Queue jumping ??

Going to Paris at the end of May. Wondered if anyone knew if you could buy tickets for the main sights in advance to avoid having to wait on the day ? Only going to have 2 and a bit days in the City and don%26#39;t want to waste any precious time !

Also, what kinds of travel passes are available - how much do they cost and where do you buy them from ?

Thanks.

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you can get a museum and monuments pass (available for 1, 3 or 5 days) and it will allow you to skip lines in most places and if you plan on visiting a few museums it will save you money too. you can search the forum for more information.. there are plenty of posts about it.

by travel passes do you mean like metro passes ?

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Yes - underground, train or bus passes.

Not sure about the different transport systems available. Looking for info on the best priced and most reliable service.

Thanks.

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By the way, I bought the Paris Museum Pass (as well as the similar London Pass) and there was rarely a seperate line/entrance that I could just walk right up, as I was informed. It was rather awkward for me.

The Paris Pass worked quite well for me at Versailles as there was a seperate entrance (though if you wanted a headset I was informed you had to wait into the main line for that?!?)

At the Louvre, I went in thru the Richelieu entrance underground and there wasn%26#39;t a line anyway. No line with Musee D%26#39;Orsay either. So both places I was able to just walk in and show them the card as I walked past. So that was quite nice. But at the Pantheon, there was a large, wide line that was jutting out of the double doors. I guess technically I could have said %26quot;excuse me%26quot; and wedged myself thru the masses and walked up to the single ticket taker, cut in front of the person at the front of the line, to show them my pass. But I got the feeling that wouldn%26#39;t go over so well with the others in line. As I did something similar at St Paul%26#39;s Cathedral in London with not such favorable response. As again, there was only a single person at the entrance taking money/tickets. This was the first %26#39;attraction%26#39; I tried using my pass with and I was expecting a %26#39;seperate line%26#39; or at the very least another person standing there to show my pass. But there wasn%26#39;t. So I tried to get the attention of the ticket taker as the long line of people wouldn%26#39;t let me talk to her. Instead I got the attention of security. Who informed me that he didn%26#39;t care if I had a pass, I had to get to the end of the line along w/ everyone else. I kept questioning %26quot;don%26#39;t I bypass the lines w/ this pass?%26quot; and his only response was %26quot;They got your money, we haven%26#39;t gotten theirs. .get at the end of the line.%26quot;

So basically the only way the passes allowed me to jump to the front of the lines were when the entrance and the ticket counter weren%26#39;t the same thing.

Maybe others had better experiences or the %26quot;secrets%26quot;, but that was my experience.

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I am far from an expert on Paris, but just returned on March 28th following Easter weekend there. The lines were so long (at least a 2 hour wait) at the tower and at Versaille (for the State Apartments) that we opted to skip going up to the top of the tower and just visited the gardens of the Palace, took the horse and carridge ride around the grounds, went on the lake in a rowboat, etc. Next time, we will try to schedule a tour for each as our feeling was going with a guided group gets you in much quicker. I would also book a dinner cruise at night next time. We took an evening cruise to see the city illuminated, but I think the dinner cruise would have been wonderful.