u/Prize-Age-4917

Hi. Looking for a mountain in northeast US where we can take our 3-5 year olds to lear to ski. We would get them lessons and then also might practice with them solo. So looking for mountains that sell separate lower mountain area tickets as I don’t want to pay >100 per adult so I can walk or pizza slide next to my kids for max one hour per day. Good ski school is also obviously important. We will be going between Xmas and new years.

We are in NYC and flexible as far as the area goes and can go as far as Mount Tremblant area.
But obviously closer better.

TIA!

What are your favorite custom cake places (can be outside LIC too)? We used to order from TasteCreme but they sadly closed. Really loved their cakes as far as actual taste - tasty, moist not too sweet! We care more about taste vs design and don’t love super sweet traditional American cakes (European, Asian styles are more preferable to us for that reason)

TIA!

hi all! was hoping you can help me decide with my Loire Valley base.

After visiting Normandy/Brittany smaller towns, I was hoping to spend 3 days in a larger city in Loire valley with one day spent on castles, one day shopping and one day roaming around. I was going to stay in Tours (for direct access to shopping and good restaurants) however when I started to look at the hotels they look rather depressing (except one 5 star hotel that is a bit pricy). Seems although Tours is a good looking city, it is not a destination in itself, and tourists tend to stay outside. So question is - should I stay in Tours or stay in Ambroise, Boise or somewhere else and do a one day trip to Tours instead? I enjoy larger cities that are beautiful and have locals not just tourists, so was looking to stay at Tours but now I really don’t know..

TIA!

hi! hoping you can help me finalize my itinerary. We are spending 10 days in France. Below is my draft plan. We are a couple in our late 30s. Love food (like a lot ha ha), architecture, beautiful scenery. We are city people and can't really sit still so we get bored in a place too small for too long.

Day 1 - fly from NYC to Paris, rent the car and enjoy the rest of the day at a spa hotel outside Rouen (1.5 hour drive from Paris)

Day 2 - Etretat day hike and Honfleur in the evning. Sleep there.

Day 3 - drive to Baeux or Caen (can't decide between two. I know Baeux is better for D day but afraid to get bored and that i will miss the city at this point)

Day 4 - one day D day beach tour

Day 5 - Check out and drive to St Malo. Visit that maybe pass by Cancales for oysters

Day 5 - Mt St Michell

Day 6 - Check our and drive towards Loirre Valley (Tours as a base). Pass by Dinan. Any other place?

Day 7 - Visit one or two castles (Villandy and Chennonceau)

Day 8 - Visit Tours - go shopping

Day 9 - this is an extra day - can spend it in either region

Day 10 - drive to Paris airport drop of the car and fly home (we have a 7pm flight).

What should I add to this (spare day 9)? Are any places too similar and I should swap them for something else? Anything I should drop for the list?

I initially wanted to do Rouen but then ended up dropping it as i was sort of not in my way per se and made my itinerary more difficult - but should I do that?

Also anything cool that can be done in these areas? that is not obvious and noted? River cruise, cave tour? some sort of amazing hike in the area?

Thanks in advance!

hi! Hoping you can help with a 2 day Loire Valley itinerary In September.

We would like to visit one or two Chateaus and a Winery that specializes in red wines. We are mostly red wine drinkers but don‘t really drink French wines but we enjoy a variety of red wines unless they are fruity/floral.

We would like to stay at a nice countryside chateau/hotel or winery that ideally has a good on site restaurant (big foodies here). But on site restaurant is not a deal breaker as long as there are places not too far.

What base and specific hotel and winery do you recommend?

I did my research of the chateaus so know the main ones to visit but I did Versailles a while ago so i‘m fairly flexible. I’m more so looking for a nice place to stay, beautiful towns, great restaurants and good wineries.

TIA!

hi! hoping you can help me decide on the regions to visit. I’m doing a 1.5 week trip to northwest France. Initially we were going to do Paris and Normandy for a week, but now expended the break to 1.5 weeks and no longer stopping in Paris .

So now I also want to visit parts of Brittany or maybe Loire valley and can’t decide between the two. Or maybe I can visit both? Is Brittany too similar to Normandy? should we do Loire Valley instead as it’s so different?

To clarify I’m not looking to visit every place in every region but to get a good mix of places to see that are not too redundant. We love architecture, food, scenery and enjoy a good hike.

So far my must do items are Mount St Michel, one day tour with D day beaches/myseums, a visit to an oyster town. Also Dinan looked beautiful and if we end up in loire valley it would be cool to stay or visit a winery.

TIA!

hi! looking for recommendations of a beautiful hotel/resort outside Paris (max 1.5 hours from the airport). We are Flying into Paris and driving towards Normandy/Brittany (maybe Loire Valley) so need it to be in that direction.

The goal is to decompress after the flight, stay at beautiful property in the countryside with beautiful grounds and have a really good dinner (major foodies here) on premises. bonus if they have a pool, spa but not required. I don’t know France at all but an equivalent of a Tuscany villa vibe wise, a winery, abbey etc but open. I saw some places in Versailles but we have visited that area and wanted different

TIA!

Hi! We are doing a Normandy trip with 2 days to be spent in Paris. It’s our second time in Paris and we did not have the greatest experience first time around so looking for suggestion on which part of Paris to stay in to change our first bad impression.

Last time we visited, we did the usual top destinations as Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, champs Elisees, Montmartre, Versailles and found Paris very underwhelming, dirty and overrated. Before people attack me - I want to give some background. It was a last minute trip, we only did 3-4 days, our airbnb (in 12th arrondissement) was not great, we rushed through things, managed to eat at tourist traps only (we are major foodies so this really was disappointing), and had a really bad encounter with a gimpy person on a bus who was very aggressive towards us and other people on the bus.

I’m from NYC which can be the coolest place to visit if you go to the right places and the most disgusting places if you go to the wrong places. So I truly believe we just did it all wrong.

So looking of recommendation on an arrondissement/area to stay in. Maybe something less touristic with cool local vibes, beautiful surroundings and great food. Also suggestions as to what places to visit as second timers are welcome.

TIA!

hi! we are visiting France for 8 days. flying in and out of Paris and wanted to visit north of France. We were going to spend 2 days in Paris then drive to loire Valley, then to Normandy with potentially doing Brittany. The goal is to see new and diverse things. We are traveling first week of September and plan to take late evening flight from Paris so will drive from Normandy to the airport.

What are the must see places Outside Paris? We are doing Mont St Michel, would want to do a d day beach, Honfleur, pass by an oyster farming village (Cancales).

We love architecture, food, a nice hike. Goven the above, are we 2 ambitious doing all 3 regions? should we skip one (which one? Brittany as it’s more similar to Normandy?). And what are your must visit places?

We plan to rent a car outside Paris.

TIA!

Visiting DC with two kids (3 and 6 and looking for very specific restaurant suggestions). I found a few noted below but feel free to suggest better alternatives.

We are huge foodies so wanted to try some exciting (creative tasty food) places for dinner but not too fancy (so no fancy tasting menus). So far I feel like china chilcano and Maydan fit the bill. L’ardente was also next out hotel and also Le Diplomate looked good.

Then we are also looking for lunch places. Unconventional dinner and Yellow looked great. Even 2Amys.

But I wasn’t able to find a cool outdoor sitting restaurant or a brewery place for a more casual dinner/lunch where out kids can stand up and maybe even move around. please help!

TIA!

Hi! taking a long weekend getaway trip to DC (driving from NYC) and would appreciate help with the hotel.

I really enjoy newly renovated hotels (they just feel cleaner), would like a pool, and hoping for a good location (central, pretty neighborhood that has more of local/residential neighborhood vibe as opposed to business downtown).

I read that Georgetown and DuPont circle or even waterfront would fit my bill as far as location. But I found really good deal for Arlo hotel which I know is pretty central. Is that area really meh or can I walk like 5-10 minutes and find some nice streets, restaurants and playground (have 2 toddlers).

Any other hotels that are not super expensive and fit my bill?

TIA!