Guided Day Trip to Paris

do you mean flying from Ireland to Paris for a tour and then fly back?

You've omitted some crucial information that is needed for us to even begin to answer the question.

1) Where is this day trip from?
2) What is the cost?
3) Is this guided day trip being compared to doing it yourself, or not doing it at all and doing something else? If the latter, what is the something else?
4) What is your total trip (where else are you going)?

But even if you give us that info, obviously different people will give different answers. If you're talking about a day trip from London to Paris via Eurostar, there are two schools of thought.

The first says you'll never run out of things to do in London, so why spend a lot of time and money going to Paris - see it when you take a separate trip. Paris itself has so many sights, why try to run around for a day? "Wait until you can see Paris properly," say these people.

The other says Paris is so different from London, it's worth seeing even as a quick visit. "Any time in Paris is better than no time in Paris," say these people. You can see if you like it enough to go back, or see it if you're not planning to be near Paris at any time in the near future.

Another issue is that a guided day trip to any place will focus on the "brand name" sights, which a) may not match the places you're most interested in seeing, and b) will be the most crowded and unpleasant, and so will not give you the most positive impression of a place.

I would never do Paris on a day trip. You need five days to do Paris properly. Also, you don't need a tour guide to see Paris. Take the METRO and do it yourself.

Well said Geo. Paris is a walkable city and Metro takes you everywhere.

From where?

What is the cost?

From some of your other posts, it seems you will be in London and are thinking about a day trip to Paris. Yes, you can do it. Take the earliest Eurostar from London. You will arrive at Gare du Nord in Paris. You can have a decent tour of the city on the hop on/off bus, which stops right outside the Gare. If you get off the bus at the Champs du Mars, you can stroll over to the Eiffel Tower and do a bit of gawking, if you like, and then board the next ho/ho that comes along. It is not, certainly not, the best way to see Paris but it is one way, and could be fun. Have a look at the Ho/ho routes and see what you think. You could also do one of the one hour Seine cruises at some point.

I've been to London 7 or 8 times and still there are places I haven't seen. That being said, if someone is staying in London a week and has never been to Paris, it would be a worthy day trip. Whether to do a guided tour, HOHO bus, or see Paris independently depends on your preferred method of travel and how comfortable you are doing a new city on your own. I like the HOHO bus as an intermediate option where you could get off and spend more time at the sights that interested you. Be aware that you would need an advance reservation for sights such as the Louvre and Eiffel Tower.

This is so awesome. This is why I love these forums. The feedback is great. I didn’t put enough info. Sorry about that. I will be in London for 5 days before moving on to Ireland for 7 days. I noticed some “guided” tours from London to Paris as day trips. About $200 pp. the wife and I will probably never get back to this part of the world again. SO, I was just winding if it was worth doing a day trip from London to Paris just to see a couple of popular sites and get pics.

If you got the money and you got the time then why not.
Just remember to pre book your Eurostar transport from London St Pancras far in advance to curtail the cost factor if that’s not included in the day tour package you intend on using.

A packaged tour out of London will include Eurostar tickets. There are several versions of the 1 day visit out of London, go over each carefully before choosing—some site heavy, some dining oriented , some shopping.
If you truly believe you will NEVER be back to Paris then sure, do it.
Take lots of pics and movies to remind you of what you saw.
I did this very same thing many yrs ago. Within 3-5 yrs my “memories” of Paris were slight to none.
A one day whirlwind visit will create a rush of passing memories, not long lasting ones.
I have since done several multi week trips to Paris to make up for it.

Your choice - 5 days isn’t long for London, let alone going to Paris for a day, Paris will be a very long day, so you will be tired the following day. However, if you are likely never to head to Paris, only you can decide if it’s worth it to you.

Time of year and day of the week factor in too. If there is a Brexit, the one-hour allowance for Immigration at BOTH ends of pre-boarding the Eurostar train could get larger. The farther in advance you buy your tickets, the cheaper they are. Each train is a different price, like an air shuttle, based on expense-account (!) business travel volume at that time of day.

I'm against Paris as a day trip, so unless you are over 75, I'd bet that you might have a second shot at Paris, for longer. (I'm pretty old myself, but I'll add that if it's actually matter of money, you also know better how much money you'll ever have when you are 65 than when you are 25.)

Did you choose to fly to London and Ireland partly because the locals speak English? Now, in fact, each time I go back to France, speaking French is less important and less cared-about by the locals. But I'm raising the issue of your tourism comfort. Will you be intimidated and slowed-down by signs only in French? (I'm not saying you should be; I'm just asking you to consider your own reaction.) Will you have time to plan a self-tourism day on your own?

Have you been on guided tours elsewhere? I am always chafing and annoyed by the many delays inherent in guided groups. The most frustrating are people who ask questions that were answered in the speech, but they weren't listening (or they are hard of hearing.) I don't like HOHO busses either, but they serve a purpose for people who want to be ONLY halfway "independent."

AWESOME INFO! Thank you folks.

CR