OpenTour vs Paris Visite? Batobus vs Bateaux Mouche?

The Batobus is a bus that happens to be a boat that goes up and down the river. There are various stops on either side located at places where tourists often go. Bateaux Mouche is a tour boat. You do not get on and off where you want. You get on where it starts and get off in the same location when the trip is over.

Thanks for the reply; I thought I'd read that on the batobus there is commentary you can hear via headphones while riding from place to place. My mistake. I understand it's a mode of transport rather than a tour.

The price of the bateaux mouche seems a little steep if I am essentially getting the same info on the OpenTour, and the same views by riding the batobus.
Does that make sense?
Maybe the question should be: is the bateaux mouche good enough to do in addition to the OpenTour?

Hello Brooke,
I highly recommend the Batobus which goes near all of the tourist attractions except Montmarte. (I would skip Montmarte if you only have the weekend--it's rather far from the other attractions.) You don't need any other transport, assuming you are good for walking a mile or two.

Using the Batobus dock at the ET or the one at the D'Orsay, you can easily access Notre Dame and the two Islands, the Louvre, and the Marais. Sometimes your closest stop is on the other side of the river but there are numerous bridges.

If you want to climb Notre Dame, go first thing in the morning. It's also open late on summer Saturdays, but I don't know about September. If you want to see Paris from up above without any lines, you could visit the 8th floor open deck at Le Printemps department store.

End your day by sitting on the Champ du Mars enjoying the ET sparkles which are on the hour for five minutes. If the weather is nice, you could enjoy a gourmet picnic while doing this.

The open tour is great, especially if it is your first trip to Paris. The various routes hit all the high points that most would want to see, and you can get on and off to visit sites you are the most interested in. Our first trip, we only took one ride around the city to get our bearings and then used Metro for transportation.

I have done both boats. The Batobus is just that. It stops all along the Seine. It is a little weird at night, as they turn all the lights on as they dock and let people on and off. But it is inexpensive!

The other boats offer a variety--some are just a ride and some include an expensive (and from other posters here not very good) meal. I haveonly done the ride and Paris on the Seine at night is glorius. Again, if this is your first time, I would take the boat ride, not the Batobus.

We loved the L'Open tour our first time in Paris. You could do that on Saturday and then it's easy to figure out what you want to go back and see for the other 2 days. The batabous is also fun.

I didn't get a chance to finish my response earlier. I was at work (taking a well deserved break!) and someone had the nerve to interrupt me. I hate it when work gets in the way! :-)

I was going to say that the batobus is a pleasant way to get around, but as you have been told there is no commentary. It is still worth using. If you want to do a boat with the commentary, I suggest doing it after dark. It is magical seeing Paris from the river at night. I wouldn't bother with the overpriced dinner cruise. In my experience with the batobus, it stops running before it gets dark enough for the bridges to be lit up, etc.

Thanks to all for the responses!

Andrea and Sue, the bateaux mouche at night sounds like a must-do. :) Not as expensive as I thought, either.

Cynthia, great ideas! Good tip about Printemps.

Ambrosia, you read my mind...think I will do the Open Tour on Saturday, then do the Paris Visite and batobus on Sunday.

We'll actually be stopping back in Paris for one night on the way to the states. Staying in Montmartre then. Might save the Bateaux Mouche for that evening...good way to say "au revoir" to Paris!

Thanks again to all! :)

The Paris Visite is not a tour but a day or multi-day ticket for normal Paris public transport (bus, tram, metro, RER train but not I believe Batobus) aimed at tourists. It has some discounts attached to it, but unless you plan to use a lot of the discounts it is very expensive and poor value for money compared to getting a "carnet" of ten discount one-way tickets.

If you're going to take a cruise on the Seine without dinner, I recommend Bateaux Vedettes du Pont-Neuf over Bateaux-Mouches. The boats are smaller so you don't feel like you're part of a herd of cattle.

Right, by saying "I'll do Paris Visite" I meant we'd use that as our transportation on Sunday to go back to the places we would like. I understand it may not be cheapest way to go (though at 9 euro, it's really not bad).
But for an unseasoned traveler such as I, it's easier to keep track of one pass and know that it will last all day rather than count down with each bus/tram/metro ride.

All said, it is good to hear from others who have been there...no substitute for experience! I will keep this in mind as I lay out a more concrete plan.
Tim, thanks for mentioning the Bateaux Vedettes du Pont Neuf. Will check into that.

Brooke, you can get a one-day Mobilis for about 6 euro, good on buses & metro.

As Norma said, a Mobilis pass is a much better deal than a Paris Visite pass. The current price for a zone 1-2 Mobilis pass is 6.10 EUR. Besides the metro, RER, buses, and trams, it's good on the Montmartre funicular. Compared to the price of t+ tickets from a ten-ticket carnet, it will pay for itself on the 6th ride.

We did the nite river bus tour and I highly recommend it. It's wonderful seeing the sights at nite, many of which are lit up. Don't do a dinner cruise, just a basic nite tour. And dress warm; it can get cold out on the water.

Ok, so I've read up a little on the various passes..and come to another question.

If I am using the batobus and RATP in one day, a mobilis and ParisVisite may both be overkill.
If I buy a carnet, can this be shared between my husband and myself? This is not clear in the articles I've read.

Thanks again! :)

Hi Brooke,

A carnet is just a bundle of separate individual tickets. You can share them with anyone.

Have fun! I'll be there in October - Can't wait!

Linda, thanks! We're SO excited.

Thanks again to all of you for tolerating a newbie's questions. :) Happy travels!

Right. Thanks, Steve. :)