I am back home after a fun trip from Amsterdam and Paris. We were there for a short week and I can't wait to go go back there again to see and explore more. We did all the 'touristy' stuff as we were short on time and I hope next time I get to stay longer:-)
I know there is a lot of information available on Paris travel on Trip Advisor and travel blogs, but I wanted to share some quick tips (and my own experience) for visiting Paris, specially the typical tourist attraction like Eiffel Tower and Louvre museum etc.
First of all, if you want to avoid crazy crowds, (and believe me, it is crazy in the sense of sheer number of people who visit these places!), visit these places early in the morning. For Eiffel Tower 'top of the Tower' tour, the lines start forming as soon as 8;30 AM! Due to heightened security (sad sad sad reality of our world!) there are couple of check points to get into the elevators. They check your bags and you go through the metal detectors. For the "general admission" the lines are HUGE. But we found out (thanks to our hotel concierge at Shangri-La) that there is another "reservation/invitation only' line that has virtually no queue, but for that one needs to book the specific date and time for the visit via a tour guide. The tickets are 60 Euroes per person and you need to book them well in advance, (unless you get lucky like we did and found out that the tour company had couple of tickets available for the next day when we inquired! At least that's what they told us that it is not usual that the reservation tickets are available on short notice). So ask your hotel concierge or search online for getting the invitation/reservation tickets to visit the top of Eiffel Tower.
We had reached Paris in the afternoon around 2;30 PM. Our hotel was literally a stone's throw away from Eiffel Tower (in fact I could see the Eiffel Tower right from our suite's terrace! I highly recommend this hotel (and the terrace room). We decided to take a stroll to the Eiffel Tower and Seine river. I loved the energy and the sights, but it was way crowded to take good pictures without being photobombed. So we came back next morning (advantage of living near the Eiffel Tower) and got some great family pictures with crowd-free Eiffel Tower in the background.
So, the moral of the story- go early to get great views and great pictures without the crowd!
By the time we reached the Tower for our 9:15 AM scheduled tour for the top of the tower, there was already a huge line formed for the security check-in. Luckily, the 'invitation only' gates allowed us to simply skip the lines and breeze through security (Again, I highly recommend booking the tickets in advance for a specific time if you can to use the skip-the-line service)
You can see the whole city of Paris from the top of Eiffel Tower!
Dress - eShakti (customize any dress for your measurements!)
Coming back to the outfit, this maxi dress if from eShakti and it fits perfect on my because it was MADE JUST FOR ME! That's the unique thing about eShakti- they design dresses and you can customize their designs to fit YOUR body! For example, on their website this dress was a midi length, sleeveless and deeper V neck, but I customized it to be maxi length (gave them my height so its a maxi dress for ME), added flutter sleeves and made the neck modest V! I am loving this retailer because all the dresses I have ordered so far have been perfect fit, quality is impeccable and they have some really pretty and fun prints/graphics for Spring/Summer. If you have never checked out eShakti, you have to today! You will love it as much as I did. (BTW< this is NOT a sponsored post!)
PS: Almost all their dresses have pockets! (*happy dance emoji*)
A quick note about our hotel in Paris - Shangri-la: Their amazing location, splendor (it is a renovated mansion of Napoleon's nephew, so you can imagine the grand structure and all the luxurious details) and great service can't be beat. Also, if you plan to stay there, I highly recommend upgrading your room to the 'Terrace Eiffel Tower View Room". It is so worth the money.
