Want to explore every nook and cranny of the city of light? Here’s a mini-guide explaining the various ways to get around paris!
Are you visiting the capital? We agree: getting around paris is not easy. What’s the right choice among the sixteen metro lines, trams, buses, taxis, bicycles…? With this guide, you can navigate from one district to another easily, without missing the city’s must-sees. There’s something for every taste, and especially for every budget!
The essential: the paris visit pass
City pass: we have selected the best offers for you. The public transport network managed by ratp is the best way to get around paris and its suburbs. Thus, we want to draw your attention to the paris visit pass, which is the ideal formula for a short stay in paris.
The benefits
- First, with the paris visit pass, you can make round trips without wasting time and spending too much money.
- In addition, the pass includes rer and transilien journeys to access areas far from central paris.
- If you choose the paris visit pass to get around the city, you will also benefit from advantages with the group’s partners.
- Also, you can combine this purchase with a complete package, the passlib’, which includes the paris visit pass, as well as excursions to discover the wonderful capital.
The price
You can select your ideal formula according to the areas of paris visited, and the number of days. For children under 12, the rate is halved.
- Zones 1 to 3 (paris center: 20 districts): 1 day €12, 2 days €19.30, 3 days €26.65, 5 days €38.35.
- Zones 1 to 5 (paris center, its suburbs, and airports): 1 day €25.24, 2 days €38.35, 3 days €53.75, 5 days €65.80.
- If you want to buy the complete passlib’ package, you will have to pay between €119 and €165 depending on the number of days.
Where to get it?
You can find the paris visit pass in all metro, rer, or transilien stations on the ratp network. Go to the counters or automatic dispensers. To save even more time, you can get this precious pass online, on the parisinfo website. However, you will need to pick up the physical pass at a paris tourist and convention office.
Other passes
Of course, there are other options to get around paris:
- You can, for example, choose the 10-ticket book. With this, you will access all zones for €16.90 at full price.
- Also, you can opt for the navigo liberté + pass, which allows you to travel around paris with advantageous rates. Indeed, you will be charged €1.49 per trip, with a daily cap of €7.50. With this, payment is deferred to the following month.
🔗 Read Also: Explore Paris in 3 Days: Your Complete Itinerary and Tips
The fastest and most available: the metro
- Where to buy tickets? In all metro stations.
- How much does it cost? €2,10
Paris metro, gigantic glow-worm on the roofs of paris, wove silver threads.” sang edith piaf. And this “gigantic glow-worm” has more than 302 stations spread over a network of about 220 km. Choose one of the sixteen available metro lines and add yourself to the statistics of the 1.559 billion annual users. Yes, impressive figure!
- Among the most used lines for tourism, we count line 1 which crosses the city hall, the louvre, and the tuileries to take you straight to the arc de triomphe.
- On the left bank, you might take line 4 to visit the saint-germain des prés district and the luxembourg garden.
The most economical: the vélib
- Where to buy tickets? At bike terminals.
- How much does it cost? From €3.10.
If you don’t want to spend money on underground trips, no worries! The city of paris provides 12,000 velib bicycles and offers formulas adapted to your stay (you can subscribe online before your trip).
- For a 24-hour pass, it costs €5.
- For a 7-day pass, it costs €15.
- Finally, the annual subscription costs €37.20, which is extremely profitable if you are in the capital several times a year.
The most comfortable: taxis and vtc
If you prioritize comfort over your wallet, then taxis and vtcs will be the best options for getting around paris. Also, in the absence of metros after about 1 a.m., it is probably the best means of transport for a night trip. Paris has over 18,000 taxi drivers who will be waiting for you at the exit of train stations or airports. You can also call one on the street or via the number of one of the companies found online. The pick-up costs €2.60, then the price per kilometer is €1.06, or €32.10 per hour, from monday to saturday between 10 a.m. And 5 p.m. Outside these days and these hours, you have to add surcharges.
If you prefer to use vtcs, you can go to the smartphone applications of marcel, uber, or kapten.
Roissy-charles de gaulle
Several options are available to you for the transfer between roissy-charles de gaulle airport and paris.
- Take the rer b from cdg airport to the center of paris, for example, châtelet. Count about 45min for €10,30.
- You can also take the roissybus to the opera, also for 45min, at a rate of €14,20.
Orly
Several options are available to you for the transfer between orly airport and paris.
- For €11,20, you can take the orlybus from orly to denfert-rochereau (14th district).
- You can also choose the orlyval which will drop you off at antony, in the parisian suburbs, on the rer b for €14,10.
- The last solution is to take tram n°7 from orly to reach villejuif – louis aragon in 30 minutes. There, metro line 7 will take you to paris. This will cost you the price of a simple metro ticket!
Here are some useful apps for getting around paris.
- The ratp app, which provides itineraries and informs travelers about any delays.
- Citymapper for an ergonomic visit to paris.
- Mapsme, which offers fun mapping without an internet connection!
Paris transport maps
Here are a few useful applications for getting around paris.
- The ratp application, which provides itineraries and information on possible delays.
- Citymapper for an ergonomic tour of paris.
- Mapsme for fun mapping without an internet connection!
So, getting around paris isn’t that complicated, is it?
