Is The Cheap Cologne To Paris Bus Worth It?

There is a super cheap bus that goes from Cologne to Paris - but how much is it and is it worth that cheap, cheap price?

Budget travellers often have a problem: go for the cheapest option or go for the comfiest option? 

Luckily, we are here to trial out the cheap options for you, and then let you know if it's worth it (or not)!

Our second super long, super cheap coach journey in Europe was from Cologne to Paris - was it worth it? 

Three Things to Consider When Asking:

Should I Take the Coach From Cologne to Paris? 

1. The Price
2. The Timing
3. What's the journey actually like?

In this post we will address these three issues, and let you know whether we think it's worth it or not: 

1. The Price: This will probably be your biggest motivation for travelling via coach (it certainly was for us). But how much does it actually cost? 

Yes, a one-way ticket for us both to get from Cologne to Paris cost us just $3.85!!  

Great, so what's the catch? 

There is no catch! Okay you do have to book it far enough in advance (about a month) with the right carrier (megabus). 

Now usually here I would quote the prices of trains/driving/flying. But you know that there's no way they are going to be anywhere near as cheap as $3.85. 

Even though hitchhiking would be free, I think $3.85 is worth paying to not worry about who is going to pick you up and when.. right? 

Conclusion: Basically, this is one of the cheapest journeys we've ever taken and we were very excited about it. 

2. The Timing: You know the price is good, but coaches always take ages because they have to stop to pick up passengers/swap drivers. So how long does the coach actually take? 

We left Cologne at 23:30 and arrived in Paris the next day at 06:40.

Thus the journey took 7 hours 10 minutes. 
Now driving would take about 5 hours and taking the train takes just 3 hours. Flying would only take an hour - but you've got to add on the 4 spent in the airport/getting to the airport. 

Thus the coach takes longer (a lot longer in some cases) but 7 hours on a bus really isn't that bad if you're asleep. 

Personally, getting in at 6.40am was too early for us (especially as the coach actually got there at 6am). But we still managed to get about 6 hours of sleep which was more relaxing than going through customs/driving down the motorway.

Conclusion: whilst 7 hours on a bus sounds awful, most of it was spent asleep which, for us, is preferable to flying/driving. 

3. What's the journey like?:  $3.85 sounds so cheap the journey must have been awful right? Maybe you have to stand the whole way or maybe the bus is so overcrowded you suffocate? Maybe not.. Next we'll give you our first-hand account of what it is actually like taking the coach from Cologne to Paris:

The first thing to note is that the bus doesn't exactly go from the centre of Cologne. It leaves from Gummersbacher Strasse which is a 30 minute walk from the centre of Cologne. It's not a bad walk, in fact you get to walk past the bridge of locks!

Once you get there, it's a bit awkward as there is no sign for the megabus, but have faith because it does turn up. When it does, they have this great rule about not opening the doors until the 'official' time. I guess they don't get paid until 23:30 on the dot, but still when it's late and cold you just want to get on the damn bus!

When we were eventually allowed on the bus, the driver was hilarious. Tanbay (German) said "Parreee please'"in his best French accent. The driver said (in English) "Oh I'm sorry I don't speak Dutch". Tehe.

Anyway we were so super excited to be on the coach - it was warm, the seats were comfy and there were only 6 other passengers!

We slept pretty much the whole way there, sure it was not the most comfy sleep ever, but I have had worse on other smaller/more crowded/colder buses (and planes)! 

The best thing to do is to get as comfy and as warm as possible. This bus was spacious anyway and because there were so few passengers we could have two seats each. I find taking my shoes off helps as does piling on the jumpers and socks. 

ANYWAY, it was probably the comfiest bus ride we've ever taken and we spent the whole time sleeping or being pleased about spending almost nothing on a 7 hour journey to Paris. 

Conclusion: All in all it was totally worth it! It was $3.85 for us both to take a 500km journey. The bus was comfy and warm and it cost next to nothing. 

Would we do it again? Of course! It was so cheap!! You definitely get a lot more than you pay for. 

Tips: If you are thinking of taking the coach from Cologne to Paris remember:

• Gummersbacher Strasse is easy to get to, but takes time and is quite inconspicuous when you get there. 
• Take headphones/jumpers/socks to be as comfy as possible
• Don't try and speak French to the English bus driver

So would you take this journey from Cologne to Paris? Let us know! 

Once we arrived in Paris, we tried AirBnB for the first time. To find out more about it (and more importantly to get your own AirBnB voucher/coupon) click here: 

Review: AirBnB in Paris (and a AirBnB coupon)

With more and more scam stories about AirBnB being published, we thought it was time for us to review AirBnB.

We decided to try AirBnB in Paris for the first time. In this post we will tell you all about it and give you your own AirBnB coupon code!

Why we chose AirBnB over House Sitting (this time)

If you’re new to this blog you’ll need to know that our main mode of accommodation is House Sitting. So why is this post about AirBnB? Our long love affair with House Sitting is far from over, in fact we are House Sitting at this very moment! We still love and advocate House Sitting and still rave about it over here. But last month we knew that we would only be spending one specific night in one specific city (i.e. 2nd Dec, Paris) and the chances of someone needing a House Sitter for that one date in that one city were not very likely, so we decided to try out something new: AirBnB! 

What is AirBnB?

Through the AirBnB website, you can find local hosts willing to rent out their unique places to travellers. You can stay in someone’s spare room (like we did), stay on someone’s sofa, or you can even stay in an entire empty apartment. We only stayed for one night but you can stay for a few days, a week or even a whole month! 

We already prefer AirBnB to hotels because, like House Sitting and Couchsurfing, you get a real feel of what it’s like to live like a local (as opposed to what it’s like to live in a hotel/hostel). Plus you get more for your money!

We also have an AirBnB discount for you!! For anyone looking to use AirBnB for the first time, we can offer you £16/$25 off your first AirBnB stay! Just click here. 

What the process was like

Finding the perfect host is easy. The website has lots of categories you can tick/ un-tick to narrow down your search. There is also a map so you can see where the houses are located and a cost bar so you can set your price range. I just pulled the maximum price down to 60 Euros, set our specific dates and then used the map to search for properties near the Eiffel Tower. For longer stays though I would definitely tick the wifi box and perhaps the ‘Entire Place’ option.

I found that there were lots of hosts which suited our criteria, so I picked the one nearest the Eiffel Tower. I spent a lot of time reading through her profile, looking through her photos and sent her a personalised email. She unfortunately declined because she was busy. So after that I decided to just send out a generic email to lots of suitable hosts.

Then of course all of these ones wanted us to stay with them

I just picked the one who got back to us first and politely declined the others. There was a lot of choice to fit our needs though and all were cheaper than hotels! 

All in all, it was a more enjoyable process than applying for House Sits /Couchsurfing because as you are paying them, you have the ‘upper-hand’ for once. It was a nice change of pace.

Also, we didn’t apply for any AirBnB hosts who required deposits, because we thought that was a bit weird - you don’t pay a deposit for Hotels/Hostels/House Sits/Couchsurfing. Yet even with this requirement, there was still a lot of choice. 

I also didn’t pay too much heed of the references. Obviously references are a plus and an absolute priority if you’re travelling alone. But we were travelling together and I know what it’s like to not get anywhere because you don’t have references. Everyone has to start somewhere! 

In the end though our host actually had 11 good references. He had one bad one too, but all it said was that there was cat hair on the bed.. as Pet Sitters that is not an issue for us! 

If I was travelling on my own I probably would have concentrated more on the references. The reference system on AirBnB is good, with AirBnB checking the genuineness of them, and with reference givers having the option to anonymously say something against AirBnB hosts. Furthermore, hosts can have their ID verified by scanning in official ID and connecting AirBnB to their social networks. As a traveller you can opt for just staying with verified hosts with lots of good references. 

The AirBnB Experience 

What was our first experience with AirBnB actually like?

Before we’d even arrived we were pleased about two things, firstly our room was:

cheaper, nicer and in a better location than a hotel

We picked a private room for the two of us for £50. The room was in a couple’s apartment which was 10 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower. Any hotel that’s that close to the Eiffel Tower is way more expensive (and if it’s not it’s very grotty). 

As first timers we managed to get a £16 discount

The second advantage we found was: 

We could check in at any time! 

This was really important to us as we weren’t planning on sleeping very much the night before. We had decided to get an overnight bus from Köln, which arrived in Paris at 6am. Almost all hotels we looked at didn’t have check in until 2pm. We’d have had no sleep and no option of sleep until 2pm. That would not have been pretty. 

But the AirBnB we signed up for let us check in at any time! Our plan was to try and sleep as much as possible on the bus, but not worry about it too much because we’d have an awesome sleep as soon as we got to Paris. In the end we got into the apartment and into our beds at 9am, 5 hours earlier than if it had been a hotel.  

[What happened between 6am and 9am? Well, we got lost looking for the tube, spoke some seriously bad French asking for directions, were answered back in English (how do they always know I’m English?), got lost again, got new pointed directions, finally found it. Had some breakfast near the station (classy), then we tried to help some poor girl who got her card stuck in a machine, but couldn’t help even with my trusty tweezers. Took two tube rides across Paris, saw the Eiffel Tower from the train and then walked the last three minutes to the apartment, not sure how this all took 3 hours] 

Our room actually came with an en-suite, our own keys, coffee and shared use of the kitchen. There were also two cats who were super cute (and as promised cat hair on the bed ;) ). Our bedroom was separated from our host’s by a living room, they mainly stayed in there and were (in our opinion) good hosts: they were always there to offer us advice, but tried to keep out of our way the rest of the time. 

We had a great time out in Paris, I know I keep going on about it but the location of the flat really was great. It was in a nice safe area and so close (10 mins walk) to the Eiffel Tower! Having had that morning nap thanks to AirBnB we were fresh and happy to enjoy Paris (which we wouldn’t have been if we’d stayed in a hotel). 

For linner (lunch and dinner) we decided to have a picnic of bread and cheese. We bought our items but because it was so cold and had started to rain we decided to picnic in the house. It was nice to be able to do this (of course you could do this in a hotel room, but you wouldn’t have a kitchen to use..) 

Later on in the evening we decided to go out for drinks, I wanted to invite our hosts to come along too, but Tanbay said that was too polite. So I contented with just asking him for his insider knowledge of the best bars around. 

We had to go bed quite early because we had an early bus to catch the next day, when we went to bed they were watching tv in the living room adjacent to our room, and when we said goodnight they considerately turned it off. 

We had one of the best night’s sleep ever

I don’t know about you, but even in the poshest of hotels I still find it a bit hard to sleep - you can always hear someone somewhere doing something, even if it’s supposedly soundproof.

When we woke up in the morning we couldn’t believe how well we’d slept, considering where we were in Paris (i.e. close to the Eiffel Tower) and what we were doing (i.e. sleeping in a stranger’s house). 

We left the flat before they got up, leaving the key under the doormat for them (as pre-arranged). 

Conclusion for AirBnB

Overall, we were really satisfied with our first experience of AirBnB. House Sitting still remains our favourite form of accommodation but, AirBnB has found it’s way into our hearts, we will definitely be using it for more short term trips next year - perhaps in Sweden!  

AirBnB boasts 350,000 hosts in 190 countries, so there is almost certainly a host out there for you. It really is a great way to travel like a local and to get a pretty unique experience. Why not try it on your next trip? 

We really recommend AirBnB and if you haven’t tried it before and would like to at a £16/$25 discount (who wouldn’t) I am happy to give you one here

Have you ever tried AirBnB? If so, what was your first time like? 

Is One Day Enough For Sightseeing In Paris?

Paris: quite possibly the most romantic city in the world. Seeing or climbing the Eiffel Tower is often one of the top 5 things to do on people's bucket lists.

But there are a lot of cool cities to visit in Paris, and if you're pressed for time, can you see all the sights in Paris in just one day? 

We spent Monday in Cologne, took the overnight bus to Paris, spent a day in Paris, stayed in our first AirBnB and took the bus back to England the next morning.

So how should you spend just one day in Paris (if you're on a tight budget)?

1. Visit The Eiffel Tower (duh) 

I don't think there is anyone who would go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower (please correct me if I'm wrong). It's one of the most iconic sights in the world, you just can't miss it if you go to Paris - I won't allow it!

We didn't go up the Eiffel Tower for a number of reasons:

1. It was a cold day - and no doubt colder and windier the higher up you were.
2. We think that if you want to see a great view of Paris, surely you want the Eiffel Tower to be in that great view?
3. It's kind of expensive - about 15 Euros per person, which isn't a lot if it's top of your bucket list, but is a lot if it isn't. If that makes sense..
4. The line was really long. 

But the Eiffel Tower is still great to just look at (and free). I've only ever been there in summer before and whilst the weather is a lot lot colder in winter (obviously), it was also a lot lot less crowded. Win win if you like the cold!

We tried (and failed) to get a cute romantic photo of us and old Eiffely. This was our best attempt: 

We found a way to solve this awful problem, though you have to not be on a budget. We spotted a couple who had hired a photographer!! He just followed them round and took excellent photos of them. Bit jealous. 

Anyway, enough about couple photos, here are some 'arty' photos we took of the Tower:

You can easily spend an hour walking round the Eiffel Tower, marvelling at its marvellousness and trying (failing) to take an original picture. 

2. Tarts and Macarons 

After we oohed and aahed at the Eiffel Tower and took a billion pictures, we ambled off up a side street looking for the best thing about France: THE FOOD.

We walked for about 15 minutes or so, because whilst almost all food in Paris is great, the closer it is sold to the ET, the more expensive it is.

We drooled and dribbled at beautifully handcrafted treats and after I dragged Tanbay away from a two tiered cake we finally settled on the two beauties above.

They were pretty expensive (3.5 Euros each) but they were big and they were so so worth it! Unlike German desserts (that may look great, but make you want to puke with their sickliness after 2 seconds) these desserts were perfect. They looked perfect and from the first bite to the last crumb they tasted perfect. I'm not even joking if I had to choose one between Tanbay and that dark chocolate tart, it would have been the tart. Haha

Incidentally, Tanbay kept saying "I love tarts" and "tarts are great" without knowing that there is another meaning of tart in English. lol

You have to have a macaron in Paris

We chose a super big one this time with whole raspberries in the centre and, like the tart, it did not disappoint.

3. Cheese

After we'd spent ages picking out the perfect pudding, it was time to concentrate on the main course. If you're only having one meal in Paris then it should most definitely be French stick with cheese. YUM. The sticks are normally about 1 Euro and they are the perfect bread. So much less dense than the french sticks you get in England/Germany.

The cheese of course is great too, and most of it is on the stinkier side (which is good). Just buy a whole cheese and eat it like an animal with your bread (or get a plate and knife, whatever).

We complimented our picnicy type meal with apples. Tanbay didn't want an apple and tried to trick me into agreeing by saying "but I don't want any food that isn't French whilst I'm in France". Then I pointed at the apple label which said 'grown in France'.

4. Cocktails

The only thing missing from our epic meal was wine. So when the sun went down we went out looking for wine. Wine is cheap and excellent in France. But we found cocktails instead and after reading the description of a French 75 (Gin, Lemon juice, Champagne and sugar) we forgot all about wine.

I doubt 'French 75' originated in France, but I was so excited that I understood 'Canne à Sucre' I didn't care.

5. The Eiffel Tower at Night!

After our cocktails it was time to see the Eiffel Tower again, and this is where our top travel tip comes in:

If the weather is rubbish (i.e. all winter in Europe) take your iconic photos at night! 

It looked so much better!

Small warning: There are some guys who hang around the Eiffel Tower trying to sell you plastic Eiffel Towers for 30 cents or something. They can be a bit pushy, but if you firmly tell them no and don't smile at them they go away. 

At night though they seemed to be even more pushy, so we resorted to crossly talking at them in German, until they went away. 

Anyway, despite the Vautours, the Eiffel Tower was so beautiful at night, and at 8pm some more lights came on and did a dance and that was exciting. We definitely preferred the Eiffel Tower at night. 

All in all, our Paris trip was really sweet, really cheap and pretty romantic. Paris is the best and we will definitely be back again! 

It's quite hard to compare it to our Amsterdam Trip. In Amsterdam we did a lot more but were also a lot more tired!

I will leave you with my three favourite photos that we took:

P.S. If you have any questions about Paris, let us know!!