In this guide
💡 The Short Version: Versailles is closed on Mondays, and every visitor, including children who go free, books a palace time slot. On your own: the RER C to Versailles Château–Rive Gauche, then 10 minutes on foot, and the Passport from the château’s ticket office (€35 from April to October, €25 from November to March), which covers the palace, the Trianon estate and the gardens. Buy it online: only online tickets are guaranteed entry within half an hour of the slot. Book a morning slot; the Trianon estate opens at noon. Or book a tour: the coach trip with palace entryad (from £67.77) puts the ride, the timed entry and an audio guide in one booking, and costs about £38 more than the €35 high-season Passport alone.
Getting there on your own
The château lists three rail routes and a bus (chateauversailles.fr, 29 September 2026):
| Route | Station | Walk to the palace |
|---|---|---|
| RER C | Versailles Château–Rive Gauche | 10 minutes |
| Train from Gare Montparnasse (lines N or U) | Versailles Chantiers | 18 minutes |
| Train from Gare Saint-Lazare | Versailles Rive Droite | 17 minutes |
| Bus 171 from Pont de Sèvres (end of metro line 9) | Stops at the palace | 30 minutes’ ride without traffic |
- Buy a ticket for each direction, or use a Navigo, Mobilis or Paris Visite pass. A Métro-Train-RER ticket is €2.55 and is valid to Versailles (Île-de-France Mobilités, 30 September 2026). Tickets are digital only: on your phone or on a Navigo Easy card; see Paris metro tickets.
- RER C and train times are on transilien.com; check them before you travel.
- The A13 motorway is closed from Paris towards Versailles from 16 November 2026 to 31 August 2027, and the château asks visitors to use public transport. That slows coach tours too.
The Grille Royale, Palace of Versailles. Photo: François de Dijon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Tours from Paris
A tour from Paris adds the coach both ways and a booked palace entry. Compare them with the €35 Passport (April to October; about £30 at the ECB rate of 29 September 2026) plus two train tickets.
The coach trip with palace entry
From £67.77 · 4.6 stars from 7,482 reviews · 5½ hours · audio guide
From Paris: Palace of Versailles & Gardens with Transportad includes the coach, palace and garden tickets, the Musical Fountains or Musical Gardens on show days (April to October) and an audio-guide app for your phone. A full-day option adds Marie-Antoinette’s estate at the Trianon. Children under six are not taken.
The guided coach trip
From £81.50 · 4.7 stars from 3,967 reviews · 5½ to 9½ hours · live guide
From Paris: Versailles Palace Guided Tour & Gardens Accessad is the same coach trip with an English-speaking guide through the State Apartments, the King’s Bedroom and the Hall of Mirrors, then free time in the gardens. The full-day option adds a guided visit to Marie-Antoinette’s estate.
The Hall of Mirrors. Photo: Myrabella, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
A guided tour at the palace
From £60.05 · 4.7 stars from 11,989 reviews · 1½ hours · you make your own way there
If you are happy on the RER C but want a guide inside, Versailles: Skip-the-Line Tour of Palace and Gardens Accessad meets at GetYourGuide’s office in Versailles, 10 avenue du Général de Gaulle, and includes palace entry, a 90-minute guided tour and the gardens. An option adds Marie-Antoinette’s estate.
A guided tour at the palace with the Passport
From £66.85 · 4.6 stars from 6,841 reviews · 1½ hours · you make your own way there
Versailles: Skip-the-Line Guided Palace Tour and Full Accessad meets at the foot of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV in front of the palace. It includes a guided tour of the palace through a separate entrance, with headsets, and the Passport, which covers the Trianon estate and the gardens, including on Musical Fountains and Musical Gardens days. The Passport ticket is handed over at check-in, and the tour ends with free time in the gardens.
The tickets
Bought from the château’s ticket office (chateauversailles.fr, 30 September 2026). Every ticket is non-refundable and cannot be exchanged.
| Ticket | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Passport | €35 from 1 April to 31 October; €25 from 1 November to 31 March | The palace at a timed entry, the Trianon estate (from noon), temporary exhibitions and the gardens, including on Musical Fountains and Musical Gardens days |
| Passport + “Light of Liberty” VR | €42 | The Passport plus a 15-minute virtual-reality show on the American Revolution, with skip-the-line palace entry straight after it |
| Estate of Trianon | €15 all year | The Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet only; no palace |
| Musical Fountains Show or Musical Gardens ticket | €15, online only | The gardens only, on show days from April to 1 November; no palace and no Trianon |
| Official guided tour | €10 to €16, on top of a ticket | A château speaker takes you into rooms otherwise closed to visitors |
- The Passport is the ticket to buy. The château says only the Passport covers the whole estate and guarantees entry to the palace. Entering the palace from 4 pm (3 pm from November to March) is cheaper: €28, or €18 in the low season.
- Free for under-18s, and for under-26s who live in the EU, but they still book a palace time slot online.
- Paris Museum Pass holders book a free Passport ticket to get their slot.
- EEA discount: nationals and residents of an EEA country pay €3 less on the Passport, the Trianon ticket and the gardens ticket (€32 and €22 for the Passport; €12 for the other two), on proof. Everyone else, UK visitors included, pays the prices above. The Louvre also prices by EEA residence.
- Buy from the château. A resold “Passport entry ticket” on GetYourGuide was £39.18 on 29 September 2026, against €35 (about £30) at the château.
The Queen’s Hamlet, Trianon estate. Photo: Zairon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
A day, hour by hour
The palace opens at 9:00 and the Trianon estate at 12:00, so book an early palace slot and walk to the Trianon after lunch.
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | Palace opens. Enter at your booked slot through entrance A in the main courtyard. |
| Late morning | The gardens and the Grand Canal |
| 12:00 | The Trianon estate opens: the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet, 30 minutes’ walk across the park or 20 minutes on the little train |
| 17:45 | Last palace admission until 1 November; from 2 November to 31 March it is 16:45, and the château warns that the last slots are too late to see the whole palace |
- Left luggage is suspended. Pushchairs and small bags are allowed in the rooms; leave suitcases at your hotel.
- Gardens: free, except on Musical Fountains and Musical Gardens days from early April to 1 November, which the Passport covers; a gardens-only ticket is €15, online only. From November to March the gardens are free.
- The Sofia Coppola exhibition, open from 22 September 2026, is included in the Passport.
The Latona Fountain and the Grand Canal. Photo: Basile Morin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Combining it with somewhere else
Versailles and Monet’s garden at Giverny fit in one day on a tour: the guided day trip to bothad is from £119.25 (4.5 stars from 1,549 reviews, 11½ hours). It runs while Giverny is open, 1 April to 1 November, and not on Mondays; the Giverny day trip guide has the train and the garden’s tickets.
Versailles is one of several day trips from Paris, which compares it with Mont-Saint-Michel, the D-Day beaches, the Loire and Fontainebleau. The fountain shows and the Night Fountains are in Paris in summer. For the museums back in the city, and which day each one closes, see what to book before you go.
Common questions
How do I get from Paris to Versailles by train?
Take the RER C to Versailles Château–Rive Gauche, 10 minutes' walk from the palace. Trains from Montparnasse run to Versailles Chantiers (18 minutes' walk) and trains from Saint-Lazare to Versailles Rive Droite (17 minutes' walk). Buy a ticket for each direction, or use a Navigo, Mobilis or Paris Visite pass.
How much is a ticket to Versailles?
The Passport, which covers the palace, the Trianon estate and the gardens, is €35 from 1 April to 31 October and €25 from 1 November to 31 March, at the château's own ticket office (30 September 2026). Nationals and residents of the European Economic Area pay €3 less. The Trianon estate alone is €15 all year, and a gardens-only ticket for the fountain shows is €15. Under-18s go free but still book a palace time slot.
Is Versailles open on Mondays?
No. The palace and the Trianon estate are closed every Monday, and on 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. The gardens and park open every day.
Is a Versailles tour from Paris worth it?
It buys you the coach both ways and a booked palace entry. The coach trip with palace entry and an audio-guide app is from £67.77 on GetYourGuide, against €35 (about £30) for the Passport bought from the château from April to October, plus two train tickets. A guided version is from £81.50.
