No itinerary - is this a bad idea?

I have been reading through all these posts of people and their itineraries - we are leaving in a little over a month and have nothing of the sort. We have made our list of %26quot;must see%26#39;s%26quot; and pegged them on a map but pretty much figured we would just wing it each day. I am now wondering if our plan is flawed.

We plan to walk everywhere we can (weather permitting) and if we see a good place for a meal stop and check it out. Is this a bad idea? I have copied down most of the restaurant suggestions made by everyone and will check them out, but did not really plan to make the reservations before we leave. I figured with the address in hand, I would hopefully find them while sight seeing and check them out and then return if they looked good.

My husband and I will be in Paris for 9 full days - which should give us time to see what we want and still have a day or two to just wander or sit in a cafe for a few hours without feeling like we are missing out on anything.

Any advice?

Linster

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Your plan seems fine. I can%26#39;t help but think when I see people%26#39;s overplanned trips that they aren%26#39;t going to relax or have any fun - there%26#39;s rarely anything original in them anyway, the same old tourist sites, so why bother.

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I think your plan is perfect, and this is coming from someone who had a carefully planned itinerary for my first trip. Unfortunately it wasn%26#39;t until our 7th or 8th day that we realized even with a detailed itinerary we were not going to see everything and were just running ourselves to exhaustion and not relaxing and %26quot;truly seeing Paris%26quot;. From that point on we trashed our itinerary and saw what we could and relaxed.

I%26#39;m leaving in two weeks for my second trip and have not planned a thing except to note what I didn%26#39;t get to see on my first trip.

Have a great time!

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I think it is a great idea. I never plan much. I just try to get a general idea of the places I really want to see. So I head to that direction, but one street leading to another to a church to a shop to a museum to a nice café there is often a great delay before I hit them.

I%26#39;ve.never regretted it. Sometimes the detours are worth more than the target !

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This sounds exactly like what my daughter and I are going to be doing in two weeks time!! She%26#39;s 15 and decided in her %26quot;wise%26quot; way that we should just wander and experience Paris. Sounds great to me! I%26#39;ve been there once about 21 years ago!! She%26#39;s never been...so, we%26#39;re really trying to avoide the whole rush, rush thing...

I gotta say, though, that the %26quot;Mom%26quot; in me worries that we might feel bored or directionless....but we%26#39;re only going to be there for 4 days, so I really doubt it. Can%26#39;t wait !!!!

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We do a combo of both...we plan a general itinerey for each day with a few back-up ideas and then switch it all around when we get to our destination based on weather, what we feel like, etc. Walking takes quite a bit of time so you might consider combining walking with the Metro. The Metro is quick, clean and easy to use and you feet may thank you :-)

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Just back from a week in London and although I had two %26quot;must sees%26#39; for the trip, I had abslutely no itinerary. Had a GREAT trip, hit the must sees, had some wonderful unplanned adventures and even stumbled into a cute little Indian place that we were able to get reservations for the night of. Today there was an article on that %26quot;cute little Indian place%26quot; in the NYTimes and it has a Michelin Star!

Itineraries are great for people who like to plan, but not at all a key ingredient to a successful holiday.

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Linster,

I think that you are absolutly on the right track! My wife and I will be in Paris next month for 10 days and I have decided that, although I am programed to have every detail organized, We will have no itinerary.

I believe that Paris will be most enjoyed when you are the most suprised at what lies around the next corner.

Maybe we will turn the corner and bump into you.

Have a great trip!

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%26quot;Walking takes quite a bit of time so you might consider combining walking with the Metro. The Metro is quick, clean and easy to use and you feet may thank you :-)%26quot;

We will definitely take the Metro some of the time as we are planning on purchasing the 10 pass card. When I went to DC for a week we combined walking and the metro and did pretty good.

I tried out my new Paris shoes yesterday at Disneyland and although they did pretty good, I do not know if they are good enough for 14 full days of only walking. Good thing I have an alternate pair.

Thanks for the advice.

Linster

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Your plan sounds fine. The only additional thing I%26#39;ve done, when visiting a city that I%26#39;m not familiar with, is to try to get a sense of which attractions are close together, or which could be grouped to make a good day. So then, when you leave your morning activity, you have a sense of what%26#39;s nearby, or whether you need to move to another location.

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if by ten pass card you mean un carnet, it is not a card but 10 individual tickets (les billets) sold as a group.

I think you%26#39;re planning exactly the right sort of trip. The first couple of times I was in Paris I spent most of my time just wandering and enjoying the city. I did get to la Musee d%26#39;Orsay, and le Petit Palais for a special exhibit, but it took me years of visits to get to la Tour Eiffel and Le Louvre, as well as to Versailles.

I%26#39;ve always operated on the theory that Paris and its attractions have been there for quite a while, so I expect that they will remain there for quite a while and I%26#39;ll have other opportunities to see the whatever that I missed.