Budgeting for meals, local transportation and activities/museum admissions-PARIS

Hard to say since we don't know the type of restaurants you gravitate to, nor do we know if you drink wine with your meals. In your situation, I would budget €75 each per day, but I never go to posh restaurants, usually eat lunch, not dinner, in a restaurant, drink cheap wine but no soft drinks or bottled water. The 75 would include admissions and bus and metro plus stops for coffee or an aperitif.

Where is your apartment.. do you like walking. I tend to spend very little on transportation passes or tickets because I stay central and love to walk.. but that's not for everyone.

As for passes.. the Navigo Decouvert can be a good deal, unlimited bus or metro travel for the week, BUT the week starts Mondays.. so not very cost effective if you arrive on a wed or later..

www.parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/en

sorry link doesn't take you exactly where I wanted..
just google " navigo decouverte" and the Parisbytrain site comes up.. its a great site for learning how to use the metro and bus system .. how to get to airports and various daytrips too.

Thank you Norma and Pat for your responses.

Norma, 75 euros or about $100 US is what I had estimated for meals, local transportation and admissions. I really appreciate the time you took to respond to my post and the confirmation.

Pat, we are staying in an area called Mouffetard, close to the Pantheon and Notre Dame. We will be arriving on a Tuesday. So, Wednesday is likely to be the first day we would be using the metro and bus system. Thanks for the info on the site, navigo decouverte, I will check it out.

You will probably want to use buses and Metro to get around from Mouffetard. Here is the Navigo Decouverte Semaine page for Paris Transit (RATP): http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_21137/forfaits-navigo-mois-et-semaine/.
Its in French, so use google translate to read. The Zone 1-2 (Paris proper) is 20.40 euro/week, plus a one time 5 euro processing fee and you need to bring a 1"X1.25" passport type photo with you. It may not be worth all that trouble as it will expire Sunday night and not really worth renewing it for 2 more days. Easy way is to buy Carnets for 13.80 euro each. They are a 10-pack of tickets that normal cost 1.70 euro for each individual ticket. You can share tem amongst yourselves. The one draw back is you can't use a single ticket to transfer from the Metro to a bus, you need a ticket for each leg, but the Metro is so extensive, you almost never need to do that.

If this is your time in Paris, as well as the parisbytrain website, have a look at tomsguidetoparis.com

From where you are staying.. if you enjoy walking..( and weather is fine) I would /have walked to Notre Dame, Orsay , Louvre, St Chapelle, Rodin.. etc .. loads of stuff to walk to.. You could walk to ET.. but that would be a long walk.. so you could jump a bus or metro.. in which case all you need is a carnet or two of tickets.

A carnet ( pronounced "car nay" ) is simply 10 one way lose tickets.. good for bus or metro.. but sold at a discount in a group of ten. Each ticket alone would be 1.70.. but you can get the ten pack for 13. 70 aprox. You can share the tickets .. they are simply loose tickets not a pass.. so even if you need to purchase two carnets.. ( so about 27 euros) you would come out ahead then getting a Navigo pass.. because the pass would only be good thru sunday.. so about 25 euros EACH for 5 days.. or about 27 for 20 one way tickets..

A carnet is easy to buy.. machines in metro stations do have the English function.. and you can also go into most Tabacs.. go to the counter and ask for "une carnet si vous plait",, oh yes.. and always start any inter change with "bonjour" they find it rude if you just abruptly order something.. ( this goes for anywhere.. the bakery, the admission window at a site.. anywhere. )

Hi, you'll also want to check out the Paris Museum Pass (http://en.parismuseumpass.com/). With the Pass, you gain free entry, and skip the lines (you still have to go through security) as many times as you wish, to 60 museums and monuments in and around Paris. It's available for 2, 4, or 6 days. Great value.

I love to walk in Paris, and am your age -- but if you do not walk a lot (a real lot!) at home, even though several sights are in close proximity to each other, you may easily be overwhelmed by walking in Paris. Add to this, all the standing and walking you will do in museums, metro stations, and general sightseeing. Even taking frequent breaks for a drink at a cafe may not help that much.
For transportation I always use carnets, which you can buy in any metro station from a cashier or a machine. You can use them on the bus or metro. Lately I have liked taking the bus, though it takes a while for find the route you want. I finally got a book with all the bus routes, and used them often when I lived in France a couple of years ago! The bus may work for you, though the metro is likely to be easier to figure out -- though lots of stairs and walking in the metro!

I usually always had lunch in Paris, and spent between 16 and 30 Euros (high end). I ordered what I wanted and usually always had one glass of wine. There's a lot of inexpensive sidewalk food too, and the boulangeries are wonderful everywhere. You could exist on the bread and cheese alone!
You should get the Rick Steves Paris guidebook if you don't already have it -- it will list prices of all museums, and other sights and will be very helpful in planning your budget.

I would plan on $100.00 per day. I would second the Paris Museum Pass. Can be purchased at the tourist info desk at the airport. You can check it out on this link and see what sites are included. http://en.parismuseumpass.com/

You can order it online, which I usually do, but will have to pay postage, which was about 15.00 for 4 museum passes and 4 metro passes. Not sure if postage will be less if you order fewer passes. A 6 day pass will cost about 89.00. If you go to several sites this is a savings. As others have mentioned it will also allow you to go to the front of the line or enter through a separate entrance. This pass works at Versailles.

You can also buy a Paris Metro Pass on this same site. This will work on the metro, the bus and RER and the number of times you can use it is unlimited. If you don't think you will be using public transportation a lot you may be better off buying the carnet. We buy the 5 day adult pass that includes zones 1-5. This will get you to Versailles and Montmartre and includes the funicular that will save you the climb up the stairs to Montmartre, if stairs are an issue for you. This will cost around 85.00 for
the 5 day pass.

Have fun!

You can also purchase the Paris Museum Pass at one of the covered sites. I usually get it at the Rodin Museum since it is small and the lines are very short. I especially love the garden and cafe.

Very hard to estimate but our budget is always a 100E/person/day plus admission charges since that can be a big variable.

Somebody's advice I heard earlier -- bring half the clothes and twice the money. Make sure you have extra cash in the account your ATM uses in case you find a good reason to go beyond the "budget" for a special event.