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
- 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.
- 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
- Get 5% off all Paris Passes
Use coupon code: GO5POT – Look for “promo code?” in Step 4 of checkout)
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
- Get 5% off all Paris Passes
Use coupon code: GO5POT ( – Look for “promo code?” in Step 4 of checkout)
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.
Hi Roger,
Good day to you.
I’m from Malaysia, This is my first time to Paris, i will reach Paris on 25/7 only after 12PM, and stay until 28/7 morning to catch up train to Frankfurt.
May need your advice on below my plan. I may want to visit
Eiffel tower, Louvre Museum, Orsay Museum, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Champs Elysees, Catacombs (optional if time is free).
I need a 3 days public transport pass.
I need to skip the long queue
I need a ticket to Eiffel tower, as know the pass excluding this.
Appreciate your comments.
Regards.
Thanks.
-Henry-
Henry,
Your plan with the Paris Pass looks quite good and you’ll have no problem doing all of those things. Everything on your list is bunched together in the city center, so you’ll be able to do something new every two hours or less. And as I always mention, the Paris Metro has stations every few blocks, so you are always within a short walk of one, and wherever you are going is always within a short walk of another station. I think you’ll also have enough time to do the hop-on, hop-off bus tour on the morning of 26/7, as long as you start early and get one of the first departures. Let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger
Hi Roger,
No problem. My bookings are done. Thanks to you for the help in selecting the destinations and the itinerary.
I will be in Paris from 1st – 5th of October 2016 and staying near Voltaire metro station. I am confused how to plan my itinerary in Paris.
My idea is:
Oct 1, Sat – Reach Hotel by 16.00, evening stroll in Ile St. Louis
Oct 2, Sunday – Louvre (free entry Sunday), Jardin Des Tulieres, Seine River Cruise (really tight)
Oct 3 – Notre Dame, St. Germain and St. Michel area, Luxembourg Gardens, Pantheon, Arc de Triomphe
Oct 4 – Opera Garnier, Montmatre, Eiffel Tower
Oct 5 – Marais (evening train to Venice)
What do you think of this?
Regards
Judhajit,
I think your plan looks quite good and well organized. Many of the places on your list are things that take only an hour or so to appreciate, so I think you’ll have time for all of it. And particularly with a place like the Louvre, you’ll sometimes hear people say that it would take a month to spend even 5 minutes with each object, but that doesn’t mean you have to be there all day. The building/palace itself is gorgeous, and after an hour or two you might be ready to move on. Also, those “free entry days” are always totally packed, so you probably don’t want to spend all day there.
Paris is also quite easy to get around within the center on the Metro, so I don’t think your plan is too ambitious. Bon voyage. -Roger
Hi Roger,
Did you see my email I sent you on Jun 12? I am ready with my trip and now need additional guidance from you.
Regards
Judhajit
JUDHAJIT,
Sorry, but I didn’t see any email. Some of these comments slip through the cracks, but I don’t see an unanswered comment from you either. If you have more questions go ahead and type them in the comments here and I’ll answer them if I can. -Roger
Hi Roger,
I’ll be in Paris 26-28th Sept. On the Paris Pass website, they mentioned that you only get a 2-day Museum pass for the 3 day Paris Pass. I will be with a friend for the first 2 days and will go around by myself on the 3rd. Is my understanding correct that on the 3rd day (assuming i used the Museum pass on my 1st day) I can only use the Metro card, HOHO bus and the attractions pass? Also, for the attractions, I am assuming that I can only use it 1 time for every attraction, correct?
Thanks in advance. Been reading your replies and they have been most helpful.
Thanks,
C
Candice,
Interesting question. The 3-day Paris Pass is new, as of only a couple months ago, and this is the first I’ve been made aware that it only comes with a 3-day Museum Pass. The Museum Pass currently only comes in 2-day, 4-day, and 6-day versions, just like the Paris Pass itself until about two months ago, so I’m not sure if they will begin a 3-day one or the Paris Pass is just set up that way for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, there many attractions that are included with the Attractions card, including pretty much all of the more expensive ones, so there won’t be a shortage of options for that museum-free day. I’m glad you pointed this out to me, and I hope it works out okay for you.
And yes, a Paris Pass is designed to allow one entry to each of the included places. Fortunately that is enough for at least 99% of visitors because they want to see as many things as possible rather than one thing (like the enormous Louvre) multiple times. I hope that works for you as well. Bon voyage. -Roger
Hi Roger,
Thank you for helping me for my Itinerary. Thanks once again on this forum.
We ( myself & my wife ) arriving CDG on 11th July at 11.30Am from Prague & leave from CDG on 14th at 7 PM. So I consider it as 2 clear days & 2 half days. We will stay near metro Porte de Clignancourt.
Although some of my questions are already answered in above reply to Sid, but can you help me with below:
1)As it is Monday to Thursday, I am planning to buy Navigo card for that week. Which will allow me all travel including Airport transfer. But then I won’t get discounts & queue relief. Also I will waste my time.
2) Or can I purchase 2 days Paris pass & buy separate airport transfer ticket. I can use “carnet” (booklet of discounted single trip ticket) for remaining 2 days.
Please suggest.
Thanks,
Ranganath
Hi Roger
My hubby and I are coming to Paris from the 1st of July – 4th July 2016 we basically have the afternoon of the 1st and two full days 2nd and 3rd for sightseeing, we have looked at both parispass and the pariscombopass premium and are at a crossroads on which is better can you give us any advise ?
Thanks you
Amanda
Amanda,
The pariscombopass is basically the Paris Museum Pass with the river tour and transit card thrown in. The Paris Pass includes all of that, as well as the (popular and highly recommended) hop-on, hop-off bus tour, the wine tasting experience, the Grevin Wax Museum, and several other premium attractions. If you don’t think you want to do the bus tour or the other more expensive attractions, you can save a bit of money by getting the combo pass. -Roger
Hi Roger,
I was reading through the article and the comments and I must say, you are doing a really fine deed here, your information is super helpful!
I’ll be in Paris from 1st July (7.40 am, Orly Airport) to 3rd July (10.00 pm, CDG Airport) and we are a group of 4 friends. Below are some of the sights we would like to do:
Eiffel Tower
Louvre Museum
Arc De Triomphe
Champs-Élysées
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Hop-on Hop-off
Siene River Cruise
We will be staying in Montmartre, and using local transport for travelling. Would you suggest we buy the Paris Pass for this itinerary? As for travel, would we need a travel pass or will the 10-ticket pack suffice? We are willing to walk around a bit but not too much.
One more thing, we are also considering going to Disneyland. I understand it’s a little far and will require about an entire day. If we go to Disneyland, will there be enough time to cover the rest of the sights? We really don’t want to cramp up our entire schedule with too many things but also don’t want to miss out on must-sees! Quite a conundrum!
Thanks a ton!
Sid
Sid,
I think your plan looks ideal for a 2-day Paris Pass, and you could start it on 1-July or 2-July, and still get full use out of it. As long as you are planning both the HOHO bus tour and the Seine Cruise, the pass almost pays for itself with only a few of the other things you’ll definitely be doing. And of course, it includes a 2-day travel pass, which will be essential for seeing a lot without wasting a lot of time.
Of course, a stroll along the Champs-Élysées is free (and will take 30 minutes or so because it’s a busy shopping street), and the Eiffel Tower isn’t included in the Paris Pass. You’d have plenty of time on your other non-pass day to do those, and see some other neighborhoods, and visit a few parks and other free attractions. But I’m confident that during your two days with the pass, you’ll get plenty of use out of it, and you’ll be happy to skip some of the queues and also have the transit pass.
Montmartre is my favorite Paris neighborhood, especially in the evenings, but it’s not very close to many of the main attractions. So you’ll definitely be on the Metro a lot, and having that transit pass will be nice because you can just walk down into the Metro at any time without worrying about tickets and such. There are Metro stations every two blocks in the city center, so it’s always near where you are and where you want to go.
As for Euro Disney, I’ve not been there because I grew up 6km from Disneyland in California, and I don’t have kids. It’s definitely a full and tiring day from Paris, and you do have enough time if it’s a high priority for you. You’d just have to skip a few of the Paris attractions, and a Paris Pass might not be ideal in that case. So really it’s two fast-paced days in Paris and one day in Euro Disney, or three busy but less exhausting days in Paris itself.
And having done things like this in the past, I’d recommend using that arrival day to get acclimated and do the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Élysées, rather than starting your Paris Pass. It’s always a bit disorienting to do sightseeing right off the plane, and you’ll feel much more settled after waking up in Paris the next day. And you’ll still have time to hit all of the things you want on your final day before heading to CDG.
If you don’t get a Paris Pass, you could probably get by with 2 or maybe 3 carnets (transit 10-packs) for your group. Many of the sights are near each other, but many aren’t, so it’s hard to say how you’ll feel about walking between them once you are there. Have a great trip, and let me know if you have any more questions. -Roger
Sid,
I am myself looking at booking euro disney tickets for my family, and i see lot of recent feedback that mentions many of the popular rides/attractions are being shut down currently for renovation and many have reported not having got value for their ticket. Since you are all adults, you might want to first check if the current set of active rides would suit you enough to spend a day there. there are one day 2 park tickets too but i see it might get too hectic for you.
Ramya
Hi Roger,
brilliant information here. chanced upon it, unfortunately after i bought my 2 day paris pass.
Husband, myself and 2 kids (6 & 3yrs) are arriving by noon on 9th July. based on all your responses to various queries, this is what i have planned. kindly advice if I am good with it or suggest changes. arrive in paris on 9th noon, depart on 14th morning, so we effectively have 4 full and 1 less-than-half day in paris. 2 days we want to cover disneyland, which leaves us with 2 days to see paris. we are not very inclined towards art etc, so wld like to skim thru the Louvre. we have 2 adult and one child paris pass for 2 days
9th: settle down, and take a walk arnd the neighbourhood (stay near St. Ambroise metro), go see Eiffel tower (we couldnt get online tickets, but i understand it can be bought right there)
10th: leave early, try to cover – Orsay, Louvre, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame. If time permits – Arc de Triomphe or Pantheon and Monsparsane Tower. since many of these attractions close by eve, planning to take the river cruise later in the eve.
11th: take the bis bus tour. cover Paris story, opera house, wax museum, chocolate museum, art & invention museum, Pompidou
12 & 13th: disneyland
pls advice. i know its too much to cover each day, we might not see everything too. but with kids, we dont see ourselves spending long hours in any museum. if any attractions mentioned above are not worth it, pls advice.
looking forward to your recommendations.
Thanks,
Ramya
Ramya,
I think your plan sounds quite good. Personally, I’m a fan of doing the bus tour on the first full morning there, but getting an early start to those popular museums on your first day might be an even better idea. And I’m actually the same way with art museums. I’ve been to pretty much every famous museum in the world, and I find them interesting, but only for an hour or so each. After that my attention drifts to other things. The Paris Pass is ideal for that since you don’t feel guilty leaving in an hour, because you didn’t pay full price, and you can get even better value by seeing several of them in one day.
My guess is that you’ll have time to do all of them on your list, although just in case it’s probably best to save the least important ones for last. As long as you get an early start, you can see a lot in Paris with a transit pass because the Metro stations are absolutely everywhere and you can be in another part of Paris in 15 or 20 minutes. And most of the top attractions are fairly close together as well. The queue-skipping thing will also help.
As for museums to possibly skip, that’s hard to say, especially since I’m not a huge art lover to begin with. Tastes can be quite different for those, so what I typically do is take at least a peek at the TripAdvisor reviews for each museum. The good ones will typically get 4 or 4.5 stars on average. If one gets 3.5 stars or lower, read the reviews and see why many people didn’t give it full points. You might have that same concern. Bon voyage, and let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger
Thanks Roger, your response is really reassuring. I am considering swapping the HOHO tour and river cruise in my current itinerary. Great advice on looking up review of the museums, will do that. Few more questions
1. not able to book time for Eiffel tower on official website. will the Q be too long to buy the ticket as we go there ? (9th eve)
2. I bought the Paris Pass from the official website for 129 euros, and then came across other sites offering the same for 99 euros. Is there any fine print while buying tickets here at reduced prices?
3.Are the transit packs valid for RER travel to disneyland too ? besides the 2 day of pass coverage, I need to travel to disneyland for 2 days, and also for 9th to Eiffel tower. what arrangements would cater to this?
4. The Paris pass collection center will be open only till 1 pm on saturday while we arrive later. so we might have to end up travelling on the pass day to pick it up@10am , and then head to the attractions, which might waste precious early hours. Any workaround for this?
5. being vegetarians, any tips for food ?
Thanks,
Ramya
Hi ramya, I have just been reading everyone’s comments, isn’t this websites awesome!!! I just wondered where you have seen the parispass for only 99euros?
Thank you,
Becky-kate
Roger – my wife and I will be traveling to Paris Sept. 7 thru Sept. 21. We plan on breaking up the trip by taking several day trips out of the city. Since the Paris Pass runs consecutive days I’m not sure if its best to buy several 6 days cards or to by multiple cards of shorter duration. That way we’re not paying for days we’ll be out of the city.
David,
That will be a nice long trip and you’ll have plenty of time to see all the main sights in addition to several great day trips. What I’d actually recommend would be to think about perhaps one 6-day Paris Pass, or even a shorter one. One 6-day pass will give you more than enough time to see all of the included things that really interest you, or at least the more expensive ones. That will also give you many days in Paris where you can just wander around and enjoy the beautiful scenery without worrying about getting value out of an attraction pass.
Once you look closely at the included attractions, you’ll see that only about 10 of them are €12 or above. That includes a few that are in the €20 to €30 range, so a Paris Pass can save money, but only up to a point. In those 6 days or so, you’ll have plenty of time to do all of the more expensive attractions that are included. So then you do a day trip or two, and come back to Paris. At that point there will still be a few €10 attractions that interest you, but not enough to warrant buying a whole new pass. Have a great trip, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy those extra days just fine even without a pass. -Roger
Hi there, I’m glad I found this site. Great info as I try to make my final decisions. I am traveling to Paris next week wit my 16 year old daughter. I am contemplating the Museum Pass and figure the Paris Pass isn’t for us (?). I already have an Eiffel Tower summit tour that comes with Louvre entrance and a boat tour. This will be Tuesday morning. I want to see Notre Dame, Versailles, Cluny and other main sites. We are in town for 7 days. Should I assume that the 4-day Museum Pass is best for us if I start on Wednesday and then have it last through Saturday at Versailles? We can get a lot in for 4 days then. Is there a best place to purchase it? We do have Louvre tickets already so should I get it when I go inside there? Or somewhere else? What do you recommend for our situation? THANK YOU!
Ken,
From the sound of it, a 4-day Paris Museum Pass would be a good fit for you. You can buy it online and pick it up for free at their Paris office, or you can buy it just after you arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport. There are other locations within Paris as well, all helpfully mapped on the official Museum Pass website. I’m not really an expert on the Museum Pass itself, as it’s just one of the things included with the Paris Pass, and it’s pretty straightforward from what I understand. Have a great trip. -Roger