Paris with children - our best travel tips

Although we haven't started paying full fare for Samarah just yet (she turns 2 in March) and obviously +2 gets a free ride

Skip the hotel, rent an apartment: You'll get more space (Paris hotel rooms are tiny), you'll (most likely) get a full kitchen and laundry facilities (lots of cost savings) and it'll probably be for the same price or cheaper.

For our trip, we used VRBO.com to search and book our apartment. While most of the apartments are privately owned, they are usually managed by a property management company. While I'd like to think that sites like VRBO do some due diligence on the listings to make sure they're not scams, we found it reassuring to search other sites like Trip Advisor to see if other travelers had dealt with the same company.

Here are a few things you might want to consider when getting an apartment:

• Location (of course)
• A/C (or at least some fans) if you are planning on visiting in the summer.
• Elevator vs stairs: Most of the Hausmann style buildings have small elevators, but ours didn't. Having to climb 4 flights of stairs several times a day wasn't exactly fun, but I guess it was good exercise.
• TV/Cable: I know you're not going to Paris to watch TV, but your kids probably would appreciate having some programming available in English.
• Internet/Computer: Some apartments come with a computer and Internet access. Might save you from having to lug around a laptop.

Hit up a Mono 'P (or better yet, a Monoprix): If you get an apartment, you'll probably get a full kitchen. Doing a little planning and making a trip to the local grocery store will save you a lot of hassle and money. We bought some staples like cereal, eggs, cheese, fruit, milk and saved a ton of money eating breakfast at home and packing a lunch.

Eat like a Parisian: We always bought fresh croissants, pastries and baguettes in the morning. The croissants usually got eaten for breakfast, and we packed cheese & tomato or egg sandwiches for lunch. Our lunches were almost always on the go, and packing a light lunch meant we didn't feel guilty getting the occasional crepe for a snack.

Buy a Paris Museum Pass: I would highly recommend getting the Paris Museum Pass. However, make sure that you aren't buying Paris Pass which costs 129 Euro for adults, 66 for teens and 34 for children (a basic ripoff). Compare that to a 4-day Paris Museum Pass that costs 48 euros for adults and gets you basically all the same sights that the Paris Pass does. You don't have to buy any passes for children under 18 since most museums have free admissions for kids. That translates into a cost savings of 230 euros for a family of four (two adults, two children). The only thing that the Paris Pass adds is a transportation card, and given the fact that you're going to be walking most places in the city and the Metro isn't very kid-friendly, you're better off buying those tickets extra.

Look for restaurants with a kids menu: I noticed that a lot of restaurants offered a kids menu, and they were usually great deals (e.g. included the meal, a drink and dessert).

Bring a small stroller: Most metro and train stations aren't very accessible - we only found a handful of elevators or escalators, so most of the time, I was carrying the stroller up and down stairs. One notable exception was the Montmarte/Abbesses Metro station. There is a large elevator, and for good reason, because there are probably a 150+ steps.

Turn museum visits into a scavenger hunt: Admittedly, we didn't do this, but mainly because Samarah is too young, but we saw this tip in a travel video and I think it's worth repeating. Essentially, the idea is that you create some index cards with various artworks that a particular museum has, and the game for the kids is to try to find them in the museum. For example, if you're visiting the Louvre, you might have a picture of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the statue of David, etc.

Take the Eurostar: Since we were coming from London, we opted to take the Eurostar train to Paris. The whole experience, up until we got to Gare du Nord station in Paris, was great. Gare du Nord was a huge mess, and it took us almost an hour to buy tickets for a 3-minute RER ride. If we'd had some Euro coins, we would've avoided the long lines and purchased our tickets at an automated terminal.

I think that about does it. Re-reading what I've just written, I know that these tips were based on our experience in Paris, but these could easily apply to any vacation.

Also, feel free to share your own tips with us!