My wife and I are arriving in Paris on 01/26/2024 and staying there until 02/01/2023. What would be our best option for metro pass considering we will be staying in the 9th district and getting from Charles du Galles Airport? We were considering buying each 3 one-day Navigo to use them Thursday 01/26/2024 until Sunday 01/28/2024 and then one weekly Navigo for Monday 01/29/2024 until 02/01/2024; instead of one 3-day Paris Visite and one weekly Navigo. Thank you.
1 answer
For the Monday-Thursday (Jan 29 - Feb 1) yes the Navigo Week pass is usually the easiest & best option.
For the Jan 26 - 28 (Fri - Sun), that is the hard part because it depends on where/what you want to do upon arrival and the following two days.
For arrival day, Friday Jan 26, I myself would get a single-use RER ticket to get from CDG into central Paris using RER B train (includes Metro transfers if you don't exit the system) and nothing else. (I usually don't have energy for lots of exploring after a day of flying.) If I had the energy to explore I'd just walk around the local area or use single-use Metro tickets if needed. If I arrived very early and had tons of energy and wanted to do tons of exploring after reaching the city centre, then a Navigo Day pass 1-5 zone would be a good option to cover both my CDG - Paris train and all Metro/bus/trams inside central Paris. I would get Navigo Day passes with 1-2 zone coverage for the following 2 days unless I needed to get out to zone 4 / zone 5 in the first days.
You can have a maximum of 2 Navigo day passes stored on your Navigo card at one time. You must specify the days they are active at purchase time. To add a third, you will have to recharge your Navigo after one of the Day passes has expired.
If you want to explore out to Versailles (zone 4), Disneyland/Chateau Vincennes/Fontainebleau (zone 5) in the first 3 days, then yes, getting several full 1-5 zone Navigo Day passes is the cheapest option for that coverage. The downside is you do have to return to an automated ticket vending machine or ticket window to recharge the Navigo for the 3rd Day Pass.
If you can put off doing the outer edge exploring till Jan 29+ (as your Navigo Week pass will automatically cover all 1-5 zones), then you can get away with the lowest zone coverage of 1-2 zone Navigo Day passes for the first days.
Finally, if you happen to have late-model Android phones you can put both single-use Metro tickets and Navigo passes (day or week) onto an official Paris transport tickets/pass app (like Ile-de-France Mobilites), giving you another option for the first 3 days which is getting a carnet ("booklet" of ten) single-use tickets, which is likely cheaper than getting 3 Navigo Day Passes, if it is enough to cover your travel needs. Sadly, single-use RER train tickets cannot be loaded onto the Paris transit mobile apps, so you would still need a paper ticket for that.
That's a lot of options to consider, so feel free to post another question if there's something else you're wondering / considering.