Cost of Museum Passes along with Metro cards

Hi Fran. Don't listen to your travel agent! I assume you're talking about Paris so here are my suggestions. My sister and I went to Paris for a week last September and we each bought a six-day Museum Pass. They cost 69 euros each if you buy them in Paris (as compared to buying them online and having them sent to your house). This great website will tell you everything you need to know: http://en.parismuseumpass.com/ As far as Metro passes - we didn't go that route. We each bought a carnet of 10 tickets at the RER ticket window at CDG Airport. Those tickets, plus six more tickets purchased individually, lasted us a week (Friday to Saturday, not including a day trip to Versailles). Be aware that if you're flying into CDG and want to take the RER into town, you will need to buy an RER ticket (not the same thing as a Metro ticket). I don't remember exactly what the carnets cost but it wasn't that much - $15, maybe? Hopefully someone else here knows the answer to this. The RER ticket cost about 10 euros. So you can see that a 69-euro pass (approx. $88) plus another $15 or $20 for a carnet, is nowhere near $299!

Sarah is correct. Buy your museum pass at a minor museum for 39E (2 day pass). Buy a book of metro tickets. Really sit down and figure out what museums you want to see. Two days is pretty tight. There will still be some waiting in line but at least at the Louvre you can use the back entrance right across the street from the metro stop Palais Royal not the Louvre stop.

Thanks for the information! We have three full days in Paris and then off on a River Cruise along the Seine. Our plan is to do Musee D'orsay the second morning and then we are going to do the Paris Walk the next day. The Paris Walk was recommended by Rick Steves which will take us along the following: Notre Dame, Point Zero, Deportation Memorial, lle St. Louis Left Bank Booksellers, Medieval Paris, Shakespeare & Co. Bokstore St. Severin, Place St. Andres-des Arts, Place St. Michel Sainte Chapelle, Cite Metro Stop, Conciergerie, Place dauphine
Statue of Henry IV and Pont Neuf If either of you have been to Notre Dame, is it easy to navigate? Should I take a tour? Once again, thank you very much. Fran

Notre Dame is extremely easy to naviagate , since traffic flows in one door and out the other, and your like a salmon swimming against the current if you try to go "wrong way",so don't worry about it. Also, like for cathederal may look crazy long but don't panic, its just a bottleneck at door and line generally continually moves along. I really hope you don't listen to your travel agent ( in fact for your visit to Paris I would suggest you not even use her/him, as they are usually less then helpful and often have no first hand experience, who would suggest anyone pay that much for two days is crazy!!!) I am just checking since I get confused easily, but is your plan just to visit Orsay , and St Chapelle( or is that a walk by?) .. if so why get a museum pass at all?

hi +1 (i agree) i just bought my Paris pass at the nearest museum near me on the day i was there. and yes, it should be ALOT cheaper than the 300 USD (United States Dollars). Happy trails.

Hi, everbody! Thank you all for the helpful suggestions! When we take the Paris Walk our intention is to visit St. Chapelle, Notre Dame and everything that is on the list if possible. This will be our second day in Paris and on the first day we are going to D'Orsay very early. I'm assuming that I can purchase the Museum passes at Orsay. It was such a relief to hear about Notre Dame and that it is easy to navigate. I thought I would have to book a tour for that, but now that I know better I will do on our own. Everytime we visit a new country I get very anxious, but everyone has really helped me. I wish I would have known about this blog before I went to Italy, because the first time I was a nervous wreck. Anyone ever do the Catacomb tour? How about the Sewer tour? Do you think they were worth it. Any recommendations per restaurants would be helpful as well.

hi again, you can buy the pass at anywhere its accepted. just a thought, on one of your walks and if near or at one of the attractions, look at buying it then. Yes you can buy it at the MO (this is on a big white stone in front of the Musee D'Orsay) but i would try to get it sooner if possible. If the MO is the first museum that will use the Pass then its no biggie. with regards (w/re) to the Catacombs and the Sewer tour. i can think of better places to go before them. The Catacombes are cool in a creepy way since there are sooooo many bones down there. The Sewer tour is neat in that you can see how the sewer system in paris was and still is. I would go to the Pantheon , Arch De Triomphe or the Army Museum before i go to the Sewer or Catacombs. happy trails

Fran from your post it seems you will only have to pay admission to Conceirge , St Chapelle and Orsay. The other places are free or walk bys.
I personally wouldn't buy a museum pass just for that . Out of the ones you have listed the one for lines will be St Chapelle and Orsay. I would just visit St Chapelle first thing when it opens( or just before it opens) on one day, and then visit Orsay first thing ( just before opening) on other day.. most line issues won't be issues if you get their before opening..

Fire the travel agent!!! Taxi from airport: 50 Euro-$64.25 RER train from airport around 10 euro-$12.85 Carnet of 10 tickets: 13,30 euros-$17.09 incl. metro in city center Tickets: Saint Chapelle 8 Euro-$10.28 audioguide 3 euro $3.86 daily 9:30-6 open late wed 9:00pm D'orsay: (closed mondays) tu-su 9:30-6 9 EURO-$11.57 Audioguide 5 euro-$6.43 open late thurs till 9:45pm So if you take a taxi, buy a carnet, visit two attractions your cost would be
88,30 E or $113.47

FIRE THE TRAVEL AGENT and hire Gerri,, not kidding,,, lol
Seriously , with being able to keyboard and google nowadays almost anyone can do a great job planning a personal and fun trip for less money then any travel agent, not that travel agents don't have some good skills, I would use one maybe for booking a complicated flight, but for most casual trips, its better to do it on your own. The savings alone make it worth it, but the quality of the trip is the real bonus payoff..

You're all correct about travel agents! Sometimes I think they make things too complicated and I've certainly gotten much more information on this website. Gerri, you're hired!

Hey guys, thanks for the acolades. Had these at my fingertips as we are doing 10 days in Paris and environs. Still get irritated when some of these "Travel Experts" give out incorrect information

A clarification to Pat's post. There are lines at St. Chappelle, so you should indeed go early. But the problem line is for the security check (it's in the same facility as the criminal courts building), and you can't bypass this security check even with a museum pass (the pass only gets you past the ticket buyer's line).

Yes - there is a security line at Ste Chapelle and they are very strict about following the rules for what is allowable. No blades, corkscrews or anything of that nature. Not usually a problem, but we were trying to get in after a picnic lunch and had our picnic stuff with us. I also think that you might not need a museum pass. You can reserve and print your tickets online for the Musee d'Orsay and then go to the line for people with tickets which is much shorter. A museum pass only makes sense if you are going to a lot of museums or you want to go to them more than once.