It’s long been a dream of our daughter’s to visit (ok, live) in Paris. It might have been my tales of loving Paris (yes, they almost all started with a swoon), or the fact that she learned how to make crepes at a young age. It’s her dream destination. And I’d love to go in spring, when the crowds are less, the weather is mostly great, and there’s just enough chill in the air to enjoy ducking into shops museums to warm up.

At the bottom of this article, I've compiled a great list of resources for visiting Paris. But I want to share HOW to get there, first.

I recently discovered a great new tool for travel planning: Amadeus. This is one of the best travel planning tools I’ve ever seen. It’s easy, intuitive, and inspiring. You can look at other people's plans (perhaps you’re not sure where to go yet?), add your favorites to your collection, or make your own. You can plan your travels around a topic, place, and even include the weather in your search.

So I was playing around on Amadeus today, to get a feel for the system, and was completely impressed. Let me walk you through the process – I have a feeling you’ll be making a few travel plans, yourself, soon.

Go to the Create a Plan page.

I put in a search for Paris – as of today, Amadeus had 4 Paris trip plans:

Here’s my finished (well, finished as of NOW. I will definitely add things later!) board, so you can see what it looks like (and now, Amadeus has 5 trip plans!).

Flight search

Of course, you will first search for flights – for my trip, Amadeus found 200 flights from my home airport – and then do a comparison for ones that work best for you.

Additional features

In the tools section, you’ll find a lot of helpful things, including weather, a map of the airport, a world clock, and even a map of the Paris subway system!

What next?

Ready to save it as a board? You will be able to add tags (which will help you find a better cover photo).

You can add links (which I did, and was very helpful for keeping my resource articles all in one location), and share it with friends (I also shared with my husband, so we can make final plans together).

Here’s what my finished plan looks like on my dashboard:

And you can click here to view my plan and add it to your collection (and maybe add a few tips for me? Food tips especially welcome).
 

While the system is new (it’s in Beta), I had no problems creating plans, and I look forward to new developments on the site - what will they come up with next?

I asked our tween daughter to make a plan for our upcoming journey to Washington, DC, to up the excitement about the trip, and get her used to making travel plans. It’s a built-in educational opportunity for geography, urban planning, math, strategy, and more. She also asked the system to help her out with a search (keywords: beach in January) – she found the perfect plan to visit Hawaii. Not surprised, given we just got over 2 feet of snow in the last few days. That beautiful vision led to a bit of research on Thailand, and then Vietnam, and then Australia, since we’d “be in the area.” Helpful tip: Get your kids involved in travel planning – it opens up the world to them!

What travel plans will you make first? Share them with me – I’d love to see where you’re going – and get inspired!

Other helpful resources for Paris travel planning:

The 5 Best Gastronomic Reasons to Visit Paris: Paris by Food

Paris for Locals: 16 Travel Tips

Discovering Authentic Paris

8 Ways to Get Around Paris

The Ultimate Paris Playlist

20 + Best English Bookstores in Paris

Ten Free - or Almost Free - Things to Enjoy in Paris

Foodie Finds: A Paris Weekend Getaway

Twisted: The Creepy Catacombs of Paris

A Visit to the Sewage Museum (I Lived to tell the Tale)

And we've got plenty more Paris articles here on Wandering Educators (can you tell it's one of my favorite places?) - just do a search to find more!

Paris photo Wikimedia Commons: Alejandro Díaz-Caro, adapted by Wandering Educators