Where to stay in Paris: five neighborhoods compared

Stay in the Marais on a first trip of three or four nights. Notre-Dame and Place des Vosges are on foot, and metro line 1 runs from the district's two stations to the Louvre, the Tuileries, Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe without a change. The Paris travel guide covers the sights and the France guide the wider route; this page settles the address. Saint-Germain suits a slower trip and has the direct airport train, Montmartre and the 11th cost less, and the 7th is the quiet choice near the Eiffel Tower.

Paris inside the ring road is compact, and the metro covers it densely, so the line under your hotel decides more than the distance on the map. Line 1 strings the main Right Bank sights together. RER B is the train from Charles de Gaulle airport and from Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar arrives, and RER C runs along the Left Bank to the Musée d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Versailles. Each area below sits on a different one of these.

The price bands, from $ to $$$, rank the areas against each other as a rough guide and are not room rates. Fix your dates before you compare hotels, because the Louvre is shut on Tuesdays and the Musée d'Orsay on Mondays; the three-day Paris itinerary shows which day goes where.

The Marais covers the old lanes of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements on the Right Bank, between the Hôtel de Ville and Place de la Bastille. Place des Vosges, an arcaded square, is at its eastern end. Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle are across one bridge on the Île de la Cité. Small galleries, falafel counters and clothes shops fill the streets between.

Line 1 is the reason to pay the rates here. From Saint-Paul or Hôtel de Ville it runs west to Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre, Tuileries, Concorde and Charles de Gaulle - Étoile under the Arc de Triomphe, and east to Bastille and Gare de Lyon. Châtelet is one stop from Hôtel de Ville, and that is where both airport routes come in: RER B from Charles de Gaulle stops at Châtelet - Les Halles, and metro line 14 from Orly reaches Châtelet in 25 minutes. Line 11 at Hôtel de Ville and line 8 at Chemin Vert add two more directions.

The cost is space and quiet. Many hotels here occupy old buildings, so ask about the room size and whether there is an elevator before you book. The lanes are crowded on weekend afternoons, and a room on a courtyard is calmer than one facing the street.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Latin Quarter share the Left Bank opposite the islands, in the 6th and 5th arrondissements. The district runs from the Seine up to the Luxembourg Gardens, with café terraces and bookshops along Boulevard Saint-Germain and the streets around the Sorbonne. Notre-Dame is across a bridge from the Latin Quarter, and the Louvre is over the river from Saint-Germain.

No other area here has a direct train from Charles de Gaulle. RER B stops at Saint-Michel Notre-Dame and at Luxembourg, so you step off the airport train inside the neighborhood. At Saint-Michel Notre-Dame the same station has RER C, which runs to the Musée d'Orsay, to Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel and out to Versailles; how to visit Versailles from Paris covers that ride. Metro line 4 at Odéon, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Michel goes north to Châtelet and Gare du Nord, and line 10 crosses the district from east to west.

Rates are as high as in the Marais, and the evening is quieter: dinner and a walk, with fewer late bars. For the airport train, book near Saint-Michel Notre-Dame or Luxembourg; for the café terraces, near Odéon.

Montmartre is the hill in the 18th arrondissement, north of the center, with the white Sacré-Cœur basilica on top and village-scale streets around Place du Tertre and Place des Abbesses. The basilica is free and opens every day from 6:30 to 22:30. Its dome, reached by 280 steps with no elevator, costs €8 and opens from 10:15 to 17:30. Pigalle and Blanche, at the foot of the hill on Boulevard de Clichy, are the nightlife strip.

Two metro lines serve it. Line 12 from Abbesses runs direct to Concorde, and to Solférino for the Musée d'Orsay. Line 2, at Anvers, Pigalle and Blanche, runs west to Charles de Gaulle - Étoile. Gare du Nord is close: Anvers station is under a kilometer west of it, so a Eurostar or airport arrival ends with a short taxi ride or one change of metro. RER B takes 25 to 30 minutes from Charles de Gaulle to Gare du Nord.

Every museum day starts with a metro ride, and the hill is steep. Streets near the top have long flights of stairs, hard work with a suitcase; the basilica's step-free entrance is at the back, at 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre. Book near Abbesses for the village side, and expect noise until late on the streets closest to Pigalle.

The 11th arrondissement lies east of the Marais, between Place de la République and Place de la Bastille. It has few monuments and a great many places to eat and drink: small bistros, wine bars and the late bars of Rue Oberkampf. Its room rates sit a band below the Marais next door.

The metro is dense. Line 5 comes straight down from Gare du Nord to Oberkampf, Richard-Lenoir and Bastille, which makes the arrival simple from the Eurostar or from RER B. Bastille also has line 1, the line to the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, and line 8; République has lines 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11. From Orly, line 14 reaches Gare de Lyon in 23 minutes, one stop on line 1 from Bastille.

You give up sights at the door. The Marais is a walk west, and everything else is a ride. Bars on and around Rue Oberkampf stay busy late on weekends, so pick a side street if you sleep lightly, and look toward Bastille for the line 1 connection.

The 7th arrondissement is the Left Bank district of wide avenues between the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d'Orsay. The Champ de Mars, the long lawn at the foot of the tower, is its park, and Rue Cler is its pedestrian market street. Families choose it for the space and the early nights, and for the tower in view at the end of the street.

Line 8, at École Militaire and La Tour-Maubourg, runs direct to Concorde, République and Bastille. RER C stops at Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel and Invalides and continues to the Musée d'Orsay and Saint-Michel Notre-Dame. Neither airport line reaches the district: from Charles de Gaulle, take RER B to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame and change to RER C in the same station.

Evenings are quiet, with few late bars. The Marais, Montmartre and the 11th are each a ride away, so the 7th suits a trip with early starts more than late nights. Rates are in the top band.

Every adult pays a tax for each night of a stay in Paris, on top of the room rate. The amount depends on the star rating of the lodging and is the same in every arrondissement. The host collects it at the time of the stay, so it can appear as a separate line when you check out even if the room was prepaid.

The City publishes the 2026 rate sheet and runs a tourist tax site with a calculator. Two adults in a 4-star hotel for three nights pay 2 × 3 × €8.45, or €50.70; in a 3-star the same stay costs €33.18.

Apartments without a star rating are taxed differently, and the result can be higher than a hotel's. The rate sheet sets their tax at 5% of each person's share of the nightly price before tax, plus the same departmental and regional additions the hotels carry, up to a ceiling of €15.93. With the additions the total comes to 16.25% of that share. An unrated apartment at €180 a night for two adults is therefore taxed at €14.63 per adult per night, against €8.45 in a 4-star hotel. Tourist taxes in Europe sets Paris beside Amsterdam and Barcelona.

Charles de Gaulle and Orly each have one rail link worth knowing, and both use the same ticket. RER B runs from Charles de Gaulle through Gare du Nord, Châtelet - Les Halles, Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, Luxembourg and Denfert-Rochereau, every 10 to 20 minutes on weekdays. Metro line 14 runs from Orly to Gare de Lyon and Châtelet every 2 to 5 minutes. The two direct airport buses have changed: Orlybus stopped on 3 March 2025, and RoissyBus has been replaced by bus 9517, which ends at Saint-Denis Pleyel on line 14.

Details are on Paris Aéroport's pages for RER B and metro line 14. Tickets are sold in digital form only, loaded onto a phone or a Navigo Easy card, so there is no paper ticket to buy from a window. The airport operator also notes major works on RER B during 2026; look at its traffic page the day before you fly.

On the trains, follow the UK government's travel advice for France. It says thieves and pickpockets work the Paris metro, the RER lines and the mainline stations, often in teams where one person distracts you, and it reports several cases of serious assault on RER line B. It advises carrying your bag across your body and keeping your passport and cards in separate bags or pockets.

Before you fly, set up an eSIM for Europe so the ticket app works on arrival, and choose travel insurance with theft cover. Travelers from outside the EU should read EES explained for the border step at the airport. For days out of the city, the Giverny day trip, Fontainebleau and Reims all work from any of the five areas.