Top 5 ways to get around Paris

Planning a weekend break in Paris and wondering what is the best way to get around the city?

Here are some transport tips that will help you choose how to go from the airport to your hotel, from the Eiffel Tower to the Latin Quarter, Montmartre or the banks of the Seine.

1. Metro

Paris’ underground train system is the best way to get around the city. There are metro stations near nearly every place you could want to go in Paris. Its clean, well lit and not scary at all even on the last metro home on a Saturday. Like with all public transport in a big city you have to keep your wits about you. Especially as the first time you will no doubt get lost, or get on a metro going in the wrong direction!

Ok so the basics. Metro stations are advertised unsurprisingly with a big ‘M’ sign or ‘Metropolitan‘. You need a ticket which you can buy from a machine or from the counter. The machine is in English and can be a lot quicker. It also takes your credit card if you have a chip and pin. The best thing by far to do is buy a ‘carnet’ which is a set of 10 one way tickets which will set you back about 11 euro. You could also pay a one day/one week ticket, but I find carnet the most flexible way to do things unless you are 100% sure you will travel by metro every time. One ticket will do you until you walk out of another station, in other words you could go around all day on the metro for the price of one ticket.

Work out where you need to go first on your trusty metro map which you can pick up at your hotel. If you need to do more than one change it can get a bit complicated, but keep your head you can do it!

2. On foot

Paris is the ideal city for walking around. It has stunning architecture and good looking people to gawk at, the streets are pretty flat (unless you walk up to the Sacre Coeur) and there are maps and policemen everywhere to get directions.

You will find a map at most intersections, with a helpful ‘vous etes ici‘ part to help you locate yourself. The best thing about walking around though, is all those coffee breaks (or champagne breaks!) you have to take while you regroup and look at your map again and plan your next stop!

3. Velib

Oh the fun you can have on a Velib! Velib are bicycles for rent all around the city of Paris. There are stations everywhere and basically you pick one up at one station and dump it at another station when you get tired. You initially have to sign up at a terminal at one of the stations, which is a bit complicated but if you persist you will be fine. Select English as the language and battle on from there. You will need a credit card and it costs about 1euro an hour with the first 30 mins free. If you are really smart you would keep changing every 30 minutes or so, but that sounds like a lot of effort for me! They are ideal for getting from one place to another and then parking it up. As mentioned above, Paris streets are very flat, so no major puff factor. You have to have a bit of road sense, because even though there are bus lanes and bike lanes everywhere Parisian drivers are a bit crazy!

4. Taxi

Unless you really have to get a taxi, I would say don’t. There really is no need in such a well serviced town like Paris. Even from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris Orly Airport, as there is a brilliant train service from the airport right into the city centre. Late at night there are night buses, so even if you’ve partied into the wee hours and missed the last metro, there are buses all over the place. The area around Châtelet is the main hub. And you can use one of your carnet tickets on them. So the only excuse really to get a cab is, if your flight is delayed and you have no option as the transport closes down from the airport at around midnight. But its going to be pricey, so find out the price before hand, or you could find your taxi driver taking the long way to Paris! Should be around 50/60 euro.

5. Roller blade

For some crazy reason they are big on the roller blades in Paris! Every Friday night about 15,000 bladers take over the streets of the city! This means that its a blade friendly town. Now I can’t recommend it personally being more of a Barbie roller skate kind of girl (well 15 years ago!) but if its your thing, go for it!

Photo of boy skating in Paris by night originally posted by malias

Topic:  Top five Monday | 1 Comment
Tags:  Paris, transportation

About the author

Julie Shackleton is a freelance writer and lawyer currently based in Dublin, Ireland, but as she has spent more of her free time in Paris lately is seriously considering a permanent move!