Hello all - I will be in Paris with my sister in March/April, and wonder whether any of you frequent visitors could recommend if we should buy Metro/Museum passes in advance of our trip.

I've been to Paris four times previously and never have purchased a museum pass, mainly because I don't like to plan and never know if I'm going to visit a lot of museums, or not. Also, sometimes I'll spend a lot of time on the Metro, sometimes I'll do a lot of walking.

However, this is my sister's first trip to Paris and I know we will be Metro'ing and visiting as many museums as possible. Thus I am leaning towards purchasing both passes in advance.

Any thoughts?

I've never purchased them in advance. The three times I purchased them, I waited until I got to Paris.

There's no need to buy in advance, as that will only cost more. You can buy what you need at cost once you get to Paris and have figured out what you're going to do.

Which "Metro Pass" are you referring to?

The Paris Visite Pass or the Navigo Decouverte?

i was going to recommend the carte orange (weekly or monthly pass) but it looks like it has been replaced by the one mentioned above, Navigo Decouverte.

you can research it, or it's mentioned at :http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archive...r_carte_1.html

you will need a small picture (head shot) ... but we have found these to be the least expensive option in the past. you have to buy it at the station, but it's quick and easy.(at least the old pass was.)
kawh

Hi D,

A Museum pass might be useful.

You can buy it at your first museum stop.

We have never used more than one carnet of metro tickets per person per week.

Before you buy a museum pass make sure it's worth it to you. I never buy one because I can only take so much culture in one day! Most say it's most useful for avoiding lines. I prefer to pick up tickets at FNAC for what I want to see that day, so I avoid lines too. For the Louvre, there is never a line at the entrance inside the Carousal de Louvre, the shopping mall under the Louvre

We bought carte orange (weekly pass) (that seems to be replaced now by Navigo Decouverte). It gave us the unlimited acces to metro, so we not to worry about tickets and could taske the metro even for short distances.
We never bought a museums pass. Even we visited a lot of museums, we did not find that this is useful for us. We had no problems with long linse - in May or in September. If it is a line at security check, the museum pass does not help.

Thanks all for your opinions. The responses seem to be 50/50 for/against purchasing the Carte Orange (now Navigo Decouverte) and the Carte Musee. So, I think I'll take the lazy way out and skip both

We bought the museum pass in advance against all advice here. It was easy to just walk into the Louvre. We did not wait on line.
We don't speak french and I was concerned about the hassle of trying to purchase the tickets. On the other hand, we did not buy the metro pass, just tickets at the window while in paris and the woman spoke english just fine and was very pleasant and told us where to go.
So, I guess I didn't need to buy in advance, but it was easier when we arrived.

I can't see any benefit at all to purchasing a Carte Musée et Monuments in advance:

1. It costs more.
2. It's something else to carry across the ocean with you.
3. If you're going to go to a museum anyway, you're going where it's sold.

Can't help with the métro pass. I always just buy a carnet.

bookmark

Does anyone know how much the museum pass costs in Paris? I have seen it online, but wonder how much cheaper it is(I believe a 6 day pass is E64 online).

Museum Pass prices from official website:
http://www.parismuseumpass.com/en/pass_tarif.php

<i>Can't help with the m&eacute;tro pass. I always just buy a carnet.</i>

Is there no savings buying a metro pass over a carnet?

No, there isn't any automatic savings from buying a metro pass over a carnet, none at all. You could even spend more that way, it's very possible. It all depends how much you use it and your days of your stay, and length of time.

The 1-week Navigo D&eacute;couverte is &euro;16,80, plus a &euro;5 fee for the initial card.

It's only valid Mon-Sun.

I think the pass is not useful for many tourists, if they're not arriving close to a Monday, not staying for close to a week, or if they don't plan on returning to Paris anytime soon (don't think you can get your &euro;5 back, like you do with the Oyster card in London). The total for a first-timer will be &euro; 21,80.

A carnet of 10 tickets is &euro; 11,40. You can pretty much get 2 carnet for the same price as the 1-week Navigo D&eacute;couverte + initial fee.

The 'value' of a metro pass vs. a carnet is simply related to the number of rides per day you will take (metro/RER or bus). Since we usually stay less-central, we get the C.O. b/c we will take 3-4 rides/day each, no problem. (we delve into all arrondissements at some point)

Even if the carnets were to save us 2-3&euro; each for the week, we'd rather have the card-pass. I hate handling all those little tickets, keeping the used ones apart from the unused ones (you have to hang on to the used one until you've left the system in case of inspection).

If you stay very central (close to the Seine/ islands), it's conceivable that you will be happy walking a lot and not traveling to the further reaches of Paris, so carnets would be fine.

You don't say how long you will be there so this reply may not be of interest. I bought a 4 day Paris Visite pass in December for &euro;20. It was much more convenient than the 10 pass carnet which I have always used in the past. You can buy either at any Metro ticket window.

My daughter is in Paris now. She purchased the Navigo Decouverte and the Museum Pass. Navigo makes it easy to travel. The museum pass for a couple of reasons, 1) she is going to a lot of the places and 2) it is February, cold, rainy, so the museum pass allows her to just drop in on one of the many places to warm up.