Question about museums in Europe
 

Hi, I just want to know if entrance fees for museums in general allow you only one entry? or is it valid for the whole day?

for example if i go to the louvre in the morning then have lunch outside would they allow me to enter again using the same ticket i purchased earlier?

Its actually my first time to enter museums in europe

Thanks!

I'll top your question. I seem to recall leaving the Louvre and returning on my first visit in 1985...but maybe I just left and returned to a gift shop.

The Louvre does actually sell all-day tickets, and you can re-enter.

But there are THOUSANDS of different organisations running museums in Europe, each setting its own policy. The most common policy, where admission is charged, is that the ticket is cancelled on entry and you can't officially re-enter.

In most places, a smile at the doorkeeper or whoever, a gesture at the small child who desperately needs to run round the square outside and a smile on the way back in works just fine.

Coming back six hours later with a different doorkeeper, though, rarely works, especially in places run directly by the national government, with all kinds of audit systems to stop employee scams and a staff culture of not risking losing your job. Or in places with timed tickets, though you can sometimes buy multi-entry passes.

Museums often have excellent eateries or drinkeries anyway, and using them can be part of the experience.

The best thing to do is ask when you get there.

Logic would tell you that the absolutely gigantic museums would have a more liberal in-out policy than smaller museums.

At the Galleria Borghese in Rome, you can go in and out all you want (you must leave the sculpture gallery to enter the painting gallery), but it all must be accomplished in a 2 hour window.

The Carte National des Musees (sp?) sold at Parisian museums and covering hundreds of national museums throughout France, including Versailles, can be a great money saver if visiting just a few major Paris museums - and then you not only enter via a special entrance with no waiting in line but can come and go as you like during the validity of the pass - 1 or 3 days i think or more. Sold at every museum - that said most municipal museums in Paris are now free i believe.
But if going to the Orsay, Louvre, Versailles, Orangerie, Jeu de Pomme (all except Versailles conveniently a short stroll from each other) then consider the pass.

Or if you go to the Louvre on the first Sunday of each month there is no entrance fee - you can come and go.

Last time i was in Paris there was also a museum workers strike and the Louvre simply opened the doors for free entry!

Regarding free museums in Paris : only museums belonging to the city of Paris (the Carnavalet being the most often mentionned here) are now free (and it doesn't apply to temporary exhibits, only to permanent collections). National museums like the Louvre and privately owned museums aren't free.