Dear Ben,
I'm coming to Paris with my family. We'll be staying in camping Paris Maisons-Laffitte and nearest RER station is in Maisons-Laffite. We'll be there for 3 to 5 days and will be visiting Paris every day. We'll be using public transport within Paris as well and we'll be visiting al major attractions as well as Paris Catacombes and La Petit Ceinture. We are arriving on Sunday evening and leaving Friday or Saturday.
Can you please advise me on which pass to buy for us? Is Navigo Découverte Travel Card (weekley) our best option (https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares/media/navigo-decouverte-travel-card)? And if so - we can buy it on Maisons-Laffite RER station, if they have them, right? If not - what is your suggestion?
Thank you very much for help!
Ana
1 answer
Hi Ana,
Yes, you're right that the Navigo Découverte week pass will be the best option for you and the family for Monday through Friday/Saturday, covering you for daily trips into Paris and out to any attractions in the area.
The Navigo passes should be available for purchase from the Maisons-Laffitte station and there should be two different windows to buy it from. Maisons-Laffitte is both a RER train and a Transilien train station, so larger than a normal RER station and much larger than a Metro staton.
There will be a ticket window for the Transilien trains (line J and line L) which is usually labeled as "Billets Paris et Ile-de-France". These ticket windows are the most likely to have plenty of blank Navigo passes for sale, even though all Metro/RER ticket windows are supposed to have blanks on hand as well (they just run out more often).
For your arrival on Sunday night, I'm assuming you'll only need to get to your camping site and not need further public transit that evening. If that's the case just buying/using single-use paper RER tickets will be the cheapest easiest option. On Sunday evening, if you happen to be arriving into Paris at one of the large train stations such as Gare Saint Lazare or Gare du Nord, etc., these major train stations are the best places to buy Navigo passes and you can purchase it on Sunday (even as early as the previous Thursday) for use Monday-Sunday. The major train stations have an abudance of ticket windows and lots of card blanks on hand. And the "Billets Paris et Ile-de-France" ticket windows in the major train stations are again the best place to check first for Navigo passes. (Here's a photo of a "Billets Paris et Ile-de-France" ticket window at Gare du Nord, for reference.)
Have a great trip.