Paris on a Budget
When to go, what’s genuinely free, and where the tourist markup actually is, so you’re not paying more than you need to.
Paris has a reputation for being expensive, and parts of it genuinely are, but a surprising amount of the best of the city costs nothing at all if you know where to look and when to go. Here’s how to keep the costs down without cutting the trip short.
Travel in the shoulder seasons, or January
Late June through August is the most expensive stretch of the year to visit, hotel rates sit at their highest and availability tightens across the board. Aim instead for April to early June or September into October, decent weather and noticeably lower prices than peak summer. If price matters more than weather, January and February are the genuine low season, fewer tourists, the cheapest hotel rates of the year, and the January sales (called soldes) running across the city’s shops.
Most of the best things to do cost nothing
Notre-Dame, Sacré-Cœur, and the Panthéon’s grounds are all free to enter. Walking Le Marais, Montmartre, and along the Seine costs nothing beyond a metro ticket to get there. Many of the major museums, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou among them, offer free entry on the first Sunday of the month from October to March, worth timing a visit around if your dates allow.
If you’re under 26 and an EU resident, entry to most state museums is free outright, and under-18s from anywhere get in free to the Louvre and several others year-round. Always carry ID if you might qualify for a reduced or free rate.
Buy a carnet, skip the taxis
A carnet of 10 metro tickets, bought as a bundle, is meaningfully cheaper than paying for single journeys, and the metro itself reaches almost everywhere you’ll want to go. Walking is free and Paris is a genuinely compact, walkable city between many of its major sights, worth doing on foot where the weather allows rather than defaulting to the metro for short hops.
Eat where the price tag isn’t aimed at tourists
The Latin Quarter has some of the most affordable central dining in the city, a legacy of it being a genuine student neighbourhood for centuries. Look for a fixed-price lunch menu (menu du jour), typically far better value than ordering à la carte, and standing at a boulangerie counter for a sandwich or pastry costs a fraction of a sit-down café for the same quality.
Markets, like the one at Bastille or along Rue Mouffetard, are a good way to assemble a cheap, genuinely good picnic lunch to eat in a park rather than paying for table service twice a day.
Stay slightly outside the centre
You don’t need to stay inside the 1st or 4th arrondissements to have an easy trip, Paris’s metro system means a hotel a few stops further out can cost noticeably less without adding much real travel time. The Latin Quarter (5th) and Montmartre (18th) both offer a more affordable base than Le Marais or Saint-Germain while staying well connected.
That’s everything I’ve got.
A note before you plan around this: prices, opening hours, booking requirements and admission details in this guide were correct at the time of writing, but venues change these often and sometimes without notice. Always check directly with the attraction or its official website before you travel or build a schedule around a specific time or price.
Before travelling to any destination featured on this site, please also check your government’s latest travel advice, as safety situations, entry requirements and travel warnings can change.
