I believe that London will be the most difficult in finding

reasonably priced hotel rooms. I can't recommend anything specifically, but staying in the S. Kensington area would be great. Your airline may have some hotel affiliations, so you should ask them first. For Paris, there are many good bang for the buck 2 star hotels to choose from. A 2 star hotel will give you a decent room with private bathroom. Often the only difference between 2 and 3 star is either lack of airconditioning (which won't be a problem in March) or there might be a staircase involved. If stairs are a problem for you, just check with the hotel before booking. There are many Paris websites

and books to find small, charming hotels. If you don't care about charm and just want basic and cheap, try a chain like Tulip Hotels. I recommend that you stay in one of the following arrondisements

(districts)....1st,3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th or 16th. These are the best for visitors. You can tell the arrondisement by the last 2 digits of the zip code, 1.e. 76016 is the 16th and 75006 is the 6th, etc. Some popular arrondisements are called by names......the 5th is called the Latin Quarter (because it's got many colleges & they used to teach in latin), the 6th is referrered to the St. Germain de Pres area and both these area's are Left Bank or Rive Gauche because of their situation to the Seine River. If you stay in the 5th, I'd stay off of Blvd St. Michel as it's going to be very noisy unless your room faces the back. The Marais area (old jewish section) can be in parts of the 3rd or 4th and the Il St. Louis (one of the 2 islands)

is also the 4th. The 16th is *the* classy residential area and rue de Passy is their busy shopping street. I've passed some lovely little 2 star hotels there, though I don't recall the names.

The arrondisements go from 1 - 20 and 1 starts in the centre (Louvre) and then goes clockwise around like the shell of an escargot.

Additionally, an address will always mention the nearest metro stop, which is also extremely helpful in navigating a location.

Hope this helps.

Candice NYC (and Paris as often as possible!)