Ways of getting around Paris
Walking
Central Paris is compact compared to cities such as London and New York. If you are staying within the central districts (arondissements 1-7), you will be able to walk between most tourist sites. Even from the outer ring of arondissements, many attractions will be walkable.
Walking in Paris is a pleasure. You will come across treasures such as cute patisseries, stunning architecture, and well-tended parks and gardens. I would recommend that you walk where you can!
A few walks to try…
In addition to walking between tourist attractions, keen walkers might enjoy the Promenade Plantée or various walks along now pedestrianised routes on the banks of the Seine.
Stretching some 4.5km from Bastille to Chateau de Vincennes, the Promenade Plantée (or Coulée Verte) is an elevated urban park running along a disused railway line. It was the inspiration for New York’s High Line. To access the walk, go up to the stairs on the east side of Place de la Bastille (at the crossroads between Rue de Lyon and Avenue Daumesnil).
Heading off in the opposite direction, you can walk a 2 mile-long-stretch along the right bank of the River Seine from the Tuileries Gardens to Bastille. This is one of several stretches of former busy roads which have been pedestrianised by Paris City Council.
Metro / RER
The 16 lines of the Paris metro will easily take you between any spots in central Paris. The key to navigating the metro (or the RER) is to know the line number which you need and the end destination. If you are using an app such as Google Directions, the route info will show you the line number and where it is headed to.
The RER is useful for journeys outside of central Paris, such as Disneyland Paris or the airport. The RER routes cover far greater distances, and the stops are more spread-out. Each line probably only has 5 or 6 stops within central Paris and then goes out to serve the towns in the outskirts.
Metro lines have numbers, RER lines have letters (currently A to E). You can make a journey which uses both on the same ticket.
On the RER platform, check the stop you want is lit up on the board before getting on! The metro will serve all stations on its route.
Allow plenty of time for your journey. Connections between metro lines can involve a fair bit of walking and trains are often slightly delayed.
Bus
To travel on the bus, you need tickets added to a Navigo card. However, the tickets are different from metro tickets (just to make things more complicated). Do make sure you have loaded bus and not metro tickets.
Personally, I find using the bus abroad harder than the metro. The metro will stop at each station whereas with the bus, you will usually need to recognise your stop in advance and press the button in order to get off. With Paris traffic, buses are also more subject to delays than the metro. On the plus side, you get to see more of the city from the bus. Bus 42 does a great route taking in the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, the Grand Palais, Concorde, Opera and Galleries Lafayette..
River boats
The Seine runs horizontally through the middle of Paris separating it into the left and right bank. You can take guided cruises on the river (see my review here of our guided boat tour from near the Eiffel Tower).
There s also the “Batobus” which is effectively a hop on hop off river bus service (much like the Uber boats in London). Many of the key attractions are located by or very close to the river (Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, Notre Dame, Conciergie, Eiffel Tower etc) so this could be a good way to travel. It’s not cheap though with a 1 day pass costing 23 Euros for an adult, 13 for a child.
Taxis / Ubers / Bolts
Deliberately the last entry as I wouldn’t recommend taxis / Ubers as a good way of getting around Paris. They are few and far between as they are not really used by Parisians, who prefer to walk or use the metro. Traffic can be busy and slow so expect taxi travel to be expensive.
Finding your way
Apps such as Google Directions work well in Paris, particularly for walking routes.
If your route includes a change of metro line with only 1 or 2 stops on the second leg, it would be worth checking on the app how long it would take to exit the metro at the changeover station and then walk to your destination. Connecting between metro lines can often involve a fair bit of walking through the station and it is often easier (and nicer) to emerge and walk the rest of the way above ground instead. Apps rarely suggest this.
Also, if you can, check your directions to see what exit (marked by a number or street name) you need. With some of the larger stations (Chatelet-les-Halles springs to mind), there are many exits, and you can end up a long way off route if you go out the wrong side of the station! The French for exit is “Sortie”.
Buying tickets
Metro journeys cost 2.5 Euros each (as at Spring 2025). There is no longer any saving for buying in bulk.
A standard ticket covers pretty much any journey on the metro / RER (including the trip out to Disneyland Paris). You do however need a separate, more expensive ticket for the journey out to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
You can’t just buy paper tickets for individual journeys on the metro or bus. Instead, you need to have some form of Navigo card (see below) and load journeys on to it.
Once you have your Navigo card, you can buy tickets from any machine which says “Navigo-Recharge”. You can select your language. You then put your card on the machine, so it reads it and select how many tickets you want to add. Alternatively, if you have the card on your phone, you can just buy additional tickets through this.
To go through the ticket gates, simply hold your physical card / smartphone over the purple area on the turnstile. At many metro stations, you don’t need to “tap out” and the exit gates will just open for you.
Navigo Easy
I would recommend the Navigo Easy for short stays. You don’t need a photograph, and it can be bought through your phone or from machines at each metro station.
If you are travelling on your own or with other adults / teenagers, I would suggest you each have the Navigo Easy on your smartphone.
If you have an i-phone, simply go into your wallet, click on add travel card and stroll down until you get to Navigo Easy. Buy the card (2 Euros) and then add tickets to it. You can add as many as you like. I would suggest you arrive in Paris with at least 4 tickets preloaded as then you don’t have to worry about having enough signal to buy more when you are on the move.
If not everyone in your party has smartphones or you are worried about data / connection, you can buy physical Navigo Easy cards from machines at each station. This is what we did. We arrived by Eurostar so bought our cards at Gare Du Nord. Head down into metro from the main station concourse, walk past the long queue for the manned ticket offices, and use one of the machines that say “Navigo – Vente”. You can choose your language. Follow the steps to first buy the card and to then add some tickets to it to get you started. You will need to do this process separately for each individual.
Hopefully this article will help you get around Paris easily. Please check out some of my other posts for things to do in Paris and how to plan a memorable stay.