A 3 Day Travel Guide to Paris

We spent a solid 3 days in Paris and felt like we saw everything we wanted to see. I'm sure if we stayed longer, we would have found some amazing hidden gems. But in 3 days we were able to hit lots of major landmarks.

After our experience, we found that there were a few things we could have done better. So while this travel guide is not exactly how we saw everything, we did see everything in this guide and want to share from our experiences.

Before we start, here are a few suggestions of things to do before you start your trip.

• Hotel: Make sure to get a hotel near a metro stop. We suggest going through Hotels.com. When you are looking at hotels, make sure to check the comments from previous guests. They are usually good about saying if the hotel is close to a metro stop or not. We stayed at this hotel and it was SO CLOSE to a metro stop, but it was also a teeny, tiny room which we were not expecting. 
• Paris Museum Pass: You can't go to Paris and not get a museum pass. It saves you so much money! And it lets you into so many different sites around Paris. Some of the sites even let you skip the waiting line if you have the Museum Pass. We bought our passes just at the airport near baggage claim, but you can also buy them online and have them mailed to you before you go or you can pick them up in Paris when you get there. 
• Metro Passes: Check out our post here to get all of the details on what and how to get the passes. 
• Apps: Make sure to download these four apps before you get to Paris. 

Day 1:

Because you're in Paris, probably the first thing you will want to see is the Eiffel Tower. This is one of the attractions in Paris that opens at 9:00 am during peak season (mid-June through early September). You can check out our post here for specific details. Plan on spending 2-3 hours at this site, especially if you are planning on walking up the stairs! 

**For another cool Eiffel Tower experience, try going 30-60 minutes before sunset so you can watch the sun setting and see the tower lit up. While we did not do this on our trip, this was something I saw recommended after we were already home**

While at the Eiffel Tower, you may want to stop and eat at one of their restaurants or cafes. We found that the cafe had delicious food and wasn't too terribly priced. 

After viewing the Eiffel Tower, make sure to take some time back on the ground to take some pictures of the whole tower. When we were there, the grassy area in front of the tower was closed. So we just went across the Seine and were still able to get amazing pictures. 

From the Eiffel Tower, we suggest heading to the Arc de Triomphe. Check out our post here to find out details about the tricky way to go to get to the Arc. While at the Arc, we definitely suggest climbing up to the top if you can! After the Eiffel Tower, it might be a lot for people in poor health or for young children. Our legs definitely hurt after our first day but the stairs were worth it!

For an easy end to the day, we suggest going to Napoleon's Tomb and the Army Museum. While we didn't actually go inside the museum (because it was closed when we got there), from what we hear it is a good place to visit. Check out our post here about Napoleon's Tomb.

At this point we suggest finding a place to grab dinner. Our favorite places were little crepe stands and shops.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to unwind and relax for the evening because we were so tired from touring all day! If you're up for it, head back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night all lit up. The Arc de Triomphe at night is also an amazing sight.

Day 2:

The second day we suggest going to the old city center. By getting off at the Cite metro stop, you are within walking distance of 3 amazing sights in Paris. 

First, head over to Sainte Chapelle. This was my favorite place we saw in all of Paris. Plan on spending at least an hour there. Ben wanted to stay longer and I now wish that we would have. 

After Sainte Chapelle, go over to Notre Dame and wait in line to climb the towers. Check out Ben's post here about the towers. This was my second favorite thing we did in Paris. 

After the towers, grab some lunch at a crepe stand across the street from Notre Dame and start to listen to the Rick Steves Audio Europe App. Go to the track called Historic Paris. As you eat your crepes and start listening to Rick, you can stand in line to enter the cathedral. Even if the line looks long, it moves pretty fast. Check out Ben's post here about seeing the inside of Notre Dame. 

When you come out of the church, if you have time and want to cool down a bit, head on over to the Archeological Crypts at the opposite end of the plaza. 

After the Crypts, continue listening to Rick and take the Historic Paris walking tour. Sadly we did not have time to do this tour and I really wish that we had.  

If you aren't into seeing the Crypts, or you don't want to do the walking tour, you could go to the Louvre and Orsay Museums. But, we wouldn't suggest them, except maybe going to the outside of the Louvre Museum in order to see the glass pyramids. Check out my post about the Louvre here and why you probably don't need to see it.

Day 3:

This last day, we suggest spending in Versailles. It is such a beautiful place and you can literally spend all day there. Make sure to take into account transit time getter there. Since it is outside of the main city center area of Paris, it does take a little bit of extra time getting there but it is so worth it. See my detailed post about Versailles here. 

And there you have it! 3 days in Paris! We loved our time in Paris and are so grateful that we got to experience one of the most popular cities in the world. It is so popular for a good reason. There are so many things to see and do, but don't over schedule yourself. Take your time and really enjoy the place you are in. Look for the beauty and the details and take lots of pictures! But also spend time in the moment. I think we had a good balance of enjoying our time in the moment and enjoying our time through camera lenses. Plan and prepare, but don't freak out when plans don't go your way. 

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Visiting the Palace of Versailles

Visiting Versailles was one of our favorite days we spent in Paris. Although it is outside of the city center and away from the other main attractions of Paris, for us it was definitely worth setting aside a good part of a day to see it. Château de Versailles, or Palace of Versailles in English, is a beautiful palace with amazing details inside as well as out. The grounds are expansive and you could spend a long time just in the gardens. Turned into a palace by Louis XIV, this former hunting lodge has a long history of being the center of Parisian culture for over 70 years during the reign of Louis XIV. Filled with gold, detailed paintings on walls and ceilings, and beautiful, intricate floors, Château de Versailles is a feast for the eyes and a highlight of any trip to Paris.

How to Get There:

From Paris get to the Invaldes stop using the Paris metro. From there, get on the Yellow C line (an RER train) and get off at the Versailles Château Rive Gauche stop. From there you will need to walk a few minutes to get to the palace. For specific directions from your location, make sure to use the Paris Metro App. Plan on the trip taking about an hour to get to the château. Because Versailles is not close to the city center, your metro tickets will need to be good for Zone 5. If you are buying a multi-day metro ticket, take the time to do the math to see if it is worth buying a multi-day for Zones 1-5 or if it is cheaper for you to buy a single ticket for Zone 5 for the day you want to go to Versailles. Because of the weather, we decided to do Versailles in the middle of our 3 day trip. We decided that it was easier for us to buy a 3-day ticket to all 5 zones. But if you are planning on doing Versailles on the first day of your trip or at the end, it might be cheaper to buy a day ticket for the day of your trip. 

What You Will See:

The best time to get to Versailles is right in the morning as it opens. There are not very many people on the plaza leading up to the palace which means you can get great pictures of the front of the building. The lines are also much shorter when it first opens. Plan on spending most of the day at Versailles if you want to see all three parts (main palace, gardens, and Marie Antoinette's estate). We were there from 10:00 am until about 4:00 pm. 

Once you get through security, ask for a map from the desk right outside the security check. They will give you directions to the main ticket counter and the start of the palace. If you have a Museum Pass, you can skip the ticket line and go straight into the palace. They offer free audio guides for the palace that give you information on almost every single thing. We did not use these guides so we cannot vouch for them, but it seems like if you wanted extreme details about each room, that would be the audioguide to take. We just used the Versailles track on the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. It gave good information and we only had trouble in one spot because part of the tour on the app wasn't open when we were at Versailles. But this is pretty typical of the palace; different parts are opened and closed at different times throughout the year. 

Throughout the palace, you will see lots of ornate and beautiful rooms. Some of our favorites were the chapel, the Hall of Mirrors and the bedchambers. It is amazing to see the expanse of the palace and even though it is quite large, rooms can get very crowded so just be prepared for that. Also, when you are walking from floor to floor to get to different rooms, be careful on the stairs; there are deep, worn down places in the steps from so many people walking on the stairs over so many years. Use the hand rails and closely watch your feet! After you exit the palace, the side of the building near the security check has a large, formal restaurant and a smaller cafe. We ate at the cafe for lunch and were happy with our meal, even if it was on the expensive side. There are also gift shops and free restrooms in this area with plenty of signage to point you in the right direction. 

Behind the palace is where you can see and enter the gardens. The Versailles track on the Rick Steves Audio Europe app continues with the gardens outside. Take your time and wander through them. They are so beautiful and maintained so perfectly. There are lots of groves with fountains in the middle of them that are located to the left and right of the main plaza. These fountains are not on except for certain times and days. If you wish to see the fountain shows, the price for entry is more expensive and is not included in the Museum Pass. We did not see the fountain shows but poked our heads in to see some of the fountains and they were beautiful. 

Because the gardens are so huge, there are options besides walking to get around. They offer golf carts and bikes that you can rent to help you and your family get around. There is also a small "train" that takes people up to the Marie Antoinette Estates. We walked the whole time we were there but it really did make us extremely tired. But there are plenty of food and snack carts and states to get some treats. The cheapest place we found to get gelato was in Petite Venice (Little Venice). It is a little place next to the Grand Canal where Louis XIV housed gondoliers he brought in from Venice to drive gondolas in his Grand Canal!

The third area in the Château de Versailles is the Domain Marie Antoinette (Marie Antoinette Estates). This area is away from the gardens and was meant to be a peaceful place away from the hustle and bustle of the palace. At the Domain, there are two small palaces and some smaller gardens. After we went through the palaces, we decided they looked a lot neater on the outside than on the inside, so they probably aren't worth going to unless you have a Museum Pass because they cost extra money. Also, if you are already tired from walking around the gardens, it might not be worth the extra energy to see this part of the Château. 

Sum Up:

Château de Versailles, Palace of Versailles, simply Versailles: it is a beautiful way to spend a day on your Parisian trip. Visiting the palace is a must followed by visiting the gardens at your own pace, while visiting the Domain Marie Antoinette might not be worth it to you to go see if you are already tired from the gardens or if you don't have a Museum Pass. There are lots of things to see at the Palace of Versailles and we highly recommend taking this day trip. 

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