Sorry for the newbie questions....

Will be in Paris with 3 teenagers in June arriving on a Saturday. I know from these posts that the Carte Orange metro pass is the best bet, but these start on a Monday so my options are either a 3 day Visite pass (91.25 Euro)or 1 day Mobilis & Carte Orange (93.75 Euro). Just want to make sure I am not missing any other options...

Next - Museum Passes - Our focus is not primarily museums but there are some we will want to visit. I primarily see the benefit of the museum pass as a means of avoiding the lines to purchase admission tickets to make good use of time. I read that children under 18 are admitted free and we would only need 2 museum passes. I would like to find out if this is true (I gain less if I have to still buy admission tickets for the 3 children) or at least I would like to know if I need passes for the kids (may then buy the 1 day vs 3 day passes)

Any other tips on avoiding long lines and such delays is appreciated!

Thanks for your advice and experiences!

Children under 18 are free and don't need the museum pass - they just walk in with you. I've only bought a 1 day pass once and I thought it wasn't worth the extra expense. There are only a couple of museums that have lines - Louvre and Orsay. If you don't want to spend money on a pass then go later in the afternoon and the lines aren't very long. The Louvre is open late 2 nights, not sure about the Orsay.

Will you really be taking the metro enough to warrant one of the passes? Are the prices you quoted per pass or for passes for all of you? I just buy carnets (book of 10 tickets) so I'm not familiar with the passes.

Mostly I find Paris to be a walking city, especially if you're staying in a hotel/apt that is central to the sights.

You didn't say how long you'll be there. If you will use a carte orange metro pass more than 4 days (say mon-fri), then that is your best bet. Just use individual metro tickets for your first two days (sat/sun).

To avoid spending your vacation standing in line, do the most touristed places first thing when they open and spend the remainder of the day walking around exploring. For example plan on visitng the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower seperately on three different days, first thing in the morning.

I think the museum pass is a great deal. If you are not that interested in art, however, buy the shorter term pass and arrange to visit all the sites you like on the pass in a few days. You can, as you know, save a lot of time by skipping the lines.

We bought carnets (a discounted pack of ten individual tickets for the metro) rather than one of the passes, because we weren't sure how much we would be using the public transportation. I liked the flexibility of the tickets, and we ended up doing much more walking than riding. Usually we would take the metro in the morning to the most distant location planned for that day, then end up working our way back to our residence on foot. In fact, I ended up with a few tickets left over; I hope they will be valid on our next visit.

Enjoy your trip.

We depart for Giverny on Tuesday evening, the prices I quote are for all 5 of us. We are staying in the 17e Arr. and thought the passes would ease not having to purchase individual tickets. How do the carnets or individual tickets work? Do you need 1 ticket for each zone you go through (within a single zone would be 1 ticket, more tickets if you change zones??)

Are museum passes valid in Giverny or Normandy?

Thanks

I'd stick with buying carnet packets. The whole family can use tickets from the same packet. Thus, a carnet of 10 tickets would suffice for a roundtrip for the five of you.
The carte orange isn't worth it for a short stay like yours.
You can buy a museum pass for one, three or five consecutive days. Since you are not museum goers, I'd recommend sticking to the one-day passes. All you need to visit are two or three sites in one day to make it economically worthwhile.
The pass does not include Giverny and Normandy.

If you are there only from Saturday to Tuesday then the carnet of individual tickets is definitely what is best. The Paris Visite pass is rarely to never a good buy at any time. Just buy a couple of carnets at the same time and pass them out to the family. They are good for one continuous trip on the Metro within the Paris area.
The museum pass is a nice convenience for bypassing lines for one thing. Also you may be walking around and pass a museum that you might just like to duck into to look around--or use the rest room. Remember that some museums are closed on Monday and others on Tuesday so plan your trip around that.

We gave our leftover metro tickets to the guys at the hotel desk on our last night and they were thrilled!

I also would suggest you just buy a carnet of single metro tickets, although maybe I missed the part about how long you are going to be there (3 days? ). As others said, you can share them among you so as not to have too many extra. The Mobilis will work on a day you really think you'll be using transport a lot (6 trips a day to make it better than carnets). I don't think it really matters much between those two options.

Just a note on the museums -- there isn't any law that all museums must let someone under 18 in free. It varies by museum. Some let kids in free under 16, and there are a few who don't let kids in free at all, and the Science and Industry museum only lets kids less than 7 in free, and the Music museum only less than 6. The two big ones (Louvre and Orsay), as well as many others, do have 18 as the age, though.