Hi Ben. During the Olympics we'll be staying by Val d'Europe station. We need to commute between Zone 5 and Zone 1 and only plan to take RER twice per day (to get to zone 1 then back to our hotel) but plan on just walking around once we get into the city centre. Should we buy Paris 2024 Day Passes or single trip tickets? Which will be more economic? Thanks.
(I ask because I don't know if the RER ticket price cap will increase from 5€ during the games.)
1 answer
It's a good question.
The price cap for RER tickets will increase during the Paris 2024 Olympics from 5€ to 6€ so your daily return trip ticket price from Val d'Europe to anywhere in Paris transport zone 1 would be 12€ (6€ x 2).
Since you're planning on walking around central Paris after arriving, and the cost of the Paris 2024 pass is 16€ for a single day, I would recommend you go with single RER tickets if you're doing this for 4-days or less.
If you're repeating this daily round trip from Zone 5 to Zone 1 for five days in a row or more, then I would recommend getting the Paris 2024 pass since the cost of the pass reduces the more days your purchase. For example, buying a 5-day Paris 2024 pass the cost is 60€ or 12€/day, the same cost as using two single RER tickets per day for 5 days.
Note that when you buy multiple days for a Paris 2024 pass, say 5 days, the pass will be active for a consecutive 5-day period starting from first validation in a turnstile / fare-gate. Whether you ride the RER/Metro/etc. a hundred times a day or zero times a day, the validity period of the Paris 2024 pass will end at midnight on the 5th day. For example if you buy the Paris 2024 pass on July 30, first use the pass on a bus on August 1 at 5pm, the pass will expire at 11:59:59 pm on August 5.
Hope this helps. Enjoy your stay.