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Paris Update-Versailles

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My wife and I had an amazing time at Versailles. Once again Rick Steves provides outstanding advice and explanations but I would like to emphasize one thing he recommends about Versailles....for 7 Euro, purchase the guided tour of the Royal Apartments. The reasons are three-fold:

  1. The tour, which lasts an hour and a half, in English, was very well done with great information. You will tour parts of the palace that the general public does not get to see. Plus there are only 20 people in the group which allows you great photo opportunities.
  2. Because we booked the tour WE DID NOT HAVE TO WAIT IN ANY LINES!!! When you walk in the gates go to the right and you will see stairs that go up to the guided tours office where there are no lines.
  3. Finally, when we were finished with the tour, we simply started our Rick Steves' guided tour without having to go outside.

We arrived at 1300 took the guided tour and then saw everything we wanted included the working fountains and Marie Antoinette's hamlet and left at 2000. The crowd was not overwhelming and we saw everything we wanted. Another great day in Paris.
BTW, we have used our Paris Pass so much we have already paid for it.

Posted by
506 posts

Thanks for sharing, that is great information about the tour. We are finding now the best way to not waste hours in line is just buy the tour and you get so much more information than just trying to figure it out. It is still cheaper if you are traveling on your own than going on an organized tour which is more of a premium priced vacation.

Posted by
9420 posts

Thanks very much rhett for this great info!!

Posted by
41 posts

We will be in Paris next month, with a day planned for Versailles. How did you book the tour? Thank you for the great tip!
-Nicole

Posted by
8 posts

Two steps:

  1. Make sure and buy a Paris Pass. I cannot emphasize how much time we saved using that plus the money we saved. You will need that for admission to Versailles, a saving of 25 euro.
  2. This is the website to book the apartment tour http://en.chateauversailles.fr/prepare-my-visit-/single/tickets-and-rates/billets-et-tarifs/visites-1-en It is the Private Apartment of the Kings tour and you can print your tickets online.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy Versailles.

Posted by
71 posts

Hi Rhett,

Thanks for posting this! We wanted to do a bike tour but we also wanted to see the apartments.

The apartment won out over the bike tour!

We are going next month. It will be our last day on a river cruise so we won't have a museum or Paris pass. Do we need to buy the Passport in order to see the rest of the Chateau and the other buildings?

Does it look easy to rent a bike while we are there?

Thanks! Glad you had such a great time!

Kelly

Posted by
8 posts

Kelly,

I believe you will really enjoy the apartment tours. The tour guide was really informative and having the opportunity to see parts of the palace that are not part of the normal tour is worth it. There are three bike rental places at the bottom of the hill past the horrible modern art masterpiece. We did not rent a bike but we saw people that had so it shouldn't be that hard.

Since you will not have a Paris Pass I would recommend buying your ticket online so you do not have to go through all the lines. You do have to purchase a separate ticket to get to the gardens as a result I would buy the passport so you can get into everything. http://billetterie.chateauversailles.fr/the-passport-visite-chateau-css5-chateauversailles-pg51-ei110657.html

Let me know if I can help you further. I know you will enjoy your visit.

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