Perfect trip if you just want to see the main sights but not spend much time at any of them. We were able to get to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre, Notre-Dame, Champ de Mars, Moulin Rouge, walk along the Seine, as well as several other monuments. Had lunch at a street cafe by Notre-Dame. We were not able to to go up the Eiffel tower or go in the Louvre but you only have so much time. Would recommend that you ask/know exactly how to get to the first pickup spot. It is very close to the train station but can be a little difficult for those of us that like to fly by the seat of our pants. I would also recommend calling the local tour company the prior to ensure the meeting point at St. Pancras
Review by: Julie H, June 2018
I was both excited and nervouss about taking this trip. I'm so glad we did, and have no regrets. Being that the meeting time at St. Pancras International was very early, we decided to do a dry run the day before to see how long it would take to get to the station and to find the meeting point ahead of time. This was so we can decide what transport mechanism to arrive at St. Pancras. We were able to get on the first tube of the morning from our area and arrived at exactly 6am at the meeting point. But of course one of would have to determine their own logistics plan. Our guide arrived before the 6:15am meeting time as we were all starting to group by then. This was an Evan Evans tour, and Nigel was our guide. Nigel gave us our tickets to the Eurostar, and thoroughly explained the process for the train and a quick overview of how the day will go. Do do your own homework in terms of what passport/visa requirements that is necessary for your own travels to go to another country and remember to bring your necessary travel documents. Also, read thoroughly the information about the tour itself before deciding to book, to see if this is a good trip for you, as well as the information after booking. It seems like some of the complaints are unfair because of not reviewing the detailed instructions or not realizing that you're going to see a lot of Paris in one day which means that you won't be spending time touring say like the Louvre for example. We opted for the guided tour since I was not up to touring the city on my own, after running around London for 5 days. We are a family of 5 me, hubby, and 3 teenagers. Nigel told us exactly where he would be once we got off the train in Paris, and he was exactly there. From there we were guided to a small coach bus, and off on our day we were. I can't comment for anyone going off on their own since we did the guided tour. Nigel was knowledgeable and informative about Paris. We went by all the major sites, with the driver slowing down for a pause to see the various sites. In a nutshell, yes, this is a whirlwind day, but I knew that going in. There is a lot to see in Paris, so you're going to see the highlights. But then you have a guide giving you lots of information about the various sites and the history as well. We then stopped near the Eiffel Tower which Nigel explained where we would meet up for the boat tour, and then he walked us to the Eiffel Tower area, and then we had about 90 minutes on our own to wander and grab a bite for lunch, then over to the boat cruise. The boat cruise itself was about 40 minutes long. Paris is a beautiful city. After the boat cruise, we then got back on the bus for some more views of Paris and sites. We then stopped at the Louvre for about 15 minutes to take pictures, and got back on the bus. We then headed to Notre Dame area, which we had about 45 minutes to walk around, and a quick snack / drink in a cafe. We brought a backpack with basic essentials light jacket, umbrella, light snacks which we could leave our bus if needed, but of course you keep your valuables purse/wallet, train tickets, passports, etc with us at all times. I was fortunate to have been to Paris about 20 years ago so I have seen the city, but wanted my family to get to see it. They enjoyed this trip as well, and look forward to going back to Paris with more time to explore. Yes, it is a whirlwind day, but you see a lot, you learn a lot. I call this like a movie trailer of Paris. We had no issues with any part of the day, everything went exactly as the itinerary explained, and when I called the day before to confirm the trip as noted on our booking details, the representative did a quick overview of everything as well. I realize this is a long review, but I think you need to decide if this is the right trip for you. If you're wanting a more leisurely trip with time to explore the popular sites like the Louvre or Eiffel Tower, etc, maybe then this isn't the trip for you, and better off with a longer trip to Paris. But we took advantage of being on a London vacation, coming from the US, to do a day trip to Paris since it's close proximity. Nigel was attentive to our group, and looked out for us. The driver I don't recall his name but he was a very polite young man, and navigated around the city very well, as Paris traffic is quite chaotic. If you're uncertain about this trip in any way, do contact Evan Evans with any questions ahead of time. The one suggestion I would have, and not to Evan Evans, but to the traveler, is to have a small amount of Euros on hand. Yes many places take credit cards but a little bit of Euros on hand for the bathroom at the train station or say like a small purchase, would have come in handy. There was not time to get that ahead of time once we arrived ed at Gare du Nord and I wished to have had the foresight to do that. If you decide to go, sit back and enjoy the beautiful city of Paris
Review by: Pchampan, May 2018
I booked this trip last minute literally the day we were flying to London thinking it would be a great way to get my parents who are older to see Paris. I became nervous a few days before our trip because of the various reviews, but it looks like Viator/Evan Evans has fixed all of the kinks that people complained about before. We did the guided tour option. It was very easy to find the Dune shoe shop within St. Pancras station. We were met by both the Evan Evans representative and by Richard, who was our tour-guide for the day. There was a total of 10 people there for the guided portion. Richard carefully walked us through the entire checking in procedure and how to get to our train seats which was easy enough, but having him explain it put my parents at ease. Once in Paris Eurostar was great and speedy he led us to our hired minivan, which was more than enough space for our entire group - we did not have to do the hop on/hop off bus that many reviewers wrote about. From there, we were driven to all the major sites by our wonderful driver Ahmed - Arc de Triumph, Champ de Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, etc. etc. We mostly were driven by things and given the opportunity to take pictures - there wasn't much time to stop, but this made sense, given that we only had the day in Paris and this enabled us to 'see' as much as possible. We had an hour for lunch on our own, and Richard was very clear in taking us to a street with lots of restaurants that wasn't too touristy and also telling us how to get to several spots for prime Eiffel tower pictures. Then we met up for the Seine River cruise - the boat was very comfortable with lots of space both upper and lower deck, and it provided more wonderful views that you couldn't have seen from the road. After that, we got back in the van for more site-seeing through the windows - we stopped at the Louvre for about 20 minutes for pictures of the exterior only, and then we stopped at Notre Dame Cathedral for about an hour, which was more than enough time to see the inside of the Cathedral and also do a quick stop for crepes and for some souvenir shopping. We did not get to go to the 2nd level of the Eiffel tower, but I didn't mind because we saw so much of Paris in such a short time-frame - if we'd gone inside the tower, it would have eaten up about 2-3 hours. The mini van meant that we weren't stuck in traffic as so many other reviewers noted, and having Richard meet us in London as opposed to Paris another gripe from some reviewers also meant we wasted no time having to look for our tour guide. He stayed with us all the way through customs and immigration in Paris and getting us safely to our seats on the way home. All in all, I was very satisfied with the experience - a great introduction to Paris, and a great opportunity for my parents, who probably will not be going back to France on their own but were able to see all the 'big' things and get a quick taste of the city.
Review by: Leanne G, April 2018
Loved it ! Paris was so beautiful and our guide was very informative and helpful !
Review by: John G, April 2018
Our guide, Nigel was very knowledgeable
Review by: Trudi O, March 2018
We arrived in Paris ready for a wonderful day of sightseeing, Stop right there, standing on the platform over 1 hour and 30 min and several phone calls later trying to find the guide, Anthony arrived .Off we go to the bus, we got on the bus and waited and waited and waited then low and behold we are off now 2 hour and 45 min after arriving in Paris we are on our way. Anthony did his best to make our trip great and see everything we could, but we were just rushed all day. We had to rush to the train we just minutes to get though customs and on to the train. Not the best trip I have ever been on.
Review by: nikki4ever13, March 2018
We opted to do the self guded tour since we went to the guided tour last year and didnt have enough time to take pics . We took the hop on and off bus as soon as we got off the train in Gare du nord. There was a heavy traffic in Paris . We decided to stay in the bus to see all the sights then got off at the Eiffel tower stop. We took a lot of pictures . Honestly I think we needed at least 2 days to see the main sights as one day wasnt enough with the traffic . Maybe taking the metro would have been better . Over all we had a great experience . Our reprensentative in London explained everything in detail and the tour guide in Paris gave us instructions on how to get back to the train station .
Review by: Crystal S, February 2018
The guide that met us at the London station was great and gave us all the details we needed to get to our train. It was a smooth process getting on the train, finding out seats. It was very comfortable on the Eurostar. We met another guide when we got to Paris who was great as well and gave us all the needed info to get around Paris and make it back on time to take the train back to London. The only problem we ran into was the time we had to spend in Paris. We got off the Hop on Hop off bus at the Louvre and Eiffel Tower and with 8 hours to spend in Paris, thats all we were able to really do. We got pictures of other places but we didn't have time to get off the bus and explore them as much as we'd have liked. An overnight tour would have been better, especially with as much as we paid for it.
Review by: amyethatcher, February 2018
It was a really good day overall. Yet, didn’t feel like Evan Evans was very organized. We didn’t get the time we were told we would get at sites, our guide didn’t time the buses well, just sorta chaotic. We liked him and enjoyed the day, but not impressed overall with the company.
Review by: Don S, December 2017
What a great journey...quick, comfortable, efficient...so much better than flying.
Review by: Leah, December 2017
Very organized. You meet the agent in the train station around 6:30 and they tell you in a very detailed way how to get where you need to go. The one thing I would tell people is the hop on buses in Paris are very slow. Paris traffic is horrbile and you'll wait up to an hour on a bus before you first get to a site. Once we actually started on the tour and saw some sites, we really enjoyed it. A great way to get a taste of the city when you don't have several days to spend in the country.
Review by: Deborah, November 2017
Loved this tour! Got to do so much and see the greatest places in Paris! The whole tour was the best!!!!
Review by: Hafiza H, November 2017
I travel alone and it was my first time to Europe. Find out Viator in the website and tried it out. On the travel day, I was at the station at 5.45am and about 6.15am the rep from Evan company met me in front of the Dune shop at St Pancreas Station. She gave the ticket and other itinerary. Checked in myself and waiting for Eurostar train to Paris. It was a wonderful journey as i met a good people during my 2 hours travel. The tour guide waited for me and has welcomed me at Gare Du Nord Station soon after i arrived. He brought me tour on hop on hop off bus. Even with very tight scheduled, my tour guide Christopher managed to allow me an hour shopping at Champ Elysee. Managed to grab my dream handbag in hour! Yes! After visited all the attraction places we reached station at 7pm. The train to London from Gare Du Nord at 8.30pm and i arrived London about 10.30pm. Thank you Viator to make my first experience trip to Paris are wonderful and memorable.
Review by: Jildac2, November 2017
Don't bother booking this! I am giving it 2 stars because the train ticket purchase was made easy, but otherwise, a disaster for the 9 of us that were left stranded at the train station in Paris. We waited over a half hour then called the Evan Evan people using the number they provided, even though the letter in the tour packet and the trip description tells us there will be someone waiting on the other end in Paris, we got conflicting stories on the phone. They told us no one was supposed to get us, that the letter was a misprint. They told us we need to find the closest Big Bus stop and start from there, so we dd. And when we got there a very rude guy told us that we just didn't see our 6 foot plus tall guide, that he was waiting for us. We confirmed this not to be true when we got to the Big Bus Depot. yes the rude guy made us go to the Depot, so now we are 3 hours into our 1 day trip in Paris, and haven't started our tour. So we get to the Depot where the rudeness continues, and the guy behind the counter actually threatened to sue one of us if we tried to take a picture of him. Just note, no one actually was trying to take a picture of him, but of the sign behind him. The guide finally catches up to us at the depot, gives us a cursory half, sorry and hands us general entry tickets to the Lourve we already purchased our tickets and told him so. Now we have our Big Bus ticket and finally after a total of 21/2 hours get to start our trip. The Big Bus throughout the route was not accommodating or friendly as we found in other cities. Onw god thing that came out of this trip, were the lovely family from Australia, they are now our new friends. So yes good comes from this bad experience
Review by: Christy, November 2017
Our guide could barely speak English, so we hardly understood what he was telling us. We couldnt go to 2nd level of Eiffel Tower, we couldnt go in Norte Dame and barely saw the Champs d Elyse. It was very disappointing. I would not go again
Review by: Gerlinda W, October 2017
We were very disappointed in our personal tour guide, Sammy. We were only a group of six and he did a poor job of planning the day. First we were very disappointed that the Louvre replaced our hopes of the Eifel Tower tour. We acknowledge that this was stated in our agenda, however the Louvre visit did not provide any joy. Sammy dropped us off at the doors we did skip the long line and gave us just one hour and twenty minutes to find the Mona Lisa...as if this was the only reason to visit the museum. It took us the entire allowed time just to find it and then have to get through the crowd back to our meeting place. While we were exiting the museum I noticed a beautiful courtyard through the windows. When we met Sammy I mentioned this to him and he said that walk would take too long....I insisted and we were all extremely happy to have gone out this way as it led us to the Seine and the city views were amazing. Too good to be missed if I would not have insisted. Sammy did not have a time frame for lunch and we did tell him that we all traveled from London at 4am and it is now past 2pm and we need to stop. He was not familiar with the area and it took some extra walking to find a sit-down café. The lunch was ideal and perhaps the highlight of our day because it was a perfect experience of lunch in Paris. Sammy should have known where to take us. Next we hopped off the bus at Notre Dame and again felt like he just dropped us off without any history or other information. We finally did get to walk around the Eifel Tower and it was magnificent....but again we were rushed to meet the boat. The boat cruise was another disappointment. The boat was filthy, was not cleaned in between groups and we had to clear away garbage to already overfilled trash cans and the rest rooms were disgusting. This particular cruise line is an embarrassment to Paris. We would not recommend this tour. The only good and helpful moments were being met at the train station in Paris and being returned to the station in the evening. Otherwise we could have totally chosen a Hop-On Hop-Off tour on our own, because that is all we did all day and we did enjoy that with the headsets. When we chose the guided tour we expected the tour to be more personal and expected the tour guide to be organized and professional.
Review by: Roger H, October 2017
Our tour guide was really late and killed an hour of the short time we had in Paris while he searched for people. We didn’t even have a guided tour but had to wait for him bc he had our bus tickets. Really glad we didn’t get the guided tour. If you’re good at planning do Paris in your own!
Review by: caroline c, October 2017
a whirl wind, but wonderful !!
Review by: Janice H, October 2017
Had a wonderful day our group was very small and our guide did a good job I would recommend this tour
Review by: sunjalex, October 2017
Everything was wonderful! Pleasant train ride that was on time and the hop on hop off bus tour was the perfect choice!
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