4-Day Paris Itinerary

By /

After spending some time in London, we continued our first Europe trip with four days in Paris.

Paris had been high on our travel bucket list for years, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Between the historic landmarks, incredible food, beautiful architecture, and charming neighborhoods, we found ourselves constantly stopping to admire the city.

We packed a lot into our visit, including the Louvre, Versailles, Notre-Dame, Montmartre, and a dinner cruise on the Seine. While four days wasn’t enough to see everything, it gave us enough time to experience many of Paris’s highlights while still leaving room to wander and enjoy the city.

If you’re planning your first trip to Paris, here’s the itinerary we followed, along with a few additional recommendations we’d include if we visited again.

Itinerary at a Glance

Day 1: Notre-Dame & the Latin Quarter

  • Notre-Dame Cathedral
  • Sainte-Chapelle
  • Île de la Cité
  • Latin Quarter

Day 2: The Louvre, Eiffel Tower & a Seine River Cruise

Day 3: Versailles & Le Marais

Day 4: Montmartre

  • Sacré-Cœur Basilica
  • Place du Tertre
  • Optional: Paris Catacombs

Things to Know Before Visiting Paris

A few things we learned that made our trip easier:

  • Watch out for common tourist scams, especially around major attractions and train stations. If someone approaches you offering a gift, bracelet, or petition, politely keep walking.
  • Credit cards are accepted almost everywhere.
  • Tipping isn’t expected, though leaving 5–10% for exceptional service is appreciated.
  • Free drinking fountains and public restrooms can be found throughout the city.
  • Download the Next Stop Paris app to help navigate public transportation.
  • Look for boulangeries labeled artisanale for some of the best pastries and bread.
  • Emergency services number: 112.

Where to Stay

We stayed at a hotel near the airport to save money, but we wouldn’t recommend it. While the hotel itself was nice, we spent a significant amount of time commuting into the city each day, which cut into our sightseeing time.

Instead, we’d recommend staying in the 1st, 4th, 5th, or 6th arrondissements. These centrally located neighborhoods put many of Paris’s top attractions within walking distance, and they’re well connected by the Metro, making it easy to explore the rest of the city.

You can check hotel reviews, prices, and availability in each neighborhood below:

Day 1: Arriving in Paris and Exploring Notre-Dame

After arriving in Paris and checking into our hotel, we headed straight toward the historic center of the city.

Our first stop was Notre-Dame Cathedral. During our visit, the cathedral was still closed while repairs continued following the 2019 fire, so we were only able to admire it from the outside. Even so, seeing one of the world’s most famous cathedrals in person was impressive.

Today, visitors can enter Notre-Dame again, so if you’re planning a trip now, we’d definitely recommend going inside.

Just a short walk away is Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic chapel famous for its incredible stained-glass windows. 

From there, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Île de la Cité and the nearby Latin Quarter. This ended up being one of our favorite areas of Paris. The narrow streets, cafés, bookstores, and historic buildings made it the perfect place to spend our first evening in the city.

That night, we enjoyed dinner and drinks before heading back to the hotel to rest up for a busy day ahead.

📍Notre-Dame Cathedral
📍Evening on the Seine River, with the Eiffel Tower shining in the background

 

Highlights

  • Notre-Dame Cathedral
  • Sainte-Chapelle
  • Île de la Cité
  • Latin Quarter
  • Place Saint-Michel

Day 2: The Louvre, Eiffel Tower & a Seine River Cruise

We started the morning with pastries from BO&MIE before joining a guided tour of the Louvre. We were blown away by how good the quiche was. In fact, we loved it so much that we ended up having quiche every day we were in Paris. 

The Louvre is enormous and the crowds can be overwhelming, so we highly recommend booking a guided tour. Having a guide helped us understand the stories behind many of the museum’s most famous works and made the experience much more enjoyable than trying to navigate it on our own. 

After the tour, we took a short walk through Palais Royal and the nearby Tuileries Garden before picking up some sandwiches and macarons from a local boulangerie and patisserie.

We took our lunch to the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed one of the most iconic picnic spots in the world.

Afterward, we walked over to Place du Trocadéro for some of the best views of the Eiffel Tower before walking along the Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe.

In the evening, we finished the day with a dinner cruise on the Seine. Seeing Paris illuminated at night from the river was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip.

📍Venus de Milo in the Louvre
📍Views of the Eiffel Tower from Place du Trocadéro
📍Arc de Triomphe

Highlights

  • Louvre Museum
  • Palais Royal
  • Rue Montorgueil
  • Eiffel Tower
  • Place du Trocadéro
  • Champs-Élysées
  • Seine River dinner cruise

Day 3: Versailles, Le Marais & a Food Tour

We dedicated our third day to exploring the Palace of Versailles, which ended up being our favorite stop of the entire trip.

We strongly recommend visiting with a guide (this is the guided tour we did). Learning about the history of the palace and the French monarchy made the experience much more meaningful than simply walking through the rooms on our own.

While the palace itself is incredible, some of our favorite parts were actually the gardens. If your schedule allows, we highly recommend staying after your tour to continue exploring before heading back to Paris. The gardens are massive, and it was nice to slow down and enjoy them after touring the palace.

Once we returned to the city that afternoon, we joined a food tour in Le Marais, one of Paris’s most vibrant neighborhoods. We loved this experience, and we’d recommend it to almost anyone visiting the city. 

We sampled cheese and wine at Marché des Enfants Rouges, tasted incredible local chocolates and pastries, and even tried escargot for the first time alongside fresh French bread. Beyond the food itself, we loved exploring neighborhoods we probably wouldn’t have discovered on our own. 

📍The palace of Versailles
📍The gardens outside the palace
📍The oldest standing apartment building in Paris, which we walked past on our food tour

Highlights

  • Palace of Versailles
  • Versailles Gardens
  • Le Marais
  • Marché des Enfants Rouges
  • Paris food tour

Day 4: Montmartre & the Catacombs

We spent our final morning exploring Montmartre, one of Paris’s most charming neighborhoods.

We wandered through Place du Tertre, where artists display and sell their work, before visiting Sacré-Cœur Basilica, which offers some of the best views in the city.

Since we had an afternoon flight, this was all we had time to fit into our final day. If your schedule allows, we’d also recommend visiting the Paris Catacombs for a completely different side of the city. Afterward, take a stroll through the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens before wrapping up your time in Paris.

📍Views of Sacré-Cœur Basilica
📍Views of Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Highlights

  • Montmartre
  • Place du Tertre
  • Sacré-Cœur Basilica
  • Paris Catacombs
  • Luxembourg Gardens

Final Thoughts

Four days gave us enough time to experience many of Paris’s biggest highlights while still leaving room to explore beyond the major tourist attractions.

Between the incredible museums, historic landmarks, beautiful neighborhoods, and unforgettable food, Paris exceeded our expectations.

While there are still plenty of places we’d love to see on a future trip, this itinerary felt like a great introduction to the city and offers a well-rounded mix of history, culture, food, and iconic Paris experiences for first-time visitors.

Scroll to Top