Paris

Paris Travel Tips: Getting Around, Money and Tourist Traps

Last checked October 8, 2026

Paris's centre is compact enough to walk for hours, but its two airports each need a specific ticket, paper Métro tickets are being phased out, and its best-known monuments sell tickets only through their own official sites.

Arriving

Paris–Charles de Gaulle (CDG), the main airport, sits north of the city. RER B links CDG directly with Gare du Nord, Châtelet-Les-Halles, Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame and Denfert-Rochereau, taking about 25–30 minutes to Gare du Nord, with trains roughly every 10–20 minutes on weekdays.

Paris–Orly (ORY), south of the city, connects to the centre on Métro line 14, from the Aéroport d'Orly station, reaching Châtelet in about 25 minutes and Gare de Lyon in 23, with trains every 2–5 minutes.

Both airports need the "Paris Region <> Airports" ticket, not an ordinary Métro ticket — load it onto a Navigo Easy card or buy and validate it in the Île-de-France Mobilités app. It covers the Métro (including line 14 to Orly), Orlyval and the RER and trains (including RER B to CDG), but not OrlyBus, RoissyBus or ordinary buses.

Taxi fares between each airport and Paris are fixed, set by the Paris Police Prefecture — one rate to the Right Bank, a different one to the Left Bank — and don't change with traffic. Ranks are at the exit of every terminal, so follow the signs to the official taxi rank and never respond to anyone offering a ride inside the terminal itself. In the city, Paris taxis must run on the meter; the airport flat rates are the only legal exception.

Paris's main railway stations are Gare du Nord (also the Eurostar terminal), Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, Gare Montparnasse and Gare Saint-Lazare.

Getting around

You can cross the whole city on foot in a few hours, and a Métro ride of fewer than two stops is usually no faster than walking. Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) is the transport authority; RATP runs the Métro, trams and buses, and SNCF the rest of the RER — all take the same tickets.

Cardboard paper tickets are on their way out: the classic t+ and Origin-Destination tickets stopped being sold on 5 November 2025, and buses and trams no longer accept them at all. On the Métro and RER, acceptance continues into autumn 2026. The practical move now is to load fares onto a Navigo Easy card, bought at a station machine, or onto a phone through the Île-de-France Mobilités app, SNCF Connect, or Apple or Samsung Wallet.

Validate at the start of every journey, and again whenever you change to a new bus or tram. Don't let anyone follow you through the gate on public transport. Métro lines 1, 4 and 13, and RER A and B, are the most crowded.

Uber runs in Paris 24/7, including pick-ups at CDG and Orly, and Bolt also operates here.

Money and tipping

France has used the euro since 1999 (and euro cash since 2002). Visa, Mastercard and CB cards are accepted almost everywhere, and American Express is mostly limited to higher-end shops; most places simply refuse foreign currency outright. If a card terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in euros.

Service is already included by law: under the 1987 rule on price display, a displayed price that collects a service charge already means "taxes and service included," and the menu must say so. A tip (pourboire) on top is entirely the customer's choice. In practice, locals leave small change or round up the bill when service was good, nothing more. Bread and tap water are free on request — ask for "une carafe d'eau."

Tourist traps

The Louvre sells official tickets only at ticket.louvre.fr; the museum warns against mirror sites and street vendors, since a fraudulent ticket is refused at the door. Booking a time slot is recommended even if you qualify for free entry, the museum is closed on Tuesdays, and every exit is final — you can't re-enter the same day. The two entrances are Cour Napoléon, under the Pyramid, and Cour Carrée.

For the Eiffel Tower, SETE, the tower's operator, is the only authorised seller, and its only official addresses are toureiffel.paris and ticket.toureiffel.paris — be wary of any other site calling itself "official." Only the tower sells lift-only tickets; resellers bundle the lift with an extra service above the official price. Tickets go on sale online 60 days ahead, and if sold out you can still buy on the day at the tower's own ticket office — it has no skip-the-line system, so any "skip the line" claim is false.

Away from the big sights, a cluster of long-running street scams is worth recognising. Fake petitions are common in the Latin Quarter and around Notre-Dame: young people posing as deaf members of an association ask for a signature and money, and the petition is bogus. The bonneteau, or three-card game, run on the Seine bridges near the Eiffel Tower, works the same way as always: accomplices pose as players who win, and you won't. String or "friendship bracelet" sellers work at the foot of Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, tying a string on your finger before demanding money.

Staying safe

Paris is relatively safe, and violent crime is rare — the real risks are petty crime, pickpocketing and scams. Thieves work the Métro, the RER and mainline stations, often in pairs: one distracts you while the other goes into your bag, so stay alert around major attractions and ATMs.

Police advice is straightforward: don't keep your wallet or phone in a back pocket, carry a small shoulder bag rather than a backpack, and never change money on the street.

The emergency number is 112, covering ambulance, fire and police. On tap water, Paris's own water utility, Eau de Paris, monitors the supply from source to tap against the full Public Health Code.