I'll be visiting the Louvre with my wife and adult daughter in July. Would you recommend the RS audio tour or the guided tour of the Louvre? If you opt for the guided tour, how early should I plan to arrive and should I buy the tickets for the same time or stagger the entry and guided tour (I only plan on seeing the highlights). Thanks.
Posted by
Salem, Oregon, USA
4116 posts
No offense to the host of this site, but I would always choose a live guided tour over an audio tour if the option was available. I don't know that you need to stagger the times but others may have opinions on that. Make sure you only buy from the official Louvre website, which currently has this warning:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION Watch out for ticket fraud!
Watch out for ticket fraud: stay vigilant when buying your tickets
for the Musée du Louvre. Beware of the current increase in mirror
sites. Do not purchase any tickets that supposedly allow you to jump
the queue, and never buy your tickets from illicit street vendors. If
you do, you may be refused entry to the museum.
Posted by
1883 posts
A guided tour by a docent of the museum is always the way to go. We've been on 3 soon to be 4 RS tours, and we've had museum tour guides from the museums on every tour.
Clearly, there's a need for audio tours, but they aren't the equivalent of a guided tour.
Posted by
Bend, OR
2036 posts
A live guided tour, imo, is always better. We recently completed the Best of Germany tour visiting Dachau. The tour is now using audio guides instead of a live guide, very disappointing and I stated as much in my tour review. We had a live guide when we did the the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp on the GAS tour and in my opinion there was no comparison. I would only use the Rick Steve audio tour if you didn’t have another option.