After flying in to Paris aboard Czech Airlines on Friday evening, with our onward flight to Dallas not scheduled until 11 A.M. the next day, that meant an overnight stay in Paris. We really just wanted a place to stay for the night near the airport so we wouldn’t have to get up terribly early. With me being a Hilton partisan, we selected the Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The fact that it’s practically connected to the airport itself was a nice bonus.
Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
- Roissypole, Rue de Rome, BP16461, Roissy CDG Cedex, 95708, France
- http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/france/hilton-paris-charles-de-gaulle-airport-CDGHITW/index.html
- Features: free shuttle to Terminal 2, free WiFi, adjacent to CDG Terminal 3, business center, meeting rooms, on-site restaurant, fitness center, pool, sauna
Location
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the hotel is more or less connected to CDG Terminal 3. If you are arriving in Terminals 1 or 2, take the free “CDGVAL” train that connects the terminals. Note that a shuttle bus is available from Terminal 2, but given that the CDGVAL runs every 4 minutes, compared to 15-20 for the bus, it’s generally more convenient to use the train, unless you have a large amount of luggage.
From Terminal 2, the CDGVAL station is located in the common area between Terminals 2A/2C and 2D/2F.
Once you get off at Terminal 3 and go up to ground level, you’ll see a common area like this. Follow the blue path and the signs towards the Hilton.
As you reach the end of the hall, the signage to the hotel becomes ambiguous. What you’ll want to do is head outside to the bus stop. You’ll see the hotel in the distance. It’s really not that far a walk; the path to the hotel begins at the back of the bus bay. The only downside to this arrangement is you will get wet if it’s raining. Incidentally, if you want to take the bus into the city, you can catch it here.
To return back to the terminal, just follow the signs to the CDGVAL station/Terminal 3. Note that if you want to catch the RER (Metro) into Paris, you can also catch this from the same public concourse outside Terminal 3.
If you prefer to take the shuttle bus, the pick-up/drop-off point is right in front of the front doors.
Review
Anyway, sorry for dedicating so much time to getting to the hotel, but seeing as the location adjacent to the airport is one of the property’s main selling points, it seemed prudent to highlight that it is indeed convenient to CDG. Once we arrived, roughly half an hour after landing from Bucharest, there was no line at the check-in desk. We were promptly helped by a friendly agent. Our room would be on the 5th floor. The hotel itself is farily standard Hilton corporate. The lobby area isn’t bad by any means, but it is rather – bland? It’s almost like they’re trying to be fancy, but only went halfway, and the result was a generic commercial look. In addition, for those of you with lounge access, the executive lounge is on the ground floor, not on the executive floor as you would normally expect.
The center atrium area was fairly nice, though, featuring a lounge and bar at the center. The general set-up reminded me somewhat of the Hilton at the Austin Bergstrom airport. I would imagine the atrium-facing rooms on the first couple of floors would get pretty noisy, though.
Once upstairs, the corridors once again exhibit a rather sterile look.
The room itself is ordinary decor wise, but fairly nice overall. It is reasonably large, with a small loveseat in one corner and a work desk and chair in the other. Plugs are available both on the nightstand closest to the window, and at the work desk, sufficient for both a laptop and a smartphone/tablet. There is also a small closet by the minibar/coffee maker.
As mentioned above, there is a coffee maker and a few complimentary instant coffee/tea packets on top of the minibar.
Most importantly, the bed was quite comfortable. Hiltons tend to be inconsistent when it comes to bed quality, but at least this bed was a good one. The hotel has also done a nice job with noiseproofing; I wasn’t disturbed at all by noise from the airport next door. Granted, I am a deep sleeper and will doze through just about anything once knocked out, but still, kudos for a job well done.
As far as the bathroom goes, those of you who hate having to step into a tub to use the shower will appreciate the separate facilities here. The tub itself is quite a deep one, which is nice if you prefer a soaking bath. The usual Peter Thomas Roth bath products were on offer
It was already pushing 8 P.M. by the time we got settled in the room. Neither one of us particularly felt like venturing out at this point, so we decided to give the hotel restaurant, Skylight, a try. The restaurant occupies quite a large space on the ground floor, next to the atrium bar. The fact that there were only a few other customers made it seem even larger.
I ordered a French onion soup (naturally), and roasted chicken with potatoes and shallots. They served the soup in a proper skillet, which was a nice touch. The soup was pretty good, as was the chicken, which was moist, tender, and had a good crispy skin, and came with a very nice red wine sauce. Not the best meal I’ve ever had, but perfectly serviceable, especially for a hotel restaurant.
On the other hand, service was a bit slow, at least on the back end. This actually seemed to be a problem everywhere we went on this trip. Orders would be taken promptly, and there usually wasn’t much of a wait for the food, but we’d wait forever for the bill. You’d figure they’d want you to hurry up and pay so they could seat another customer – but then again, almost every restaurant we went to was practically empty. Incidentally, the bill was pretty reasonable – about $70 for two.
Overall Thoughts
There’s nothing particularly special about the Hilton CDG, but I have to say, I liked it. It’s walking distance to the airport, convenient to the city via Metro or bus, the beds are comfortable, and the restaurant serves decent food. That’s really all I can ask for when I need a room for the night before catching a flight the next day.
Up next, we prepare to bid adieu to Europe, but first, a quick visit to the CDG Admirals Club is in order.
This post is part of my trip report series about our trip to the Czech Republic and Romania in October. Click here for the introductory post and trip report index.
