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Paris has a global reputation for being expensive, and parts of that reputation are deserved — hotel prices in the centre are high, restaurant bills in tourist areas are steep, and the cost of a glass of wine on a café terrace near the Louvre will make you calculate how much you are paying per sip. But the expense of Paris is largely a function of where you stand and what you order. The city's greatest experiences are free or cheap by any measure: the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay cost nothing for EU residents under 26 and a very manageable amount for everyone else; the Seine river walks, the parks, Montmartre, the covered passages, Notre-Dame's exterior, and the Eiffel Tower's ground-level view are all free. Paris is a city where a €3 baguette from a boulangerie and a €4 glass of vin du pays from a cave à vins, eaten on a bench overlooking the river, are objectively better than a €60 tourist dinner in a restaurant that has spent its energy on rent rather than cooking. This three-day budget Paris itinerary is built on that principle. It does not ask you to miss the city's defining experiences — the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre — but it routes you through them in ways that minimise cost and maximise the thing that makes Paris actually distinctive: the quality of ordinary life at ordinary prices. Accommodation in a well-located 2-star hotel or hostel private room in the 11th or 13th arrondissement will cost €50–90 per night. Daily spend on food, transport, and entry fees runs €35–55 per person. Three days is achievable for under €300 all-in, excluding accommodation.
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The Louvre is free for all visitors on the first Sunday of each month — if you can arrange your trip to land on this date, do it. It is also free year-round for EU residents under 26, and significantly cheaper than its reputation suggests even at full price (€22 in 2024). Book timed-entry tickets at louvre.fr and arrive at the 9 am opening slot. A focused two-hour visit covering the Denon Wing — Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo — costs exactly one museum ticket and nothing more. Resist the Café Marly on the terrace (expensive for what it is) and instead buy a pain au chocolat and a café from any nearby boulangerie for €2.50. From the Louvre, walk through the Tuileries to the Palais Royal: the quiet, colonnaded inner courtyard with its fountain garden is free, calm, and one of the best-kept secrets in central Paris for those who want to sit in a beautiful space without paying for the privilege. Buy picnic supplies from Marché des Enfants Rouges in the Marais (the oldest covered market in Paris, open Tuesday to Sunday) — cheese, charcuterie, a half-bottle of wine — and take them to the quais along the Seine for lunch. In the evening, the streets around Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement have the best concentration of affordable, neighbourhood-quality restaurants in the city: Bistrot Paul Bert, Le Servan, and Septime (book months ahead) are all within walking distance.
Boulangerie breakfast for €2–3: a croissant and café at the counter (always cheaper than a table). Marché des Enfants Rouges for picnic supplies — budget €10–15 for cheese, bread, and charcuterie for two. Bistrot Paul Bert in the 11th for dinner — traditional Parisian bistro cooking at honest prices; book a week ahead.
The Louvre is free every first Sunday of the month. EU citizens under 26 are free every day. The cheapest museum hack in Paris: buy a carnet of 10 Métro tickets (€16.90) on arrival rather than individual tickets (€2.15 each). Tap water at any Paris café is free on request — ask for 'une carafe d'eau'.
Getting around: Louvre to Palais Royal is a 5-minute walk. Palais Royal to Marché des Enfants Rouges (Marais) is 20 minutes on foot or 10 minutes by Métro Line 11. Marais to Oberkampf (dinner) is 10 minutes on foot.
The Musée d'Orsay houses the world's finest Impressionist collection and costs €16 (less with concessions). Book online at musee-orsay.fr to skip the ticket queue. The top floor alone — Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne — is worth any price of admission. Allow two to three hours. For lunch, Rue Cler market street in the 7th arrondissement, a five-minute walk from the museum, is a pedestrianised street of bakers, fromageries, and charcutiers where locals shop. Build a lunch for two for under €12: a baguette, a wedge of cheese, some jambon or pâté, and two pastries. Take it to the Champ de Mars — the long park beneath the Eiffel Tower — and eat looking at the tower from the ground. The ground-level view of the iron lattice rising 300 metres is completely free and genuinely dramatic; you do not need to be on the observation deck to understand the scale. If budget allows, the second floor (not the summit) costs €11–18 rather than the summit's €28–32, and still gives views of the entire city. In the evening, Montparnasse offers a different kind of budget eating: the traditional brasseries around the tower (La Coupole, Le Select) serve honest French food at lower prices than the tourist-zone equivalent. The tower itself, illuminated after dark, is free from the street.
Ready to plan your own Paris on a Budget trip? Use our free collaborative travel itinerary planner to build a fully customised day-by-day plan — drag and drop your schedule, add walking routes between stops, and share it with your travel group in real time. Packing for the trip? See our paris packing list for a season-specific checklist you can import directly into your trip.
Rue Cler market for a picnic lunch — budget €10–15 for two. La Coupole in Montparnasse for dinner — the art-deco brasserie has been open since 1927 and serves solid French food at fair prices for a restaurant of its history. Avoid the restaurants immediately adjacent to the Eiffel Tower base.
Musée d'Orsay is free for under-26 EU citizens. The Eiffel Tower second floor (not summit) is the best value option if you want an elevated view: €11–18 online vs €28–32 for the summit, and the views are 80% as good. The tower's evening illumination show runs for five minutes on the hour after dark — completely free from the Champ de Mars or Trocadéro.
Getting around: Musée d'Orsay to Rue Cler is a 10-minute walk. Rue Cler to Eiffel Tower (Champ de Mars) is 10 minutes on foot. Eiffel Tower to Montparnasse for dinner is 25 minutes by Métro Line 6 south.
Montmartre is one of the great free days in Paris. Take the Métro to Abbesses, walk up the hill, and spend the morning in the neighbourhood that still feels like a village above the city. Sacré-Cœur basilica is free to enter; the view from the parvis looks out over the entire city with nothing to pay and nobody to book. The neighbourhood behind — Rue Lepic, the Montmartre vineyard, Place du Tertre — is worth an hour of wandering. The Moulin Rouge is visible from several corners of the neighbourhood; the interior performances are expensive, but the exterior photograph is free. For a budget-minded approach to the Opéra district on the way back down: the Palais Garnier exterior is free to walk around, and the interior is accessible if you have a ticket to a performance (student rush tickets from €10 are often available on the day). The covered shopping passages of the 2nd arrondissement — Galerie Vivienne, Passage des Panoramas, Passage Jouffroy — are free to walk through and are beautiful 19th-century iron-and-glass arcades that Paris has somehow maintained in almost original condition. For the final dinner, Bouillon Chartier on Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre has been feeding Parisians since 1896 in a magnificent belle époque dining room. The prices are famously and deliberately low: a three-course dinner with wine costs €20–25 per person. No reservations — queue outside from opening time.
Crêpe stand in the Abbesses neighbourhood for a mid-morning crêpe for €3–4. Bouillon Chartier for dinner — arrive at opening time (11:30 am for lunch, 7 pm for dinner) to avoid queuing more than 15 minutes. Three courses with wine for €20–25 is exceptional value in Paris. Au Petit Commerce in the 10th for a cheaper weeknight alternative.
Sacré-Cœur is completely free. The funicular from the base of the hill to the parvis uses a standard Métro ticket — cheaper than the tourist trap ticket offices at the bottom. Bouillon Chartier's menu is handwritten daily — the wine list starts under €5 a glass, and the waiter will note your running total in pencil on the paper tablecloth.
Getting around: Abbesses Métro to Sacré-Cœur parvis is 10 minutes by funicular (1 Métro ticket) or 15 minutes on foot. Sacré-Cœur to Galerie Vivienne (covered passages) is 20 minutes by Métro Line 12 to Bourse. Galerie Vivienne to Bouillon Chartier is a 10-minute walk east along Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre.
Paris is free for under-26 EU citizens at virtually every national museum — if this applies to you, the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, and dozens more cost nothing.
Buy a carnet of 10 Métro tickets (€16.90) or a daily t+ pass on the Navigo Facile card rather than individual tickets (€2.15 each). The difference adds up over three days.
Boulangeries and boucheries are your friends: a lunch built from a baguette, charcuterie, and cheese from a market is €8–12 for two, tastes better than most €20 tourist lunches, and can be eaten anywhere.
Supermarkets (Carrefour, Monoprix, Franprix) throughout the city sell wine, cheese, and prepared foods at a fraction of restaurant prices — a bottle of very drinkable Bordeaux starts at €4.
The best free views in Paris: Arc de Triomphe terrace (free for under-26 EU citizens), Parc de Belleville at the top of the hill in the 20th, the roof of the Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann, and the Sacré-Cœur parvis.
Paris restaurant meals are significantly cheaper at lunch than dinner — the formule déjeuner (set lunch menu) at a neighbourhood bistro, typically €15–18 for two courses plus wine, is the best value in the city.
Budget-conscious travellers should target late January through February or November — hotel prices drop dramatically outside of school holidays and summer peak, and the major museums are notably quieter. Spring (April–June) is the most popular period for Paris visitors, with excellent weather and long evenings, but hotel prices are at their spring peak. September and October balance good weather with lower prices than the summer peak. Avoid late July through August: accommodation costs are at maximum and some neighbourhood businesses close for the August holidays. The first Sunday of each month at any time of year is the best value museum day: Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, and others are all free.