Booked: London & Paris!

One of the things we really wanted to do before the end of 2009 was to book a big vacation for ourselves. Neither of us have ever been to Europe and we decided we really wanted to do that while we were still young and childless. Originally, we were thinking of doing 3 cities, but I have limited vacation time and will need to take time off for surgery at some point this year. So, we decided on London & Paris.

As I previously mentioned, my mom is a Starwood employee, which gives me amazing access to employee rates at super fantastic hotels all over the world. We decided to take our trip in September and were able to book the Westin Paris for $94 USD per night and Le Meridien Piccadilly for $89 USD in London. Both M & I are extremely excited...it's going to be a long 9 months of waiting.

Le Meridien:














Westin Paris:














If you are looking to book international travel, check out http://www.vayama.com.
We were able to get flights for less than other websites (like expedia, orbitz..etc). Vayama does this special fare offer where they don't tell you what airline it is and don't give you specific times. But, they give you a one hour window. For example, they tell you that your flight is from Boston (BOS) to London (LHR) has zero stops and will depart between 7p - 8p and arrive between 6a - 7a the following day. The airline will be one of the OneWorld Alliance airlines (which include both American & British Airways), you just don't know which one until you purchase the flights. Also, they give you one hour to cancel after you book and receive all the flight information if you do not like it. So, there is nothing to lose.

We ended up getting an American airlines flight for $150 less per person than was posted on Vayama with the American Airlines information viewable. That savings will pay for at least one of our train tickets from London to Paris.

If you've been to London or Paris before and you have recommendations for restaurants/sites/activities, please share!