Paris in 7 Days on a Budget: Cheap Day Trips
Seven days, and the seventh should not be a day trip at all
Seven days keeps the same six-day spine, settle in, Versailles, Chartres, Fontainebleau, Disneyland Paris, seasonal Giverny, and adds a seventh day built around one honest warning: Mont-Saint-Michel is not a day trip from Paris, budget an overnight instead, or take the closer Bayeux and D-Day beaches as a single long day. This is the full 3-day , 4-day , 5-day and 6-day spine, extended.
Book these before you go
- Versailles Palace timed entry slot, mandatory even with free admission, at chateauversailles.fr (Day 2).
- Compare budget stays in the Latin Quarter or Marais on Booking.com ; both sit close to the RER and train lines this itinerary uses.
- A dated Disneyland Paris 1-Park ticket on GetYourGuide (Day 5), or direct at disneylandparis.com ; Eco and Low tiers cost far less the earlier you fix a date.
- Confirm Giverny’s season and book a Giverny day tour on Viator (Day 6) if you’re visiting; the gardens are shut completely outside late March-early November.
- Day 7 is not a same-day add: book a D-Day beaches tour on GetYourGuide from Bayeux if doing it as one long day, or compare an overnight stay in Bayeux or Saint-Malo on Booking.com if you’d rather split it into two.
The 7-day route at a glance
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Paris | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Settle into Paris, free orientation | In the city | EUR0-15 |
| Day 2 | Versailles | 35-40 min (RER C) | EUR4.40 fare + EUR21 palace |
| Day 3 | Chartres | About 1 hr (TER) | EUR10-24 train, free cathedral |
| Day 4 | Fontainebleau | 40 min (Transilien R) + short bus | EUR5 train, EUR17 chateau |
| Day 5 | Disneyland Paris | 35-40 min (RER A) | EUR56-62+ ticket (Eco/Low tier), separate RER fare |
| Day 6 | Giverny (seasonal) | 45 min train + seasonal shuttle | EUR15 train, EUR5-10 shuttle, EUR13 garden |
| Day 7 | Bayeux/D-Day (or Mont-Saint-Michel overnight) | 2h15-2h30 by train (Bayeux); 4-4.5 hrs each way (Mont-Saint-Michel) | From EUR15 train (Bayeux) |
Day 1: Settle in without spending much
Morning: Load a Navigo Easy card, EUR2, at your first Metro station. It covers the flat EUR2.55 Metro-Train-RER fare and EUR2.05 Bus-Tram fare inside the city, but Versailles and Chartres both run on separate point-to-point fares, not this flat ticket, so budget those separately on their own days. Compare budget stays in the Latin Quarter or Marais on Booking.com ; both put you close to the RER C and the Montparnasse and Saint-Lazare stations you’ll use later.
Afternoon: Walk into Notre-Dame’s nave for free, no ticket needed since its 2024 reopening, then follow the Seine toward Le Marais.
Evening: A EUR18-28 formule (fixed two-course menu) is the standard budget dinner move; the couvert, a per-person cover charge, doesn’t exist in French dining, so the menu price is the price you pay.
Day 2: Versailles, the near-in gateway
Morning: RER C reaches Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche in 35-40 minutes from Left Bank stations, a separate Origin-Destination fare around EUR4.40 one-way, not the flat city ticket. Check current schedules at iledefrance-mobilites.fr . From the station it’s a 5-10 minute walk to the gates. Every visitor needs a timed Palace slot, mandatory even for free admission (under-18s, EU residents 18-25), so book that first at chateauversailles.fr .
Afternoon: Palace-only entry is EUR21; the Passport, adding the Trianon estate and gardens on Musical Fountains days, is EUR25 low season or EUR35 high season. The gardens themselves are free daily, 7am to dusk, even on the Palace’s Monday closure, so a garden-only visit costs nothing beyond the train fare.
Evening: Back to Paris for dinner. Closed Mondays, so swap this day with Day 3 if yours falls on one.
Day 3: Chartres, the cheapest real day trip
Morning: The TER regional train runs direct from Gare Montparnasse to Chartres, about an hour, roughly 18 trains a day. One-way fares start around EUR10-12, though a same-day round trip can run EUR32-48 if booked late; book ahead on sncf-connect.com for the cheaper fare tiers. The cathedral is a 10-minute walk from the station.
Afternoon: Cathedral entry is completely free, no ticket, no timed slot, the one genuinely free major sight in this entire family of day trips. The stained glass alone is worth the trip; a tower climb or crypt tour is a separate small paid add-on if you want it.
Evening: Chartres itself is a small town, so an easy lunch in the old town plus the cathedral fills a relaxed day rather than a rushed one. Head back to Paris by early evening.
Day 4: Fontainebleau, the cheap Versailles alternative
Morning: Transilien R runs from Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau-Avon in about 40 minutes, one-way fare around EUR5, then a short local bus (about 15 minutes) or a longer walk covers the final stretch to the chateau gates. Check the timetable at sncf-connect.com .
Afternoon: Chateau entry is EUR17, no mandatory timed slot the way Versailles requires, walk-up tickets are the norm here, and full details are at chateaudefontainebleau.fr . The gardens are free every day. It’s quieter and less grand than Versailles, fewer state rooms, but also a fraction of the crowd.
Evening: Back to Paris; no late finish needed, Fontainebleau is a relaxed half-day-transit, half-day-chateau trip.
Day 5: Disneyland Paris on a budget
Morning: RER A runs direct from central Paris (Chatelet-Les Halles or Gare de Lyon) to Marne-la-Vallee-Chessy in 35-40 minutes. This is a separate fare from the flat city ticket, buy a specific Chessy ticket or check whether your pass covers it before you board, the park ticket itself never includes the train. Book a dated Disneyland Paris ticket on GetYourGuide ahead of the gate price, or direct at disneylandparis.com .
Afternoon: 1-Park 1-Day tickets start around EUR56-62 on the cheapest Eco or Low date tiers, climbing well past EUR130 on Peak dates, so a flexible travel date is the single biggest lever on this day’s cost. Disney Adventure World, the March 2026 relaunch of the old Studios Park, now justifies a 2-Park ticket if you have the extra day; on a single-park budget day, Disneyland Park itself has the stronger ride lineup.
Evening: Skip the on-site hotels’ early-entry perk if the budget is tight, staying in Chessy, Val d’Europe or Bailly-Romainvilliers runs noticeably cheaper and still connects by RER A in under 15 minutes.
Day 6: Giverny, if the season cooperates
Morning: Monet’s garden at Giverny only opens late March through early November, confirm the current season at fondation-monet.com before you build a day around it. In season, a train from Gare Saint-Lazare to Vernon takes about 45 minutes, roughly EUR15 one-way, then a seasonal shuttle, Le Petit Train, EUR5 one-way or EUR10 return, or a taxi around EUR20, covers the last stretch into the village. Check availability for a Giverny day tour on Viator if you’d rather not manage the Vernon connection yourself.
Afternoon: Garden and house admission runs about EUR13, worth 1.5-2 hours minimum; go on a weekday morning if you’re travelling April through June, the busiest bloom window.
Evening: If your dates fall outside late March-early November, swap this day entirely, Fontainebleau’s gardens (Day 4) are open year-round, or spend a free afternoon at Pere Lachaise Cemetery back in Paris instead.
Day 7: the day that should not be a day trip at all
Morning: Mont-Saint-Michel is roughly 4-4.5 hours from Paris each way, whichever route you pick, the once-daily Train Nomade to Pontorson or Villedieu-les-Poeles, or a TGV to Rennes plus a connecting bus. Attempting it as a same-day round trip burns 8-9 hours in transit for a rushed couple of hours on the island itself. Don’t build this itinerary’s seventh day as a day trip to Mont-Saint-Michel; book a night there or in nearby Saint-Malo instead and treat it as an extension past this trip, not part of it.
Afternoon: The closer, genuinely single-day alternative is Bayeux and the D-Day beaches, a direct train from Paris Saint-Lazare in about 2h15-2h30, roughly 8 direct trains a day, one-way fares from about EUR15. Book a D-Day beaches tour on GetYourGuide departing from the station, covering Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. It’s still a long single day, an early train out and a late one back.
Evening: One honest gap to flag: the Bayeux Tapestry Museum is closed for renovation until October 2027, and the tapestry itself is on loan to the British Museum in London from September 2026. Don’t plan this day around seeing it in Bayeux this year. If an overnight fits the budget, compare stays in Bayeux or Saint-Malo on Booking.com and turn this into two unhurried days instead of one exhausting one.
Can Mont-Saint-Michel be done as a day trip from Paris on a budget?
Not comfortably, no. Round-trip transit alone runs 8-9 hours regardless of route, leaving only a few hours on the island itself, and the cheapest transport option doesn’t shrink that math. Budget an overnight in Saint-Malo or on the Mont itself instead, and treat it as an add-on trip rather than a seventh day inside this Paris-based itinerary.
Will you see the Bayeux Tapestry on a Bayeux day trip in 2026?
No. The Bayeux Tapestry Museum shut for renovation on 1 September 2025 and won’t reopen until October 2027, and the tapestry itself is on loan to the British Museum in London from September 2026. Go for Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery instead, and treat the tapestry as a reason to come back after 2027.
Keep every timed ticket for this trip as an offline screenshot, not just an email link; mobile signal at Versailles, Chartres and the smaller gateway stations is patchy enough to make a live QR code a real gamble.