If you love Paris but despise the crowds, then August may be the perfect time to travel to The City of Light. Yes, it’s true that many restaurants, businesses, and cafés shut down during this month, but with half of Parisians leaving the city for annual vacations, you may just enjoy the extra leg room. “In August, a sense of serenity settles over the city,” recalls James Morgan in the recent National Geographic Traveler. Surprisingly, there is still much to see, eat, and admire in a quieter Paris, and you may even find that escaping the pressures of completing a “must-see” list is quite liberating.

Instead you can appreciate the city with a simpler, more Parisian saunter, enjoying the many parks, Sunday museums, flea markets, and breezy cafés.  Morgan advises — as is usually always a good bet — venturing off the tourist track, suggesting a stop at the Pére Lachaise cemetery where visitors should avoid the crowded resting place of Jim Morrison, purchase a map for two euro, and search for other “evocative antiques” like, Honoré  de Balzac, Frédéric Chopic, Eugéne Delacroix, Georges Bizet, Sarah Bernhardt, and Colette.

If one opts for a cruise up the Marne and Seine, Morgan recommends grabbing lunch at a guinguette, or French “eating-drinking-dancing joint,” hotspots for many free-spirited Parisians during the 18^th century to the 1950′s. Located just east of Paris in the town of Marne, the guinguettes were an inexpensive (they were exempt from the city’s liquor tax) way for the working class to wind down on Sunday afternoons. (more…)

New York to Paris for $587 (r/t incl. taxes/fees): XL Airways continues to undercut the competition on the NYC – Paris flight, one of the world’s most popular routes. This deal’s good until June 30.

Miami to Panama City for $213 (r/t incl. taxes/fees): Miami offers some of the cheapest deals to Central and South America, and this offer’s no exception.

New York City to Reykjavik from $419 (r/t): Icelandair is running this 40% off deal, good through June 24, with flights beginning at $419, and going up to $689 for flights to Copenhagen.

A trip through the shadows of the City of Light

By Anthony Cuthbertson

The surface of Paris resembles that of an iceberg peaking its tip above the surface of the water. Beneath, there lies one of the most extensive and complex underground networks in the world. Alongside almost 300 metro stations and their interlinking tunnels weave a web of sewers, abandoned quarries, catacombs, canals and utility lines. The denser the population has become above ground, the deeper they have burrowed to sustain it. Without this vast infrastructure the city would cease to function, utterly paralyzed.

Since moving to Paris I had come close to exhausting every tourist trail and “gem” that the guidebooks had to offer. So one weekend I decided to heed the advice of some locals that I had met, who suggested that I took a look at the other side of Paris. They advised that I take a “troglodyte tour” of their city, to explore the often overlooked underbelly of Paris.

But where to start? Almost 150 miles of underground train track knit between at least 185 miles of catacomb tunnels and over 1300 miles of sewers, all right under the center of the city. That infernal underground maze, as Gaston Leroux calls it in Phantom of the Opera, stretches down as deep as 112 feet in places, ten stories below the surface. It is the result of 800 years of digging. The buildings, bridges and monuments that now sit on the surface are built from the limestone and gypsum that was excavated from the quarries and tunnels below. (more…)

New York to Paris for $493 (r/t, incl. taxes/fees): Hello cheap euro. Could this sub-$500 deal, during high season no less, be a sign to come for the newly somewhat strong dollar? Who cares, just jump on it. Sale ends June 30.

L.A. to San Salvador for $468 (r/t): This one’s good through May 24. You know you’ve been just waiting for an excuse to go on that volcano-themed trip.

New York to Hawaii for $540 (r/t, incl. taxes/fees): Okay, this one kind of goes against my mantra, “Don’t travel anywhere that doesn’t require a passport.” But Hawaii for under $600 all the way from the East Coast? Hard to resist. Plus “Lost” is wrapping up. Maybe’s now a good time to start getting nostalgic?

With over 29 million visitors a year, Paris is the most visited city in the world. With that number of visitors, truly it must be impossible to find your own little nook of the city where you can blend in and experience the city like a local. Right?

Cue The Frugal Traveler, circa summer ’08, who, in the above video, decided the best way to see the city was to shack up in a rented apartment in the 10th Arrondissement he found on one of the rental sites, VivaStreet.fr and pap.fr (it’s not clear which one gave him the the most luck). (more…)

Seeing Paris has always been a dream of mine, as for most anyone I have ever met. The idea of walking along the Seine, sipping coffee with croissants and divulging a bottle of delicious house wine over dinner is enough to make me book a flight tout de suite. I am working on my self-control.

Nonetheless, as a friend just informed me, tourists are pervasive in Paris. To me, tourism is part of what keeps a city financially afloat, yet, it is the underground paths and the off-beat tracks that keep a city alive.

For this reason, I was excited by the NY DailyNews’ look at the “other” Paris . It aims to describe the sights that most tourists don’t get to see, mainly due to the attraction to the more popular attractions like some tower called Eiffel, a gothic-cathedral and a rather large museum used for the set of a Dan Brown movie. This article suggests taking a different route and seeing the churches or regions outside the typical tourist manual.

Nevertheless, I forwarded this article to my friend and he said it was . . . well, he didn’t agree with it. His reasoning was that most of the attractions in the article are outside of Paris, one of which is 200 kms (124.3 miles) away. Although these sights would be interesting, he offered me a list of neighborhoods inside Paris that most tourists have yet to experience:

Butte aux Cailles, Canal Saint Martin, Place Sainte Marthe, Rue de Belleville, Oberkampf, Ménilmontant (rue Boyer), Château Rouge-rue de Montreuil, rue Royer Collard, rue Quincampoix, Parc Montsouris-cité universitaire, Parc Montceaux, Coulée verte, Parc de Belleville . . . (just to name a few.)

He told me there are other neighborhoods even more hidden that are worth a look, but the ones listed above are the more well-known hidden paths. I checked out these neighborhoods online and found lists of things to do and see. There is such a community of information that I can’t help but think: this is where the true pulse of Paris lies.

Okay, Rick Steves may not be my favorite guy in the world (see my last post), but his writing is everywhere, and since the Travel Show (again, see my last post) is going to be Stevesless this year, I thought we’d check in on him today.

This week Rick is giving us the heads-up on tips for France in 2010. For example, the Eiffel Tower has set up a new online reservation system, helping to alleviate line congestion at the most visited monument in the world. Those hoping to visit the Picasso Museum will be out of luck for a couple years while the museum renovates, but Paris’ Catacombs has been reopened after a recent vandal-related closing (come on kids, time to check out some skeletons!) as well as has Versailles after its own multi-year makeover.

Rick warns travelers to Chartres’ cathedral to be prepared to encounter a wall of scaffolding around the iconic church, but don’t worry, the inside’s untouched.

And for travelers in the search of wine on Provence’s Cotes du Rhone wine road, Rick recommends Domaine de Mourchon, the “buzziest” of the vineyards in the area and run by a couple of Scots, which Rick notes “eliminat[es] the language barrier.” Because, you know, incredulously, the French like to speak French.

Asia Beginning at $697: Taiwan-based airliner EVA Air (the name is derived from “Evergreen” and “Air,” hence “EVA” — no relation to “WALL-E”) has some great deals from the U.S. to destinations all over Asia, including Newark to Jakarta for only $902, and San Fran to Phnom Penh for $797.

New York to Paris for $584: This post’s theme? Airlines I’d never heard of until tonight. Air Europa (by far Majorca’s best airliner) has this great deal to Paris from New York — must travel before the end of March.

NYC Boutique Hotel for $99: Did you hear about the impending glut of New York City hotels? Bad news for hotel owners. Good news for cheap travelers. This $99 deal is for the Distrikt Hotel (look how it’s spelled — it must be a boutique!) and is good from Feb. 1 – 11 ($129 thereafter).

Heavy petting… going nuts… queue the suggestive hamster jokes.

Nantes, France has added another “attraction” to its handful of other enticing options, a romantic hamster wheel for two (no… really). Visitors to the La Villa Hamster have the option of dressing up in full rodent garb, nibbling organic grain, sleeping in a haystack, and, yes, sipping off of a giant water tube; oh yeah, and stay the night.

It’s catching on. The visionaries are already looking into future Hamster Hotel sights in the U.K. and soon afterwards, “going back to [their] origins.” I’ll let you come to a conclusion about that one.

I’m a bit disappointed, actually. I was half expecting a labyrinth of brightly colored plastic tubes you had to navigate on all fours, or a ball you’d be trapped in and have to roll yourself from one room to the other. I guess you can’t have it all.

It’s no secret I choose skiing as my winter escape, so naturally I gravitate towards ski destinations this time of year.

Recently, Travel & Leisure put together a collection of 16 of the world’s scariest (ahem, gnarliest) ski slopes, convincing me that Europe may just be where it’s at.

In particular, France appears three different times on the list (check out this video of the Grand Couloir in Courchevel!), along with areas of Austria and Switzerland. That’s 31 percent of the entire article!

Even with Jackson, WY, Snowbird, UT, and Banff, Alberta (more to come on Banff later this week) making it, three of my favorites, I have to give a shout out to the Big Couloir at Big Sky, Montana (imagine a 45-degree, terrifyingly narrow chute) that ranks pretty high on the gnar scale.

So, maybe I’m a bit partial to my own backyard, but the point is, the terrain I’m seeing in Europe might easily convince me that it’s time for a ski pilgrimage. Wouldn’t you say?

Don’t see the Mona Lisa, climb the Eiffel Tower, or grab a coffee at Café de Flore? Well, not exactly, but taken from an expert on Paris, there are plenty of ways to get the best out of Paris, without doing what Paris is best known for.

For example, want a great view of the city without an overpriced ticket to do so? Avoid the Eiffel Tower and take in the sights from Tour Montparnasse or the Arc de Triomphe (or, as one commenter points out, just hoof it to Montemartre).

Or want to fit in a side-trip and are thinking about seeing Nice? Au contraire. Described as a “busy city with terrible traffic, little history or culture, and an ugly pebble beach,” the author recommends visiting the nearby Loire Valley for great sights and unforgettable food and wine. Read the full article here.

Your legs are still burning from the days last run. You’re finishing up an après drink waiting for the rest of the group. You’re hungry, it’s cold, and you’re exhausted from flailing around the slopes of Chamonix, France. The last thing you want to do, now, is look for, or worse yet, cook your own dinner. Right?

Traveldudes lists out five reasons why you should choose a catered ski chalets so you’re never in a situation like that. All are true, and quite tempting; you’ll have more time to yourself, cleaning services, five-star meals, and convenience.

Walking through your front door to the smells of an already cooked dinner might be just too much to handle, yet, I’m afraid some of the excitement of the trip might be lost. For me, a ski vacation without the exhausted hassle of supermarket runs, communal cooking with a local brew in hand, and a headache riddled last minute cleaning escapade, just wouldn’t seem to be a legitimate ski trip.

Still, skiing a full day in Chamonix, then being served filet mignon after a hot tub soak sounds like a writing assignment I wouldn’t mind investigating (What do you say, Matt?).

I never understood why people take those tours that lead you to all of a particular city’s most popular attractions. Do you really need to shell out 20 euros to have someone point you in the direction of the Eiffel Tower or Vatican City? That’s like four bottles of wine you could’ve spend that cash on.

However, if you’re looking for a few tours that will show you some of Paris’ less traveled locations (oh man, I’m just itching to insert a Paris Hilton joke here, but I’ll refrain for the sake of keep this site at least PG-rated), check out this guide to Paris’ unusual tours. From scouts that will reveal some of Paris’ most famous filming locations (oh man, another joke opportunity), to guided jaunts through the private homes and courtyards of the city’s working artists, this guide will help you go where few men have have ever gone before in Paris (wow, that’s number three).