Hello,

My daughter, husband, and 2 boys (14 and 11) will be in Paris for 3 days in April. Any Fodors Paris experts know what the best Metro pass is? I'm not sure if they will need one that includes all zones, and it's been 11 years since I was there, so I'm not sure what to recommend.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Have a look at the great info posted at https://parisbytrain.com/paris-metro-pass/

The recommendation would be driven by your usage model. It would help if you state, days of the week of interest, where you are using RATP transports and how they are grouped by day, whether you plan to use RER to and from the airport, whether you are planning to go to Versailles, etc. I use different combinations of Carnet, Mobilis, and Navigo Decouverte depending on how I plan to use the transports for that particular visit to Paris.

I would agree with Greg. For Example, a zone 1-3 (Central Paris only) daily Mobilis pass is 10 euro per day per person (unlimited use), but a Paris Visite Pass in the same zones for 3 days is only 26.65 euro, a 3.5 euro savings. If you are planning a versailles trip or will use it to get to CDG, then a combination of Mobilis is better than the Visite pass because you can purchase two 1-5 zones and one 1-3 zone Mobilis and it is 10 euro cheaper than a 3 day, 5 zone Visite.

The bigger question is how many times per day will metro, etc be used. You can also buy a single ticket to Versailles from any Ile de France station separately, so you have many options. If you use it infrequently, then either the Navigo Easy topped with a Carnet at 16.90 euro is probably the simplest. That pass gives you 10 trips each day. (Navigo Easy is the same as a carnet)

If I read things correctly, Navigo Easy is not the same as a carnet. The ten tickets in a carnet can be split among travelers while the Navigo Easy is only for one traveler. So, if you have a day with fewer rides making a one day pass per person too expensive, a carnet saves money.

In previous trips, I have, however, found that having unlimited rides means being able to jump on and off buses at will if feet become tired, and there also is no financial anxiety if we spent on an erroneous metro or bus or decided to go back to the hotel for a rest mid-day.

With four people in town for three days, I think the Navigo Easy would work well, depending upon the number of total trips. Each card would give the user 10 trips in three days. OP needs to keep in mind that each "trip" or ticket on the Easy is basically good for all connections within 90 minutes (or maybe 2 hours don't recall) from when it is first vaildated. Once you leave the system or get beyond that time, a new trip is required with a new ticket. But 10 tickets is 4 on two of the days and 2 on the other.

Sorry, I see that I said EACH DAY. That is clearly incorrect, it is 10 trips on each card.

Thanks to all who were so nice to respond. I have passed this information on to my daughter, so she can get an idea of how to navigate the system.

Thanks again,


Sheila