Where I stayed: Paris on a Budget

When it comes to having the chance to stay in a hotel, I must admit I'm pretty fussy. I think of it as a chance to experience a little luxury. Don't get me wrong, I've experienced my fair share of basic hotels too, but when the money is flowing a little more than normal, I do like to set my standards higher. When doing hotel research I have little tick boxes in my head and this can be quite a time consuming job!

When we were booking to go to Paris our budget wasn't extreme, it was just a last minute getaway so I was trying to keep costs low. Knowing we were spending a day in Disney, I decided to base the hotel around this, as I knew not only would it give us easy access to the park but also to the restaurants and shops pretty much 24hrs a day.

Up in the search came the obvious disney hotels, along with predictable disney prices. Even the cheapest of the cheap was over our budget. Then popped up an Ibis. I had stayed in an Ibis before, admittedly in Leeds, but its a chain hotel so its gotta be similar, right? Correct.

Although this wasnt any Parisian glamourous boutique hotel, it was clean, spacious and the location to disney was pretty much perfect. All this along with a £49 p/n pricetag. I definitely wasn't gonna grumble at that.

I did the obligatory glances at some reviews. A good chunk of them were positive, but just like any hotel, there was the odd negative one thrown in there. I was a little apprehensive about the noise, considering how close it was to the train station, but honestly, I didn't hear a thing (and I ain't no heavy sleeper!).

The proximity of the hotel to the station was fantastic. You could have literally walked out the train station and hopped on one foot to the hotel door and you'd have no problem (weird analysis, but true!). The hotel area felt really comfortable too - it was almost peaceful - no busy traffic and you just felt at ease when you were walking around (which I don't often feel!). There is apparently a shopping centre with designer outlets etc, but we couldn't find this (although admittedly didn't give it a good enough try!). There are shops around too, but again, we always bought from the train station shop if we needed anything before heading back.

This hotel would be perfect as well if you've got kids. No more annoying 'are we nearly there yet?' after a long day in Disney - there literally isn't any point in sitting down once you board the train at Disney, its the next stop, and before you can blink, you're on and off the train (which may I add, run pretty much every 5 minutes).

A hotel bed is always something I remember, either for better or worse! This one didn't blow me away (I think my best ever hotel bed was in Las Vegas.. ahhh, take me back!), but it didn't cause me any problems either... so that gets another tick from me!

It had ample seating space considering there was only 2 of us (Mike never uses hotel seating anyway, he prefers just to use the bed, but of course it comes in handy for me when I'm doing my make-up and hair).

The bathroom was a little on the small side, but I've experienced smaller (if any of you have stayed in an Easy(Jet) hotel, you'll know what I mean!). It did have a powerful shower which is always a bonus. Those half asleep showers are rather frustrating!

Again, it's not something grand to look at, but it scores high for convenience and even higher for the budget. If I was to visit this part of Paris again I definitely wouldn't think twice about staying here again if the budget was low.

PS - Sorry they're not the most glamorous shots, I felt like I didn't have anything worthwhile focusing on!