SJOFlyer

For my upcoming honeymoon trip we are spending 5 days at Paris and we are considering getting a 4 day Paris pass for sightseeing throughout the city. I have read all there is about the Paris pass and it looks like the best option for our itinerary, however I feel the need to come and ask here for opinions.

For the people that have bought it or heard experiences, I appreciate your feedback.

This are some of landmarks and attractions we plan to visit during the four days, where we think that the Paris Pass will be useful:

Rodin Museum
Hotel des Invalides
Arc de Triomphe
Eiffel Tower
Louvre Museum
National Opera
Grevin Wax Museum
Montparnasse Tower
Pantheon
Cluny Museum
Holy Chapel
Orsay Museum
Dali Museum
Pompidou Center
Notre Dame

prmetime

Used it in September. I would highly recommend it! Very good value.

OverThereTooMuch

What sites did you visit where you were able to use the pass?

prmetime

The metro pass alone is extremely valuable to get around Paris. Specifically we bought the 5 day pass and saw:

Notre Dame
Louvre
Orsay Museum
Versailles
Pantheon
Rodin Museum
Orangerie
Ste Chappelle

May have been others but cannot remember off-hand. I have used the London Pass as well and found it to be useful, but many London museums are free. I hope this is helpful.

andrewstahl

We used the museum pass extensively during our August trip. We saved a lot of time by not having to wait in line to buy a ticket for each attraction. We used it at Notre Dame, Dorsay, Lourve, Invalides, St Chapelle, Versailles and Arc de Triomphe.

Mountain Trader

Terminology: There are (at least) two passes for Paris tourists. The Paris Museum Pass affords admission to a broad array of museums, monuments and other tourist sites. It costs 39€ for two days (adult).

The Paris Pass includes a Paris Museum Pass, a transportation pass and other benefits and costs 110€ for 2 days.

Obviously there is a huge price difference. I suggest those considering Paris passes study the two passes and prepare a realistic outline of what you'll do when during your stay. Many people overwhelm themselves by trying to cram too many activities into too short a time. The Rick Steves Paris Guide is a good tool to help in this effort.

OverThereTooMuch

I added prices. There's a message on the paris pass site that prices are going up in Feb, but that could just be a sales gimmick.

The value of the line skip can't really be discounted too, esp. if you're going at a busy time of year. Though I don't know how long the line skip lines end up getting, with so many tourists having the same card.

So many great tips in this post ^ Lots of amazing things to see, but you will only have bad memories if you try to rush through too much.

Many libraries have the Rick Steves book, so you can go take a look at it and see if you like it. 2014 edition of the Paris book is available now. You can also try looking for a severely discounted 2013 version. http://www.ricksteves.com/books/update/bk-rs-par.htm

In my experience, Versailles requires most of a day. I think I may have visited ADT after returning from that, but don't know how many other things you could realistically squeeze into the same day.

Pay close attention to the times/days the attractions are open. For example, the Louvre is closed on Tuesday, but open late on Wed & Fri night.

slawecki

get the museum pass, and do not take stuff to require the check in room. some of those lines are very long.

also, if you have a pass, ask if there is a way in using your pass.

MadRobin

We were in Paris for the first time last June. I felt the Paris Pass with the transportation was extremely useful and will most likely purchase it again on our next trip back in May. We skipped a HUUUGE line at the Louvre too!

milepig

The Museum Pass is great. Not only for the pricing, but for the ability to skip long lines at many of the post popular places. Tip: buy your pass at any of the smaller museums that are convenient for you, the line for purchase at larger places can be long.

With the pass in hand, I disagree with the person who said "don't try to do too much" as a given. We found that the pass was especially great for popping into smaller places that were on our route anyway. Many of them weren't worth the price of admission on their own, but provided a pleasant 20-30 minute walk through to see a collection we would never have otherwise taken the time to see.

SJOFlyer

Thank you all for the comments, we went ahead and bought a 4 day pass @ €160 each with a €20 discount for a new year sale they were doing. I will update here my experiences and also see if indeed we saved any money by purchasing the pass.

BlindPilot

Been going to Paris annually now for the last 5 years. I have always bought the museum pass and the transportation pass separately.

Museum pass for 4 days is €56 (or €69 for 6 days)
http://en.parismuseumpass.com/rub-the-pass-price-36.htm

Paris Transportation Pass for 5 days is €34 for zone 1-3
http://booking.parisinfo.com/z6200e2...transport.aspx

I love going in and out of museums if only to use the restroom or take a break from walking the streets of Paris. :-)

OverThereTooMuch

Interesting to hear that you still feel you get value out of the museum pass, even after 5 years of trips!

As far as the Paris Visite pass, by my math, a person would have to take 25 trips on the Metro in 5 days to "break even" (and that's assuming you don't pay to have it shipped to you, in which case it would take even more trips). There are a few additional discounts offered by the pass, but many wouldn't matter if you also had the museum pass. Is there some other benefit from getting this pass?

Mountain Trader

It seems a five day pass is around 35€, which amounts to 20 individual ride tickets at 1.70 €. If you use the buses, which more people should, you can burn through a lot of individual tickets.

The savings aren't huge but I think someone getting benefit fom the Musuem Pass would do enough running around to also benefit fom some form of transportation pass too.

Again, the key is to plan ahead.

OverThereTooMuch

If you get the carnet, the tickets are only 1.37 each. That's where the 25 number comes from.

If the travel pass was available with reasonable shipping, or worked for transportation from the airport, I can see how it would be convenient to get in advance. But neither is true. So that's why I'm wondering if there are other advantages.