Paris-Museum Pass

The financial value of a city museum pass depends to a huge degree on what covered museums you want to see and how much time you're likely to spend at each one. I'm an in-depth museum-goer, so major-city museum passes with short validity periods don't seem useful for me. If you're more the type to make quick visits to a lot of places, I suppose you might save money with a pass, assuming most of the things you want to do are covered by the pass. If you expect to stroll through neighborhoods, take breaks in cafes and/or go to several sights not covered by the pass, those activities will reduce the time you have available actually to use the pass. Also consider the travel time needed to move between sights; that will further reduce your pass-usage time.

roligirl67,
As mentioned in other posts, the museum pass does not necessarily get you to the head of the line for entrance to a sight. Security lines are the same for people with passes as for those without them. And the current requirements for a reserved time of entrance applies for those with or without a pass. I find that they don't have value for me, and what acraven says is very true. Check out what is covered and what you want to see, then compare individual entrance prices.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm with acraven and Judy. The Paris Museum Pass has lost it's luster especially now with needing timed entries for the big museums. I don't get them any more and just buy tickets online for the museums I'm interested in. My visits are museum heavy but there are also a number of free museums in Paris (most of the City of Paris Museums are free) too.

Before the summer of 2019 when they started restricting the access to one visit per museum (to combat some of the big Asian tour companies who ran a bunch of groups thru on one museum pass) it's value started to be "iffy". Now, particularly for the Louvre, the number of timed entry slots for pass holders is MUCH less than if you purchase outright. There have been times over the last year when people were saying the Louvre was sold out (which can happen). BUT when some of went into the Louvre website the Museum Pass access was sold out but you could still purchase timed entries for full price.

My advice is to look closely at which museums you want to visit, then do a price comparison. If it's close, skip the Museum Pass, if there is a huge financial advantage for your particular trip with the pass,then go for it.

How many days will you be in Paris and what museums do you think you want to visit?

BTW, they sell them in 2, 4 or 6 day increments BUT they are actually 48 hour, 96 hour and 144 hour passes. So if you enter a museum on Day 1 at noon, with a 6 day pass you have until 1130 on Day 7 to enter your last museum.

It is not true that security lines are the same for people with and without passes. This used to be a big advantage for having a ticket ahead (or a pass) because those with tickets and passes used a different security line. Now that many sites require everyone to have tickets and many more people have been schooled to buy ahead, the pass holder/ticket holder lines are now long. At the Louvre you will have the best luck using the Carousel entrance which is only for ticket holders. but you will need a reserved time and there are limited tickets available for those with a pass.

The pass now has no real value UNLESS you plan a museum marathon and have calculated you will actually save significant money using it. You can no longer just drop into museums quickly to use a rest room, or make several entries at the same museum (it is much nicer to make 3 visits of 2 or 3 hours to the Louvre than one long visit). So there is no advantage to having a pass and some restrictions. I'd just buy tickets for the things you want to see on line unless you know you will save money using the pass.

Absolutely agree with the other posters, the usefulness of this pass has diminished significantly with the changes. For most visitors it won’t pencil out. But, sometimes it might make sense, you’ve just got to do the math.

For instance, even though spouse and I are big museum goers, because of all the changes we didn’t buy passes on our last two trips. But we did just crunch the numbers for an upcoming trip to Paris for 8 nights in February and the museum pass is looking like a good deal. We have plans to visit 9 museums/attractions on the pass. I know, that’s a lot . : ) Adding all of the entrance fees up comes to 116€. If we get the 6 day pass (144 hours) at 92€ and we use it strategically (see below), we are ahead 24€.

To get the most out of the pass though, we plan to start at the Pompidou Center in the evening on day one, which allows us to stretch the pass into the late afternoon of the actual 7th day. Our last full day in Paris will be without use of the pass, so we have all non-pass attractions planned for that day.

And yes, as others have pointed out, the biggest caveat for most pass users — time slots at the Louvre are limited. For the day that we wanted reservations, even though availability for regular admission is wide open, our preferred 9:00 am entrance was not available with the pass, so we settled for 10:00 am. Over the recent winter holidays there was a thread on the forum about some days having no availability for pass holders. Yikes!

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies!! We’re so excited for April trip and right in the middle of all our planning and “ stategery” so all the feedback is helpful!

This is a helpful thread for me, but perhaps too late. Looking at our starter itinerary and actual entry costs, we're getting a 4-day pass for our 5 consecutive days of museum-going and should end up slightly ahead financially. Then we'll pay out of pocket for Day 5. And who knows, maybe we'll squeeze in a covered visit or 2 we aren't anticipating during the 4-day period.

I understand that it used to include the metro, which would have been a nice touch, Oh well. I'll be posting a specific question related to our pass use in a new thread!

@cjgwmn - I mentioned this on your Versailles thread but will add it here for others. The 4-day pass is actually 96 hours so if you enter your first museum on Day 1 at noon you have until 11:59 on Day 5 to enter museums. This may have a bearing on how you strategize your museums on Day 5 - if you may want a paid museum and a free museum (for instance Carnavalet or the Liberation and Resistance Museum) that day, do the paid one first thing in the AM and the free one after lunch.

Pam, this info may work beautifully for us to use to visit Musée d'Orsay on day 5, which was one thing we considered paying for out of pocket. Great to know!

Just love this forum. Thank you!

The Museum Pass has not I believe ever included the Metro -- there is a product called a Paris Pass that gives you a very expensive transport product and a museum pass for a lot more than you can buy them yourself.

@cjgwmn -

"Pam, this info may work beautifully for us to use to visit Musée d'Orsay on day 5, which was one thing we considered paying for out of pocket. Great to know!"

Just make sure to do your first museum on Day 1 at a time later in the AM so you can enter the Orsay before that same time on Day 5.