Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Paris...trying to budget Museum/Metro pass ????

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Paris...trying to budget Museum/Metro pass ???? (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/paris-trying-to-budget-museum-metro-pass-240979/)

Paris...trying to budget Museum/Metro pass ????

Trying to plan out a budget and am wondering, if one is purchasing a Museum/Monument Pass and doing the L'Open tour, does it make sense to purchase a metro pass or will the bus and our feet take us most places we would need to be? We won't be going to anymore than 3 art museums but will be hitting all the major monuments...is the pass worth it?

Christina, perhaps I am totally misreading your message, but are you asking two questions or do you think the musuem pass also covers bus/metro? If you are asking if the museum pass is worth it for museums, the answer is yes, because even if it doesn't save you money, it gets you in without standing in line. Again, depending on when you are going, if it is 90 degree heat and the line is 2 1/2 blocks long, you will glad you have the pass. Depending on how long you are in Paris, perhaps the bus tour and walking will get you everywhere, but if more than a couple of days, you will want to use a bus or the metro for at least one leg of moving around. That requires a separate transportation pass. We usually got there quickly, and then walked back to the center of things.

How long will you be in Paris? If just one day, then the l'opentour bus and a one day museum pass will be enough. If you do take the metro, just buy individual tickets (or a carnet of 10 tix that can be split among your party). The museum pass does save money if you are seeing more than 3 museums a day, break even at 3. The big bonus is you get to skip the ticket lines, and go in a special entrance. This is a biggie for the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre. For the Picasso or Rodin or Marmottan, not such a big deal. Unless there's a special exhibit, the lines are rarely long enough to warrant the purchase of a pass for that reason only. On a long stay in Paris, I average about 2 metro rides a day, max. Some days three, some days none. I stick with carnets rather than passes; cash flow, you know.

Thanks for the replies, we are planning a stay for at least 2 days and maybe 3 in early September...I know that the bus is "hop on/off" so you can see the sights but is using it as (I hope you know what I mean by this)transportation a good idea? Would one take the bus tour for more than 1 day just for the purpose of going place to place or would a metro pass save time? I know this is rather confusing but I am confused and I'm not really sure what to expect.... any input would be greatly appreciated!!

The Metro would save you time. The tour bus might be fun but if it were me I would walk as much as possible and take the metro when you get tired. Send me a email if you want some additional info, I'm not a expert but I've walked all over Paris on four different trips.

With only two or three days, I would not recommend trying to walk everywhere. The Louvre, for example, is utterly huge with miles and miles of hallways and plenty of stairs. To walk there would wear you out before you get started. L'Opentour is fabulous because 1) in the nice weather, it is one of THE best ways to enjoy the scenery all over Paris from the open air top deck (great photo ops too) and 2) the stops are RIGHT at all the major attractions. A two-day pass is only slighly more than a one-day pass. The metro won't really save you a lot of time with all the hallways, stairways, transfers, and you'll see none of Paris between destinations. I would recommend getting just a one-day Museum/Monument pass. You really need it only for Musee d'Orsay (for which it is essential), and maybe the Louvre. Be sure to check www.intermusees.com to ensure that the museums you plan to visit are included. Not all museums/monuments are included (the Tour Eiffel, for example, is not included). If you're not planning on going to Musee d'Orsay, you won't need the pass. There's a new entrance at the end of the Denon wing of the Louvre no one seems to know about yet where there's never a line, and you can head straight for the Mona Lisa (up the stairs and a few rooms down, follow the signs). Note that L'Opentour is fabulous for getting around to the sights and attractions, but not getting around town (they run only until 6PM or thereabouts). It's best to check out the neighborhood of your hotel for dinner opportunities and make reservations. After a long day of running all over, it's best to plan dinner near your hotel, unless there's a particular dining destination you've planned.

Note that the museum pass is good for both the Arch de Triumph and Ste. Chapelle, both of which should be on your A list. For a complete list of sites for which you can use the pass, check out: http://www.1france.com/regioncity/rc_paris_pop5.html As previous posters have said, you should definitely get a pass to save time if you are planning to go the the Louvre and/or Msee Dorsey. The cost of a one-day museum pass is 15 euro, three-day is 30 euro and five-days in 45 euro.

Get the Carte Musee for one day (you can easily and quickly get it at a metro station or at a "slow" museum like the Rodin). You used the word "budget" and we all know time is money, especially on a vacation. The long lines you will be spared are worth every Euro. Elvira (as always) is right about the metro. With your intention of using l'Opentour, all you need is one carnet of tickets to bridge the transportation gap for the evenings. Now comes just personal opinion. We didn't find the l'Opentour to be of much value to us, although I understand what you want to accomplish. We felt traffic-bound. I think part of the problem was that we had been to Paris before, we knew how well the metro system worked, and we felt we were wasting time on the bus. We kept thinking of other ways we'd rather "waste" time. So much of experiencing Paris is getting lost down alleyways, browsing food markets, sitting along the Seine, so the bus made us feel separated from the Paris we loved. But I understand what you're trying to do, and there's a lot of logic there. Hope your trip goes well.

Some of what I'm about to say has already been said, just adding my support to the people here who I often agree with. There is a Paris Visite Pass which covers SOME attractions as well as unlimited metro rides, but there's no way you will make it worth it to you; most people don't, even those who stay for a longer period. Rely on a Carnet for metro tickets, but as others have said I rarely take more than two rides a day because even if time is short I think you can get to know a city much faster by walking the streets, so to speak, than by riding underground or even being stuck in traffic in a bus. So I usually take my first ride of the day to the farthest point, and meander back from there. For me the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower are not on my "A" list as far as going up and inside, because views of rooftops just don't do much for me. By all means visit them and see the outside; if you want to go in, that's up to you. If you want to get maximum value from a one-day Carte Musee pass, you can do the Louvre in one part of the day and the Orsay in the other part of the same day, taking a break in between for lunch or shopping. The Louvre and Orsay are each open one late night during the week--that's another way of maximizing your time, although an evening after an already busy day may tax your stamina. I love both places, but if your interest in art is limited, doing both in one day may leave you with more headache than joy. That's your call. I haven't done l'Open Tour, but the idea of crawling around in traffic or waiting for the next bus to arrive, on such a short trip, would drive me crazy. I'd rather start walking (or take the metro). That may be because I've been to Paris a bunch of times. As amy said, one of the biggest pleasures is just seeing the streets and the shops. After you get home, people will ask you if you saw the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower, but I'll bet your fondest memory is of the city itself. I have a file on Paris; if you'd like to see it, email me.

Elaine put it so well. Quite frankly, we didn't see the Eiffel Tower until our third trip. We love the Eiffel Tower (and I do visit it again and again) but it truly isn't "Paris" to us. However, it's almost impossible to explain to the folks back home that you can actually experience Paris without the tower. So I'm not being critical...I'm just trying to paint what we love about Paris. I'm going to take this one step further. A wonderful friend of mine said she would only go to Paris on a tour. She was afraid she would "miss" something. Three of us who had been there said that "seeing the sights" was the least of Paris. Going to Paris and not spending one evening walking along the Seine--that I consider as missing Paris. It's not "seeing" the Seine--it's walking along the Seine, sharing that evening with your traveling companions and the people you pass. That said, everyone experiences Paris or any other place in one's own manner. My mom and dad fell in love with Paris because they "adopted" the young woman at the front desk of our hotel, made friends with the lady at the patisserie across the street, and got to know the workers at (gasp) the MacDonalds up the road. My dad was delighted to march with the bakers on their spring strike. Chacun a son gout.

Amy, your parents sound like great travelers.