5 Exciting Days in Paris with Teens

My family of four recently spent a week visiting London and another 5 days visiting Paris and Disneyland Paris. This was my husband’s and teens’ first international flight and visit to Europe. It was a great introduction to traveling beyond the Americas and the Caribbean. Here is how we spent 5 days in Paris with teens!

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Travel Logistics

Train

We started our trip in London (see my related post One Lovely Week in London with Teens), so we simply took the Eurostar train from London to Paris. I purchased standard tickets for $115 per person. We could have taken a flight for about the same cost or a bit less than the train (or even for free using points), but there are several great reasons to opt for the train:

• Train travel is part of the culture of Europe and I think it’s good for American teenagers to experience it. Perhaps one day they will be in positions of power and can make sure the US has more passenger train options!
• Train travel is incredibly easy! You don’t have to check bags, security is faster, and you don’t have to get there so early before departure.
• Trains take you from city center to city center. There’s no need to pay for expensive taxis or rides shares to airports outside of city central.
• This route in particular took us under the English Channel through the “Chunnel” which is a unique experience.

Flights

We flew home from Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport on United. We flew free using a combination of 118,000 United miles and 14,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points. I had been saving United miles for years. It was great to use them to get us home from this fabulous vacation!

Lodging

Paris City Center

I wanted to book all of our Paris stay with points. But I couldn’t find a great points option for a hotel with a family room in central Paris. So I booked two nights in the Grand Hotel de Normandie on the Capital One travel portal using 69,653 Venture X points. The cash value of this booking was $709, so this was not a great redemption. However, I did get a slightly higher value for my points than simply erasing the charge with my Venture X card for $0.01 per point. More to the point, I wasn’t $709 out of pocket, which was a win!

Location

This hotel is located in the 9th arrondissement (district). This was a perfectly fine part of the city to stay in. The hotel is right across the street from the Gare Saint Lazare train and subway station. So we were easily able to get everywhere we wanted on public transportation. We did not pay for breakfast at the hotel since that would have cost $15 per person. Instead, I went to a nearby bakery each morning and bought a selection of delicious pastries each day for less than $15 total!

Family Room

Family rooms have a double bed that was almost as big as a queen size bed in the US. They also have a couch that folds into two twin beds. All of the beds were were comfortable. The room was very hot when we arrived, but it did cool down to about 75 degrees eventually. The bathroom arrangement is a little strange. The toilet was in one area and the shower and sink were in another. It would have made more sense to have the sink and toilet together.

Perhaps best of all, the staff were super friendly and welcoming. They greeted us each time we entered the hotel and made sure we had everything we needed.

Disneyland Paris

Continuing on my theme of poor points redemptions, I used 147,122 Chase Ultimate Reward Points to book three nights in Disneyland Paris Sequoia Lodge. The cash rate for this booking was $1,839.03, so I received a $0.0125 point redemption. This rate included four days of park tickets. We would only have bought two days for our itinerary, and that would have cost $757. So this hotel was effectively $361 per night. I’m glad we used points as I would have never paid this much for this hotel. I have found it much easier to earn points than money since I’ve started travel hacking!

Pros of Sequoia Lodge

I wanted to stay on Disneyland Paris property for the perks of getting into the parks one hour early and being able to walk easily to the parks. And I’m glad I did as we made full use of these perks! The grounds were extensive and beautiful. It definitely felt like we were visiting a National Park in the United States. The hotel rooms have a cute theme of Bambi and include an in-room coffee maker with K-cups and Mickey head capped bath products. There’s a nice indoor / outdoor pool that my son enjoyed during our afternoon break.

Cons of Sequoia Lodge

Otherwise, the hotel was a big disappointment. The room was tired and needed refreshing. The room was a regular double room with queen beds, and my teens were disgusted not to have their own bed. To make things more challenging on a trip with teens, there were was only two outlets in the entire room. These were both on the opposite wall from the beds. And only one of these outlets worked when you turn out the lights! Fortunately, I had read reviews and was prepared with power strips and extension cords so we could plug in all of our devices.

The worst part about the hotel is that the air-conditioning did not work at all. We first settled into one room, discovered the A/C didn’t work. Then we moved to another room and it still didn’t work. Even after maintenance worked on the unit, the room was never less than 82°. As Americans used to overly air-conditioned rooms, this was miserable! I recommend avoiding this hotel during the summer months.

Transportation

Public Transportation

We primarily used the Paris Metro and train system to get around. Unlike in London, you can’t just simply tap your chipped credit card to pay your fare. So I counted how many subway tickets I thought we might need in advance. Once we arrived at a Paris Metro station, I purchased three books of 10 Navigo pre-loaded passes + RATP.

Even though we had spent a week successfully navigating public transportation in London, we struggled a bit in Paris. As a result, we ended up having to buy a few more subway tickets than I planned. We also bought Billet RER C Paris – Versailles Rive Gauche train tickets to take us from our hotel to Versailles and back. Overall, we spent about $155 on public transportation for three days in Paris city center, about $13 per person per day.

We finally got the hang of Paris public transportation when we realized that Google Maps would tell us what exit from the station we should look for once we departed the subway. These stations were big and sprawling and we probably walked too many miles underground!

Rideshare

We used Uber three times. Our first ride was upon arrival in Paris from Gare du Nord station to Hotel Normandie. Then we used it to transfer between Hotel Normandie to Sequoia Lodge. Finally, we used it from Sequoia Lodge to Charles de Gaulle Airport to fly home. We spent about $190 on ride shares. Expect a ride share from the train station to a city center hotel to cost about $25 and from city center to the airport or to Disneyland Paris to cost about $80. You can easily get everywhere on public transportation and save a lot of money. But you will drag your suitcase up and down subway stairs and through miles of crowded underground passages. It was worth a few hundred dollars to us not to do this!

Meals

If we were being graded on our Paris vacation with teens in terms of how much we sought out delicious food, I would give us a D+. I didn’t research places to eat in advance. We generally just ate whatever we could find when we were hungry. Luckly, though, we had good food while we were in central Paris. The food at Disneyland Paris is notoriously bad! I guess Paris is a good destination to just wing it!

We ended up spending approximately $200 a day total on food. We weren’t particularly economical in our food choices. I also didn’t hesitate to say yes to requests to ice cream and special treats. However, we did share some meals and didn’t go anywhere outrageously expensive. A family could eat cheaper than we did, but I recommend budgeting about $50 per day per person for family trips with teens to Paris.

Activities

I spent a lot of time analyzing the Go City Pass options in Paris. I made a list of everything I wanted to see and looked up their prices on the website. Then I looked at the Go City Pass website to see what those passes covered. Ultimately, I decided that buying passes would be more expensive than booking directly on attraction websites. But it’s always worth it to check!

In most cases, I made booking for everything in advance. You can buy tickets on site to most attractions, but lines can get very long. And some things can sell out, so it’s best to pre-book tickets and skip the lines.

Itinerary

There’s so much to see and do in Paris with teens. And I I wanted to spend two full days at Disneyland Paris. So we had to make the most of our three days in central Paris. Here’s how we tackled our time.

Friday – Arrival, Churches & The Louvre

We departed our London city central hotel about 7:30 a.m. and took an Uber to St. Pancras International Train Station. We were there in plenty of time for our scheduled departure time of 9:30 a.m. You do go through security, but it’s much quicker than at the airport. We waited about 30 minutes after clearing security to board our train. There was plenty of room on the train for all of our luggage.

The train ride itself was about 2.5 hours. We arrived at Gare du Nord station about 1 p.m. I planned on us taking a rideshare to our hotel. But when I checked the app, I was shocked by the prices. So we lined up for a taxi. The line was long, and after about 20 minutes, I checked the Uber app again. Prices had come down, so I was able to book one. I think there’s probably surge pricing in place when trains first arrive in from London but dissipate thereafter. So it’s worth waiting 15-20 minutes to call a rideshare.

Sainte-Chapelle

We settled into our hotel, then had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Then we took public transportation to Sainte-Chapelle. This exquisite Gothic chapel was built in the 13th century and features stunning stained glass windows. It’s definitely worth visiting on your trip to Paris with teens, and it doesn’t take that long. Allow about an hour for your visit.

Notre Dame

Afterwards, we walked to Notre Dame to view it from the outside. Notre Dame is a famous Gothic cathedral completed in the 14th century. It burned in 2019 and it’s still under repair, so it’s not currently open to the public. But it wasn’t far away from Sainte-Chapelle, so I thought it was important on a Paris trip with teens to go over and see it. We would have had time to tour the Archeological Crypts of Notre Dame as a visit takes less than an hour. Instead, we found a sidewalk cafe and had ice cream and drinks. It was hot!

The Louvre

I had originally wanted to tour the Louvre as soon as it opened in the morning. But by the time I booked tickets, those early slots were already taken. The Louvre stays open until 9:45 p.m. on Fridays, and that seemed like the next best option. That’s the beauty of traveling to Paris with teens – they can stay up late!

The Louvre is one of the largest art museums in the world located in a 12th century royal palace. Not only are there paintings and sculptures, there are also elaborately decorated period rooms. The museum contains over 380,000 works of art. Lore says that it would take 100 days if you spent 30 seconds looking at each piece of art it holds.

Having a plan at the Louvre is a must! I spent a lot of time in advance mapping out the must-see sites so that we could fit everything in and not exhaust ourselves. Walking from Notre Dame, we entered the Louvre at 6 p.m. We headed out at 8:30 p.m. after seeing all of the sites on my list and eating a quick dinner of a ham and cheese baguette at a museum cafe. This included the time it took to line up and see the Mona Lisa! We took the metro back to our hotel and crashed!

Saturday – Classic Paris

Eiffel Tower

I let everyone sleep in a bit as I went out to get pastries at a nearby bakery. Then we headed out to our first site of the day, the Eiffel Tower. We took the metro to Le Trocadero et son Esplanade as this is the best place to take photos with the tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Going up to the top of the tower requires speedy internet service as soon as tickets are released on the official website, deep pockets to book through a third-party provider, or vast patience to wait in long lines the day of your visit. I lacked all three!

I tried to get tickets online when they were first released, but I missed out on those. And my family wasn’t super interested in going to the top because the view of Paris would not include the Eiffel Tower. So we decided to save our money and time and just view it from below.

Arc de Triomphe

Instead, we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe. This monument is located in the heart of Paris. It was built in the early 19th century to celebrate Napoleon’s military victories. I had pre-purchased tickets to the top. The beauty of seeing Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe is that the view includes the Eiffel Tower! But be prepared to for the climb. It’s 284 steps up a spiral staircase to get to the top. We spent about 20 minutes walking around and taking in all the views.

Champs Elysees

At my daughter’s request, I planned to spend several hours walking down the Champs Elysees. She wanted to window shop and perhaps even go into some of the high end stores on the street. But there wasn’t much in the windows to look at. Plus, we were all a bit intimidated by the security guards at the front of some of the stores. Instead, we stopped for lunch at an incredibly overpriced tourist restaurant. Take my advice, walk a few blocks away from the Champs Elysees for more reasonably priced and better food!

After our overpriced lunch, we spent $45 on 15 macaroons from Ladurée Paris. I had planned for these to last a day or two. Instead, we inhaled them all in about 10 minutes! It was the highlight of our walk down the Champs Elysees!

Seine River Cruise

I had not planned to do a Seine River Cruise. But since we cut our Champs Elysee shopping time short, we had time. We walked over to the nearest dock and bought tickets on the spot for the next cruise. Then we spent the next hour seeing the beautiful sites of Paris from the water. The boat had pre-recorded commentary, but it was hard to hear. But we still enjoyed our relaxing hour on the water.

Sewer Museum

We still had time to kill. I wanted to go to the Paris Sewer Museum that Amanda raved about in her Paris post. Unfortunately, this is not a museum that you can simply drop into and have a good experience. Amanda took a guided tour in English that captured her imagination. The guide told them about the structures they were standing under in the city. As they passed beneath the Paris Opera House, she fantasized that the Phantom of the Opera was somewhere lurking in the sewer with her.

No English tours were available during our visit. We were handed a super thick manual with a lot of information in tiny type and indecipherable maps. So we just wandered around not really knowing what we were seeing. The highlight was seeing this cool mural of a rat. My son was very disappointed that we didn’t see any real rats, although his mother was very glad.

I think this museum is probably very fascinating – just make sure you get a tour in your native language!

Catacombs

The weather took a turn at this point, but we made it to a nice restaurant before it started to rain. We enjoyed a nice meal while it poured. Then we made our way via subway to the Catacombs.

In the late 18th century, cemeteries in Paris were overflowing with human remains. So the remains of about six million people were transferred from various cemeteries to the the Catacombs. Here they were carefully arranged in patterns and designs spanning more than 200 miles under the city. This is a must-do on any visit to Paris with teens. They were captivated by the site, as was I! My 6’3″ husband didn’t enjoy it as much. He had to duck throughout the entire visit or risk bumping his head.

After this fascinating visit and incredibly full day, we went back to our hotel via public transportation.

Sunday – Paris Day Trips

Sunday in Paris was devoted to two of the best day trips with teens: Palace of Versailles and Disneyland Paris. Now no one would recommend visiting both of these destinations in a single day. In fact, I planned for our trip to Versaille to take most of the day on Sunday. Then we would just transfer to Disneyland Paris to spend the night. But we had extra tickets for Disneyland Paris that came with our hotel reservation, so we were able to do both! And I do think visiting Versaille in the morning to early afternoon and then spending the evening and the entire next day in Disneyland Paris is a good plan when visiting Paris with teens.

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles was originally a hunting lodge. It was transformed into a grand palace by King Louis XIV in the 17th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and features lavish gardens, brilliant interiors, and fantastic works of art. The Trianon Estates are also located here and include two other palaces and gardens you can visit.

We were up early to check out of our hotel, store our luggage, and take the train out to Versailles. We waited outside a Starbucks for it to open so we could have breakfast. Then we bought Billet RER C Paris – Versailles Rive Gauche train tickets. When we arrived at the Château Rive Gauche station, we followed the crowds to walk to the palace. Then we stood in a long line to enter with our pre-purchased tickets.

We spent the hour and a half going through the opulent rooms of the palace. About 10:45 a.m. we happened upon a restaurant in Versaille called Angelina, a branch of a famous Parisian tea house. Although it was early for lunch, we decided brunch was in order and had a delicious meal and incredible pastries.

Versaille Gardens

Our tickets included garden access, so we wandered outside. I’ve been accused of over-planning in the past, but that was not the case on this day. If you want to make the most out of tickets that include the fountain shows and visit the Trianon Estates, you need to make a plan. We did not have a plan and didn’t get much out of our garden visit.

Instead of telling you what I did, I’ll tell you I should have done! After touring the main palace first thing, enter the gardens and go directly to the booth renting golf carts. Budget to rent the cart for at least two hours. Then you will have plenty of time to enjoy the garden. And you won’t have to walk the mile between the main palace and those at the Trianon Estates. Another alternative is to get tickets to ride Versailles little train. This train stops at different places and you can hop on and hop off.

Please be aware that both of these experiences sell out on busy days. This is why you need to book them as soon as you get out to the gardens. The golf cart option is more expensive. But lines for the train can get long, so I think the golf cart is a better choice. Plus teens would love it! It just might be a highlight of your trip to Paris with teens.

Disneyland Paris

We cut our time at Versaille short after realizing our failure to plan for the gardens was making us have a bad experience. We went back to the train station and took the the train back to our Paris city center hotel. There we grabbed our luggage and took an Uber to Marne-la-Vallée where Disneyland Paris is located. I thought about dragging our luggage with us to Versaille and finding somewhere to store it. But Versaille and Disneyland Paris are in opposite directions. So it didn’t seem out of the way to return to our Paris hotel and retrieve it.

We arrived at our Disneyland Paris hotel, checked in, and headed to Disney Village to eat dinner. We ate at Earl of Sandwich, and this was by far our worst meal of the trip! Then we headed into Disneyland Park to enjoy an evening full of rides. This evening in Disneyland Paris, after a frustrating afternoon trudging around the Versailles gardens in the heat, was the absolute highlight of our Paris vacation with teens!

Monday & Tuesday – Disneyland Paris

We spent the next two days galavanting around Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. While these parks have many similarities to their US counterparts, there’s always something special about visiting parks in a foreign country. I won’t go into detail about our days in Disneyland Paris. But I will say that ending our 12 day trip with a few nights in a theme park is perfect for a trip to London and Paris with teens.

Since we stayed in a on-property hotel, we were able to give our teens freedom to wander around on their own. In fact, we all spent some time alone during these final few days. As a Disney fan, I soaked up time alone in the parks. Meanwhile, my teens slept in and my husband enjoyed the atmosphere on a bench.

We also enjoyed fun family time riding new and familiar rides. Since we are all familiar with Disney parks, it was easy to figure out where to go and what to do. It was nice having a few days of low-stress family time to cap off our trip. And Disneyland Paris is just beautiful!

Wednesday – Flight Home

We were up way too early to take the long flight home. I pre-booked an Uber online to take us from our hotel to Charles de Gaulle airport. We had two layovers on the way home and it felt like we would never arrive. But arrive we did, and now we are enthusiastic about our next trip abroad!

More Paris Options

For the purpose of this post, I’ll end with a few suggestions of things I think would be good options for traveling teens to wrap up your week in Paris, especially if you don’t want to spend time in Disneyland Paris:

• Visit one of Paris’s great art museums such as the Musée d’Orsay, Centre Pompidou, Musée Rodin, Petit Palace, Le musée du quai Branly, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée Marmottan-Monet, Musée de l’Orangerie, or Musée de Cluny. Or experience art in an entirely new way at the Artelier des Lumières digital art display, through a street art tour, or learn how to make it yourself with a graffiti workshop.
• If your teens aren’t into art, try these museums: Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie (Science & Industry), Musée des Arts Forains (Theater & Performing Arts Museum), Le Palais de la découverte (Discovery Palace),  Le Musée de l’Armée (Army Museum), Le Musée de la Magie (Museum of Magic), Le Musée d’Histoire Naturelle (Natural History)
• Enjoy one of Paris’ wonderful gardens: Jardin des Tuileries, Jardin du Luxembourg or Jardin des Plantes. The latter also has a zoo! Another place for animal lovers to visit is Aquarium de Paris with over 10,000 fish and other forms of marine life.
• Wander through the streets of Montmartre enjoying its maze of streets filled with artists, shops, and cafes and featuring beautiful views of Paris.
• Love the Catacombs? Then experience more of the darker side of Paris with a guided tour of Père Lachaise Cemetery, a ghost tour, or a visit to the Pantheon crypts. You can also visit Conciergerie where prisoners were kept during the French Revolution and pay your respects to Napoleon’s Tomb at Hôtel National des Invalides.
• Do something experiential like making your own French perfume or taking a cooking class.
• If shopping on the Champs Elysees is out of your budget, try the Forum Des Halles shopping mall.
• Take a hop-on/hop-off bus tour early in your trip to give you a good overview of the city. Or you can explore the city via a Segway tour.
• If you are traveling from September-May, watch the Paris Saint Germain football team play at Parc des Princes.
• Get a birds-eye view of Paris from the tethered Ballon de Paris Generali, the steps of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, or Montparnasse Tower.
• Take another day trip! There are many options available. Some that teens might particularly enjoy are the Loire Valley, Giverny, Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, Bruges, and Fontainebleau.

In fact, there’s so much to do in Paris with teens that I think I need to start planning another trip there!

What’s on your itinerary for Paris with teens?

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