Driving through Paris is not a good idea because of the very impenetrable traffic during mornings and afternoons. Traffic is really heavy mostly during rush hours. You will also find a hard time parking your car especially in the areas surrounding points of touristic attention. Majority of Parisians do not own cars and the roads were designed long before cars were invented. The design of the city’s street system makes people confused and even worsens the situation. If you persevere to drive around the city, be sure you brought a guide along.

It is not recommended to drive in the Paris Metro Area. It is rather convenient driving to a suburban train station and park your car then use the train to go on with your trip all over Paris. Driving may be advisable during evenings but parking difficulties never change. Driving may be a fine alternative when visiting some sights in the suburbs such as Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fontainebleau castle.

Paris has numerous beltway systems. The boulevards were named after Napoleon’s era and jointly referred to as boulevard des maréchaux. These boulevards are standard wide avenues with traffic lights and road signs. There is also freeway-style beltways located outside the boulevard; it is referred to as the boulevard périphérique. The inner lane, which is in clockwise direction, is called périphérique intérieur. The outer lane, which is on a counter-clockwise direction, is called périphérique extérieur. Remember that the périphérique is not an auto route, there is an 80 speed limit and sometimes incoming traffic has the right of way.

There are quite a few auto routes that links Paris with the rest of France. These are A1 and A3 to the north, A5 and A6 to the south, A4 to the east and A13 and A10 to the west. As usual, traffic jams are radically worse during French school break. As mentioned earlier, the multi-lane highway (Périphérique) around Paris is the most preferred route to drive through the centre. Another beltway called L’A86, still in the process of completion, circles around Paris at about 10 kilometers further out from the Périphérique. Another incomplete beltway, called N104 (La Francilienne), is much further out.

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There is convenience in taking the train to Paris since it is well associated to the rest of Europe. There’s no common station serving Paris, there are six dissimilar stations that are not connected to each other. It is important to be acquainted to what station you will be arriving for you to have a better choice in picking hotels, restaurants and transportation within the city.

Gare d’Austerlitz – this station caters regular trains to and from the center and southwest of France, Spain and Portugal and those arrival of majority night trains.

Gare de I’Est – this station caters trains to and from Luxembourg, Germany, Basel and Zurich in Switzerland.

Gare Montparnasse – this station caters regular trains to and from the west and south-west of France.

Gare du Nord – this station caters trains to and from Belgium, Netherlands, Cologne, Germany and United Kingdom and regular trains from Northern Europe.

Gare de Lyon –this station caters  trains to and from Southern and eastern France and Switzerland.

Gare St Lazare – this station caters trains to and from Basse-Nomandie and Haute-Normandie.

There are also numerous kinds of high speed and normal trains.

TER (Regional trains): TER is sluggish, and stops at almost every station.

Corail Intercité – operates in a normal day. Its route is to and from most cities in France. This is the most excellent choice if you want to arrive to all destinations in France. If you have Eurail pass, these are the trains you’ll find yourself and doesn’t make you pay extra for reservations.

Corail Lunéa – same with the Corail Intercité but it travels during night.

TGV – These are the world-famous French high-speed trains. It travels very often to the Southeast areas.

Thalys – These are high-speed train service running daily to and from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. These are expensive trains compared to the normal ones but may avail cheaper if you buy it in advance.

Corail Téoz – same as Corail Intercité but you need to have a reservation.

Eurostar – it provides connection from Paris to London directly and Brussels indirectly. It also includes other destinations from various west European rail services but also indirectly. The estimated travel time from Paris to London is 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Intercity – trains that leaves all parts of Europe including trains that travels overnight to Spain and Portugal.

The French National Railway Authoriy (SNCF) operates all trains within France apart from Eurostar to London and the Thalys to Brussels and onward to the Netherlands and Germany. Moreover, there are few well engrossed individual who owned local lines privately. The tickets for SNCF, Eurostar and Thalys can be bought in railway stations, travel agencies and city offices. You can also book and buy in advance through the SNCF website. In this way, you can avail discounts depending on how early you booked your ticket. There are also limited choices of last minute trips that are published in the SNCF website during Tuesdays which are discounted 50% or more.

Arriving at a Paris station? See how to get around with our Paris metro tickets and passes guide.

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Paris is served by three international airports, namely Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Orly International Airport and Beauvais.

Charles de Gaulle International is the foremost hub airport to the north-east of Paris. It’s quite confusing so be patient on plenty of transfers. There are three terminals in the airport: Both Terminal 1 and 2 are huge and subdivided into 2A through 2G, and Terminal 3 which is formerly referred to as T9. There are CDGVAL shuttle train for free to easily connect the terminals together. Note that everything at the airport is very expensive, particularly food. You will have a hard time finding vacant benches and don’t even bother searching for outlets for you to charge your gadget. There are no community shower amenities. Tickets can be purchased either through green automatic ticket vending machines or through the ticket outlet facilitated by transport authority staff. The automatic ticket vending machines accepts Euro coins and also gives change.

Orly International Airport is in the southwest of Paris, and it is facilitated by a southern branch of RER-B line that is lead by the path of Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse. This is an older international airport and is utilized primarily by Air France for national lines and other international air carriers in Europe. Orly International Airport is approximately 40 minutes from Paris through the OrlyBus, which leaves from Métro Denfert-Rochereau. The private Jetbus service departs to Métro Villejuif and is quite cheap. A different option is bus 285 that takes you to the Métro Villejuif – Louis Aragon in about 15 minutes, but it stops along the way and picks up people. It is designed for commuters and not for travellers. It runs in an interval of 10 minutes.

Beauvais Airport is a distance north of the city. It is a smaller regional airport compared to those two and is utilized by a number of low-cost carriers in Europe. This airport operates a shuttle service attaching with the Métro at Porte Maillot station. Buses operate even during the diminutive hours of the morning, specifically 6 AM. Buses leave on a 20 minute interval after each flight arrives and a few hours before each flight departs. If you want to know the exact time, it is available in the Beauvais Airport website. The travel time will take about an hour when in fine traffic situation.

In addition, Air France facilitates shuttles connecting Charles de Gaulle and Paris, Orly and Paris and between Charles de Gaulle and Orly. Remember that if you still have a connecting flight that arrive or depart from dissimilar airports, you still need to get your luggage after arrival and catch either Air France shuttle or a cab to the other airport and then check-in again. It will take you approximately 2 hours in the worst case scenario, considering traffic. Always put to mind to put allowances in your time management. Note that check-in counters usually close 30 minutes before the time the airplane departs. If you land to Charles de Gaulle Airport at night, then I guess you’ll have to ride a Noctilien bus to the city centre. This bus stops in every terminals. The bus leaves every 30 minutes after 12:30 AM.

Once you land, see our guide to Paris metro tickets and passes for visitors, and plan the length of your stay with how many days you need in Paris.

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