Paris--Gare Du Nord to Orly

The RER B + Orlyval is your fastest route (35-40 minutes). The fare is €9.60.

I haven't been to Orly, so I can't comment on which route is "easiest/less hassle." However, be aware that the RER C doesn't go all the way to Orly. There is a free shuttle bus from the Pont de Rungis-Aeroport d'Orly RER station to the airport.

I know about the shuttle bus. I've arrived at Orly many, many years ago and took the Air France bus to Invalides which was close to my hotel. But since I'm not actually staying in Paris, just using it as a transfer point, I wanted to get any experience on which of these routes was "best"--time, hassle, cost.

All three are pretty easy if you're comfortable with the RER. What's the cheapest?

RER B + Orlyval = 9.60€ (Corrected)
RER B + RER C + Pont de Rungis shuttle = 3.60€
RER B + Orlybus = 7.90€

Update: Actually, the RER B + C route costs 6.10€ - my mistake. Still cheaper, though ;-)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! I don't know how long the shuttle takes, but Gare du Nord to Pont de Rungis takes 51 minutes. Use this RATP tool to calculate long distance RER fares.

Thanks to all for that....I guess it's "flip a coin" time.

RER B to Orlyval seems the "easiest" and only 2.5 Euros more.

Martine, the RATP tool for which you gave a link shows a fare of €3.60 from central Paris to Pont de Rungis. Why did you cross out that figure and change it to €6.10?

Tim, while wandering around on RATP, I found this page which lists the price as 6.10€.

It's weird, when you take the page Martine referenced, and try to translate it using the little "British" flag on top, it goes to the "Paris Visite" page. Don't they think some of us want to buy individual tickets and not just the pass?

Martine, your original tool site gives the fare to Versailles-Rive Gauche (zone 4) as €2.90 and Marne La Vallee-Chessy (the Disneyland station in zone 5) as €6.45. It still seems strange to me that your second page shows a fare of €6.10 to Pont de Rungis which is in zone 4. I've used the Transilien site to check fares in the past, but at the moment its "prix par trajet" feature isn't working so I can't do a fare comparison there.

Frank, I think that RATP pushes the Paris Visite pass because it's more profitable for them than some of the other options. If you click on "Discover Paris" at the top of the page and then on "t+ ticket," you'll get information about single tickets. (Admittedly, RATP makes it a bit hard to find.) And the English version of the site does not list any of the other kinds of passes that are available in addition to the Paris Visite.

For a page listing all your ticket and pass choices with links to detailed explanations of each one, go to this page on the Transilien site.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I can't seem to find a page that will give me the fares between zones for Paris. (Something like this is easy for the London tube.) Tim do you know of any? You tend to be our resident expert when it comes to choo-choos...:)

Anyone else?

Frank, I don't think you're missing anything. Since the RATP site gives two different fares for central Paris to Pont de Rungis (€3.60 and €6.10, depending upon which page one uses), I wish the fare finder on the Transilien site were working.

However, I do know that it's not a simple matter of how much it costs to travel between zones because RER trains to the airports cost more than RER trains on other routes. For example, I know that it costs €8.40 to take the branch of the RER B line to CDG (zone 5) but a lot less to take the RER A to Marne la Vallee-Chessy (also zone 5). If the fare I quoted before (€3.60) from central Paris to Pont de Rungis on the RER C (zone 4) is correct, that's more than the fare (€2.90) from central Paris to Versailles-Rive Gauche (also zone 4) on a different branch of the RER C.

I do know that a single t+ ticket is good anywhere the Metro goes (some lines end in zone 3) but only in zone 1 on the RER.

Thanks Tim. I not going to lose any sleep over a few Euro.