First-time visitor to Paris (transportation)?
 

Honeymooners (early-30's) arriving in Paris in early August and are wondering if it is worth getting the Paris visite card.

I've seen some of the arguments in this forum, and am really wondering if it will save us from any hassle.

We'll be arriving by plane, staying for 6 nights near Jardin des Tuileries (inbetween Place de la Concorde & the Louvre).

Then taking the eurotrain over to London.

We plan on mostly walking (if suggested), but are concerned about getting from the airport & getting to the train station as well as taking inter-city transportation some of the time.

Are cab rides expensive?

Can we / should we just take train / bus transport to & from while carrying our luggage?

Thanks for any input.

James, you got 11 replies to the post you made a half-hour ago!

Er, replies to the post you made this afternoon, the most recent reply was just a half-our ago.

Although one can walk to many areas in Paris, you may want to take public transportation sometimes. The Paris visite card is available from 1 to 5 days. Probably a pass for a couple of days would be good to have especially since you'll be staying for 6 nights. Taxis are not very expensive for short journeys and sometimes it's convenient than taking the metro or bus when you do alot of shopping and are loaded down with bags. From the city to the airport it is a bit expensive-something like 45 euro.
I think you should take a taxi from the airport. It's more convenient than taking the train but it depends on you. Maybe if you don't have too much luggage it'll be okay and cheaper also.

Absolutely get a Visite Paris card. Many sights in Paris are walkable, but you'll more than likely find yourself using the Metro a lot. The Visite card saves you the trouble of buying tickets over and over. Plus, in the August heat, who wants to trudge from St. Germain to Montmartre?

you can get a "carte orange" which is more economical than a visite card. Carte Orange are about 16E for a week, I beleive the visite pass is over 25E!
You can always get a "carnet" which is a ten-pack of tickets at a cheaper price. That's what we did. It's not really a big deal to buy this a few times.
Don't take cabs if you can avoid it. Too expensive and unpredictable. A shuttle to/from the airport will give you a flat rate (regardless of the time of travel due to traffic!). We used Airport Connection--no problems at all!! 16E per person.

yoo-hoo, there's another duplicate thread on this... let's drop this one and keep it "together"... :)