Paris in a Day: Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame & Seine Cruise Guided Tour

The Louvre Museum

The Louvre is the world's most visited museum and the heart of any Paris Louvre tour. A royal palace before it became a museum in 1793, it holds some 35,000 works on display, from the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo to the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the glass pyramid by I. M. Pei that has stood at its entrance since 1989.

Your guide shows you the highlights in a guided visit of around 90 minutes, so you avoid getting lost in more than 70,000 square metres of galleries. Your prebooked Louvre ticket is included, which removes the ticket-buying step, although you still pass through security. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, and on those tours the visit is usually replaced by the Musée d'Orsay.

Notre-Dame and Île de la Cité

Île de la Cité is the island in the Seine where Paris began more than 2,000 years ago. Notre-Dame Cathedral stands at its eastern end, and after the 2019 fire and the restoration completed in 2024 its towers, flying buttresses and rose windows are once again the star of the skyline. Your guide tells its history from the medieval builders to the modern reconstruction.

Around it you walk to Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris, and past La Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held, and the stained-glass Sainte-Chapelle, all seen from outside. The prettiest corner is Place Dauphine, a quiet triangular square that many tourists miss. Notre-Dame tour searches often ask about opening hours; this tour covers the exteriors.

The Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro

The Eiffel Tower, built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World's Fair, is the symbol of Paris and rises about 330 metres above the Champ de Mars. On this tour you see it from outside, and your guide shows you the best viewpoints, including the Trocadéro terrace, which gives the classic photograph with the tower centred in front of you.

The Eiffel Tower ticket is not included. If you want to go up, your guide explains where to buy Eiffel Tower tickets and how to avoid lines, and the summit is best booked ahead in high season. Evening light is the best time to visit the tower area, and it is also when the full-day tour arrives.

The Seine River cruise

The full-day option includes a one-hour Seine River cruise on a flexible ticket. Glass-roofed boats pass under the bridges of Paris and beside Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower, showing the city from the water as the streetlights come on.

The ticket can be used at your convenience, either the same evening or the following morning. Cruises are guided and may be delayed or cancelled when the river is high. The four-hour highlights option does not include the cruise. The cruise passes beneath famous bridges such as Pont Neuf and Pont Alexandre III, and the on-board commentary helps you identify each landmark.

Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur

The full-day route begins in Montmartre, the hilltop artists' quarter in the 18th arrondissement. A funicular takes you up beside the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, so you avoid the steep steps, and from the terrace you have one of the widest views over Paris.

Your guide walks you through the village-like streets, past the windmills and the small squares where painters once worked, and you can stop at a café before moving on. Montmartre is best visited in the morning before it becomes crowded. Artists such as Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh lived and worked in Montmartre, and Place du Tertre is still filled with street painters.