Last month we took our boys on a family trip to Paris, and it ended up being such a special experience for all of us. From sightseeing and food to walking the city and slowing down, I’m sharing what we did, what worked well with teens and preteens, and a few things I’d absolutely do again.
We recently spent time in Paris as a family, and I wanted to share all the details while it’s still fresh.
Traveling internationally with teens and preteens looks a little different than traveling with little kids, so we tried to balance classic sightseeing with downtime, good food, and experiences our boys would actually enjoy. Below I’m sharing where we stayed, what we did, how we structured our days, and a few tips that made Paris feel fun and doable for our whole family.
If you want to see details of what I wore, head to THIS BLOG POST.
What to Do on a Paris Trip With Teens
The Louvre
The boys actually loved the Louvre! There were a few things that made it enjoyable for everybody:
- The younger boys brought cameras so they could snap pictures of their favorite things
- I bought this little point and shoot for my 9 year old. It was super basic and didn’t take the best quality pictures, but they were fine and it has zoom, a flash, and can take video, so it was great for a young kid. I was glad I didn’t buy him an expensive one, cause he dropped it like 20 times during the trip.
- For my 12 year old, who is super artistic, I let him use an old Samsung NX500 that I’ve had for almost a decade, but it’s a really nice digital camera that’s small enough to tote around. Unfortunately it’s no longer available or sold anywhere except eBay, but THIS ONE is similar but much more affordable!
- We looked up a list of the most famous things there and prioritized seeing those. Then, in each room, we played a game to see who could find the oldest thing in each room.
We just followed the boys’ lead and ended up spending almost 3 hours there. We spent the longest time in the Egyptian artifacts areas – my 9 year old was obsessed!
Climbing the Eiffel Tower
We got tickets to climb up the Eiffel Tower, rather than tickets to take the elevator up, since the elevator tickets were sold out on the night we planned to go. Climbing the stairs only lets you get to the second level, but tickets were cheaper, and for three active boys, it was a great way to burn off some energy at the end of the day. The views are still amazing and it was a memorable experience to try to get up as fast as we could!
If you want to go to the top, make sure you book your tickets early!
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is about an hour outside the city, but it’s absolutely worth the drive out there, if your kids love rides and Disney!
We had the best day, and it was fun to see the differences in some of our favorite rides from Disneyland.
We ended up doing a park hopper for the two parks, and since there are less rides at the parks in Paris, we felt like we were able to split up our day between the two parks (starting with Disneyland and then moving to Walt Disney Studios Park in the later afternoon). We bought the upgraded Premier Access passes, which gets you one fast pass per ticket for each ride in the park, and this was a game changer. It’s definitely more expensive, but it made our day so enjoyable since we only had one day at the parks and limited time to get through everything. We able to ride every ride at least once (we did skip some of the little kid rides in Fantasyland). On the shorter lines at the beginning of the day, we rode those without our passes and saved them for later in the day when the lines were very long.
Just like Disneyland in the US, everything was very busy and lines were long!
Sainte-Chapelle
This was spectacular, and while we stood in line outside we learned about the history and the pictures in the stained glass so we could look for the Bible stories.
Absolutely book your tickets in advance! They sell out many days in advance, and were turning away people as we stood in line. So if you want to go, get your tickets early. I also heard that they do concerts in the chapel, and I absolutely want to do that next time we go to Paris.
Croissant Making Class
My friend Cori went to Paris with her daughter just a few weeks before we went, and they did a croissant making class while they were there. I asked her if she thought my boys would like it, and she said they definitely would.
THIS is the class we booked, it was fantastic! It was just over 2.5 hours long, and we made the croissants from start to finish. You start by making the dough, and then prep it for the class on the following day, and then you make your croissants with the dough the previous day’s class made. They have a great system, and it’s all very clean and organized. There are only 8 people to a class with one instructor, so it was very easy to follow instructions and get personalized help. I was a little unsure if the boys would love it as much as I hoped, but they loved it! We made plain and chocolate croissants, and they turned out perfectly. It’s a bit pricey, but it was such a memorable experience and absolutely worth it.
Boat Ride on the Seine
Besides Disneyland, the boys said this was their favorite thing we did. We rented a small private boat (here’s where we rented it), and it had a captain and one other worker, so there were just 9 of us on board. We sailed all the way around Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis, and then all the way down the Seine to the Eiffel Tower and back. It was about 90 minutes total.
They had warm blankets and snacks and drinks, and the tiny boat even had a bathroom. The boys sat in the front and waved to all the dinner cruises as we passed, trying to get people to wave to them. At one point we passed a dinner cruise with a family at a table who all stood up and did the SIX-SEVEN dance to the boys — it was the highlight of the boat ride, ha!
The views were incredible, and it was so fun to see the city from the angle of the river, and learn about some history and landmarks from our captain.
I think next time we’ll do a dinner cruise just for something different – there are so many options and they looked fantastic!
Climbing the Arc de Triomphe
We did this at night, and it was another great thing to do to burn energy for these boys! This had awesome views of the city and winding staircase was crazy. Definitely recommend.
Riding the Metro
This was a new experience for my younger boys — it’s amazing to see and experience an underground transportation system when you’re not used to it!
The trains were very crowded and it made my younger boys nervous, but I kept telling them that doing stressful things with your parents is the best and safest way to experience something new! After a few times on the metro, they gained confidence and realized it wasn’t so intimidating.
Walking Down the Champs-Élysées
We only went into one or two stores, but it’s such a famous street that they had to experience it. We ate crepes from a food stand cause it felt like the right thing to do!
Sacre-Coeur Basilica
We walked through the church, but mostly they liked walking around the square and seeing the street artists and checking out the amazing views of the city from up on the hill.
We didn’t take the funicular up the hill, but if you don’t want to walk the stairs, it’s a fun way to be transported!
Do a Taste Test
You could do it with any Parisian food, but we did it with croissants at this bakery, La Flanerie, next to Notre Dame.
PW and I went here three years ago when we visited France and I’ve been dreaming about these croissants ever since! It literally has the best croissants I’ve ever tasted, and we got 5 different flavors to test – almond, vanilla, and crookie were the best!
The Queen’s Hamlet at Versailles
On our first day, we went out to Versailles (30 minutes outside Paris) to visit my parents who are serving a 2 year mission in that city. We went to Versailles Palace, and since the boys were basically walking zombies after an overnight flight and straight into our itinerary, they didn’t really care much about a million paintings inside of Versailles Palace.
But, we went out to the Queen’s Hamlet on the property, which is where Marie Antoinette raised her children, and it was like a magical fairytale! The houses were so beautiful, the lake and the gardens were stunning, and they had pigs and goats and horses. It was a bit of a walk out there from the palace, but absolutely worth it for the breathtaking scenery. Definitely the highlight of Versailles palace for the boys.
FAQ of our trip:
Here are some questions you guys asked about a Paris trip with teens!
- Where did you stay?
- In Versailles, we stayed at the Hilton Waldorf Astoria – Trianon Palace. It was a stunning hotel on the grounds of Versailles Palace, and the treaty of Versailles was actually signed in their ballroom, so it has quite a history! It had rooms that connected into a suite so we were able to fit all 5 of us. The buffet breakfast was definitely a highlight – don’t miss that if you stay there!
- In Paris, we stayed at the La Clef Tour Eiffel Paris. This was right by the Trocadéro, so it was a great location with amazing views of the Eiffel Tower. They have suites that fit families with more than two children!
- How did you beat jet lag?
- We had an overnight flight, leaving in the evening from the US and arriving at 9am in Paris. None of us slept that well on the plane, but my best advice is just to go about your day and then go to bed early and immediately get on the new time zone. We all went to bed by 9pm Paris time on that first night and slept in til about 10am the next day, and then we were set for the rest of the trip! Some people like to nap that first day, but a nap for me will turn into an entire day in bed, so we just plow through with snacks and fresh air, and then get a good night sleep your first night. Your body adjusts quicker than you think if you do this!
- How far in advance did you plan?
- My husband, PW, is the resident trip planner, and he’s been booking things for months. For plane tickets, since he sometimes uses points, he books them almost a year in advance, or as soon as they open up the flights, and then he began booking hotels about 6 months in advance, and tickets to things maybe 2-3 months in advance. He’s a planner for sure!
- Did you mainly eat out for dinner?
- Yes. We did one meal at my parent’s apartment in Versailles, and then one night we bought some food from a local market and bakery and then ate dinner while we watched The Da Vinci Code (seemed appropriate since we’d just gone to the Louvre)! Besides that, we did dinner out, although some nights were nothing pre-booked or fancy, just a cafe that we found as we walked.
- Do you need to speak French to have an enjoyable time?
- Not at all! Most people speak English, and google has a very handy tool that allows you to hold your phone up and it will automatically translate a sign or a menu (you don’t even have to take a picture – just go into the Google app, click the camera icon in the search bar, and then tap the “translate” button in the bottom menu).
- Did you enjoy it as much in the cold as in the spring/summer?
- We came prepared for cold weather, so we were ok, but it’s absolutely more enjoyable to be anywhere when you’re not freezing cold and bundled up like a burrito. We were outside so much of our time there, as we were sightseeing and adventuring, so we were very cold a lot of the time, but we still had an incredible trip!
- How much did you walk each day, did your kids do ok with all the walking?
- I didn’t wear my apple watch everyday, since PW just got me a new watch for Christmas and I was wearing that a lot, but on the two days that I did wear it, it said we walked around 20,000 steps. The boys did great! We kept them happy with cool things to do and see, lots of yummy snacks, and just fun family time.
- How did you handle transportation?
- We did a mix of ubers, metro, taxis, and black car service. Ubers are tricky with 5 people, especially in Europe, because cars are often so much smaller. We always ordered UberXL, but once a tiny 5 seater car came and the guy was super bugged at us, but he still let us ride. For rides where we had specific time stipulations or had lots of luggage, like getting to Disneyland for rope drop, or getting to the airport, we booked a black car in advance (we used THIS WEBSITE) and they communicated via WhatsApp. There are options for transportation for all budgets!
Here is our itinerary, if you want to see a more detailed breakdown.
This was the original itinerary we made prior to leaving, so we didn’t follow this exactly when we actually got to Paris. We like to have a pretty good plan, and then we can deviate as we’d like. This helps us see what we want to see, make sure we have tickets for the things we choose to do, but still have flexibility throughout the trip as we’d like because we know things always change and shift!
December 26 (Friday)
Flight from STL to DFW
Overnight Flight from DFW to CDG
December 27 (Saturday)
0905am – Arrive Paris and Clear Customs
1000am – Black Car Service to Versailles
1100am – Check-In to Hotel
1200pm – Sushi Lunch at Yaki Tokyo
0200pm – Versailles and Trianon
0700pm Napoli Style Pizza Dinner at La Napoli
December 28 (Sunday)
1000am – Sleep in and Brunch Buffet at hotel
0130pm – uber to Versailles Ward for church with grandparents
0300pm – Walk to Versailles temple and visitors center
0400pm – Afternoon and Dinner with grandparents
December 29 (Monday)
0830am – Family Workout at Hotel Gym
1100am – Check out of Hotel
1100am – Black Car Service to La Clef Tour Eiffel Hotel
1145pm – Check-In to Hotel
1215pm – Crepe Lunch Near Louvre on Rue du Rivoli
0200pm – Louvre
0430pm – Jarden de Tuileries (Walk through Christmas Market)
0530pm – Dinner at Amour in Paris
0700pm – Eiffel Tower (Night)
December 30 (Tuesday)
0720am – Black Car Service to Disneyland Paris
0900am – Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Open at 9am
1000pm – Parks Close
December 31 (Wednesday)
0930am – Sleep In and Family Workout at Hotel Gym
1100am – Brunch at La Maison d’Isabelle
1200pm – Ile de La Cite Neighborhood
0100pm – Notre Dame
0200pm – Sainte Chapelle
0330pm – Archaeological Crypt of the Ile de La Cite
0530pm – Dinner at Ha Noi 1988 (72 Quai des Orfevres 75001)
0800pm – Seine River Boat
January 01 (Thursday)
0930am – Sleep In and Family Workout at Hotel Gym
LEAVE DAY OPEN FOR BOYS TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO AND WHERE TO EAT
January 02 (Friday)
0800am – Workout at Hotel Gym
1000am – Brunch at Immersion Montmartre
1100pm – Montmartre Neighborhood
1145pm – Walk Stairs at Sacre Coeur rand Place du Tertre
0100pm – Maison Fleuret Croissant Class
0400pm – St Germain Neighborhood food taste test comparison/dinner
January 03 (Saturday)
0730am – Check Out of Hotel
Flight home
