Getting to Paris

We decided on our first Europe trip when we saw this really great KLM ticket deal ($640 CAD round-trip per person) to Amsterdam. We wanted to see if we could see other cities in Europe as well and entertained the idea of going to 3-4 countries/cities at first (ie. Paris, London, south of France, Rome, and maybe Venice). But since our favorite type of travel involves exploring the city and taking our time, we decided to reduce our original scope, and landed on just Paris.

Plane tickets within Europe were somewhat comparable to last minute train tickets, but neither of us enjoyed waiting in airports, going through security, and being cramped in tiny seats. Given Paris is only 3 hours away by train, we decided that this would be our preferred method.

To help us determine which city to visit first, we looked at flight arrival/departure times. We arrive at Schipol Airport at 8 am in the morning, if we had gone to Amsterdam, we would've had to kill 6 hours before we can check into hotels/hostels. And although there are accommodations that store your luggage before you check in, we would've still had to wonder the streets tired, having just gotten off a long flight, struggling with jet lag.

Since the train ride to Paris is 3 hours (Thalys tickets €54 one way), we could actually make it in perfect time for check in. In addition, our flight back to Canada leaves at 2 pm (from Schipol), which works perfectly if we leave from Amsterdam. Both considerations made for a strong case to go to Paris first, and that's what we did.

Getting to Paris - our actual schedule:

Apr. 30, 2017 Sunday
    15:10 KLM flight 0678 from Calgary Canada to Schipol direct (8hr45)

May 1, 2017 Monday at
    8:05   Arrive at Schipol Airport Netherlands, stretch our legs and catch up on food
    11:34 Thalys train 9340 from Schipol to Gare du Nord Paris
    14:44 Arrive in Paris. Take metro to Belleville Airbnb location for 15:30 check in.