chag

My wife and I will be in Paris in mid october for 12 days. We are debating whether to buy the museum card or not. I figure we can only visit 2 museums per day if we want to be quick about it. I believe after 5 days of visiting we will be exhausted. So, is the card worthwhile? What do you people think?

Areala

My husband and I were there for only 6 days and we got it and thought it was very worthwhile. But then again we were on limited time and needed to see a lot and we love museums.

HowardR

Since you'll be there for 12 days you might want to split up your visits to museums and other sites on the card. Five straight days of museum-going is a bit much. Perhaps something liek two 3-day cards or one 3-day and one or 2 1-day cards.
We were there for two weeks and bought a 5-day card. We were sorry we hadn't done something like I'm suggesting in the first paragraph.

djkbooks

With the pass, you must use it on consecutive days. If you plan to visit lots of included places each day, you could save considerably on admission prices.

The only place you really need the pass for skipping the ticket line is Musee d'Orsay.

We bought a three day pass on our first visit and made good use of it.

Now, however, I order tickets ahead online for Musee d'Orsay and we visit the rest at our leisure.

Gretchen

In October you probably will not need a card for lines except at the Orsay. Do not order online or you will overpay--easy to get a pass at any Metro station. I also agree about splitting up your passes--maybe 3 days at a time. They are also "handy" to have if you are just passing a museum and even want to use the WC.

Christina

hee hee, that's a good idea, they should change the name to Paris Museums and Toilets pass.

They are too expensive to be buying that many, and there aren't lines in many places, or you can avoid them. I would not buy a lot of different passes for your stays, and definitely not one-day passes as they are really expensive. There is the problem that they are consecutive days only, but if you bought any, I'd probably suggest one 3-day pass and schedule those days for the top museums where you might need or want it (mainly Orsay, then Louvre). I have had a line at the Pompidou once, also, for about 15 minutes, but that was a holiday where few museums were open.

Janeyre

Pay attention to museum open/closing days/times and free times Time your three or five day pass to maximize use. The Rick Steves' guides are good for this kind of information. Look at a Paris map and start to group places that take the pass. For example, when you are at the Invalides visiting Napoleon's tomb (great museum, too) you can easily walk over to Rodin's museum and sculpture garden or vice versa. We found the pass does open up other possibilities for which we would not have necessarily budgeted. In June,my dad and nephew didn't really plan to visit the Cluny museum, but they did end up buying a one day pass (mainly to avoid the line at the D'Orsay) and stopped by the Cluny. Dad loved the unicorn tapestries. There is a website (sorry, I don't have that website at my fingertips) for the pass that tells you the various places on the pass list as does the Rick Steves book.

Gretchen is so right about the ticket also serving as a Potty Pass! Have a wonderful time!

Janeyre

Here is the the website address: www.museumpasses.com for the list of sites. I agree with other posters; buy the pass once in Paris.

jules4je7

We're going in September for a week, and I wondered about the 5-day Museum Pass. I added up the entrance fees for all the sights we want to see, and they are stretched over 5 days. If we see everything, we'll save a few bucks, but for those in our group that don't want to see all those museums, the monetary savings isn't there.

I think the real value is in not having to wait in line everywhere you go for tickets...Time=money that's for sure.

I'd probably try and arrange your schedule so you get 2 3-day passes with a break in between too. If you have to pony up $7 here or there for entrance to something in between, I doubt it'd break you.

Happy travels.

Robespierre

Also keep in mind that you don't have to max out the pass every day to come out ahead. As long as the pass you choose costs less than the total fees of places you would visit over its valid period, then it makes sense.

For example, if you did 16€ worth of things on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and only 6€ on Tuesday, a five-day pass would have paid for itself.

And serve as a potty pass all day Thursday.

clevelandbrown

We got passes and planned our visits to maximize use of them, but didn't save that much money.

To me the advantage was skipping lines (which we found at more than one museum), and being able to break up our museum visits into enjoyable segments. I think there is more to see in many of those museums than one can comfortably see in a single visit, but if you visit in the morning, leave for lunch and seeing something else in the neighborhood, then return for another session, you can really benefit from the pass. We probably spent a day and a half in d'Orsay, but spread out over four days.