a great value in a great Paris hotel

the Champs Élysées at dusk (c) 2018 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Are you looking for a great hotel in Paris but feeling discouraged by the room rates? Paris has perhaps the world's best collection of hotels, but the prices may be a bit more than you what you're looking to spend. I've got good news to share!

Park Hyatt Vendome boasts a great location. Just north of the Place Vendome, it's an easy walk both to shop haute couture boutiques or to explore the heart of Paris and all its attractions. Park Hyatt also happens to be offering a fabulous value.

Four nights for the price of three, for stays all summer long ... to September 8. And the value keeps getting better.

• Upgrades, if available, confirmable within 24 hours of booking
• Full breakfast daily for two guests
• $100 hotel credit towards incidental expenses
• Free parking!

For a random four night period in August, I saw an average rate of 533€ per night. This is less than half the price of other palace hotels in Paris. I did a site inspection of the Park Hyatt in April, and I was positively impressed with the contemporary comfort of its comfortable rooms.

VIP airport Meet & Greet — for stays of three nights or more in a Park Deluxe room and higher, Hyatt Privé guests will also receive a complimentary one-way private airport transfer with Meet and Greet service. You'll be met at the end of the jetway by a hostess with a Park Hyatt Paris Vendome sign, escorted with priority through immigration, and introduced to your driver!

Hyatt Privé offers great exclusive values like this to travelers in-the-know. Send us your dates and ask us what we can do for you.

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

April in Paris | 5 reasons to visit Paris now

Place Vendome, from the Tuilleries, photo by David Ourisman (c) 2015 all rights reserved

Update — April 11th ... the Euro is now $1.06. Time for European travel!

Is Paris on your mind? With the euro on sale (1€ = $1.09), grab the moment and plan that last-minute trip to my favorite city in the world. Here are five reasons to visit Paris now.

1. Strong dollar. Remember when the euro cost $1.40? With the euro costing only $1.09 today, this is a 22% discount on everything you buy in Europe — hotel rooms, meals, museum tickets, even that impulse purchase at Chanel.

2. April is shoulder season in Paris. This means less crowds and lower prices than during the the busier summer months.

3. Warm enough. Although April in Paris isn't balmy, spring in Europe has warmed up over the years. I took the  above on April 2, 2014 — and it was a beautiful day.

4. Beautiful hotels... In the picture above is my personal favorite hotel in Paris, Le Meurice (the building on the right). If you have more of a four star budget, the Westin Paris is pictured in the building to the left. I can get you value-added amenities at both hotels — including free breakfast, free internet, hotel credits, and even a guaranteed upgrade at Le Meurice.

5. ... and more beautiful hotels. A couple minute's walk from this same intersection are even more world-class hotels, including the Mandarin Oriental Paris, Park Hyatt Vendome, and the soon-to-reopen Ritz Paris. And, yes, I can get you amenities at each of these hotels. Here's my google map to our entire collection.

If Paris is on your mind, there's no better time to go than now!

copyright (c) 2015 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

what Parisians do in Paris

What do Parisians do in Paris? There are alternatives to standing in line at the Eiffel Tower, seeing a postage-stamp sized Mona Lisa in the middle of a large gallery with hundreds of tourists crowded in front of her, or having Starbucks coffee in the 6th arrondissement. Much better alternatives!

That's the idea behind this Google Map of 34 places in Paris that Parisians visit on their own. Only one of the 34 spots on this map (the Musée d'Orsay) is an attraction that would be on most tourists to-do lists. This map is a great for your next trip to Paris.

And when you're in Paris, I recommend you stay in one of the city's traditional "palace hotels" — the George V, Le Meurice, the Plaza Athenee, Le Bristol, the Ritz, and Hotel de Crillon (the last two hotels under renovation), or one of the new additions, the Mandarin Oriental, Royal Monceau, Shangri-La, and Park Hyatt Vendome. Need advice about where to stay? I've seen all nine, so please reach out to me. As a Virtuoso travel consultant, I can provide valuable amenities including complimentary daily breakfast for two at each of these hotels, upgrades, and additional perks.

copyright (c) 2014 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.