Versailles English Tours

You totally skip the line with the King's tour BUT you also spend 90 minutes doing it before being deposited inside the main public area of the chateau where you proceed along the prescribed route -- the chateau is crowded and you can go at your own pace but you must follow the prescribed path. There is zero need for a guided tour of the chateau itself -- it is well signed and the route is fixed.

For the Kings tour your wait in a lounge sort off to the right until your time when your guide will take you through a designated door for security screening -- you have to have a ticket for the tour and then a ticket for chateau entry which is recorded at this private entrance. After the Kings Apartments Tour you are left inside the chateau. You do not wait in the long lines for chateau entry that even those with timed tickets wait in.

We though it was a bit of a waste of time but we have also toured a lot of chateaux; if you haven't you would find it more interesting. The public rooms are spectacular and well worth the visit.

The Chateau de Versailles [Palace of Versailles] (official) app is available to download. Take a look at that.

It has MULTIPLE audio guided tours in it.

• The State Apartments
• The Apartment of the Captain of the Guards
• The Louis XIV Rooms
• Coronation Room/ Gallery of the Great Battles
• The Empire Rooms
• The Gallery of the Coaches
• The Gardens
• The Grand Trianon
• The Gardens of the Grand Trianon
• The Petit Trianon
• The Queen’s Hamlet
• … and more, yet.

Available in English and with photos, maps and room by room stations on the playlists.

Easy to proceed at your own pace. More than you can see and hear in a day. By downloading this in advance of your visit you can preview so much, decide your own strategy - or plan of attack - and move as you choose.

I have to imagine Versailles still offers English-speaking tours thru their website. But in the event they do not during your dates, a couple years ago we visited the palace with Paris Webservices (recommended in Rick's Paris book). Their tours encompass small groups, direct pickup from (and transportation back to) most centrally located hotels in Paris, timed entry into the palace with an excellent [English-speaking] guided walk through the various rooms, and separate-ticket access to enjoy the gardens afterwards. While certainly pricier than Versailles' self-contained option, the quality of our guide (and hassle-free, door-to-door delivery) made for a much more efficient and enjoyable experience than when we had visited almost twenty years prior, independently, taking the train and using an audio guide. Not a shill for the company, just passing on our experience factor if you need to consider another option.