stayed in Arromanches. The hotel was fantastic. The breakfast excellent (except the day we checked out very early). Having a Sunday without plans worked out well. The 360 movie at the far end of town was excellent and tied together all of the D-Day sites we visited. Big lunches and light dinner was the plan most days.
Activity Reviews
Big Bus on our own. Pretty good way to see everything in order to plan the rest of the stay.
Pricy taxi but once we found Ed, all was excellent. His guidance through the ancient Egyptian displays was top notch. He made sure we saw the “big three”. Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, and a horse with an angel on it.
Long line at Saints-Chapelle so we skipped it. Long line at Notre Dame but worth it. Again Ed’s knowledge was great. Ed also found us a lovely restaurant for lunch in between and came back to pick us up prior to Notre Dame.
No rest room at the meeting point. Then long bus ride with many groups. Our guide was talking non stop to others as well as us. The free time in the gardens was good.
Dinner of a lifetime. Note that the ground floor meeting place looks closed until check in time when the blinds rise. Be in that line. Then go up and don’t get off at the first stop. Have a quick look at the second stop and come back down for the dinner reservation. Window view is well worth it.
Long taxi to the meeting play. But the restaurant was open for breakfast. Scope out the others in the group because we split into two groups for the rest of the day. Small winery was absolutely fantastic. Informative and very good quality Champagne. Visit to Reims Notre Dame was good. Big winery was a bit overwhelming. Quick stop at Dom P’s grave was interesting and a scenic stop later on was nice. Very good lunch somewhere. Donna may have pictures to help identify.
This is why we came! Guide was extremely good. Great stories. Enough time at each stop. We cried at the cemetery. And prayed at the chapel. Guide took special interest in helping us find anything to do with the USS Nevada. We located a plaque at Utah Beach saying the ship was 5.6 miles off shore. Great history. The last stop at a church that was used by the medics was a great story/coincidence. One problem was our lunch break was very late and none of the restaurants could seat us. Terrible “club sandwich” was thick stale bread and thin slices of dry ham/cheese.
Long drive but interesting. (We all slept on the return trip!) Lou was a great guide. She told us good stories and lied to us about just how many more steps! Note; this is hard on 71 year old people with aches and pains already.
Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful review—and for the five stars! We're thrilled to hear that your journey was filled with memorable moments, and we truly appreciate the time you took to share both the highlights and helpful suggestions for future travelers. ✨ We're delighted that your arrival went smoothly and that you enjoyed the quirky charm and convenient location of your Paris hotel. Your tip about learning the train system early is spot-on—it's a... Read more