In this guide
💡 The Short Version: Book four things before you fly. The Eiffel Tower: lift tickets go on sale 60 days ahead and sell out in busy periods, and since 29 September 2026 stairs tickets must be booked in advance too. The Louvre: a dated time slot that cannot be changed or refunded; closed Tuesdays. Versailles: every visitor, free ones included, books a Palace time slot; closed Mondays. The Sainte-Chapelle: timed entry, and you are asked not to arrive early. Since January 2026 visitors from outside the European Economic Area, which includes the UK and the US, pay more at several state museums: the Louvre is €32, not €22. From Charles de Gaulle, the RoissyBus stopped running on 1 March 2026; the RER B is €14 to Gare du Nord, and every transport ticket is now digital. Or book a tour: GetYourGuide sells its tours on its own calendar, separate from the official one, so a guided tour with entry, such as the Louvre’s Mona Lisa and masterpieces tourad (from £67.26) or reserved Eiffel Tower accessad (from £36.03), is worth checking when the official date is sold out.
What to book before you go
Prices are the adult rate for a UK or US visitor, from each operator’s own page on 29 September 2026.
| Sight | Tickets go on sale | Adult price | Book at | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eiffel Tower | 60 days ahead | €36.70 summit by lift; €23.50 second floor | toureiffel.paris | Lift tickets sell out in busy periods. Stairs tickets need booking in advance since 29 September 2026. |
| Louvre | Book once your dates are fixed | €32 | louvre.fr | The date and time cannot be changed. Closed Tuesdays. Tickets are sold at the door only when the museum is quiet. |
| Versailles | Book once your dates are fixed | €35 Passport April to October, €25 November to March | chateauversailles.fr | Every visitor books a Palace slot, and entry within half an hour of it is guaranteed only for tickets bought online. Closed Mondays. |
| Sainte-Chapelle | Book once your dates are fixed | €22; €30 with the Conciergerie | sainte-chapelle.fr | Timed entry: arrive at the time on your ticket, not before. |
| Palais Garnier | 30 days ahead | €25 | operadeparis.fr | Online only: no visit tickets are sold at the opera house. |
| Catacombs | 7 days ahead | €31 with audio guide | catacombes.paris.fr | Official tickets are sold only for the next seven days, and none at the door. Closed Mondays. No bag bigger than 40 × 30 cm, and there is no cloakroom. |
| Notre-Dame towers | Book once your dates are fixed | €16 | tours-notre-dame-de-paris.fr | Online only, for a timed slot that everyone books, free entries included; 424 steps and five minutes at the top. The cathedral itself is free. |
| Musée d’Orsay | Book once your dates are fixed | €16 online, €14 at the museum | musee-orsay.fr | Closed Mondays. Free on the first Sunday of the month, but you still reserve a ticket. |
| Monet’s garden, Giverny | Book once your dates are fixed; open 1 April to 1 November 2026 | €13 | claudemonetgiverny.fr | No skip-the-line entry. Once the online quota is sold, expect long waits at the gate. |
The Eiffel Tower sells same-day tickets at its own ticket office when attendance allows, at the standard price. The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower both warn about copycat websites selling tickets: book through the addresses above.
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro. Photo: NonOmnisMoriar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
UK and US visitors pay the non-EEA price
Several state sites brought in a second, higher price in January 2026 for anyone who is neither a citizen nor a resident of the European Economic Area. That includes visitors from the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.
| Sight | Non-EEA adult | EEA adult |
|---|---|---|
| Louvre | €32 | €22 |
| Sainte-Chapelle | €22 | €16 |
| Sainte-Chapelle and Conciergerie | €30 | €23 |
| Palais Garnier (self-guided visit) | €25 | €15 |
| Versailles Passport (April to October) | €35 | €32 |
| Château de Chambord (Loire) | €31 | €21 |
The Louvre’s two prices apply from 14 January 2026, the Sainte-Chapelle’s from 12 January, and Chambord’s and Versailles’s from 14 January. Versailles’s Passport is €25 (€22 for EEA visitors) from 1 November to 31 March.
The Musée d’Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower and the abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel charge one price whatever your passport. At the Louvre, under-18s of every nationality go free.
Closing days
Plan around the closing days:
- Monday: Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay and the Catacombs are closed.
- Tuesday: the Louvre and the Château de Fontainebleau are closed.
- 1 January, 1 May and 25 December: the Louvre, Versailles, the Catacombs and the Sainte-Chapelle are closed; the Musée d’Orsay closes on 1 May and 25 December.
- The Centre Pompidou is closed for works until 2030.
The 3-day itinerary and the 4-day itinerary arrange the big sights so that none of them falls on its closing day, and the best time to visit Paris has every closing day, month by month. Coming in summer? Paris in summer has 14 July and the Fête de la Musique. Coming in December? The Christmas markets page has the 2026 dates announced so far and what else closes over the holidays.
Late openings help on a short trip: the Louvre stays open to 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays, the Musée d’Orsay to 21:45 on Thursdays, and the Arc de Triomphe to 23:00 from April to September (22:30 in winter). The Louvre is free for everyone after 18:00 on the first Friday of the month, except in July and August, and all day on 14 July.
Where to eat is its own page: where to eat in Paris lists the bistros, bouillons, bakeries and special dinners that independent English and French sources name most, with which ones take no bookings and which close at weekends.
The Paris Museum Pass
The pass costs €85 for 48 hours, €105 for 96 hours or €125 for 144 hours, counted in consecutive hours from your first visit (parismuseumpass.fr, 29 September 2026). By the pass’s own reckoning it saves money from about the fourth visit on the two-day pass. It does not replace the booked time slot:
- Versailles: pass holders book a free Passport ticket with a Palace time.
- Musée d’Orsay: pass holders reserve a timed ticket on the pass’s website.
- Louvre: pass holders use the green priority queue at the Pyramid.
Paris Museum Pass: is it worth it works out when the pass pays, and what each sight it covers costs without it.
Getting in from the airport
Transport tickets in Paris are now sold only in digital form: on your phone or on a Navigo Easy card (€2.05); a contactless bank card does not open the gates in the city. A metro or RER ticket is €2.55 (metro tickets and passes). Airport fares are Paris Aéroport’s, as listed on 29 September 2026.
- From Charles de Gaulle (every option compared): the RER B runs to Gare du Nord and Châtelet-Les-Halles in about 25 to 40 minutes for €14. The RoissyBus stopped on 1 March 2026; its replacement, the Express bus 9517, leaves from Saint-Denis Pleyel at the end of metro line 14 and costs €2.55 on board. Taxis charge a flat €56 to the Right Bank and €65 to the Left Bank.
- From Orly (every option compared, with Beauvais): metro line 14 now runs from the airport to Gare de Lyon in 23 minutes and Châtelet in 25 to 26, every 2 to 5 minutes, on the €14 airport ticket. The Orlybus stopped on 3 March 2025.
Charles de Gaulle’s terminals will be renumbered 1 to 7 from 16 March 2027; check which terminal your airline names if you fly after that.
Day trips
Versailles is a train ride away and closed on Mondays; Mont-Saint-Michel and the D-Day beaches are 12- to 14-hour days; Reims and champagne and, from April to October, Giverny are shorter, and Fontainebleau, closed on Tuesdays, is a 40-minute train ride. Day trips from Paris compares them on travel time, closing days, entry prices and what a tour costs.
Where to stay
Base yourself on a line to your airport and the first and last days get easier. Gare du Nord and Châtelet-Les-Halles are on the RER B to Charles de Gaulle; Châtelet and Gare de Lyon are on metro line 14 to Orly. Gare du Nord is also the Eurostar terminal. Where to stay in Paris compares the areas and names hotels in each, and where to stay in Le Marais goes street by street.
The Pont Alexandre III and Les Invalides. Photo: Steve McDonald, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Coming from London for the day rather than staying? London Travel Geek covers the Eurostar day trip to Paris: fares, border checks and the hours you get.
Itineraries
Day-by-day plans for a first visit.
Itinerary
3 Days in Paris: An Itinerary with What to Book
Three days in Paris: the islands, the Musée d'Orsay and a Seine cruise; the Louvre and the walk to the Arc de Triomphe; the Eiffel Tower, the Palais Garnier and Montmartre. Arranged so no day lands on a closure, with the tickets to book before you fly and what each costs a UK or US visitor in 2026.
Itinerary
4 Days in Paris: Itinerary with a Day Trip
Four days in Paris: the islands and the Left Bank, the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, then a fourth day out at Versailles, Giverny or Reims. Arranged so no day lands on a closure, with the tickets to book and what each costs a UK or US visitor in 2026.
Which ticket to buy
The official ticket, the tours that include entry, and which sells out first.
Tickets
Louvre Tickets 2026: Price, Time Slots and Tours
The Louvre costs €32 for visitors from outside the EEA, including the UK and US, from 14 January 2026. Tickets are for a time slot you cannot change, the museum is closed on Tuesdays, and a guided group visit ends when the tour does. Official ticket and tours compared.
Tickets
Eiffel Tower Tickets: Summit, Stairs and Sold-Out Days
Eiffel Tower lift tickets go on sale 60 days ahead and sell out in busy periods, and since 29 September 2026 stairs tickets must be booked in advance too. The official prices, the tours that include entry, and what each costs against the tower's own ticket office.
Tickets
Paris Catacombs Tickets: Price and Sold-Out Options
The Paris Catacombs cost €31 with an audio guide, on sale for the next seven days only at the official ticket office, with none at the door. When the slots are sold out, GetYourGuide is one of the sellers the Catacombs authorise. Prices, tours, the route and the bag rule.
Tickets
Seine River Cruises Compared: Which One to Book
The one-hour Seine cruises all pass the same sights; the pier, the commentary and the price are what differ. Bateaux-Mouches is €17 online from the Pont de l'Alma, the Vedettes du Pont-Neuf €15 online with a live guide, the Batobus €23 for a day of hop-on hop-off, and dinner cruises start at €90. Compared with GetYourGuide's prices.
Tickets
Paris Museum Pass Worth It? Prices Sight by Sight
The Paris Museum Pass is €85 for 48 hours, €105 for 96 and €125 for 144, and pays for itself from about the fourth paid sight, sooner if the Louvre is one of them, but it still needs a booked slot at the Louvre, Orsay and Sainte-Chapelle. The pass against single tickets for Orsay, the Orangerie, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, the Panthéon, Les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe and the Palais Garnier.
Tickets
Moulin Rouge Tickets and Paris Cabarets Compared
The Moulin Rouge's 9pm show was full on every date of its own booking calendar on 30 September 2026; the 11pm show was from €120 and the dinner show from €273. Crazy Horse starts at €75 for 90 minutes and Paradis Latin at €90. The four cabarets compared on price, show, age limit and dress code.
Tickets
Visit Notre-Dame: Free Entry, Tower Tickets, Tours
Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024. Entry to the cathedral is free; the towers are a separate €16 ticket, sold online only, for a timed slot, with 424 steps and five minutes at the top. Guided tours from £8.57. What each costs and what the towers' operator says about booking, checked on 30 September 2026.
Day trips from Paris
Out and back in a day, with the tours compared against going on your own.
Day trip
Day Trips from Paris: Train or Tour, Cost and Time
Versailles is a train ride; Mont-Saint-Michel and the D-Day beaches are 14-hour days where a coach tour is the practical way. The day trips from Paris compared on travel time, closing days, entry prices and what a tour costs.
Day trip
Versailles Day Trip from Paris: Train or Tour
Versailles is closed on Mondays, and every visitor books a palace time slot. The RER C, the Passport ticket (€35 from April to October, €25 from November to March), the coach tours that include entry, and how to spend the day, checked with the château on 30 September 2026.
Day trip
Mont-Saint-Michel Day Trip from Paris: Tour or Train
A coach day trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris takes 14 hours and includes the abbey ticket; on your own it is a TGV to Rennes and a Keolis coach, with the last one back at 18:00. Both compared, with the abbey's prices and rules.
Day trip
Fontainebleau Day Trip from Paris: Train or Tour
The Château de Fontainebleau is closed on Tuesdays and costs €17. The train from Gare de Lyon, the bus to the gate, what to see in the two hours a visit takes, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and the coach tours that combine both châteaux, checked with the operators on 30 September 2026.
Day trip
Normandy D-Day Beaches from Paris: Tour or Train
The Normandy landing sites are miles apart along the coast, so a tour does the driving: 12 to 14 hours from Paris, or the train to Bayeux and a local tour. What is closed in 2026 at the American Cemetery and Pointe du Hoc, and what each tour covers.
Day trip
Loire Valley from Paris in a Day: Train or Tour
Chenonceau is an hour by TGV to Tours and 25 minutes on a local train, with the station 400 m from the ticket office; Chambord is 80 minutes to Blois and a shuttle bus. One château is easy by train; two in a day needs a tour. Prices, hours and the non-EEA rate at Chambord, checked with the châteaux on 30 September 2026.
Day trip
Disneyland Paris from Paris: Tickets and the RER A
Disneyland Paris does not sell tickets at the gate except for cash and vouchers, and only when it is not full: buy a dated ticket before you go. The RER A takes about 35 minutes from Nation to the park gates. Official tickets, GetYourGuide's, and the shuttle packages compared.
Day trip
Champagne Day Trip from Paris: Reims by Train or Tour
Reims is 45 minutes by TGV and Épernay 80 minutes on a direct train, and the big houses run their own cellar tours from €25 to €85. The vineyards and Hautvillers need a car, which is what the £197 and up tours from Paris sell. Prices and opening days checked with the houses on 30 September 2026.
Day trip
Giverny Day Trip from Paris: Monet's Garden by Train
Monet's house and gardens are open every day from 1 April to 1 November 2026 and closed the rest of the year. The train from Saint-Lazare, the €5 shuttle from Vernon, the €13 ticket that has no skip-the-line, and the half-day tours from £50.57 that include entry. Checked with the Fondation on 30 September 2026.
Where to stay
Areas and hotels, chosen for a visitor rather than a resident.
Where to stay
Where to Stay in Paris: Areas for a First Visit
For a first visit, stay in Le Marais, Saint-Germain or the Latin Quarter, or by the Louvre: all within a walk of Notre-Dame and the Louvre. The areas compared on what you can walk to and how you reach the airports, hotels with addresses from their own sites, and the tourist tax of €2.60 to €15.93 per adult per night.
Where to stay
Hotels Near the Eiffel Tower: Which Side to Stay
The hotels closest to the Eiffel Tower on this page are on the Grenelle side by the Seine, about 330 to 360 m away; the quiet streets round École Militaire and Rue Cler are about 1 km. Hotels on each side, with addresses from their own sites, distances, and the room categories that have the view.
Where to stay
Paris Hotels with an Eiffel Tower View, Checked
At most hotels a tower view is one room category, not the whole hotel: Shangri-La's Eiffel View Room, the Peninsula's Rooftop Eiffel Suite, the Pullman's balcony Deluxe room. Each hotel with the category its own site names for the view, and the rooftop bars that see the tower without a room that does.
Where to stay
Where to Stay in Le Marais: Hotels by Street
Le Marais hotels by street: the Place des Vosges, Rue Vieille-du-Temple, the Haut Marais and the Beaubourg edge. Room sizes from 9 to 32 m², addresses and facilities from each hotel's own site, and how to reach the Marais from Charles de Gaulle and Orly without the RER B.
Airport transfers
From the airport to the centre, every option priced and timed.
Airport
CDG to Central Paris: RER B, Bus 9517 or Taxi
The RoissyBus stopped on 1 March 2026. From Charles de Gaulle, the RER B is €14 and about 25 to 40 minutes to Gare du Nord and Châtelet, taxis charge a flat €56 or €65, and every transport ticket is now digital. Each option priced and timed from Paris Aéroport's own pages.
Airport
Orly and Beauvais to Paris: Metro 14, Shuttle, Taxi
Metro line 14 takes 23 minutes from Orly to Gare de Lyon for €14, and the Orlybus stopped running in March 2025. Beauvais is 89 km out: the Aérobus to Porte Maillot is €17.90 online and takes from 1 hour 15, while a taxi is about €185. Every option priced and timed from the airports' own pages.
Getting around
Tickets, passes and the transport a visitor actually uses.
What's on, month by month
Festivals, holidays and closures that change a visit.
Events
Best Time to Visit Paris: Month by Month
Late April to early June and September to mid-October pair highs of 16 to 23 °C with Versailles's fountains and Monet's garden open. Month by month: Météo-France temperatures, the sights that close each week and each holiday, and the dates that change a trip.
Events
Paris Christmas Markets 2026: Dates and Where
The Notre-Dame market runs from 26 November to 27 December and La Défense's 300 chalets from 12 November to 31 December 2026. The markets with dates announced, the Christmas lights tours, the châteaux that dress up for Christmas, and what closes on 25 December.
Events
Paris in Summer: 14 July, Fête de la Musique, August
The Fête de la Musique is on 21 June and Bastille Day on 14 July, with the fireworks on the Champ-de-Mars. What opens, what closes and what to book for each date, the Versailles fountain shows, Paris Plages, and August in Paris.
Food and drink
Where to eat, what to order and when to book.
Food and drink
Where to Eat in Paris: Bistros, Bakeries and Dinners
Bistros, bouillons, bakeries and special dinners in Paris, ranked by how many independent English and French sources name each place, with its address, what to order and the one thing to know before you go.
Food and drink
Paris Food Tours and Cooking Classes Compared
Paris food tours are walks of two to three and a half hours through one neighbourhood, from £50.57 for a wine and cheese tasting to £103.70 for ten tastings round Notre-Dame. Marais, Montmartre, Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter compared, with the croissant, macaron and full-day cooking classes. Prices read on GetYourGuide on 30 September 2026.
Common questions
What should I book in advance for Paris?
The Eiffel Tower (lift tickets go on sale 60 days ahead and sell out in busy periods; stairs tickets must be booked in advance since 29 September 2026), the Louvre (a dated time slot that cannot be changed), Versailles (every visitor books a Palace time slot) and the Sainte-Chapelle (timed entry). Palais Garnier visits are sold online only, up to 30 days ahead.
Do UK visitors pay more at Paris museums?
Yes, at several state sites since January 2026, because the UK is outside the European Economic Area. The Louvre is €32 against €22 for EEA visitors, the Sainte-Chapelle €22 against €16, and the Palais Garnier €25 against €15. The Musée d'Orsay, the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower charge everyone the same, and Versailles takes €3 off the Passport for EEA visitors.
Which Paris museums are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays?
Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay and the Catacombs close on Mondays. The Louvre and the Château de Fontainebleau close on Tuesdays.
Is the RoissyBus still running?
No. It stopped on 1 March 2026. Paris Aéroport's replacement is the Express bus 9517 from Saint-Denis Pleyel, at the end of metro line 14. The RER B, €14 one way, is the direct train from Charles de Gaulle to Gare du Nord and Châtelet.