Every château, cellar and Seine cruise, reviewed.
Which Eiffel Tower ticket really reaches the summit. Whether the Louvre needs a guide. Where the Saint-Émilion cellars pour on a Sunday. Three thousand French days out, priced and timed.
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the rest of the French shortlist.
The tower, the museum, the palace, the river, the vineyards and the abbey in the bay. Six bookings most French itineraries are built around, and the best version of each.
Eiffel Tower: three ways up, three different days.
All 45 Eiffel Tower tickets →
Lift to the second floor, a second lift to the summit at 276 metres, or 674 stairs through the ironwork if the queue is long and the legs are willing. The gap between them is about an hour and about thirty dollars.
Summit access, lift the whole way
The second floor first, for the ironwork and the view along the Seine, then the small lift to the summit where the wind arrives and the city flattens out below.
The stairs to the second floor
Six hundred and seventy-four steps up through the lattice, which is the only way to see how the thing is actually put together. The summit lift is still yours to buy at the top.
Up the tower, then an hour on the Seine
Tower first, boat after, so the bridges arrive at eye level once you have seen them from above. Most combinations sail from the Port de la Bourdonnais at the tower’s foot.
The Louvre, Versailles, and the cruises that keep pace with them.
Every review →These carry more travellers than anything else on the site, and each one earns the day it takes.
1
Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
Review of the Louvre timed-entry ticket, with practical advice on queues, Mona Lisa crowds, museum highlights, timing, and value.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Disneyland® Paris 1-Day Ticket
from $61
3
Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket
from $17
4
Evening River Cruise with Music
from $27
5
Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit Access
from $29
6
Eiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor Access
from $59
7
Louvre Guided Tour with Reserved Access & Boat Cruise
from $81
8
Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne
from $115
From a $20 cellar tasting to a private day in the Loire.
Every tour on the site, cheapest first. The cheap end is not the thin end.
Cellar tastings, market walks, tower tickets and the timed museum entries.
The standard French day: guided Louvre mornings, Seine dinner cruises, Saint-Émilion afternoons.
Private drivers, full days in Normandy or the Loire, and the tables worth dressing for.
Four days in Paris, and the queue is the enemy.
The Louvre takes a morning, Versailles takes a day, and both sell timed slots that disappear through the summer. Book the hours that need booking, then walk the rest of it.
Bordeaux pours at eleven, Saint-Émilion at three.
Gravel on the left bank, limestone on the right, chalk two hundred kilometres north under Reims. Bordeaux runs half-day château circuits; Saint-Émilion adds an underground church and a village that fits in an afternoon.
Between Nice and Menton the coast does all the work.
Three corniche roads stacked up the cliff, Èze on its rock, the deep harbour at Villefranche, and Monaco close enough for an afternoon. Half a Riviera day is driving, and the driving is the point.
- 1French Riviera in One Dayfrom $85
- 21-Hour Sightseeing Cruise to Villefranche Bayfrom $33
- 31 or 2-Day Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tourfrom $28
A tidal abbey, a chalk cellar, and a road above the sea.
Vineyards and cathedrals turn up all over Europe. An abbey the sea walks around twice a day, tunnels of Champagne cut into chalk, and the corniche between Nice and Menton do not.
The Abbey in the Bay
The bay has the largest tides in continental Europe, and on the spring tides the sea crosses the sand faster than a person walks. The abbey stands on granite above a village that is one street wound around a hill. Day trips from Paris run four hours each way and are still the most-booked thing in Normandy.
- 1Day Trip to Mont-Saint-Michel from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,876 reviews
- 2Mont Saint Michel Day Trip from Paris with English Speaking Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,750 reviews
- 3Mont Saint Michel Day Trip with a Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,970 reviews
The Chalk Cellars
Reims and Epernay sit on chalk the Romans quarried, and the houses store their bottles down in it at a steady ten degrees all year. A cellar visit is a walk through cold tunnels stacked to the ceiling, and it ends with the part everyone came for. Most run from Paris by train and back the same evening.
- 1Champagne and Family-Run Wineries Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 671 reviews
- 2Reims afternoon tour Champagne and family growers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 535 reviews
- 3Morning Champagne Tour and Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 463 reviews
The Corniche Road
Three roads run from Nice towards the Italian border, stacked one above the other on the cliff. The highest follows a Roman route and passes Èze, a village on a rock with a cactus garden where the castle used to stand. Drivers take it slowly, which is the correct speed for it.
- 1French Riviera in One Day★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,215 reviews
- 2The Best of the French Riviera Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,130 reviews
- 3The Best of the French Riviera Small group Guided Tour from Nice★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,033 reviews
In June, Paris does not switch its lights on until ten.
Every French evening out →Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with Champagne
Read our review →3-Course-Dinner Cruise on the Seine with live music
Read our review →Book these before you leave for France.
Most of France can be arranged from a café table the same morning. These cannot. They run on timed slots, monthly ticket releases and dinner services that fill weeks ahead.
- 01Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance TicketEntry is timed. Slots are released ahead and the morning ones go first.
- 02Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access TicketPalace entry is timed and the Tuesday closure catches people out. Fountain days fill the gardens.
- 03Moulin Rouge Cabaret Show Ticket with ChampagneOne or two seatings a night and every seat is assigned. Weekend tables go well ahead.
- 04Eiffel Tower Entry Ticket with Optional Summit AccessSummit tickets are released about two months out and sell through fast in summer.
Rain in Paris is a museum problem, and it is already solved.
Normandy and Brittany take their weather off the Atlantic, and Paris gets its share of it through the spring. The answers are all indoors and worth a day in any weather: stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle, the clock at the Orsay, a chalk cellar, a kitchen with a rolling pin on the bench.
By region — Channel coast to the Mediterranean
Paris350 tours
Nice & the Riviera49 tours
Bordeaux35 tours
Marseille & Provence23 tours
Normandy20 tours
Lyon18 tours
Strasbourg & Alsace16 tours
Corsica13 tours- All 20 regions →
Paris, the Loire, Bordeaux, the Mediterranean.
Versailles
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Afternoon Wine Tour to Chateauneuf du Pape from Avignon
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Tailored Wine Tasting Experience in Top Wine Shop
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From Aix: Cassis Boat Ride & Provence Wine Tasting Day Tour
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Alsace: Full-Day Wine Tour & Tastings from Strasbourg
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