Family Paris day trip with teen/tween

[Bluezoo123]

Visiting France in May half term, staying in static home on campsite which is 20 min on RER from Paris. Planning on doing a day trip to Paris with the kids and looking for any recommendations on must see/do. Obviously want to see main landmarks - is it worth doing open top bus or river tour for these? Is it worth paying to go up the Eiffel Tower? Also Catacombs look interesting...any advice appreciated!

We had the hop on hop off bus/boat tickets which worked well - we could cover a lot of ground. We took the bus from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, for which we did have tickets, then the boat from Eiffel Tower back to Notre Dame.

If you want to see the main sites in one day, a Hop on Hop off bus tour is definitely worth it. It’s a much less stressful way to navigate Paris as you don’t need to worry about trying to figure out the metro or determining how to route your way from one landmark to another.
The Eiffel Tower is expensive and crowded, but I think that it’s a must-do. It’s like a rite of passage for any first-time visitor to Paris. At least go as high as the 2nd floor. Buy a timed ticket ahead of time online to save time and skip long lines.

I’m in Paris at the moment. I would not go up the Eiffel Tower again, it’s ticked off my list, it’s ridiculously high and neither me or my 2 teenagers were that keen, the height up is quite something. Great view of the city from the sacre-couer (we climbed the tower, was also quite high) great views even if too don’t!

You get a great view of Paris from the Montparnasse tower. Would also definitely do a river tour - the Vedettes de Paris near the Eiffel tower are good.

Thanks all. For hop on/off bus/boat is this something we need to book in advance or on the day when we arrive? Is it obvious where to book it? Thanks

The Catacombs are great. Try getting a last minute ticket on the day - they’re half the price.

Also, your ticket on RER to Paris will include any transfer from RER to the metro (made within the hour), so make sure you hold onto your tickets as will need to exit RER and then enter metro with it.

@Oriunda thanks for the tips!

We're in Paris now with DS 10 and 13. They absolutely loved the Eiffel Tower and particularly the stair climb. Also loved the Batobus hop on/off boat trip. We took the bus once only as very slow going in Paris traffic so definitely recommend boat over bus. Metro much nicer than London. Also enjoyed the Pompidou centre.

Booked Batobus in advance from website.

I first went to Paris 40 years ago, I've worked there and bad a Parisienne gf but I've never been up the Eiffel Tower! I'd suggest going up the Arc de Triomphe - especially at about dusk when all the lights on the roads leading to Etoile come on.

I've taken my 2 dc to Paris twice and up the Eiffel Tower both times, it was amazing.

Sacre coeur is great and Montmartre behind has a great atmosphere.

Arc de triomphe is a good place to start, the train station is literally underneath, and you pop out above ground and get an instant hit of Paris

I did the hop on bus tour 20 years ago, great fun.

I love Paris, have been many times. Where are you staying op?

We're going in a few months with a 10 and 13 yr old. Our plans our musee d'orday, eiffel tower and opera Garnier (that one wasn't my choice - its in a kids programme my 10 year old loved about ballet and time travel.) I would swap Garnier for batobus in my timetable as dont think we will now fit it in! We mistakenly timed ours for a "first sunday" which means free museums - which means crowded!

We are planning to eat crepes and buy cheese and baguettes too :)

@DaisyTheUnicorn
Book the Musee D’Orsay in advance. The queues can be huge.

The Opera Garnier is a gem. I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t like it. I would prefer Batobus to going up the Eiffel Tower personally.

Last went when the kid were much smaller but the loved musee d'orsay - we went weekday term time and there were still queues!! - I've never been on free-sunday though so was planning on just arriving very early.... I didnt think we'd avoid that as its first sunday (bad planning on my part but that's the day we have!)

We're not going up the Eiffel tower just go there after musee d'orsay and walk across the river to get a photo etc.

Great to hear Garnier is good!! We will book that for 3pm ish I think. How long would you spend there?

I don't think we can squeeze batobus in but would love to as you see so many things - its a 2 hour round trip isn't it?

Opera Garnier is around 1 hour plus. I’m not sure if the batobus can be one way? I think we might have done Vedettes and done Eiffel tower to Notre Dame. Got off at the left bank? It’s a long time ago. Pre DC and was a day trip from a camp site!

If Lonely Planet have a Paris Guide, they usually have great itineraries for a day at a time. That might help with planning. We’ve seen the queues at the Louvre on free Sunday! Utterly massive.

Thanks @TizerorFrizz I am really looking forwards to going now!

I initially thought I'd manage Louvre and Musee Do'rsay the same day and planned to walk between them..... until I realised we were there on free sunday . D'oh. Current plan is to make Musee D'orsay our first thing.... also we are going to preplan which areas we want to see so can reduce it to a few hours maybe rather than leisurely browse.

I will see if we can somehow squeeze batobus in. We have to fit Garnier in before it closes which was our spanner in the works - but I have done the batobus before (kids won't remember it) and not seen Garnier. We really should have allowed more than a day!

Sorry OP for adding to your thread - I hope I've just encouraged the excitement at going though :) :)

@Oriunda

The Catacombs are great. Try getting a last minute ticket on the day - they’re half the price.

.... and you'll queue for two hours to get them. Not practical if you only have a day I'm afraid. It's not conveniently located for anything else either, so it will more than likely be wasted trip.

A few years ago took DD to Paris. Unless you can get advance tickets to the Eiffel Tower rarer than rocking horse shit don't go. It was a very stressful experience, very crowded, very expensive, too much queueing and we both hated it.

The Catacombs were fab though. Definitely worth a visit. Before the fire, we went to the North Dame, and paid extra to see the bell tower. Not possible now, unfortunately. The Père Lachaise Cemetery in North East Paris is good for dead celeb spotting. We went to Galeries Lafayette to view the amazing roof. Go to the top of Monmartre, where there are some lovely restaurants and the Sacre Coeur church. It's seedy in parts too, but easy to turn a blind eye. At night the Moulin Rouge looks both lovely and tacky at the same time!

Have fun!

@saggyhairyass it's not just celebs in the Pere Lachaise cemetery- one of my ancestors is there!

Agree about the Pompidou Centre, for a view the Arc de Triomphe is worth visiting.

We look ours up the Eiffel Tower, definitely worth doing in my opinion if you like views, ticking off high places but pre book or you are queuing for hours (worth going early otherwise, at 9am it was quiet) also look at sacre coeur, outside of notre dam as still being reconstructed, great lunch spots on the back streets on the left bank (avoid the big touristy places!) we at for €15 a head for 3 courses. You won't have time for many museums, my favourite is musee d'orsey but the kids loved the military museum and napoleons tomb. Versailles is amazing but that's a day on its own, highly recommend it, take a picnic too for the gardens

On a single day trip, I’d forget about catacombs. There is so much more to see.

I’d not say the underground is better than London. Maybe slightly easier to understand in terms of routes but I can assure you it’s full of pickpockets looking for tourists. It’s definitely an easy way to travel though.

I think there is time for one museum in a day trip but the I think getting the feel of Paris in a day is very possible without spending hours queuing. The design of the city by Haussmann, the grand squares, the left bank and iconic buildings are wonderful. I fully endorse finding a back street restaurant on the left bank. It’s part of the fun. Coffee in Galleries Lafayette is also worth it. The shop has an amazing roof.

Latin quarter for crepes

@saggyhairyass

A few years ago took DD to Paris. Unless you can get advance tickets to the Eiffel Tower rarer than rocking horse shit don't go. It was a very stressful experience, very crowded, very expensive, too much queueing and we both hated it.

The Catacombs were fab though. Definitely worth a visit. Before the fire, we went to the North Dame, and paid extra to see the bell tower. Not possible now, unfortunately. The Père Lachaise Cemetery in North East Paris is good for dead celeb spotting. We went to Galeries Lafayette to view the amazing roof. Go to the top of Monmartre, where there are some lovely restaurants and the Sacre Coeur church. It's seedy in parts too, but easy to turn a blind eye. At night the Moulin Rouge looks both lovely and tacky at the same time!

Have fun!

Someone said you need to queue for hours for last minute tix for Catacombs. Not true. Just go to the website and book online on the same day you want to go. You’ll have more luck getting tickets later in the day, which is fine given it’s underground so light is not an issue! One of those things you can leave to the end of the day to do.

Père Lachaise is great. We did get hopelessly lost though, as the individual graves aren’t signposted once you are walking around. I couldn’t find Oscar’s tomb. We did find Jimi’s. I love that it’s just an ordinary tomb next to other peoples’s. Good lesson for kids in that we are all equal in death.

@Oriunda
Do you have an obsession with graves and death? I’ve been to Paris a number of times and never felt the need to talk about death or visit graves. The lessons my DC learnt were about culture, art, buildings, language and food. Seemed to inspire them more than death.