It's our first trip to Paris. I just booked this half day tour leaving at 8am, returning at 12:30-1pm. Will the gardens still be beautiful this late in the fall? Summer reviews said the crowds were enormous. Would this be so on Oct 28? It's 8 people max. At $279.23 we are paying for the small group experience. I have 24 hour cancellation. Appreciate the responses. Warren
Posted by
USA
51 posts
We went to Giverny about that time of year. It was lovely although all the flowers weren’t in bloom.
It was a thrill for all of us. We weren’t on a tour.
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1967 posts
Hi Warren, Is the $279 charge per person? If so, it is about double what we paid for our unescorted tour, June, 2025. I have copied a post I made on this topic last month - it might be useful for you.
"The easiest and most time efficient way to visit Giverny (not the cheapest, I think it cost us about 30% more than the get to Gare Lazare - train - shuttle- buy ticket) is to take the Paris City Visions UNESCORTED tour. The comfortable and air-conditioned bus leaves from a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower and takes 75 minutes to get to Giverny. Once there, the tour guide walks with the group to the entrance, hands you your Giverny ticket, and tells you to meet him again in 2 or 2 and a quarter hours. That is enough time - Giverny is not a huge site like Versailles! You are NOT led around the garden like little ducks. The tours leave the ET area at 8:30 or 2:30. We took the 2:30 tour which gave us enough time to do something else in the morning and get lunch. There is also another company that does this - their departure point is near the Arch de Triomphe."
Posted by
Chicagoland
1226 posts
Your visiting at the very, very end of the season, so you won't have the same experience as visiting during the vibrant blooming seasons of spring and summer. Just like at home, the colors will be more muted with dahlias and asters in bloom.
The plus is you won't have the crowds when touring the house and you'll still see the Japanese garden with a chance of getting a picture of the bridge without tourists.
You are paying a hefty price for your tour. It is possible to visit on your own.
Here are some recent posts that may help.
Posted by
USA
202 posts
My daughter and I took unguided Paris City Vision half day to Monet's Gardens and house. I know people on the forum said it was easy to do it ourselves by train but it was our first full day and I wasn't sure about walking to the train station and had little confidence in Metro use and the pick up was close to our hotel in the 7th arr. We paid about $160 total for the two of us this year. It was more expensive than doing it ourselves, obviously, but it was convenient and saved me stress. Blue Fox is pretty expensive. I looked at their tours, too. I didn't care that we were taking a bigger bus to and from Paris and we all spread out once we entered the garden and just met at a certain spot at a certain time at the end.
Posted by
Dallas, TX area
227 posts
We took the Paris City Vision tour ( all day). It is unguided but I don’t know what would be gained from a guided tour. And it also would restrict the time you spent where you wanted to be. We spent a long time in the Japanese garden, just sitting. Taking the all day version gave us a leisurely lunch, then we walked around the village. We visited the Impressionist museum There happened to be a concert at the local church so we had time to enjoy that before we walked back to the meeting place. I think even the halfway tour would give you enough time at Monet’s gardens and House, but I would take snacks since time to eat may be limited.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11307 posts
We went at this very same time last year, the very end of October. It was still beautiful and wonderful. And still a bit crowded in the afternoon. So going in the morning, you should have fewer people.
But we took the train round trip and hired Bolt/Uber cars to drive us to the gardens from the train. Enjoy.
Posted by
16 posts
I might be too late to help.
Our experience w Viator Tours is the cost is too high for the timed experience.
We took Viator to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath - a full day tour.
We got to our first stop, Windsor Castle, & the lines were so long to clear security that we would have had 2 hours to visit. We ended up skipping Windsor & went out to breakfast & wandered the town.
Annoying that too much was planned for one day. We ended up visiting Windsor (took the train from our AirBnB) & spent 5 hours enjoying the castle.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11307 posts
Viator is a giant online agency. They don’t create, organize or run tours. They publicize tours that are listed with them and take a percentage of the money.
Often you can book the same tour for less money directly with the tour company or another tour aggregator such as Get Your Guide. What tour A does in one city has no relationship with what tour B does in another.