Flight to Paris with RyanAir
So after our horrendous first experience with RyanAir, read about it here, we took a second RyanAir flight from Rome to Paris. This time, fortunately, there were no issues with the check in process and we were allowed to take our flights as planned. The flight was also on-time and just like the usual situation with any other budget airline, it was full with almost no free seats. The flight did take off and land on time and so that is definitely a plus point for it. However, as they have been unable to even reply to me for my concern above, as to why I was disallowed entry for BOTH bookings earlier, I still dislike this airline.
Anyway, we landed in Paris at Beauvais Airport which is seriously not at all near Paris nor was it near our next AirBNB home which was at Roissy En Brie. We took our apartment at this location as we were looking for an area near our Bohra community and also something not too far from Paris. Also, it was the only possible place to book near to our budget.
At BVA airport, as usual, I went to each individual counter to ask for the prices of cars and there were really few available as it was nearing the Christmas season. I had not realised at that time that my wife had made a booking from Hertz and when I asked Hertz, they mentioned to me they were all out of cars. I had nearly booked a car from Europcar when my wife told me she had made a booking with Hertz without paying anything upfront – otherwise I would have surely known about this and when I returned to Hertz, he said to me that he did indeed have our booking but would not give me the car as the card holder and the driver was not the same person. This is an insane rule but its true. Anyway, after quite a bit of debate, we lost the battle and were not given our car and the counter guy at Hertz had one more car to charge another person some insane amount for. This wasted us 2 or so hours and it was nearly 9pm when we left Hertz.
We ended up taking a bus from the airport to some place in the city – the bus ride was comfy and quite good. They greeted us politely and even helped us with our bags seeing as to how we had kids. I really recommend this bus to the city as it is both economical and fast. https://www.aeroportparisbeauvais.com/en/acces-et-transports/navettes/
The beauty about this bus service is that it starts from Paris city to BVA and returns from BVA to Paris city at times that are linked to flights. This is remarkable as this way passengers from flights do not need to wait very long at the airport. Two thumbs up there.
We got off at Paris Porte Maillot and took a taxi to our home. There was really no other option and we ended up paying quite a bit for this taxi as well.
Due to us being held back with our car, we ended up reaching the AirBNB really really late as well. However, the hosts were SUPER. Even though we were late, they were up for us and because we were late and had kids, they kindly prepared dinner for us as well. You would not believe how much that meant to us as we were really hungry as there was nothing halal available at the airport and we were all really hungry. The host also prepared a welcome basket for us and I must say they are probably amongst the best hosts out there. The place itself had some issues which I am sure the host resolved and I truly hope they get many more people staying at their lovely place.
This began our short stay in Paris which ended up being extended 🙂
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