Scenario: Round trip airfare for 2 from Boston, MA to Paris, France plus 4 nights hotel accommodation.
Depart Boston on December 30th, returning January 4th.
Goal: Just get to Paris as cheaply as possible without worrying too much about location as long as it's in the city proper and near a metro station.
Stay at a hotel, not a hostel.
Contenders: Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Go-Today.
First up, Expedia.
I'm using the Vacation Packages tab as this gets us a better deal than booking the airfare and hotel separately.
And while I love having choices in life, 764 hotels is a bit much, especially when many of the cheaper choices are outside of Paris, and thus miss our goal of being in the city proper.
Luckily they let you sort by area, or arrondissements of Paris.
I'm going to focus my search on the 11th-20th arrondissements as those are further out, so should be cheaper.
Arrondissement 18 comes out the cheapest, at $798.
This is the Sacre Coeur area, which has the added benefit of being fun to say in your favorite outrageous fake French accent.
Try it.
Expedia: United/Lufthansa flights connecting in Washington D.
C.
4 nights at the Hotel Merryl.
Total Cost: $797.
82 per person.
Next up, Travelocity.
Also choosing the air and hotel package option in order to get a better deal.
Travelocity is also nice enough to still have popup ads on their site which popup when I click search.
Thanks for that.
Travelocity also lets you select the neighborhood, but they don't number them like Expedia.
Also, only 77 hotels are offered, which is either good or bad, depending on your point of view.
The cheapest hotel that meets our goals is in the 14th arrondissement, Hotel Montparnasse Alesia.
Oh wait, I clicked select and got this message: We are sorry but your selected hotel is no longer available for these dates.
The hotel has just sold out.
I'm sure.
I hate sites that do that.
In case you're keeping score at home, that's 1 popup, and 1 sorry-your-hotel-is-sold-out.
Back to the list.
The new cheapest hotel that meets our goals is the Grand Hotel Nouvel Opera.
It is, however, about $80 more than the previous hotel.
Bait and switch? Who knows.
Travelocity: USAirways/United flights connecting in Washington D.
C.
4 nights at the Grand Hotel Nouvel Opera.
Total Cost: $837.
78 per person Next up is Orbitz.
Orbitz tried to throw a popup at me, but it was blocked.
Better luck next time Orbitz.
Let's hope your prices are better than your popups.
Same deal - air/hotel package to save costs.
Orbitz has a sweet little grid that shows you prices based on hotels down the side and airlines across the top.
I'm a fan.
I like all the information on one page.
For their cheapest hotel, Orbitz is offering the Grand Hotel De L'Avenue Paris.
This is the most French sounding hotel so far.
Orbitz: United flights connecting in Washington D.
C.
4 nights at the Grand Hotel De L'Avenue Paris.
Total Cost: $859 per person Last but not least, we have Go-Today, a company that specializes in vacation packages.
They offer a 6 night New Years in Paris package.
While this is 2 more nights than the other guys, let's give it a try to see if they can give the others a run for their money.
Choosing what you want is much easier than the other sites.
They have a small list of hotels at various price points.
Choose one, choose your travel date and departure airport and you're done.
I'm picking the Comfort Gare de L`Est Hotel, also very French sounding.
We'll be departing 2 days earlier, on December 28th but still returning on Monday, January 4th.
Departing from Boston will add $30 to the package price.
Go-Today: Flights to Paris.
You don't actually find out when or what airline until after you book.
This may or not be a problem for you.
6 nights at the Grand Hotel De L'Avenue Paris.
Total Cost: $949 per person Winner: Expedia.
Conclusion: Expedia came in at just under $800 and met all of our goals.
Travelocity was the most annoying and while I love the Orbitz's grid, they certainly make you pay for it.