At a glance. A classic Seine cruise takes about an hour and shows you Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Eiffel Tower without a single step. Choose the Bateaux-Mouches for the big boats with an open upper deck, the Bateaux Parisiens if you want to start next to the Eiffel Tower, or a smaller boat with a live guide leaving from the Pont Neuf. Prices start from about €17 and change with the date.
Which Seine cruise should you choose?
The river is the same for everyone, so the real choice is the boat, the starting point and how much you want explained.
The classic with audio commentary. This is the cruise most people picture. The Bateaux-Mouches cruise lasts 1 hour 10 minutes, goes round in a loop and brings you back to where you started. The commentary comes in ten languages. The big boats have an open upper deck and a closed lower deck, so you can sit outside when the sun is out and stay dry when it is not.
The cruise that starts at the Eiffel Tower. The Bateaux Parisiens leave from Port de la Bourdonnais, right by the tower, and the cruise lasts one hour. The audio guide comes in 14 languages, and there is staff on board. It is the easiest choice if you have just come down from the tower and do not want to cross the city.
A smaller boat with a live guide. From the Pont Neuf, the Vedettes du Pont Neuf cruise lasts one hour, with a guide who speaks English and French. You can sit inside or outside, and there is a toilet on board. Along the way you pass the Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Orsay, the Grand Palais, the Conciergerie, the Institut de France, the Hôtel de Ville and the Eiffel Tower. A live guide is the better pick if you like to ask questions.
An electric boat. The Vedettes de Paris also run a guided one-hour cruise on a fully electric boat, leaving from the Eiffel Tower area.
Day, sunset or evening?
By day you see everything clearly: the carved stone of the bridges, the façades along the quays, the people strolling by the water.
At sunset, the cruise from the Pont Neuf comes with one drink and blankets on board. The evening cruise with music, from the Vedettes de Paris, lasts one hour on an electric boat, with an optional drink and an audio app.
If you have to pick one, we suggest the late afternoon: you start in daylight and finish as the city lights come on.
What about the Canal Saint-Martin?
It is a 4.6-kilometre canal with nine locks, ordered by Napoleon in 1802 and finished in 1825. A long stretch of it, more than two kilometres, runs underground below the area around the Bastille.
You can join the canal and the river in one trip. The guided cruise lasts two hours and starts at Quai de Valmy, near Place de la République (metro lines 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11). There is also another cruise that combines the canal and the Seine. If it is your first visit to Paris, the one-hour river cruise is enough. If you have already seen the main sights, the canal makes a nice change.
How do you plan your cruise?
- Arrive early. The meeting time is 15, 20 or 30 minutes before departure, depending on the cruise. On some cruises boarding closes a few minutes before the boat leaves.
- Check the cancellation rules. They differ between cruises: some can be cancelled until a set date, others up to 24 hours before the time slot, and some cannot be cancelled at all. Read them on the offer before you pay.
- Pair it with a sight. A cruise and the Eiffel Tower go well together, and there is an option that combines the two. Read our Eiffel Tower visit guide to plan the climb.
- Want something different? There is a family cruise for children and a one-hour cruise with a crêpe tasting.
Our pick
Short on time? Take the one-hour cruise from the pier closest to where you are. Want to understand what you are looking at? Choose a guided boat from the Pont Neuf. Travelling with children? Go for the family cruise. Planning a romantic evening? Choose the evening cruise with music.
You can compare all the boats on our Seine cruise page.
