How Expensive is Paris with Kids?
How expensive is Paris? Balancing amazing travel and financial responsibility is a focus for our family. The first stop for our family trip around the world was Paris. We stayed for 7 nights and did everything we wanted to do; below is the breakdown of our expenses. For our travels, we allocate our budget according to 4 main categories: lodging, transportation, food (grocery and restaurant), and entertainment. All of these costs are converted from euros to USD, and we never pay ATM or foreign transaction fees. Look for an upcoming post on the best way to manage money while traveling internationally.
Lodging: $432
- Our amazing, 1 bedroom apartment in the Clichy area cost $432 for 7 nights via Airbnb. This was a great deal, which is why we booked it, but with some work, you should be able to get something similar.
- Tip: Make sure your lodging is a short walk to a good public transportation station.
Transportation (including one-way flights from NYC): $810
- Flights: $423
- French Bee: $409. 1 adult+1 kid, this includes the discount for children, with a direct flight from Newark to Orly.
- United Airlines: $14. 1 adult + 1 kid, using 60,000 reward miles. Look for the upcoming post on our strict personal rules and guidance on navigating these tricky waters for international travel.
- Car Rental: $255. 2 day rental for $173, with pickup at CDG and returned a few blocks from our apartment in Clichy. The convenience of the local return was worth the extra cost. Total gas cost including the drive to Normandy was $82.
- Public Transportation: $132. The 4 Navigo Decouverte passes met every single travel need from Monday through Sunday, including Disneyland, Versailles, Orly Airport, and all local Paris modes of transit.
Food: $239
- Grocery stores: $132. This included drinking bottled water and just about all of our meals, we packed lunches or bought food at stores vs. restaurants to eat during the day. The grocery stores were really great quality and inexpensive. We did supplement our DIY fried rice with a take-out chicken that was so good we got it twice.
- Take-out rotisserie chicken (next door to our Airbnb) x2: $20.
- Restaurant meal at a street-corner cafe next to the Eiffel Tower: $87. How expensive is Paris at a restaurant? As you can see, the one nice dinner out was 1/3 of the week’s worth of food and drink. Plan accordingly.
Entertainment: $546 ($181 total if you skip Disneyland)
- Disneyland Paris: $365. 4 tickets were $345 at last-minute pricing, but can be purchased cheaper in advance. We brought snacks and these water bottles, so spent all day in Disney with only an additional $20 in food and drink.
- Maisy Battery: $28. This was the only paid entrance for our tour of Normandy but was worth it. See this post for our recommendations for Paris with kids.
- Climbing the Eiffel Tower: $31.
- Versaille: $87. We paid $45 for garden admission for 4 (check in advance, as there are specific times when this is free), then split up with the boys taking 2 bike rentals for 1 hour and the girls doing paid entrance to the palace.
- Louvre for 4: $35.
How expensive is Paris? Our total cost for one jam-packed week with kids was $2,027.
This week in Paris was amazing. We did not feel like we missed out on anything with how we budgeted, because we had intentional planning along the way. The only thing we did miss out on: Ashley getting a nice, steaming bowl of French onion (or in Paris is it just onion?) soup. When we asked the waiter at the cafe, he gave us the French “idiot American” look and informed us that August is summertime. Apparently, the French only serve onion soup in the winter? Who knew. Make sure you also check out our other blog posts about Paris: our top recommendations with kids and the cheapest way to get around.
Paris was one of our first stops during a year-long trip around the world! To see all our travel adventures, head over to our Instagram page.
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If you have questions or tips for traveling to Paris with kids, let us know!
