Saturday 17 December 2011

Use the Paris Museum Pass

During my recent trip to Paris, I visited 9 tourist spots that has entrance fees:

  1. Arc de Triomphe - € 9.50
  2. The Louvre - € 10.00
  3. Archeological Crypt at Notre Dame Cathedral - € 4.00
  4. Tours de Notre Dame (this is the tour to the towers, entrance to the cathedral is free) - € 8.00
  5. Orangerie Museum - € 7.50
  6. Versailles (ok technically this is not in Paris) - € 18.00
  7. Orsay Museum - € 8.00
  8. Rodin Museum - € 6.00
  9. Sainte-Chapelle - € 8.00

TOTAL - € 77.00

But I visited all of the above for only € 50.00 by using the 4-day Paris Museum Pass. Great savings, huh?


Passes are sold according to the duration of the pass:

  • 2-day pass: € 35.00
  • 4-day pass: € 50.00 
  • 6-day pass: € 65.00

Visitors with the pass can go in and out of museums and places of interest as many times as they like. I almost visited the Louvre twice because the place was too damn big to cover in one visit!

And if you want to make the most of your pass, try to visit as many places as you can and/or sites with high entrance fees (like Versailles), as long as your pass is valid. But trust me, 2 places a day is already tiring enough.

However, not all museums and sites are included in the Paris Museum Pass, one of which is Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower. I was hugely disappointed cause a ride to the top of the tower is € 13.70 which I had to fork out again.

Another advantage of having the Paris Museum Pass is that I can whizz into museums and places of interest without having to queue for tickets. This is indeed handy in a touristy city like Paris where ticket lines are perpetually long, even in the winter. Again, not all places have this whizzing facility. For example, you'd have to queue like everyone else to join the bell tower tour in Notre Dame Cathedral.


It was only 2 hours till closing time when I arrived at the Orsay Museum. The ticket queue was so long I thought it would take at least 30 minutes to get through it. With the Paris Museum Pass in hand, I quickly looked for the line for pass holders and I got my arse into the museum in less than 10 minutes. The Paris Museum Pass certainly comes in handy to beat long queues.



2 comments:

gbeejipp said...

gosh, I usually have no problem queuing up but the ones that they have in Paris are just ridiculously long. Buying the pass is definitely a good decision. Too bad Eiffel Tower is not included. I couldn't bear queuing up to go to see the bell at Notre Damn last time so I just skipped it.

Julie Lim said...

I went to Notre Dame on a Sunday and the queue to the bell tower was so long I skipped it. But when I returned on a Tuesday (late morning), I was second in queue. Moral of the story: visit Notre Dame bell towers on a weekday!

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