Paris tourist passes - pros & cons

Visitor passes

There's a massive amount of advertising on the Internet to encourage anyone interested in visiting Paris to buy a tourist pass. For some visitors, a pass will definitely be worth having; but for others a pass is quite unnecessary.  Check out the pros and the cons with this clear guide.

Visitor passes are not essential, but they are very valuable

 

Ticket queues and security queues

Even if you have a pass, you may need to queue to get past security... or just to show the pass. But you won't need to waste time standing in a line to buy a ticket for each visit you make . If you have a combined transport and attractions pass, you won't have the hassle of needing to buy a ticket each time you take public transport.

Compare the main  different Paris Passes:  updated 2023 prices

• Paris City Pass : Recommended by About-France.com The cheapest and best value of the all-in-one pass: includes museums (Louvre, Orsay etc.) , travel and sightseeing. Adult passes start at 104.90 € for two days. Check out or buy
• Go City Paris inclusive :  This pass does not include any of the mahoir museums if bought for only 2 or 3 days. To get into the museums (Louvre, Orsay etc.), a minimum 4-day pass is needed. Four day passes comle in at € 199 . Two-day adult passes without the museums cost 89 €uross.  Check out or buy
• Go City Paris explorer:  Does not include  public transport  Provides access to between 2 and 7 attractions only; includes a Disneyland option  More info here
• Paris Pass'Lib. Access to between 3 and 6 attractions only, to be chosen from a list. Four tarifs with different lists.
• Paris visite: Travel only - just a Paris public transport pass. 2 day adult pass zones 1-3: 19.50 €  More info here
• Paris Museum pass : Museums only : just gives entry into the main museums (Louvre, Orsay etc.) 2 day pass 52 € . More info here

Compare  Paris passes for content and standard prices - updated as of December 2021

What is included..	Go City  pass	Paris City Pass Best value	Go City explorer pass	Paris Museum Pass
Website	Go City Paris  or  畅游包	Paris City Pass	Go City Paris explorer	Museum Pass
Metro, buses	No	Yes - Zones 1 to 3	NO	NO
Main museums and attractions	2 or 3 day passes:NO 4 - 6  day passes: YES	Yes	Options	Yes
Eiffel Tower	To second floor on foot (674 stairs). Reservations -  subject to availability	No (option)	Option - Elevator to second floor Reservations required -  subject to availability	No
Seine river cruise	Yes	Yes	Option	No
Hop-on hop-off tour bus	Yes	No	Option	No
Monet museum	No	No	No	No
Prices  2 Days	Adult 18+ :  89 €   Child 2 - 17 : 54 €	Adult :  109.00 €   Youth 12-17:  44.90 € Child 4-11 : 19.90 €	Passes valid 60 days Adult rates: From 119 € for three attractions, to 189 € for 7 attractions Child rates (up to 17) From 109 € for three attractions, to 169 € for 7 attractions	Adult :  55 €   Under-18  :  Free
Prices 3 Days	Adult 18+ :  107 €   Child 2 - 17 : 69 €	Adult :  139.90 €   Youth :  54.90 € Child : 29.90 €		(4 days) Adult : 70 €   Under-18  :  Free
Also available	4 days (Adult 199 €) 6 days	4 days (Adult 169.90 €) 5 days 6 days		4 days 6 days
Info and buy	Go City Paris Buy online in advance	Paris City Pass 5% special discount when you book from About-France.com. Code Aboutfrance	Go City Paris explorer	Museum Pass Buy in advance or at the first museum you visit, or at Paris visitor centres

Note: Most passes are offered for periods of 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, sometimes 5 days, and 6 days. The Paris Pass'lib is also available for just one day, this "mini" version just includes the  hop-on tour bus and a Seine river cruise; but at 40 € for one adult, it is 20% more expensive than the Combo bus tour + Seine cruise offered by Paris City Vision

The passes in more detail....

• The Go City Pass , and the Paris City Pass 
  These include attractions and Seine cruise
  
  
  
  Click for selected
  Paris hotels map
  These are both  general limited-time passes for museums and attractions.
  The big difference concerns two or three-day tickets, for which the Go-City Paris pass does not include the main museums (and that means not just theactual museums, but sights like the Arc de Triomphe and Saint Chapelle).
  These museum sites are included in all versions of the Paris City Pass.
  For the Go-city pass, they are only ncluded in the 4 or 6-day versions. 
  All these passes include a Seine river cruise, a free Paris guide book,  and lots more - but not the Eiffel Tower. 
•    The other main difference between these two passes - apart from the price - is that the Go City inclusive pass includes a hop-on hop-off bus tour bus, the Paris City Pass does not. By contrast,the Paris City Pass includes free use of public transport (RER, buses and metro in zones 1 to 3)
  Buy your pass in advance, and avoid the queues to get in. 
  It is pretty well impossible to visit everything covered by these two inclusive passes, even with a five or six day pass, as the list of attractions covered includes several that are well outside Paris. And the passes do not include cafés and restuarants where you will want to stop off and relax
• Paris Pass'Lib . This pass was completely changed in 2021. Now it comes in 4 versions, offering entry to between 3 and 6 attractions out of a list. With the cheapest version (35€), choose 3 activities out of a list of 14. With the most expensive version (189€) choose six out of a list of 57 attractions. Obviously, the more expensive attractions only feature in the more expensive passes. A Pass'Lib is valid a year.
•  Go City Paris explorer  This may be  a good idea if you want to include a day at Disneyland Paris, since the 119 € cost of a 3-attraction pass is the same as the indicated "normal" adult day-ticket to Disneyland alone. (For the record fixed-date adult day passes for Disneyland Paris cost between 79€ and 114€ on the Disney site depending on date). Otherwise, it is mainly useful for people spending up to two months in Paris, who know that they will want to visit certain attractions.  Passes are valid for between 2 and 7 attractions only.
  Take care:  the choice of attractions is capped by a "purse value" which  is the maximum amount you can use based on the standard gate price for each attraction. For example, with a 3-choice adult Explorer costing 119 €,  you can visit three attractions the sum of whose normal ticket prices is not greater than €205... which could include both Disneyland and Parc Astérix.
  One advantage of the Paris Explorer pass is that it can include the second floor (not the top) of the Eiffel Tower. However, be warned; the date and time of the Eiffel tower visit has to be booked in  advance, and the claimed 42€ value of the tour to the second flooor of the Eiffel Tower can be misleading. The actual cost of access to the second floor of the Eiffel tower is not 42€ but just  16.70 € if you take the elevator (lift), and just 10.50 € if you walk up (Prices as from January 2023)  (see Eiffel Tower )

• Paris visite:  [Public transport only ]

  Visitors who plan to use lots of public transport in Paris but don't want to visit lots of museums and sites  may find that the best or cheapest solution is to take a visitor's pass, "Paris Visite", though this is not necessarily the case (see below). The Paris Visite passes are available on a 1, 2, 3 or 5 day basis, and cover all types of official public transport in the central area or central area and suburbs, depending on the option chosen.
    DO NOT BUY A PARIS VISITE PUBLIC TRANSPORT PASS if you have bought, or plan to buy, a Paris City Pass for visiting attractions and museums. Public transport is already included in the Paris City Pass.  See above 
     Paris Visite - gives unlimited use of the metro / RER / bus network for a given numer of days. Prices start at €14.90 for a one day adult pass covering zones 1 to 3 or 24.30 €uros for 2 days (As of Jan 2023). Full details in English, plus downloadable Paris Metro and public transport maps from the official Paris visitor website.  However, it's worth noting that a two-day Paris visite pass is only worth it if you plan to do a lot of trips on the metro or buses in a day. Downloading a pack of ten individual journey tickets - a "carnet" - (valid until they are used) from the machine at any metro station will cost you € 17.90, whereas buying a two-day Paris visite card will cost you  €24.30 (see below) . You buy packs of tickets from the machines in all stations or, when there is one, from a ticket booth. Paper tickets are no longer sold, though existing paper tickets can be used until 2025.
     To download tickets or a carnet,  visitors need first to download to their phone a "Navigo Easy" pass, which costs 2 €, onto which they can then load individual tickets, or more sensibly a carnet of ten trips... plus any suburban travel tickets they may need. Navigo Easy cards are available from all machines and also in some shops. Each traveller needs his or her own Navigo Easy card... including kids. So four people travelling together need four cards, as each will need a card to get through the turnstiles.
  
  Take care...  Where to buy Paris visite pass ?
  The simplest is to buy it when you reach France, from any Paris area train / metro station, airport, information point or tourist office. Buy it at the ticket office, not from a ticket machine (unless renewing). If you want to buy it on line in advance, only do so here (official site): you'll get the tickets at the official price, but you will pay extra (at least 9 Euros) to have them mailed to you. DO NOT purchase in advance from other online websites that sell these tickets well above the real cost, and charge excessively for delivery too. You could end up paying double the cost......
  
• Paris Museum pass  [Museums only ]
  - giving unlimited admission to some 60 monuments / museums in and around Paris, excluding the Eiffel Tower. Prices start at 52 €uros for two days or 66€ for four days.  This pass - best purchased on the day at the first museum you visit -  does not include any transport, so things like Seine river cruises, metro tickets and sightseeing tours must be purchased separately. See below. The Paris Museum Pass is included in the Go City inclusive pass and the Paris City Pass (see above). 
• Choose tickets à la carte :  
  Just buy tickets for what you have time to see.  Check out sightseeing bus tickets and river-bus tickets below; check out prices for individual monuments on their websites, which are listed at the foot of our Paris tourist attractions page.  Tickets for many attractions can now be bought on the attraction's own website, and with an online ticket (print your own or on your phone) you don't need to stand in a queue to buy on the spot.

Other passes:

• Hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus pass  The Open-Tour /Cityrama service, has a choice of hop-on hop-off passes from 39 € for a one-day pass, and covers four different routes (plus optional Batobus service on the Seine). Alternatively Big Bus Tours (formerly les Cars Rouges) run open-top guided tour buses linking nine major sites; a two-day pass costs  45€.
• The "Batobus" and travel on the Seine. The Batobus are river buses that go up and down the Seine from the Eiffel tower to the quai de Montebello (near Notre Dame). There are 8 stops in all. An adult day pass at the start of 2022 costs 19 €, and a 2-day pass (consecutive days) costs 21 € per adult.

WHICH PASS BEST SUITS YOUR NEEDS?

PASSES are often the easiest solution, but not necessarily the cheapest way to visit Paris ...

►  Choosing which pass is best for you, or whether you actually need a pass at all, will depend untimately on what sights you want to see, what you want to do in Paris, and how long you are staying.  Paris has litterally hundreds of different tourist sights (see Paris tourist attractions), including museums, monuments, views, places to walk, tours, concert halls, cabarets, restaurants and cafés. No-one has time to see everything. In fact, most tourists, in the space of a short trip to Paris, can do no more than scratch the surface.
  So before choosing a pass, or no pass, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Do you want to take in at least three paid entry attractions a day (between monuments, museums, river cruise...)  . If so, the Paris City Pass is probably your best value option, 
2. Do you want primarily to visit Paris's world-class museums, more than other attractions? If so, the Museum Pass may be your best solution.
3. Do you want to avoid the big paid-entry sites, with their queues, and enjoy Paris by visiting smaller museums, taking in Paris's free attractions (including museums), soaking in the atmosphere of the old streets and riverbanks, and enjoying the bars and cafés ? If so, you don't need a pass at all, it would be a waste of money. Just pay at the entrance to the paid-entry sites you visit, and enjoy the others for free.
4. Do you plan to use the metro or buses several times in a day, including getting to and from your hotel located in central Paris or the inner suburbs? If so, the Paris city pass will give you free public transport plus entry to dozens of attractions. Alternatively the Paris Visite transport pass will just provide you with free travel in the city for the duration chosen.
5. Do you want to pack in as much as possible in a short space of time, including the main sights ?  If so, the Paris City Pass is your best value option. If you want a pass including hop-on hop-off buses, the go for the Go city Paris inclusive Pass
6. Are you spending a few weeks in Paris, during which time you'll visit different attractionsin your own time, on different days? Then maybe the Go city Paris explorer pass is best suited to your needs.