Reality Check - Prices of Private Tours in Paris

My elderly mother and I are going to France for a river cruise in November. We do have a few days pre-cruise to explore Paris. The must sees in Paris are the Eiffel Tower (which I was going to book on our own), the Louvre and Pere Lachaise cemetery. If we can I hoped to fit in the Orangerie, maybe the Orsay, and the Rodin Museum. We will get an orientation tour of Paris with the cruise line.

To be a little more efficient, on our free days, I thought it might be a good idea to hire a private tour guide who can accommodate for DM's slight mobility issues (she can't do stairs/steep inclines) and who has extensive knowledge of the Louvre (so we don't get lost and see what we should see) and the cemetery. To that end, I started reviewing a website this afternoon and contacted one guide to inquire about the cost. He called me back to discuss our options. When I asked again about the cost, he advised that it would be $300 euros/person/day. I kind of expected the $300 euros but not the per person part. That seems very expensive to me, and I'm not even factoring in the foreign exchange!!

My question to you Paris experts out there, what should I expect to pay for a private tour for two people, either half day or full day?

When I expressed my surprise at the cost, the guide explained that Paris was a very expensive city. Yes, I could get less expensive guides but he is accredited and non-accredited guides get kicked out of the Louvre on a daily basis. Is that correct? I don't mind paying for a good guide but we simply can't afford to spend $600 euros for a one day tour. Now the cruise line optional tour to the Louvre is looking better and is significantly less expensive!

I know most, if not all, of our must sees are doable on our own but I do have to consider DM's limitations - a morning touring the Louvre cannot be followed by taking a bus across town to Pere Lachaise and walking about there. That will be too much for her in one day. Over two days, it would be fine.

Do I need a reality check about Paris pricing? Or did I just happen to pick a really expensive guide to talk to at first?

Thanks for your help!

We are not surprised at those prices. Licensed professional guides in France will routinely charge several hundred Euros a day. You might find somebody who will work for a lot less, but just be careful that you are getting a true professional who has references.

On the other hand, you could go out and buy a decent guide book (like the Rick Steves series) and spend a little time doing pre-trip homework. Paris offers excellent public transit (both Metro and surface buses) and also has plenty of taxis. There are also radio taxis that you can order via phone or internet and one very reputable taxi company called "G7" even has a phone line for English speaking customers. As to the Louvre, it is a huge place but you can certainly research what you want to see and which rooms...and then look at a map. But with serious mobility problems one will usually do a lot better with either a wheelchair or electric scooter.

Also consider that if you do hire a guide for a full day, this is not necessarily going to make it that much easier when it comes to walking around large places. Perhaps making arrangements to rent a lightweight portable wheelchair or scooter is a better solution.

Hank

Yes, you could hire a wheelchair or mobility scooter for the entirety of your visit, but all museums lend them FOC. In any large museum like the Louvre you should never try and see everything in one visit. You should choose a few things that particularly interest you. The collections featured in the museums can be found on their websites.

Hank has a good suggestion about doing a little pre-trip homework. When we visited Paris for a few days, we devoted one day to the Louvre and to make the most of our time there, we purchased "The Louvre" from Great Courses on DVD that we watched before our trip. It was a series of lectures that were part history and layout of the building and part art history reviews of specific collections--sounds dry but was actually very good. That enabled us to enter the museum with a plan of where to go and what we wanted to see. We only got lost once:)

To get into a lot of these venues, you need to make reservations in advance or face long waits in line. I'm sure your DM can't do that and you'd lose valuable time. The Musee D'Orsay is fantastic and is much more 'doable' than the Louvre, but both are best with reservations ahead of time.

If you post on your roll call and perhaps on other ships' roll calls that will be in Paris at the same time, you could get another couple to join you and the costs would be split 4 ways instead of per person? I've done a lot of private tours and the cost has always been by the van-load split by the number of people you have doing the tour. You might ask this tour operator if he'll charge that way instead of pp.

Also, take a look at TripAdvisor for more tour leader recommendations. You might find some better options there. Good luck!

We do agree with the previous posters comments on the Musee d'Orsay (our favorite museum in Paris) but even this is a pretty large building that would be a challenge to those with mobility problems unless they had a wheelchair or scooter. As to buying tickets, we have been to Paris many times, have never bought tickets to anything in advance, and have never waited more then a few short minutes in a queue to get a ticket. Nothing wrong with buying tickets in advance (just make sure you do not get them from some of the web sites that charge extra) but we like to keep our flexibility. And in Paris many tourist prefer to get one of several types of "passes" that include admissions to multiple venues. One example is the "Paris Pass" and there are some others. These passes are not our cup of tea...but they can be a good deal for travelers who want to see many different places in a short period of time.

Hank

To get into a lot of these venues, you need to make reservations in advance or face long waits in line. I'm sure your DM can't do that and you'd lose valuable time. The Musee D'Orsay is fantastic and is much more 'doable' than the Louvre, but both are best with reservations ahead of time.

 

OP, are you looking hard enough? This company is highly regarded on Trip Advisor and prices are in the ball park of what you are looking for.

http://www.parissweetparis.com

The decision between Louvre and Orsay shouldn't depend on which is more doable. If you don't like the French impressionists, the Orsay, no matter how much more beautiful a museum, is worthless. Having said that, I prefer the Orsay because I do love van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Degas, and others. That the museum itself is beautiful and "doable" is the icing on the cake.

Of the skip the lines passes, Hlitner discusses above, the Paris Museum Pass is the one that works well if you are seeing museums. However, unless you are running around at record pace AND seeing the Chateau at Versailles, it is not cost effective.

Thank you, all, for your comments and advice. At this point, I think the DIY method will end up being what we do. Hubofhockey, no, I haven't done a lot of research into guides; that was the first one I contacted which prompted the original question. If all guides charged that much, there wasn't much point in doing further research. I'd rather spend my limited time on researching the DIY methods. However, I will check out your recommendation, too. I do agree with you about only going to museums in which we have an interest in.

I do have the Rick Steve's guides on my iPad and an Eyewitness guidebook so will read some more.

I'm still debating the value of the Museum Pass. In terms of entry fees, the pass is not economical for us. It seems that the only value is in skipping the lines, if we were visiting in the height of tourist season. However, in November, I'm thinking that the lines will be greatly reduced.

DrivesLikeMario, there are few roll calls for river cruises. With only, at most, 200 passengers, and few of them being members of CC, it is unlikely to meet up with fellow travellers. And this particular guide, to whom I spoke, did indicate a price per person, not per vehicle which is also what I'm used to. I could see a slightly extra charge for a second person but not double the rate. After all, the guide is still going to the same places, using the same amount of gas/vehicle, etc, no matter if there is one, two or six people.

I will do the research. I do like the idea of using a wheelchair at the museums to allow us to see more of what we want to see before we get "museumed" out.

Thanks again!