3 Days in Paris: A First-Timer's Itinerary You Can Actually Walk

Three days is the right amount of time for a first visit to Paris, provided you stop treating the city like a checklist. This route keeps to one part of town per day, so you spend your time inside the Sainte-Chapelle and on the Seine rather than on metro platforms, and it books the handful of places that genuinely sell out before you get on the plane.

The plan assumes three full days. Most flights land in the morning and hotel rooms are ready in the afternoon, so the day you arrive is treated as a bonus evening, not as Day 1. The same goes for the day you leave. If you land at dawn and feel fine, the planner above will slide Day 1 forward for you.

Every day has a closing-day check. The Louvre shuts on Tuesdays and the Musée d'Orsay on Mondays, which is the single most common way a Paris trip goes wrong. Swap the days around to match your dates, and use the table further down to see which order works.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Notre-Dame is free to enter, so it is not on this list. Everything below can be booked now, and the prices are the lowest adult prices on the booking page; the exact price depends on the date and the option you choose.

Arrival evening: what fits after check-in

Most travelers reach the hotel around mid-afternoon with luggage, a long flight and no real appetite for a museum. That is fine. The best first evening in Paris costs nothing and needs no ticket: walk to the river, eat early, and let the city do the work.

If your hotel is on the Left Bank or near the islands, cross to the Île Saint-Louis, buy an ice cream on the main street and follow the quays west to the tip of the Île de la Cité. If you are near the Eiffel Tower, go up to the Trocadéro terrace after dark: the tower sparkles for five minutes at the start of every hour from nightfall until midnight, and you will want that photo on night one, not night three.

• Landed before noon: you can add the Day 1 morning (Notre-Dame and the islands) on arrival day and keep the rest of the plan.
• Landed in the afternoon: river walk, early dinner, bed. Start Day 1 tomorrow.
• Landed after 20:00: skip the walk. A good night's sleep is worth more than a blurry Eiffel Tower.

Day 1: The islands, the Latin Quarter and the Musée d'Orsay

Day 1 starts where Paris started, on the Île de la Cité. Notre-Dame opens before 8:00 on weekdays and is calmest in the first hour, so go early; entry is free. After the cathedral, walk five minutes to the Sainte-Chapelle for your 10:15 slot. The lower chapel is plain on purpose; the upper chapel, with fifteen windows that turn the room into stained glass, is the reason you came.

The combined ticket includes the Conciergerie next door, the medieval palace that became the Revolutionary Tribunal's prison. From April to September it closes before the chapel does, so in those months see the Conciergerie first and keep your Sainte-Chapelle slot; in winter the chapel closes first. Then cross the Petit Pont into the Latin Quarter for lunch, browse Shakespeare and Company, and walk up through the Sorbonne streets to the Luxembourg Gardens, where Parisians sit in the green metal chairs and you should too.

From the gardens it is a twenty-minute walk through Saint-Germain-des-Prés to the Musée d'Orsay. Two and a half hours is enough for the Impressionist floor, the clock windows and the sculpture hall. On a Thursday the museum stays open until 21:45, which lets you swap the afternoon for an evening visit and spend more time in Saint-Germain. Finish on the river: the cruise piers at the Pont de l'Alma are two stops away on the RER C, and a boat at dusk shows you everything you walked past that morning.

Stops in order

1. 8:30 · Notre-Dame Cathedral: free entry, calmest before 9:006 Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II, 75004, Paris
2. 10:15 · Sainte-Chapelle: timed ticket, allow 45 minutes8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
3. 11:15 · Conciergerie: same ticket, about an hour2 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
4. 12:30 · Shakespeare and Company: lunch around rue de la Huchette or rue Saint-Séverin37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005, Paris
5. 13:45 · Panthéon: outside only on this route; the crypt is a separate ticketPlace du Panthéon, 75005, Paris
6. 14:00 · Luxembourg Gardens: free, open from early morningPlace Edmond Rostand, 75006, Paris
7. 14:40 · Saint-Germain-des-Prés: coffee stop; the church is free3 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006, Paris
8. 15:00 · Musée d'Orsay: timed ticket; on Thursday stay until 21:451 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007, Paris
9. 19:00 · Bateaux-Mouches pier: one-hour cruise from the Pont de l'AlmaPort de la Conférence, 75008, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Do the Sainte-Chapelle in sunshine

The windows are the whole show, so if the forecast says Day 1 is grey and Day 3 is bright, swap them. The chapel looks a different building on a sunny morning, and the cathedral and the gardens on this day work in any weather.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Keep the chapel and the Conciergerie, swap the gardens for the Musée de Cluny around the corner, and go into Orsay an hour earlier. The cruise boats have covered decks.

Day 2: The Louvre, the Tuileries and the Arc de Triomphe

Book the Louvre for 9:00 and be at the pyramid ten minutes early. A three-hour visit covers more than most people manage: the Mona Lisa first, before the room fills up, then the Winged Victory staircase, the Italian paintings in the Grande Galerie and Napoleon III's apartments, which almost nobody puts on their list and everybody remembers. Leave the Egyptian wing for a second trip; you can't see the Louvre in a morning and should not try.

Eat in the arcades of the Palais-Royal or along the rue Saint-Honoré, then walk the length of the Tuileries Garden. At the far end the Orangerie holds Monet's Water Lilies in two oval rooms built for them, and forty-five minutes there is the best value in Paris. It shares the Louvre's Tuesday closing, so this day is the one to keep off a Tuesday.

From the Place de la Concorde, walk up the Champs-Élysées. It is a long, straight avenue, about two kilometers to the top, and fine in the late afternoon light. The Arc de Triomphe roof is open late in every season, which makes it the right place for sunset: you look down twelve avenues and straight at the Eiffel Tower you will climb tomorrow. Use the underground passage to reach the Arc; never cross the roundabout on foot.

Stops in order

1. 9:00 · Louvre Museum: timed ticket, three hours; any exit is finalPont du Carrousel, 75001, Paris
2. 12:30 · Palais-Royal Garden: lunch nearby; the garden and the Buren columns are freePassage du Perron, 75001, Paris
3. 14:00 · Tuileries Garden: free113, 75001, Paris
4. 15:00 · Musée de l'Orangerie: timed ticket, 45 minutes for the Water LiliesQuai des Tuileries, 75001, Paris
5. 16:00 · Place de la Concorde: freePlace de la Concorde, 75008, Paris
6. 16:30 · Champs-Élysées: about 2 km uphill to the ArcAvenue des Champs-Élysées, 75008, Paris
7. 18:30 · Arc de Triomphe: rooftop, open late; go up about 30 minutes before sunsetTunnel de l'Étoile, 75008, Paris

If you are here on a Wednesday or a Friday, the Louvre stays open until 21:00. Turn the day around: Tuileries and Orangerie in the morning, the Champs-Élysées and the Arc at midday, and the Louvre from 17:00, when the crowds thin out.

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Mona Lisa first, then everything else

The Salle des États fills up from about 10:00. Walk straight there from the pyramid, look for as long as you like, and spend the rest of the morning in rooms you have to yourself.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: This is already the best rainy day of the three: the Louvre and the Orangerie are indoors, and the Palais-Royal arcades keep you dry at lunch. Swap the Champs-Élysées walk for line 1 and go up the Arc only if the cloud is high enough to see the tower.

Day 3: The Eiffel Tower and Montmartre

Take the first Eiffel Tower slot you can get. Start at the Trocadéro for the classic photo, walk down through the gardens and across the Pont d'Iéna, and be at your entrance with time to clear security. The second floor has the better view of the city; the summit adds height, a glass of champagne if you want one, and another queue for the second lift. Either is worth it once. Afterwards, walk the Champ de Mars to rue Cler for an early lunch.

In the afternoon, go north to Montmartre. Ride line 2 to Anvers and climb to the Sacré-Cœur, or take the funicular with a metro ticket if the stairs look too much. The basilica is free, and the dome, paid on the spot, gives you the highest view in central Paris for the price of a sandwich. Then lose the crowds on purpose: the Place du Tertre is busy, but two streets away the rue de l'Abreuvoir, the pink Maison Rose and the vineyard look like the Montmartre in the paintings.

Come down through the Place des Abbesses, past the Wall of Love, and have dinner on the slope. The Moulin Rouge is ten minutes downhill if you want a cabaret on your last night, and it needs booking. If not, a late metro back to the Trocadéro catches the tower sparkling at the top of the hour, which is a fitting way to end three days.

Stops in order

1. 8:45 · Trocadéro Gardens: free, best photo before 9:30Paris
2. 9:30 · Eiffel Tower: timed lift ticket; allow two hours with security5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007, Paris
3. 11:45 · Champ de Mars: freeAvenue Bosquet, 75007, Paris
4. 12:15 · Rue Cler: lunch, market streetRue Cler, 75007, Paris
5. 14:30 · Sacré-Cœur: basilica free, dome tickets on the spotRue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018, Paris
6. 15:30 · Place du Tertre: busy, keep walkingPlace du Tertre, 75018, Paris
7. 16:00 · La Maison Rose: rue de l'Abreuvoir and the vineyardRue de l'Abreuvoir, 75018, Paris
8. 17:00 · Place des Abbesses: Wall of Love in the square next doorPlace des Abbesses, 75018, Paris
9. 21:00 · Moulin Rouge: optional cabaret, book ahead82 Boulevard de Clichy, 75018, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Book the second floor if the summit is gone

Summit slots vanish first. If they are sold out for your dates, take a second-floor ticket now: it is the better view of the city anyway, and the stairs option is usually the last to sell out.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Low cloud hides the view from both the tower and the dome. Keep your tower slot if the forecast is merely wet; move it if the cloud base is low, and spend the morning in the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides instead.

Departure morning: the Marais

On the last morning you have luggage, a check-out time and a train or plane to catch, so nothing on this list needs a ticket and nothing is far from line 1. The Marais is ideal: breakfast in the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, then the falafel shops of the rue des Rosiers and the courtyards of the Musée Carnavalet, which is free.

Leave the city with a margin. Paris traffic and the RER are reliable until they are not, so plan to leave the center three hours before an international flight.

• Place des Vosges: arcades, cafés and the Maison de Victor Hugo, free, in one corner of the square.
• Rue des Rosiers: falafel to take away, which also solves lunch on the train.
• Musée Carnavalet: the history of Paris in two mansions, free, closed on Mondays.
• Luggage: most hotels keep bags after check-out; ask the night before rather than at the desk on the day.

Which day goes where

The three days can run in any order. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

Put Day 2 on any day except Tuesday and Day 1 on any day except Monday. Day 3 works every day of the week.

Pick a different 3-day Paris route

The route above is the one most first-time visitors should take. It is not the only good way to spend three days. Traveling with a four-year-old, arriving in the week before Christmas or coming back for a second time all call for a different plan, and each of the routes below was built for one of those situations rather than adapted from this one.

Grouped by theme: families (4), couples (2), budget and style (3), food and wine (2), art and history (5), neighborhoods and angles (6), seasons and weather (5), beyond the city (3). All of them are on the itineraries page with filters.

Shorter or longer than 3 days in Paris

Three days is the sweet spot, but flights and budgets do not always cooperate. These versions start from the same logic, one area per day and the timed tickets booked first, and tell you plainly what to drop or add.

• 2 days in Paris: The weekend version: what to cut and what never to cut.
• 4 days in Paris: The classic route plus a fourth day, in the city or out of it.
• 5 days in Paris: Time for Versailles and a slower Marais.
• One week in Paris: Seven days with two day trips and a rest day.
• London and Paris: Splitting a week between the two cities by Eurostar.

What 3 days in Paris cost in tickets and transport

The timed tickets on this route start at €179.50 per adult for the three days, and most of that is two things: the Louvre with a guide and the Eiffel Tower. Everything between them is free: the cathedral, the gardens, the bridges, the Champs-Élysées and the Sacré-Cœur. Transport is the other cost, and it is lower than most visitors expect.

💡 Pro Tip

Book the two big ones first, today

If your dates are fixed, book the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre before anything else. They are the two tickets that decide the shape of Days 2 and 3; every other stop on this route can be moved by an hour without consequence.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Planning guides for your Paris trip

Four questions decide most short Paris trips: whether three days is really enough, how to get around without wasting money, when to go, and where to stay with children. Each has its own guide.

• Is 3 days enough in Paris?: What three days covers, what it does not, and when to add a fourth.
• Getting around Paris in 3 days: Single tickets, Paris Visite or Navigo Easy: what three days actually cost.
• The best time for 3 days in Paris: Month by month: crowds, light, prices and what is closed.
• Where to stay in Paris with kids: The arrondissements that make a family trip easier, and the ones to avoid.