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Paris Metro Advice

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coxy

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Hi,

Group of 4 travelling into Paris on a Saturday evening, transferring to hotel and then sightseeing for 2 days (Sunday, Monday) before heading back to the UK on Tuesday afternoon.

I understand you can buy Paris Metro tickets in blocks of 10, which works out cheaper than buying individual tickets.

You can also purchase some form of contactless card, I believe it's called a Navigo, which you load up with credit and then tap in/out until your credit expires.

What I'm really looking to find out is do they have some form of ticket that allows unlimited journeys for a set number of days ?

Any advice on pros & cons of each type of ticket more than welcome.

Thanks.
Coxy
 
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mmh

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What I'm really looking to find out is do they have some form of ticket that allows unlimited journeys for a set number of days ?

Yes, there is a daily zonal ticket called Mobilis, and there is the Paris Visite pass aimed at tourists which allows travel on 1, 2, 3 or 5 days and gives discounted entry at some attractions. Both I believe are still sold as paper tickets. Unfortunately the RATP website is erroring when I try to look at the details for Navigo, but is working for the Mobilis and Paris Visite sections.
 

30907

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Hi,

Group of 4 travelling into Paris on a Saturday evening, transferring to hotel and then sightseeing for 2 days (Sunday, Monday) before heading back to the UK on Tuesday afternoon.

I understand you can buy Paris Metro tickets in blocks of 10, which works out cheaper than buying individual tickets.

You can also purchase some form of contactless card, I believe it's called a Navigo, which you load up with credit and then tap in/out until your credit expires.

What I'm really looking to find out is do they have some form of ticket that allows unlimited journeys for a set number of days ?

Any advice on pros & cons of each type of ticket more than welcome.

Thanks.
Coxy
Looking quickly on the RATP website, you can get a Paris Visite, which has discounts on various attractions (not necessarily the ones you want!), or a Navigo Decouverte which seems to be like Oyster but requires a photo. Mobilis looks a good bet though.
 

CC 72100

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Just bear in mind, that the Mobilis is NOT valid to CDG; anyone would think that the RATP were trying to make visitors pay more!

Edit - now not the case, see post from SHD below.
 
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longhorn

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When I went last year, just know the line at CDG train station to buy tickets at the automated machines can be long...........................In which case walk to the automated machines that no one sees on the back side.
 

SHD

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That would be Île-de-France Mobilités (the Paris region PTO) rather than RATP but yes, it is clear that it is intended to make tourists and visitors pay more for the transfer to/from CDG.
 
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A recently introduced option is the 'Navigo Easy' card (2 euros) and does not require a photo - unlike 'Navigo Decouverte' . You then load it up with however many single tickets you want, and is cheaper than buying traditional paper-tickets. The aim is to cut out paper-tickets completely - supposedly by the end of this year. Alternatively you can load it with a 'Navigo Jour' ticket which is valid 00:00 to 23:59 on the day (choosing how many zones you require ) and is probably your best option. See below for a good explanation:-

https://parisbytrain.com/navigo-easy/

I haven't been to Paris this year to try it out - but beware the ticket office at Gare du Nord usually has horrendous queues (and stroppy staff) so it is better to find a quieter station, depending on where your hotel is.
 

SHD

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Well there have been changes to the Mobilis / Navigo Jour: it is now valid for travel to/from CDG.
 

CC 72100

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Well there have been changes to the Mobilis / Navigo Jour: it is now valid for travel to/from CDG.

Excellent news - I'll leave my original post there but signpost to this one.
 

coxy

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181
Many thanks for the feedback. Will be arriving by Eurostar, so will not have to worry about extra costs to/from CDG.

Hopefully I can purchase a Navigo card at St. Pancras in advance of travel.
 

stanpotts

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I travelled to Paris in the summer last year and bought a Navigo Easy card from Gare du Nord (the queue wasn't terrible, about 5 minutes), they will also pre-load the card with a carnet or day ticket if you wish, so saving you an additional visit to the ticket machine.

It can hold a quantity of single tickets and the Mobilis day ticket at the same time, which is what I did - I initially loaded 10 singles on, and on days I knew I would be travelling a lot, I added a day ticket which it then uses for the rest of the day. I'd also recommend one for time saving reasons, it seemed like a lot of stations only had one barrier accepting paper tickets, so a queue was often forming at that while passengers with Navigo cards could skip by through the card-only barriers.
 

BahrainLad

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Just buy a carnet from the buffet car of your inbound Eurostar. For some bonkers reason you need to buy them on the train now, whereas they used to sell them at the information desk in the departure lounge at STP.
 

SHD

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I travelled to Paris in the summer last year and bought a Navigo Easy card from Gare du Nord (the queue wasn't terrible, about 5 minutes), they will also pre-load the card with a carnet or day ticket if you wish, so saving you an additional visit to the ticket machine.

It can hold a quantity of single tickets and the Mobilis day ticket at the same time, which is what I did - I initially loaded 10 singles on, and on days I knew I would be travelling a lot, I added a day ticket which it then uses for the rest of the day. I'd also recommend one for time saving reasons, it seemed like a lot of stations only had one barrier accepting paper tickets, so a queue was often forming at that while passengers with Navigo cards could skip by through the card-only barriers.

Sounds like you navigated very well the Parisian fare framework.
I wish we had a system as user-friendly, and efficient as Oyster...
The daily cap for instance is absolutely perfect for a tourist/visitor.
 

dutchflyer

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The 10-ride carnets are being fased out or are already (not sold anymore, but remaining unused tix still to be used till.........)
NaViGo does NOT hold cash value, only certain types of tickets, such like the Belgian MoBiB. There is a kind of priority list that it will accept as first choice if more as 1 type is held on them. That means if you load a dayticket to use only for later, it will still be activated if you only want single ride. In BE or some other French towns you can sometimes set the reader to choose what use you want, not in Paris.
 

Aictos

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A recently introduced option is the 'Navigo Easy' card (2 euros) and does not require a photo - unlike 'Navigo Decouverte' . You then load it up with however many single tickets you want, and is cheaper than buying traditional paper-tickets. The aim is to cut out paper-tickets completely - supposedly by the end of this year. Alternatively you can load it with a 'Navigo Jour' ticket which is valid 00:00 to 23:59 on the day (choosing how many zones you require ) and is probably your best option. See below for a good explanation:-

https://parisbytrain.com/navigo-easy/

I haven't been to Paris this year to try it out - but beware the ticket office at Gare du Nord usually has horrendous queues (and stroppy staff) so it is better to find a quieter station, depending on where your hotel is.

There are also TVMs that sell those tickets sited near the ticket offices but be wary of ticket touts trying to palm off used tickets and also some TVMs take cash and card while others are card only.
 

Nehalem501

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The ticketing system in Paris is quite complicated, but I'll try to explain it the best I can if someone needs to travel there some day.
As said previously, all of this is decided by IDFM (Île-de-France Mobilités), the Paris / Île-de-France equivalent of Transport for London, the RATP and SNCF have no say in the ticketing system and pricing.

CDG Airport is counted as a regular station in zone 5 for those wondering which tickets include it or not.

  • Paper tickets:
The most basic type of ticket is the T+ paper ticket (1.90€), it works for the Metro, RER, Trams and Buses. It doesn't work on the Transilien (suburban trains) network.
It works on the entire Metro network, and on the RER network only inside Paris (zone 1), in zone 1 you can transfer between RER and Metro freely using the same ticket you used to enter the system.

You can also use this type of ticket on trams and buses in the whole Île-de-France region (meaning all 5 zones, except T11 line which uses Transilien fares), and you can transfer freely between buses, trams and / or both for 90min. (You're not allowed to use the same ticket to do a round trip even within the 90min period)
There is no transfer included with the RER or the Metro, so if you need to take the bus and then the Metro you need 2 tickets.

You can have some weird situations outside of Paris, like in La Defense station where you can use this type of ticket to take the Metro between there and central Paris, but not the RER on the exact same route as La Defense is in zone 2.

If you need to travel by train outside of Paris (zone 1), you can buy paper tickets that will only be valid between the origin station and the destination station written on the ticket. If the origin or the destination is inside Paris and the other end of your journey is on an RER line, a T+ Metro ticket is included in the ticket.

Both these ticket types can be bought in a carnet of 10 tickets that will be slighty cheaper than bought individually.

You have also the Mobilis ticket for unlimited trips for 1 day, with prices ranging form 7.50€ to 18€ depending on the amount of zones. These work on all systems and all lines in the zones included in you ticket. It's essentially the same as a 1 day Travelcard in London.
There is a half priced version of the Mobilis for people that are 26 years old or less that is valid only on weekends (Ticket jeunes week-end).


  • Passe Navigo:
This is the Paris version of the Oyster card, but less flexible than the latter.

I don't understand why they've made 2 versions of the same card with different fares, but whatever...

There is the Navigo Easy, essentially it's the paperless version of the T+ ticket. You buy a certain amount of virtual tickets that will be loaded to your card, and with each trip you'll use one of the virtual tickets.
The card itself costs 2€.
It is also possible to load this card with a 1 day Mobilis ticket or the half-priced version for young people.

The other version is the Navigo Decouverte. The card itself costs 5€ and you need an ID / passport photo that will have to be glued on your card (Yes this is important and the ticket inspector can charge you a fine if the photo is missing ...). On this card you can load the weekly or monthly fares. They abolished the zoning system for these so you can travel on any system anywhere in the whole Île-de-France region.
These are quite cheap (23€ for the weekly version and 75€ for the monthly one).
Of course there is a catch, you can't take these for any 7 days or 30 days time period. The weekly version must be from Monday morning until Sunday midnight, and the monthly version from the 1st day of the month to the 30th or 31st.


I don't recommend using paper tickets, it's complicated to know what you can or can't do and ticket inspectors won't care if you're a foreigner or not to fine you. If you will be travelling only inside Paris, take a Navigo Easy, and if you want to travel outside of Paris or will be staying for longer than 2-3 days, take a Navigo Découverte with a weekly or monthly fare.

If you take one of the fares that gives you access to all zones, you can visit the French countryside (a large part of zone 5 can be considered rural) and even travel on the last diesel operated passenger line in the Île-de-France region that goes from Paris-Est to Provins (It will be soon electrified).

I myself don't recommend the Paris Visite ticket, but if you plan to go some to the places that have price reductions associated with this ticket, it could be a good deal.

Oh and the Orlyval is not included in any of these tickets.
 

Ianno87

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I was of the understanding that the t+ tickets had been (or are going to be) phased out, possibly as of 1st Jan 2020.
 

Peter Kelford

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You can also purchase some form of contactless card, I believe it's called a Navigo, which you load up with credit and then tap in/out until your credit expires.
You can also buy a really cheap Navigo (€22) per person per week. It's a travel card and allows you to access all zones. You do need a photo though - not that I've actually seen at ticket inspector anywhere on the RATP network before - or anyone caring about the teenager that jumps over the turnstile.

I was of the understanding that the t+ tickets had been (or are going to be) phased out, possibly as of 1st Jan 2020.
When I was there in February they were still in use.
 

CC 72100

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If you take one of the fares that gives you access to all zones, you can visit the French countryside (a large part of zone 5 can be considered rural) and even travel on the last diesel operated passenger line in the Île-de-France region that goes from Paris-Est to Provins (It will be soon electrified).

I myself don't recommend the Paris Visite ticket, but if you plan to go some to the places that have price reductions associated with this ticket, it could be a good deal.

Oh and the Orlyval is not included in any of these tickets.

You've forgotten Meaux to La Ferté-Milon and the quality traction on the 1705 and 1805 (M-F) direct trains there! ;)

On a serious note, Provins is a lovely day out.

And if CDG is now included in a Mobilis etc., then that is one of the advantages of the Paris Visite ticket (not that there were many!) that is now also gone.
 
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