are fast track tickets worth it?

no lines at dawn (c) 2018 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Questions like this come up frequently on travel forums: "Are Fast Track tickets worth the extra cost?" This is what a recent visitor to fodors.com was wondering about. He's heard about the L-O-N-G ticket and security lines at Europe's most popular attractions. Is it worth paying extra to avoid the long lines, he wonders?

Here's how I calculate the cost/benefit ratio.

(1) Think about a typical trip to Europe. Add up the cost of your airfare and hotels, trains and transfers. You're spending thousands of dollars on your bucket list trip. For the sake of argument, let's assume the trip costs $5,000.

(2) Let's make another set of assumptions: you have six full days on the ground and spend 8 hours a day sightseeing. This means your trip costs about $104 for every sightseeing hour.

(3) If you've seen the lines at Europe's popular tourist destinations, you know can easily waste hours of your precious time doing and seeing nothing. Each wasted hour costs you $104.

Now, let's consider the value proposition of the Paris Pass. It includes unlimited travel, zones 1-3, on the Paris Metro, RER, and buses. It includes a Museum Pass, covering entrance fees at many of the most popular museums and attractions in Paris. (Benefit: you don't have to stand in queue to buy tickets). You also get Fast Track entry at the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and Centre Pompidou.

If you plan to maximize your museum visiting over the days of your Museum Pass, it won't cost you a euro more — but even if you enjoy a very leisurely vacation, it's totally worth paying to skip the ticket lines.

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

skipping the queue | what's it worth?

from commons.wikipedia.com, photo owned by the Saeima Chancellery and used by permission

Here's a long line winding around the corner in Saeima, Latvia. Why so many people in queue? They've come for the Night of Museums, an annual event held across Europe. The following equation describes the phenomenon we're seeing here...

free admission = lots o' people = long queues

... which brings up a question I just responded to on fodors.com: "Just wondering if it is worth buying skip the queue tickets for Versailles." My short answer: Yes!!! Read on for my long answer...

Life is short... Thus begins the provocative headline on a recent advertisement I saw, but I disagree with the ad's conclusion: "Life is short: you should be playing the world's finest golf equipment!" NOT!!! Life is a gift, I would say, so make the most of the time with which you've been blessed!

This is especially true of travel. Say France is on your bucket list, and visiting Paris and touring Versailles are something you've been looking forward to for years. So you plan your trip, spending thousands of dollars on flights and hotels. What that nets you is time in France; you've essentially bought 3 or 5 or 7 days to explore Paris and to experience all it has to offer.

So how do you want to invest your precious time? You could spend hours of your vacation waiting in queue: an hour in line at the Louvre, an hour at the Musée d'Orsay, another hour at Versailles. That time adds up, and you will have squandered that most precious of resources, your leisure time. If 5€ could buy you an extra hour to sit outside a café, sip your cafe au lait, and watch as Paris walks by your table — wouldn't that be worth it?

So, yes, skip every queue you possibly can. Buy your tickets in advance. Get the Paris Museum Pass that gets you right in. Ask your travel advisor about engaging expert guides who can help you experience so much more while making much more efficient use of your time. (And while we're on the subject of queues, get Global Entry and TSA pre-check to avoid those lines as well — the best $100 you can ever spend).

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Eiffel Tower | how to skip the line in Paris

One of the most popular attractions in Paris, the Eiffel Tower draws big crowds and l-o-n-g lines to purchase tickets. But don't spend hours of your previous time in Paris queuing up to go up the Eiffel Tower. Visitors to Paris can now purchase your tickets online. Just go to this website to make your purchase.

And don't wait in line to get museum tickets to visit the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay, two of the most popular museums in the world. Buy a Paris Museum Pass - prepaid admission for 60 attractions - for either 2, 4, or 6 days. You won't necessarily save money unless you really rush through museums and try to see as much as humanly possible. However, you'll save time as you won't have to queue up in long lines to purchase tickets everywhere you go.

See more, wait less! Hope these tips help on your next visit to Paris.

copyright (c) 2014 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Jeu de Paume | street photography exhibit

The Jeu de Paume is a Paris museum famous for once having hosted the greatest collection of French Impressionist art in the world. That collection is now part of the immense Musée d'Orsay, but the Jeu de Paume is still an active musuem located at the northwest corner of the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris.

As if I needed to invent a reason to visit Paris, my favorite city, the current exhibition at the Jeu de Paume is a collection of 120 images by Lisette Model, a pioneer of the art of street photography. This exhibit will be on display through June 6, 2010. Admission to the Jeu de Paume is 7€. The museum is open every day except Monday, and hours are from 12 noon until 7 p.m. (9 p.m. on Tuesday).

Where to stay near the Jeu de Paume? Hotel de Crillon is just 0.2 km from the musuem and Le Meurice just slightly further - 0.4 km. For the best rates along with added-value amenities including complimentary full breakfast daily, upgrades, and even a free one-way airport transfer with three night stay, contact a Virtuoso travel consultant.

P.S. — Thanks to Chocolatine France, a Virtuoso onsite in France, for alerting me to this great opportunity.


Jeu de Paume (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2010 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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