Bus Tours Of Paris
Although Paris is quite compact, it can be a good idea to save time while sightseeing and take a coach trip around Paris.
There are three real benefits:
(1) It lets you relax and put your feet up. With so much to see, it can be hard on the shoe leather, so it’s nice to take a break from walking and travel around Paris on an open roof double decker bus.
(2) Paris tour buses will either have a guide on board or there will be a recorded bilingual commentary in English and French (and sometimes also commentaries in German , Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish too). So you won’t miss anything and you get history and information about the sites you are seeing.
(3) By travelling above ground (rather than using the more popular metro), you get a sense of the layout of the city.
Using Paris Bus Tours To Get Around Town
Many tour companies allow you to hop on and off as you please. So, you can use these coaches as a way of getting around and, unlike the metro, you’ll get to enjoy all the sights of Paris that are in between your starting point and your destination.
There are a number of different bus tours in Paris, but one of the best has to be the “Grand Tour”. This takes passengers all round the city and takes in Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees, the Garnier Opera house, the Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, Concorde, Trocadero and Invalides.
The whole thing takes around 2 hours and is probably the fastest and most comprehensive introduction to Paris.
Sightseeing On Public Transport
As well as taking coach trips around Paris, you can also use everyday Paris bus routes to travel around town and see the sites.
The Paris Regional Transport Authority (RATP) run the local transport system (buses, metro and local trains) and they’ve a number of routes that pass many places of interest.
The route I’d most recommend for visitors is number 63. This bus will let you see:
Trocadero (the Chaillot palace)
Pont L’Alma (where Princess Diana had her fatal crash)
Hotel des Invalides (where Napoleon’s tomb is)
The Assemblee Nationale
Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne
The Institut du Monde Arabe
Jardin des Plantes (botanic gardens and zoo)
The public buses are easy to use and Paris bus tickets are the same as the metro tickets.
Whether you decide to go on a guided tour or with the RATP, bus tours Of Paris are well worth considering for your holiday.