3 Days in Paris with Kids (Ages 5 to 12)

Paris with children works best when every day has one thing they will talk about at dinner and plenty of space between them. This route keeps the big tickets in the mornings, when kids still have energy and queues are shortest, and fills the afternoons with gardens, playgrounds and a boat. It never asks a seven-year-old to stand in front of a painting for three hours.

It is also cheaper than it looks. Child tickets cost less than adult ones almost everywhere, and the best afternoons on this route, the Jardin des Plantes and the Luxembourg Gardens, cost nothing at all. Most of the money goes on the three things worth paying for: the tower, a cruise and a science museum that keeps children busy for hours.

As with every route on this site, the day you land is not Day 1. Families arrive with tired children and too much luggage, so the arrival evening is a short walk, an early dinner and a reward. The three full days start the next morning, and you can put them in any order that suits your dates.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

The prices below are the lowest adult prices on the booking page. Each ticket offers child options at the checkout, and the free parks on this route keep the total down.

Arrival evening with tired kids

Give the first evening a single, simple goal. Drop the bags, find the nearest bakery for a croissant or a crêpe, and walk to a square, a river bank or a carousel. Paris has hand-cranked carousels in many squares and a merry-go-round at the foot of the Eiffel Tower; one ride and an early dinner is a better first night than any museum.

If the children are still awake after dark, the Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes at the start of every hour from nightfall. In winter that means 18:00 or 19:00, which is perfectly reasonable for a seven-year-old. In June it is 23:00, which is not, so save it for the Christmas trip.

• Hotel near the Eiffel Tower: walk to the Trocadéro or the Champ de Mars carousel.
• Hotel in the Latin Quarter or Saint-Germain: ice cream on the Île Saint-Louis.
• Hotel in the Marais: the Place des Vosges, with its sandpit and fountains.

Day 1: The Eiffel Tower, a boat and a knight's armour

Start at the Trocadéro, where the terrace gives children the whole tower in one frame, then walk down through the gardens and across the bridge. Book the first or second slot of the day: the security lines are shorter, the lifts are calmer and young legs are fresh. The second floor is the right height for families. It has the best view of the city, room to move, and it keeps the trip under two hours.

Lunch can be a picnic on the Champ de Mars, which has a playground at the far end and a carousel by the tower. Then walk ten minutes to the Pont de l'Alma for a one-hour cruise. Sit upstairs if it is dry, inside behind the glass if it is not, and let the commentary do the history lesson for you.

Finish at Les Invalides. The Musée de l'Armée is not a museum of guns for small boys; it is one of the best collections of medieval armour in Europe, with horses in full plate and swords taller than an eight-year-old. Napoleon's tomb under the golden dome makes the point about size better than any explanation. Children under 18 go in free with you; only the adults need a booked ticket.

Stops in order

1. 9:00 · Trocadéro Gardens: photo stop, free
   Paris
2. 9:30 · Eiffel Tower: second floor by lift; allow 1 hour 30 minutes
   5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007, Paris
3. 11:30 · Champ de Mars: picnic, playground and carousel
   Avenue Bosquet, 75007, Paris
4. 13:00 · Bateaux-Mouches pier: one-hour cruise from the Pont de l'Alma
   Port de la Conférence, 75008, Paris
5. 14:30 · Les Invalides: armour galleries and Napoleon's tomb
   129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Give each child the camera for the tower

Kids recall what they photographed themselves. On the second floor, hand over a phone and give them a mission: find Notre-Dame, the Sacré-Cœur and the boat you will take after lunch. It turns twenty minutes of looking into a game.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The tower still works in light rain, and the boat has a covered deck. In heavy rain, swap the picnic for a café and spend longer at Les Invalides.

Day 2: Dinosaurs, a zoo and the Luxembourg sailboats

The Jardin des Plantes is the most child-friendly corner of central Paris, and almost nobody on a first visit finds it. Open the day at the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, where a parade of stuffed animals marches across the main hall under a glass roof, elephants and giraffes first. It closes on Tuesdays, so keep this day off one.

Next door is the Ménagerie, a small, old-fashioned zoo with red pandas, orangutans and big cats in a garden setting. An hour is enough. For lunch, the tea room of the Great Mosque across the street serves mint tea and pastries in a tiled courtyard, which children find as exotic as anything in the zoo.

In the afternoon, walk or take one RER stop to the Luxembourg Gardens. This is where Paris children spend their Saturdays: wooden sailboats to push across the Grand Bassin with a stick, a playground for under-12s, pony rides, a carousel and a puppet theatre that plays on Wednesdays, weekends and school holidays. End with ice cream on the Île Saint-Louis, a twenty-minute walk downhill.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Grande Galerie de l'Évolution: timed entry, about 1 hour 30 minutes
   Cour Censier, 75005, Paris
2. 11:45 · Jardin des Plantes: the Ménagerie zoo inside the garden
   Paris
3. 13:00 · Great Mosque of Paris: tea room lunch
   2 bis Place du Puits de l'Ermite, 75005, Paris
4. 14:30 · Luxembourg Gardens: sailboats, playground, ponies, puppet theatre
   Place Edmond Rostand, 75006, Paris
5. 17:00 · Berthillon: ice cream on the Île Saint-Louis
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Rent the sailboat before the playground

Once children see the playground they will not leave it. Do the boats first, when they are still curious, and keep the playground as the reward at the end of the afternoon.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The Grande Galerie already covers the morning. In the afternoon, swap the Luxembourg Gardens for the Galerie de Paléontologie in the Jardin des Plantes, with its hall of skeletons.

Day 3: A science museum and the parks of the north-east

The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is one of the largest science museums in Europe, and its Cité des enfants is built for exactly this age group: ninety-minute sessions where children run water channels, build houses with cranes and test their own reflexes. There are separate areas for 2 to 6 and 5 to 10, and you book a session time. The museum is closed on Mondays.

Outside, the Parc de la Villette is a playground the size of a neighborhood, with themed gardens, a dragon slide and lawns where you can let the children run for an hour. The silver sphere of the Géode cinema sits next to the museum and makes a good photo.

Late in the afternoon, follow the water south to the Canal Saint-Martin, where iron footbridges cross the water and locks lift the boats. It is an easy, flat walk with cafés all the way and a good place to finish the trip with an early dinner by the water.

Stops in order

1. 9:45 · Cité des Sciences: Cité des enfants session, 1 hour 30 minutes
   Galerie de la Villette, 75019, Paris
2. 12:00 · Parc de la Villette: picnic, gardens and the dragon slide
   Paris
3. 14:30 · Parc des Buttes-Chaumont: optional: cliffs, a temple on a rock and a suspension bridge
   Paris
4. 16:30 · Canal Saint-Martin: locks and footbridges, early dinner
   Paris

If Day 3 falls on a Monday, swap the Cité des Sciences for the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne, a children's amusement park with farm animals, small rides and a little train from Porte Maillot. Book the early-bird ticket with unlimited rides from €19; it is the best value on a weekday morning.

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Book the 9:45 session and arrive at 9:30

The first session of the day is the calmest, and you will have the rest of the museum and the whole park ahead of you. Afternoon sessions at weekends are the busiest hours of the week.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Stay inside: the Cité des Sciences has enough exhibitions for a full day, and the Géode is right outside.

Departure morning with children

Keep the last morning close to the hotel and free of tickets. A last croissant run, one more playground and enough time to pack without stress is worth more than another sight.

If you are near the Tuileries, the garden has a big round pond, chairs to sit in and a summer fair at the Rivoli end. Hot chocolate at Angelina on the rue de Rivoli is a Paris family tradition, and the queue moves faster before 10:00.

• Leave three hours before an international flight; children and security lines do not mix well in a hurry.
• Under-10s travel at half price on Paris public transport, including the RER to the airports.
• Many hotels keep bags after check-out, so you can spend the last morning without luggage.

Which day goes where

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

What 3 days in Paris with kids cost

Tickets on this route start at €93 per adult over the three days, and child tickets cost less on every one of them. The free half of the route is what keeps a family trip affordable: two great gardens, a zoo-side picnic, the canal and the playgrounds cost nothing.

Food and transport come on top. A Paris Visite pass rarely pays off for a family: children under 10 ride for half price on single tickets anyway. For a family of four, look at the family ticket for the Grande Galerie, which covers two adults and two young people.

Paris with kids: what to skip and why

• The Louvre, if your child has not asked for it. It is enormous, crowded and better at age 12 than at 6. If they want the Mona Lisa, book a 9:00 slot and plan 90 minutes, not three hours.
• The Eiffel Tower summit with under-8s. The second lift adds a second queue, and the view from the second floor is better for picking out landmarks.
• The Catacombs. Bones in narrow tunnels, 131 steps down and 112 up, and a one-way route with no exit halfway. Brilliant for teenagers, not for younger children.
• The Champs-Élysées shops. Long, busy and of little interest below the age of fourteen.

💡 Pro Tip

Plan one sweet stop a day

A pain au chocolat at 11:00 or an ice cream at 16:00 does more for morale than any rest. Put it on the plan and tell the children in the morning; it is easier to keep walking with something to aim for.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

More 3-day routes

• Paris with toddlers: the same city with naps, lifts and stroller routes.
• Paris with teens: Catacombs, rooftops and more freedom.
• 3 days with a day at Disneyland: two city days and one park day.
• Where to stay in Paris with kids: the arrondissements that make family trips easier.
• 4 days in Paris: add a fourth day if the children are older.
• The classic 3-day route: the first-timer version without the kid-friendly swaps.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme