3 Days in Paris with Toddlers and a Stroller

Paris with a toddler is a different city from Paris with a ten-year-old. Distances that look short on a map include cobbles, metro stairs and a café that has no room for a stroller. This route is built for a family that moves at the speed of the smallest person in it: flat walks through gardens, one outing in the morning and one after the nap, and every stop close to a bench, a playground or somewhere to change a nappy.

It skips the big museums on purpose. A two-year-old in the Louvre is a long morning for everyone, and the sights toddlers love in Paris are mostly outdoors and mostly free: ducks in the Tuileries, the carousel at the Palais-Royal end of the city, the pond in the Jardin du Palais-Royal and the animals of the Jardin d'Acclimatation. The three paid outings, a children's park, a boat and a play museum for under-6s, are the ones parents of toddlers rate highest.

The arrival day does not count. Landing with a small child means a long day already, so the first evening is a short walk and an early night, and the three full days start the next morning. You can put the days in any order; the planner keeps the science museum off a Monday.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Three bookings and the rest is free. The prices are the lowest adult prices on the booking page; the tickets offer child options at the checkout, and babies are free at most sights.

Arrival evening with a baby or toddler

Keep it to a single loop around the hotel. Find the nearest bakery and the nearest square with a sandpit or a carousel, buy whatever you need for breakfast, and have an early dinner. French restaurants open for dinner around 19:00, which is late for a toddler, so a crêperie or a brasserie that serves all day is the easy option on night one.

Use the evening to check the walk to the nearest bus stop and metro station. Knowing which exits have lifts or escalators saves a lot of carrying over the next three days.

• Buy water, snacks and nappies at a supermarket near the hotel; pharmacies sell baby supplies too.
• Ask the hotel for a cot and a quieter room away from the street the evening you arrive.
• Pack the next day's bag tonight: the morning slots are the best part of the day with small children.

Day 1: Gardens, a covered arcade and the tip of the island

Start in the Tuileries Garden, which is flat, gravelled and full of green chairs around two large ponds. Toddlers can watch the ducks and the toy boats for as long as they like, and the garden has public toilets at both ends. Walk east to the Palais-Royal garden, a quiet rectangle of lime trees and fountains behind the Louvre, where the striped Buren columns in the courtyard make an instant playground for anyone under four.

Before lunch, push the stroller through the Galerie Vivienne, a nineteenth-century covered arcade with a mosaic floor and a glass roof: dry in the rain, quiet and full of small shop windows to look into. There are cafés inside with room for a stroller if you go before the lunch rush.

After the nap, cross the Pont Neuf and go down the steps to the Square du Vert-Galant, the little garden at the very tip of the Île de la Cité. It is a dead end for traffic, a lawn by the water and one of the calmest corners of central Paris. On the way back, the Île Saint-Louis has wide pavements and an ice-cream shop on almost every corner.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Tuileries Garden: ponds, ducks, chairs and toilets
   113, 75001, Paris
2. 10:45 · Palais-Royal Garden: garden and the Buren columns
   Passage du Perron, 75001, Paris
3. 11:30 · Galerie Vivienne: covered arcade, lunch nearby
   Rue des Petits Champs, 75001, Paris
4. 15:30 · Île de la Cité: Square du Vert-Galant, steps down from the Pont Neuf
   75001, Paris
5. 16:30 · Île Saint-Louis: ice cream and quiet streets
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Nap in the stroller, not at the hotel, on Day 1

The Tuileries and the Palais-Royal are so close that going back to the hotel wastes the best hours. A reclining stroller and a shady bench in the Palais-Royal garden give you a two-hour lunch with a sleeping baby.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Swap the gardens for more covered arcades: the Galerie Vivienne, the Galerie Colbert next door and the Passage des Panoramas a short walk north are all dry and flat.

Day 2: The Jardin d'Acclimatation and a boat at the Eiffel Tower

The Jardin d'Acclimatation, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, has been the children's park of Paris since the nineteenth century. It has small rides that work for toddlers, a farm with goats and ducks, a little train, play areas and wide paths that suit strollers. Go for the opening and buy the early-bird ticket with unlimited rides; by lunch the queues for the most popular rides get long.

Next to the park, Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton looks like a glass ship moored in the trees. You do not need to go in: the building itself is the sight, and the paths around it are another good place for a stroller nap.

In the afternoon, ride line 1 and line 6 to the Eiffel Tower, have a look from the Trocadéro, and take a one-hour cruise from the pier at the foot of the tower. Toddlers enjoy boats more than almost anything else in the city, and it is an hour where everybody sits still.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Jardin d'Acclimatation: early-bird ticket with rides, about 3 hours
   Route de la Porte Saint-James, 75116, Paris
2. 13:00 · Fondation Louis Vuitton: outside the building; picnic on the lawns
   8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, 75116, Paris
3. 15:00 · Trocadéro Gardens: view of the tower, gardens down to the river
   Paris
4. 15:30 · Bateaux Parisiens pier: one-hour cruise from the foot of the Eiffel Tower
   Port de la Bourdonnais, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Board the boat at the back of the line

The last people on board end up on the open stern, which is the best place with a toddler: room for the stroller, fresh air and no glass between you and the river.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The farm and the play areas are outdoors. In heavy rain, swap this day with Day 3 and keep the boat; the cruise has a covered deck.

Day 3: A play museum for under-6s and the canal

The Cité des enfants at the Cité des Sciences has a dedicated area for children aged 2 to 6, reopened after a full renovation. Sessions last ninety minutes and are designed around play: water channels to dam, a building site with cranes, mirrors and tunnels. Book the first session of the morning and arrive a little early; the museum is closed on Mondays.

Outside, the Parc de la Villette has huge lawns, themed gardens and a big playground, and it is flat all the way. A picnic here after the session gives the morning a natural end.

After the nap, ride or walk down to the Canal Saint-Martin. The towpaths are wide, the iron footbridges are fun to cross, and the locks lift boats right in front of you, which can keep a toddler interested for twenty minutes. End at the Marché des Enfants Rouges in the Marais, the oldest covered market in Paris, where food stalls serve early dinners at shared tables.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Cité des Sciences: Cité des enfants 2-6, 90-minute session
   Galerie de la Villette, 75019, Paris
2. 11:30 · Parc de la Villette: picnic and playgrounds
   Paris
3. 15:30 · Canal Saint-Martin: locks and footbridges
   Paris
4. 17:30 · Marché des Enfants Rouges: covered market, early dinner
   Rue Charlot, 75003, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Bring spare clothes to the Cité des enfants

The water area is the favorite and the one that soaks them. A change of clothes in the stroller basket turns a wet child into a happy one in two minutes.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: This is already the rainy-day plan: the museum is indoors, and the Cité des Sciences has more exhibitions and a planetarium if the weather does not clear.

Departure morning with small children

Pack the night before, keep the last morning to a playground near the hotel and leave for the airport early. With a toddler, the trip to the airport always takes longer than the map says.

If you are flying from Charles de Gaulle, a taxi or a booked transfer is easier than the RER with a stroller and luggage, and it is not much more expensive for a family.

• Allow extra time on top of the usual three hours before an international flight.
• Under-4s travel free on Paris public transport.
• Most airlines let you keep the stroller until boarding; ask at check-in.

Which day goes where

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

Getting around Paris with a stroller

Paris is a wonderful city for walking with a stroller and a hard one for public transport. Most metro stations have stairs and no lift, and only a few lines are fully accessible. The table shows what works best with small children.

💡 Pro Tip

Bring a light folding stroller, not the big one

A stroller you can fold with one hand and carry up a metro staircase changes the whole trip. The big travel system with a carrycot is better left at home for a city break.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Toddler essentials for 3 days in Paris

• Pharmacies (green cross) are everywhere and sell formula, nappies, sunscreen and children's medicine; many open late.
• Public toilets: the free toilets in the Tuileries and in most parks are the cleanest options; department stores also have changing rooms.
• Playgrounds are in every park and many squares, often fenced and with sand.
• Restaurants rarely have high chairs; brasseries and crêperies are the most relaxed with small children.
• Water fountains (the green Wallace fountains) give free drinking water all over the city.

More 3-day routes

• 3 days in Paris with kids: when your toddler turns five, this is the next route.
• Paris at an easy pace: also good for a trip with grandparents and a baby.
• 3 days with Disneyland: a park day that works for toddlers too.
• Where to stay in Paris with kids: quiet areas close to parks.
• Rainy days in Paris: three dry days for when the weather turns.
• The classic 3-day route: for when the children are older.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme