Paris museum and metro pass
Is it convenient to buy the Paris museum and metro pass in Paris? Is it cheaper if I Buy it ahead of time over the Internet?
Thanks,
Rich
Rich
Parker, Colorado USA 1/11/13
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Yes and no. But the museum and metro passes are best bought separately. The combined Paris Visite pass-plus-tourist-discount deal is not good value for money.
thank you. I will remember that.
Museum passes bought on line are more expensive, with no advantage. And while Rick says only foolish travelers don't get one, I don't agree. Look carefully to make sure you will get your money's worth from it. On one trip, I did get about one and a half times the price back, in value used (multiple trips up the Arc de Triomphe helped). On another, I raced around and barely broke even. And on a third, I didn't even get it, because I was mostly seeing places not covered. Remember:
1. It is for consecutive days only
2. Rick touts the line-skipping, but only a few places have long lines without a pass, and if your trip is off season, this is not a big concern.
3. If your concern is lines, and you are only visiting a few places, you can get advance tickets for most places (such as Versailles) directly from their website.
Here's the official Museum Pass website, so you can do more research.
For "metro passes," be aware that there are two main kinds. The Paris Visite Pass is not usually a good deal; it includes more zones of travel than you will need, and so costs more. The Navigo Decouverte is available for a calendar month, or for a Monday to Sunday week. This is a good deal as long as your dates in Paris coincide with these parameters (or part of them; when I'm in Paris Wednesday to Sunday, I still get a weekly pass). For this pass, print out at home a one-inch square photo of yourself and bring it; you will need it to buy the card, which costs €5, is good for a number of years, and is refillable. You then put the weekly or monthly pass on your card.
If this is too much trouble, or doesn't meet your needs, just get a carnet (pronounced car-NAY), which is ten tickets at a substantial discount. These are sharable, and savable for future trips, and when you run out, just buy another carnet.
Harold,
Thanks for the great info.
Rich, I agree with much Harold has written, but we also appreciated another aspect of the museum pass. As we walked extensively through Paris we would stop in some extra museums and attractions on our way and see the featured exhibit... As long as it was covered and immediate, these stops added some wonderful surprises to our trip. By our third visit to Paris, we no longer bothered with the pass.
I agree with George We were just in Paris over Christmas and went ahead and got the 4 day museum pass. We dropped in a couple of museums we wouldn't have gone to if we hadn't had the pass. It was also very nice to bypass the long lines at the Louvre and Versailles. We did have to make sure we saw everything within the 4 days since the passes are for consecutive days.
Robin, George
Thanks for the info.