Get a Paris Pass

If you're planning a trip to Paris and want to make the best use of your time, consider getting a Paris Pass in advance of the trip.

The Paris Pass contains multiple elements that make it valuable to visitors:

• Paris Museum Pass - provides access to some 60 museums and monuments. Having the Paris Museum Pass, which you can purchase separately, not only gets you in the door; it may also enable you to enter without waiting on line. For instance, when we visited the Musée d'Orsay, Paris Pass holders were welcome to enter through a separate door. Note: Some museums offer free admission; major ones such as the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and Pompidou Center have an entrance fee that the Paris Museum pass covers.

• Hop-on Hop-off Tour Bus Pass - the best way we know to get our bearings in a new city, the distinctive red tour bus ("Les Cars Rouges") navigates through Paris, stopping at nine major points of interest:
  • Eiffel Tower
  • Louvre
  • Champ de Mars
  • Notre Dame
  • Musée d'Orsay
  • Opéra
  • Champs Elysées
  • Grand Palais
  • Trocadéro
  The red bus runs from around 9:30 in the morning till 8 pm. Board and alight at any of the stops, and stay as long as you like before re-boarding. You'll get a pair of earbuds that you can plug in at your seat to listen to narration that gives a bit of history and context to each of the stops.

• Paris Visite Pass – the Metro is the cheapest, easiest, quickest, and most efficient way to get around Paris. Included in your Paris Pass is a ticket good for free unlimited travel in Zones 1-3 (central Paris) using the Metro as well as on the RER, bus, tramway, SNCF Transilien suburban trains, Montmartre funicular railway, Montmartrobus, Noctilien, and Optile network buses.

• Paris Attractions Pass – free admission into tourist experiences that include a bateaux river cruise along the Seine, wine tasting, tour of the Paris Opera House, and five more activities.

Paris Pass holders also receive a guidebook to the city's sights and landmarks plus a map and directions to reach them. Special offers for discounts at shops and restaurants are included.

Paris Pass User Reviews

As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with complimentary services for review purposes. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest.