Paris sightseeing tour

A Paris sightseeing tour can be an hour on the river or a twelve-hour day among the castles of the Loire, and the 74 listings on this page run from $20 to $1,910. That spread is why price is the first question. Decide what you can spend; inside each band the choice is between a bus, a boat, a bike, a guide on foot, a museum or a day out of the city.

The one-hour Seine cruise departing from the Eiffel Tower is the most-reviewed listing here: 91,739 reviews, rated 4.4, $20. Commentary comes as audio or through an interactive web app, and the route passes landmarks like Notre-Dame. It is the cheapest cruise on this page, and a sensible first hour in the city before you commit a whole day to anything else.

If you would rather have a seat that keeps moving between the sights, the hop-on hop-off tickets are the next step. The open-top bus with a 1-, 2- or 3-day ticket is $41 and comes with an audio guide for adults and children; the 24- or 48-hour version with an optional river cruise is $44, or $55 with the cruise included. The river equivalent is a 24- or 48-hour boat pass with nine stops for $26.

On foot and by bike the prices stay close to fifty dollars and a guide leads the group. The city highlights bike tour is three hours for $48 and passes sights like Notre-Dame; the nooks-and-crannies ride, also three hours, is $50 and goes through Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Latin Quarter and the Marais. Walking, Montmartre with a local guide is 140 minutes for $22 and the Old Town and Latin Quarter walk is three hours for $44.

Museums are where the $50–100 band earns its place. The cheapest listing with Louvre entry on this page is the $70 guided tour with reserved access, one to three and a half hours, covering the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. A Musée d’Orsay tour with an expert guide is $71. Versailles sits at both ends of the band: a $17 full-access ticket to the palace, Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s Estate and gardens, or a $78 guided tour with priority entry through the Hall of Mirrors.

After dark the listings change character. A two-hour night tour by open-top bus shows the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and the Moulin Rouge illuminated for $32. The Moulin Rouge show itself, with Champagne, is $158 for two hours, and the four-hour dinner show is $284. On the water, the evening cruises with dinner are $73 for 105 minutes and $127 for two and a half hours with live musicians.

Cars, tuk-tuks and private boats fill the upper bands. A private drive in a vintage 2CV is $144 for one to three hours, and a two-hour classic-sites tour in a 2CV with the roof folded back is $259 — the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre pyramid and the Opéra Garnier. A private electric tuk-tuk runs two to eight hours for $261, a limousine hour by day or night is $290, and a private boat on the Seine is $445 for ninety minutes with Champagne or $547 for up to two hours.

The long days are the trips out of the city, and they are long: five hours to Monet’s garden at Giverny for $145 with the round-trip transfer, 10 to 12 hours for Champagne or the Loire. The two-day trip to the coast — Rouen, Honfleur, Saint-Malo and Mont Saint-Michel — is $557. Keep those for a day when nothing else is booked, and spend the first day in the city on the river, a bus or a walk.