My wife and I will be in Paris for about ten days next month. The Paris pass for six days is 169E and allows entry to museums, metro, etc. Would appreciate hearing of your experiences with the pass. Thanks.

I have no experience with the pass but if you check the price of museum entry plus the cost of either metro carnets or Decouverte pass you will quickly see that you have over paid if you buy the Paris Pass. If you're looking for a pass for museums I would suggest the Museum pass plus separate metro tickets/passes.

If you search on this board for Paris Pass you will find many people feel it's over priced.

http://en.parisinfo.com/express-booking/order-form/

People ask about this periodically, it must be advertised somewhere. It is obviously very expensive, but there isn't really anything to experience with it. It is legitimate, I have never heard of anyone NOT getting what it says it covers. The issue is just that it is very expensive, so you'd have to figure out which parts of it you truly want and expect to use and see if the cost makes sense. On the surface, it is about 27 euro a day which is a heck of a lot of museums and metro trips.

It does cover a few other quasi-expensive items so you'd have to figure out if you want them (some wine tasting, a boat ride that I think is 10 euro, etc.).

If you're looking for a great pass for the museums in Paris the better choice is the MuseumPass at 64€ for 6 days it's a lot cheaper. The Museum pass does not include the metro section that is included in the ParisPass, but buying a Carnet (a pack of 10 tickets) is easy and much cheaper.

We were in Paris for 6 days and used 4 Carnets in total and we used the metro and buses several times every day.

We purchased our Museum pass at the airport, bought our tickets to the RER to Paris and took the train ( with a few changes of line)to the apartment that we rented.

We LOVED having the Museum Pass as we were able to go to the front of the line in many places and we really did use it enough to make it a worthwhile purchase.

I would also suggest that you put together a rough itinerary for what you want to do, you may not wish to purchase the pass for 6 daysat 60€ but may do two different passes one for 2 days and one for 4, if you plan your activities so not all your museum days are in a row, this at 80€ is more expensive but it would give you a bit more flexibility and would still be a lot cheaper than the ParisPass.

Also please check the days that museums are open, almost all close for at least one day a week.

The itinerary may be a bit tough to do since my last trip to Paris was exactly fifty years ago and my memories have somewhat faded. But perhaps the museum pass and carnet combo is the way to go. Thanks for the input.

I'm certainly not one for a fixed itinerary when I travel. I usually have a very rough idea of what I want to do and see then parcel those things into a group for each day then I'll change those plans at a whim depending on the weather. No matter how much research that you do ahead of time when you reach Paris you will find info on a host of things you didn't know about before you arrived.

You just have to remember that the Louvre is closed on Tuesday and each museum has a different closing day and take that into account when you are planning.

The best thing about the MuseumPass is that you can visit each museum more than once, so you can split the Louvre visit into two days if you wish.

Agreed, the Paris Pass is expensive. The museum pass does seem like the best option.

>>it is about 27 euro a day which is a heck of a lot of museums and metro trips.<<

Don't be so sure about that. Most of the museums now run 9E on average, and a metro ride is 1.60E. I can easily see one-two museums a day and take the metro 5 times. It's up to the OP to do the math for themselves. List what museums you want to see over the course of 6 days, find their admission fees, especially the ones you'd pop into if they were "covered" by the pass that you might skip otherwise. If it turns out that it works for you, great.

Otherwise, consider a combination of the Paris Museum Pass plus a carnet (book of 10) of metro tickets if you'll be seeing a lot of museums but not a lot of metro.

The RER to Paris from CDG is a bad choice right now. The tracks are under repair and you are bussed to a station on the other leg of the line. There you must drag your luggage down stairs, under the tracks and up the other side before boarding.

Aside from being slower it's arduous and even dangerous to your back. Repairs are scheduled for completion in June 2011.

As for the Paris Pass, it seems expensive unless you plan to visit two or more attractions each day. The Museum Pass and carnets (12 euros) or a combination of Paris Visite (weekly Metro pass) and carnets should save.

Probably my larger concern should be organizational. As noted, its been a while since I've seen Paris. We're in the seventh and I suppose I should be clumping things of interest so we're not in one or another transit mode all the time. We usually visit Italy (nineteen times in the past twelve years) but this trip was brought about by a terrific sale on Open Skies that we couldn't pass on. At any rate, I think I'll forget the Parispass. Thanks, all.