Three days in Paris with kids: our exact itinerary + best things to do for a stay you’ll love
A mama’s guide to visit Paris with kids: how long to stay, family hotels in Paris, best things to do and practical travel tips. Three days in Paris with kids itinerary.
Paris is a city I love and that I try visit as often as possible. I have been here as a child, with friends, with my husband and now also with my kids, who seem to have fallen in love with is as much as me.
Despite this love for Paris, or maybe because of it, planning a trip to Paris with my kids took a lot of work. I had so many ideas of things I wanted to show them, so many areas I wanted to go back to, so many parks and museums I wanted to see, I found myself mulling over our family itinerary for ages.
Thankfully, I love planning travel so my many days of work on this ended up equipping up with an itinerary for three days in Paris that really worked for our family!
In this case, we did not include Versailles nor Disneyland Paris as we preferred to show them the city, considering the short time we had.
I hope you can use it to plan your own family trip to Paris and it works great for you too!
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How to plan our stay in Paris: our 3 day Paris itinerary with kids
When planning a trip to a city as rich of attractions as Paris, you need to be clear on priorities and what your family specifically is likely to enjoy the most.
Four our kids’ first trip to Paris, we prioritized a mix of Paris top landmarks and kept museums and structured times to a minimum.
Day 1: Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Champs Elysees/ Tuileries, Louvre. On this day, we started with the Eiffel Tower as we wanted the kids to get a strong, exciting start to the day! Outside, there is a lovely park and a carousel too. The Tuileries are a lovely green area so it worked well as a relaxing stop before / after the Louvre.
Day 2: Latin quarter, Jardin de Luxembourg, Notre Dame and the islands, Musee d’Orsay. Always my favorite day in Paris! Notable stops for the kids were the parks (Jardin des plants in the Latin Quarter has a carousel and small zoo also) and the Musee d’Orsay with the Impressionists is easy and impressive to visit with kids.
Day 3: Montmartre, baking class. Touristy choices maybe but Montmartre is always pretty to see (lovely lunch and chocolate crepes to be had too!) and since my daughter adores to bakes, the class was for her!
Book this trip!
Stay: in family friendly Pullmann Hotel Montparnasse, to be in a lovely area, safe and well connected and make the most of their family and interconnecting rooms.
Transport: metro pass so we could hop on and off at leisure. We got it on the day at the station but it is even easier to get it online
Child-friendly tours: I have two providers of choice for Paris, which we used during several of our trips (as I mentioned, we have been more than once). MariaClaudia Tours, perfect for museum visits with kids age 6 to 11 especially. And LivTours, specifically for their family tour of the Louvre.
Good to know! I know LivTours very well and they have excellent tours for all ages. If you have toddlers or older kids who may not need a game based tour, I recommend you also look at their ‘Mona Lisa First Viewing Tour‘ – while not for kids as such (although all ages can join), it is quick and allows to enter the room before the crowds. This works exceptionally well for all and especially for littles or children who may find the crazy crowds of the Louvre overwhelming.
Eating: we are very casual about eating and fond plenty of brasseries / bistro for casual meals. In Montmartre, we particularly enjoyed lunch at Le Paulbot which has outdoor and indoor tables and lovely French cuisine. They were happy to make the steak plain for our picky eater.
Packing for Paris
Find here >>> our Paris Packing List (with items for each season)
The best things to do in Paris with kids
See the Eiffel Tower
We simply had to open this list with the Eiffel tower, THE attractions most kids associate and identify with the city of Paris.
Depending on the age of your children and relationship with heights, you may queue up and get to the top or even just enjoy it from its base.
The Eiffel Tower is surrounded by a massive lawn and kids can run and scoot around for ages with quite a special backdrop.
The park around the towers also has a couple of playgrounds that make it an easy stop for kids of all ages.
The Eiffel Tower is an exceptionally popular attraction and advance booking is mandatory.
A fantastic way to visit is to book a semi-private small tour such as this one, which takes care of the getting the tickets and comes with a wonderful guide almost exclusively for you (groups are for a max of 6 people so you may well find yourself with a guide just for your family!
You can also get skip the line tickets and access to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower here
Make sure you take the time to also go to the Trocadero, on the other side of the river, where kids can splash around and catch the quintessential Eiffel tower view.
Visit the Louvre with a kid-friendly tour
A big museum such as Le Louvre may be daunting with kids; however, the Louvre is so spectacular, I believe it is worth seeing at any age!
The Louvre is a traditional museums and the rules are those typical of the big museums of the world: no touching the artworks, no running, no eating outside of the cafe areas etc.
Because of this, I find the best way to tackle a visit is either to choose in advance what to see, so you can go directly to the rooms of your choice (you can use the official website here to see what is where) of join a family tour.
As I mentioned before, The Louvre Tours I recommend for the kids are:
Mariaclaudia Tours – perfect especially for kids age 6 and 11. I got to know these tours in Italy and they are absolutely top for kids, I highly recommend them!
LivTours Louvre Tour for kids – game based and perfect for kids up to tweens especially. This is similar in approach to the MariaClaudia Tours one, and makes for another excellent choice.
LivTours Mona Lisa First View – while not for kids as such (although all ages can join), it is quick and allows to enter the room before the crowds. This works exceptionally well for all and especially for littles or children who may find the crazy crowds of the Louvre overwhelming
You can find info on the official Louvre site here.
Other Museum ideas in Paris! As well as the Louvre, there are two more major art museums you may want to visit in Paris, a little easier to tackle with kids. The Musee d’Orsay, which has the Impressionists and it hosted in a stunning building – maybe my favorite traditional museum in Paris in general and definitely to visit with kids! The other is the Centre Pompidou which also has interactive installations and is a building the kids won’t forget!
The Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter of Paris has a very special place in my heart as it is where I stayed for long summers in Paris, guest of a friend who lived here.
The area is beautiful, safe, full of restaurants and very kid-friendly. Among the many things I love here for kids there are:
The Jardin des Plantes, a botanica garden, park, small zoo and Natural History Museum: a perfect place for running around and with even a vintage carousel
Lots of lovely cafes and crepes take out places, to have a chocolate pancake break! Head to Rue Muffetard and Place de la Contrescarpe and you’ll find plenty of options!
Good to know: this is a good, local area with a lot of grocery stores and supermarkets, shoudl you want to get food for a picnic.
Play in Jardin du Luxembourg
Paris has many beautiful gardens and one that usually gains the approvals of both kids and adults is the Luxembourg Gardens, in Paris city centre.
The garden has lots of safe space to run around, playgrounds and something special: fountain/ pond where you can rent toy boats!
The stall is just beside the fountain and you can get the little boats on the day for a handful of euro.
Have a stroll on the Paris’ islands
Paris has two beautiful islands: Isle de la cite and isle Saint Louis. Ile de la cite is where you find Notre Dame and Ice St Luis is the little island just beside it.
Having a stroll here with kids is a delight!
The islands are quintessentially Parisian and walking here, with the river, Notre Dame and the cobbles streets makes you feel like you are on a movie set!
Get lost around Montmartre
Charming Montmartre watches silently over Paris and is a pleasure to explore.
It is quite a trek from Paris city centre but it is always worth the metro ride, especially on a good day when you can get a view over the city.
Here it is all about coffee shops, street artists (many for tourists, but fun nonetheless) and the famous Sacre Coeur, the white church towering over Montmartre meandering streets.
One word of caution: with small kids, don’t get the metro to the bottom of the hill thinking of climbing up: it is all stairs and the bits that aren’t stairs are really steep! Get off at metro Abesses and follow the sings for the ‘funiculaire’ instead.
Visit stunning Galerie Lafayette or Printemps for shopping or window shopping
The Galerie Lafayette and Printemps are two vast and stunning departments stores in Paris city center, so elegant and beautiful, they are worth visiting even if you don’t intend on buying anyway.
With kids, the toy floor and the food hall at the top are wonderful!
Take a Baking class
My daughter adores baking so, to break up sightseeing, we felt a pastry class for her would work amazing!
We booked this one on GetYourGuide under recommendation from a fiend who absolutely loved but I got sick and we didn’t get to do it!
But the recommendation stands as the person who sent it to me lives locally and always sends visitors there, so I know it is good!
Visit spooky Paris’ Catacombs
If you kids love weird and spooky places, then you can treat them to a tour of the Paris’ Catacombs!
Unlike the catacombs in Rome, the catacombs of Paris date from the XIII century and are full of bone art and decorations make with skulls and bones. Due to the nature of the place and the fact that you cannot bring strollers, this is a stop I only recommend for older kids and those you know won’t get unsettled by it.
You can find all the info for families and booking options on the official website.
See Paris from the water
La Seine, Paris’ river, crosses the city and is the perfect vantage point too see enjoy the view of some of Paris’ most famous sights.
The river is a waterway served by many boat companies offering river cruises for all ages and budgets, from hop on – hop off options to full on dinner cruises at candlelight!
A river cruise is a great pastime in Paris with kids as it allows you to see a lot without small legs getting too tired.
You can check out prices and tickets for the hop-on hop-off Paris river cruise here
Jet lag day idea! If you arrive in Paris after a long flight, a river cruise can be ideal to get a first sense of the city and the lay of the land without having to walk!
Cycle around Boi de Boulogne
Another stunning garden or a forest as the name suggests, this is a wide and fabulous green space not too far from the city centre.
Our best day out here was when we rented bikes and discovered the place this way but of course, you don’t have to do that.
You can also opt just for a stroll, a ride on one of the local rowing boats or a visit to the kids favorite Jardin de Acclimatation, which includes a park with kids rides.
Parc de la Villette
Parc de la Villette is a huge space designed to get visitors to play and interact with nature, art and technology.
La Villette hosts the fabulous science museum cite des science, which is one of the biggest in Europe and is fabulous for kids, and also has 12 themed gardens.
The gardens are a delight with kids and they are a great space to burn some energy while taking is some pretty remarkable artifacts and constructions. One of the best places of all to visit in Paris with kids!
How to get around Paris with kids in tow
The best way to move around Paris with kids in tow is to walk or make use of the excellent public transport system of the city.
The public network is made of buses, metro lines and the RER, the metropolitan train line that connects Paris city centre with the Greater Paris area, some Paris airports and Disneyland Paris.
Transport is free for children under 4 and half price for children between 4 and 11 years old.
As a tourist, you are likely to use the metro most of all and the RER.
There are several types of tickets available and you can purchase them before boarding the train in all Paris metro stations, equipped with ticket machines, ticket offices and sometimes both.
Tickets are electronic and need to be scanned before bording the train: make sure your kids do not bend them as otherwise the machines cannot read them (I guess you can imagine how we discovered this one..)
The same tickets for the metro are valid on buses too.
Using the Paris public transport system with a stroller
Put simply: the Paris public transport system is not stroller friendly!
Not all metro stations are stroller friendly, many do not have a lift and buses can only take up to 2 strollers at a time, which means you may have to wait for a free space before being allowed on board.
Even worse, many metro stations have gaps between the train and platform and it is very easy to trip, especially if you are a child!
If you can, travel with a baby carrier instead or enlist the help of your other half or a friend to navigate the metro escalators (One gets the child, the other steps on it with the stroller facing the bottom of the escalator).
For sanity, do not overload your stroller with stuff so, worse case, you can swiftly fold it closed.
Looking for more practical tips?
You can find here >>> all our practical tips for visiting Paris with kids – know before you go with info about eating out, availability of baby items, changing stations and more!
Visiting Paris with kids – Pin this!
I hope you find this first-timers’ guide to Paris with kids helpful. Safe family travels!
