A first trip to Paris goes wrong in predictable ways: sold-out tickets, a museum closed on the day you turned up, an hour lost to a queue you could have skipped and a phone bill that arrives 3 weeks later. Almost all of it is avoidable with 30 minutes of preparation. Book the 3 or 4 timed-entry sights before you fly, learn which days the big museums close, put your transport on your phone and sort mobile data before you land.
Paris is also smaller than it looks. The city inside the ring road is roughly 10 kilometres across, the 20 arrondissements spiral outwards from the Louvre like a snail shell, and most of what you came to see sits in the first 8 of them. You will walk more here than in almost any other capital, which is the point.
Here are the 15 things worth knowing before you go, grouped by when you will need them.
Planning your first time in Paris
Everything else follows from 2 decisions: when you come and what you book. Late spring and September give you long evenings and gardens at their best. July and August are hot, busy and dotted with closures as Parisians leave the city. Winter is grey but genuinely cheap, and the museums belong to you again.
Tip 1: book the timed sights first
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle and the Catacombs all run timed entry, and the good slots go weeks ahead in high season. Book directly with each site rather than through a reseller. If the Eiffel Tower summit is sold out, the stairs to the second level are usually available on the day and give you the better view of the city anyway.
Tip 2: check what is closed
The major museums each take a closing day, and they are not the same day. The Louvre traditionally closes on Tuesdays while the Musee d’Orsay closes on Mondays, so confirm both before you build an itinerary around them. Many independent restaurants shut on Sunday and Monday, and a good number of small businesses close for part of August.
Tip 3: pack for cobbles and rain
You will cover 15,000 steps on an ordinary day, much of it on uneven stone. Bring shoes you have already broken in. Rain arrives in every season, so a compact waterproof layer beats an umbrella on a windy quay. Parisians dress simply and neatly rather than formally, and a few restaurants still prefer you not to turn up in sportswear.
Getting in and getting around
Public transport is excellent, dense and much faster than a taxi in the centre. The one thing to sort in advance is how you will pay for it, because the ticketing system has been changing.
Tip 4: pick your airport route
Charles de Gaulle connects to the city by RER line B, which runs straight to Gare du Nord and Chatelet, plus the Roissybus to Opera. Orly is served by metro line 14 as well as the Orlyval shuttle onto RER line B. Beauvais is not really a Paris airport at all: it needs a long coach transfer, so factor that into any cheap fare you find.
Tip 5: put transport on your phone
Paris has been retiring the old paper tickets in favour of a rechargeable Navigo card and phone-based passes. Check the current format with Ile-de-France Mobilites before you arrive, because whether a plain contactless bank card opens the gates depends on which system is live when you travel. Buy a multi-journey option rather than single fares.
Tip 6: walk more than you think
Metro stations sit close together, so many journeys of 1 or 2 stops take longer underground than on the pavement. The Seine quays, the Marais and the Latin Quarter are all best seen at walking pace. Save the metro for crossing the city, then explore each district on foot once you get there.
Tip 7: use buses and bikes
Bus routes crossing the river give you a slow and cheap tour past the monuments. The Velib bike share has stations everywhere with protected lanes on most major axes. Free-floating rental e-scooters were removed from Paris streets, so do not build a plan around finding one. Check RATP for live network updates.
Seeing the city without queueing
Tip 8: go early or go late
The first hour after opening and the last 2 hours before closing are the calm windows at every major museum. Mid morning is the worst time everywhere. If a site offers a late evening on 1 or 2 nights a week, take it: the same rooms feel completely different with a quarter of the crowd in them.
Tip 9: mix free sights with paid
Paris hands you a great deal for nothing. The permanent collections at several municipal museums are free, churches such as Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Eustache cost nothing to enter, and Pere Lachaise cemetery is a genuine attraction. Pair 1 paid highlight with 2 free ones each day and your sightseeing budget stops mattering.
Tip 10: give each district a day
Do not bounce across the city 4 times a day. Give Montmartre a morning, the Marais an afternoon, the Latin Quarter and Luxembourg Gardens another block, then leave time for Canal Saint-Martin or Belleville, where you will see how Parisians actually live rather than how the postcards say they do.
Eating, manners and money
Tip 11: say bonjour before anything else
This is the single most useful thing in this article. Say “bonjour” when you enter a shop, a bakery or a restaurant, and “au revoir” when you leave. Skipping it reads as rude in a way that surprises visitors, and adding it changes the temperature of almost every interaction. A basic “parlez-vous anglais” afterwards gets you further still.
Tip 12: eat on Paris time
Kitchens generally serve lunch around the middle of the day and dinner from roughly 19:30 CET, and turning up between those windows often means a limited menu. Breakfast is small: a coffee and a pastry, standing or sitting. A jambon-beurre from a bakery is the cheapest good lunch in the city, and market streets such as Rue Montorgueil and Rue Mouffetard feed you well.
Tip 13: service is already included
By law, restaurant prices include service, so you are never expected to add a percentage. Rounding up or leaving a couple of coins for good service is normal and appreciated. Coffee costs less standing at the counter than seated on the terrace, which is not a trick, just how the pricing works.
Safety and the small print
Tip 14: watch your phone and bag
Paris is safe for visitors, and the realistic risk is theft rather than anything worse. Pickpockets work the crowded lines, the RER route from the airport and the steps below Sacre-Coeur. Distraction tricks are common near the big monuments: the petition on a clipboard, the ring supposedly found at your feet, the bracelet tied around your wrist.
- Keep your phone in a zipped pocket rather than a back pocket or a loose hand.
- Wear bags across your body and in front of you on crowded carriages.
- Walk away from anyone who approaches you with a clipboard or a friendship bracelet.
- Ignore card games set up on a folding table near the tourist sights.
- Use official taxi ranks or a booked ride rather than a driver touting inside the terminal.
Tip 15: know the emergency numbers
The emergency number is 112 from any phone. Pharmacies show a green cross and handle far more minor problems than you might expect, often with English-speaking staff. Check the entry rules for your nationality before you fly, including the European Union border system for non-EU travellers, and carry your travel insurance details somewhere you can reach them offline.
eSIM for Paris to stay connected
You have 4 options and they suit different trips. Public Wi-Fi is widespread in cafes, museums and city parks, but you will be logging in repeatedly and it is the wrong network for banking. A local French prepaid card is sensible for a stay of several weeks, at the cost of shop time and your usual number. Roaming from home is the easiest and often the priciest, particularly if you are arriving from outside Europe. A travel embedded SIM (eSIM) is installed before departure and connects on landing.
| Option | Suits | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Public Wi-Fi | Hotel evenings and long cafe stops | Repeated logins and weak security |
| Local prepaid SIM | Stays of a month or more | Shop visit and a new number |
| Carrier roaming | Travellers who prepare nothing | Daily fees that mount quickly |
| Travel eSIM | Trips of a weekend to a month | Needs an unlocked, compatible phone |
Qrispy sits in that last row. Your Qrispy eSIM installs once and stays on the device, and you feed it in 3 ways: a pay as you go Global Wallet whose credits never expire across 210+ countries, Fixed Plans of 3, 7, 15 or 30 days for a single country or region, and Unlimited Data Plans in 90+ countries where fair use or temporary speed management can apply during congestion. Rates vary by destination and are shown before you confirm. Unlimited personal hotspot is included on every plan, which is useful when a hotel charges per device.
Keep your home SIM active for calls and one-time passcodes, set the Qrispy line as your mobile data line, then switch Data Roaming on for Qrispy and off for the primary SIM. The Qrispy line carries data rather than a phone number, so voice goes over Wi-Fi Calling or apps such as WhatsApp and FaceTime. Work out your allowance with the Qrispy data usage calculator and browse Qrispy eSIM plans for France before you commit to a roaming bundle.
Expect this behaviour: Smart IP Routing exits your traffic at the nearest Qrispy Point of Presence (PoP), which for a European trip is likely to be Paris or Amsterdam. Latency drops, but a streaming service may read your location from that exit point rather than your hotel. Travel Buddy, the in-app assistant, is handy for a first visit too, translating menu phrases and suggesting routes between the districts above. For seasonal events, the official France tourism site is the source to trust.
Frequently asked questions
Is 3 days enough for Paris?
Yes, for a first visit. 3 full days cover the Louvre or the Musee d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars, Notre-Dame and the islands, 1 long Marais or Montmartre wander and a proper sit-down dinner. Add a fourth day and you can fit Versailles or a slow morning at a market without rushing anything.
Do you need to speak French?
No, but you need about 6 words. Bonjour, merci, pardon, s’il vous plait, au revoir and parlez-vous anglais will carry you through almost every exchange. Staff in central Paris usually speak some English and respond warmly once you have opened in French. Leading with English alone is what creates the frosty reputation.
Is Paris safe for solo visitors?
Yes. Solo travellers, including women travelling alone, visit Paris comfortably every day of the year. The realistic risk is pickpocketing on crowded transport rather than violence. Stay aware around the major monuments, keep valuables zipped away, avoid empty stations very late at night and treat unsolicited approaches near the sights as a distraction.
What is the best time to visit?
May, June and September offer the strongest balance of weather, daylight and open businesses. April and October are quieter and still comfortable. August brings heat plus seasonal closures, and midwinter is cold and grey, although hotel rates fall and the museums are at their calmest all year.
Do you need a museum pass?
Only if you plan on 3 or more paid sites in consecutive days. A pass helps most when your itinerary is dense and you want to walk into several ticketed venues without buying separately. If your plan mixes free municipal collections, churches and parks with 1 or 2 headline museums, individual timed tickets work out better.
How do you get online quickly?
Install a travel eSIM before you fly, then activate it as you land and skip the airport shop entirely. Your phone must be unlocked and eSIM compatible, which nearly all recent handsets are. Keep your home SIM in place for calls and verification codes, and use the travel line purely for data.
Stay connected anywhere with Qrispy eSIM
Stay connected in 210+ countries with Global Wallet, Fixed Plans and Unlimited Data. No contracts, no roaming fees, no expiry. Download the Qrispy eSIM app today and start your journey.
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