Introduction
The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Wing Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific 239 777-300ER Business Class Hong Kong to London Heathrow
Hotel Indigo London Kensington
Eurostar 9018 E300/British Rail Class 373 Standard Premier London St. Pancras to Paris Gares du Nord
L’Empire Paris
Cathay Pacific Lounge Paris Charles de Gaulle
Cathay Pacific 260 777-300ER Business Class Paris Charles de Gaulle to Hong Kong
Being a self-acclaimed young traveler, it’s almost ironic that I’ve never been past Japan in the northern direction. Both my parents were starting to think about changing that, and really there’s nowhere to look past London and Paris in terms of where to go first in Europe.
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
I love flying, my mother is open towards connections, while my father and my sister look at flying as a way of inhuman torture. Obviously being good human beings in a good family with good children like me, whenever I fly upfront it’s with them (at least for now), so our choices were limited to start with. Using AsiaMiles, we redeemed two seats in Cathay Pacific’s new business class, which I hadn’t tried before this trip and had heard excellent things about.
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER Business Class
While premium economy was considered for the other two seats (which me and my sister would be seated in), I managed to pull up decent ~HK$15,000 business class seats in each direction, which we decided to take so we could stay as a family (especially in Paris Charles de Gaulle, which has a horrible reputation for that).
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Boarding
Our final routing was rather easy, as follows:
Obviously you can’t swim from London to Paris, so my parents and I chose between British Airways (less reputation for strikes, but overall was pricier and would take longer), Air France (which had prices way up the roof) and Eurostar (which was reportedly comfortable, wasn’t too pricey but reports were heard about the train tracks being set on fire). We decided to go with Eurostar, despite the reports, and decided that if our train ride was cancelled we’d rebook ourselves on British Airways immediately and just hope for the best before that. Everything ended up fine, and that’s how we got to Paris.
With a slightly higher price tag and the same seat as Business Premier, we went for Standard Premier, which seemed like an excellent value.
Eurostar E300 Standard Premier
As far as the hotels go, I was looking up prices for hotels in London, and hotels like the Conrad were crazy expensive. Between the Renaissance St. Pancras and the Hotel Indigo London Kensington, we decided that the Hotel Indigo had better rooms, facilities and rates for our four night stay.
Hotel Indigo London Kensington Deluxe Room
For Paris my mother had heard good things about the L’Empire Hotel Paris, and as a Preferred Hotels and Resorts hotel, we went for it for our three nights in Paris.
L’Empire Paris Classic Room
Stay tuned, and I’ll be describing how we went from four suitcases to seven writing about the trip over the next two weeks!