Seventy-five dollars covers the return train, the timed entry ticket and a guide for ninety minutes.
You travel out as a group with your guide, which is the leg most first-timers get wrong alone.
The King's rooms, the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen's Apartments, in the order the route runs them.
The guided part ends inside, and there is no fixed return time on your ticket home.
Large enough to run every day, small enough that the headsets are not the only way to hear.
This is the Versailles day most people take, and the reason is the arithmetic. Seventy- five dollars buys your return train, your entry ticket and an hour and a half with a guide. Arranged yourself you would still pay the RER fare and the Passport, and then work out the line, the platform and the timed slot on a morning you have never done before.
What the fare is really buying is the joining-up. You meet at Place de la Résistance, you ride out with the group, you walk over together, and you go in at a time somebody else booked. By the time you are standing under Le Brun's ceiling you have made no decisions at all, which on a first visit is worth more than the money.
Then it lets you go. The guided section ends inside the building and your return ticket has no time on it, so the gardens, the Grand Canal and the rest of the afternoon are yours. If you would rather have the whole estate handed to you instead, a Palace of Versailles tour from Paris that runs the full day covers the Trianon estate as well.
It is your first visit, you want the Palace explained rather than walked through, and you would rather someone else dealt with the train. It is the strongest value on the estate and it works well solo — you go out with a group and get your afternoon back.
You want the Trianon estate and the Queen's Hamlet, which open at midday and are half an hour's walk beyond the gardens. Ninety minutes inside plus a train home does not reach them. The bike day does, comfortably, and covers the whole 800 hectares in one go.
Place de la Résistance in the 7th arrondissement, by the Seine, with a second option that meets you at Versailles itself if you would rather make your own way out. Whichever you pick, the meeting point is on your voucher and it is the thing to check the night before rather than on the morning.
Take that seriously here. Whole groups have turned up at the wrong point on the morning, and the departure runs to the clock because the entry slot at the other end does not move. Fifteen minutes early solves it entirely.
Yes, round-trip tickets from Paris to Versailles are in the fare, except on the Express option where you make your own way. Worth knowing that it is an ordinary commuter service rather than an outing in itself, if you picked this one for a child.
About ninety minutes with the guide, through the State Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen's rooms. Add the walk from the station and the gardens afterwards and the day runs three to three and a half hours.
No. You get an introduction from the terrace and then free time in the gardens, which is the right way round for most people — they are better wandered than led. Your return ticket carries no fixed time, so take as long as you like.
Yes, and it is the best thing about this booking. The return train ticket has no fixed time, so the Grand Canal, the groves and the whole afternoon are yours. Just note the gardens close at 8.30pm in summer and 6.00pm in winter.
No. The Trianon estate opens at midday and sits half an hour's walk beyond the gardens, so a three-hour morning cannot include it. If that is what you came for, the bike day covers the Hamlet, both Trianons and the Palace in one.
It is 4.4 across 4,422 reviews, which is far more feedback than anything else on departure carries. The recurring complaints are the pace inside and confusion over the meeting point, and both are worth knowing before you book.
The guide knew the estate and the families who lived in it, and that is what made the morning. He told it as a story rather than a list of dates. The accent only added to it.
Leslie L. · August 2026
Palace of Versailles and gardens tour from Paris · Guided train out, free time in the gardens
A good group tour if you are travelling on your own. Catherine was knowledgeable and easy to be around, and the train out and the walk over were part of the pleasure. The guided part ends inside, so the gardens are yours afterwards.
Kathy C. · August 2026 · solo
Palace of Versailles and gardens tour from Paris · Guided train out, free time in the gardens
Easy meeting point, and riding out with a guide then being left with no fixed return time was the right way round for us. Melanie was patient with small children and knew her material.
Laura T. · August 2026 · family
Palace of Versailles and gardens tour from Paris · Guided train out, free time in the gardens
If this one is not yours, the other two featured days are these. The whole estate by bicycle, market and Queen's Hamlet included; a car from your hotel door and an art historian for four hours.
All of them, with prices and hours side by side, are on Palace of Versailles Tours.