Hello Travelers!

Why not???  Isn’t that what we all think when we find a super cheap inter-European air ticket? That’s certainly what I thought when I booked my 120 euro roundtrip ticket from Rome, Italy to Paris-Beauvais, France.

Okay, so here’s the question: would I still have booked my ticket had I known that the Beauvais airport is as far from Paris as Trenton, New Jersey is from New York City? The Paris Beauvais airport is approximately 55 miles / 88 km from the city center, i.e. it’s an approximately 2 hour ride! Add some bumper-to-bumper Parisian traffic (20 minutes), add in a long line to buy a bus ticket (20 minutes), add in the wait for the bus (20 minutes), and then add the Metro ride to your hotel from the bus stop (20-40 minutes).

All in all: almost 4 hours of airport travel! Mind you, the plane ride from Rome was little less than 2 hours long, so the airport travel is twice as long as the flight.

And then…just imagine what happens if you oversleep, or you accidentally “underestimate” the traffic time, or the Metro time, or the shuttle bus time, and you miss your flight. Then what happens? Ryan Air might only send out 2 flights per day (and they will shamelessly charge you €75 to change your ticket). There is no way you can feasibly take a bus back into Paris, and there are no other airlines in Beauvais that fly to your destination. Granted all of this, you might end up spending two days in an airport with 1 gift shop, 1 restaurant, and 2 bathrooms.

What do I suggest? Make the investment! Fly to Orly or Charles de Gaulle. That extra 50-€75 will save you your sanity and approximately 8 hours in travel time.

Happy Travels,

Elizabeth