Paris Travel Tips: 40 Things to Know Before You Go

The first thing that goes wrong for most visitors to Paris is not dramatic. It is a Tuesday, they have walked to the Louvre, and the Louvre is closed. Or it is Sunday and the food shopping they had planned is impossible. Or they sat down on a terrace, ordered a coffee, and paid twice what the person standing at the counter three feet away paid for the same cup. None of this is in the guidebooks under “things to see”, and all of it is the difference between a good week and a slightly frustrating one. These are the paris travel tips that matter — the practical mechanics of the city rather than the sights.

What follows is a reference rather than an itinerary: forty numbered things about money, transport, opening hours, eating, phones, language and etiquette that between them cover almost everything a visitor gets wrong. If you are looking for a first-timer’s orientation — what to see, in what order, on a first trip — our first time in Paris guide does that job and this one deliberately does not. Every price here was checked in September 2026; treat them as the right order of magnitude rather than a quotation, because French museum and transport pricing has moved more in the last two years than in the previous ten.

The things most likely to catch you out

Before you go (1–7)

1. Check your entry requirements late, not early

Europe’s border rules are mid-change. The Entry/Exit System, which replaces passport stamping with biometric registration at the external Schengen border, has been rolling out progressively, and the ETIAS travel authorisation for visa-exempt nationalities has been repeatedly postponed. Whichever applies to you may have changed between when you booked and when you fly, so check again in the month before you travel rather than relying on what you read a year ago. Our visa and entry requirements guide is kept current.

2. Six months of passport validity, and blank pages

The general Schengen rule is that your passport must have been issued within the previous ten years and be valid for at least three months beyond your intended departure. Aim for six months of validity and you will never have to think about it.

3. Book the timed-entry sights before you book dinner

The Eiffel Tower summit, the Louvre, the Catacombs, Sainte-Chapelle and the Notre-Dame towers all run timed slots, and the popular ones go weeks out in summer. Everything else in Paris can be decided on the morning. Get the tickets that expire first.

4. Travel insurance that covers a phone

Theft is the realistic risk in Paris and a phone is what usually goes. Check the single-item limit, not just the headline figure, and check the reporting window — many policies require a claim within 24 or 48 hours. Our insurance guide works through the exclusions that matter.

5. Photograph your documents

Passport page, both bank cards, insurance policy number, accommodation address. Store them somewhere you can reach from a borrowed device. Four minutes at home, a saved day in Paris.

6. Download what you need offline

Maps, the transport app, and your tickets. Mobile signal in the Metro tunnels is good but not universal, and the moment you need a map is usually the moment you have come up the wrong staircase. Our roundup of the Paris apps worth having covers which actually work underground.

7. Pack for cobbles and for rain

You will walk between eight and fifteen kilometres a day on uneven stone. Nothing ruins a Paris trip faster than the wrong shoes, and no season here is reliably dry. See our packing list for the full argument.

Money (8–14)

8. Paris is a card city now

Contactless is accepted almost everywhere, including bakeries, market stalls and taxis, and often for amounts under a euro. Carry €40–60 in cash for the handful of holdouts — some small bars, a few market traders, the occasional museum cloakroom — and stop worrying about it.

9. Always refuse “pay in your home currency”

When a card terminal offers to charge you in pounds or dollars rather than euros, that is dynamic currency conversion and the exchange rate is set by the terminal’s operator, not your bank. It is reliably worse, sometimes by four or five per cent. Choose euros, every time, at every machine.

10. Use bank ATMs, not the standalone ones

Machines in the wall of an actual bank — BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, LCL — do not charge their own fee. The independent machines in tourist areas, often branded Euronet, do, and they also lead with the currency-conversion offer above. The difference on €200 is easily €10.

11. Bring two cards and keep them apart

One in your pocket, one in the room. This single habit converts a stolen wallet from a crisis into an inconvenience.

12. Service is included. Tipping is optional and small

French law requires that service compris is built into the menu price. You are not stiffing anyone by leaving nothing. What people actually do is round up or leave a euro or two for good service in a café, and perhaps five per cent after a genuinely good dinner. Twenty per cent is an American import and will confuse rather than delight.

13. The terrace costs more than the counter

Many traditional cafés run two prices, and they are legally required to display both: au comptoir (standing at the bar) and en salle or en terrasse (seated). An espresso might be €1.80 standing and €3.50 on the terrace. Neither is a scam. You are renting the chair and the view, and on a good afternoon that is worth it.

14. The VAT refund exists but rarely pays

Non-EU residents can reclaim VAT on purchases over €100 from a single shop on the same day, which after the processing company’s cut typically returns around 12%. It is worth doing on a coat, pointless on a scarf, and it requires customs validation at the airport before you check in — allow an extra 45 minutes. Our tax-free shopping guide has the process.

Getting around (15–21)

15. Work out your ticket before you arrive, because the maths changed

Since 1 January 2026 a single Metro, RER or train ticket within Paris costs €2.55, a bus or tram ticket €2.05, and — importantly — the old discount for buying ten at once no longer exists. The options that still save money are the Navigo Jour day pass at €12.30, worth it from about five journeys, and the Navigo Découverte weekly at €32.40 plus a €5 card fee, which covers every zone including both airports. Our Navigo and tickets guide works through which suits which trip.

16. The Navigo week is Monday to Sunday, whatever day you buy it

This catches out an enormous number of people. Arrive on a Thursday and buy a weekly pass and you get four days for the price of seven. Arrive on a Monday and it is the best value in Paris. Check which side of that line your trip falls.

17. Bus and Metro tickets are not interchangeable

A €2.05 bus ticket does not work on the Metro, and a Metro ticket used on a bus does not allow you to transfer onto the Metro afterwards. Day and weekly passes sidestep the whole problem, which is a good reason to buy one.

18. There is a €14 flat fare to and from both airports

A specific airport ticket, valid on the RER B to Charles de Gaulle and on the Orly routes, priced at €14 regardless of where in Paris you start. It is also included in a Navigo Découverte week, which is often the reason to buy one.

19. Taxis to the airports are a fixed price

Licensed Paris taxis must charge a flat rate between the airports and central Paris: €56 to the Right Bank and €65 to the Left from Charles de Gaulle, €41 to the Right Bank and €36 to the Left from Orly. No meter, no negotiation, no surcharge for luggage or for the hour. Use the official rank, say the flat rate out loud before the bags go in, and ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal. Our airport transfer guide compares every route.

20. Walk more than you plan to

Paris is small. It is about ten kilometres across at the widest point of the twenty arrondissements, and a great many Metro journeys people take are fifteen-minute walks with two staircases attached. The rule of thumb: if it is two stops on the same line, walk it. Our walking guide has routes worth the shoe leather.

21. Know when the Metro stops

Roughly 01:15 on weeknights and around 02:15 on Friday and Saturday, with the last train leaving the far end of the line at that time rather than reaching your station then. The Noctilien night buses cover the gap and are perfectly usable. Our Metro guide has the detail, and the wider transport guide covers trams, buses, Vélib’ and the rest.

Opening hours and the rhythm of the day (22–28)

22. Get the museum closing days right

This is the highest-value fact in this entire guide. The Louvre and the Musée de l’Orangerie close on Tuesdays. The Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Rodin, the Musée Picasso, the Catacombs, the Musée de Cluny and the Château de Versailles close on Mondays. Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, Sacré-Cœur, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower open daily. Plan around this and you never lose an afternoon.

23. Sunday is quieter than you expect, but not closed

Many independent shops close on Sundays, and some also close on Mondays. What stays open: bakeries (often mornings only), museums, markets, the big department stores in the designated tourist zones, restaurants, and the Marais, where Sunday is the busiest shopping day of the week. Plan a Sunday around a market, a museum and a long lunch and it is one of the best days of a Paris trip.

24. Lunch is 12:00 to 14:00, and dinner starts at 19:30

Kitchens in traditional restaurants genuinely close between services. Turn up at 15:30 hoping for a proper meal and your options collapse to brasseries and cafés with all-day menus. If you want to eat outside those hours, look for a brasserie, which is the format designed for exactly that. Turning up for dinner at 19:00 will often find an empty room; 20:30 is the local hour.

25. August is real, and less severe than the legend

Paris still empties in August, and a proportion of neighbourhood restaurants, bakeries and small shops close for two or three weeks with a handwritten note in the window. Museums, monuments and anything tourist-facing stay open. It is a genuinely pleasant time to visit — hot, empty, and with parking spaces — provided you do not have your heart set on a specific bistro. Our guide to the best time to visit Paris weighs the months against each other.

26. Book the first slot of the day for the big sights

The difference between the Louvre at 09:00 and the Louvre at 13:00 is not marginal; it is a different building. Same for Versailles, Sainte-Chapelle and the Catacombs. If you only take one piece of advice about crowds, take this one.

27. Bakeries close on a rota, not at random

Most boulangeries take one day off a week, and it varies shop to shop precisely so that a neighbourhood is never without bread. If your favourite is shut, the one two streets away is open.

28. Pharmacies have a green cross, and one is always open

French pharmacists are trained to advise on and dispense for a great deal that would need a doctor elsewhere — minor infections, stomach trouble, allergies, dressings. There is always a designated pharmacie de garde open overnight and on Sundays in each district, posted on the door of the closed ones. For anything more serious, 15 for the medical emergency service or 112.

Eating and drinking (29–34)

29. Say bonjour first. Everything else follows from this

Walking into a shop, a bakery, a restaurant or a taxi and beginning in English without a bonjour reads in France as skipping the greeting entirely — roughly the way it would read to walk up to a stranger and start talking without saying hello. It is not about language ability. Say “bonjour” (or “bonsoir” after about six), then carry on in English, and the reputation Parisians have for rudeness quietly evaporates. Add “merci, au revoir” on the way out.

30. Ask for a carafe d’eau

Tap water, free, and restaurants are required to provide it. “Une carafe d’eau, s’il vous plaît.” The bottled water on the table is a paid option, not the default.

31. Eat the set lunch

The formule or menu du jour — two courses, sometimes three, at a fixed price of roughly €18–26 — is where French restaurant value lives. The same kitchen at dinner will charge half as much again for a similar plate. Make lunch your main meal at least twice.

32. Avoid anywhere with photographs on the menu

The reliable markers of a tourist trap in Paris: pictures of the food, a menu translated into six languages, a person outside inviting you in, and a location directly facing a monument. The corollary is cheering — walk one street back from anything famous and the quality jumps. Our restaurant guide and the cheap eats roundup are organised around this principle.

33. Coffee here is not what you are used to

“Un café” means a single espresso. If you want something longer, ask for un allongé; milkier, un café crème. Filter coffee is unusual outside the specialist places. Paris has an excellent modern coffee scene now, covered in our cafés guide, but a traditional café is a place to sit rather than a place with good coffee, and that is a fair trade.

34. Bread, cheese and a market beat most restaurants

An assembled picnic — a baguette from a proper bakery, cheese from a fromagerie, fruit from a market, a bottle from any shop — eaten in the Luxembourg or on the Seine steps costs €15 and is one of the best meals available in the city. Our guides to the food markets and the best bakeries are where to start.

Reading a French menu without a phone

Menus are rarely translated in the places worth eating in. These are the words that do most of the work.

Our guide to the French dishes worth ordering goes further, and the food guide covers what to eat where.

Etiquette and behaviour (35–37)

35. Volume is the giveaway

The single most reliable way to be marked as a tourist in Paris is not clothing or a camera; it is talking at the volume normal in a North American restaurant. Rooms here run quieter. Match the room and you will be treated differently.

36. Queue etiquette, escalators, and the Metro doors

Stand on the right on escalators. Let people off the train before boarding, which is enforced socially rather than by signage. Do not hold the doors. And do not stop dead at the top of a staircase in a station — apart from being unpopular, it is precisely the crowd condition that pickpockets in Paris work in.

37. Dress is neither formal nor sloppy

Paris is less dressed-up than its reputation and considerably less casual than most visitors expect. Nobody will refuse you entry anywhere for wearing trainers. But athletic wear outside a gym, and shorts outside high summer, read as odd. Churches ask for covered shoulders and knees, and Sacré-Cœur and Notre-Dame do enforce it.

The twenty words that carry a whole trip

Nobody expects fluency. What changes your week is a handful of formulae used at the right moment, and Parisians respond to the attempt far more warmly than the stereotype suggests.

• Bonjour / bonsoir — hello, before anything else, in every shop and every room you enter.
• Merci, au revoir — on the way out, always. Leaving silently is the actual rudeness.
• Excusez-moi de vous déranger — sorry to bother you, before asking a stranger anything. Softens everything that follows.
• Parlez-vous anglais ? — asked rather than assumed. This one sentence is the whole difference.
• S’il vous plaît — please, attached to every request.
• Je voudrais… — I would like, which is politer than “je veux”.
• C’est combien ? — how much is it?
• Je ne comprends pas — I don’t understand. Better than nodding.
• Pardon — for squeezing past on a crowded pavement or train.
• Laissez-moi tranquille — leave me alone, said firmly, for the one occasion you need it.

Two small refinements that mark you out as paying attention: use vous rather than tu with anyone you have not been invited to be familiar with, which is everyone you will meet as a visitor; and note that bonjour becomes bonsoir at around six in the evening, with no fixed rule and no consequence for getting it wrong.

Phones, plugs and practicalities (38–40)

38. Sort connectivity before you land

An eSIM bought before departure is now the simplest option for most visitors, and France has good coverage everywhere you will be. UK travellers should check whether their operator has reintroduced roaming charges, which several have. Free Wi-Fi is available in every City of Paris library, museum and park under the municipal network, and in most cafés on request.

39. Type E plugs, 230V

France uses the two-round-pin socket with an earth pin protruding from the wall. A standard European adapter fits; a few older sockets do not accept the flat-sided variety. Voltage is 230V at 50Hz, so most modern chargers work without a converter — check anything with a heating element.

40. Public toilets are free, findable and better than you think

The grey self-cleaning sanisettes on the street are free and there are several hundred of them. Failing that: any department store, any museum you have a ticket for, and — with the observation that ordering a coffee first is the polite move — any café. Train stations charge, typically €1–2.

Accessibility, which nobody tells you about honestly

Paris is a nineteenth-century city with a hundred-and-twenty-year-old underground railway, and the practical consequences are significant enough to shape a trip.

The Metro is largely not step-free. Only line 14 is fully accessible along its length; most other stations involve stairs, often several flights, and many have no lift at all. This affects far more people than wheelchair users — anyone with a heavy case, a pushchair, a knee that objects to stairs, or small children who will not be carried.

What works instead:

• The buses. Almost the entire Paris bus fleet is low-floor with ramps and dedicated spaces, and the network is dense. Buses are also much the better way to see the city, since you are above ground. This is the single most useful piece of accessibility information about Paris.
• The RER has step-free access at a reasonable proportion of central stations, though the gap between train and platform can be substantial — staff will bring a ramp if you ask at the ticket office.
• Line 14 runs from Saint-Denis through Saint-Lazare, Châtelet, Gare de Lyon and Bibliothèque out to Orly, which happens to be a useful spine.
• Taxis, including wheelchair-accessible vehicles that must be booked in advance rather than hailed.

The major museums are a happier story: the Louvre, the Orsay, the Pompidou, Versailles and the Eiffel Tower’s first two levels are all accessible, and most French national museums admit a disabled visitor and one companion free of charge, often with a separate entrance that bypasses the queue. Ask at the group entrance rather than joining the main line. Our guide to Paris with a pushchair covers much of the same ground from a different angle, and most of it applies equally to anyone avoiding stairs.

Luggage, arrival day and departure day

The two days that go wrong most often are the ones with a bag in your hand and no room to put it in.

• Left luggage exists and is worth using. The mainline stations have staffed consigne facilities, and there are independent storage points across the centre, typically €6–12 for a day. Book ahead in summer, when the station lockers fill.
• Hotels will hold bags before check-in and after check-out, free, as a matter of course. Ask; it is entirely standard and it converts a dead half-day into a usable one.
• Do not plan the Metro with a large case at rush hour. Between the stairs and the crowding it is genuinely miserable, and it is when luggage gets lifted from the racks on the RER. A taxi for that one journey is money well spent.
• Allow properly for airport departure. Charles de Gaulle is enormous and its terminals are far apart; two hours before a Schengen flight and three before a long-haul one is the sensible margin, more if you are claiming a VAT refund, which must be validated before you check the goods in.

What to expect by season

Our guide to the best time to visit Paris compares the months in detail, and the seasonal guides to spring and autumn go further on what is actually on.

What a day in Paris actually costs

Figures checked September 2026, per person, excluding accommodation.

For the full picture including accommodation and flights, our trip cost breakdown does the arithmetic properly, and the budget guide and money-saving tips cover how to compress it.

The ticket prices worth knowing before you plan

Two honest verdicts to save you money. The Eiffel Tower’s summit is the weaker ticket: the second floor is where you can actually identify landmarks, and the summit adds a separate queue for a flatter, more distant view. And the Museum Pass only repays a punishing pace — two or three paid sights a day, every day. Our assessment of the pass and the wider city pass comparison run the numbers for different trip shapes.

Emergencies and useful numbers

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to speak French in Paris?

No. English is widely spoken in the centre, in hotels, museums and most restaurants. What you do need is the greeting — “bonjour” on the way in, “merci, au revoir” on the way out — and a “parlez-vous anglais?” before switching. That small ritual does more for how you are treated than fluency would.

How much cash should I carry in Paris?

Forty to sixty euros is plenty. Cards work almost everywhere including small purchases, and carrying more is a liability rather than a convenience.

Is the Paris Museum Pass worth buying?

Only if you are visiting two or three paying sights a day for the duration. At €90 for two days it needs roughly three major museums a day to break even, which is more art than most people can absorb. It does let you skip ticket queues, though not security queues, and it does not include the Eiffel Tower.

What is the best way to get from the airport into Paris?

The €14 airport ticket on the RER B from Charles de Gaulle, or Metro line 14 from Orly, if you are travelling light and arriving at a reasonable hour. The fixed-price taxi if you are arriving late, with luggage, or with a group — at €56 to €65 from CDG, split three ways it competes on price as well as comfort.

How many days do I need in Paris?

Four is the number that satisfies most people: three for the headline sights at a civilised pace and one for a day trip or for doing nothing in particular. Our guide to how many days Paris needs makes the case, and the day-by-day itinerary planner covers everything from one day to ten.

Is Paris expensive?

Accommodation is, and it is the line item that decides your budget. Everything else is comparable with any large western European capital, and the food is better value than the reputation suggests if you eat at lunch and avoid the streets facing monuments. See our cost breakdown.

What should I not do in Paris?

Do not skip the greeting. Do not tip American percentages. Do not eat facing a monument. Do not buy tickets from anyone approaching you in a queue. Do not put a bag on the back of a chair on a terrace. And do not plan the Louvre for a Tuesday.

Is Paris safe for visitors?

Yes, with the qualification that theft from tourists is common and concentrated in a small number of known places. Violent crime against visitors is rare. Our guide to how safe Paris really is covers the crime types, and the scams guide covers the confidence tricks.

When is the cheapest time to visit Paris?

January and February, after the New Year, when hotel rates fall sharply and the museums are empty. November is the other quiet window. Both are cold and dark, and both are genuinely good times to be in a city with this many indoor rooms worth sitting in.

If you want the fuller version of the language question — fifty phrases sorted by the situation you will actually be standing in, with pronunciation, plus an honest note on which textbook lines no Parisian has said aloud since the 1970s — we have a separate guide to French phrases for travellers. The short answer stays the same: it is the greeting that matters, not the grammar.

The etiquette points above are the compressed version. If you want the fuller account — café conduct, volume, dress codes that are actually enforced, la bise, behaviour on the Metro, and the surprisingly long list of things visitors worry about that nobody minds at all — see our guide to Paris etiquette and the unwritten rules visitors keep breaking.

The tipping question comes up more than any other, so it gets its own page. The short answer is that service is included by law and rounding up is plenty; the longer answer covers the amounts for taxis, hotels, guides and hairdressers, and the practical snag that most French card terminals have no tip prompt at all. See our full guide to tipping in Paris.

The money items above are the headlines. The full version — which cards are actually accepted where, the specific French banks whose ATMs do not charge, why standalone machines in tourist areas cost €6 a withdrawal, and a worked example of exactly what the conversion trap takes off a €1,000 week — is in our guide to money in Paris: cards, cash and ATMs.

The connectivity question deserves more than one line, because the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive way of solving it is roughly tenfold. A 5 GB travel eSIM costs €10–15 and covers a comfortable week; a carrier international day pass can cost that much every day. Our guide to staying connected in Paris works through the three options, the French tourist SIM prices, and where the free Wi-Fi is.

The awkward gap between checkout and a late train catches almost everyone once. Your hotel will usually hold bags for free on the day you leave; failing that, SNCF lockers at the big stations cost roughly €5.50–9.50 for 24 hours, and app hosts such as Bounce and Nannybag take a case for about €5–7.50. Our guide to luggage storage in Paris compares every option and flags the museums that refuse suitcases outright.

One timing tip catches out more visitors than any other: in August, many of the city’s small family-run restaurants, bakeries and shops close for two to four weeks, usually around the 15th, though the museums and monuments stay open. If a particular bistro is on your list, check its summer dates. Our Paris in August guide explains what closes and what doesn’t.

Related Paris Guides

• First Time in Paris: What Nobody Tells You
• The Paris Metro: A Complete Guide
• Navigo Passes and Paris Transport Tickets
• What a Trip to Paris Actually Costs
• Is the Paris Museum Pass Worth It?
• Is Paris Safe? An Honest Look
• What to Pack for Paris
• The Paris Itinerary Planner: 1 to 10 Days