PARIS · FRANCE
The postcard, and everything behind it.
The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, of course. But also the catacombs under the streets, cabaret after midnight, Montmartre once the crowds thin out, and the day trips to Champagne, Giverny and the Norman coast.
Only in Paris
Three things you can only do in Paris.
Towers, art and old bones turn up in every city. A wrought-iron giant you can dine at the top of, the painting the whole world queues for, and a mile of tunnels lined with six million Parisians do not.
La Tour Eiffel
Up the Iron Lady
Built to last twenty years and never taken down, the Eiffel Tower is still the tallest thing for miles and the one shape the whole world reads as Paris. Take the glass lift to the summit for the rooftops and the river, climb the stairs through the ironwork if you want to feel its scale, or book a table on the second floor and eat in the sky. Every sundown it breaks into a five-minute sparkle.
- 1 Paris: Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit Access
- 2 Paris: Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
- 3 Paris: Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
The greatest museum on earth
Face to Face with the Louvre
A former royal palace turned the largest art museum in the world, the Louvre holds the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the winged Victory under one roof, with more on its walls than you could see in a week. A guide gets you past the queue at the glass pyramid and straight to the rooms worth your morning, before the galleries fill.
- 1 Paris: Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
- 2 Paris: Louvre Guided Tour with Reserved Access & Boat Cruise
- 3 Paris: Louvre Museum Entry Ticket With Host and River Cruise
Six million Parisians, underground
Down into the Catacombs
Twenty metres below the streets, the bones of six million Parisians line a mile of old quarry tunnels, stacked and arranged in patterns that run on into the dark. It is the other Paris, the one under the postcard: cool, quiet and genuinely strange. Skip-the-line tickets save you a long wait on the pavement, and a guide tells you whose city you are walking through.
- 1 Paris: Haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery Guided Tour
- 2 Paris: Catacombs Entry & Seine River Cruise with Audio Guide
- 3 Paris: Dark History and Ghostly Guided Walking Tour
Start here
If you book one thing in Paris.
More travellers reserve this than anything else on the site. When the diary is tight and you only want one sure thing locked in, make it this.
The classics
Paris's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
Tower climbs, Louvre mornings, Seine cruises and the Montmartre walks. The experiences most travellers book before anything else.
Where to begin
The Paris a trip is built around.
The Tower and the Louvre, a cruise on the Seine, the hill at Montmartre, a night at the cabaret and a run out to Champagne. The big chapters of a Paris trip, and the best of each.
The big question
Which Paris are you here for?
There is more than one Paris, and the best trips know which they came for. Here are the three the city does best, and what each one is really like.
The hill
Montmartre, once the crowds head down.
The old village on the hill kept its lanes when the rest of Paris went grand. Climb past the vineyard and the last windmill to the white domes of Sacre-Coeur, find the square where Picasso and Renoir once painted, and slip down the back stairs the coach tours never reach. Go early or go late, when the steps belong to the locals again.
Read the guide: Montmartre walking tours →The river
The Seine is the spine of the city.
Paris grew outward from its river, and the water is still the best seat in town. Glide under the bridges past Notre-Dame and the Louvre on an open-top boat, take a long lunch as the islands drift by, or save it for after dark when the Tower flickers gold over the water. The whole skyline, from the one angle that never disappoints.
See the Seine cruises →After dark
Paris keeps its best for after sunset.
The day is for the museums. The night is when the city shows off. The Tower turns gold and sparkles on the hour, the bridges light up the Seine, the cabarets open their doors and the bistros spill onto the pavement. Book the evening, not just the afternoon.
See what is on after dark →A table
Paris, one tasting at a time.
The fastest way into a French day is through the mouth. Fold your own croissants in a morning baking class, follow a guide through the fromageries and chocolatiers of the Marais, or sit down to a long lunch of wine and cheese in a cellar. Eat the way Parisians do, then you will know where to come back to on your own.
- 1 Paris: Seine Cruise & Crepe Tasting near the Eiffel Tower
- 2 Paris: Day or Sunset Cruise with Drink, Ice Cream or Dessert
- 3 Paris: Illuminated Evening River Cruise & Waffle Tasting
The cabaret
Cabaret, the way Paris invented it.
Paris wrote the rules for the cabaret a century ago and never stopped. The Moulin Rouge still kicks the cancan under its red windmill, the Lido and the Paradis Latin pour champagne through the feathers and sequins, and the show runs late into the night. High kitsch, beautifully done, and pure Paris.
See all 12 cabaret shows →Beyond Paris
Six day trips out of the city.
Champagne for the cellars. Giverny for Monet's garden. Normandy for the D-Day coast. Mont-Saint-Michel for the island abbey, the Loire for the chateaux, and Disneyland for the kids. All an easy train or coach from the centre.
By experience
Pick how to spend the day.
The Seine if you want the skyline. The Tower if you want the height. The Louvre if you want the art, Montmartre if you want the village. Plus cooking classes, cabaret, bikes through the back streets and the catacombs underneath it all.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Paris? A long weekend that takes in the icons, the back streets and one trip out of the city.
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