flights from Barcelona to Paris

[sandm]

We were on the Jean Miro from Paris to Barcelona in 2009. Here is a link to my trip report.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1018790

There are a few pictures of our Gran class Roomette at post # 38.

It was a wonderful way to travel for us and would do it again in a heart beat.

[ttkh]

new salt - Thank you for the information. We're probably take this option. It sounds wonderful.

 

sandm - thank you for the link to your trip report. I will definitely read it.

 

Now, I just need to find the airfare from LAX to PARIS and from BCN back to LAX.

Is there any suggestion on how I should search for this?

 

Thank you

[new salt]

Try kayak.com but bear in mind you may do better to look at Madrid rather than BCN and use the (very) high speed train from BCN to Madrid. Another possibility, and there are many people on here far more clued up than me in these matters, is to use Air France from LAX-PAR and return via Paris with them from BCN.

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

this is what we are planning to do too for our cruise in June. We just booked the cruise with Carnival and never been to Europe before. Can you share some of your information in term of

 

1. where to stay in Paris?

2. Train from Paris to Barcelona

3. How to get to the ship from the train station.

 

I feel overwhelm with the information and not enough time. Thank you

 

As this is our first trip to Europe, finding a Hotel in each city was a huge undertaking! Not that it is difficult, but the sheer number of Hotels to choose from was crazy!

 

We read reviews and suggestions from folks on here, TripAdvisor, and MANY other sites to get a feel for where we might want to stay in each of the 3 cities we are visiting.

 

In the end, I decided it came down to 3 things: Location, Reputation, and Price. As soon as you find a place that meets all of your criteria for these things, BOOK IT! For example, we wanted to stay in the Eiffel Tower area, so that helped narrow down our search a little. We finally found one that met all of our needs and that we could afford!

 

As far as the train goes, we are actually going part way (to Avignon) first for a couple nights. Then it's another trip from there to Barcelona after that. Because the trip is broken up, the prices are MUCH lower than those quoted above for an overnight trip. 3 Hours from Paris to Avignon one day, then 5 hours to Barcelona a couple days later. Unfortunately, all we can do is look at current schedules, because those tickets cannot be booked until 60-90 days out. Train tickets remains on my "things to do" list, but I have a good idea of the times and cost.

 

As we are also staying over in Barcelona for a couple days, we will be taking a taxi from our hotel to the ship.

I have to recommend you think about arriving in Barcelona a day in advance too. With the way travel is so unpredictable, taking the train on the day of departure can be as risky as flying in on departure day. You'll arrive on the ship stressed and tired. Just a thought...

 

Good Luck with your plans! I've found it's a lot more involved than any other trip we've ever taken, but also that the planning is always half the fun!

 

:)

[joandian]

I just had a tip given to me by a lady who has family in Paris. She told me to book a return airfare on Air France, which I did for $329 for both my husband and I - BCN to CDG. That is a huge difference to the $1100+ for a one way ticket on the same flight.

 

Jo

[nho9504]

I just had a tip given to me by a lady who has family in Paris. She told me to book a return airfare on Air France, which I did for $329 for both my husband and I - BCN to CDG. That is a huge difference to the $1100+ for a one way ticket on the same flight.

 

Jo

 

Without reading much of the above posts, I just want to remind you if you are going to do this, make sure the portion you "ditch" is the return leg, not your first part of the travel. Reservation would be automatically canceled if you have a r/t BCN-CDG-BCN for example but your intention is to fly CDG-BCN and not to use BCN-CDG, then you would be caught by a very unpleasant surprise and out of a lot of money because at the end the original ticket is invalid and you need to buy a one-way CDG-BCN.

 

Only do that if you fly BCN-CDG and forget about the CDG-BCN portion.

 

Also when flying intra Europe, there are many LCCs to choose from - LCC stands for Low Cost Carrier, such as EasyJet, Vueling, etc etc.

 

Vueling is the Spanish LCC which flies both domestic Spain and from Spain to many cities in Europe.

 

2 years ago we used it to fly BCN to VCE for our 2nd Transatlantic of the same year. Had a r/t award ticket BCN-US-BCN, use the first part to fly home after 1st Transatlantic already. Changed our mind on the 2nd Transatlantic instead of sailing from BCN we switched ship sailing from Venice. To change the tickets would cost us $150 per person and an overnight at LHR. A one-way BCN-VCE on Vueling costed about the same for 2 persons and an overnight at BCN which was not only cheaper than at LHR but more convenient.

 

Here are a few links for European LCCs info:

 

http://www.flylowcostairlines.org/low-cost-airlines/

 

http://www.attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/europe/

[joandian]

Without reading much of the above posts, I just want to remind you if you are going to do this, make sure the portion you "ditch" is the return leg, not your first part of the travel. Reservation would be automatically canceled if you have a r/t BCN-CDG-BCN for example but your intention is to fly CDG-BCN and not to use BCN-CDG, then you would be caught by a very unpleasant surprise and out of a lot of money because at the end the original ticket is invalid and you need to buy a one-way CDG-BCN.

 

Only do that if you fly BCN-CDG and forget about the CDG-BCN portion.

 

Also when flying intra Europe, there are many LCCs to choose from - LCC stands for Low Cost Carrier, such as EasyJet, Vueling, etc etc.

 

Vueling is the Spanish LCC which flies both domestic Spain and from Spain to many cities in Europe.

 

2 years ago we used it to fly BCN to VCE for our 2nd Transatlantic of the same year. Had a r/t award ticket BCN-US-BCN, use the first part to fly home after 1st Transatlantic already. Changed our mind on the 2nd Transatlantic instead of sailing from BCN we switched ship sailing from Venice. To change the tickets would cost us $150 per person and an overnight at LHR. A one-way BCN-VCE on Vueling costed about the same for 2 persons and an overnight at BCN which was not only cheaper than at LHR but more convenient.

 

Here are a few links for European LCCs info:

 

http://www.flylowcostairlines.org/low-cost-airlines/

 

http://www.attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/europe/

 

My research for tickets from BCN to Paris are all laid out in this thread, as is my reasons for not wanting to use low cost carriers.

 

Yes, we are flying from BCN to Paris after we come back from a cruise. The CDG - BCN flight, which we won't be taking cost $5 each plus tax so I'm not bothered about loosing that amount of money when I've saved so much by booking the return instead of one way.

 

Thanks though for the info.

 

Jo

[ttkh]

As this is our first trip to Europe, finding a Hotel in each city was a huge undertaking! Not that it is difficult, but the sheer number of Hotels to choose from was crazy!

 

We read reviews and suggestions from folks on here, TripAdvisor, and MANY other sites to get a feel for where we might want to stay in each of the 3 cities we are visiting.

 

In the end, I decided it came down to 3 things: Location, Reputation, and Price. As soon as you find a place that meets all of your criteria for these things, BOOK IT! For example, we wanted to stay in the Eiffel Tower area, so that helped narrow down our search a little. We finally found one that met all of our needs and that we could afford!

 

As far as the train goes, we are actually going part way (to Avignon) first for a couple nights. Then it's another trip from there to Barcelona after that. Because the trip is broken up, the prices are MUCH lower than those quoted above for an overnight trip. 3 Hours from Paris to Avignon one day, then 5 hours to Barcelona a couple days later. Unfortunately, all we can do is look at current schedules, because those tickets cannot be booked until 60-90 days out. Train tickets remains on my "things to do" list, but I have a good idea of the times and cost.

 

As we are also staying over in Barcelona for a couple days, we will be taking a taxi from our hotel to the ship.

I have to recommend you think about arriving in Barcelona a day in advance too. With the way travel is so unpredictable, taking the train on the day of departure can be as risky as flying in on departure day. You'll arrive on the ship stressed and tired. Just a thought...

 

Good Luck with your plans! I've found it's a lot more involved than any other trip we've ever taken, but also that the planning is always half the fun!

 

:)

 

Do you mind telling me what hotel are you going to stay in Paris? We also like to stay near the Eiffel Tower area. Thank you