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Paris City Card: Which Pass Actually Pays Off

Notre-Dame Cathedral beside the River Seine in Paris

Reviewed by our editorial team Published

Paris has more sightseeing passes competing for your money than almost any other European capital, and that abundance is exactly the problem. Six different products promise to save you time and cash, but they cover wildly different ground, run for different lengths of time, and suit genuinely different kinds of trip.

The official Paris Museum Pass is the one most independent travel guides quietly default to, and for good reason: it is aimed squarely at people who want to work through the city’s permanent collections without buying a ticket at every door. But it has one well-known gap that catches people out, and knowing about it before you buy matters more than any feature list.

At the other end sits a cluster of all-inclusive bundles from Turbopass and Paris Pass Plus, each promising unlimited entry to dozens or even ninety-plus attractions for one flat fee. Whether that actually saves money depends entirely on how many paid attractions you would genuinely fit into a short visit, and the honest answer for most two-day trips is fewer than the marketing implies.

Then there is Go City’s pick-your-own Explorer Pass, built for someone who already knows they want three, four or five specific paid sights and nothing more. It is a different shape of product entirely, and comparing it directly against an unlimited-attraction pass on price alone misses the point.

This page runs the real numbers rather than repeating a features table, including how many of these third-party products carry surprisingly thin review counts that are worth knowing about before you hand over a card number. Every price below uses the same pre-discount, highest listed figure in euros, pounds and dollars, so you are comparing like for like rather than a temporary end-of-season markdown.


Compare All Six Paris Passes at a Glance

Before reading each pass in detail, it helps to see all six side by side. The table below lines up validity, price, review track record and who each product genuinely suits, so you can shortlist one or two before committing time to the full breakdown.

PassValidityPriceRating (Reviews)Key InclusionsBest For
Paris Museum Pass (official)2, 4 or 6 consecutive daysFrom €85.00 (£73.10/$99.45)4.1★ (4,580)Permanent collections at 50+ museums and monuments; no Eiffel TowerMulti-day museum and monument touring
Turbopass Flex PassChoose 2-7 attractions, valid 30 daysFrom €98.29 (£84.53/$115.00)3.3★ (7)Pick 2 to 7 sights from 25+ options incl. Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Seine cruiseA flexible shortlist spread over several days
Go City Explorer PassChoose 3-5 attractions, valid 30 daysFrom €84.00 (£72.24/$98.28)3.3★ (126)Choose any 3, 4 or 5 attractions from a roster of 35A short, specific wish list at a relaxed pace
Turbopass Paris Pass2 days€159.30 (£137/$186.38)3.4★ (133)Unlimited entry incl. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, a cruise and a bus tourA fast-moving two-day sightseeing sprint
Paris Pass Plus2-6 daysFrom €189.00 (£162.54/$221.13)3.6★ (642)80+ attractions incl. the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and a built-in Museum PassLonger stays with heavy, varied sightseeing
Turbopass Museum Pass & Hop-on Hop-off Bus Combo2, 4 or 6 days€139.53 (£120/$163.26)3.1★ (27)Museum Pass-style coverage plus a 24-hour hop-on hop-off bus routeFirst-time visitors wanting orientation plus culture

Read the Best For column as a starting shortlist rather than a final answer, since your own attraction list still decides whether a pass genuinely saves money. The worked examples and itineraries further down this page turn that shortlist into an actual decision.


The official Paris Museum Pass is the pass most seasoned visitors reach for, and its 4.1★ rating across 4,580 reviews reflects a genuinely well-established product rather than a newer, thinly-tested one. It comes in 2, 4 and 6-day tiers, priced from €85.00 (£73.10/$99.45) for the shortest option up to €125.00 (£107.50/$146.25) for the longest, and each tier stays active for that many consecutive hours once first used rather than calendar days.

What it actually buys is entry to the permanent collections at more than fifty museums and monuments across Paris and the wider Île-de-France region, including heavyweights like the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe and the Château de Versailles. It does not cover special or temporary exhibitions at those same venues, so a blockbuster show advertised separately at the Louvre still needs its own ticket.

The detail that catches people out is the Eiffel Tower, which is not included on the Paris Museum Pass at all, despite being the single most photographed attraction in the city. Anyone building a Museum Pass itinerary around it needs to budget a separate ticket, currently up to €36.70 (£32/$43) for summit access by lift at peak demand.

The pass’s own official site, parismuseumpass.fr, lists the full current roster of included venues, and it is worth checking against your own itinerary before buying, since the list changes occasionally as venues join or leave the scheme.

This pass suits a specific kind of traveller well: someone planning serious gallery and monument time, moving through several major collections across multiple days rather than ticking off one or two headline photo stops. For a lighter two-day visit built around just the Louvre and Versailles, the shortest tier can still work out cheaper than paying each entry fee separately, particularly once the queue-skipping benefit is factored in.


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Turbopass Paris Pass: Five Named Attractions in Two Days

The Turbopass Paris Pass sells a simple, finite promise rather than an open-ended list: pay once and get unlimited entry to five specific attractions over a 2-day window. It is priced at €159.30 (£137/$186.38) and names exactly what you get, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Versailles, a Seine river cruise and a hop-on hop-off bus tour, rather than a vague “dozens of attractions” claim.

Buying those five separately adds up fast. An Eiffel Tower summit ticket runs up to €36.70 (£32/$43), a standard Louvre ticket from €22 to €32 (£19–£28/$26–$37) depending on residency, a Versailles Passport from roughly €25 to €35 (£22–£30/$29–$41), and a Seine cruise from around €15 (£13/$18), a combined total of roughly €99 to €119 before adding a bus tour on top.

That makes this pass realistically close to break-even once a standalone bus ticket is factored in, provided you genuinely intend to do all five. Its 3.4★ rating from 133 reviews sits in the middle of the pack, ahead of the newer Turbopass products but behind both the official Museum Pass and Paris Pass Plus.

Both the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower require a timed entry slot even with the pass, so book those slots as soon as the pass activates rather than turning up unannounced. The pass typically activates the moment you first scan in at any included attraction, so plan your five stops loosely in advance to make the most of the two-day window.

This suits a fast-moving two-day visitor who already knows they want the five headline experiences named on the pass and nothing more exotic. It is a poor fit for anyone planning a slower trip, or for someone who would skip even one of the five, since a finite five-item bundle only pays off when every item gets used.


Paris Pass Plus: The Broadest Net, at the Highest Price

Paris Pass Plus is Go City’s own all-inclusive product, and it casts the widest net of any pass on this page: unlimited entry to more than 80 attractions across Paris, including the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and a built-in Paris Museum Pass. It runs from €189.00 (£162.54/$221.13) for the shortest 2-day tier, with longer 3 to 6-day tiers available for a longer stay.

Running the actual maths matters here more than the headline “90+ attractions” claim some resellers use. Reaching its price from individual tickets means fitting in roughly five or six separate paid, ticketed sights inside the same window, since the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles and a Seine cruise alone only total around €99 to €119 combined, and that is more back-to-back sightseeing than most visitors comfortably manage in two days.

Its 3.6★ rating from 642 reviews is the second-best-reviewed product here after the official Museum Pass, which gives it more of a track record than the smaller Turbopass entries. That review volume is worth weighing against the higher price, since it suggests a genuinely well-tested product rather than a newer, riskier bet.

Because the pass includes a Paris Museum Pass, it also unlocks the same 50+ permanent collections as the standalone product, on top of premium extras like the Eiffel Tower and organised experiences that vary by season. That combination makes it a genuine step up from the Museum Pass alone, rather than a separate, unrelated product.

This suits a longer, sightseeing-heavy trip, someone booking three days or more who wants both deep museum access and headline extras bundled into one purchase. It is a harder sell for a light two or three-day visit, where the official Museum Pass or the named five-item Turbopass bundle will usually cover the same ground for meaningfully less money.


Go City Explorer Pass: Built for a Handful of Must-Sees

The Go City Explorer Pass works differently to every other product on this page: instead of unlimited access to a long list, you choose exactly 3, 4 or 5 attractions yourself from a roster of 35 across Paris. It is priced from €84.00 (£72.24/$98.28) per adult, with a solid 3.3★ rating built on 126 reviews, a reasonable sample size compared with some of the newer entries here.

Whether it saves money comes down entirely to which attractions you pick. Choose pricier headline sights, such as the Eiffel Tower summit and the Louvre, and the pass lands close to or ahead of buying those tickets separately; choose cheaper sites and the saving shrinks or disappears.

This suits a traveller with a short, specific list rather than an open-ended sightseeing agenda: someone who knows exactly which three or four paid attractions they want and nothing more, rather than someone hoping to wander into whatever looks interesting on the day. It is a poor fit for anyone planning to visit six or more paid sights, since the unlimited-style passes above start to make more sense at that volume.

The pass itself stays valid for 30 days from your first attraction visit, so the three to five picks can be spread comfortably across a longer trip rather than crammed into one day. Worth checking your exact attraction picks against Go City’s own site before buying, since the roster of eligible attractions changes from time to time.


Turbopass Flex Pass: Pick Your Own Sights, With Thin Reviews

The Turbopass Flex Pass works on a pick-your-own basis rather than unlimited access: you choose between 2 and 7 attractions from a list of more than 25 options, priced from €98.29 (£84.53/$115.00) for the smallest selection. That list spans big names like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower alongside a Seine river cruise, a Versailles ticket and a hop-on hop-off bus route, so the final price scales with how many and which attractions you add..

Unlike a single fixed-day city pass, the Flex Pass stays valid for 30 days from the date you first use it, so selections do not all need to be squeezed into one visit. That makes it genuinely flexible for a longer trip with gaps between sightseeing days, rather than only suited to one packed itinerary.

Because you build your own list, whether it saves money depends entirely on which attractions you pick. Loading it with pricier headline sights such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre brings it close to buying those tickets separately, while padding it out with cheaper add-ons shrinks the saving.

This pass suits someone who wants a specific shortlist with room to breathe, spreading three to seven paid attractions across a longer stay rather than racing through them in a single day. It is a weaker choice for a first-time visitor who would rather lean on a more established, heavily-reviewed pass instead.


Turbopass Museum Pass & Hop-on Hop-off Combo: Orientation Plus Culture

This Turbopass combo pairs Paris Museum Pass-style coverage with a hop-on hop-off bus ticket over a 2-day window, priced at €139.53 (£120/$163.26). It is a genuinely different proposition from the official Museum Pass alone, since it adds a bus route into the mix rather than just museum and monument entry.

The genuine appeal here is for a traveller who wants orientation and culture together: someone doing a first visit who values a hop-on hop-off loop to get their bearings and see the city’s layout, on top of proper museum time rather than instead of it. For a returning visitor who already knows the city and just wants gallery access, the standalone Museum Pass is the simpler, better-reviewed choice at a lower price.

It is worth comparing directly against buying the components separately: a standalone 2-day Museum Pass runs close to this combo’s core price, so the bus route is effectively being added for a modest premium rather than doubling the cost. That makes it a reasonable pick specifically for someone who was already leaning toward a hop-on hop-off ticket anyway.


Money-Saving Examples: When Do These Passes Actually Pay Off?

The clearest way to judge any of these six passes is to run your own itinerary through the maths rather than trust a headline saving. Take a traveller visiting the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Versailles across two days: those three tickets alone cost roughly €83 to €103 (€22–€32 Louvre, up to €36.70 Eiffel Tower, €25–€35 Versailles), before adding a Seine cruise or bus tour.

Against that same three-attraction trip, the Turbopass Paris Pass at €159.30 (£137/$186.38) only pulls ahead once the bundled river cruise and bus tour are genuinely used too, since three tickets alone can cost noticeably less than the pass. Add the cruise and the bus tour to the same two days and the pass starts to save real money, roughly €20 to €40 once every included extra is actually visited.

A different traveller with a shorter, two-attraction list, say just the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, spends around €58 to €69 buying separately. Neither the Turbopass Paris Pass nor Paris Pass Plus makes sense at that volume, and the Go City Explorer Pass at €84.00 (£72.24/$98.28) for three picks is closer, but still only breaks even once a third attraction is genuinely added to the day.

For a museum-heavy four-day trip covering six or more permanent collections, the official Museum Pass at €105.00 (£90.30/$122.85) for 4 days comfortably beats paying each entry fee separately, since six individual museum tickets typically total well over €120 on their own. The lesson across every example is the same: count your actual stops before assuming any pass saves money.


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Highlights Not to Miss, Whichever Pass You Choose

A handful of Paris sights are worth prioritising no matter which of these six passes ends up in your pocket. The Louvre’s Denon wing, home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, rewards arriving right at opening or in the last two hours before closing, when the crowds thin out noticeably.

The Eiffel Tower summit is genuinely worth the extra ticket even on a Museum Pass itinerary, since the second-floor views alone undersell what the top level adds on a clear day. Book a specific time slot rather than turning up and queuing, since every one of the six passes still requires timed entry there.

At Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors gets the attention, but the gardens themselves are free to enter outside of musical fountain show days and deserve a genuine hour or two of their own. A Seine river cruise at sunset, meanwhile, is one of the few included extras across these passes that photographs better than almost anything else on the list.

Anyone holding the Museum Pass or Paris Pass Plus should also make time for a smaller, quieter stop like the Musée Rodin or Sainte-Chapelle, both included in the same permanent-collections coverage as the Louvre. They take a fraction of the time a full Louvre visit demands, and they are exactly the kind of included extra that makes a multi-day pass feel like genuinely good value rather than just a Louvre-and-Eiffel-Tower ticket in disguise.


Sample Itineraries: Using a Paris Pass Over One, Two or Three Days

One Day: Go City Explorer Pass or Turbopass Flex Pass

A single packed day suits either of the pick-your-own passes best, since both let you choose exactly what fits rather than racing through a longer list. Start with the Louvre at opening, spend the late morning through the Denon wing, then cross the river for the Eiffel Tower in the early afternoon once your timed slot opens.

Round the day off with a Seine river cruise at golden hour, which both the Explorer Pass and the Flex Pass typically offer as a selectable option. Three attractions is a realistic ceiling for one day in Paris without feeling rushed between them.

Two Days: Turbopass Paris Pass or the 2-Day Museum Pass

Two days is where the named five-item bundle genuinely earns its price. Day one covers the Louvre in the morning and the Eiffel Tower in the afternoon, with the Seine cruise slotted in for the evening.

Day two is built around Versailles, which comfortably fills a half-day including travel, followed by the hop-on hop-off bus route to see Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and the Latin Quarter from street level. Anyone using the 2-day Museum Pass instead should swap the Eiffel Tower for a second smaller museum, such as the Musée d’Orsay or the Musée Rodin.

Three Days: Paris Pass Plus or the 4-Day Museum Pass

Three days gives enough room to justify Paris Pass Plus’s broader roster or a longer Museum Pass tier without feeling like padding. Keep the same Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Versailles core from the two-day plan, then use the extra day for two or three smaller stops the shorter itineraries skip.

Sainte-Chapelle, the Musée Rodin and the Arc de Triomphe’s viewing platform all fit comfortably into a third day, and all three sit inside the same permanent-collections coverage that Paris Pass Plus and the Museum Pass both include. A slower pace on day three also leaves room for a genuine lunch stop rather than eating on the move between attractions.


Which Paris Pass Actually Suits You

Matching the right pass to your trip starts with being honest about two things: how many days you are covering, and how many paid, ticketed attractions you will realistically visit rather than hope to visit. A relaxed two-day trip built around two or three major sights rarely justifies any of the all-inclusive bundles, however good their headline savings look.

If your trip is genuinely museum and monument-heavy across several days, and you are comfortable buying a separate Eiffel Tower ticket, the official Paris Museum Pass is the sensible default: it is the best-reviewed product here by a wide margin, and its 2, 4 and 6-day tiers match a longer, culture-focused stay. If you specifically want the Eiffel Tower bundled in alongside serious museum time, look at the all-inclusive options instead.

A fast-moving, five-to-six-attraction two days, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, a cruise and a bus tour, is where Turbopass Paris Pass starts to genuinely pay off, while Paris Pass Plus needs an even busier itinerary to clear its higher price. A short, specific wish list of three to five sights is better served by Go City’s pick-your-own Explorer Pass, and a single packed day with the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower both on the list points toward the Flex Pass, reviews caveat included.

Whichever pass you land on, check the fine print on your own dates before buying: opening hours, timed-entry requirements at the Louvre and Eiffel Tower in particular, and whether the pass activates the moment you buy it or the first time you use it.


Rupert's Handy Travel Tips

Rupert’s Handy Travel Tips

Six Paris passes, one very different set of trade-offs. Here’s what actually matters before you buy one.

  • Check the Eiffel Tower separately: the official Paris Museum Pass does not include it, so budget a standalone ticket if that is on your list.
  • Book timed entry in advance: a pass gets you in without buying a ticket on the day, but the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower both still require a reserved time slot.
  • Read recent reviews on thin-review passes: anything with fewer than 30 reviews deserves a proper look before you commit your money.
  • Count your actual attractions, not the total on offer: a “90+ attractions” pass only pays off if you will realistically visit enough of them.
  • Match the tier to your trip length: do not buy a 6-day Museum Pass for a 2-day visit, and remember the Explorer Pass and Flex Pass give you 30 days to use your chosen attractions rather than a single day.

Want to meet the reindeer behind our travel tips? Find out more in our page Who is Rupert?.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Paris Museum Pass include the Eiffel Tower?
No. The official Paris Museum Pass covers more than fifty other museums and monuments, but the Eiffel Tower needs a separate ticket, currently up to €36.70 (£32/$43) for summit access.

Which of these six passes is the cheapest?
The Go City Explorer Pass is the least expensive at €84.00 (£72.24/$98.28), though it only covers three to five attractions you choose yourself rather than unlimited entry across a longer list.

Are the third-party Turbopass passes trustworthy?
They are legitimate products, but several carry very small review counts, including the Turbopass Flex Pass’s 7 reviews and the Museum Pass & Hop-on Hop-off Combo’s 27, so it is worth reading recent reviews yourself rather than relying on the star rating alone.

Do I actually need a pass at all?
Not necessarily. For a light two-day visit built around just two or three attractions, buying individual tickets is often cheaper than any of the six passes on this page.

How long should my pass be valid for?
Match the tier to your actual itinerary: the Paris Museum Pass’s 2, 4 and 6-day tiers suit a longer museum-focused stay, while the Flex Pass and Go City Explorer Pass both stay valid for 30 days once first used, so they suit a short, specific shortlist rather than a fixed number of days.


Further Reading

For the full rundown of what these six passes actually unlock, our Things to Do in Paris hub walks through the city’s sights section by section, from the Louvre to a sunset Seine cruise. It makes clear how many of the city’s best stops are genuinely free, well before deciding whether any of these six passes is worth the outlay.

Travelling with children, or splitting a stay between the museum-and-monument city and something louder, our Disneyland Paris guide covers ticket prices and park choices on its own terms. None of the six passes above reach anywhere near Marne-la-Vallée, so a family splitting time between both destinations needs to budget for each one separately.

Locking in a timed slot is half the battle at the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower no matter which pass ends up in your wallet. Our round-up of attraction ticket apps is a useful next stop for booking those specific windows, and the same list covers apps for reserving a Versailles slot once the gardens get busy in high season.

Paris is not the only European city running this kind of all-inclusive versus pick-your-own debate. Our guide to the Campania Artecard runs the same honest breakeven maths for Naples and the Amalfi Coast, a useful comparison for how differently these passes perform depending on a city’s own attraction pricing.


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