3 Days in Paris: The Perfect Itinerary
With Paris being one of our favorite cities, we are happy to share the perfect itinerary for 3 days in Paris. With a long weekend, it’s just enough time to soak in the french culture, view the Eiffel Tower, say hi to the Mona Lisa and more. We did this 3 days in Paris trip with Charlie’s parents and it was perfect for their first time visiting.
Disclaimer: There isn’t a lot of down time in this itinerary. There is enough to take some breaks in the hotel room, but for no more than a couple of hours. 🙂
Things to know before going to Paris
- Plan your accommodation as early in advance as possible! The best, most central locations get booked fairly quickly so try to find and book your hotel/airbnb as soon as you know when you are going to visit the city.
- Be prepared to walk! Paris is a city that is best explored on foot. There are a lot of great walking tours, though if you aren’t interested in an actual tour, take your time peeking behind doors and going down roads less traveled!
- Beware of some common travel scams like pickpocketers or someone trying to tie a bracelet (string) around your wrist. Make sure you always keep an eye on your belongings and try to wear your purse or backpack towards your front so it’s harder for someone to try to get into it.
- Similar to booking a hotel in advance, try to make restaurant reservations in advance as well. There is amazing cuisine in Paris and the most popular places get booked up fast.
- Don’t rent a car in Paris! Just use their public transportation system. Traffic is quite congested in a lot of areas and it isn’t worth the pain to try to drive yourself. The tram is fast, easy, efficient and affordable for your trip.
Accommodation Options
- Hotel Passy Eiffel: Near the Eiffel Tower, though reasonably priced
- Hotel La Lanterne: In the Latin Quarter
- Hotel Splendid Etoile: Next to the Arc de Triomphe
- Hotel Louvre Saint-Honoré: Near the Lourve
Best Things to do with 3 Days in Paris
For a quick overview, below are the top destinations that you will hit in this interary:
- Palace of Versailles
- The Louvre
- Arc de Triumphe
- Notre Dame Cathedral
- Seine River
- Eiffel Tower
- The Catacombs
- The Champs-Élysées
Day 1: (Start around 10:30a)
We took the train in from Amsterdam to Paris and arrived around 10:30a. If you are flying or coming in from another city, try to make sure you arrive in the morning OR you can come into Paris the evening before!
Start your day with some breakfast (croissant for sure) and then make your way toward the southeast area of the city. For your first stop, check out the Notre Dame Cathedral. Depending on when you go, they might still be doing some work on it (since it caught fire). When we went in August 2022, it was temporarily closed and the website states that the full reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is announced for 2024. Either way, it’s a sight to see, even if you can’t go in!
From there, make your way to the Pantheon (about a 12 minute walk south). We did not get tickets to the Pantheon in advance and waited online for about 10-15 minutes to get in. It’s a fairly quick visit (less than an hour for us) and we did not walk up the stairs to the top (the wait time was 45 minutes). If you want to walk up the stairs to the top, add in an extra hour or so!
Onto the last activity of the day before dinner time – The Catacombs Tour! This was one of our favorite activities and it helped that it was cool underground during the heat wave! 🙂 We did a self-guided tour – they gave us handheld devices and we held it to our ears and listened to the stories of the 6 million bodies in the Catacombs. It was fascinating and creepy at the same time!
Day 2: (Start around 9:30a)
This day is a full day a little outside of Paris! When you plan a trip to the Palace of Versailles, you can be there for just a few hours or you can make an entire day out of it. We decided to plan as if we were going to take the entire day, but ended up staying about 4-5 hours (the heat was insane). You can purchase different types of tickets depending on what you want to do/see – we purchased the “Passport” which allowed us into the Palace, Estate of Trianon and the gardens. The ticket costs €22-29 depending on the time of the year/week you are going.
Make sure to grab some breakfast before heading out to Versailles as there isn’t as many food options around that area (and it’s crowded!)
You can get to the Palace a few different ways:
- Take an Uber – this is what we did. We only chose this option because the trains weren’t running the day, unfortunately. It cost us around €50 there and another €50 on the way back. A bit pricey, but it’s also the quickest/easiest!
- Train – The most common way to get to Versailles is to take the RER C train that will take you to Chateau rive Gauche train station at Versailles. This train station is located about 10 minutes walk from the Palace.
- If you stay in the North of Paris is to catch the train line L from Paris Saint Lazare to Versailles Rive droite. This station is convenient if you are around Montmartre or close to the department stores of the Galeries Lafayettes or Printemps. The Chateau Versailles Rive droite train station is then only a 10 minute walk to the Palace.
Take your time wandering through the rooms in the Palace, take photos in the Hall of Mirrors, frolic through the Gardens – take your time here! Once you are done exploring, take the train or an Uber back to the Paris for dinner time.
Day 3: (Start around 9/9:30a)
Kick start your day by finding a cafe nearby to grab a coffee and pastries. We took some croissants and coffee to the Jardin des Tuileries and people watched for a little bit! Once we finished breakfast, we had tickets for the Louvre at 11:30a. Make sure you purchase tickets to this museum in advance! The line for general entrance without a ticket was astronomical – don’t wait in it if you don’t have to! You can spend the entire day at the Louvre, so if you want to do that – great! We zoomed through the museum, but made sure to see the Mona Lisa (crowded, of course).
Once you are finished with the museum, make your way to the Arc de Triomphe. You can take the underground tram or if you are up for some exercise, walk down the Champs-Élysées! There is some great (but expensive) shopping along the way. Grab a bite to eat at one of the many restaurants along the avenue as well!
Now time for the best view – the Eiffel Tower! We took a Seine River Cruise in the evening to view Paris during the sunset. It was a breathtaking view. Keep in mind that it is crowded around the Eiffel Tower at any point of the day. We walked across the bridge and perched up near Trocadéro Square to try to escape some people and get some good photos. If you are up for staying out late, there is a unique Eiffel Tower show at 1:00am where the golden lights turn off & it’s just white sparkles. The show lasts for 5 minutes so stay for the full viewing and then head home to bed!
There is so much to do in Paris! As we continue to travel to the city we will suggest additional activities and things to see. If you are looking for another weekend trip itinerary, make sure to check out our weekend getaway to Bruges, Belgium! Another romantic spot, not far from Amsterdam! 🙂
