The queue outside the Louvre is optional. So is the one at Versailles.
Which Eiffel ticket actually reaches the summit. What an hour on the Seine costs after dark. Whether Normandy works from Paris or needs a night in Bayeux. Reviews of every tour you can book in France.
Four Paris bookings first. The rest of France follows below.
The pyramid, the tower, the palace and an hour on the river. What each one costs, and what the people who booked it say about it.
01The timed slotLouvre Museum Timed-Entrance TicketEntry runs in half-hour blocks and the Mona Lisa room fills from opening. Take the first slot of the day.
02The towerEiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit AccessThe standard ticket stops at the second floor. Summit access is a separate line on the booking form, and it sells out first.
03The day outsideVersailles Palace and Gardens Full Access TicketPalace and gardens on one pass, forty minutes out on the RER C. Closed on Mondays, every Monday.
04The eveningEvening River Cruise with MusicAn hour on the water with the bridges coming on. The cheapest good thing you will do in this city.
Every famous door in Paris now opens on a timed slot.
The pyramid, the tower, the palace and the chapel all sell entry by the half hour. What each one costs to walk into, and what the guided version actually buys you.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
The LouvreA half-hour slot, or a guide who walks you past the desk.
The Eiffel TowerSecond floor by lift, summit by separate ticket, or the stairs.
VersaillesPalace and gardens on one pass. Closed Mondays.
Sainte-ChapelleThe glass upstairs, the Conciergerie next door on a combined ticket.
All 65 Paris tickets and passes →
Paris, then the coast, the vineyards and the beaches up north.
A capital that runs on timed entry, a Mediterranean port built around its cliffs, wine country you reach by tram, and an island of red rock in between. Six places to start, and the best day out in each.
Paris: book the mornings, walk the evenings.
Everything in Paris →
The museums open at nine and are unbearable by two. Put the timed entries early, keep the river and the hill for the end of the day, and leave the middle for lunch. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Timed entry, or a guide past the desk
A plain ticket puts you inside at a set half hour. A guided tour costs roughly three times as much and walks you to the Mona Lisa before that room fills. Both skip the ticket desk, which is the part people queue for.
One hour on the river, at dusk
The commentary is forgettable and the view is not. Boats leave the Port de la Bourdonnais and the Pont de l’Alma every half hour. Take the last sailing before dark and you get the city in both lights.
Montmartre once the coaches have gone
The basilica costs nothing and stays open late. The money goes on somebody who can find the vineyard, the surviving windmill and the streets behind the square where the painters are not.
The cheapest good hour in Paris is spent on the Seine.
Twenty dollars puts you on a boat past the Conciergerie, the Louvre and Notre-Dame with the bridges lighting up. A dinner cruise costs five times that and travels the same water at the same speed, which is the whole decision.
The days out France sells more of than anything else.
Every tour in France →More travellers book these than anything else in the country. What each one is, what it costs, and why it holds the slot.
1
Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
See the Mona Lisa and Louvre masterpieces with a timed ticket, guaranteed entry within 30 minutes, and freedom to explore all day.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Disneyland® Paris 1-Day Ticket
from $61
3
Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket
from $17
4
Evening River Cruise with Music
from $27
5
Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit Access
from $29
6
Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
from $59
7
Louvre Guided Tour with Reserved Access & Boat Cruise
from $81
8
Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne
from $115
Four French wine regions, four completely different days out.
Bordeaux tastes in châteaux and starts at the end of a tram line. Champagne is cellars cut into chalk. Burgundy is a bicycle between villages. Alsace is a road of half-timbered houses with a glass at the end of it.
Every tasting in France →
What a day out in France actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best French days come in under the cost of the dinner you have afterwards.
Museum entry, timed tickets, an hour on the Seine and a walking tour of a city centre.
The full days: Versailles with transport, Loire châteaux, a Champagne cellar run, the Riviera by minibus.
Private guides, dinner cruises with a menu worth eating, and the fourteen-hour run to Normandy and back.
Three days out that exist nowhere else.
Cathedrals and vineyards are all over Europe. A tidal island with an abbey on top, five invasion beaches with the bunkers still standing in them, and a château built across a river are not.
The D-Day Beaches
The five landing beaches run for fifty miles along the Calvados coast, and the sand is still flat, open and mostly empty. The American cemetery stands above Omaha at Colleville-sur-Mer. The German battery at Longues still holds its guns in the casemates. From Bayeux this is a half day. From Paris it is fourteen hours and a very early alarm.
- 1Normandy D-Day Sites & Cemetery Day Trip from Paris with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,877 reviews
- 2Normandy D-Day Small-Group Day Trip with Omaha Beach, Cemetery & Cider Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,786 reviews
- 3Normandy D-Day Beaches and American Cemetery Day Trip from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,673 reviews
Mont-Saint-Michel
The abbey sits on a rock in a bay with the second-largest tidal range in Europe, and on the strongest tides the sea closes right around it. A causeway and a shuttle handle the crossing now. The village below is one lane of shops and the climb is long; the cloister at the top is the reason to keep going.
- 1Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,876 reviews
- 2Mont Saint Michel Day Trip from Paris with English Speaking Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,750 reviews
- 3Mont Saint Michel Day Trip with a Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,970 reviews
The Châteaux of the Loire
Chenonceau is built across the river on the arches of an old mill bridge, so the water runs under the gallery floor. Chambord has a double staircase two people can climb without ever meeting. There are several hundred châteaux on this river and about six worth a whole day, and the trips from Paris pick two and add a tasting.
- 1Loire Valley Castles Day Trip from Paris with Complementary Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,907 reviews
- 2Loire Valley Castles Day Trip With Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,727 reviews
- 3Chenonceau Castle Admission Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,515 reviews
Four French bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on timed slots, closing days and tide tables that take no interest in when your flight gets in.
- 01Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance TicketEntry is a half-hour slot with a cap on each one, and the museum closes every Tuesday. The early slots go first.
- 02Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit AccessSummit access is capped separately from the second floor and goes days ahead. A second-floor ticket will not take you to the top.
- 03Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access TicketThe palace closes on Mondays and runs on timed entry, and the fountain shows only play on set days between spring and autumn.
- 04Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from ParisThe trip from Paris runs on one departure, and the abbey’s opening hours move with the season.
In France the meal is the day out, not the thing afterwards.
A market walk that finishes as lunch, a cheese counter where somebody finally explains the difference, a pastry class that sends you home able to make the thing. Book the food before the museums.
The Louvre shuts on Tuesday. Versailles and the Orsay shut on Monday.
Two days a week the biggest names in Paris are simply locked, and half the itineraries written for this city ignore it. Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, Sacré-Cœur and the river all run seven days. Plan around the closures first and the rest of the week arranges itself.
By place — capital, coast and country
By kind of day — ticket, table, water or road
Paris, Normandy, the Loire, Lyon, Nice: the run most first trips end up making.
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