(Originally posted 29 July 2016) We made a rookie mistake by trying to save some money on our flight to Iceland. Flying via Paris worked out much cheaper, even as two separate bookings – one from Porto, Portugal to Paris and then from Paris on to Reykjavík, Iceland. But the BIG MISTAKE happened when we did not check that we were arriving and leaving from the same airport.
We had not been able to visit Paris as part of this crazy adventure, so when it was the cheapest flight option, we jumped at the chance and tried to take advantage of the stopover. We thought we could use our 12 hours between our flights to get into the city for the day and see some of the significant sites.
Soon after booking our flights, we had a nagging feeling and checked our flights. That’s when we saw our mistake of needing to be at two different airports. As the ‘planner’, Lauren was initially freaked out, but we talked it over and thought it would still be okay since we would have to leave the airport anyway to tour the city. It would mean we would need to lug our two rather heavy bags now instead of storing them – an inconvenience but not a disaster.
Further investigations revealed that Beauvais airport is 80km out of Paris and a similar distance from Charles de Gaulle airport. A taxi would not be an option that worked within our budget!
We spent hours pouring over the different options for tackling this problem. No matter how we looked at it, the trains, buses and city tours would add up to way too much money to make it viable to get into the city and glimpse the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral or the Louvre Museum.
So, in the end, we would not be able to explore Paris. Although we are no strangers to killing time at an airport, our day in Paris’ airports was particularly challenging with incredible ‘bucket list’ gems being so close but remaining elusive.
Featured image: Schalk and Lauren killing time at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris