I'm taking my mother to Paris mid-January and am a little perplexed on which option to take on public transport. We're flying in on a friday and leaving the following thursday. We're staying at a hostel in the 13e near the Place d'Italie station. What is the best money-wise option to get to our hostel and around paris on the metro/buses? A carnet, paris visite, or something else? Since we are arriving on friday and leaving thursday, a Navigo Decouverte doesn't seem like the best option.

Hi A,

How much walking can you do?

We always by a carnet of metro/bus tickets for a week.

I agree that the Navigo Decouverte won't work well for you. The Paris Visite is too expensive.

Now that a single ticket is good for bus transfers, a carnet is an even better deal than it was in the past.

I suggest that you buy carnets (€11.10) as needed and share the tickets. If you know that you'll be taking six or more rides on a particular day, buy zone 1-2 Mobilis passes for that day (€5.60).

Buy individual tickets for CDG-Paris and return (€8.20 each way).

A carnet...is just 10 metro tickets, nothing more than that. Maybe I'm a big spender, but I've always used tickets versus passes. My longest trip is usually a week at a time. I tend to walk a lot, and use Metro to cross city or get home after long day of footwork.

Your choices would be taxi, shuttle, RER, Roissybus, and Air France Bus, possibly combo of the above.

Most economical would be the RER/metro combo (8.3 euro). The RER would get you to central Paris, and the ticket would get you a free transfer over to the Metro.
For Place d'Italie, take RER to Gare du Nord, then transfer to Metro Line 5, direction Place d'Itale, et voila

Air France bus (14euro) would get you to Montparnasse, from there you could tkae Metro line 6 to Place d'Italie.

Roissybus would be more complex (Metro wise).

Taxi/shuttle in the 30-50euro range

At the risk of starting another endless debate about routes, I'll suggest that it might be slightly faster--and probably less walking--to take the RER B to Denfert Rochereau and transfer there to Metro line 6 to get to Place d'Italie.

I agree with Tim. If I don't buy a pass, I alternate between tickets from a carnet, and a Mobilis on days when I'm going around a lot, which is quite a few, actually. It's not that hard for me to use up 6 rides a day.

A carnet is a little more than just regular tickets, as if you buy a carnet, you get a discount on the price for buying that many.

Tim is right. Shorter route. Metro ticket is E1,50, carnet of 10 is E11,10. RER from CDG is E8,30.

Thanks everyone for all the useful info! What we're going to do is take the RER B to Denfert Rochereau switching to the metro as TimS suggested. We plan on walking a lot, not much to see of Paris when you're in a tunnel most of the time! So the carnet/Mobilis combo seems the way to go. Is it possible to use a Mobilis to get out to Versailles? We really want to see the palace, especially since I didn't get to last time I was in Paris.

You can use a Mobilis to go to Versailles -if- you buy one for zones 1-4. The r/t ticket alone for Versailles is roughly 6€, so compare that to Mobilis price for zones 1-2 vs. 1-4

Just looked up the Mobilis zones 1 to 4, which is €9,30. This seems like the best way to go for a day at Versailles then using the metro to get around town in the evening.

If I were a first time visitor to Paris with no way of knowing ahead of time how much I would take the metro, if it was easy, if I would like it, exactly how far apart the attractions that interest me are, if I want to walk a lot or not... I would absolutely start with a carnet. For a subsequent trip, I might decide to use some other kind of pass.

However, the metro is not at all that incredibly expensive, so I would not spend time obsessing on how to save $5 on a one week trip.

(This advice naturally concerns the period after the first RER trip from CDG to your hostel for 8.20€.)

On the day you go to Versailles, buying a Forfait Loisirs might be your best choice. You get a return ticket on the Metro/RER plus admission to the chateau. See here: http://tinyurl.com/266x9n. Then use tickets from your carnet for evening rides in Paris.

Tim,

To purchase a Fofait Loisir, I would just go to the ticket window at a metro/rer station and say "Forfait Loisir pour Versailles SVP?"

arronm39: Agree with so much of what has been posted, especially that transportation in general in Paris is a heck of a deal, and that carnets usually work out just fine.

The only thing I'm always on edge about is the ride in from the airport on RER with transfer to any Metro. I dont' know the age of your mother. I know that with the age of my parents, I'd be ultra careful in any route that involves luggage. Because Paris as yet is not as handicapped accessible as so many places in the US (not that NY is any better yet!), sometimes there's a lot of lifting luggage up flights of stairs or stopped escalators.

We became very aware of this when my oldest daughter had a hip injury that made walking up OR down stairs (but not inclines!) almost impossible.

Perhaps those that have used these Metro stops lately can best inform you if there's an elevator which will make your transport with luggage feasible with an older person. I do know that there have been a lot of stop renovations throughout the past two years.

From the Transilien site: "The Forfaits Loisirs tickets are available at the Transilien ticket offices at the SNCF stations in Paris and zones 2, 3 and 4." I believe this means mainline train stations and stations of the RER C and other RER lines operated by SNCF rather than RATP. I don't think it includes Metro stations.

Yes, simply ask for a "Forfait Loisirs pour Versailles, SVP."

Josephina: Thanks for the input and concern, luckily my mother is 45 years young and will have no issues with stairs or luggage. Agreed that the only ride I am somewhat concerned about is the ride from CDG to our hostel near the Place d'Italie stop. Thanks to this message board I have a route already set out.

TimS: Thanks again, will do.

It isn't always necessary to do that underground transfer to get to your hotel. Many of the more accommodating RER stops (such as Luxembourg) are bus hubs where buses going down every major street stop. For Place d'Italie services, see here: preview.tinyurl.com/yt3wko and notice that there are abut 12 bus lines going in all directions - including to the RER lines.

In the past few years, I have adopted a somewhat more "what the hell - go for it" attitude about tickets and carnets and all that stuff. Since the break-even point for single tickets and a Mobilis is right at five rides, and we tend to use buses a lot (if only to get off our feet for a few minutes), it's just easier to get the passes and be done with it. If you walk more than ride, obviously you might do better with a carnet.

For future reference, perhaps: the Leisure Packages are all described starting at tinyurl.com/345mau

So the Navigo inherits the time restrictions of the Carte Orange? (something like Monday to Sunday as I recall).

I was kind of hoping they'd just make it good for a week, starting on whatever day you first use it kind of like the Museum Pass.

Yes, loading a Carte Orange on a passe navigo Decouverte will allow you to travel Monday-Sunday, just like the old paper CO.