A Weekend in Paris Budget Breakdown

How much does it cost to spend a weekend in Paris? How much would I need to bring to Paris? Is Paris an Expensive City? What would be the ideal Paris travel budget?

Experience the beauty of the city of lights – Paris. Paris is a perfect place to travel to for a weekend. Whether you’re looking to live out your “Emily in Paris” moment or grab a taster of what the city has to offer, make sure you’re also aware of the costs here. Here is a “Paris Travel Budget” breakdown of how much it’ll cost you to spend a weekend here.

Accommodation travel budget

Our accommodation was our second biggest expense of the trip. Costing us around ~ £68/€76 per night. This was fairly affordable considering the average cost for a double-occupancy room is ~ £185/€207 according to Budgetyourtrip.com

City Tax – As with most cities Paris does have a tourist tax. This contributes to the development of the tourist industry in the city. The tourist tax here varies from €0.20 to €4 per person per night depending on the type of accommodation you go for as of Jan 2021. A 25% legal tax is then applied on top of this.

For example, we stayed at a 2-star hotel which would be a net rate per person and per night at €1.13. We stayed for 3 nights. adding up to a total of (€1.13*2*3) =€6.78. This is not too bad considering other cities have a tax rate as a percentage of the room price.

We stayed at a 2-star hotel which was a bit outside of the city centre. So our cost was significantly below the average cost of accommodation.

Food and beverages travel budget

France is the perfect place to enjoy amazing foods. Cheese, wine and an amazing array of pastries were accessible pretty much anywhere. I am not surprised this was are biggest cost to the entire weekend.

Over 3 days we spent roughly ~£288/€322 on food and drinks. Working out to ~ £48/€53 per person per day. If you compare this to the average of £26/€29 per person (according to Budgetyourtrip.com) we definitely spent more than what was expected.

We did spend more down to the fact we did opt for more sit-down restaurants and not doing much research. But we also only went to supermarkets in the morning for breakfast, so a huge amount of this budget was on lunch and dinner.

Top tip – Prepare a list of places to dine at. There are a lot of tourist restaurants which are not authentic and are not worth the price tag.

I would say the food in Paris (when we were at the right places) was amazing. There are some lovely little restaurants that I would love to come back to try. Especially anywhere that served onion soup.

Best Restaurants in Paris (IMO)

Gladines Charonne – One of my favourite spots in Paris. The staff were so friendly and on Sundays, they have a huge buffet menu to die for.
Le Petit Marcel – A very cute yet romantic restaurant. Loved the salmon and the Soupe a l’oignon
Lé Grand Café – A very grand feeling Café (Try their crème brulee!)

Entertainment and Activities travel budget

For the entire weekend, we spent a total of ~£81/€91 on entertainment. Working out to ~ £14/€13 per person per day.

The average cost for entertainment for one day is £54/€60 per person according to Budgetyourtrip.com

There are a lot of free activities in Paris, churches to art galleries. The Louvre is museum and is a great place to go to enjoy a day in Paris. Our main weekend spend on entertainment included a free walking tour (which is a tour that is donation based), and a lovely evening cruise on the river Seine.

Travel Tip – If you’re 25 and under you’re in luck. Because most of the galleries and churches allow young people free or discounted entry. We took full advantage of this and explains why our spending was significantly below the average.

Our different activities

Sandeman Walking Tour €40.00 (average €10 per person)
River Cruise – €26

Transport travel budget

In total, we spent £37/€41 on transport within the country. Working out to £6/€7 per day per person. The average cost for local transport is £14/€16 per person according to Budgetyourtrip.com

I would definitely recommend using the metro to get around the city. They’re so easy to use and pretty much will take you where you need to go. Although do watch out for pickpocketers!

Travel Tip – I would suggest buying them in bulk at the start of the trip to save yourself a few Euros. As of April 2018 x10 trips costs around €14.90.