It’s no secret that Paris is a wonderful city full of beautiful food, sights and things to do. We have been lucky enough to visit a couple of times and experience a lot of this great city. Most recently, we took the Eurostar from London to visit for only 48 hours. We thought we’d share our best Paris itinerary for a quick visit. We visited with a friend in Europe for two weeks, so we had to hit the highlights quickly. On top of that, we tried to stay budget friendly by doing as much walking as possible.
While there is absolutely no shortage of Paris blog posts out there, we hope our Paris itinerary helps you tick off the beautiful Parisian landmarks you want to see in just two days. One important thing to note is that pickpockets and scams are quite common in Paris. Make sure you’re aware of the common scams and keep your valuables close to you while walking around.
In this post:
Day One – Full Day
This is such a wonderful day where you get to see so many iconic Paris highlights in a short amount of time. For the sake of this Paris itinerary, we’re going to assume you’ve arrived either the night before, or early in the morning of this first day.
Morning: Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe
First, it is important to start the day the right way, with pastries and bread of course! Obviously there are thousands of incredible boulangeries and pâtisseries in Paris. However we can recommend Les gourmandises d’Eiffel right near the Eiffel Tower, as the name suggests. It has absolutely incredible croissants, bread and pâtisserie items and we have been back multiple times. From there it is literally a one minute walk to the Champ de Mars, which is the park in front of the tower. Here you can enjoy your pastries on the grass while admiring the tower, the perfect start to the day!
Once you’re done obsessing over the delicious baked goods, head around the tower and cross the Pont d’Iéna bridge to the Jardins du Trocadéro. Of course, you can head up the tower too, however this will set you back between €14 and €36, depending on which level you visit. Even if you have a pre booked ticket, the queue for security can take hours. If you’re only in the city for a couple of days, it might not be the best use of your time. Plus while the view from the top is great, seeing the tower from all around the city is one of the coolest parts about it, so don’t feel bad if you skip it!
The Jardins du Trocadéro is a beautiful garden with an amazing view of the tower from across the river. From here, walk down the Avenue Kléber towards the Arc de Triomphe, which should take between 20-30 minutes. Once again, you can go up this landmark, with tickets ranging from €16 to €22, however the queue can also be pretty long.
Middle of the Day: Champs-Élysées and Louvre
From the Arc de Triomphe, head down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the most famous street in Paris. This is a beautiful long tree-lined street, home to luxury shops such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany & Co. There’s lots of space to walk around, benches to sit on and cafes and restaurants to stop for some food. This is where we had lunch, picking up some delicious baguettes along the street. There are some gardens where you can sit, including Square Marigny and the Jardin des Champs-Élysées.
While on your walk, make sure to veer off to see the Pont Alexandre III. This is a famous bridge adorned with four golden statues on the corners and 32 glass-globed lampposts. Across the bridge you’ll also see Hôtel des Invalides, a big beautiful building with a huge dome.
Back on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, keep walking down and you’ll soon reach the Place de la Concorde. This is a big public square surrounded by incredible buildings with fountains and an Egyptian obelisk in it. Right next to the square is the Tuileries Garden, a beautiful free garden (that also has a free bathroom!). This garden has a couple of lovely ponds with free chairs to sit and relax in. There’s lots of green space, lots of tree cover, and in spring there’s so many beautiful flower beds. You’ll also find the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Jeu de Paume which is an art centre, a ferris wheel and a couple of eateries in the park too.
At the end of the park is the famous Louvre Museum with the amazing glass pyramid. We visited the Louvre on a separate trip, so this time we just took photos out the front. If you want to visit, it costs €22 per person. You’ll want to prebook tickets with a timed entry point. It is possible to get walk-in tickets, but it’s way more efficient to get them in advance. It is one of the biggest museums in the world with 14.5km of corridors and over 35,000 works of art. You can really spend anywhere from 30 minutes to several days in the museum, so make sure to plan what you want to see if you visit.
Afternoon: Notre-Dame and Jardin du Luxembourg
After admiring the Louvre, head over the beautiful Pont des Arts bridge. It has some locks on lampposts which is cute, plus a wonderful view of Île de la Cité. This is the island that the Notre-Dame Cathedral is on. After crossing the bridge, walk along the Seine for a bit before crossing over to the island. You can walk around the small island, go to the Sainte-Chapelle church and of course, visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral is free to enter but there’s usually a decent queue to get in.
Heading back off off the island, you’re super close to the famous bookstore Shakespeare and Company. It is free to enter, but will have a queue outside as it’s a very small store. For the last part of the day, walk 15 minutes through the beautiful Parisian streets down to Jardin du Luxembourg. This is one of our favourite gardens in Paris, with its beautiful little pond and lots of free chairs to sit in and relax. There’s also lots of green space, flower beds, and lovely places to walk around. The Panthéon is also nearby, making it an easy addition if you’re interested.
From the Luxembourg garden, we then took a bus back to the Eiffel Tower to get some dinner nearby and watch the tower sparkle. It does this for 5 minutes every hour each night after dusk it’s a wonderful way to finish off a day exploring Paris. We’re not going to lie to you, this is going to be a big day of walking! We did 24k steps despite still taking a bus, but honestly it was so worth it. There are metros and buses all along this route though, so if you want a break from walking, you’ll have options!
Day Two – Half Day
Montmartre
Assuming you’re leaving this afternoon or evening, this is the perfect half day of sightseeing. We began at the Moulin Rouge, just admiring it from the outside with all the other tourists. We had considered seeing a show, however tickets when we were visiting weren’t cheaper than €98 each, which was not in our budget.
From there, we then headed up into Montmartre, an area famous for it’s cute streets and artistic history. Some things to see here are Rue Lepic, the Wall of I Love You and Place du Tertre. The last one is a cute little cobblestone square with cafes all around. This is also where lots of artists come and show off their work, as well as live sketch people for money. If you’re on the hunt for some artwork or an amazing portrait, this is the place to go.
Sacre Coeur
Right next to this square is Sacré-Cœur, the famous basilica with a big white dome overlooking the city. Entry to the Sacré-Cœur is free, however there is always a long queue to get in, but this does move quickly. A lot of people sit on the stairs in front of the basilica and admire the view over Paris. There’s also a great garden in front of the basilica you can sit and relax too. Do be careful of your bags here as this is a very common area for pickpockets and scammers.
At the bottom of the stairs and garden, there’s a great place for the cheapest crepes we found in Paris. It’s called Le Ronsard and had nutella crepes for only €3.80 each in April 2025, which is crazy compared to the €6 crepes we saw up in Montmartre. There’s also lots of great shops around here if you want to go shopping for souvenirs. If you’re still in the mood for baked goods, nearby is a fabulous Boulangerie called Leonie Bakery. From here, you’re only a 20 minute walk to Gare du Nord where you catch the Eurostar or easily get a train to Charles de Gaulle airport.
Alternate Option
If you’ve been to Paris before, have an extra day or just want to see something different, we’ve got an alternate option. On one of our trips to Paris we took a train out to Versailles to visit the Palace of Versailles. It’s a great place to go if you want to see somewhere grand and get out of the city for a bit.
From the Eiffel Tower, you can catch the RER C train for 27 minutes to Versailles Château Rive Gauche. Versailles is a wealthy suburb of Paris that has some lovely cafes and restaurants, but is mostly visited for the Palace. There are many ticket options as there’s lots to visit including the palace, the gardens, a separate estate, a gallery and more. These range from 10€ to 32€ depending on what you want to visit and when in the year. Also important to note that the musical fountain in the garden only runs from April 1 to October 31. Even during this time, it doesn’t happen every day so check their website if you want to see that attraction.
The palace is obviously a beautiful piece of architecture and is worth a visit if you’ve got the money. The garden is also beautiful and is included with entry to the palace. However, right behind the garden is Park of Versailles that is open all year round and is free for anyone to visit. It’s worth putting time aside to explore this park, because it is huge! There is a huge body of water called the Grand Canal where you can hire row boats for an hour. There’s also other buildings you can visit and so many different pathways and places to explore.
In terms of food, there’s a couple of places to eat in the palace and the park. However the food is obviously expensive and there isn’t a lot of choice. You aren’t allowed to bring food into the palace or the gardens but you can picnic in the park. Our recommendation would be to head to the palace before lunch, and then grab yourself a picnic to have in the park. It’s really a great way to spend a day and it’s a palace that you will remember forever.
Final Thoughts
There are so many amazing things to see and do in the city, but this is a great Paris itinerary for two days to see just the highlights. Day one will tick off most of the landmarks, while letting you see a lot of the beautiful city, and walk along the Seine. Day two will let you explore the gorgeous Montmartre, and see the amazing view from Sacré-Cœur. If you’ve got any extra time, a visit to the Palace of Versailles, its garden and its park is absolutely worth it.
On top of all that, there are so many incredible places to eat so you can get your fill of delicious French bread and pastries! You can really squeeze so much into just two days in Paris, whether you are on a budget or not. We really hope you have an incredible time visiting Paris!
We also did all of these activities (mostly across two days) back when we visited Paris in 2023. If you want to see how we fit it all in and everything else we got up to, check out our vlog: