The Paris Museum Pass can be a great value for first-time visitors and anyone planning to visit a lot of the top sights. The pass includes “skip the line” privileges (which vary by location) that cut down on your wait times, so you can spend more time seeing, doing, and enjoying yourself.
Most of Paris’ must-see attractions are included with the pass, including the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides, Notre Dame bell towers, Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, Versailles and more. The pass is good for admission to 60 museums, cathedrals, national monuments, and castles. (One notable exception is the Eiffel Tower.)
Find out if the Paris Museum Pass is worth it for your trip, and which pass is the best value:
You can choose a consecutive 2-day, 4-day or 6-day pass, depending on your itinerary. The 2-day pass is worth it as time saver if you plan to visit the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay on back to back days. Otherwise, the 4-day pass is the best value for the time savings and itinerary flexibility it gives you. The 6-day pass is overkill. If your vacation is 6 or more days, then you probably aren’t that concerned about saving time spent waiting in line anyway.
Is the Paris Museum Pass Worth It?
The rationale for the Paris Museum Pass is to spend money to save time. The goal of it is not to visit enough attractions to add up the cost of the pass, but rather to save time waiting in line at the big attractions during your precious few vacation days in Paris. Anyone with museum-hopping plans that include the Louvre and especially the Musee d’Orsay should consider the Paris Museum Pass. Those two museums notoriously have the longest lines in Paris, as every tourist in town descends upon the most visited museums in the most visited city in the world at the same time.
If you’re visiting Paris in summer, the museum pass is well worth it for the time savings because it allows you to skip the ticket lines at overcrowded sites like the Louvre, the Orsay, and Versailles. (You will still have to wait in security lines, though.)
Where to Buy the Paris Museum Pass:
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If you’re traveling during the off-season, or you have a long Paris vacation planned, then the potential time-savings are less critical.
To get the most value out of the pass, schedule back-to-back visits to the most popular attractions while your pass is valid. On Day 1, perhaps you visit the Louvre and the bell towers of Notre Dame. On Day 2, you can go the Orsay Museum, Sainte-Chapelle and La Conciergerie. Day 3 might be a daytrip out to the palace of Versailles, and Day 4 can be spent revisiting a place you really liked, or fitting in some “nice-to-see” attractions like Napoleon’s tomb and Arc de Triomphe or the Pantheon. Or you can choose another museum from the list if you want more art — Paris has plenty. Schedule any other Paris activities you wanted to do (shopping, Segway tours, etc.) for the days before or after your Pass is in effect.
When you receive your Paris Museum Pass, print your name in the blanks on the back. (“Nom” means “last name,” and “Prenom” means “first name.”) Don’t fill in the date until you’re ready to activate the pass. Be sure to write the date European style as Day/Month/Year, not Month/Day/Year, to avoid any problems getting in with your pass.
What Sites Are Included in the Paris Museum Pass?
The Paris Museum Pass covers many of the most popular tourist attractions in and around Paris, including these:
- Musee du Louvre
- Notre Dame Tower and Notre Dame Crypt
- Musée d’Orsay
- Palace of Versailles
- Arc de Triomphe
- Musée d’Orsay
- La Conciergerie (location of Marie Antoinette’s prison cell)
- Napoleon’s tomb (Les Invalides / Musee de l’Armée)
- Sainte-Chapelle
- Pantheon
- Rodin Museum
- Centre Pompidou
- Picasso Museum (closed for renovation until Summer 2013)
