There is never enough time to see everything you want to see during a trip to Paris, let alone spend enough time soaking in the Parisian culture over a cup of coffee or glass of wine at a sidewalk cafe. However, if you only have 5 days in Paris, you will still be able to see all of the highlights — and have time to enjoy the City of Light too!
To best enjoy your five days in Paris and to fit everything in, you really need to plan carefully to understand what museums are open on which days and how to avoid the largest crowds. That is where this detailed Paris itinerary comes in! I spent hours and hours planning our recent family trip to Paris and to save you a little time, I’ve laid it all out in this 5 day Paris itinerary.
Planning a trip to Paris
If you are just starting to think about an upcoming vacation, be sure to read my Paris planning checklist so that you can start planning your trip to Paris early enough. And if you aren’t sure how much a trip to Paris costs, I’ve put together a Paris trip budget breakdown.
Remember that Paris is hosting the Summer Olympics in 2024 and tourism is expected to swell during the entire summer. If you aren’t planning a visit to include the Games, you may be better off going at a different time. Here are a few other important things to keep in mind that will impact your Paris itinerary:
Many museums and cultural sites are closed on either Mondays or Tuesdays. For example, Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée Rodin are closed on Mondays. Meanwhile, the Louvre, Musée de l’Orangerie, Pompidou Centre, and others are closed on Tuesdays.
Banks, shops, supermarkets and many restaurants are closed on Sundays. You may also find a number of restaurants closed on Mondays.
When planning your visit, also keep in mind French holidays, especially days like Bastille Day on July 14th, May Day, Victory in Europe day on May 8th, and Armistice Day on November 11th, but also religious holidays such as Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday and Monday, Assumption of Mary, All Saint’s Day, and St. Stephen’s Day.
Reservations are highly recommended for dining in Paris. Many times you can make reservations through the restaurant website or through services like The Fork .
French schools get out for the summer in early July, so if you can visit in June, you can beat some of the crowds.
Also keep in mind that many Europeans go on vacation in August, so you will find more crowds (although many tend to head to the beaches) and some smaller shops and restaurants will close.
Many museums require timed-entry tickets which need to be purchased in advance (even if you have a Paris Museum Pass , you will still need to make a no-charge reservation.)
Likewise, popular attractions such as the Eiffel Tower sell out so it is best to purchase timed-entry tickets well in advance to avoid queuing for hours to get same-day tickets.
These are all important to keep in mind when building your Paris itinerary! Another large factor that will impact your Paris itinerary is where you stay. The Paris metro is great for getting around (except when they are on strike), but you will want to plan your days based on your location and the attractions that are in proximity to each other.
I always recommend mapping it out using Google Maps and starring or saving points of interest, your hotel, and restaurants so that you can have a visual representation of what you want to do. If this is your first time in Paris, I’d recommend staying in Central Paris, within easy walking distance to most attractions.
5 Day Paris Itinerary
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We actually spent six days in Paris, but since our arrival day was mostly just spent walking around and getting over our jet lag, I focused our activities on our full five days in Paris. If you have 6 days or a week in Paris, you will have a chance to check out some hidden gems in Paris , or time for a day trip to Versailles , Disneyland Paris , Giverney , or the Champagne region .
Day one – SUnday
Morning – Île de Cité
If you arrive on a Saturday, you can take some time to acclimate and recover from jetlag so that on Sunday morning you are ready to start exploring. I’m going to lay out our Paris itinerary for 5 days exactly as we did it, but also make suggestions for tweaks along the way.
I tried to arrange our visit so that we could explore a different neighborhood in Paris each day. On the first day, we visited the Île de la Cité, which is an island in the River Seine and where you will find famous landmarks like the Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle (famous for its stained glass windows), and Place Dauphine (famous from “Midnight in Paris”), as well as the Monument to Holocaust Deportees.
To better understand this area, we booked an Ile de la Cite walking tour with LivTours. We had a great two-hour tour with Ferit from LivTours, really digging into the history of this neighborhood and some of the main attractions. If you do want to visit on your own, you can find an audio guide for a self-guided walking tour on the VoiceMap app from the Join Us in France podcast host Annie Sargent.
We started off outside of the Louvre, and talked about some of its history from its days as a royal palace, to the site of a horrific massacre of Protestants at the hands of Catherine de’ Medici, to the massive art museum that it is today. From there we walked over the Pont des Arts bridge (formerly known for all the love locks) and then crossed to the Île de la Citê.
While exploring the island we walked through Place Dauphine, past the Conciergerie (former palace, prison, and hall of justice), and even discovered a Sunday bird market taking place, before arriving at our primary destination, Sainte-Chapelle.
Bird market
Conciergerie clock
Place Dauphine
Sainte-Chapelle is truly beautiful and to capture the stained glass windows on a sunny day, it is ideal to visit in the early morning or late afternoon. The chapel faces east, to catch the rays of the rising sun, but unfortunately, it was raining when we visited on a Sunday morning in March, but the clouds couldn’t take away from the beauty.
Admission is free with the Paris Museum Pass , but it is highly recommended that you book a timed-entry ticket. When we arrived there was still quite a queue for our time slot, but our guide helped us jump the line a bit. Sainte-Chapelle was built as a chapel for the religious King Louis IX in the 13th-Century.
The stained glass windows are quite remarkable, with each pane depicting a scene from the Bible, from Creation through Resurrection. The large circular window in the rear of the chapel depicts scenes from the apocalypse or the book of Revelation. Without our guide Ferit’s help, I’m sure we would have missed much of the symbolism and meaning behind the ornamentation of Sainte-Chapelle.
Our guide Ferit inside Sainte-Chapelle
Visiting Sainte-Chapelle didn’t use to be as popular as it is today, as most people made a beeline for Notre Dame, but since the cathedral is still closed, you can expect larger crowds at the chapel. Notre Dame is still under construction after the devasting fire in 2019 and it won’t reopen until 2024 for the Summer Olympics.
Afternoon – Latin quarter & Saint-Germain
When you finish your tour, I’d recommend you walk across Pont Saint-Louis to Île Saint-Louis for lunch. Cafe Le Saint Regis has a good Sunday brunch. I loved the atmosphere, the people were friendly, and the food was really delicious.
However, if you prefer to make a reservation, try the cute and cozy Aux Anysetiers Du Roy . Save room so that afterward you can stop at the famous Berthillon for ice cream. Because it was chilly and raining, we never made it to Berthillon on this trip.
For the rest of the afternoon, I’d suggest taking the time to explore more of the Latin Quarter or Saint-Germain-des-Pres at your leisure. We were going to visit the Pantheon (free with the Paris Museum Pass), but decided to pop over to Le Marais and check out the Holocaust Memorial and Museum (Mémorial de la Shoah) instead since we try to incorporate a bit of Jewish history into trips if possible (like in Budapest and Vienna .)
However, if you haven’t yet had a chance to wander through the Luxembourg Gardens, I would make that your priority. Since we arrived on Saturday, we had already spent a little time exploring Saint-Germain-des-Pres and Luxembourg Gardens. (See my friend Andi’s guide to the Luxembourg Gardens for more suggestions.)
Evening
That evening we wanted to stick close to our hotel for dinner, so we had dinner at Le Colvert Bistrot . Just a few minutes walk from our hotel, this bistro offers a modern take on traditional dishes and is small, friendly, local, and affordable.
Some other options include Le Procope , Chez Fernand , or Allard . We had a lovely dinner at Le Procope, one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, the night before and the Dauphine Ravioli are not to be skipped. And of course, there are always the popular, but touristy, Les Deux Magots, Cafe de Flore, Brasserie Lipp, or Cafe Bonaparte.
Day 2 – Monday
Morning – 8th & 1st Arrondissement
On our second full day in Paris, we decided to explore some of the 8th and 1st arrondissements. We started off at the Arc de Triomphe and then walked down the famous Champs D’Elysees toward Louvre.
This neighborhood is home to a lot of high-end, luxury hotels and designer stores, but today I find this neighborhood not as charming as it once was. The first time I visited Paris, my husband and I actually stayed at the Hotel George V, which is now a Four Seasons, and I was able to lay in bed and look out at the Eiffel Tower, which felt like a dream come true. Yet I was much happier with our hotel location in this 6th on this trip.
The Arc de Triomphe is in the roundabout of a very busy street, so if you want to visit the Arc or just get up close, you should use the underpass to get there and not attempt to cross the street in the middle of traffic. To go to the top of the Arc, you will need a ticket . To get to the top, you will need to climb 284 steps, or take an elevator to the mid-level and climb the remaining 64 stairs to the top.
We just wanted to see the Arc in person and take some photos (make sure you check out the Arc from behind as well), so we didn’t bother to buy tickets.
As we made our way down the Champs D’ Elysees to the 1st arrondissement, we walked past the Grand Palais (closed for renovations) and the Petit Palais, where we cut over to the river to take pictures by the Alexander III Bridge, with a great view of the Eiffel Tower in the background.
From there, we followed the river to the Place de Concorde with its Fountain of Rivers. Unfortunately, the Egyptian Obelisk is under scaffolding for renovation, but our destination was the Musée de l’Orangerie, where I had booked 11 am timed-entry tickets (free if you have the Paris Museum Pass).
My main goal was to see the large Monet Water Lilies paintings. If you really love Monet and the Impressionists, you may want to consider spending two hours and taking a private tour of the Orangerie Museum .
Afternoon
Once we finished at the museum, we enjoyed a beautiful spring day by spending some time soaking in the atmosphere in the Jardin de Tuileries. After all that walking, we were happy to get off our feet for lunch. I had tried to get reservations at Angelina’s for lunch, but by the time online booking was open, no reservations were available so I would suggest calling up to two months in advance.
A couple of other casual lunch options near the Louvre include Le Nemours or Baguetts Cafe (which is also a great spot for brunch.) If you prefer to make reservations for lunch as well, try Le Louvre Ripaille, which takes reservations through The Fork. We lucked out and got an outdoor table at Le Nemours, which was a perfect Parisian cafe experience.
After lunch, we popped over to Palais-Royal to have some fun with the Les Colonnes de Buren art exhibit (those black and white stools you may have seen on Instagram.) Since we had a little time before our Louvre tour, we also checked out the covered passageways at Galeries Vivienne and did a little chocolate shopping at Le Chocolate Alain Ducasse.
Our last activity of the day was a big one, a “Closing Time at the Louvre” tour with Take Walks (or Walks of France). We picked this late-day tour to see the highlights of the Louvre and get to see the Mona Lisa when the crowds were at a minimum.
This tour was actually one of our favorite activities of the entire trip. Our tour guide Adam was absolutely fabulous. It was educational but also highly entertaining. When we first met up and I learned we were a group of 14 (Take Walks’ max group size and his largest since pre-pandemic) and that we would be using headsets, I immediately thought, “oh no, what did I get us in to.” But honestly, with the crowds in the Louvre, which aren’t even close to pre-pandemic yet, those headsets really made the tour much more enjoyable.
We learned so much from Adam, who has been working at, or guiding in, the Louvre for 10 years including two years in the Louvre labs. On any given day, the Louvre displays 380,000 pieces of art and artifacts, and that is only EIGHT percent of its entire collection. There is obviously more to see than we could ever fit into a three-hour tour, but Adam did an excellent job showing some highlights while educating along the way — from Venus de Milo to Nike to, of course, the Mona Lisa.
The tour does a great job preparing you to see the Mona Lisa, from giving realistic expectations around its size, to comparing it to other works of its time, to exploring the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. We entered the room with the Mona Lisa just before the museum started to announce it was closing soon. While the last few visitors worked through the line, we talked a little bit more about the painting and Leonardo, jumping in for our turn at viewing the Mona Lisa with no one else around just before the museum closed.
Our guide Adam
Gallery with jewels
Nike
Venus de Milo
Mona Lisa
Inside the Louvre
If you are visiting with younger kids, I’d suggest booking a family-friendly tour and booking an early morning time slot when kids have the most energy. But for those with an interest in art and a desire to see some of the museum highlights, this was a great tour. All of us expressed a desire to return and see more and hopefully take a different tour with Adam.
If you decide to visit the Louvre without taking a tour (first of all, good luck), you do need to purchase timed-entry tickets (or book a timed-entry slot even if using the Paris Museum Pass.) Also, Mondays tend to be the busiest days at the Louvre so you may want to switch it out with another day in this itinerary (just not Tuesday when the museum is closed.)
Evening
I knew we were going to be tired after a full day on our feet so I booked us a reservation at Le Comptoir in our hotel (although the hotel is now under new ownership.) While I enjoyed our dinner, we all actually enjoyed our aperitif of wine and snacks at L’Avant Comptoir de le Terre next door, which is also from the same chef at Le Comptoir in the hotel.
Day 3 – Tuesday
Morning – Montmartre
La Maison Roso
Le Consulat
Moulin Rouge
Streets of Montmartre
Vineyard
Sacre Coeur from behind
On our third day, we set out to explore the artsy neighborhood of Montmartre. I’d heard rumors that in recent years there has been an uptick in petty crime in this area and since I especially like to avoid tricky situations when traveling with kids (even if I do have a teen now), so we decided to book a private Montmartre tour with LivTours. (Our tour was complimentary for purposes of review.)
I knew our guide would know just where to go (and where not to go), and I didn’t want to miss showing my daughter the famous Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur. Our guide Claire used to work at the Montmartre Museum, and was a wealth of knowledge about the famous artists, authors, and performers who have called this neighborhood home.
On our tour, we strolled past apartments where Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh once lived and took in the sites including Moulin Rouge and Place Dalida. We saw Montmartre’s vineyards on Rue Saint-Vincent, strolled along Rue Norvins, Rue Lepic, and Rue de l’Abreuvoir. (See more things to do in Montmartre )
Sadly as it was raining, there weren’t any artists set up in Place du Tertre. I have fond memories of strolling through here on my first visit to Paris and still have a painting that I bought from one of those artists on display in our home.
We finished our tour at the Sacre Coeur, or Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Usually, the view from here is spectacular but on a rainy and misty day, it was a bit more limited. It is free to visit the church and Claire took us for a quick walk through before we said goodbye. If you want to learn more about the history of the artists and the neighborhood, then this tour is quite useful. It is also helpful in finding your way around the small, charming streets of this neighborhood.
Afternoon – Opera House
After our tour, we had a lovely chicken lunch at Le Coq & Fils in Montmartre. This stylish restaurant focuses on chicken and the dishes are delicious (and very generous.) But if you go for nothing else, go for the shots of chicken soup. Don’t tell my mother-in-law but it may just be the best chicken soup on the planet.
After lunch, we hopped back on the Metro to the Palais Garnier Opera House for a self-guided tour . You should purchase your tickets in advance, but they are good for the entire day and therefore you don’t need to be beholden to a specific schedule. There is the option to sign up for a guided tour, which sounded fun, but I didn’t want to have to rush our lunch.
However, after visiting, I would recommend doing the guided tour if you can make it work. Without the tour or an audio guide, we got to see a beautiful building but didn’t learn much else. And, unfortunately, the auditorium was closed (I’m presuming for a rehearsal) during our visit.
I knew we were pushing our limits on how much we could fit into a day, but since we were right next door, we also took a quick walk through the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. This architecturally-stunning department store specializes in designer goods, but they also host special events like wine tasting and macaron making classes. There is also a great rooftop, offering terrific city views. It is worth a visit for pictures alone!
Evening
That night for dinner we ventured slightly further from our hotel, but not too far (just a 15-minute walk) at the Michelin-starred Baieta , which offers Mediterranean-style French to give us a break from Parisian bistros or modern cuisine. This is an option for a foodie, splurge meal, as the only choices are between a five or seven-course tasting dinner, but we really enjoyed the creativity and preparation. And while this was fine dining, it wasn’t pretentious or overly formal. However, if you only want to d
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