Is the Paris Pass 2024 worth it? We review prices and value here

After a couple of slow years like every other city, Paris is booming again and 2024 looks like another busy year for the city and its major attractions. The Paris Pass made some changes and then changed back last year and now in 2024 it’s easier and more straightforward than it’s been in a while. And unlike many other major tourist cities, most attractions in Paris didn’t increase prices in 2023 so the Paris Pass is about the same price as last year as well.

The Paris Pass can be a great tool for many visitors. Not only does it allow free entry into most of the top tours and attractions that are most popular with first-time visitors, but it also helps you plan an efficient itinerary that will save you a lot since so many of the best attractions are close together. As we will discuss below, I highly recommend both the hop-on, hop-off bus tour (in the morning) and the 1-hour Seine cruise (around sunset) whether you buy a Paris Pass or not. Fortunately, they are both included.

Note: This article was last updated in March, 2024. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This helps to keep this site going.

The main Paris attraction passes

  1. Paris Pass – This includes a Paris Museum Pass (see below) and an All-Inclusive attraction pass, which includes entry to most of the famous attractions and tours that are not specifically museums.
  2. Paris Museum Pass – This includes only admission to nearly every major museum in Paris.

If you are NOT interested in things like the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour, the Eiffel Tower guided climb, the (highly recommended 1-hour Seine Cruise or the wine tasting experience, then the Paris Museum Pass alone will save you money.

Prices for the Paris attraction and transportation passes

Paris Pass 2024 prices

2-day passes

  • 2-day Adult Paris Pass: (including a 2-day Museum Pass) €179
  • 2-day Child Paris Pass (ages 4 to 11): €94

3-day passes

  • 3-day Adult Paris Pass: (including a 2-day Museum Pass) €214
  • 3-day Child Paris Pass: €109

4-day passes

  • 4-day Adult Paris Pass (including a 4-day Museum Pass): €275
  • 4-day Child Paris Pass: €130

6-day passes

  • 6-day Adult Paris Pass: (including a 6-day Museum Pass) €300
  • 6-day Child Paris Pass: €140

Exclusive discount for Price of Travel readers

Prices of the most popular museums covered by the Paris Museum Pass, which is included with the Paris Pass

Palace of Versailles: €18

Built during the 1600s and 1700s, the Palace of Versailles is one of the largest and most famous palaces in the world. Always one of the most popular attractions in the Paris area, it’s outside of town and it takes 60 to 90 minutes to reach, depending on your starting point. Admission is included with a Paris Museum Pass and you’ll have to make a reservation as well.

Louvre Museum: €17

Obviously you can visit Paris and not visit the Louvre, so it’s good that it’s included in the Paris Pass. You now have to make reservations for your visit, but it’s an enormous place so that is usually simple. The building itself is a historic palace that would be worth a tour even if it didn’t contain the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, among thousands of other important pieces.

If you are an art fanatic, feel free to spend 4 or 6 hours in the Louvre or even visit twice. But honestly for most people, it gets overwhelming after an hour or maybe two. When I bring new people to Paris I walk them to the Mona Lisa and then to the Venus de Milo. By that time we’ve passed by thousands of paintings and sculptures and been there 45 minutes. After that we look around at anything else that has caught our eye, and then exit through the gift shop. A focused hour is more enjoyable for most people than wandering around for four hours unsure of what you are looking at. It’s also always pretty crowded.

Musée d’Orsay: €16

Located across the Seine from the Louvre in a gorgeous former train station, the Orsay Museum is actually more enjoyable for most people because it’s far more compact and yet also filled with super famous pieces. Here, along with smaller crowds, you’ll see one of Van Gogh’s Starry Nights, Whistler’s Mother by Whistler, and Bal du moulin de la Galette by Renoir. Honestly, you’ll probably recognize at least 10 or 12 famous paintings and you won’t wear out a pair of shoes in doing so.

Arc de Triomphe: €13

You already know what the Arc de Triomphe looks like, and it’s definitely worth going up to the observation deck on top because you’ll get many of your best Paris photos from there. Most people will climb the 234 stairs, but they also have an elevator for anyone who doesn’t look like climbing 234 stairs is possible (or a wise move). The HOHO buses stop here and it’s a good place to get off for a visit because many other people also get off so there will be empty seats on top when you want to get back on. That isn’t true of several other stops.

Sainte-Chapelle: €11.50

Conveniently located just a short walk from Notre Dame cathedral, the Sainte-Chapelle church will be another unexpected highlight of your Paris visit. This 800-year-old church has easily the world’s most impressive and beautiful stained glass windows in several different rooms. It’s breathtaking when you first see it, and one other great feature is that it’s small enough that you can easily enjoy it in less than an hour. The Paris Pass allows you to pack in many smaller and quicker attractions like this without worrying about going broke in the process.

What ISN'T included in the Paris passes

  • Eiffel Tower Elevators – 2nd floor elevator: €18.10, 3rd floor elevator: €28.30
  • Catacombs of Paris: €18.00

The Paris Pass DOES now include a guided walk up the 700 steps to the 2nd Floor including expert commentary, but obviously the climb isn’t ideal for everyone.

Extras included in ONLY the Paris Attractions Pass

Eiffel Tower guided climb to 2nd floor: €38

This is an exclusive deal for Paris Pass holders and it’s not for everybody, but it will be the highlight of your Paris trip for many. This is a climb of the 674 stairs up to the 2nd Floor (out of 3) with interesting live commentary and explanations in English. It takes 3 to 4 hours in total, so you won’t be racing up. If you are fit enough this will be amazing. And honestly, the 3rd floor isn’t much higher and it’s so high that all of your best photos will be from the 2nd Floor anyway.

Wine Tasting: €36.00 (includes free full-size bottle of wine for each person)

If you want to learn more about wine and try a few interesting French bottles then this is perfect. It’s a long block from the Louvre but an easy walk along the Seine, so it’s an ideal activity to schedule for after your Louvre visit. You get an English-language mini tour in a historic cellar explaining the key aspects of wine making, and then samples of three different wines near the end. They even send each visitor away with a full bottle of French wine to take with you, so it’s a hard one to pass up.

1-day Big Bus Paris hop-on, hop-off tour: €45.00

This is a full-day hop-on, hop-off pass on the double-decker bus that goes by and stops at almost every major tourist attraction in Paris in about a 3-hour loop. You can use it as transportation to get from one attraction to another, but I highly recommend starting early and doing the full loop once before hopping off. I’ve done at least 25 similar HOHO bus tours in major cities and the Paris one is easily my favorite. Paris is compact enough that the loop isn’t too long, and all of the main sights are clustered on either side of the Seine, so you don’t waste much time driving through random areas.

Whether you buy a Paris Pass or not, I highly recommend you take the HOHO bus tour on your first full morning in the city, and you will have seen all of the main sights and know how to get back to them later before noon.

Bateaux Parisiens River Cruise: €18.00

In my opinion, this is the other must-do tour in Paris, whether you buy a Paris Pass or not. These large boats with plenty of top-deck outdoor seating leave from near the Eiffel Tower on a frequent basis, but they are popular so it’s wise to get there a bit earlier than you want to depart. The trick is to select a departure right around sunset. Paris is stunning as it is lighting up for the evening, and you pass under 18 bridges that are each lit up in a unique way. By the time you get back to the Eiffel Tower an hour later, it will also be gorgeously lit up for amazing photos.

Parc Astérix: €59

This large theme park in the northeast suburbs of Paris is based on the Astérix comic book and characters, so it’s a great option and compromise if you are traveling with young ones. The place has many roller coasters and other thrill rides to go along with the character-themed attractions. There are buses that leave from central Paris that take you to the park for a fee. You can also take the RER train to Charles de Gaulle Airport and then a special shuttle from that train station to the park.

Montmartre & Sacré Coeur walking tour: €36

Leaving three times per day (10AM, 2PM, 5PM), this 90-minute walking tour is a highly recommended way to get to know perhaps Paris’ most interesting neighborhood. Especially gorgeous at night (so the 5PM tour could be perfect), Montmarte is the city’s most famous art district and community. At its center is the namesake hill with the stunning Sacré Coeur cathedral perched on top. This will be one of your favorite stops in Paris and some of your favorite photos as well.

Emily in Paris: The Unofficial Tour

Fans of the hit Netflix show will definitely be interested in this 2-mile guided walking tour of some of Paris’s loveliest neighborhoods. It only goes on Tuesdays and Fridays as of now at 1:30 PM so you’ll want to plan well in advance and make reservations. You’ll see the character’s apartment and other famous exteriors including Gabriel’s restaurant along with the bakery where she has her first pain au chocolat. If you don’t watch the show it’s definitely not worth it, but if you do this will be a major highlight.

Grevin Wax Museum: €26.50

This is the French equivalent of Madame Tussauds and it’s far more enjoyable than most people expect. With a central location close to several other included attractions, the Grevin Wax Museum is in a gorgeous building filled with over 450 characters that look so lifelike that you keep expecting them to move. There are obviously many French historical figures, but also international historical figures and athletes and actors and pop stars. You’ll know scores of them. While it’s true that you might not normally pay €26.50 to visit a wax museum, it’s great with the Paris Pass because you can just pop in for an hour or so in between other places. Most people are very impressed.

The Paris Big Bus Tour and Seine River Cruise are great ways to get oriented for first-time visitors

On your first visit to Paris you definitely want to visit the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and hopefully the Palace of Versailles (a bit outside the city center), but you also want to have a good look at the city of Paris itself.

Whether you buy the Paris Pass or not, you’ll want to strongly consider taking the Paris Big Bus Tour (included in the Paris Pass) as well as the Seine River Cruise. Both of these offer an excellent and efficient look at all of the famous places you might want to visit later, and you can do both of them in half a day. Take the hop-on, hop-off bus tour as early in the day as you can, and plan on doing the Seine river cruise just after sunset in order to see how beautifully lit the bridges and famous buildings are at night.

Is the Paris Pass good value?

If all of the above seems confusing, you are in good company. These ‘city cards’ can be a great tool for many first-time visitors to destinations, but in some cases they cost too much or disrupt your trip in other ways. Before a trip it’s easy to plan 4 or 5 museums and attractions for each day, but once you arrive that always feels too ambitious. A big part of what makes Paris so incredible is the gorgeous city itself, not just the museums and main sights.

Another thing to consider is that if you lock in your sightseeing expenses before you arrive there will be the temptation to just rush from one thing to the next to get the most from your money. If you happen to have a day when you only get to one or two attractions, you might have a sense of guilt over missing your pre-trip goals.

On the other hand, if you prefer to pay in advance and then challenge yourself to make sure you see all the amazing sights that Paris has to offer, then the Paris Pass can be a great deal. If you are mostly interested in the museums then the Paris Museum Pass is probably the better deal, but if you also want to take a bus tour or a river cruise or do the wine tasting then the Paris Pass is the way to go.

For great value hotels check out our recommended Paris hotels section, which gives you 5 excellent choices without the hassle of going through nearly two thousand hotels in the area.

New: How to get the most out of a 2-Day or 3-Day Paris Pass

Important advice for getting good value out of a Paris Pass

After using so many of these city passes through the years, and also getting some comments from customers who don’t feel like they got good value out of the Paris Pass, I can reveal two important bits of advice for Paris Pass holders.

1. Start early in the day, at least on your first couple days using the pass

The number one struggle for those who regretted buying a Paris Pass is starting early enough. Especially on your first couple of days using the Paris Pass you are strongly encouraged to leave your hotel by 09:00 or so, and go to the most popular attractions first. Places like the Louvre or the bus tour tend to not get too busy until 11:00 or so, which means that if you start on those things right after breakfast you will have time to do TWO top attractions before lunch. After that you’ll have the rest of the day to do one, two, or three more activities, and you’ll still have the whole evening free to have a long dinner and wander the beautiful neighborhoods.

Some people complain that by the time they got to their first attraction of the day, the place was packed, so they started on a bad note and then felt rushed the rest of the day trying to catch up.

2. Plan your day and route before you leave your hotel

The Paris Pass comes with a very helpful booklet that shows all of the attractions on a map, with hours of operation. If you spend some time before you leave your hotel for the day, planning an efficient route that connects the attractions you want to see that day, it will all seem easy and you’ll get the most out of your Paris Pass.

If you aren’t able to plan ahead like this then maybe the Paris Pass isn’t ideal for you. If you aren’t able to spend a bit of time planning ahead, chances are you’ll be racing around and wasting a lot of time, and you’ll be unhappy with the Paris Pass.

The Paris Pass is ideal for:

  • First-time visitors to Paris who want to cover most of the main sights in a few days
  • Travelers who want to see and do as much as possible on a short trip
  • Visitors who want to orient themselves with the bus tour and Seine river cruise

The Paris Museum Pass by itself is ideal for:

  • Culture vultures who plan on visiting at least 2 museums each day but don’t care about tours or anything else
  • Budget travelers coming during busy season who want to skip the ticket queues

Visiting with no pass is ideal for:

  • Visitors spending more than 7 days in the city who might prefer to see only one sight per day
  • Backpackers and other extreme-budget travelers

Exclusive discount for Price of Travel readers

One last thing to consider about budgeting your time in Paris

There are plenty of free things to do in Paris, many of which should be high priorities for first-time visitors, including strolling the Champs-Élysées, exploring the Montmartre neighborhood, and admiring the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triumphe from the street, so spending a lot of money on museums and attractions isn’t necessarily the key to enjoying the city.

Also, remember that there are only so many hours in the day, and you can only do one thing at a time. The Louvre itself takes at least 3 hours even for a “quick” visit, and while you are inside it doesn’t matter if you get 50 or 100 other “free” things included, you’ll only have time to do a few per day at the most.

However…

The Paris Pass is a popular and efficient way for first-time visitors to see all the best sights in a short time, with little stress and almost no time wasted in ticket queues. Whichever way you decide to visit Paris, you will have a good time. If you can get a discount on the Paris Pass, it’s obviously a better deal and worth considering.

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All Comments

  1. Saptarshi Ghosh says:

    Hi there, it says that the pass has a purse value. Since the pass itself comprise of 3 different passes, I was wondering if the purse value is deducted from the Attraction pass solely or from both Museum and Attraction Pass.

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Saptarshi,

      I’m not sure what a “purse value” is. Sorry I couldn’t be more help. -Roger

  2. Sara says:

    Hello,
    Looking for cheapest way for 3 to get from CDG to paris center (eiffel tower).
    Have you heard of bus 19 from CDG?
    thank you for your advice.

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Sara,

      I’m not familiar with bus line 19, but I do know there are public buses from CDG into central Paris for a bit over €5 per person. The problem is that they obviously get stuck in traffic pretty regularly, so it can take 90 minutes if you get unlucky. The RER trains cost about €10 and take about 35 to 40 minutes, with no traffic to worry about. Personally, I think that extra €5 is money well spent, especially after a flight, but it does appear that you can go cheaper on buses. -Roger

  3. clive says:

    Hey Roger! first of all, thank you for such a helpful blog.
    my family of 5 ( 2 are under 18) will be reaching Paris on the 11th of April in the morning around 10 and will leave for Amsterdam on 16th morning, which gives us around 4 days, all the while staying in the 9th/10th arrondisement.
    we are planning to do the river cruise and the hop on hop off, visit Louvre, Muse Du Orsay, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Montparnasse tower, Versailles and Disneyland and of course a little shopping and strolling around. Would you suggest a 3 day Paris pass for everyone(2 are under 18)?
    I thought that we will activate the attractions and the visite pass on the first day, museum pass on the second day and the last day can be Disneyland. What do you suggest..?
    please revert back as soon as possible.
    Thank you so much!

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Clive,

      I sometimes answer questions on weekends, but not always, and this last weekend I was on a trip. Your plan sounds really good and I’m sure you’ll have an excellent time. It’s nice that the Paris Pass allows you to activate the three components separately, so you are wise to use it this way.

      As you’ve noticed, it’s a tricky question whether to buy a Paris Pass for a teen under 18. It’s true that everyone under 18 will get in free to the Louvre, Versailles, and other museums, but those over 11 years old have to pay the full adult admission price for the HOHO Bus, Seine Cruise, and Montparnasse tower. Those 3 things add up to €71 plus it includes a 3-day unlimited travel card that is worth about €27. A 3-day Teen Paris Pass using the 5% discount is about €99, so it’s basically the same price if you just use it for those 3 attractions and the transit card. If you do anything else that is NOT a standard museum then you’ll be saving money with the Teen Paris Pass. It all comes down to whether you’ll do anything else and I’d imagine you will if you can do it for free for the whole group.

      By the way, those under 18 don’t even need a ticket to the museums so if you go as a group you can just show the Paris Pass for the adults and they can go in with you, without having to get in the ticket queue. I hope that helps and I’m sure you’ll have an excellent time. -Roger

  4. Jane says:

    Dear Roger,

    my friend and I would be visiting Paris in early June for about 10 days.
    We are not quite sure of the places that we should go other than the standard tourists attractions like the louvre, the eiiffel tower, champselysee, luxemburg gardens and louis vuitton foundation etc.
    Would the Paris Pass be useful as i feel that the cost of the 6 day pass is quite pricey. Also, if there’s any advice that you have for transportation costs all around Paris as well as possible places to visit that may not be so well known or included in the Paris Pass, please feel free to let me know!
    Thank you!

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Jane,

      Paris is an amazing city, but 10 days is quite a long time to spend in any city unless you’ve got a long list of things you want to see. Generally speaking, you’ll be able to see everything interesting to you in 4 days or so, or really 4 nights and 3 full sightseeing days. After that you’d end up going to museums and other attractions that won’t be all that interesting. So you might consider just getting a 3-day Paris Pass and using it for 3 full sightseeing days and doing all of the most interesting things on those days.

      After that I’d suggest going somewhere else for at least a few days. Nice is a great option along the Mediterranean coast. There are some other ideas to consider on my article about the best France and Italy itineraries. If you buy train tickets at least a month in advance you’ll find the prices to be pretty reasonable.

      On the other hand, Paris is a really lovely city and some people just like to rent an airbnb and hang around, living like a local for a while. You can shop at the local markets and make some dishes on your own. There is no shortage of interesting things to do in Paris, but I still wouldn’t recommend going to 10 different museums and palaces and such because that will get old after a few days. Let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger

  5. varsha says:

    Thanks Roger for the quick response.
    it was really helpful.
    What would be the weather in Paris during September?

    1. Roger Wade says:

      Varsha,

      September should be very nice in Paris, but of course it’s hard to say and weather websites can tell you more. Paris doesn’t really have a “rainy season” and it can rain any time of year, so it’s best to check the forecast shortly before you go and pack accordingly. Sorry I couldn’t help more. -Roger