Paris Visite Pass

The best deal is a Navigo Decouverte pass, but it only goes Monday morning to Sunday night, so it would only work for you if you arrive early in the week(ie Tuesday to Sunday). If your travel days straddle the weekend, (ie Friday to Tuesday) then the z1-5 Visite would work best.

A Navigo Decouverte card costs 5 euro and is good for five years. You must attach a 2.5cm x 3cm photo to it. Loading a zone 1-5 Navigo Semaine on the card costs 34.40 euro. If you arrive at CDG on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, a Navigo Semaine will be a better deal than a Paris Visite pass.

Interestingly, the Navigo Decouverte is not valid for use on the OrlyVal shuttle, but the Paris Visite is valid.

At current pricing for the 5 day pass (57,75€) it is highly unlikely you are going to get your money's worth on the pass. The cost of the tickets you mention only comes to about 30€. Although you don't want to walk a lot, it is unlikely you are going to use the bus and metro 20 times - especially if you spend a day at Versailles and a day with a rental car. However, there are a few advantages to getting the Paris Visite that you might want to consider along with the cost. 1) You'll only stand in line to buy a ticket once. and 2) You won't hesitate to jump on a bus or metro for only a block or two if you have the pass. You might think twice about it if you have to use up a ticket, or are running out of tickets. It could mean you're less tired and enjoy the trip more.

Ok, just as an excercise, here are the crunched numbers. I used St Michel-Notre Dame as Paris hotel neighborhood. You did not mention return to CDG, so I assume you are leaving town via train. CDG>Paris. 9.50 Paris>Versailles Rive Gauche. 4.10 Versailles Rive Gauche>Paris. 4.10 Paris>Orly Airport. 11.30 Orly Airport>Paris. 11.30 That comes to 40.30. Add 13.30 for 10 ticket Metro carnet and that gets you to 53.60. So you are paying 4.15 for the convenience of not standing in line to buy tickets for the out of town journeys. Also, there are some discounts associated with the Visite: 20% discount at Arc de Triomphe, Conciergerie, Invalides, Open Tour HOHO bus, 25% Bateau Parisiens boat cruise.
Individual route prices are at http://www.ratp.fr/tarifs/en/ratp

Thanks for all the responses and for breaking down those numbers for me. It sounds worth the convenience to me to pay the 4€ extra. At my age I am willing to spend a bit more for convenience and just having one "ticket/card" to worry about carrying, not having to stand in line etc.

FYI for anyone reading this. You don't have to take the OrlyVal to get to Orly Airport. You can reach it via RER and bus for a cost of under 7€ from Paris, or with a zone 1-4 Navigo. OrlyVal is faster and more direct, but more expensive.

To make this work you need to buy it at CDG when you arrive. I've never bought either pass and I'm wondering where all the lines were when I went to buy the carnet at a tobac or my RER tickets. You might want to consider the Paris Museum Pass. That lets you avoid the real lines at the attractions. The lines at Versailles and the Louvre can be particuarly brutal. The Orsay wasn't exactly short either. Visiting Versailles is usually what it takes to make this time saver actually pay off financially. You didn't mention any other places you were going but you should do the math on the attractions you are planning to see.

I'm not sure that the Museum Pass will be cost efficient. We have been to Paris before and are spending 2 of our 4 days outside of the city. One day when we are going to Versailles but I understand you can buy tickets online and have them sent to you so that you can avoid waiting in line. For the Louvre, we wil just try to get there as early as possible.

Nelle, you do not need to worry about lines at Louvre, I have been at least 9 times now, latest was last summer in July ,, and the trick to avoiding long lines is so easy. Do not use Pyramid entrance. Thats it. Enter via the Caroseul Mall entrance. I have never waited more then 10 minutes to get through security entering this way.

I can't do the analysis for your trip but going to Versailles, the Louvre and the Orsay will cost you 36 euros. The two day Paris Museum Pass runs 39 euros. If you squeeze in one more sight, you'd certainly pay for it. When I looked up this on their site, it also includes the Paris Visite Pass for the days it is active. When in Paris, I'm there for longer for two days so it's always been worthwhile to get the museum pass. Short visits are harder to justify.

Thank you Pat and Ken. Great information. I'll just do a photo by the pyramid but go in another entrance. And I will definitely rethink the museum pass especially if it includes the transportation pass.

Although this is kind of hypothetical, for me the difference between 36 and 39€ would work in a different way. I'd rather have more flexibility to spread my museum visits out over several days rather than being compelled to be museum- and site-crazy for the two days I had invested in the pass (and I would buy my tickets ahead of time at the FNAC, or go in via underground at the Louvre). This may not be relevant for you as you don't have many days, but it's another perspective.

I think I misread a website. When I relooked at the Paris Museum Pass it does not include a Paris Visite Pass. The Paris Pass does include the Visite Pass but it is a lot more expensive. Buying a pass is always a exercise in the mathematics of your sightseeing plans. Two days is hard to justify anywhere that have these types of cards. If you can justify a short term card, it always requires carefully organizing your visits to maximize card value. The key to the Paris Museum Pass is including Versailles and all the outer attractions there. They are very pricey but not to be missed. The six day Paris Museum Pass was for me easily justified. There was no frantic rush to see every covered sight and it was easy to use. Almost every significant museum in Paris is covered so it's almost a universal entry pass. The pass also got me over any reluctance to spend a handful of euros for a sight that didn't sound all that interesting. We could pop in; and if interesting, we stayed. If not, out we went. We could also have multiple entries. So if we were ready for lunch, we could leave and then reenter to pickup where we left off.