Three of the departures at Versailles run as a private tour. The car carries your party, the guide is a professional art historian, and on two of them the day starts at your hotel door. Here is what that buys, what it does not, and who is better off in a group of twelve.
A car, a guide and your own party. Nobody else is collected, nobody else sets the departure, and there is no meeting point to find in a city you do not know. Three of the departures here state it in their own activity facts: this is a private tour, only your group will participate.
The estate at the other end is the same estate. What you are buying is the four hours around it, and at Versailles those hours are where most of a day gets lost.
Two of the three collect you at your Paris hotel in an air-conditioned car and take you back to it. A join-in departure meets at one address in central Paris and nowhere else, and you get yourself there for a fixed time.
Nothing waits for a group to re-form, and nothing moves you on. Travellers on these listings write about guides reshaping the day around a party that wanted to go faster, and about being able to stand still in a room while the rest of the building queues past.
Both hotel-pickup departures say so, and one of them says it twice. On a building with 2,300 rooms and 350 years of politics in them, that is a different product from a headset and a route.
The Place d'Armes is cobbled, the car parks fill, and the walk in from the wrong one is fifteen minutes. A driver who does this daily parks close to the entrance, and travellers name it as the reason four hours goes further than it should.
Nearly all of these departures state plainly that they are not wheelchair accessible. One private tour states the opposite: wheelchair accessible, with transport that is too. If that is your requirement, it is not a preference — it is the only private option there is.
A small group is the honest middle. It caps the numbers at ten to sixteen, keeps a minibus or a train ride and costs a quarter to a third of a private day. What it does not give you is your own door, your own clock or a guide who is only talking to you.
Every fare here is quoted per person, so a private booking for four costs four times the figure rather than a car split four ways.
| Private | Small group | |
|---|---|---|
| From | From $567 to From $613 | From $139 to From $197 |
| Who travels | Only your party | Ten to sixteen travellers |
| Where it collects you | Your Paris hotel, or Place d'Armes | One fixed Paris meeting point |
| Departure | Arranged with the operator | Published, and it leaves on time |
| Hours | 4 to 4 hours 30 minutes | 4 hours |
| Guide | A local professional art historian | A local guide, with headsets |
| Pace inside | Yours | The group's |
| Wheelchair accessible | One of the three states that it is | None of them |
| Infant seats | Available on two | Not offered |
Check availability — the tailored private day
You get: a car from your door and back, a professional guide to your party alone, a pace you set, all fees and taxes inside the fare, and infant seats if you ask for them at booking. Two of the three list admission itself in their inclusions; the third lists the guide, the car and the fees, so check that line before you book.
You do not get: a discount as the party grows. Every fare here is quoted per person, which makes a private day for four the most expensive way to see Versailles by a wide margin.
You also do not get: a meal. Food and drink are excluded on two of the three, and gratuities on all of them.
And you do not get the Trianon estate. All three run four to four and a half hours, which covers the Palace and the gardens and stops well short of the Grand Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet. Those open at midday and sit a kilometre and a half further out.
Price band: $567 to $614 per person.
Duration: four hours, or four and a half on the Versailles-meeting
option.
Booking window: one listing confirms within 48 hours rather than
instantly, so do not leave it to the night before.
Languages: between them, English, French, Spanish, Italian, German,
Russian and Portuguese — confirm which when you book, because it decides which guide
is assigned.
Season: any. A private car is worth most in July and August, when
everything else about the estate is hardest.
Most people, honestly. If you are two adults staying in central Paris and you can find Place de la Résistance on a map, you will see the same rooms, hear a comparable guide and walk the same gardens for an eighth of the fare. The departures from Paris are the better buy by a wide margin.
If your reason for coming is the Queen's Hamlet, do not book any of these — four hours does not reach it, and a bike day does. If you are counting the cost of the trip at all, a private tour Versailles palace costs less than a tenth of this and puts you in the Hall of Mirrors on the same morning. Every departure, private and join-in, is on Palace of Versailles Tours.
Meets you at Place d'Armes rather than in Paris, with private transport once you are there and four and a half hours across the Palace, the Hall of Mirrors and the gardens. It is the one departure here that states it is wheelchair accessible, transport included.
From $613 per person
Collected at your Paris hotel in an air-conditioned car, with a local art historian for four hours and tickets, fees and taxes all inside the fare. Infant seats are available if you ask at booking, which makes it workable with very small children.
From $567 per person
A car from your door, a guide who knows where to park, and four hours shaped around what your party actually wants to see. An hour in the State Apartments, a quarter of an hour in the Hall of Mirrors and three quarters in the gardens, at your own pace.
From $584 per person
The vehicle carries your party and nobody else, the guide is talking only to you, and the departure time is agreed rather than published. Three of the departures here state private tour in their own activity facts.
$567 to $614 per person against $75 to $200 for a join-in departure. Because every fare is quoted per person, a party of four pays four times the figure rather than sharing one car fare between them.
No. You see the same State Apartments and the same Hall of Mirrors as everyone else; no fare on this estate opens a door that a standard ticket does not. What it buys is time, pace and the removal of every logistic.
Two of the three do, in an air-conditioned car, and return you to it afterwards. The third meets you at Place d'Armes in Versailles, so you make your own way out and the private part starts at the gate.
One of the three states that it is, and that its transport is too. The other two state that they are not. If accessibility is the requirement, that one listing is the only accessible private option.
No. All three run four to four and a half hours, which covers the Palace and the gardens. Marie-Antoinette's estate opens at midday and sits half an hour's walk further out, so it needs a longer booking.
A week is comfortable, and one listing confirms within 48 hours of booking rather than instantly. Every one of them refunds in full up to 24 hours before the start, so booking early costs nothing.
Within the four hours, yes — that is what tailored means on two of these listings, and guides do reshape the day around a party that wants to move faster or slower. Say what you want in the message thread before the day.