rippowam

Hi-

I've reviewed a ton of helpful info here, but I do have a few specific questions:

1. We'll be taking the hop-on/off bus tour and we plan on using the L'Open (yellow) line. Any reason to choose the red line instead?

2. Do the Bato-Bus boats have any charm or should we save the $10-25? (we do plan on taking a Seine tour at night).

3. We will not plan on doing the nighttime dinner cruise, just the sightseeing cruise only. Is one firm better than another?

4. Are the bus/coach Illuminations tours worth it?

5. Lastly, is their a CDG Shuttle (one-way into Paris) that you prefer and why?

Thanks again to everyone on this Board.

2.

Digital_Traveler

I can't answer all your questions but I will give you my opinion on the ones I am familiar with

3. We went on Les Vedettes du Pont-Neuf for our night-time site-seeing cruise and it was great. Plenty of room on the boat and reasonable english info. Also, if you check out their website you can get a 2 euro discount for each person - www.pontneuf.net

5. We have used Parishuttle twice previously and will use them again next week. Always punctual and helpful. Email Mark (Manager)for pricing info. - [email protected]

Hope this helps!

LynnP

I took the red busses the first time I went to Paris and was quite satisfied. I chose the red ones over the yellow ones because on the yellow ones you have to wear earphones to hear the commentary and I preferred to be able to hear the sounds around me as well as the commentary. I did not take the yellow ones though so I cannot comment on the quality of the two companies. I also took the Pont-Neuf night time cruise, it was fine. Get there early though to ensure a seat on the top deck. Again I only took the one cruise so cannot compare. Our tour guide was a travel student whose English was fine, but not great. I took the RER (Metro line) into Paris from the airport and that was fine but I only had one small rolling bag.

Margie

Hi, we took the red hop on/hop off tour and were very happy with it.

We had a 2-day ticket for the batobus and I liked it because we could ride anytime as much as we liked. You are not served food and there is no commentary, that was what we wanted - you have to do what ever is right for your interest/taste. Both nights of our pass we got on the boat at sunset and rode the entire loop, it was very relaxing. We also used it during the day several times. If you have a carte orange metro pass there is a discount on the batotbus ticket, I believe the 2-day pass is 9 Euros with your Carte Orange. The boats were clean, comfortable and have glass roofs so you could see very well. However, if you are taking a separate cruise with commentary etc. you may not feel you need to do both.

Budman

We also took the Pont Neuf river cruise at dusk. It was great, and I highly recommend it. It's a BYOB cruise and lasted about 1.5 hours.

Bring a bottle of wine (don't forget the cork screw), some bread, cheese, olives and the like, and enjoy.

Degas

Taking the dusk cruise is the way to go. Sunset and the lights at night are great.

I'm not sure if many people use the boats as a primary means of transport duing the day between sights. Maybe you could do it for one day, but your sightseeing plan would have to be specifically designed for sights close to the river. Metro worked better for me.

StCirq

Regarding the Batobus, it is pretty charmless and certainly not the fastest way of getting around the city, but in mid-summer when it's hot and Paris is full of visitors it's a fairly convenient way to get from one major site to another and get a nice view of Paris along the way.

palette

The Batobus is just a water bus; it is a fun way to get from one Seine-side area to another. We thought it was a great idea and enjoyed using it. We just paid by the trip; I don't recall it's being expensive. We also used the Pont Neuf tour boat at night with the English-speaking student narrating (they make sure you know about the "student" part so your will be generous with your tips). Have used PariShuttle for three different visits and have always been very pleased; the drivers are sometimes/sometimes not chatty, bohemian, quiet, do a little tour guide spiel on the drive, but always helpful.

Margie

I hope I didn't mislead you rippowm, I didn't mean to recommend using the batobus for efficient transportation from one sight to another. We did use it for that once or twice just for fun (and we had the pass so why not hop on?) but for us it was an alternative to the Seine tour boats that we were not interested in (nothing wrong with them, this was just our choice). It was kind of nice to just quietly cruise the Seine for a few hours at sunset each night of our pass. For us it worked well, you may prefer something else.