There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.
24.08.2024 - 12:48 / insider.com / Dom Pérignon
I have long been a wine and spirits writer and frequent wineries, breweries, and distilleries when I travel. While on various trips with our now 5-year-old daughter, we have visited many different craft breweries , and she's even been to a distillery or two.
But wineries are often different with kids . My extended family lives near Napa Valley, California. Almost every time I make a reservation, there is a strongly worded note on the confirmation email and website about how a winery doesn't welcome kids on-site.
So when we traveled to France in March of 2024, I admit I was a tad nervous. We traveled to Paris, where we would dine at wine bars in the evenings, but it was the three days in the Champagne region where I felt a mix of excitement and anxiety.
I very much wanted to visit Champagne . I was ready to taste everything as long as my daughter could tag along.
The Champagne region's main city, Reims , is a 90-minute drive by car from Paris's city center. Reims has several hotels, restaurants, and a famous Gothic-era cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, to visit, making it both a wine production and cultural hub. We were really there for the wine.
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When we arrived at the hotel I had booked, we realized it was so kid-friendly . In addition to the playroom I had seen online, there was a pizza oven for kids to snack on any time the restaurants weren't open. There was also an outdoor playground, pool, shop with supplies for children, and even room service.
I was quick to note that many guests had families in tow, kids coloring or working on a maze book, while the parents sat with a bottle of Champagne chilling in an ice bucket in the living room area of the lobby. We even took our drinks to the playroom where my daughter crafted an elaborate imaginary adventure with a stuffed giraffe.
I was equally delighted when booking our visits to the Champagne houses. Champagne Ruinart markets itself as a family-friendly winery. When we arrived, my daughter had a choice of specialty fruit juices to try as we tasted wines.
On the tour of the awe-inspiring chalk caves, a defining characteristic of the Champagne region's geography, she learned all about how the caves were used by children to walk safely to school during World War II.
At Champagne Ayala, a winery in village Aÿ, my daughter played tour guide with our actual tour guide. Upon greeting, she was handed her own notebook and pen to "doodle" what she saw and a flashlight to assist our guide through the immense and cavernous wine cellar, which runs 24 miles underground. She earned applause for her work from the group, which were all fellow adults.
The hospitality team at Dom Perignon toured her through the historic Abbey of
There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.
Ahead of Labor Day, Capital One launched a very lucrative Air France-KLM transfer bonus. From now through Sunday, Sept. 29, when you transfer your Capital One miles to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, you'll receive 20% bonus miles. Therefore, when you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles, you'll get 1,200 Flying Blue miles, making this offer a 1:1.2 ratio.
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Last Oct. 10, my wife, a friend and I arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport to fly to Paris on a trip we had originally planned for April but had to postpone. At the United Airlines check-in counter, agents told us our reservation had been canceled — by us! Even weirder, the same thing had happened three weeks earlier, when the airline sent us an email saying we had canceled our trip. That time, we called and insisted United reissue the reservation for the same price, which it did by giving us a travel voucher and instantly redeeming it. At the airport, though, we watched as supervisors got their supervisors involved, and we were eventually told that something about the voucher had raised questions about fraud. We missed our flight and bought last-minute tickets for that evening’s 11 p.m. United flight to Paris. Then flight was canceled, though this time for everyone. Given the day’s stress and frustration, we gave up on the trip, had dinner and went to the airport Marriott before heading home the next morning. We believe United owes us for the cost of the last-minute flight ($4,475), a portion of the earlier canceled flight ($3,099), the cost of our transportation, hotel and meals that day ($1,178) and the money we lost on nonrefundable plans in France ($2,007). Can you help?
Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 29, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
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