The two tours in Paris I recommend
To be honest, I’m not too much of a tour person: I’d almost always rather explore a new city on my own. My two exceptions: bike tours and river cruises. Although I bike regularly in New York City, I always find it easier to get the hang of biking in a new city with a local. Plus, it’s a great way to cover a lot more ground and get a good sense of the layout of a city. And river cruises are always a relaxing way to see the city from a new perspective.
Our last trip to Paris was an exercise in balance: it was my boyfriend’s first trip to France, while I’ve been to Paris several times in many different seasons. I wanted to find activities that would give him a good introduction to the city, but that wouldn’t be too boring for me. We opted for a bike tour and a river tour, and both were excellent: entertaining, informative and fun!
Fat Tire Bike Tours
Both my boyfriend and I love to bike, but I always get a little nervous biking in a new city. Traffic rules are different everywhere (for example, the bike lanes in Paris usually went against traffic), and it can be tough to navigate in a city of winding streets and cobblestone alleys. That’s why I love bike tours: it’s a good way to get a feel for biking rules and how motorists treat cyclists, and they also usually find the most bike-friendly routes. We opted for the Paris Day Tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours (34 Euros each) and loved it!
The tour starts and ends near the Eiffel Tower, but my favorite part was probably lunch in the Tuileries. I also loved learning more about Invalides and Napoleon’s Tomb: both places that I didn’t know very much about, but our tour guide gave us a really hilarious and useful history lesson on both. Another great part is the wide boulevards that are SO easy and fun to bike on and the gorgeous bike ride past the gardens of the Musee Rodin.
If it’s your first trip to Paris or you have limited time in the city, definitely think that the Day Tour is a great way to cover a lot of ground and learn a lot about the city in a limited amount of time. You should be a fairly confident biker, although it’s not too hard: there were plenty of kids on our tour who did just fine! Also, full disclosure: the tandem was photo opp only, we did not actually end up riding a tandem on this tour.
Note: I’ve taken (unsponsored) Fat Tire Bike Tours in Berlin and Barcelona, and highly recommend both.
Vedettes de Paris Seine River Cruise
Is there anything better than being on a boat? I don’t think so, especially when there is champagne involved! The last time I went on one of these river cruises, I was 11 years old–I can’t believe I haven’t gone back since. There are a ton of companies offering them, but we opted for Vedettes de Paris: they depart from the base of the Eiffel Tower every half an hour and only cost 14 Euros per person, so it was more like “right place, right time” without too much pre-planning. It would actually be really easy to hop over and take a boat tour after you wrap up the bike tour if you want to relax for a bit!
The tour lasts about an hour: you go down the Seine and around Notre Dame before returning to the same spot by the Eiffel Tower. There’s some canned commentary that comes over the loudspeaker in French, English and Spanish: it’s helpful to give you a sense of what you’re looking at (or sometimes, what you just saw). But really, it’s just lovely to see Paris from this perspective, without having to deal with traffic or crowds. If the weather is good, this is one of those “can’t-miss” experiences in Paris: whenever we reminisce on our trip, we say that having a glass of champagne while cruising past Notre-Dame was one of our favorite memories!
Would you rather bike or boat through Paris?
Note that Fat Tire Tours kindly offered us a complimentary Paris Day Bike Tour; however, all opinions are my own.
