The Paris public transport system, known by the acronym RATP, is one of the world's most comprehensive and efficient. It includes the Métro, the (mostly) underground rail network covering the entire city, and the RER (light suburban rail) and bus systems. For pricing purposes it is based on eight "Zones," essentially concentric circles.
Zones 1 and 2 comprise the 20 numbered arrondissements of Paris proper. There are 14 Métro lines, numbered (logically enough) from 1 to 14, and 5 RER lines designated by the letters A though E. A Zone map and Métro and RER maps can be found at: http://www.ratp.info/informer/anglais... Nowhere within Paris will you ever be more than a very few hundred meters from a Métro station.
Individual transport tickets and Carnets
A single-use Métro/bus ticket costs €1.60. A "Carnet" (karn-ay) of 10 single-use tickets costs €11.40.
Individual tickets and Carnets of tickets can be used any time, even months after they were purchased. Keep them (and all passes) away from magnets and cards with magnetic strips.
Note that you should keep your ticket until you leave the system. Periodic spot checks occur, and substantial on-the-spot fines are levied for failure to produce a vaild ticket. In additioon, you cannot exit through the turnstiles on the RER system without a valid ticket. To summarize, within Paris proper, ANY individual ticket, and ANY pass covering at least Zones 1 and 2 is valid on ANY Métro or RER train, any bus, including night buses, and on the Montmartre funiculaire.
Multi-use transport passes
For most visitors the choices of Métro/bus/RER passes boil down to three: the Navigo Découverte Pass (which replaced the old Carte Orange), the Mobilis pass, and the Paris Visite pass. They vary in their period of validity and in price.
A one-day Zone 1 & 2 Mobilis Pass, valid for unlimited travel for one calendar day, costs €5.40.
Multi-day Mobilis passes are not sold.
A one-day Zone 1-3 Paris Visite pass, similar to the Mobilis pass, costs €8.80
A two-day Zone 1-3 Paris Visite pass costs €14.40
A three-day Zone 1-3 Paris Visite pass costs €19.60
A five-day Zone 1-3 Paris Visite pass costs €28.30
Paris Visite passes are not sold in a 1 & 2 Zone only version, nor for periods other than those listed here.
A special one-day Zone 1-3 pass for those aged under 26, valid ONLY on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays is available and costs €3.20
For international travelers, the Paris Visite passes are by far the best option and can be pre-purchased online as a redeemable voucher or Genuine physical ticket and shipped to your home at http://www.parismetro.com .
A one-month Zone 1 & 2 Navigo Découverte, for one calendar month on the metro and buses, costs €55.10 plus €5.00 for the rechargeable card which you swipe from your purse or wallet over a proximity reader. This can be bought from major Metro stations and they will accept foreign credit cards as payment. You will need to add a small photo of yourself to the card for identification purposes.
There is no reduction in price on any of these tickets or passes for seniors. Note that the multi-day Paris Visite passes are valid for CONSECUTIVE calendar days starting with the day of their first use. The Paris Visite and under-26 passes are NOT available for Zones 1 & 2 only. All these passes are valid any transport modality on the RATP system within the Zones they cover. Except for the 5-day Paris Visite pass, multiple one-day Zone 1 & 2 Mobilis passes are actually a better buy for most people, since most visitors do not travel outside Paris proper except when travelling from/to the major airports or to sites outside Zone 3.
All these passes only make economic sense if you are using the transport system enough to justify the extra cost when compared with buying a Carnet or individual tickets. The various passes do of course offer the non-monetary benefit of "one stop" shopping. The Paris Visite pass does come with a "basket" of fringe benefits that are not available with any other transport pass. For a full list of these offers, look at ArrowCapet's excellent post: http://tinyurl.com/zz2yj
If any of these are of interest to you, they make the Paris Visite pass relatively more attractive. The Navigo Découverte is the best deal if its validity coincides with your itinerary. The validity of the Navigo Découverte runs from the first train on Monday morning to the last train on Sunday night. It is the most cost-effective pass. However, it is intended primarily for residents and so presents some problems to visitors, as both its use and its sale are limited to specific days. The Navigo Découverte for the current week is available through Wednesday of that week, and sale of the pass for the upcoming week begins on Friday. So you need to take into account your day of arrival, and your likely use of the Métro/buses to decide if it will work for you. If you intend to purchase a CO, you will need a passport-type photo, approximately 1-inch square or a little larger. For most people a two-Zone pass will meet their needs.
RER tickets to/from CDG (Zone 5) cost €8 one-way, €16 round trip. Versailles RER tickets (Zone 4) cost €5.30 round-trip. Disneyland round-trip RER tickets (Zone 5) cost €12.40. If you plan on making all of these trips, or several other trips outside the central (Zones 1 & 2) areas, a weekly Navigo Découverte or the appropriate Mobilis or Paris Visite pass for Zones 1-5 might be your best buy. I have not listed the options for the Zone 1-5 and other passes since MOST people will not find them cost-effective. However, a full listing of the prices for ALL Paris tourism-related passes can be found here: http://www.ratp.info/informer/tarif_t...
The prices for all Navigo Découverte (formerly Carte Orange) passes are shown here: http://www.ratp.info/informer/tarif_a... Note that both these pages are from the French-language version of the RATP site. The English language version, while useful, does not contain much of this information. Finally, some basic information on travelling between central Paris and Orly and CDG airports using public transport can be found here: http://www.transilien.com/GB/AerSom.htm Note that the coupon of your Navigo Découverte should NOT be placed in the ticket cancelling device on boarding a bus as doing so will damage it. Simply show your pass to the driver or swipe it across the purple proximity reader. Only individual tickets need to be cancelled. The route-finder function of the RATP site works well, and is easy to use once you get the hang of it. Try it, you might like it...
Museum Passes
The Paris Museum Pass provides unlimited access during its period of validity to more than 60 museums and monuments. Besides its convenience, it can save considerable amounts of time by permitting you to by-pass long ticket lines.
Current Paris Museum Passes are for 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days, costing €30, €45 and €60 respectively. Remaining stock of the now obsolete 1, 3 and 5 day passes is still available from some vendors. Whether the Museum Pass makes sense is a function BOTH of the number of museums you intend to visit AND of the value you place on the time you can save by using the Pass to by-pass sometimes lengthy ticket lines.
Another benefit is that the Pass permits multiple visits to any covered museum, as well as permitting you to just duck into a museum for a quick look round (or to use the "facilities"...) without having to pay the entrance fee. I'd figure an average of around €8-€9 per museum if you want to calculate the purely monetary cost-benefit ratio of the pass. There are combination admission and travel passes for certain attractions. These include Versailles and Fontainebleau, among other places. For more info on the combined Versailles and Fontainebleau offers: http://www.transilien.com/FR/TouSom.htm .
The Paris Museum Pass can be conveniently pre-ordered as a redeemable voucher or a genuine ticket and sent to your home at http://www.museumpass.com. Full information about the Museum Pass, points of sale etc. can be found at the ONLY official site: http://www.parismuseumpass.com/ It is ALWAYS more expensive to buy any of these products from third-party vendors before arriving in Paris. Note that American (magnetic stripe) credit cards will not work in automatic ticket machines such as those found at CDG.
If you stay for a few weeks in Paris and want to see the Louvre five or more times its worth it to become a Friend of the Louvre (Société des Amis du Louvre) for 60€ for one or 90€ for a couple. This gives a year of unlimited free entries to the Louvre (normally 9.50€ a visit) as well as the special exhibitions (11€ each). The membership gives priority access as well as discounts and/or free access to other museums in Paris as well as discounts at shops and restaurants in the Louvre. This Friends pass can be bought in the Louvre behind the information desk in the Carousel near Starbucks.
If you want to convert from Euros to a currency you are more familiar with try: http://www.xe.com/ For more info go to: www.ratp.fr http://www.parismuseumpass.com/ http://www.transilien.com/FR/
**Note: This original source of this information was from the TripAdvisor forums thread: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-...
