Versailles Palace Tour & Optional Gardens Access from Paris
Paris, France
- 6 hours (approx.)
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Explore the Palace of Versailles, without getting overwhelmed by its sheer size, on this group tour from Paris. Well-suited for first-timers looking for a streamlined experience, relax knowing the day's logistics and activities are all sorted for you. Enjoy an itinerary that includes visiting the Hall of Mirrors, Grand Apartments, State Rooms, and more.
- Relax with convenient round-trip coach transportation from Paris
- Go beyond the guidebooks and gain insights directly from your guide
- Choose to just visit the interior of the palace to suit your preferences
- Upgrade your experience to add on a visit to Giverny
Why Travelers Choose This Tour
This tour is perfect for those short on time who want the ease of transport and reserved access.
What's Included
- Palace of Versailles admission with reserved, timed entry
- Guided visit of the palace highlights, including the Hall of Mirrors
- Gardens of Versailles admission & free time (not included in Palace Only option)
- Easy round-trip transportation from Paris by air-conditioned coach
- Expert English-speaking guide and Audio headset for clear commentary throughout the visit
- Audio-guided visit of Claude Monet's House in Giverny [if Giverny Upgrade Option Selected]
- Free time in the village of Giverny [if Giverny Upgrade Option Selected]
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Gratuities
- Tickets to Le Hameau de la Reine, the Grand & Petit Trianon, La Galerie des Carrosses
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Église Notre-Dame de Compassion16 Pl. du Général Kœnig, 75017 Paris, France
Meet at Place du Général Kœnig, 75017 Paris beside the church at the intersection of the boulevard d'Aurelle de Paladines and the Avenue de la Porte des Ternes. The City Wonders representative (holding a City Wonders sign) will be standing on the right side when facing the Church.
End point
- Place de la Porte MaillotPl de la Pte Maillot, Paris, France
This service ends at Porte Maillot.
Itinerary
Head to the meeting point in Paris, where you'll see a City Wonders host with a sign and board your coach. Relax and take in the scenery during the drive to Versailles.
At the Palace of Versailles, enter with your reserved tickets. Explore several of the palace's highlights, such as the Royal Chapel and the Hall of Mirrors. Audio headsets are provided so you can hear your guide more clearly as they share stories about life as a royal.
Depending on your tour option, you may also have tickets to explore the Gardens of Versailles at your own pace. You can also upgrade to visit Giverny, the town that was once home to the famous painter Claude Monet. This option also includes tickets to visit the painter's former home.
Afterwards, board your coach for the return trip to Paris.
At the Palace of Versailles, enter with your reserved tickets. Explore several of the palace's highlights, such as the Royal Chapel and the Hall of Mirrors. Audio headsets are provided so you can hear your guide more clearly as they share stories about life as a royal.
Depending on your tour option, you may also have tickets to explore the Gardens of Versailles at your own pace. You can also upgrade to visit Giverny, the town that was once home to the famous painter Claude Monet. This option also includes tickets to visit the painter's former home.
Afterwards, board your coach for the return trip to Paris.
1
Palace of Versailles
1 hour 50 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
La Galerie des Glaces
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
The Royal Chapel
5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
The Royal Opera (Pass By)
4
Jardins du Chateau de Versailles
1 hour 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
5
Grand Canal
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
The Grand Trianon (Pass By)
Le Hameau De La Reine (Pass By)
I Trianons E Le Hameau (Pass By)
La Galerie des Carrosses (Pass By)
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- Clients traveling with young children whose security cannot be ensured by a seat belt shall bring their own child restraint system to ensure the safety of their child. Please note that our coaches aren’t equipped with ISOFIX anchor points and have limited availability for 3-point seat belts. By booking this tour, parents/guardians acknowledge these requirements and accept responsibility for ensuring their children are properly restrained.
- From November to March, garden access is free; no ticket required.
- Add a self-guided stroll through the Gardens of Château de Versailles designed by André Le Nôtre. From April to October, a garden ticket is required and included if selected.
- Choose the Full-Day Giverny & Palace of Versailles Combo for a guided tour of Versailles, followed by a visit to Claude Monet’s house and gardens in the afternoon.
- While your timed-entry ticket reduces wait time, brief delays at security and entrance lines may still occur, especially during peak season.
- Guests must return on their scheduled coach departure. Alternative return times or later transfers cannot be accommodated.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.1
based on 1,951 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Wonderful tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide. We learned so many interesting facts about the serval King Louis’ and Marie Antoinette. I highly recommend.
So glad we booked a tour for our visit to Versailles. There was good communication from the tour company and an easy coach trip from Paris. Our guide Mauro absolutely made the day - 10/10.
We had a good experience with Cleo. The bus departed on-time to and from Chateau de Versailles. The palace is beautiful, and the tour guide inside the palace is very informative. It is very big and could take an entire day or two to walk around. Nevertheless, we enjoyed spending time at the chateau within the allotted tour duration.
Not a great tour. Spent an hour in the very crowded palace and then was told we had 3 hours to explore the gardens on our own. Pretty sure no one in the group had stamina or wllingness to walk endless miles in the sun around the gardens for 3 hours. Most people sat on a bench for two hours waiting to leave. We also made thw mistake of adding Giverney to the tour which was Monet's home. Same problem. 3 hours to tour a house and gardens that everyone finished in 45 minutes. All told, a 12 hour trip that should have been done in 7 hours max with travel. Credit to the guides. They did their best.
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Hi Jeffrey,
Thank you for your detailed feedback.
We’re sorry the amount of free time at Versailles and Giverny did not meet your expectations.
We understand that spending several hours exploring the gardens can be tiring, especially in the sun.
We’ll share your comments with our team as we continuously work to improve the tour experience. We’re glad to hear our guides did their best to assist you.
Well organized and worthwhile tour. Our tour guide Mauro was extremely informative and had a great sense of humor. We had plenty of time for lunch and spend time in the garden.
I truly believe that your experience whether good or bad is based on the guide. Oomar was absolutely fantastic. He had so much to share but made it interesting and humorous. I highly recommend this tour from Paris to Versailles. The gardens are absolutely beautiful and the palace of this massive.
Oomar was a fantastic tour guide! Very attentive and did a fabulous job keeping us all together, even in the crowds!
The tour guide was very nice and had a great personality.She was very helpful.The tour inside took longer than expected and we did not get to see the gardens so that was disappointing
We booked a half day tour. The pick up was easy to find and Tatiana explained well the agenda of the day. Our driver was Thomas and it took just less than 40 minutes to arrive. Our tour guide for the palace was Omar who was fantastic. He remembered the names of our large group, had incredible knowledge and made the experience with his humour and historical information. I would recommend going with a tour guide for the palace entry and English translation. We had free time to explore the gardens after. The crowds were big but manageable.
My tour guide Omar was amazing, very knowledgeable!! Lots of walking so plan accordingly. Rent the row boat in the gardens.
The process was seamless and our tour guide Omar was so friendly and knowledgeable and really made the history interesting and entertaining.
Versaille is stunning! You could spend hours back in the garden & there is the cutest cafe…you can also rent boats to go out on the pond…
The trip was well organized. The guide was good. The audio system was one of the best that I have been on a guided tour for. The only downside was that, I thought there was a trip to Giverny included, but it was not.
I really enjoyed my experience at Versailles. Our guide Oomar (Omar) did a great job of explaining the art and what life was like at that time.
Excellent … very good experience with Cleo …. The autobús was perfect with air conditioning…. Everything was on time …. The guide lady was outstanding too
Would not recommend!! Its unfortunate that this tour is handled by parties who overprice and highjack the tickets.
I was 10 minutes late to the start of tour. I knew I was going to be late so I called the provider to let them know. Worst customer service ever. No grace period whatsoever and not willing to work with me!!! I called to let them know I was willing to meet them at the front gate and was willing to pay my own transportation instead. Mind you- I paid a total of 275$ for this tour and would only 10 be mins late. Ive booked with other 3rd parties (ie. Headout) who Ive seen has been more accomodating to their customers. Anywho - customer service was not willing to work with me at all or even give me my ticket! I went to the Jardin of Versailles through train which cost (2.55 €) and paid 15€ pp by the Dragon gate entrance which had no lineup. The garden was beautiful and I still got to spend the whole day there. I do recommend going to the garden but buying your tickets online! You will save so much more!!!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Dina_M,
We are sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the experience. We understand that being unable to join the tour after arriving 10 minutes late was frustrating, especially after you had contacted us to let us know you were delayed.
However, we would like to clarify how our group tours and timed entrance tickets work. This is a shared group tour, not a private tour, and the entrance tickets have a strict admission time. Once the group has checked in and the time to leave the meeting point has come, we cannot simply delay the tour or change the entry time for individual participants.
While we completely understand that delays can happen, waiting for late arrivals would mean potentially missing the scheduled entrance time and, consequently, preventing the guests who arrived on time from receiving the tour they paid for. It would not be fair to penalise the entire group for one or more late arrivals, and unfortunately, flexibility of this kind is not possible with this type of timed group tour.
The importance of arriving on time is clearly stated during the booking process, and our customers are also reminded multiple times before the tour that the meeting time is strict. We specifically recommend arriving at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to allow enough time to locate the meeting point, check in, and be ready for departure.
We are glad to hear that you were still able to enjoy the gardens independently, and we appreciate your feedback. We hope this clarification helps explain why our team was unable to make an exception on this occasion.
Great to go in the morning with a tour. Our guide Max was phenomenal. So knowledgeable. It was the best history lesson I have ever had.
Flor at city wonders was wonderful. The bus staff was great as well. Great experience and loved Versailles
Lili was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Cleo was very cool. The Palace has to be seen to be believed. It was crowded in August though. In the gardens the line for golf cart rental was crazy long. Took train instead. Overall would recommend tour.
Took half day tour from Paris to Versailles using City Wonders. We had to travel to the pickup location. It was then about a 35 minute bus ride to the site. The bus did not have a toilet and there were no public toilets in pickup area so be prepared, Our guide was very knowledgeable and spoke English but with an accent that made it difficult to follow her at times. The tour inside took about 90 minutes. You then had the choice to stay inside or visit the gardens on your own. The bus delivered us back to the pickup location. Versailles is crowded from midday on so recommend you take an early tour if possible. Toilet lines are consistently long for women on site. The shade is also limited which can be a problem on hot days.
Well organized tour with helpful and knowledgeable guides. Really enjoyed the tour guide, Eric, for the palace tour itself.
Martha was a great guide with lots of information about the house. Was very glad we chose the garden option as it was a beautiful day to go walking and see the fountains and stunning grounds. It was very busy so not really getting away from the bustle of Paris but worth a day trip.
Great time visiting the palace of Versailles! Our tour guide was a wealth of knowledge! The whole day was smooth, from meeting the bus to the guided tour. Highly recommend!
Transport to and from city center was easy and convenient. During the tour, we had to switch tour guides for an unrelated issue, however our guide for the second half was hard to understand and felt significantly lower in quality compared to our first. Our guide forced us out of the palace at the end of the tour stopping us from exploring on our own. The gardens part of the tour was self led so that was fine.
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Dear Dominic_T,
We are very sorry that the second half of your experience did not meet your expectations, and we apologize for any frustration caused by the guide change.
To clarify how this tour is conducted, our clients are transported from Paris together with a coordinator and are then organized into groups at Versailles to meet their official palace guide. Because the palace portion is a structured group guided tour, guests must remain with the group until the guided segment concludes.
We appreciate your feedback regarding the guide's quality and will address this with our team to ensure a better experience for future guests.
Great tour, the guide was friendly and informative. The guided tour consists of the palace, not the gardens, for which you buy a separate ticket when booking. You are left to explore the gardens on your own, and are given a map of the property. Some information on how to make the most of the garden tour would be helpful as things can be very crowded at peak tourist seasons and you’re juggling waiting for your meal with covering the grounds. As for Versailles itself, definitely a must see!
Lili was wonderful she answered all of our questions and guided us thru everything! Very recommended!
Our guide Helin was very knowledgable and guided us very well throughout the tour . The palace is beautiful and well kept. It’s surely a must see if you are visiting Paris.
A must do..most spectacular, we'll organised. Awesome tour guide Maxime. He was so informative and helpful
Our group of three was looking forward to this tour. The bus driver left before our tour guide and group got on the bus. Our tour guide, Tatyana, attempted contact with the driver and ended up arranging taxis for those left behind. She handled a stressful situation very well. Our big concern was not having enough time at the Palace and Gardens and having reliable transport back to Paris. We opted to cancel and were fortunate to work with City Wonders, who worked with Viator to get a refund.
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Dear Rondi_F,
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. Please accept our sincerest apologies for this experience; the behavior of the driver was completely unacceptable and does not reflect our standards.
We want to assure you that this was an isolated incident, and we have already addressed it directly with our bus supplier to ensure it does not happen again. We are very glad to hear that your guide, Tatyana, handled the stressful situation so well and looked after the group.
While we are deeply sorry that this impacted your plans, we are glad our team was able to work quickly regarding this matter. We hope to have the opportunity to provide you with the seamless experience you deserve in the future.
The gardens were massive and guide could have recommended what we could have done to give the best experience at the gardens. Very detailed tour of the palace
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up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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