Museums pass
 

Hi,

I have read in some of the discussions that we could be some "museum passes" that would gave us some priorities (not waiting in line) for some museums/attractions. I would like to know more... what is it covering? prices? is it worth it? Where do I purchase them?

Thanks

It depends what country or city you are talkng about. There used to be/may still be a great one in the Netherlands. It was good for a year. You needed to present a photo when you first entered a museum and buy the pass. It paid for itself after 2 or 3 museum visits. It was good in about 95% of the museums I visited in the Netherlands. We were there for 5 weeks so it was a FABULOUS deal. We saw really interesting off the beaten track little museums that we probably would have skipped if we had not had the museum card.

Hi,

Sorry.. I was referring to Paris.

When my brother and I went to Europe last year we got a museums pass for Paris and it was great. For about 30 Euro you bypass the lines for tickets at most of the museums in Paris. I know we used it at the D'Orsay and the musee Rodin, Les Invalides . . . I can't remember if you can use it a the Louvre or not. I think that it was definitely worth it.

We also got a museum card in Venice that we used at the Doges Palace, the glass museum in Murano, and another museum/gallery in St. Mark's square. The Venice card didn't include admission to the Accademia but it does include the Guggenheim if you have time to go. It's not quite as user-friendly as the Paris museum pass was (harder to bypass the lines) and I think it was about 25 or 30 Euro.
Have fun!

Here's a link to the site:

http://www.ratp.fr/ParisVisite/Eng/A...etmonument.htm. It gives prices, things covered, and where to purchase.

It's well worth the money, especially since it allows you to move to the front of the lines.

We went to Paris in May and did not encounter any lines to speak of. We went to the Louvre in mid-afternoon one of the days it was open late and there were maybe 8 people in line ahead of us. Ditto for the Musee d'Orsay. Only planned to picnic in Rodin's gardens. There was so much we wanted to do in the 5 days we spent in Paris we opted not to buy the museum pass -and we were glad. I don't know when you plan to visit so can't advise.
Other item - everyone talked about Metro passes and we planned to use the Metro, but once we got there we walked until we couldn't walk anymore and then caught a taxi if we had to be somewhere quickly. We were really glad we did this. Enjoyed seeing Paris from ground level instead of spending time underground. Yes, it cost more, but we considered it "sight-seeing" and didn't regret it at all. We took at least 1 cab ride a day at $7-$10 per ride.

Prices and included places are available on many websites. Just do a web search.

If this is your first trip to Paris, and you plan to visit the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay, and a LOT of other included places, the pass can be quite the bargain.

Note that there are so many entrances to the Louvre now that you really don't need to "skip the line" with a pass, especially at the little known entrance at the Denon wing (see the Louvre website for the location) where there is a checkroom and ticket window.

The only place you really need the pass is at Musee d'Orsay, which nearly always has a long, long line. Or, you might get lucky.

The Louvre and Musee d'Orsay are the priciest admissions without a pass.

The three day pass is best, in my opinion. That will cover the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, and as many other places as you can get to within three consecutive days.

My recommendation, all in all, would be to consider a one day pass and go first to the Musee d'Orsay. If you can do this on a Monday or Wednesday (when the Louvre is open late), all the better. From Musee d'Orsay, walk the pedestrian bridge to the Louvre. Or, if your visit includes a Thursday (when Musee d'Orsay is open late), start at the Louvre.

Sometimes there's a bit of a line at Musee Rodin (which is a reasonable walk from Musee d'Orsay), which would make a three-day pass advantageous.

To truly know whether the pass is "worth it" to you, you'd need to know the admission prices of all the places you plan to visit that are included, and whether you can reasonably expect to get to them before your pass expires.

One huge advantage of a three day pass is that you can pop into places along your travels you might skip due to having to pay admission. And, you can breeze through places without feeling the need to get your money's worth.

On the other hand, the three and five day passes are for consecutive days. If the weather during your visit is hot and humid, know that air conditioning in those destinations that have it are not really cool. And, if the weather is splendid, being inside a museum is not necessarily what you'd want to be doing.

Regarding transportation, the urge to walk everywhere is tempting. But, I would advise that you learn to use the buses. The larger museums have miles and miles of hallways and galleries. So, it's best not to arrive there tired from having walked there.

I totally agree with Djkbooks--there's much more than skipping the line involved with the museum pass. The freedom to walk in, spend a bit of time and say, "I really don't want to spend anymore time here--I want to go back to _______ museum instead" on one's time-sensitive journey is fabulous. The Louvre itself is so daunting that it's great to say, "Ok, I'm only feel like staying here one or two hours this morning and then I'm going to shop for awhile; I'll come back this evening for the extended hours if I feel like it." In fact, it took around five or more trips to Paris before we STOPPED getting museum passes.

As for transportation passes, I take the view that Metro/bus transportation in Paris is a bargain no matter what you do. There are trips when we use the Metro constantly; there are others when we just seem to feel like walking everywhere. I like buying carnets (groups of ten tickets good on both buses and subway) because if I don't use all of them one trip, I just use them when I return. There's no waste.