PARISSSS!! I have dreaming of this city for years and I spent a great deal of time creating the most perfect Itinerary for our trip. We spent three nights in Paris and if you’re someone who doesn’t mind being on the go 24/7 it’ll be enough time. Although I am also going to include spots we didn’t make it to but I would absolutely go when going back. 

The number one struggle I found when planning this trip was trying to decide what to do when. Paris is a decently sized city and I wanted to hit to most in one area so we didn’t spend our entire trip on the train. Thus this guide is going to be a little different as it is going to be our exact itinerary. 

A lot of people thinks Paris is overrated but after experiencing four days in Paris I would argue it is severely underrated. However, I think we had an unusually good experience in Paris as I’ve heard from friends a lot of negative experiences, I didn’t have a single complaint. We went February 20-23rd which I personally thought was perfect. Nothing was too crowded and some days it was actually pretty warm. My best friend was in Paris two weeks prior (& I am sure due to valentines day), it was a lot more crowded when she was there. We did not have to wait in many queues which I was shocked by. I am going to include days, dates and times as well because we always happened to get to places right before they got super crowded. 

Trains: Paris train system isn’t too complicated once you get the hang of it but if you’re not used to the system of trains as a whole it can be tricky. USE GOOGLE MAPS - I cannot recommend this app enough for traveling anywhere in Europe, I truthfully would not survive without it. The trains run at about 2.50 per fare, which adds up quickly. We purchased the Navigo Pass which ran for about 32 euros for the week. This pass gets you unlimited transportation on the train + busses. The only thing it does not include is the train to & from the airport which is 11 euros a fare (on the way back we got as close to the airport as we could with our passes then split a $15 uber instead). 

Safety: If you’re traveling with a group of girls I would definitely recommend the Navigo Pass as some areas of Paris can be unsafe — we did not run into any issues whatsoever & never felt unsafe but I think part of that was due to researching the areas & taking the train instead of walking for anything away from main areas. We were told to avoid areas 10th arrondissement, 18th and 19th. 

Where to stay: no matter where you stay, stay near a train station, it will save you a lot of time + headaches. Also make sure to avoid the arrondissements above. We stayed at Joe & Jo Hostel in Gentily and got a private room for 4 people. For three nights it came out to about $120 per person, which for Paris is pretty good!! We also felt incredibly safe in this hostel + area. 

Phone: you’ll need an intentional phone plan or an international SIM card when traveling abroad. I mostly used Airalo, which is an online eSIM where you can buy a SIM card for a week, two weeks for a low price. 

We landed in Paris at 3pm on a Monday. Checked into our hostel and ran immediately to the Eiffel Tower to get ready to watch her sparkle. The tower sparkles on every hour after dusk for five minutes - so make sure you spend some of those minutes just sitting there enjoying her. I was also told I would be underwhelmed by the tower, but when we got off the train, we turned the corner, saw her and all three legit gasped so loud people turned to stare at us. 

We hadn’t eaten since our afternoon in London so we just wandered into Le Den which was a quant Italian restaurant a couple streets over from the tower. If you eat around the Eiffel Tower be careful because many restaurants add extra random charges (like Le Champ de Mars), where we initially ran into because it looked really good until we read through the reviews of people warning against extra charges. Le Den had some amazing carbonara and pizza which made for the perfect start to our trip of eating our way through Paris!

6:30 wake up for the first full day in Paris, let’s get it!!!

Les Deux Magots: Simply, go!! The food is incredible and it just feels like Paris. I did LOTS of reading up about the best cafes in Paris and because of that I actually skipped Cafe De Flore, which seems to be the most instagramable cafe in Paris. However, I read they had subpar food with a heavy price tag. Les Deux Magots immediately became my favorite place we went in Paris, so much that we went out of our way to go back the last day. 

Notre dame: the cathedral is still closed to the public but just being able to look at it is a must. It is so beautiful. 

Shakespeare and company: this was the book store of our dreams, I think we might of spent an hour here. They had old newspapers and unique books that I got lost in. We waited in about a ten minute queue after arriving around 10:20am but when we exited it was MUCH longer. 

On our walk over to the Lourve we wandered into a cathedral and another book store. A lot of the doors to churches might just be open and if they’re not in service go spend some time in them, they are just incredible and make me sad America has nothing to even remotely compare. 

We also walked the Sienne and crossed over to the Lourve by the Love Lock bridge, which has significantly less locks on it nowadays. 

Lourve & Tuleries Garden: we only spent a little bit of time around the Lourve and the gardens, although it was beautiful it was of the most crowded place we had gone. 

Carette + Palace de Vosges: I just simply had to try the famous hot chocolate and it honestly lived up to the expectation. The Carette near the Palace de Vosges was way less crowded and we were able to immediately get a table at 3:20pm. If you’re going for just hot chocolate this time is great, but if you are wanting pastries go early because they were sold out of all croissants by the time we ended up here. 

After drinking some yummy hot chocolate we hung out in the courtyard of the Palace de Vosges and just people watched while reading quotes from a CS Lewis devo from Shakespeare and Co. 

Watch the tower sparkle on the Seine: walk directly down to the river from Av. de Cameons in order to get a beautiful view with nobody around. The closer you walk along the river towards the tower there will be SO MANY people. We were able to enjoy the tower in the perfect spot with nobody besides a few bikers around. 

Address 68 Avenue De New York, 75016 Paris, France (location of Pinky Bloom Paris but it gets you close enough)

Tuileries Garden: one of my favorite areas in Paris. We sat by the fountain and ate our pastries, I could only imagine this area in the springtime. 

Dinner: We ended up at Le Bon Pecheur & it was probably my least favorite meal of this trip, although still good. If we were not starving and willing to wait I would’ve chosen Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond for some affordable, authentic French food. 

Another recommendation for dinner would be Liberto, if we hadn’t just eaten Italian for lunch we would’ve gone. It looked beautiful and was rated super highly. 

Rue de Monttessuy: my favorite photo spot from the trip as I’ve have had a photo like this pinned for about a decade. We picked up some baguettes from a convenience store (around 1pm) for about a euro each and walked along the street on our way to the Eiffel Tower while inhaling baguettes. Besides dodging some cars, there was nobody else at this spot.

Picnic in Champs de Mars: we went slightly to the left of the tower, found an open space to dance around, eat baguettes, raspberry jam, deli meat chicken??, and macaroons while watching children feed pigeons. It was the last thing we did on our trip and with gorgeous weather it was the perfect ending to a perfect couple days in Paris.