Where : Bateaux-Mouches Seine River. Paris, France
A couple of friends who travel usually tell us they like to spend the first day in a new city on a tour bus or boat. We decided to take that approach in Paris by taking a ride on the Bateaux-Mouches. The boat rides on Seine River and we encourage you to do the same. This is how we “discovered” l’Île de la Cité.
It’s a comfortable ride, and we were blessed with a sunny and beautiful day – which made the experience even better.
It’s affordable, priced at $27,00 Euros for both of us. It may appear expensive, but you will spend more than one hour going around the Seine River and discovering really neat places. We passed in front of main touristic points such as the Eiffel Tower, l’Île de la Cité, Notre Dame Cathedral, etc. Like most other guided tours, you will get cool background information in various languages about main key points to visit on foot later on.
You will also get amazing views from the main Bridge from Paris, and they are really rich in details and history that will find out only by getting the boat.
Looks like they also offer a kind of “Hop on Hop off” by boat, where you can pay a fee to use the boat all day to visit different places in Paris. We just took the one ride, checked what Paris had to offer and then take the advantage of other days to go back to the places with more time.
Our Ratings
Serge: 5 Eli: 5
Recommend: Yes, we believe should be your first thing to do to get to know the main touristic points in Paris to visit later on.
Tips:
- We got one ride tour, but check their website because looks like they offer all day “Hop on, Hop Off” tour;
- There are many boats you can choose, so if you want to shop around it’s ok, but you always can check it online
- Try to get a place in the edge of the boat, because it’s easy to take pictures or you will find out later on that most of people stand up to take pictures in front of you and it’s difficult to see anything;
- There are some boats that offer “inside” places in case it’s raining.
