How Much does a Trip to Paris Cost? – Planning a Paris Vacation

How much does a trip to Paris cost? The short answer is – not as much as you might think.

Among the many great cities of Europe, Paris has a particular charm that isn’t replicated anywhere else. Whether the allure of the City of Light for you is the art or the romance, it is probably on your bucket list. Especially for us Americans there is something particularly interesting with Paris. Even more so than with London.

Whatever the explanation for our fascination might be, the fact remains that it is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world.

How Much Does a Trip to Paris Cost?

This leads us to the question in the title – how much does a trip to Paris cost? Specifically, how much does a trip to Paris cost from the USA? Today we will try to answer that question for you as best we can.

The cost depends on a variety of factors, of course. Based on your preferences the price might vary drastically. Similarly, the actual sights and attractions you want to visit will make a difference as well. Add to this the factor of changing airline ticket prices and you’ve got a complex set of factors. We will try to give you three different price ranges, for three different budgets.

First, we’ll look at what the most budget trip to Paris would cost you. Second, we’ll add up the damage that an average trip would do to your bank account. And finally, we’ll come up with a number for the luxury package.

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The Cost of Flights to Paris

To figure out how much a trip to Paris costs, we’ve got to start by getting there. Unless you are willing to swim for a very long time, you’ll probably be taking a plane. So, the absolute lowest flight prices are usually available towards the end of January.

With that in mind,  we know the date of departure – somewhere between January 20th and January 30th. Our second step is to decide when our date of return will be. Let’s say it’s 7 days later. A nice week in Paris. Now we need to define where we are coming from. Well, you will be coming from your own city, but we don’t know which city you live in. So, for the sake of argument, let’s say Atlanta, Georgia.

A round-trip from Atlanta, Georgia to Paris, France departing on the 22nd of January 2020, and returning on the 29th will cost you around $900.00. This price might change slightly, but we’ll assume this is the average. This is an economy-class trip. So not very comfortable, but the cheapest option.

The Cost of Accommodation in Paris

Now that we are in Paris, we need a place to stay. Since we are aiming for a Spartan experience, we probably have to forget about hotels. Let’s instead look at the bargain deals – hostels and Airbnbs.

The cheapest hostel price for the period between January 22nd and January 29th stands at $42.00 per night. The prices range up to around $130.00. By the way, you can check out our favorite hostels in Paris here.

Airbnb prices are roughly the same. The cheapest ones will cost you around $30.00 per night, while there are also high-end options for several hundreds of dollars.

Let’s pick a nice middle-of-the-ground number and say our particular place costs $48.00 per night. For 7 nights this gives us a price of $336.00.

The Cost of Sightseeing in Paris

These things were easy to calculate. The hard part is anticipating how much you will be spending on food and sightseeing. There are some attractions in Paris you simply must see if you are there already.

That would be the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées Avenue. You can experience all of these for free.

For example, Every Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m., admission to the Louvre is free for visitors under the age of 26 regardless of country of residence. If that’s not an option, the standard entrance fee is €17.00.

The French seem to have a thing about age, so that if you are under the age of 24 you will pay €9.00 for a tour to the top of the Eiffel Tower. If you are over the age of 24, you pay €19.00. Keep in mind, you can just see the tower from the bottom for free. At least the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées are completely free.

So, since this is our Spartan package, let’s say you go to the Louvre for €17.00, and you climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower for €9.00. The rest of the list you experience for free. That’s around $29.00 for the five must-see attractions.

The Cost of Food and Shopping in Paris

Finally, we need to talk about food and drink, and most importantly, shopping. For food and drink it’s hard to give an estimate. The best advice we can give you is to establish a daily budget and try to stick to it. Prices will vary drastically depending on where and what you eat. So, we’ll say you are a real trooper and manage to survive with $40.00 daily. And we’ll say that a budget traveler is good at resisting the temptations of Paris fashion and spends a total of $100.00 on shopping.

Let’s now have a recap:

For $1,645 you can get a very bare-bones trip to Paris. It might not be the most glamorous trip, but this deal is perfect for adventurous students and penny-pinchers alike.

The Average Price of a Trip to Paris

The Flight

For an average or moderate price range we will follow the same system of determining a price. First, we have to upgrade our flight ticket. A “Premium Economy” round-trip flight from Atlanta to Paris costs around $1,300.00.

The Accommodation

Our flight was a bit more comfortable. Now to choose a better place to stay. This time we get a three-star hotel. The least expensive 3-star hotels cost around 70$ per night. While the priciest ones go up to around $230.00. A nice in-between option will cost us $110.00 per night. This more than doubles our accommodation expenses.

We’ll have to pay $770.00 for our stay.

The Sightseeing

This time we’ll be seeing a few other things in addition to the must-see attractions. Let’s say we spend around $20.00 per day, so that we can see at least one attraction per day. We end up with $140.00 for the whole trip.

The Food and Shopping

Let’s say we want to indulge in a little fancier restaurant for a night. Or we simply give some of the pricier French wines a taste. We’ll probably have to spend a little more than $40.00 per day. A good number seems to be $70.00 per day. That gives us $490.00 in total.

For shopping, we give in to the Paris fashion scene just a little bit. Let’s say we spend $300.00 on a nice jacket, for example.

Let’s sum it all up:

We have ended up with a cool $3,000.00. It’s almost double what we paid for our Spartan trip. However, it does include a lot more comforts. Even a few splurges here and there. This combo might be for you if you are taking your first big vacation or you want to take your spouse for a memorable trip to Paris.

How Much is a Trip to Paris – The Luxurious 

Alright, so you have money to burn and you want to visit Paris in style. Congrats! Here’s how much you can expect to spend on a luxury vacation in Paris. 

The Flight

The cheapest first-class flight from Atlanta to Paris is around $7,600.00. Business class flights are around 4000$ on average. We’ll take the average of the two as our price. So, we’ll say our luxurious flight costs $5,800.00.

The Accommodation

Five-star hotels in Paris cost anywhere between $300.00 and $400.00 per night. Let’s say we pick the one that cost $362.00 per night. That leaves us with a total of $2,534.00 for our stay.

The Sightseeing

Since there are only so many hours in the day, and the attractions are mostly the same, this segment will stay almost the same. Let’s just add another $10.00 per day, to make sure we get in any place we want. So $30.00 per day – $210.00 in total.

The Food and Shopping

It’s hard to even wrap one’s mind around how much you could pay for food if money is no issue. Let’s say we are the fanciest person in town and spend $50.00 per meal. $150.00 per day for food. This leaves us with a total of $1,050.00.

As for shopping, let’s say we are fashion aficionados. This coat is just to die for. And those shoes as well. And we simply must have that hat. Our total is $2,000.00.

Here are the numbers:

How Much Does a Trip To Paris Cost? – Conclusion

As you can see. there are many price points on a Paris vacation. You can be super frugal, or extremely decadent, and everything in between. The important thing to remember is that on the lowest end, a trip to Paris is NOT all that expensive. It depends mostly on how much you intend to spend on comfort and unessential shopping. But you can experience Paris for relatively little money to its fullest extent.

We hope we gave you all an idea how much you might expect to pay for your Paris vacation. If Paris is on your bucket list don’t let costs get in the way. Visit Paris, ASAP! As always, happy travels, and we’ll see you on the road!

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