Museum pass with Versailles or Individual museum tickets?

Run the numbers -- generally Versailles plus Louvre plus Arc plus some other museums makes the Museum Pass a good deal for us (and marginal cost of additional days is pretty low.) But we just buy the pass on the fly, not online in advance. If your concern is about the effect of SNCF strikes on the train to Versailles, you could just wait and decide when you get to Paris.

No one can tell you which option is better for you. You must decide that.

However, many people waste money on museum passes under the false assumption that only passes give them the ability to skip the ticket lines. Advance purchase ticket holders use the same lines as do pass holders. The museum passes are convenient but convenience costs extra.

I should think that serious museum goers do not rush about attempting to walk into as many museums as they can for no other reason than a museum pass allows them the flexibility to do so.

The choice, pass vs. advance ticket purchase, is up to the visitor but for many, a single ticket or two per day is probably all that is required.

My husband and I used the museum pass for Versailles and I really regret it. You still have to stand in line with everyone else that has tickets, and when we tried to get into the gardens, it was another 20 euros because it was a Tuesday and there was music in the gardens.

I was going back and forth on getting the museum pass and at the last minute decided why not. But after going to Versaille's, I think it would have been cost efficient to just buy individual tickets.

Keep in mind, we only did Versailles, the Louvre and the arc. So maybe if you're using it for other places, it's worth it.

One other advantage of having a pass is that you can make several shortish visits to the Louvre on successive days, instead of trying to see too much in one go.

As Laura said, it's a matter of running the numbers: sum of individual tickets versus the pass). The Paris Museum Pass was a good buy for us - and we skipped Versailles entirely - as it covered most of what we wanted to see plus allows multiple visits to any of the museums it covers. As the Louvre is so huge, we were able to break it into 3 separate sessions (1 long/2 short and one of those during a night opening). With a few exceptions you're able to skip the longest queues (the ticket lines) and get directly into security-check lines (no one can skip security) for people with the pass or pre-purchased tickets.

If you have the time, you might even choose to visit some things you otherwise wouldn't if you didn't have the pass.

Using the Louvre Pyramid entrance with the pass should not be an issue. I'm not even sure that you couldn't use the Galerie du Carrousel or Passage Richelieu entrances as there's nothing currently on the Louvre's website stating that you can't, and they used to specify which entrances passholders should use.

Anyway, If the math works, just purchase your pass when you get to Paris.

We will be in Paris from May 1 - 5, and are planning to buy a four day Museum Pass when we arrive. Our plan is to revisit the Louvre, D’Orsay, Orangerie and Rodin museums. If we have time, we will go to the Picasso Museum which was closed for renovation the last time we were there in 2012.

For us, buying the pass will not save us money, but will offer options for shorter and/or multiple visits.

My husband and I like museums (well, I like museums, he tolerates them) and we prefer the flexibility of the Museum Pass, because (as mentioned by several others here), we can do multiple quick visits, without burning ourselves up on any one site. Even though we no longer use it in conjunction with Versailles, I still think it is a good deal, because we don't feel pressured to stay somewhere if we're not having a good time. For example, one afternoon we went to the Orsay and it was incredibly crowded. We wandered around for 30 minutes and then left and went to the Orangerie (which we LOVED). We probably wouldn't have done that if we had paid individually for an Orsay ticket. Yes, you might be paying a little extra for convenience with the Museum Pass, but I'm more than okay with that.

Laugh if you want, but a museum pass gives you more access to restrooms in Paris. I recall the quick call of nature relieved at the small Delacroix museum...............

Laugh if you want, but a museum pass gives you more access to restrooms in Paris. I recall the quick call of nature relieved at the small Delacroix museum...............