You could spend days or even weeks just looking around the City of Light. But if you only have 24 hours or less during a layover, this is the best 1 day Paris itinerary to help you plan your trip.

This is a full, all-day plan for Paris that will take you to some of our favorite places, which are also the highlights that most tourists want to see. It’s definitely going to be a long day. Some of the sights open late, so you can keep looking around even after dark.

It’s just a suggestion, though, so don’t feel like you have to see everything on this list. Any itinerary you read should be adjusted to fit your interests, time, budget, and style of travel.

Depending on where you are coming from, you will probably arrive at one of Paris’ airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Paris Orly (ORY), or one of its major RER (regional train) stations.

From either airport, you can take the RER train into the city. From there, you can connect to the Métro, which will take you pretty much anywhere you want to go in the central 20 arrondissements of Paris. The Métro is a large network of 14 lines that all connect to each other and to RER stations. You can buy a single ticket for 1.90€ or a carnet of 10 tickets for 16.90€ at any station.

You should be able to do this trip with nine Métro/RER tickets, since they can be used on different trains, but you might want to buy the carnet of 10 tickets just in case.

If you are traveling with luggage, there are many places in Paris where you can leave your bags while you enjoy your day in this beautiful city. As soon as you get there, put your bags in a safe place and hop on the Metro to get to your first stop.

You can also look for a semi-private minivan transfer, which is a good compromise between speed and cost.

I had to go to Paris more than once before I finally got to Sainte Chapelle. Now, I want everyone who goes to Paris to make it a top priority!

If you arrive in Paris on the same day as this plan, it’s not hard to get from the airport to Sainte Chapelle. From Charles de Gaulle, you can take the RER line B to St. Michel/Notre Dame. At the time of this writing, a single ticket costs less than €10. To get to the Sainte Chapelle neighborhood from Paris Orly Airport, use the Orlyval light rail train to the Antony RER station.

You can also take a bus. Bus companies run routes from both airports to the city center of Paris. From the airports, you can also book a shuttle bus transfer or a private transfer.

This chapel is not too far from Notre Dame. It is not very big, but the interior, which is almost all stained glass from floor to ceiling, is amazing. It will take your breath away for sure.

The Saint Chapelle, which was built in the 1300s and is very popular, is small and requires visitors to go through security checks. This means that the line to get in can be long. So, I put it at the top of my list for the first thing you should do on your second day in Paris. You should get here early, preferably ten to fifteen minutes before the doors open. No one wants to spend their time waiting in lines, after all.

Sainte Chapelle is near Notre Dame, which is one of the most well-known cathedrals in the world. But in 2019, a terrible fire caused a lot of damage to Notre Dame, and the cathedral is now closed to visitors. So, while we still think it’s a good idea to walk by Notre Dame to get a look at it, it’s no longer on our list of things to do in Paris in a day.

You can climb the bell towers at Notre Dame, which gives you great views of the city and lets you see the famous gargoyles up close.

The next stop is the historic neighborhood of the Marais, which is an easy 20-minute walk from Notre Dame.

We eat lunch at noon in Montparnasse. People from Brittany, the home of the crêpe, used to live in this area. There are still many restaurants in this area that serve authentic crêpes and galettes, which are savory crêpes made with whole-meal flour.

From the Marais, take Metro line 4 to Edgar Quinet. From there, walk north on Rue Montparnasse and stop at any of the crêpe restaurants there for a real French meal. La Belle Ronde is one that I would recommend.

Take the Metro to Assemblee Nationale or Solferino, or the RER to Gare Musee d’Orsay, after lunch.

Even though the Louvre is Paris’s most famous museum, there are a number of other well-known art museums in the city as well. The Musee D’Orsay is also a great, world-class museum, but it is much easier to see in a couple of hours than the Louvre, which needs at least a day to do it justice.

The Musee D’Orsay has art from the Impressionist and Art Nouveau periods, which are two of the most important in French art history. Here, you can see masterpieces by artists like Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Van Gogh, to name just a few.

Next, you’ll go to Montmartre, the most famous neighborhood in Paris. Montmartre, where the Moulin Rouge once stood and where the artist and intellectual revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries took place, is still a major cultural hub today.

Take Métro line 12 to Abbessess and walk up the hill to the famous Place du Têt in Montmartre, stopping along the way to look at the white facade of Sacre Coeur Basilica. This is a great way to end a day in Paris.

TIP: Keep an eye out for pickpockets in the area. When I put my backpack down on the ground, it was taken from me. Even though it’s not dangerous here, you should still be careful.

In Place du Tetre, you can sit at a small table outside a café with an espresso and watch sketch artists try to sell their work.

You can’t have a full day in Paris without going to a traditional French restaurant. Since you are in the Montmartre neighborhood, walk a little further south to Chez Toinette.

It’s a little off the beaten path, but TripAdvisor says it’s a Traveler’s Choice. Anyone who’s eaten there will tell you how great the restaurant is.

Since the restaurant is small, you should make a reservation. Escargot, ravioli, duck, bourguignon, and/or foie gras are all good choices.

Going to the Eiffel Tower and having a picnic at the Bassins du Champ de Mars park is the best way to end the day.

From Chez Toinette, take line 12 from Abbesses to École Militaire, and then switch to line 8 at Concorde.

Get some cheese and maybe a bottle of wine at Carrefour City before you go to the park.

Find a spot on the grass to have a picnic and wait for the Illumination light show, which happens every hour on the hour after sunset and lasts for five minutes.

Or, as a tourist, you can go almost to the top. The observation platform at the very top is 276 meters above the ground, making it the highest public observation deck in Europe.

You don’t have to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower or even climb it at all to enjoy it. From the Champ de Mars gardens and the Trocadero on the other side of the Seine River, you can get great views of the tower. If you don’t have much time or aren’t really interested in the tower, you should come here instead. The view is nice.

Still, if this is your first time in Paris, you should go up inside the tower. You can go to all three floors, and the first two even have restaurants. If it’s close to mealtime, this is definitely an unusual place to eat in Paris!

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular places to visit in Paris, and if you want to go to the top, it’s a good idea to plan ahead. The lines for tickets at the venue get very long, so you should definitely buy tickets ahead of time.

On the official website, you can buy tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel tower. Prices vary depending on which level you want to go to and whether you want to take the elevator or stairs to the first floor. We really think you should buy your tickets ahead of time to save time. You can definitely get the best prices if you book directly on the website.

If you’d rather take a tour, we suggest this one with access to the second floor or this one with access to the top. The last time we checked, both of these can be canceled for free, which is something that official tickets can’t do.

With a Paris Pass, you can go up to the second floor with a guide. Most of the time, these run in the middle of the day. Check the official site for times to make sure they work with your schedule. The Paris City Card also gives you guided access to the second floor, and you can choose to go to the top if you want to.

Even if you have pre-booked tickets, you will still have to go through security screening, just like at all the other major Paris attractions.