How Much I Spent Traveling for One Week in Paris
When my best friend started planning her trip to come visit me in Berlin, she told me she didn’t want to spend her whole time in Berlin. Understandable, Europe is a big place with lots to see. After looking at some options, there was one clear winner on her wishlist, so I started planning a trip to Paris for the two of us. Here’s a look at how much my one week Paris trip cost.
How much would a week in Paris cost?
Amounts are listed in euros and US dollars.
660€ / $742.50 – accommodation
61.75€ / $69.46 – transportation
281.10€ / $316.24 – food and alcohol
549.70€ / $618.41 – activities
9.80€ / $11.03 – miscellaneous
1,562.35€ / $1,757.64 – total
Hotel cost in Paris – $742.50
This was my HALF of seven nights in this midrange hotel a little less than a mile from the Eiffel Tower. The hotel was decent enough but definitely looked better in the pictures. It was just around the corner from a metro stop, which was great, and easy enough to walk to the Eiffel Tower, but there weren’t a lot of restaurants near the hotel.
There are definitely more interesting neighborhoods in Paris to stay in. But this shows you that a mediocre hotel in a relatively good location will be pretty pricey. Accommodation averaged out to $106.07 per night, but remember this was my half, so the full cost was $212.14 per night.
Transportation cost in Paris – $69.46
This includes a 10 pack of metro tickets plus a few single tickets, the train from the airport (10€ per person) and a shuttle from our hotel to the airport (9€ per person). Other transport costs include my train ticket from Paris to Chartres (16€) and my ticket from Chartres to Versailles to Paris (16€). The transportation total does not include my flights to and from Paris.
Cost of food and alcohol in Paris – $316.24
The hotel we stayed at had breakfast, but I incorrectly thought it was included with our booking. When I asked the guy at check-in where breakfast was, he simply told me “downstairs” but didn’t point out that it wasn’t part of our booking or how much it was. We got charged 8€ per person per day for four days of breakfasts. Even though I had my own breakfast in the mini-fridge because I couldn’t eat 99% of what was on offer at the hotel’s breakfast. I was LIVID that the check-in guy never told us, and there was no arguing that charge away. Lesson learned: ALWAYS ask, even if you think it’s included.
Since we were staying in a hotel, we ate out for every single meal. Some meals were quick roadside stand type meals, others were in nice restaurants. We snacked and drank wine, too. Rachel tried a little more wine than I did, so her food and alcohol spending was probably a bit higher than mine.
Food prices in Paris are a little high, especially at nicer restaurants. If you’re interested in traveling to Paris on a budget, consider buying food at grocery stores for easy picnic meals or stay someplace with a kitchen. Don’t let the cost of food in Paris stop you from going. Even with eating out every mean, my food and alcohol spending averaged out to about $45 per day.
Cost of activities in Paris – $618.41
This is a lot more than I normally spend on activities, but it’s probably a little closer to what the average visitor to Paris might spend. Tours and activities included a food tour, a Loire Valley castle and wine tasting tour, a 2 day hop-on-hop-off bus plus boat ticket, a Moulin Rouge show, a skip-the-line Eiffel Tower ticket, an audio guide at Chartres, and entrance to Versailles. I averaged about $88.34 per day on activities.
Here are some great Paris tours from one of my favorite tour companies, Take Walks:
Total miscellaneous expenses in Paris – $11.03
I don’t typically buy souvenirs, and this one barely even counts. I bought two spice mixes from a specialty spice shop we stopped at on our food tour. Bump up this category if you like to buy souvenirs when you travel.
Paris prices can be high; it is not a cheap city. Remember these were just my expenses; double the numbers for a trip to Paris cost for two. Visiting Paris during the winter might help reduce some of your costs, and at least there will be fewer crowds. Expect to pay a lot for decent accommodation and decent food. Check out Airbnb if you want to cook some of your meals. The metro is easy to use and will save you money on getting around in Paris. Ask your hotel about airport shuttles; ours was cheaper than taking the train.
But make sure you splurge occasionally too. The food tour, Moulin Rouge, and the Loire Valley castle tour were especially worth the price. So how much is a trip to Paris? For one week in Paris, I spent about $251.09 per day.
More info to help you plan your trip to Paris:
- 10 Locals Unconventional Paris Guidebook
- 100 Locals Unconventional France Guidebook
- One Week Itinerary in Paris
- Loire Valley Castles and Wine Tasting Tour from Paris
- Or check out more real travel budget posts
February 1, 2016 @ 8:58 AM
This was really interesting to see the breakdown of costs for your trip to Paris! Thanks for sharing what you spent. Sounds like you did a lot of fun stuff!
February 1, 2016 @ 4:10 PM
Thanks Gina! It was a fun trip to Paris, and I was so glad to share it with my best friend.
July 16, 2017 @ 7:08 PM
thanks for sharing! this’ll be very important to plan my mother’s trip 🙂
July 17, 2017 @ 10:47 AM
Glad to help!
December 10, 2017 @ 5:47 AM
Wow, 8 Euro for breakfast at the hotel in Paris is very cheap. Rejoice! Nice pictures, I hope you enjoyed your stay.
December 10, 2017 @ 11:15 AM
8 euros isn’t cheap for eating nothing. I couldn’t eat anything they had there because of my dietary restrictions, so I had my own food in the mini fridge in our room, and I was just accompanying my friend to breakfast. But they charged us each 8 euros per day that we went down there. So no, I don’t think that’s cheap.
January 26, 2018 @ 5:18 PM
My daughter and I are spending 4 days in Paris in June. We are looking at purchasing the Paris museum pass. Has anyone bought this pass?
4 days €56. Lots of key sites and skip the line too.
February 5, 2018 @ 9:59 AM
Hi Karen! I don’t buy museum passes because I’m not a big museum person, but if you are, it could be a really good deal. I suggest looking up the ticket prices for the museums you’re interested in and adding them all up. If the total cost ends up over 56 euros, the museum pass will save you money. Also make sure the museums you’re interested in are included in the pass because they don’t always cover every single museum.
May 8, 2018 @ 9:35 PM
Thank you! It’s very helpful =)
May 9, 2018 @ 10:56 AM
Glad to help!
February 21, 2019 @ 11:05 PM
Hi
I am travelling with my two kids. What things I have take so I can reduce my expanses.
February 22, 2019 @ 5:55 PM
Hi Hima! I’m not experienced with traveling with kids, but going to grocery stores to buy snacks or even full meals would cut back on costs. Look for discount or free days for museums and attractions – not every place does it, but many museums to. You could also look at some kind of city pass if you think you’re going to do lots of different attractions, but check the list of what it covers before you buy it. Look into apartment rentals like Airbnb, which might be cheaper than a hotel and would give you a kitchen for making breakfast and maybe a few other meals.
March 6, 2019 @ 11:16 PM
Hima, Ali’s expenses are so high that I’m honestly perplexed. I spent TWO MONTHS in Paris last year, and spent about $4k for TWO MONTHS (not including airfare), and she spent almost half of that in a week. I didn’t do a budget trip either.
The Paris MUSEUM Pass is the best option if you want a pass. The Paris Pass and Paris City Pass cost more for not a lot more. Children are less or even free to most museums in the city. A Navigo Decouverte transit pass for an ENTIRE MONTH is 75,20€ for one person, or 22.80€ per week Monday through Sunday. This gets you everywhere from Versailles to Disneyland, on ALL transits.
I’m going to leave a link here to my own blog post where I’m making a comprehensive accounting of my expenses. I’m in Paris right now for almost a MONTH. I don’t do budget trips, yet my costs are nowhere near $250 per day. By this kind of spending, my 25 days and my husband’s 8 days would cost $8,520, plus airfare. Nope. This is so, so, sooooooooo far off. INCLUDING airfare AND my extra trip to London in the mix, it’s going to come out to about half that.
March 7, 2019 @ 11:28 AM
Aria, did you even read my post? My trip was nothing like your trip. You obviously know that staying in a city for a month or two is completely different than visiting for one week as a tourist. We didn’t go to museums, so the Paris museum pass would’ve been worthless to us. My transport costs were mostly the airport train, the shuttle back to the airport, and train tickets from Paris to Chartres to Versailles to Paris. The activities costs were for tours – we did a food tour, which is always a little higher priced, a day tour to the Loire Valley, which certainly wasn’t cheap, and tickets to Moulin Rouge, which is also not a cheap night. Our hotel was super close to the Eiffel Tower, which made it more expensive that one located farther from the tourist attractions. Renting an apartment for a month will always be cheaper PER DAY than a hotel. It also means you bought groceries and cooked many meals for very little cost, whereas we ate out for every single meal. Of course you and your husband didn’t average $250 a day. You would never eat out for every single meal and take $100 tours every day for a month, that would be crazy. I’ve done those types of trips before. But for a one week vacation, it’s reasonable.
You can’t compare your spending to mine. They were completely different trips in every possible way. You wouldn’t have been so perplexed by my spending if you had actually read the post and saw where I spent my money.
September 29, 2019 @ 10:07 AM
Hi,
I’m going to Paris for a week with three of my friends, and we are unsure what to plan for one or two night time activities. What would you recommend that isn’t very expensive as we are all students?
Thank you!
September 30, 2019 @ 12:17 PM
Hi Alixe! I have a Paris itinerary here on my other site you can look at. But I’m afraid I don’t have tips for things like clubs or bars. Some attractions are open in the evening if that’s interesting to you. You could also buy some wine, cheese, meats, etc. and have a picnic somewhere for dinner. A lot of the sights have a completely different look and feel at night, so even if you’ve already visited the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, it’s worth going back in the evening to see them lit up. The Montmartre neighborhood is nice to wander through, day or night. And if you do sign up for any tours, no matter what time of day, don’t forget to ask them for tips on things to do at night that don’t cost a lot of money. They know the city better than anyone and will most likely have some great suggestions.