Want to build the perfect Paris Travel Guide Itinerary but don’t know where to start?
Are you tired of seeing the same, cookie-cutter Paris Itinerary everywhere? Want to know how to make an itinerary that’s just right for you but are overwhelmed with options? You’re in the right place!
Our Paris Travel Guide will help you navigate the City of Light with ease, offering personalized tips and suggestions to make your trip unforgettable. Say goodbye to generic plans and hello to a Paris adventure that’s perfectly suited to your preferences.
Larry and I are currently planning our 4th trip to Paris. We return to this incredible city time and time again because it is as beautiful, romantic, delicious, and exciting as you’ve always heard! But with so many monuments, museums, restaurants, and romantic rues to explore, it can also be daunting to get organized.
This post is all about planning your perfect Paris Itinerary, whether you’re a first time visitor or return visitor!
Step 1: Create your own Paris Travel Guide, with a column representing each day of your trip
There’s no other way around it, if you want a memorable, romantic, and stress-free vacation in the city of Lights, you’ve got to do some planning in advance. But don’t worry! It’s not as daunting is it sounds. I’m going to take you through it step-by-step.
Ok, time to get Nerdy! Whether you use a notebook, your notes app, or a spreadsheet, you just need something that allows you to visualize your time in Paris.
Make a column for each day that you’ll be in Paris, and title the columns with the weekday and calendar date … DON’T SKIP THIS PART. Days of the week matter a ton when you’re planning activities in Paris!! Trust me, you don’t want to plan your trip around visiting the Louvre on Tuesday only to realize …. the Louvre is closed on Tuesday.
Divide these columns into half day sections. You’re going to base your trip around the concept of half-days.
Create three additional columns: Must Do’s. Maybe. Avoid.
- In the must-do’s, write the top 3 or 4 things that you HAVE to do while you’re in Paris … things that if you missed it, you would be sad about. For example, maybe you have to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or go thrifting in Le Marais, or take a dinner cruise down the Seine, or buy something fancy at Galleries Lafayette, or eat pastries until your pants pop open (not that that’s ever happened to me …) You get the picture. Check out the gallery below for pictures of us achieving our must-do’s.
- The Maybe activity list is where you put things that seem nice, but are not totally necessary. Include things that can occur indoors in case the weather sucks while you’re there, or things that you would do if you had extra time in Paris.
- If you see something that looks dangerous or if another traveler noted a particularly bad experience at a place, add that to the avoid list.
Step 2: Decide on your “Must Do’s” or top priorities!
NOW YOU’RE ALL SET UP AND READY TO GO! It’s time for the fun part.
Quickly drop in your arrival and departure details
I want you to take that must do list and drop those items one at a time into the half day slots you have available. Front load your trip with these activities as much as possible because if there’s one rule I swear by as someone who has traveled internationally for 15 years, it is that you should ALWAYS DO YOUR MUST-DO’S FIRST.
Stomach bugs will happen. The loss of a credit card will happen (Yup, more than once). Things will happen to interrupt your trip and you don’t wanna miss out on the reasons you went to Paris in the first place!
I’m giving the example of 3-4 Must Do’s assuming most people only have between 2-4 days to travel in Paris. Obviously, the more days you have, the longer your list can be.
Ok people, ready for some tough love? You may only have as many Must Do’s as you have Half days
You cannot have more must do’s then you have half days in Paris. I know there’s gonna be things that you’re not gonna see. I’ve been there a handful of times and there are still sights I haven’t caught yet. But this is the formula that will give you a fun, stress-free experience and will make you WANT to come back to Paris. And isn’t that better than seeing everything you could possible squeeze in but hating your experience?
I mean, would you rather go home and tell your friends, I saw everything, but Paris sucked. OR would you rather say, oh man, I had the best trip ever, I can’t wait to go back someday and see more!
Step 3: Leave a half day open at the end of your trip!
If you are staying in Paris for 4-7 days, I recommend leaving at least 1 or 2 half days totally open at the end of your trip for anything that you missed or things that you discover while Paris that you’ll want to add to the itinerary. A little bit of wiggle room goes a long way.
Step 4: Build out your itinerary and fill in the time gaps geographically
OK now it’s time to build out this itinerary a little more.
- Open your itinerary and google maps side-by-side.
- Search and save the locations of your must do’s. This gives you your first Birdseye view of your trip to Paris!
- Add days/hours of operation for your must-do’s into the itinerary. This step is critical! Just because something is major and historic does not mean it’s open 7 days a week in Paris …trust me I’ve learned the hard way.
- Adjust the timing of your must do’s around based on what you’re seeing here. For example, if you’re dying to check out the Musee d’Orsay, you’ll notice they have late opening hours on Thursday nights! So, if you’re going to be in Paris on Thursday, maybe you move this must-do to the Thursday evening half day section.
- Another example, say you really want to tour the Catacombs but notice it’s closed on Mondays. Don’t wanna do that! Maybe move it to Wednesday half day.
- Repeat this process for each of your must-do’s.
See? You’re already building a dream-worthy, achievable itinerary for your time in Paris. And most importantly, it’s specific to you.
Once you have the skeleton of your trip going, the time has come to do a little more research. Personally, I love watching YouTube videos for research when it comes to travel. I like to watch a few local channels which give me an idea of what the locals are doing, as well as several travel vlogs specific to the season I’ll be traveling!
As you see streets, shops, or other spots that look fun in these videos, check them out on your Google map. If they are near one of your must do’s, drop them in to that half day. If they’re not near anything? Then they’re on the maybe list. So you’ll see how you can slowly build out your half days to include one major attraction plus a couple of these fun stops on a half-day basis.
Step 5: Don’t waste time in line! Use your Paris Travel Guide to plan ahead.
Vacation is too short to waste in line! Paris can be particularly line-heavy if you’re not careful.
People wait hours for museums, shops … even falafels somehow have hour-long waits. As someone who loves you, please don’t do this. Maybe … maybe give yourself a limit of one line per day if you must!
But I promise you, no hot chocolate or steak frites is worth standing in a line for an hour during your precious trip to Paris.
A lot of the sites in Paris – Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph have two lines – one to buy your tickets, and second to go through security. You can cut your wait time in half by already having a ticket in hand. Use the Paris Travel Guide you’ve just created for yourself to buy tickets in advance for your schedule, saving a lot of time and frustration while you’re in Paris!
Paris Travel Guide: A Few Final Paris Travel Tips
Here are a few final tips to make your trip to Paris extra special.
Paris Tip #1: Save sit-down meals for dinner.
- For breakfast, grab a pastry and coffee.
- For lunch, do a “formula menu” at a local boulangerie near wherever it is that you happen to be in Paris, or get some yummy street food, and eat it in a beautiful park or along the seine. It will be so much more scenic, more memorable, cheaper than a sit down meal, and it will save you a lot of time.
Paris Tip #2: Despite what we’ve seen on Netflix, I’d say 95% of women in Paris are not carrying beautiful, designer handbags. What they are carrying is an amazing canvas tote.
- I carried a canvas tote everywhere, and I felt like I drew way less attention in terms of scam artists and pickpocketers,
- I carried my phone and credit cards on a laynard around my chest, which made me feel really safe even on the metros, because even if someone did try to rob out of my canvas tote, the most they were gonna get is a used water bottle. Have fun with my backwash.
Paris Tip #3: Have some rainy day activities in mind.
- Whether it’s a museum that you were considering hitting up, a restaurant that you wouldn’t mind spending a couple hours at, or a beautiful department store, have a couple options in case the weather turns bad.
- That way, rather than be disappointed when it rains, you may be excited for an excuse to check out that fancy-schmancy hot chocolate place that takes forever!
- Alternatively you could – you know – just keep going through the rain. You won’t melt.
This post was all about creating a perfect Paris Travel Guide, just for you, using 5 easy steps!
Enjoy your trip, and leave any questions or comments below! Bon Voyage! Explore Athens.
