Istanbul or Rome or Paris ?

[OilSheikh]

Hexites, From your own personal experiences, which of these three have you been to ? What would be the tourist attractions you recommend visiting?

[Smudger]

Not been to Rome or Istanbul, but I was disappointed with Paris when I last visited.

I'd recommend Bruges though. Very pretty and good beer! Watch In Bruges before you go...

[neonplanet40]

Been to Rome and Paris, not Istanbul though.

Paris was nice - specifically near and around Notre Dame (food is cheaper here too). Of course you also need to visit the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. Arc de Triomphe is nice as well and Sacre Coeur.

Rome is one of my favourite (along with Venice).

Visit - Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, Colosseum, Vatican, Trevi Fountain etc - The food is great. Make sure to have loads. Coffee ain't bad either!

As the above have said - Bruges is lovely. Probably my favourite European destination to date.

[realstock]

Not been to either Paris or Istanbul, but I have been to Rome.

There is a list as long as your arm, for tourist attactions but the highlight for me is the Colosseum.

Also visited Vatican Museum & Sistine chapel, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon. All amazing sites!

[OilSheikh]

Found this wicked site :
http://www.tripomatic.com/trip-plann...=*suzv2mkyblcj

[rox0r]

Did Paris some years ago, thought it was a dump to be perfectly honest. The rest of France is lovely and the south is fantastic but Paris is just...meh. And as for Parisians, wow are they obnoxious.

[peterb]

Istanbul is fantastic, the old town in particular.

Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia (dates from around 600 AD), Galata Tower, the tunnel down to the waterfront, Sardine sellers on the waterfront, The underground cistern, the Grand Bazaar.... Lots of good restaurants Not terribly expensive.

So much culture and history

Rome has the Roman artefacts, Vatican City, St Paul's Basilica, loads of fantastic Pizza restaurants!

Also loads of history.

[TheAnimus]

Well they are three very different places.

Paris is nice enough, if you stay within a bubble about 1.5 miles wide. Otherwise, that's it. Massive, massive ghettos too.

Rome is amazing when it comes to brilliant bits of history just stuck about all over the place, I would say there are a lot more things to see than in Istanbul, but Istanbul has some utterly amazing bits of arabic culture which Rome lacks completely.

It's chalk n cheese really, oh and skip Paris!

[OilSheikh]

From my days playing Assassin's Creed, it seems all the attractions seem familiar. Can't wait to go and see them in person.

[jim]

Exactly what I was thinking! I'd recommend using the steps though...

[kalniel]

Pretty much what TheAnimus said. The major difference in my opinion is the culture of the places, but if you're just popping into tourist attractions then you'll get less of that, so without some dipping into Parisian culture there's little to recommend Paris. Rome kind of has the least cultural wonder for me, but it more than makes up for it in tourist attractions (though I much prefer other parts of Italy - Florence, Sienna, Pisa etc.). Istanbul has both culture and tourist attractions. It's probably a bit more work than Italy, but Italy is so easy to visit that you can always go there another time.

[OilSheikh]

Have decided to go with Istanbul. Food is much better

[TheAnimus]

Have decided to go with Istanbul. Food is much better

The 'Nar' (no idea how it should be spelt) endless amounts of pomegranates being freshly juiced. Istanbul central areas are littered with stalls selling it.

However, I would say that on average, the food isn't as good as Paris or Rome! If you want meat on a stick cooked over coals it's got many options. But Rome just throw a stone and you'll hit an excellent eatery. Istanbul, I'd recommend doing some homework and picking the places you want to eat at, if your are bit of a foodie. Like any big city, they have some top notch places, but they also have their own Angus Steakhouse equivalents.

[Dooms]

I've been to Paris quite a few times and I can kind of recommend it... I mean on a nice day its a beautiful city and some of the sites are lovely.

2 days is enough for me though... You can walk the majority of the city in one day, do the arc de triumph at night to see the tower all lit up and then spend another day doing the galleries.

It's also incredibility expensive.

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Rome I went to the first time last month and LOVED IT. 2 days there was nowhere near enough and the scale of everything is just mind blowing. I need to go back to see more and I don't say that about many places.

[malfunction]

I've been to both Paris and Rome a few times, though usually for work and usually with someone local working on the team that's helped to guide where we go in the evenings which makes a major difference to going somewhere blind.

Personally I've enjoyed both Rome and Paris but have found that the standard of food is actually better in Paris than in Rome at the low to mid end (not the most generous per diem where I work). In my experience you can go just about anywhere in central Paris and enjoy the food (even the cheap places) but there are a lot of crap places to eat in Rome as well as the good places.

Rome is probably better for an evening drink - depending on how old you are and who you're going with - though I've also enjoyed Paris at night, particularly around the Latin quarter.

Rome definitely has the edge in terms of tourist attractions, but if you're only going for a short trip there's plenty to see and do in Paris too.

Paris is definitely a major crap hole outside of the central bit - very large rough looking areas; I've never had any trouble when working in the outskirts of Paris but large parts of it look worse than London, though if you're going for a holiday / break I doubt you'd feel the need to venture into the rough bits. Rome has plenty of poverty too but doesn't somehow seem as bad, there was a very visible presence of prostitutes on the major roads in and out of central Rome at night, especially near the business hotels, but central Rome itself felt very safe as it's never particularly quiet - always lots of tourists and locals around and plenty of Carabinieri (though all I've ever seen them do is chase down street hawkers, outside of that they just seem to stand around posing)...

I've never been to Istanbul so ...

[Ttaskmaster]

Rome is apparently awesome, but very expensive. I plan to go there myself.
Istanbul, according to a friend who grew up there, is amazing and less expensive but much hotter than Rome.
Paris, by most accounts, is a bit of a let-down.