Paris Visite pass
 

We are an upcoming trip to Paris. We will be there 6 nights and plan to go to Versailles, Giverney, and Disneyland Paris in addition to sites in the city. We arrive on a Monday morning and leave on the following Sunday.

Our hotel is 15 minutes from Notre Dame (an hour from the Eiffel Tower), so some of the in-city sites will be walkable.

I am wondering if it would make sense to buy the Paris Visite and start using it on Tuesday (walk to things on Monday).
http://www.pariswelcome.net/metro/paris_visite.htm

Questions:
1. One of the pass choices includes suburbs. Would that cover Versailles, Giverney, and Disneyland?
2. Does it make any sense to try to take the train to the airport? (If so, we would not use the pass until Wednesday to make the 5 days work.) We are considering booking a shuttle both ways, but haven't done it yet.
3. Any pros or cons that I might overlook?

I am thinking the convenience of the pass would make it worthwhile even if there was little cost savings or if it cost just a little more than buying tickets. Sometimes it is confusing to buy individual tickets multiple times when your language skills are rusty.

"We are an upcoming trip" should read "are planning."

Sheesh

I agree a pass can be convenient even if you don't save money or spend a little. Either way, transportation costs in Paris are not going to be any major problem no matter what you do, even if not the "optimal" thing that saves the most euros. Which would not be to buy a Paris Visite.

They only sell them for zones 1-3 (nobody needs zone 3) or 1-5 and that is what they are calling "suburbs". It includes Versailles, Disneyland, and the airports and a few other things that some tourists might go to (La Defense, St-Germain-en-Laye). It does not cover Giverny. I don't know the individual ticket costs to Versailles and Disneyland, but if you buy that 5 day one it costs 61 euro or 12 euro a day. That's really not bad if you used those zones. It would be cheaper just to buy one-day passes for the zones you want, probably (7 euro for zones 1-2 and 17 euro for zones 1-5 and 12 euro for zones 1-4, where Versailles is). So if you bought 3 at 7 euro, 1 at 17 and 1 at 12, it would only cost 48 euro, not 61.

So that's your comparison. On some days if you didn't use it much, you might not need the all-day Mobilis at 7 euro and could only use about 4 regular tickets, but I agree, this nitpicking can drive you crazy. I buy Mobilis when I'm there if I don't buy a weekly pass, it is more convenient to have one ticket.

so you'd save 13 euro buying daily Mobilis tickets. YOU can buy them at the same time, or at most a couple times, you don't have to buy them each day as they aren't valided until used. In some sense, if you lost a ticket, it would be a bigger loss losing a Paris Visite than a Mobilis ticket.

On th3e other hand, you CANNOT use the Mobilis to go to the airport, so if you really plan to do that, the Paris Visite might be the way to go for convenience.

you know, I just saw some of the discounts with the Paris Visite and it includes 10 euro off Disneyland entry. If you really are going there, and the airport, I do think the Paris Visite would work for you. It also has a few other discounts on some museum or tourist site fees, which you might use, but the 10 euro Disneyland discount alone for you would make it okay costwise.

Christina - you are the best.

It is indeed the nitpicking that drives me crazy!!

We have only been to Paris once and that was only for three nights. I had forgotten all about buying daily tickets according to the zone.

Your advice has been really helpful!!

Take a cab to and from the airport rather than a shuttle.
3 day trips in 6 days. It is your trip, but .....

What you want to buy would be a Navigo Découverte pass, good from any Monday to the following Sunday. The blank card will cost 5€ but to charge it for a week's travel anywhere you might want to go, including airports and Disney, will cost 35.40€ but only 21.25€ after September 3 when the price drops.

You'll need a passport sized photo of yourself and to print your name in the bottom right corner of the card but it will cost a lot less than a Paris Visite or using a variety of Mobilis cards.

Thanks Sarastro. That sounds like a better option. We will be there from Monday to Sunday, so the days work out perfectly for us.

My friend wondered if we should buy a 3 zone pass rather than the 5.

If you have a 3 zone pass and go outside the zone like to versailles or disneyland, do you pay the regular fee for the trip or does it cost less because you have the pass?

Also is Charles DeGaulle airport within zone 5.

I think we should buy the 5 zone since we plan to go to Versailles, Disneyland, and the airport.

<i>If you have a 3 zone pass and go outside the zone like to versailles or disneyland, do you pay the regular fee for the trip or does it cost less because you have the pass?</i>

If you have a zone 3 ticket/pass and venture into zone 4 or zone 5, you'll receive a stiff fine for having no valid passage at all.

To what are you referring as a <i>pass</i>? Navigo passes no longer have a zone 1-5 vs. 1-3 zone distinction, at least not after September 3rd. Before that time, if you are the holder of a Navigo zone 1-3 fare and want to travel beyond zone 3, you can purchase a complément de parcours which will cost less than the full price of a ticket from Paris to Versailles for example.

Paris Viste Passes operate differently and are zone specific with no reduced price extensions. Mobilis passes are similar to the Paris Visite Passes but are only valid for one day.

CDG airport is in zone 5.

I am sorry that I did not do a good enough job of clarifying what I was trying to say.

I was referring to the Navigo Découverte pass and have no idea why I didn't use that title so that you'd know what I was talking about.

I certainly wouldn't try to travel outside zone 1-3 with a Navigo Découverte pass for zones 1-3 without paying the extra charge if they did it that way or purchase a separate ticket if that was required. That was what I was trying to figure out.

We will be traveling before September 3rd.

I had looked at this website http://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-...go-decouverte/ and that is where I got the idea that there was a zone 1-3 ND pass and a zone 1-5 N-D pass. I suppose you could also call it a 1-3 ND pass with the complement de parcours.

So it seems like the best thing to do is buy the ND pass with the complement de parcours even if I was just going to make one trip to Versailles.

Would it cover going to Charles de Gaulle airport too? I definitely don't want to make a mistake and incur a stiff fine.

If you are able to travel to Versailles and/or the airports within the valid period of a Navigo pass, it would probably be cost effective to purchase the zone 1-5 pass for 35.40€. Complete price information is available here:

www.ratp.fr