A First-Timer's 5-Day Paris Itinerary (2026)

Before you go: airports, tickets, and timing

Three practical things shape a Paris trip more than any single sight. Get them right and the itinerary below almost runs itself.

Getting in from the airport

From Charles de Gaulle (CDG), the RER B reaches Gare du Nord and Châtelet in about 30–50 minutes. From Orly (ORY), Métro line 14 now runs direct to central Paris in about 25 minutes. Both are covered by the single €14 “Paris Région ↔ Aéroports” ticket (€7 for ages 4–9), which also covers onward transfers for two hours. Prefer a taxi? Regulated flat fares are €56 to the Right Bank / €65 to the Left Bank from CDG and €45 / €36 from Orly — use the official queue and ignore terminal touts.

Which ticket to buy

Since the 2025 reform there are two flat-fare singles: a Metro-Train-RER ticket at €2.55 and a Bus-Tram ticket at €2.05 (2026 prices), each valid region-wide. Riding a lot? A Navigo Day pass is €12 all-zones and a Navigo Week pass €32.40 (Monday–Sunday, all-zones, and it covers the Versailles RER). Load tickets onto a reusable Navigo Easy card (€2), your phone, or Apple Wallet — the old paper carnet is gone.

Tickets and timing

Book the timed-entry sights — the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles — before you fly, and reserve a free Notre-Dame slot on its official site. If you will visit four or more paying museums, weigh a Paris Museum Pass. Most museums close either Monday or Tuesday (the Louvre on Tuesday, the Orsay and Versailles on Monday), so check the day before you build your route — and note the Centre Pompidou is closed for a multi-year renovation.

Day 1 · The islands & the Louvre

The medieval core: Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and the world's biggest museum

Start where Paris started — the two islands in the Seine and the Right-Bank centre around them. Île de la Cité holds the medieval heart, the Louvre is a ten-minute walk across one bridge, and the Tuileries roll out beyond it, so the whole day runs west along the river as one gentle line with almost no train.

Getting there
Take the Métro to Cité (line 4) or Saint-Michel (line 4 / RER B–C) and start on Île de la Cité before the queues build. From Notre-Dame it is a flat 15-minute riverside walk over the Pont au Change and along the quays to the Louvre. Reserve a free Notre-Dame slot and a timed Louvre slot online before you go.

Notre-Dame de Paris
Reopened on 8 December 2024 after the 2019 fire, and free to enter — the interior stonework and glass have been cleaned to a pale gold most Parisians had never seen. Entry is free but a timed slot is strongly recommended (up to ~40,000 visitors a day); book it only on the official cathedral website or app, never a reseller — the free tickets touts sell are worthless. The separate Towers climb and the Treasury (€12) are ticketed.
Sainte-Chapelle & the Conciergerie
A two-minute walk away inside the old law-courts complex, Sainte-Chapelle is a jewel-box upper chapel walled almost entirely in 13th-century stained glass — go on a bright day and climb to the upper level for the full effect. Admission is €22 (€16 for EEA residents) from 12 January 2026; a combined ticket with the neighbouring Conciergerie, the revolutionary prison where Marie-Antoinette was held, is €30. Security is airport-style, so keep to your slot.
The Louvre
The largest and most-visited museum on earth — you cannot 'do' it, so pick three or four things and let the rest be corridor. General admission is €22 (€32 for non-EEA visitors) from 14 January 2026; free for under-18s and under-26 EEA residents, and free for everyone on the first Friday evening of the month (except July–August). Open 9:00–18:00, late until 21:00 on Wednesday and Friday, closed Tuesday. A timed entry slot is mandatory in July–August and strongly advised year-round — book at ticket.louvre.fr.
Tuileries & Palais-Royal (afternoon)
Walk out of the Louvre's western end into the Tuileries, the formal garden that runs to Place de la Concorde — free, with green chairs to collapse into. Just north, the arcaded courtyard of the Palais-Royal hides Buren's striped columns and some of the city's oldest cafés. A calm, free counterpoint to a museum morning.

For dinner, cross to Île Saint-Louis behind Notre-Dame for old bistros and a Berthillon ice cream, or walk up into the 1st arrondissement's Rue Saint-Honoré. Both keep you where you already are rather than crossing town.

Day 2 · The grand axis (west)

The Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, and the tower at dusk

Day two follows the Axe historique — the dead-straight ceremonial line from the Concorde obelisk up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe — then drops south to the river for the Eiffel Tower. It is the most monumental walk in Paris and almost entirely above ground, so save your legs and book the tower for late afternoon.

Getting there
Start at Concorde (line 1/8/12) and walk up the Champs-Élysées, or ride line 1 to Charles de Gaulle–Étoile for the Arc. Reach the Arc de Triomphe by the pedestrian underpass — never cross the traffic circle. Afterwards, take line 6 (or walk down through the 16th) to Trocadéro for the classic tower view, then cross the river to the Eiffel Tower itself. Book a timed tower slot for the golden hour before you fly.

Champs-Élysées & Place de la Concorde
Begin at Concorde, where the 3,000-year-old Luxor obelisk stands on the square that saw the Revolution's guillotine, and walk up the two-kilometre avenue of flagship stores and cafés toward the Arc. The lower, tree-lined half by the Grand and Petit Palais is far pleasanter than the retail top — and both palais are worth a look for their glass-and-iron architecture.
Arc de Triomphe
Napoleon's triumphal arch at the top of the Champs, with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath it and a rooftop terrace over the twelve-avenue star of streets. The rooftop is €16 in low season and €22 in high season (1 April–30 September); free for under-18s and EEA under-26s. Reach the arch by the underground passage from the Champs-Élysées side, not across the roundabout.
Trocadéro & the Eiffel Tower
The Trocadéro terrace on the far bank gives the postcard, full-length view of the tower — arrive before you go up. Then cross the Pont d'Iéna to the tower itself: a lift to the second floor is €23.50 for adults, to the summit €28.00 (the stairs to the second floor are cheaper, and from 29 September 2026 stair tickets need advance booking). Open late; book a dated slot online. Note the tower is closed to the public on 13 July 2026.
Les Invalides or a Seine cruise (afternoon)
South-east of the tower, the gold dome of Les Invalides shelters Napoleon's tomb and the Army Museum. Or trade walking for water: the Bateaux-Mouches and Vedettes du Pont-Neuf river cruises leave from near the tower and the islands, and an hour on the Seine at dusk is the least footsore way to see the monuments lit.

This is the grand, floodlit end of the city — a fine evening to eat somewhere with a view, or to be on the Trocadéro at the top of the hour when the Eiffel Tower breaks into its five-minute sparkle (every hour after dark until 1 a.m.).

Day 3 · The Left Bank

The Latin Quarter, the Panthéon, the gardens, and the Impressionists

Cross to the Rive Gauche for the Paris of bookshops, cafés and the old university. The Latin Quarter, the Panthéon, the Luxembourg Gardens and Saint-Germain-des-Prés sit in a compact block on the south bank, with the Musée d'Orsay along the river to finish — a day that rewards slow wandering more than a checklist.

Getting there
Start at Cluny–La Sorbonne (line 10) or Saint-Michel and climb the hill through the Latin Quarter to the Panthéon, drop down into the Luxembourg Gardens, then work north-west through Saint-Germain to the Musée d'Orsay on the quay. It is walkable end to end; the Orsay is closed Mondays, so swap the day if yours lands then.

The Latin Quarter & the Panthéon
The tangle of medieval streets around the Sorbonne — Shakespeare and Company opposite Notre-Dame, the Roman baths at Cluny, market street Rue Mouffetard. Crowning the hill, the Panthéon is the neoclassical mausoleum of the nation's great (Voltaire, Curie, Hugo), with a Foucault's pendulum under the dome; entry is €13 low season / €16 high season.
Luxembourg Gardens
The most-loved park in Paris and completely free: gravel avenues, the octagonal pond where children sail toy boats, the Medici Fountain in its leafy corner, and hundreds of the movable green chairs that are a Parisian institution. The ideal midday pause — bring a sandwich from a Saint-Germain boulangerie.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The old literary heart: the city's oldest church tower, the historic cafés Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore where Sartre and de Beauvoir held court (pay for the address, not the coffee), and the small streets of galleries and design shops between the boulevard and the river.
Musée d'Orsay
The Impressionist collection of the world, hung inside a grand former railway station — Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, and the great station clock you can photograph the city through. Admission is €16; free on the first Sunday of the month (reserve a slot), and for under-18s and EEA under-26s. Open until 21:45 on Thursdays; closed Mondays. A more manageable museum than the Louvre for a late-day visit.

The Left Bank is the best dinner-and-wine quarter in the city. For a classic evening, the bistros of the 6th around Rue de Buci and Odéon; for something rowdier and cheaper, the student streets off Rue Mouffetard in the 5th.

Day 4 · Montmartre & the Marais

The hilltop village of the north, then the mansions of the east

Day four pairs the two most atmospheric districts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Montmartre is the steep artists' village in the north crowned by Sacré-Cœur; the Marais is the flat, aristocratic old quarter in the east, full of mansions, museums and the best falafel in Paris. A short Métro hop links them at midday.

Getting there
Start early at Anvers or Abbesses (line 12) for Montmartre before the crowds — the funicular up to Sacré-Cœur takes a normal Métro ticket. After lunch, ride down to Saint-Paul (line 1) or Hôtel de Ville for the Marais. Both districts are for walking; the Marais is at its liveliest on a Sunday afternoon, when most of the city's shops are shut but this one stays open.

Sacré-Cœur & Montmartre
The white basilica on the highest point in Paris, free to enter, with the whole city laid out from its steps. Behind it, the tiny Place du Tertre still fills with portrait painters, and the lanes down to the Moulin Rouge and the last working vineyard keep the village feel. A warning: firm 'friendship-bracelet' sellers work the steps below the basilica — keep your hands in your pockets and walk on.
Place des Vosges & the Marais
The oldest planned square in Paris (1612), a perfect arcaded rectangle with Victor Hugo's free house-museum in one corner. The surrounding Marais is a maze of 17th-century hôtels particuliers, independent boutiques, and the historic Jewish quarter along Rue des Rosiers — where the falafel counters draw a permanent queue.
Musée Picasso (or the Carnavalet)
The Marais holds two standout museums. The Musée national Picasso (around €16) fills a grand mansion with the artist's own collection; the Musée Carnavalet, the free museum of the history of Paris, is one of the best-value cultural stops in the city. Note that the Centre Pompidou nearby is closed for a major multi-year renovation from autumn 2025 — do not build a day around it.
The northern Marais & a canal finish (afternoon)
Drift north through the design shops of the upper Marais toward the trendier 10th and 11th. If the weather holds, end along the Canal Saint-Martin — iron footbridges, tree-shaded quays and a young, un-touristy bar-and-café scene that shows the everyday Paris the monuments leave out.

For dinner, the Marais and neighbouring Bastille are full of small, good, reasonably priced places, and — unusually for Paris — many are open on Sundays and late. It is the easiest district in the city to eat well without a reservation.

Day 5 · A day trip

Out of the city: Versailles, Giverny, or Disneyland Paris

Paris is ringed by day trips, and a fifth day is the moment to take one. The default is Versailles — the vast palace and gardens of the Sun King, half an hour out on a suburban train — but Monet's garden at Giverny and Disneyland Paris are both easy alternatives depending on the season and who you are travelling with.

Getting there
For Versailles, take RER C to Versailles Château–Rive Gauche (about 35–40 minutes; a Navigo Day pass or a Metro-Train-RER ticket covers it), then a 10-minute walk. Book a Palace timed slot before you go — it is mandatory. For Giverny, take a mainline train from Gare Saint-Lazare to Vernon, then the shuttle. For Disneyland, RER A runs direct to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy in about 45 minutes.

Palace of Versailles
The most extravagant royal palace in Europe: the Hall of Mirrors, the State Apartments, and 800 hectares of formal gardens and fountains. The 'Passport' ticket for the whole estate is €32 and includes a mandatory timed Palace entry slot — book it online, especially April–October when on-the-day entry is not guaranteed. The Palace is closed Mondays. From 3–4 p.m. an 'Afternoon Saver' Passport drops to €18–€28. The gardens are free most days but ticketed on Musical Fountains days (April–October).
Giverny — Monet's garden
Claude Monet's house and water-lily garden in Normandy, the actual subject of the Nymphéas paintings, open roughly April to November. Quieter and greener than Versailles, and unmissable if you loved the Orsay's Impressionists the day before. Combine the train to Vernon with the shuttle bus; go early to beat the coach tours to the lily pond.
Disneyland Paris
The obvious call if you are travelling with children: two parks at Marne-la-Vallée, direct on RER A from central Paris in about 45 minutes. Book dated park tickets online in advance — they are cheaper and let you skip the gate queue — and treat it as a full day out rather than a half-day add-on.
Stay in the city instead
Prefer to stay in Paris? Spend the day on what the four days above left out: the Marmottan Monet or the Rodin garden museum, the flea market at Saint-Ouen, the Coulée verte elevated park, or simply the covered passages of the 2nd arrondissement — the 19th-century glass-roofed arcades that are the loveliest wet-weather walk in the city.

Whichever trip you take, check the last train back before you set out, and remember that Versailles and Giverny are both closed one day a week (Monday and, at Giverny, never in season but shut all winter) — a mismatch that catches out a surprising number of first-timers.

Tickets, passes, and timed entry

Paris transport and admissions both changed recently, and old guides quote figures that no longer exist. For a five-day first visit, keep it simple — one transport pass, timed slots for the big three, and a museum pass only if you are museum-heavy. Here is who covers what in 2026.

Ticket / pass	How it works in 2026
Metro-Train-RER / Bus-Tram ticket	Flat single fares of €2.55 (metro/train/RER) and €2.05 (bus/tram), valid anywhere in the region except airports. Load onto Navigo Easy or your phone. The old paper t+ carnet is discontinued.
Navigo Day / Week pass	Navigo Day €12, Navigo Week €32.40 (Mon–Sun), both all-zones and both covering the RER out to Versailles and CDG. The week pass usually beats singles over a 5-day trip.
Paris Région ↔ Aéroports ticket	€14 (child 4–9 €7) for CDG via RER B or Orly via Métro 14 / Orlyval, plus two hours of onward transfers in zones 1–5. No paper version — load it digitally.
Paris Museum Pass	€85 / €105 / €125 for 2 / 4 / 6 days, 50+ sites, one entry each. Pays off from ~4–5 visits. No temporary exhibitions; you still reserve a free timed slot at the Louvre and Versailles.
Timed-entry venues	Louvre (from €22), Eiffel Tower (from €23.50), Versailles Palace (Passport €32) — dated, slotted tickets from the official sites. Notre-Dame is free with a free timed reservation. Book before you fly.

The other quiet upgrade is context. A gallery you understand is a gallery you remember — so before the Louvre's corridors or the Hall of Mirrors, it helps to have the history in your ears rather than reading a wall label in a crowd.

Plan it with HipiMind

Plan this trip by talking

An itinerary like this is easy to read and surprisingly hard to hold in your head — which day was the Left Bank, and does anything double back across the river? That is exactly what HipiMind is built for. It is a voice-first AI travel assistant: describe your Paris trip out loud — “five days, first time, we love art and food, want one big museum day and a Versailles day trip” — and it turns the conversation into a day-by-day itinerary with every stop placed on a map. When a plan secretly strands you crossing from Montmartre in the north to the Latin Quarter in the south and back, you see the long leg on the map and can say “fix that” before you lose an hour underground.

For the sights themselves, ask HipiMind to generate a long-form audio guide about Paris — the making of the Louvre, the building of the Eiffel Tower, the story of the Marais — and listen hands-free as you walk. It is interruptible: pause to ask a question, get an answer, and resume where you left off. It plans and narrates in the language you speak, across 32 languages, right in the browser — no app to install.

The free tier includes 3 voice sessions and 1 audio guide per calendar month. HipiMind Plus is $7.99/month ($59/year) with 60 voice sessions, 20 audio guides, and full trip memory across journeys. HipiMind plans and narrates — it does not book flights, hotels, or timed-entry tickets, and it is not a GPS-triggered on-site tour; confirm times, prices, and reservations with the provider.

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Paris itinerary FAQ

Is 5 days enough for Paris as a first-timer?

Yes — five days is the sweet spot for the icons plus one day trip. This plan spends day one on the islands and the Louvre, day two on the grand axis from the Concorde to the Eiffel Tower, day three on the Left Bank and the Musée d'Orsay, day four in Montmartre and the Marais, and day five out at Versailles (or Giverny, or Disneyland). Central Paris is compact and very walkable, so grouping each day by quarter means you stroll between sights and only take the Métro for the longer hops.

How much is a Paris Métro ticket in 2026, and should I get a pass?

Since the January 2025 fare reform there are two flat-fare single tickets: a Metro-Train-RER ticket at €2.55 and a Bus-Tram ticket at €2.05 in 2026, each valid anywhere in the region (airports excluded). The old paper t+ carnet is gone. If you expect several rides a day, a Navigo Day pass is €12 all-zones and a Navigo Week pass (Monday–Sunday) is €32.40 all-zones — the week pass often wins over a five-day visit and covers the Versailles RER too. Load tickets onto a reusable Navigo Easy card (€2) or your phone.

What's the best way to get from CDG or Orly airport into Paris?

There is now a single €14 'Paris Région ↔ Aéroports' ticket (€7 for children 4–9) that covers CDG via RER B or Orly via Métro 14 / Orlyval, plus onward transfers across zones 1–5 for two hours. From CDG the RER B reaches Gare du Nord and Châtelet in about 30–50 minutes; from Orly, Métro 14 reaches Châtelet in about 25 minutes. Prefer a taxi? Parisian taxis charge regulated flat fares: €56 to the Right Bank or €65 to the Left Bank from CDG, and €45 / €36 from Orly, all luggage and up to four passengers included. Use the official taxi queue and ignore anyone offering a ride inside the terminal.

Which Paris sights do I need to book in advance?

Book timed slots for the Louvre (mandatory in July–August, advised year-round), the Eiffel Tower, and the Palace of Versailles (a timed Palace slot is required, and on-the-day entry is not guaranteed April–October). Notre-Dame is free but a free timed reservation on its official site avoids a long queue. Sainte-Chapelle and the Musée d'Orsay are worth pre-booking in peak season. Most gardens — the Tuileries, the Luxembourg — and the interior of Sacré-Cœur are free and need no booking.

Is the Paris Museum Pass worth it?

It can be if you visit several paying sites. The Paris Museum Pass costs €85 (2 days), €105 (4 days) or €125 (6 days) and covers 50+ museums and monuments — the Louvre, Orsay, Versailles Palace, Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and more — with one entry each. It roughly pays off from about the fourth or fifth visit. Two things to know: it does not include temporary exhibitions, and you still have to reserve a free timed slot separately at the Louvre and Versailles even with the pass. If you only plan two or three museums, individual tickets are cheaper.

Has anything changed in Paris since older guides were written?

Several things, which is why 2026 figures matter. Notre-Dame reopened on 8 December 2024 and is free to enter again. The transport fares were overhauled in January 2025 into two flat-fare tickets, and the old carnet is discontinued. Métro line 14 now runs direct to Orly airport. Museum admissions rose in January 2026 (the Louvre to €22, Sainte-Chapelle to €22). And the Centre Pompidou closed in autumn 2025 for a multi-year renovation — so do not plan a visit there until it reopens later this decade.

How can HipiMind help me plan a Paris trip?

HipiMind is a voice-first AI travel assistant: describe your Paris trip out loud and it turns the conversation into an editable, day-by-day itinerary with every stop on a map — so you can immediately see when a plan strands you crossing from Montmartre in the north to the Left Bank and back, and fix the route before you go. It can also generate a long-form audio guide about Paris — the story of the Louvre, the building of the Eiffel Tower, the history of the Marais — to listen to hands-free as you walk. It does not book tickets, so reserve the timed entries on the official sites yourself.

Sources

Opening hours, fares, and admission figures in this guide were grounded in the following official and authoritative sources (checked July 2026). France revised transport fares in January 2025 and several museum admissions in January 2026, and venue pricing is often seasonal — verify before you travel.

A first-timer's 5-day Paris itinerary