Tall, colourful houses line the harbour, while narrow streets wind their way through the ancient town. Honfleur is also a great base for day trips along the Normandy coast, including the glamorous seaside resort of Deauville and the stunning cliffs of Étretat. Your river cruising enquiry will be sent to Laurie Reitman who has over 20 years of experience, traveled all over the world, and cruised on more than 15 of the top river and ocean lines. Although I’m from the Philippines, my location independent career took me to over 40 countries and lived in 4 continents in the last 10 years, including France. Following the cruise along the Seine, you can pick from one of ten audio walking tours to further your exploration of Paris’s quaint streets and neighborhoods like the one in Saint Germain. There is no better way to get to know Paris than on the Evening Cruise with Drink and City Walking Tour.
Book in advance
It includes a Louvre tour, visit to Eiffel Tower, Seine River cruise, view of Notre Dame, and visit to Montmartre. If you want commentary during the cruise, you can hire the optional audioguide. We recommend bringing along your own headphones or earphones so you can better listen to the commentary. Be sure to bring your booking confirmation to the cruise departure point. Live narration is provided by real guides; however, both sound quality and guide quality can vary. You also have the option to download the commentary in advance and listen to it during your trip with your own smartphone and headphones.
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I recommend the Paris City Card on Tiqets – it includes admission to the Eiffel Tower (you have the option to access the second floor, or even the summit) and tickets to the Louvre. In this case you can also opt for upgrades if you want a particularly romantic experience – for example you have the option to add champagne and flowers to your booking, or to upgrade to a window seat. You can also opt for a themed cruise, such as champagne tasting, and a family friendly tour, meaning there’s something for all sorts of different travelers. You can splurge a bit more with this Bateaux Parisiens lunch cruise that includes a 3-course meal and white or red wine.
Bâteaux Parisiens
Access to toilets on board the boats requires going up and down stairs, but there are wheelchair-accessible toilets available at Le Bistro Parisien, the company’s restaurant near their Eiffel Tower dock. From our exclusive embarkation points, the Ile de la Cité or the Port de l'Arsenal at the foot of the Place de la Bastille, sail off to discover a magical Paris. Enjoy a glass of champagne and a trio of macarons from the sun deck with its panoramic view, or in the covered dining room of our human-sized boat. You can enhance your cruise with an optional charcuterie and cheese board (+13€). Bâteaux Mouches offers a romantic dinner cruise lulled by the sound of the piano and violin. Enjoy a three-course menu designed to bring you the best of French cuisine and good live music with your best company in the City of Light.
Your river cruise packing list should include layers depending on the season. Many lines supply umbrellas, but it's best to pack a small one just in case. The Seine has many bridges (there are 32 in Paris alone), and when the river is swollen by rain or snowmelt at its mountain source, it can be hard for boats and ships to fit beneath the spans. So, be prepared to be confined to lower decks while the wheelhouse is retracted -- sometimes, you might even have to travel to towns by motor coach, although this is rare. So, you could take more than one Seine cruise and do something a bit different each time.
If you’re not in the mood to sift through endless options and prefer a quick guide to the best choices, you’re in luck. Below, I’ve distilled the wide array of Seine River Cruises down to an essential shortlist—featuring the top 3 most popular and highly recommended experiences in Paris. However, you can add a handheld audioguide with commentary for 3 euros. There is also a 1-hour family cruise offered that is geared to children and families, with a live guide in both French and English. There is also an evening aperitif cruise, including a choice of a glass of wine (€24.5) or glass of champagne (€29).
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Finally, there’s the more classic dinner cruise with the Paris CityVision – you have the option of adding a glass of champagne if you wish. Only the Eiffel Tower stop along the Batobus route is accessible to wheelchair users. If you want to use this as a sightseeing cruise, as long as you board there and stay on the lower deck you will be ok. It’s a bit different from other cruises, because there is no commentary on board at all, but the views are the exactly the same and it’s a good photographic experience. If you do the entire loop (from your starting point and back) the entire loop will take around two hours.
These tickets also gave us a lot of flexibility regarding when we used them as they were good for one year following purchase. Costs for a fully private cruise generally start at about 200 € for an hour for 2 persons or a family and can go well above 2,000 € depending on the duration and type of cruise experience you want. The boat is covered on top but open on the sides to allow for good viewing. Because the chairs are set up facing one direction, we’d definitely recommend taking the full cruise so you get a chance to fully see both sides of the river bank. The boat is one of the smaller boats on the Seine and also one of the least known, so it can be a good one if you are looking for a cruise with fewer people. The prices, if you don’t want the optional commentary, are some of the lowest.
Bateaux Mouches has some of the biggest boats which are easy to spot because they are big, double-decker open-top boats with orange seats. Many of Paris’s most famous and important buildings, bridges, and attractions can be seen from the river. The river viewpoint also allows you to gain some good insight into the city’s history, evolution, and architecture. In fact, the banks of the Seine in Paris were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.
This exceptional combination ticket will offer you entrance to the world-famous Louvre Museum, which is home to some of the most celebrated works of art in the world. But that’s not all – this experience also includes a delectable treat for your taste buds. Indulge in three mouthwatering crepes, each one more delicious than the last. Immerse yourself in the captivating allure of Paris as you indulge in a truly opulent dining experience. This River Seine Lunch Cruise is perfect for both romantic escapades and delightful family gatherings.
There are a lot of similarities in many of the Seine river boat cruises that offer larger scale cruises along the Seine. Departing from the oldest bridge in Paris, the Pont Neuf, this one-hour cruise on the Seine is animated and specially designed for children. Both the Happy Hour Evening Cruise on the Seine and the Apéritif Cruise on the Seine are mid-size boats that come with music and a bar onboard. The difference between these two Seine cruises is the duration of the cruise, with a longer itinerary for the Happy Hour Evening Cruise. This Happy Hour Evening Cruise also offers the option to buy some food. An important thing to consider for a Paris night cruise is the sunset time, as the sunset in Paris in summer is quite late.
The cruise lasts between 1.5 and two hours, depending on which option you pick. There is no commentary on boat, but you will be welcomed by a host – depending on which boat you pick, it will be in both English and French, or only French. Unfortunately the Vedettes du Pont Neuf is not easily wheelchair accessible – that’s because there are stairs leading you down from the Pont Neuf.
Paris Canal’s St. Martin Canal cruise offers a distinctive 2.5-hour experience, starting from Parc de la Villette and ending at Musée d’Orsay. Overall, I recommend skipping this cruise and instead using the metro for transportation and opting for a proper sightseeing cruise for a better experience. Overall, Bateaux Mouches offers a memorable tour of Paris’ key sights along the Seine.
As the second-longest river in France, the Seine River extends over 777 kilometers and is one of the most iconic sights of Paris as well as a worldwide tourist attraction. It is the Seine that divides the city into two parts, the Left Bank of the Seine is called “La Rive Gauche” in French, which is seen as more cultural and romantic. While the Right Bank is called “La Rive Droite”, and has a more modern and commercial feel. Both banks of the Seine are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and each of which offers its own taste of Paris. Between the two banks of the Seine are 37 bridges, each has its own unique character and a different view of Paris.
Climb on board one of our boats and explore Paris from a different viewpoint, from the Seine. Sail past the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame de Paris, the Conciergerie, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay ... Claudia was born and raised in Italy, but she also lived in New York, Denver, and London. She's a professional travel blogger and certified travel designer who loves planning trips, sharing travel hacks, and packing lists so that you don't have to.
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