I bought a museum pass, but wish I had just bought the ticket (15€) combining D'Orsay and the Rodin museum. I don't have the stamina to take advantage of the museum pass. There is another pass combining D'Orsay and the Orangerie for 16€ I think.
First Sunday of the month, beginning in November, many museums are free.
Hindsight is always 20/20, eh?
Passes of any kind are only a bargain if you have the time you use them, and are interested in the attractions they cover. We always do the following when considering those:
• Make a list of what we want to see
• Add up cost of individual entry fees to those attractions
• Consider how many attractions we can actually see in the number of days we have
Most passes incude all sorts of things we're not interested in and/or don't have time to fit into the itinerary without running around like headless chickens. I will say, however, that the Paris Museum Pass ended up to be a good value for us, and we more than broke even on our 6-day pass during our week in the city. A Friends Of The Uffizi membership also worked well for us in Florence. But again, I did the math in advance.
We have never purchased passes which include public transit as we would never get the value out of those: we don't take public transit enough times in a day/week to justify the cost. Free museum days? We tend to avoid those as the most-visited museums are usually mobbed on those days.
Anyway, doing the math in advance and being realistic about the time you have are key when considering passes, and may help you avoid some buyer's remorse next time?
Hi Swan, I agree with the above poster that making a list of the sites you plan to visit is the key. I do a spreadsheet and plot out the days and opening/closing hours of the museums/sites covered and then add up the costs to see if there's an advantage to purchase the pass and which days make the most sense. For example, we plan to purchase a 2 day Paris Museum Pass for 42 euro and, if we can stick to the plan, will save about 30 euro on entrance fees. There is also the big advantage of skipping the lines and being able to pop in for a restroom or coffee break if you need it.
Or if your plans include Versailles the Museum Pass is more of a no-brainer since that's one of the more expensive sites. But as Swan noted, when your time/energy are limited or you are focused on seeing or two specific sites, the pass may not be economical or appropriate.
I was concerned about long lines at D'Orsay. It turned out that lines were very short so I wouldn't have had a problem.
As another viewpoint, we were very glad that we purchased the Museum Pass our first time in Paris. We ended up stopping by three extra places than we had originally planned and avoided the long line at Louvre. Also, we had read to utilize the toilets at museums, and it did help us not need to search for one while we were enjoying Paris.
In thinking about Paris Museum Pass, you should consider not just the price of individual entrances but also the advantage of skipping ticket lines. That wasn't a big deal in my recently-concluded October 2014 trip, but all the same I appreciated the convenience.
I think the Paris Museum Pass is one of the better passes out there for big cities in Europe. Especially if you are going to the Louvre and Versailles, you only have to go to a couple other sites and it pays for itself. I enjoyed the opportunity to pop in some smaller museums that I wouldn't otherwise have paid for.
