A 3-Day Paris Honeymoon Itinerary

A honeymoon in Paris should not feel like a sightseeing tour. You have just planned a wedding; you do not need to plan museum slots to the minute. This route takes the opposite approach to a first-timer's itinerary. Each day has one cultural highlight before lunch, one indulgence in the afternoon and one dinner you will talk about, and the gaps between them are long enough to sit in a café and do nothing at all.

The highlights are chosen for beauty rather than fame. Instead of the Louvre's crowds, the Musée d'Orsay's clock window and the Impressionists. Instead of a queue at the Arc de Triomphe, the royal apartments of the Hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde, restored with their gilding and silks. Instead of the summit of the Eiffel Tower, a table inside it. The Sainte-Chapelle, the most beautiful room in Paris, is the one big name that stays.

The arrival day is for rest. After the wedding and the flight, the first evening is a walk, a glass of champagne and an early night; the three days start the morning after, at whatever hour suits you. They can go in any order; the Orsay closes on Mondays.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Each price is per person, from the lowest option; for the two of you, double it. Book the meal in the Eiffel Tower first: it is the one that decides your Day 3.

Arrival evening: champagne and an early night

Order a bottle of champagne to the room or find the nearest terrace, raise a glass to the wedding and go to bed early. You have three full days ahead and nothing to prove tonight.

If you want a first look at the city, take a short taxi ride to the river and walk along the quays for twenty minutes. Paris is at its most romantic after dark, when the bridges are lit and the traffic has gone.

• Tell the hotel you are on honeymoon when you check in; many have a small surprise ready.
• Book Day 1's lunch tonight so that tomorrow morning is entirely free.
• Leave the alarm off.

Day 1: Saint-Germain, the Luxembourg and Orsay

Start the honeymoon the Parisian way: breakfast on the terrace of a café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, opposite the oldest church in Paris. This was the district of Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and the jazz cellars of the 1950s, and its streets are still full of bookshops, galleries and the best pastry shops on the Left Bank.

Walk past the twin towers of Saint-Sulpice, where Delacroix painted the chapel of the Holy Angels, into the Luxembourg Gardens. Take two green chairs by the Medici Fountain, the most romantic corner of the garden, and stay until lunch. Eat somewhere slow: this is the part of Paris where lunch lasts two hours without anybody noticing.

In the afternoon, take a short taxi ride to the Musée d'Orsay. Go straight up to the Impressionist floor, then to the café behind the giant station clock, where the glass face looks out over the Seine to the Louvre. At dusk, ride the RER two stops to the Pont de l'Alma for an hour on the river as the city lights up.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Café de Flore: breakfast on the terrace
   Rue Saint-Benoît, 75006, Paris
2. 10:30 · Saint-Germain-des-Prés: the oldest church in Paris, free
   3 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006, Paris
3. 11:00 · Saint-Sulpice: Delacroix chapel, free
   2 Rue Palatine, 75006, Paris
4. 11:30 · Luxembourg Gardens: Medici Fountain, chairs and lunch nearby
   Place Edmond Rostand, 75006, Paris
5. 14:30 · Musée d'Orsay: Impressionists and the clock café
   1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007, Paris
6. 19:00 · Bateaux-Mouches pier: one-hour cruise at dusk
   Port de la Conférence, 75008, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Sit by the Medici Fountain, not the big pond

The central basin of the Luxembourg is busy with children and toy boats. The Medici Fountain, in the shaded east side of the garden, has a long pool under plane trees and the quietest chairs in the park.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Swap the garden for a long lunch and go into the Orsay earlier; the cruise boats have a covered deck.

Day 2: The Opéra, the royal apartments and the Tuileries

The Palais Garnier is the most opulent building in Paris, and seeing it with nobody hurrying you is a pleasure. The grand staircase, in polychrome marble, rises under a painted ceiling; the Grand Foyer is a hall of gold and mirrors meant for promenading in evening dress. If the auditorium is open, look up at Chagall's ceiling around the great chandelier.

Walk two minutes to Galeries Lafayette for the view from its free rooftop, then down the rue de la Paix to the Place Vendôme, the square of the jewelers and the Ritz. A coffee or a cocktail at one of the palace hotels nearby is the indulgence of the day.

In the afternoon, visit the Hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde, where the royal furniture keepers lived until the Revolutionary years. Its restored apartments, with their silk walls, gilded panelling and painted ceilings, are some of the most beautiful rooms in the city, and the loggia gives you the square and the Champs-Élysées from above. Finish with a walk through the Tuileries at golden hour.

Stops in order

1. 10:30 · Palais Garnier: staircase, foyer and, if open, the auditorium
   Place Jacques Rouché, 75009, Paris
2. 12:00 · Galeries Lafayette: free rooftop under the dome
   40 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009, Paris
3. 12:45 · Place Vendôme: jewelers and the Ritz
   Place Vendôme, 75001, Paris
4. 14:30 · Hôtel de la Marine: royal apartments and the loggia
   Place de la Concorde, 75008, Paris
5. 17:00 · Tuileries Garden: golden hour walk
   113, 75001, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Dress for the Garnier

You will take more photos on the grand staircase than anywhere else in Paris. Something a little smarter than sightseeing clothes turns them into the honeymoon pictures you frame.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Every stop except the Tuileries is indoors; swap the garden walk for an early dinner.

Day 3: Sainte-Chapelle, the islands and dinner in the Eiffel Tower

Book the Sainte-Chapelle for a sunny morning if you can. The lower chapel is a dark, painted vault; then a narrow staircase opens into the upper chapel, where fifteen windows of thirteenth-century glass rise almost to the roof and the room seems made of light. It is the single most beautiful interior in Paris, and five minutes there is worth a day elsewhere.

Your ticket includes the Conciergerie next door, the vaulted medieval hall where Marie-Antoinette spent her last weeks. Afterwards, walk past Notre-Dame to the Île Saint-Louis for a long lunch and an ice cream on the quays.

In the evening, take a taxi to the Eiffel Tower for dinner at Madame Brasserie on the first floor. The ticket includes your access to the tower, so you sit down to dinner with the whole of western Paris outside the window, and walk out afterwards under the tower as it sparkles. It is the most Parisian last night imaginable.

Stops in order

1. 10:30 · Sainte-Chapelle: upper chapel, best on a sunny morning
   8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
2. 11:30 · Conciergerie: same ticket
   2 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
3. 12:30 · Notre-Dame Cathedral: free entry
   6 Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II, 75004, Paris
4. 13:30 · Île Saint-Louis: long lunch on the island
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris
5. 15:30 · Berthillon: ice cream on the quays
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris
6. 19:30 · Eiffel Tower: dinner at Madame Brasserie, first floor
   5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Ask for a window table when you book the tower dinner

Madame Brasserie looks out over the Seine and the Trocadéro on one side. Add a note to the booking that you are on honeymoon and would like a window; it costs nothing to ask.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The chapel is magical in sunshine and merely beautiful in rain; if the forecast changes, swap Day 3 and Day 1. The tower dinner works in any weather.

Departure morning: one last breakfast

End where you started, with breakfast on a terrace and no plans. If there is time, buy a box of macarons or a bottle of champagne to open at home on your first evening back.

Book the taxi to the airport the night before. A fixed fare runs from central Paris to Charles de Gaulle and Orly, so there are no surprises on the last day.

• Macarons travel well in hand luggage if they are boxed.
• Ask the hotel to keep your bags after check-out.
• Leave the center three hours ahead of an international departure.

Which day goes where

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

Honeymoon treats in Paris worth paying for

A honeymoon is the one trip where the splurge is the point. These are the treats on and around this route that couples rate highest, from a drink to a full evening.

💡 Pro Tip

Spread the splurges out

One indulgence a day feels luxurious; three in one day feels like work. This route puts the cruise on Day 1, the palace cocktail on Day 2 and the tower dinner on Day 3 for exactly that reason.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Where to stay for a Paris honeymoon

• Saint-Germain-des-Prés: boutique hotels, cafés and the Luxembourg Gardens on the doorstep.
• The Île Saint-Louis: a handful of small hotels on an island with no metro and no traffic noise.
• Around the Place Vendôme and the Tuileries: the palace hotels, for a honeymoon with no compromises.
• The Marais: stylish, lively in the evening and a short walk from the islands.

Wherever you stay, ask for a room on a courtyard rather than the street. Paris hotels can be noisy at night, and a quiet room is worth more than a view of the traffic.

More 3-day routes

• Romantic 3 days in Paris: a livelier version with Montmartre and a cabaret.
• Luxury Paris: palace hotels, private guides and the Golden Triangle.
• Paris with a day at Versailles: add the palace to the honeymoon.
• 3 days in Paris for foodies: a pastry and bistro route to pair with this one.
• The best time for 3 days in Paris: light, weather and crowds by month.
• 5 days in Paris: for a longer honeymoon.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme