This outstanding 4 Day Paris Itinerary is a great plan for your first trip to Paris. You will get to see a lot, and it will leave you wanting more. When you return, you can dive even deeper into this beautiful, romantic and cultural city. Paris really is one of the most beautiful cities in the world!
Paris Itinerary – Day 1
I love to begin my time in most cities with a walking tour to give me a good orientation, some history, and some thoughts from a local guide about what they love to see and do in their city. There are all kind of walking tours.
If your budget allows, you can hire a private guide who will be able to gear your tour specifically to your interests. If you have kids, finding a private guide who caters to families can really help get your children excited about what they are seeing. If you love history or art or architecture or food, etc., a good personal guide can focus on your particular interests, and they can provide an amazing start to your time in a new city.
Alternatively, you could join a Free Walking Tour with a group of other travelers and at the end of your tour you will be invited to pay what you want, usually €10-€15, to the guide, to compensate them for their time and expertise.
Many guidebooks also offer self-guided walking tours that allow you to go at your own pace, in your own time, see the highlights of an area and learn what makes it so interesting and unique. You can even download terrific audio guides that will also give you a great orientation. We really like Rick Steves if you would like to go with a guidebook or an audio guide.
We recommend and plan all of these kinds of walking tours for our clients, and I have used them all myself. I really enjoy each kind of walking tour and find this to be a great way to learn about the city I am visiting.
In Paris, Begin with Île de la Cité
I would start with a walking tour of the Île de la Cité. Walk the historic center of Paris, see Notre Dame Cathedral in the process of being renovated after the horrible fire in 2019 (see our blog The Best Time to Travel is Now for some thoughts on how this fire impacted our perspective on travel) Stroll the islands and soak up the character of this spectacular city.
After your walking tour that orients you to Paris, continue on. Go to an open-air food market, discover typical areas of the city like the Latin Quarter, the Marais or the Champs Elysees, where you can visit the Arc du Triomphe. Stop for a macaron or gaze in the windows of a pastry shop before entering to choose your croissant or perhaps a caramel éclair. Stop for a coffee or a glass of wine at a quintessential Parisian café. Watch people, and gain a real sense of the atmosphere and essence of this city. Wandering the streets of Paris with no real agenda can be a joy!
To cap off the evening, take a boat ride on the Seine. You could have a private tour or a take your cruise with lots of other visitors to Paris; do whatever you prefer and your budget allows.
