Paris on a budget: the best cheap hotels and restaurants
Continuing our new series on budget city breaks, our resident Paris expert recommends the best hotels for under £100 and good dining options for under £20.
11:07AM BST 05 Oct 2012
11 Comments
Paris may boast some of the world’s most splendid luxury hotels but it also has some wonderful bargains. Pleasant budget hotels are scattered through all the best areas, and with a general overhaul of much of Paris’s hotel offering, many have been recently renovated or even created, so it’s no longer a question of sagging beds and dubious wallpaper, but original designs and pristine bathrooms. Even among more expensive hotels, many have several categories – and prices – of bedroom, largely based on size. As to prices, unlike the huge internet discounts sometimes found for expensive places, many of the best budget hotels find they don’t need to discount much, if at all.
When dining in Paris it pays to eat like a local and keep gourmet extravagances for occasions. The sheer range of restaurants is astonishing and everyone has a favourite inexpensive bistro or café-brasserie to pop into for a steak or a salad. The past 15 years has seen the rise of the bistronomique: gourmet bistros, with accomplished, updated bistro cooking for reasonable prices by chefs often trained at top establishments.
Most restaurants have good-value lunch menus and it’s perfectly acceptable to order just two courses or to share a dessert. Paris tap water is free and perfectly drinkable (ask for a carafe d’eau), bread is always provided free, and service is always included in the bill, so it’s not necessary to tip (and most French don’t) unless you really want to.
Hotels for under £100
Prices are for a double room in low season, excluding breakfast.
BLC Design Hôtel 8/10
4 rue Richard-Lenoir
4 rue Richard-Lenoir
It’s BLC as in “blanc”, in this dazzling all-white design hotel near the Bastille. This 19th-century budget lodging was totally transformed in 2010 into a bright, modern den with a soothing, informal atmosphere. Rooms are compact but clever – with drawers under the bed and artfully arranged coat hooks that provide storage, though are perhaps not ideal for a long stay. All the white is warmed up by subtle lighting and Lise-Laure Batifol’s blown-up photos of women over the bed.
Price from £79
Price from £79
Read a full review and check availability
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
Familia Hôtel 7/10
11 rue des Ecoles
This family-run hotel in the Latin Quarter is a long-standing budget classic offering a taste of traditional Left Bank Paris and a brilliant central location. Set in a classic 1860s Haussmannian building with its golden stone façade and wrought-iron balconies, the Familia is not for those after cutting-edge design, but cosy charm in rooms with carved cherrywood bedheads and graceful toile de jouy fabrics.
Price from £76
0033 1 43 545527; familiahotel.com
Price from £76
0033 1 43 545527; familiahotel.com
Hi Matic 6/10
71 rue de charonne
Hi Matic has transformed a seedy old Bastille hotel into a brightly-coloured conceptual experience. While it divides opinions, it’s a fun choice for an unusual short stay. Not many tourists venture to this part of Paris, but it’s a prime spot for lively new restaurants and bars, and is only a short walk from the Marais. You book by internet, check in at a terminal and buy snacks, guides or toothbrushes from machines, to reduce staff to a minimum. Your (organic) breakfast comes on a tray in the basement and information comes by iPad – to save paper. There’s a mini desk in each room, and beds are a sort of Japanese tatami system with mattresses to be rolled up during the day.
Price from £79
Price from £79
Read a full review and check availability
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
Hi Matic Hotel, Paris
Hôtel Arvor Saint-Georges 9/10
8 rue Laferrière
8 rue Laferrière
A tastefully bobo (bourgeois bohème) hideaway in up-and-coming South Pigalle, where a breezy contemporary style meets a calm, cultivated mood, with original photographs on the walls and paperback novels to browse. With its mixture of stylish and casual, this is a hotel that gets the home from home atmosphere just right. Montmartre is just up the hill.
Price from £90
Price from £90
Read a full review and check availability
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
Hôtel du Champs de Mars 8/10
7 rue du Champ de Mars
7 rue du Champ de Mars
This is a baby boutique hotel for couples on a budget, small and romantic and set in the chic residential hinterland of the Eiffel Tower. It is lovingly tended – an elderly dog reclines behind the reception desk in the cosy boudoir-style lobby, while the 25 pretty, floral bedrooms are kept in perfect shape. Some streetside upper rooms offer glimpses of the Eiffel Tower.
Price from £92
0033 1 45 515230; hotelduchampdemars.com
Price from £92
0033 1 45 515230; hotelduchampdemars.com
Hotel Michelet Odéon 8/10
9 place de l’Odéon
Proof that you can still find St-Germain chic at bargain prices exists in this low key but tasteful hotel overlooking the beautiful 18th-century Théâtre de l’Odéon. Behind the period façade, the interior is fresh and contemporary, with rooms that were redone in 2008. The place isn’t bursting with character, but with a location like this it hardly matters.
Price from £96
0033 1 53 100560; hotelmicheletodeon.com
Price from £96
0033 1 53 100560; hotelmicheletodeon.com
Hôtel Regyn’s Montmartre 8/10
18 place des Abbesses
18 place des Abbesses
This friendly 22-room budget hotel is in the bubbling heart of Montmartre. The cheerful rooms have all been attractively refurbished with pristine white bathrooms that just about squeeze in all you need – some even have small baths. A few overlook a courtyard at the rear, but it’s more enjoyable to people-watch on the square. Pricier Privilege rooms on the fourth and fifth floors have panoramic views over the city.
Price from £64
Price from £64
Read a full review and check availability
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
All hotels booked through the Telegraph Travel website come with a best price guarantee
Jeanne d’Arc 8/10
3 rue de Jarente
This characterful hotel in Paris is full of bohemian charm, with friendly staff, a great Marais location and prices that appear to be 30 years out of date. A long-standing budget favourite, the corridors are lined with knick-knacks and paintings, the staircase is decidedly drunken (though there is also happily a very small lift) and an extravagant Art Nouveau mosaic mirror adds a quixotic flavour to the lounge.
Price from £80
0033 1 48 876211; hoteljeannedarc.com
Price from £80
0033 1 48 876211; hoteljeannedarc.com
Mama Shelter 7/10
109 rue de Bagnolet
With interiors by Philippe Starck, a location in an unlikely part of town, and a buzzing bar and restaurant, Mama Shelter launched a new concept of hip design on a budget. The nearest sight as such is Père Lachaise cemetery, otherwise it’s a Metro ride into the centre. The 172 bedrooms mix exposed concrete walls, white bed linen and graphic custom-made carpets, but what really makes this hotel is the open-plan ground floor that is all at once laid-back lounge, cocktail bar, restaurant, club and concept store.
Price from £71
0033 1 43 484848; mamashelter.com
Price from £71
0033 1 43 484848; mamashelter.com
Solar Hotel 6/10
22 rue Boulard
22 rue Boulard
This relaxed, purpose-built Nineties hotel takes its eco-warrior credentials seriously. Once you get used to the blue paintwork and blue carpets, the bedrooms prove simple but well thought out, with high-quality beds. It’s in a residential part of Montparnasse that is agreeable if you want to experience real Parisians’ Paris.
Price from £52
0033 1 43 210820; solarhotel.fr
Price from £52
0033 1 43 210820; solarhotel.fr
Where to eat for £20 or less
Prices are per person for two courses in the evening and excluding wine unless stated otherwise.
Most restaurants have good-value lunch menus
This listed art nouveau café-bistro (6) is much loved by a laidback Bastille crowd for its satisfying good-value traditional cuisine and seasonal, market-inspired additions – a good steak tartare, also the orange tart. All-day service, very useful when you’re on holiday.
Prices from: £11
Prices from: £11
This is the place that made the pancake gourmet and although not particularly budget as crêperies go, it’s streets ahead in terms of quality. The setting is a distressed beach hut, the clientele is fashionable Marais, and the choice of savoury galettes and sweet crêpes ranges from classic complète (egg, cheese and ham) to imaginative creations. Many ingredients are proudly sourced from Brittany, from organic buckwheat to Breizh Cola.
Price from: £10
Price from: £10
Marie Louise proclaims "cuisine traditionelle", but this is tradition updated by chef Pierre Musy, teamed with maître d' Christophe Letienne, who both exchanged Gérard Depardieu's fashionable La Fontaine Gaillon restaurant for the more casual appeal of this tiny bistro near the Canal St-Martin. Priority goes to quality ingredients and careful preparations that stand out for their excellent seasoning. Dinner might feature chilled tomato soup, cod with aioli, boudin noir, pigeon, or the crispy banana and caramel concoction that looks set to become a classic.
Price from: £16
Price from: £16
Just off avenue Trudaine in the bourgeois SoPi, Zaganin was once a seedy dive that has quickly developed a local following having been resuscitated in a neo-40s ambience of banquettes, mosaic floor and changing art shows. The excellent value three-course menu impresses with real cooking in dishes like red mullet on a ratatouille-style bed of peppers and aubergine or veal kidneys in mustard sauce. The short but well selected wine list focuses on organic wines.
Price from: £14 before 8.30pm
Price from: £14 before 8.30pm
Le Restaurant du Boulanger Eric Kayser
41 cour St-Emilion
(0033 1 43 46 08 89)
41 cour St-Emilion
(0033 1 43 46 08 89)
Eric Kayser’s restaurant in a listed stone warehouses in Bercy Village is a bakery on one side, all-day restaurant on the other, with tables in the airy interior or spacious outdoor terrace. Starters play on the bread connection, but there are also sophisticated main courses devised by Lebanese chef Taleb Daher and former Top Chef winner Jean Imbert, and, of course, great tarts to finish.
Price from: £20
Price from: £20
Fish is often notoriously expensive in Paris but this restaurant in a modern part of Montparnasse has long been one of Paris's bargains. Owner-chef Gérard Allemandou has now largely withdrawn from the fray but the standard remains: fresh fish and shellfish in preparations so minimalist they sometimes shock at first – an amuse-bouche of tiny buttery clams, baby soles with new potatoes, mackerel in mustard sauce – but perfectly timed cooking, joined by excellent service and an outstanding collection of Cognacs. An added bonus is the spacious outdoor terrace in summer.
Price from: £20
Price from: £20
L'Encrier
55 rue Traversière
(0033 1 44 68 08 16)
55 rue Traversière
(0033 1 44 68 08 16)
Tucked just behind the Promenade Plantée viaduct walk in the historic furniture makers' district of the Faubourg St-Antoine, the friendly, cooperative-run L'Encrier has been one of Paris's best-kept budget secrets for 20 years with its remarkable-value menus. An essentially local crowd and a few in-the-know visitors squeeze in around its simple wooden tables. The kitchen is visible behind the white counter, sending out trustworthy French cuisine with southwestern touches, such as pear with roquefort, duck confit and excellent chocolate profiteroles.
