Six departures leave from a named address in Paris with the journey inside the fare. Train, coach or minibus, an entry slot already held, and a guide who starts talking before you arrive. Here is what each shape buys, and when you would be better off making your own way out.
A departure that starts in Paris and includes the journey. You meet at a named address in the city, travel out by train, coach or minibus with a guide, go into the Palace on a slot somebody else booked, and come back. Six of the departures here work that way; the rest meet you at Versailles and leave the getting there to you.
Versailles is about 20 kilometres south-west of Paris and nothing on the Metro reaches it. That gap is the entire product.
Three suburban lines serve three different Versailles stations from three different Paris terminals, on tickets a Metro pass does not cover. On a morning with a timed entry slot at the other end, that is the part worth handing over.
Every one of these arrives with timed admission booked. You walk in with the group rather than joining the ticket queue, which on an April to October morning is the difference between an hour and ten minutes.
On the train departures the guide travels with you, and on the coach ones the briefing happens on the way out. By the time you reach the gates you already know what you are looking at.
Train from $75, coach from $135, air-conditioned minibus from $175, and hotel pickup from $175. They are genuinely different days rather than the same day at different margins.
Several end the guided section inside the Palace and hand you a return ticket with no time on it, so the gardens and the afternoon are yours. That is worth more than an hour of guiding.
Meeting at Versailles is cheaper, shorter and perfectly sensible if you are confident on the RER. What you give up is the morning: you buy your own ticket to the right station, you find a shop on Avenue du Général de Gaulle, and you do it to somebody else's clock.
Both shapes hold your entry slot. The difference is the two hours either side.
| From Paris | Meet at Versailles | |
|---|---|---|
| From | From $75 | From $82 |
| Transport | Train, coach or minibus, both ways | Yours to arrange |
| Meeting point | Central Paris, or your hotel | A shop or gate in Versailles |
| Length | 3 to 10 hours | 1 hr 30 min to 2 hr 30 min |
| Entry slot | Held for the group | Held for the group |
| Guide with you on the way | Yes, on the train departures | No |
| Return | Open ticket on several | You leave when you like |
| Best for | A first visit, or no appetite for the RER | Confident travellers, or a second visit |
Check availability — the guided train day from $75
You get: round-trip transport, timed Palace admission, a licensed guide for the State Apartments and, on most of them, garden access. On three of the six you are collected at your hotel.
You do not get: a meal. None of them includes food, and gratuities are excluded across the board.
You may not get the gardens guided. Several give you an introduction from the terrace and then free time, which is stated in the inclusions rather than hidden. It is also the right way round: the gardens reward wandering.
And most of them do not reach Trianon. Only the longer formats do, and the estate does not open it until midday. If Marie-Antoinette's estate is the point, read half day or full day before you book.
Price band: $75 to $198 per person.
Duration: three hours on the shortest, up to ten on a full-day coach
format.
Meeting points: Place de la Résistance, Avenue de Suffren, Cour de Rome,
Rue de la Convention, Boulevard de Vaugirard and Avenue de la Bourdonnais, or your own
hotel on three of them.
Booking window: a week in low season, two to three weeks from April to
October.
Best departure time: the earliest you can face. The first entry slot is
quieter, cooler and shorter-queued than anything after eleven.
If you are already staying in Versailles, or you are comfortable buying an RER ticket and walking ten minutes, do not pay for the transport. A departure that meets you at the gates costs from $82, holds the same entry slot and gives you the same guide inside. That is the honest answer for a confident traveller on a second visit.
If you want the whole estate rather than the building, none of these is quite it either. A bike day covers the Trianons, the Queen's Hamlet and the market in one, and it also includes the train. And if a fixed Paris meeting point at nine in the morning is the problem rather than the solution, a private car from your hotel removes it. A Palace of Versailles tour from Paris is the cheapest of the six; every departure is on Palace of Versailles Tours.
The cheapest guided day here, and the most reviewed. Meet at Place de la Résistance, ride out with your guide, ninety minutes inside the State Apartments, then the gardens on your own with an open return ticket.
From $75 per person
Two central Paris meeting points, RER out with a coordinator, and three hours at the estate covering the State Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors and an hour in the gardens. Capped at twenty travellers.
From $103 per person
The most flexible of the six: collected at your hotel in western Paris, met at a Paris point, or met at the estate itself. Half or full day, with a guided visit of ninety minutes to two hours inside.
From $175 per person
Round-trip coach from Avenue de Suffren, timed Palace entry and a licensed guide, with garden access including the Musical Gardens or Fountains Show from April to October. Half day or full day with the Trianon estate.
From $135 per person
An air-conditioned minibus from Avenue de la Bourdonnais and a group capped at sixteen during the guided visit, with headsets and admission to the Palace and gardens included. Four hours, door to door.
From $197 per person
Ten travellers or fewer, out from Cour de Rome by train, and the fullest itinerary of the six: the State Apartments, the gardens, the Trianon estate, the Queen's Hamlet and the Coach Gallery in four hours.
From $139 per person
About 20 kilometres south-west, and 35 to 60 minutes by train depending on the line. Nothing on the Metro reaches it, which is why so many departures sell the journey rather than just the ticket.
On the train departures, yes, both ways. The coach and minibus formats include their own vehicle instead, and three departures collect you at your hotel. Check the inclusions, because one listing excludes transport on its Express option.
Named addresses in central Paris: Place de la Résistance, Avenue de Suffren, Cour de Rome, Rue de la Convention, Boulevard de Vaugirard and Avenue de la Bourdonnais. Three of the six will collect you from your hotel instead.
Three to four hours on the half-day formats and up to ten on a full day. About ninety minutes of that is guided inside the Palace; the rest is the journey and the gardens.
On several of them, yes. The guided section ends inside the building and the return ticket carries no fixed time, so the gardens and the afternoon are yours. It is one of the better features of the train departures.
Most include garden access, and a few guide you round them. Between April and early November a garden ticket is needed on show days, and operators split on whether they bundle it — the inclusions say which.
The train is faster and cheaper and immune to traffic. The coach is more comfortable, drops you closer and suits anyone who would rather not change trains. On a hot day the air-conditioned minibus is the pleasant one.
You will very likely miss the tour, because the group enters on one timed slot and cannot wait. Read the joining instructions the night before and arrive fifteen minutes early rather than on the minute.