The Perfect 4-Day Paris Itinerary
Day 1 – Arrive in Paris and check into your hotel. Walk around the area around your hotel exploring the cafes, restaurants and bars as well as the sites around the area you’re staying. Tonight you will have tickets to “How to be a Parisian in One Hour,” and you will follow up the show with dinner at Pesto Fresco, or any of the other nearby restaurants listed in our “Best Restaurants in Paris” post. If you’re up for cocktails, The Experimental Cocktail Club is nearby. Afterwards, walk off all that pizza and pasta by strolling past the large unmissable landmarks on that side of the river like the Garden du Palais Royal, the Louvre and then head along the Seine towards Notre Dame.
Day 2 – Pick a place from our list of great brunch spots and have a nice brunch to start the day off with. After brunch start your day at the Eiffel Tower and follow the recommendations linked to in our post about photo spots in Paris to get some great photos of yourself with the Eiffel Tower. After your photoshoot head over to the Hôtel des Invalides to spend some time checking out Napoleon’s Tomb followed by a trip to the Musée Rodin. If you have time, walk towards the Seine and stop in and check out the Musée d’Orsay. From here, depending on what time it is, you can either stroll along the Seine and head back to the Eiffel Tower for your dinner reservations, or, if you have time and are looking to grab a pre-dinner drink/glass of wine do so at Au Rendezvous des Amis. You’ll probably need to grab a cab or Uber to get from the Musée d’Orsay to Au Rendezvous. If you simply want to walk from the Musée d’Orsay to the Eiffel Tower, swing in to Le Petit Cler for an espresso on your way. Tonight you will have dinner in one of the two Eiffel Tower restaurants. Make sure to save room for dessert and grab some macaroons at the Eiffel Tower’s macaroon bar.
Day 3 – Today you will begin early in the morning with breakfast at any of the many great spots in Marais. Ob-La-Di, Cafe Oberkampf, Holybelly, Paperboy and Le Poutch are all in the area. Spend the morning walking around Marais, before heading to O’Chateau for their wine tasting or, even better, their wine tasting lunch that comes with a cheese pairing. From here it is a short walk to Jean-Paul Hévin, a fantastic chocolatier who also happens to have some of the best macaroons in the city. After indulging in wine, cheese and chocolates, head towards The Islands and check out Saint-Chapelle and Notre Dame. For dinner make a reservation at Prosper et Fortunée or any of the Latin Quarter restaurants we listed in our Best Restaurants post. Finally, you will end the night by dancing (or at least watching the locals dance) to jazz music in an ancient underground cave at Caveau de la Huchette.
Day 4 – Start off your day by stopping by the Louvre for an hour or two, followed by lunch at LouLou or any of the wonderful restaurants in The Heart area that we listed in our Best Restaurants post. After lunch walk through the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and through the Jardins Tuileries. Follow this on to the Champs Elysées, stopping briefly at the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais and finally ending at the Arc de Triomphe at Place Charles de Gaulle. Walk up to the top of the Arc and check out the scenery from above, before heading to Buddha Bar or Ladurée, or both. Fill the remainder of your night with any of the bars and/or restaurants that we discussed in our “Best of…” posts.
The Perfect 7-Day Paris Itinerary
For a 7-day itinerary, simply add the following days to the itinerary above:
Day 5 – Day trip to Versailles, followed by dinner at another of our best restaurants in the city.
Day 6 – Spend the day at Montmarte, Sacre Coeur, making sure to stop in for lunch and coffee at La Maison Rose. Then, do a sunset boat ride down the Seine, grab a quick bite to eat for dinner, followed by a late night show at Moulin Rouge.
Day 7 – Do a pastry, chocolate or bar crawl mid day. And, follow it up with a catacombs tour in the early afternoon. Finally, do a cooking class that night for dinner.