FIER ESCAPE

Lounge access is no longer a super exclusive experience made only for first class flyers. The credit card game has changed everything!   Even the everyday family traveler can enjoy lounge life.   We’ve come to LOVE these spots for their relaxing spaces, plenty of charging outlets, and completely free food and beverages (including adult bevs too!)

Three of the personal cards (i.e. non-business cards) give you open access to Priority Pass, a membership company that allows entrance to hundreds of lounges across the world. Unlike airline-specific cards which may give you access once you’ve accrued enough miles, these three cards give you automatic access right away.

Capital One Venture X (Our Favorite!)

This card allows the card holder and two guests access to Priority Pass affiliated as well as Capital One Lounges located in DEN, DFW, IAD, JFK, DCA, LGA, and LAS. It also allows additional  Authorized Users to get a card themselves for free.  With an authorized user card, they too can bring two more guests.  In our family Emily is the primary card holder and Hunter is an authorized user.  Between the two of us we have access for 6 total people.  Since we’re a family of 5 that’s perfect!

The Venture X does have a $395 Annual Fee but also a $300 travel credit which effectively brings the fee down to $95 when used once for travel. We get significantly more value than that $95 with a trip or two to the lounge, and we avoid steep airport food prices.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

This card allows access to  Priority Pass lounges as well as Chase Sapphire Lounges currently in BOS, LGA, and JFK (with LAS and PHL coming soon). This one also allows you to bring two guests, but an authorized user card is an additional $75 a year. The fee on this one is $550 a year with a similar $300 travel credit bringing its effective expense to $250 a year, $325 if you add an authorized user.

The current sign on bonus for this card (as of 10/22/24) is 60,000 points plus $300 back for travel

American Express Platinum

Here’s another one that gives Priority Pass Lounge access in addition to Amex Centurion Lounges. Also included are the Delta Sky Club Lounges when flying Delta, Select Virgin Clubhouses, Plaza Premium Lounges, and Escape Lounges. This card allows two additional guests into the Priority Pass Lounges but charges each non-cardholder guest $50 per visit (in some locations this fee is higher based on demand.)  We’ve also heard rumors that access to additional guests may not be available if the lounge is at capacity, but we’ve never encountered that problem.   The annual fee is $695 and Authorized Users for this card are charged $195 each year.  On the plus side, this card is like a “coupon book” with lots of ways to earn the annual fee back, but it takes some effort.  Presently sign on bonuses are as high as 175,000 points which is GREAT. Try the link above while in Chrome Incognito mode for the best chance of a high sign on bonus.

All of the links above benefit both the user and FierEscape. We appreciate your support!

Airbnb with a view

The Schedule

Taking the kids to Paris sounds daunting but can be the adventure of their young lives with a little planning. To give you a starting point, here is the itinerary we followed and some things we learned along the way.
When planning your itinerary , there are several things to keep in mind, but maybe the place to start is knowing the days tha major attractions are open so you can build the initial framework of your trip. Each of the major museums takes a day off each week, and, while a lot of establishments may close on Sunday, many also (or alternately) close on Monday or Tuesday.  If you’re lucky enough to be there on the first Sunday of the month, many are FREE!

Closed Monday: Musée D’Orsay, Versailles, Musée Rodin, Musée Carnavalet, Catacombs of Paris
Closed Tuesday: Louvre, Musée de l’Orangerie, Pompidou Centre

This is how we did it:
Day One
– arrived and checked into our Airbnb
– walked to and climbed the Arc De Triomphe
– a walk along the Champs Élysée and a sweet snack at La Durée
-Paris Saint-Germain FC soccer game
-dinner at a café near the Airbnb

Day Two
-Louvre (tickets need to be scheduled ahead of time)
– a walk through the Jardin des Tuileries
– quick stop for the best Madeilines in town at the nearby: Mado a Paris
– wandered and shopped through the 7th arrondissement
-sunset at the Galleries Lafayette for the rooftop views
– dinner nearby (see a theme? There are cafés EVERYWHERE! Just wander in.)

Day Three
-Musée D’Orsay
-Reserved lunch at Madame Brasserie in Eiffel (more on tickets to the Eiffel Tower below)
-Photoshoot at Avenue de Camoens and alone the Seine with a local photographer
– wandered through the 6th arrondissment and stopped for a café dinner
-Luxembourg Gardens (the kids loved the carousel, playground and the Statue of Liberty scavenger hunt)

Day Four
-Versailles guided tour (half day) with Pablo
-walk around Île de la Cité
–Sainte-Chapelle
-Notre Dame (has a construction museum about the restoration as it wasn’t finished yet)
-walked around Latin District (including Shakespeare and Co) and the 4th arrondissement

UPDATE: We recently returned as part of Spring Break 2024 before headed to Rome. Two added days included:

Day Five
– Lunch at Le Train Bleu at Gare de Lyon train station
– take the Metro to the Jardin des Tuileries and do a quick carousel ride
– Musee de l’Orangerie
– Return visit for Madelines and tea at Mado a Paris
– walk back home to our Airbnb in le Marais
– Supermarket local grabs for a picnic dinner at home (see our post about fun grocery finds to try)

Day Six
– pastries in the Square du Temple Elie Wiesel
– The Catacombs (more on this below)
-Île Saint-Louis (the island adjacent to the Île de la Cité where Notre Dame and Sainte-Chappelle reside) for shopping with ice cream and fries stop at La Chaumiere
-Pablo Picasso Museum Musée National Picasso-Paris (delightfully empty during March)
– Dinner in le Marais in the oldest food market in Paris at Marche de Rouge Enfants


The Eiffel Tower
Tickets to go to the summit open at midnight (Paris time) 90 days in advance and are often hard to get. We weren’t lucky enough to score them, and, not wanting to pay an arm and leg for another service that also gets you to the top, we took an alternate approach and booked lunch in the Brasserie on the 1st floor. Lunch at Madame Brasserie gains you entrance to the first floor via lift, along with a delicious three-course lunch INSIDE the tower and access to climb up or down from there.

If you’re sans kids,  Le Jules Verne, a Michelin-starred restaurant on the second floor of Eiffel Tower, is another option with exquisite food and wine and amazing views of the city. To be fair we did see some kids here, you just won’t find mine here.

The Catacombs / Les Catacombes des Paris
My kids were very excited to see this. We missed our chance the first time so when we returned a second time it was a must. Firstly, I don’t recommend this is you’re at all claustrophobic. The kids became quickly anxious once we entered not because of any skeletons, as you don’t find them til much later, but because of the dark, long, low ceilinged tunnel many levels underground below Paris you have to have traverse before even getting to the crypts. Once in the crypts the ceilings open up quite a bit and everyone was actually fine then, ironically in the rooms with walls of human bones. Hundreds of years of Parisian remains were indeed intriguing to see all in all. Tickets for this open 1 week in advance and are recommended as these book up quickly as well. You can book these through an outside service but the prices are usually much higher.

Versailles
You can take a train or taxi or book a private transfer and tour, which is what we ultimately did. With concern over public transport shutdowns because of the strikes, we were happy we did. We booked a tour with a guide via Airbnb Experiences with Pablo who picked us up in Mercedes vans at the Place de la Concorde, drove us to Versailles, obtained our tickets, and toured the grounds with us. He was amazing with the kids, helping them understand the history. Each kid was assigned a role in the history, and they loved hearing who killed whom and who was later beheaded.

French Food
We were pretty stressed out the first time around thinking we needed reservations for all of our meals. We didn’t want to miss the major tourist dining spots. When traveling with kids, we find a more “go with flow” attitude makes for a less stressful trip. We’re not rushing off to make a certain reservation at a certain time. There is amazing food EVERYWHERE. See a cafe that looks nice? Just walk in. We’ve both gone to nicer restaurants to try something new and then we’ve also let the kids just have their 8th croissant of the trip for that meal. It’s about everyone enjoying themselves and for this time I quit worrying about veggie intake and everyone indulging in what they love about French fare.

There are treats on every block so we used these as motivation for get from here to there or another 10 minutes in a museum we’re enjoying. We’re not above a little bribery so every wins. Pain au chocolat, macaron, hot chocolate, oh my!

Grocery store dinner night is a fun experience at a low cost and easy when energy levels are low, such as the first day of arrival. Walk into any nearby market such as a Franprix and everyone picks out things we can’t get at home. We enjoyed new pastries, yogurts, odd chip flavors, new candies but also snuck in some fresh produce and very affordable, but amazing bottles of wine for the parents to enjoy after the kids crashed.

Supermarché grabs

Other highly recommended experienced that were done without the kids previously but could certainly be kid friendly:
–CV2 Citroen tour around the city and to Sacré Couer/ Montmartre whilst sipping champagne (larger car available for bigger parties)
–Paris By Mouth tour and bar hopping in Marais or Latin District

The Housing

Hotels big enough for families are expensive and rare. Most standard rooms will fit 2-3 and, unlike the US, you can’t just sneak another kid in. They are much more strict on that. So this led us to our tried and true Airbnb. I always look for hosts labeled as “Superhosts” with tons of positive reviews for peace of mind. Reading the reviews allows you to learn so much about each host and pick one that suits you best. Not only were these much more affordable than a hotel, but they can be multi-roomed, including kitchens and, our personal biggest demand, a washer and dryer.

For our first trip with the kids, we wanted to stay as centrally-located as possible.  Paris is broken up into districts or arrondissements, and most of the main touristy sites are around the 7th and 8th arrondissements. We found a two-bedroom unit with all our usual demands in the 8th arrondissement, half a block off the Champs Élysées, which allowed a view of the Eiffel, a short jaunt to the Arc de Triomphe, all the shopping of the Champs Élysées, and was less than a mile from the Louvre and Musée D’Orsay. We ended up walking to most of the destinations. Although the Metropolitan system was spotty that week due to national strikes, it didn’t impact us much because we were in the middle of it all.

We stayed here. (not an ad)


For trip two we elected to stay in the foodie region of Le Marais. We enjoyed this part of town thoroughly during the prior visit and wanted to explore it further. It’s home to the Marche des Rouge Enfants (literally the Market of the kids in red named in 1615 under the reign of Louis the XIII after a nearby orphanage where the children wore red coats) an open air market with fresh produce, meat and cheese. There’s tons of shops and restaurants here in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. It’s coated with cobblestone roads and old world architecture to die for. Major attractions include: The Centre Pompidou, Musee Picasso, Hotel de Sens, Place de Vosges, Hotel de Ville.

We stayed here. (not an ad)

The Transportation

We flew a nonstop, overnight flight from Detroit to Paris on points via AirFrance and landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at 10:55 am. (To learn how we got these tickets for only the cost of tax go here!). We were greeted at the gate by our concierge… Yes, our concierge <pinkies up>. We had taken an adult trip previously and learned the joys of the airport concierge and used them for ease of mobility through the airport. This arrangement the airport has with several companies allows their agents to meet the traveler at the gate and assist them through customs in a fast-track fashion. We figured traveling overnight with possibly unslept kids, in a place where the main dialect was not our own, while navigating one of the world’s biggest airports would not be our idea of a good time. Instead, we opted to pay a concierge about 150 euro to collect us and any luggage we had checked , and take us to the front of the line for customs and right out the other door and into an Uber faster than you can blink an eye. Is this necessary? No way. This is paying for increased convenience. We used this only when coming into CDG. As we didn’t have to navigate customs on our way home, we did it on our own like the normal travelers we usually are. And we did just fine.

Red Eye Flight on AirFrance and Métropolitain

Ubers and G7 (their version of ride-sharing) are all easily available with an app from the airport. Flat-rate taxis and trains to the city exist as well but we like the ease of using the app and getting a quick transfer to our lodging while we have all our bags in tow.

The Métropolitain is efficient and easiest to via using google maps with step by step instructions on where to enter, exit and traverse while inside the underground system.

A family adventure that’s not beachside.

The Canadian Rockies are something to behold. There is mind-blowing beauty everywhere you turn. Lake Louise, Lake Moraine, Athabasca Glacier, and Columbia Ice Fields will all take your breath away. While our kids were 5, 8, and 11 at the time, there’s fun for all. Sure, if you’re willing to limit your level of trek to what the kids (or you) can manage, there’s hiking, but,  aside from trails, there is more–so much more.  

The Three Sisters Mountain

We started our trip in Calgary, the closest airport to Banff. From the Midwest, it was a four-hour, non-stop flight from Detroit (with similar flights available from Chicago). We got a great deal on WestJet, a Delta affiliate, for about $300 a person round trip. Set a Google Flights alert, and see what deals you can find! 

The drive from Calgary to Banff/Canmore is about 1 hour and 15 minutes of beauty. As you leave Calgary, the scenery lends a similar vibe to when you’re leaving Denver–leaving a city and heading out to the mountains–but even more majestic. We often travel with several other families but break off for what suits each family best, and there are several worthy stops along the way for adventuring and hiking.  One family went to the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary. We skipped this due to age restrictions on our youngest (minimum age is 6) but substituted it for some extra time in our Calgary hotel pool and barrel sauna before heading out.

Marriott Residence Inn Calgary Airport

We made our first hiking stop in Kananaskis, a skiing area in the winter with loads of hiking in the summer. We parked in the Village and had a quick lunch at the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge before heading out on a hike. (Aside: in this area there was the most amazing looking Nordic Spa that had we found a place to store the kids for a few hours I’d definitely be partaking in. Going without kids or traveling with a sitter? Check it out!)

We stretched our legs on a short hike here to Troll Falls (2.8km loop). It worth the stop and time to let the kids run.

Troll Fall Trail

Canmore

For cheaper lodging and equal charm, consider staying in Canmore. It’s about twenty minutes from downtown Canmore to Downtown Banff, and there are  tons of Airbnbs and VRBOs for larger groups as well as chain hotels. We loved this area because it had tons to do–scenic trails and rivers on the walk to a quaint old-west vibe downtown where there were tons of adorable shops and cafes. There are breweries, local coffee bars, and frequent farmers markets. There’s an amazing library/rec center with climbing walls and a waterpark-style pool if you find yourself in the rain one day.

Endorsable Eats:
Rocky Mountain Bagel, Blondies Café, Canary Coffee, Eclipse coffee, Grizzly Paw Brewery

Banff

We went into the glorious town on Banff several times to explore and eat. The city is very walkable, with a gorgeous park and riverside walk. We explored the Bow River on a giant canoe via the Banff Canoe Club. We chose the evening Nature Watch, which leaves at 6pm, but there are trips at all hours of the day.

Canadian Pacific views from Bow River in Banff

Eat here: 3 Bears Brewery, Bluebird (great food and cocktails- cool vibes + patio),  Park Distillery (good food and cocktails – cute national park themed liquor bottles, Banff Poutine, Beavertails

Lake Louise/ Moraine

Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Be aware! There’s some planning required to get here. Unless you’re staying at the hotels at these lakes (Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise or Moraine Lake Lodge) you can no longer just drive there and park. It’s required to park off-site and bus in. This requires tickets and reservations made well in advance. Be sure to grab these early. Visit parks.canada.ca for more info. Reservations for 2024 open in late January.

Shuttle bus from parking at Lake Louise Ski base to Lake Louise and Moraine

A popular hike at Lake Louise is to the Agnes Tea House. It wasn’t for the faint of heart, but we managed to get all five adults and five kids (one being sherpa’d by her parents in a carrier) up the 4.5 miles (7km), which includes a 1300  ft gain at an altitude of 7000 ft. We felt it. It was tough, but we made it to the top and had tea as our reward, which wasn’t the drink of choice for our worn-out, sweaty selves. There’s two outhouses for your use and snacks and water are pricey as they have to helicopter supplies in and waste out.  The views, however, were spectacular, and so was the muscle soreness the next morning. 

After Lake Louise and the Agnes hike, we were pretty excited to take it easy at Lake Moraine. Alongside the hotel is a nice cafe/shop where we got snacks and relaxed with lake views. Be advised, however, you cannot enter the Fairmont Chateau or use their restaurants without having a reservation there. Both lakes feature the same beautiful blue-green waters seen in much of this area. There are canoes available for rent much of the season as well. 

Moraine Lake

Johnston Canyon

If you’re seeking a scenic but more manageable hike, head to Johnston Canyon. Go early, as it gets busy on the trail, and the walkways are narrow. The upper waterfall trail is worth the hike. 

Johnston Canyon official site

Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Icefields

Glacier walking is a must-do experience while you’re here. The Columbia Icefield is located at the continental divide in Banff and Jasper National Parks. This glacier is the most visited in North America. It’s actively receding and is expected to disappear between 2040 and 2100. It’s VERY important to secure your tickets ahead of time and ALSO book a time to ride the glacier bus. We discovered quite late into the process our tickets purchased on Viator still needed us to call the Glacier center to book a time slot. We saw many people make the same mistake and some had to return another day.

Enjoy a nice walk on the glacier, a facial dip in the glacier water “a glacial facial” and drive in and out on a monster ice explorer.

Canada Day in Canmore

We were lucky to round out our trip with a Canada Day Parade (July 1st) on our last day in Canmore. If you can be there during this time be sure to find a parade and bring your water guns and raincoats as its tradition for those in the parade to soak the observers. Between the Mounties and the firefighters prepare to get wet! There are dry zones if that better suits you. Our kids declined, of course.

Reach out to us on Instagram with any questions you have!
All photograhy by Hunter Fiers. More at ShotsFiered