Despite a recent agreement preventing an airport strike in Paris on 17 July, one union is still threatening to walk out in the lead up to the Olympic Games.
22.07.2024 - 11:30 / nytimes.com
Step 1: Board the train. Step 2: Climb into bed. Step 3: Wake up at your destination.
That might sound like a dream from the distant past for many travelers, but it’s a growing trend in Europe. Although many night trains were killed off by the rise of low-cost airlines in recent decades, they are on their way back, thanks in part to greater awareness of the environmental impact of flying, as well as a growing interest in slow travel.
This spring, a new Paris-Berlin connection caught my eye — a Nightjet operated by the Austrian railway ÖBB. That renewed overnight route made headlines when it started up in December after a 13-year absence, with the French transport minister at the time, Clément Beaune, among its first passengers.
“It was magnificent,” he said afterward. “We need projects that are positive, ecological and European.”
Most of the three trains per week in either direction were already filling up when I purchased my ticket roughly a month in advance. The cheapest overnight tickets were basic seats, which I found starting at around 35 euros (about $39). Couchettes, from 50 euros, offered smallish bunks in a shared compartment with four or six travelers. The highest-tier “sleeper” tickets included a larger bed, starting at 80 euros in a compartment shared with two other travelers. I splurged on a private “sleeper” compartment for one with its own bathroom and shower that started at 260 euros (partially and fully refundable tickets cost more).
Despite a recent agreement preventing an airport strike in Paris on 17 July, one union is still threatening to walk out in the lead up to the Olympic Games.
The Skift Travel Podcast is continuing its series on the Paris Olympics. This episode features a discussion with Patrick Mendes, Accor’s CEO for Europe and North Africa. Accor is an official partner for this year’s Games, as well as Europe’s largest hotel group.
Games wide open! The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are here—so, expect to hear the roar of that slogan in the weeks again. There’s simply no way to quantify, or perhaps, prepare for, the already-electrifying energy infiltrating the host city and the largest Olympic ceremony ever. Despite the Games’ 300,000 spectator capacity, Paris is expected to receive around 15 million visitors, including 2 million from abroad, in the coming weeks.
With just hours to go until the Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympics, chaos has hit the country’s transport network. On the night of Thursday, July 25, a series of fires spread across France’s high-speed rail lines, causing delays, cancelations, and disruptions to the rail system.
France's rail network has been thrown into chaos today following a series of arson attacks, just hours before the nation officially opens the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Jul 25, 2024 • 6 min read
Paris is expected to welcome 11.3 million visitors during the Olympic Games, significantly increasing its population density. This surge in visitors is spurring travel demand to international destinations, such as Italy and the United States, that harness this desire to leave crowds behind, also benefiting United Kingdom, Spain, and Greece, as well as farther destinations, such as Thailand or Japan.
Friday 19 July was set to be one of the busiest days of the summer for Europe’s airports. But the world’s biggest IT outage had other plans for hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers.
Recently, I walked through Paris to meet a friend on the Rive Gauche. On the hour-long route from my home in Montmartre, I popped in for a croissant at a favorite boulangerie, skirted around the Palais Royal, passed the pyramid of the Louvre, crossed the Seine. Post-coffee, the walk home unfolded in reverse. I ran a few errands as I got closer to my apartment: greens and radishes at our neighborhood épicerie, a crusty and warm baguette at another boulangerie, a bottle of sparkling wine at the caviste. Pausing briefly to adjust my grip on the bags at the base of the stairs leading up to the Sacre-Cœur, I made the inevitable climb up.
ITB Berlin’s new Travel & Tourism Radar, set up in partnership with Ostfalia Hochschule, analyses the business outlook in the travel industry and reveals external factors as the main forces driving digitalisation and sustainability efforts. The actions of global travel companies are driven more by external influences than economics where important aspects of the transition are concerned. The Travel & Tourism Radar survey shows that the approximately 330 travel companies interviewed worldwide offer a generally positive economic outlook. It also gives an insight into their investment plans and how they see their ability to compete.
Visitors to the upcoming Paris Olympics will soon have an easy way to save money on transportation. Uber, the popular rideshare app, will be offering an automatic 10 percent discount on rides for passengers from Paris airports between July 22 through Sept. 8. The discount applies to arrivals from both Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and Orly Airport Aéroport de Paris (ORY). Passengers can also save 30 percent if they use UberX Share within the city, as long as they are matched with another rider during the trip.
I'm an American who's lived in Paris for almost three years. After all this time, I still had one thing on my bucket list: Tour the city by boat.