Paris Bus Sightseeing
 

Hi
Which company do you recommend for Paris Sightseeing by Bus?
I think my kids would enjoy bus rides. As well which are the good boat rides to take?
I hear that there is a pretty good dinner boat. Is this for families as well?
Thks
dan

I've been on several Cityrama tours (tour w/ guide) and enjoyed them all. Some feel a bit rushed, but I just go back to the place I'd like to visit longer at another time.

I've also ridden the Hop On, Hop Off tour but the recorded, looping commentary doesn't compare to the Cityrama, IMO. I do appreciate the Hop On, Hop Off bus for the open top vantage point for photographs.

Many of the advertisements for the dining cruises I've seen are "proper attire required" events. If I were deciding on dinner on a boat w/ kids or the two events seperately, I'd vote dinner off the boat and then the boat ride seperately so your kids can be comfortable. Depending on the age of your kids, you might want to do the boatride after dark. The tour is magnificent when everything is illuminated. There are several companies from which to choose. I'll let others make recommendations there.

Last year in Paris we caught the tour bus at the Eiffel Tower. I think they are all about the same. The one we took was Les Cars Rouge. There is also L'Open Tour Bus. The cost is about 22E for a two day pass and you can hop on/hop off at any stop.

The dinner boat can also be caught by the Eiffel Tower. It is for families however we opted to just ride the Batobus as the dinner cruises can be pretty expensive and you can hop on/hop off the Batobus on a pass that starts at 11E per day.

Here are web sites to help get you started:

www.batobus.com
www.bateauxparisiens.com
www.paris-opentour.com/index_eng.htm

I haven't taken a dinner cruise, just a regular one, which is fairly modest in price and I would recommend that (around 10 euro). You can take just the cruise at any time. You'd have to check the websites, but I know at one time, Bateaux Mouches would not allow children under the age of 12 on them. They aren't for families. It would really be pretty expensive, anyway.

HI Dan,

My 3rd trip to Paris in 1996 was 10 years after my 2nd trip so our travel agent arranged for a CityRama tour of Paris. It was the most disorienting orientation tour imaginable. My husband and I bailed at the first opportunity 1 1/2 hours into it. Perhaps things have changed in a decade but it had the most awful recorded commentary with music. We still laugh when we watch our video.

On a return trip we found the Hop On/Off busses much more enjoyable and convenient. We have also traveled by Metro and when we got tired of looking at tunnels switched to the Batobus at the end of the week. That was the way to go especially since we were staying near the Eiffel Tower stop.

I've not done the dinner boat as they seemed quite expensive. However the Bateaux Mouches always looked beautiful with their beautifully set tables.

Dejais provided some good websites. You might also try www.ticketsto.com if you want to purchase a number of tickets and passes before you leave home. I wouldn't worry about buying the 1-hour bateau tickets until you get to Paris however. Most companies have several boats and leave often.

When are you traveling?

Scootoir

I've been told that the commentary on Les Cars Rouges is quite lame (along the lines of "On your left is the Eiffel Tower" as the one and only comment on the Eiffel Tower), but I don't have any feedback on the others.

P.S. I know children are allowed on Bateaux Parisiens. They even have some special children's cruises.

Scootoir

I've never heard of any restrictions on children under 12 for excursion boats. I suppose there might be some for infants, but school groups take the boats all the time.

There are big differences between Cityrrama ans L'Opentour. They are entirely different types of tours and there is a BIG price difference in price.

A 2-day Hop-on-hop-off l'OpenTour costs about the same as a 90 minute Cityrama overview tour.

And the full day CityRama tours/excursions are in the €75 - €100 range.

So for a family CityRama gets really expensive.

Hop on/off bus companies:
(Note: buses run between 9:30-7pm, approx; no night runs)

L'Open Tour - 27 stops, 25€/1 daym 28€/2 days
http://www.paris-opentour.com/
Montmartre / Arc / Denfert / Bastille

Les Cars Rouge - 9 stops, 22€/2 days
http://www.carsrouges.com/
Montmartre / Arc / Invalides / Notre Dame

Cityrama
http://www.cityrama.com/
- they defer to L'Opentour for hop on/off

Parisvision
http://www.parisvision.com/fr/index.cfm
excursions only

RATP - 1186 stops, 2.25-5.40€/day
http://www.ratp.info
Almost any street corner
All routes 7h00 - 20h30, limited evening & night

Robes :)

Robes, le maitre de l'autobus!

I'll add some more choices...For sightseeing on the Seine, I like the Vedettes du Pont Neuf, which are near Notre Dame. They have smaller boats. For the larger boats, there are the Bateaux Mouches, which are near Eiffel/Pont D'Alma. If you go, I recommend highly that you do a night cruise, since the buildings (and Eiffel) are nicely lit up.

http://www.discoverfrance.net/France...-Mouches.shtml

http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/va/

http://www.bateaux-mouches.fr/

http://www.bateauxdeparis.com/bateaux_mouches-paris.php

With kids, I would highly recommend two-day passes on L'Opentour if the weather is nice. The views from the open air upper deck are magnficient. The kids will not likely care much about the commentary.

We actually prefer the huge Bateaux Mouches for boat tours, rather than the smaller boats, as you can move around on them. The front of the water level deck is especially nice and terrific for photo ops.

I believe my comment on children was misinterpreted. I did not mean children were not allowed on any of the excursion boats, it was in reference to the expensive dinner cruises. One of them did not allow children under the age of 12 on those dinner cruises because they wanted it to be a nice adult experience.