Paris Louvre Museum Tickets and Tours: how to buy, prices and discounts

The Louvre can be presented in many ways: you can talk about its impressive building, the Tuileries gardens, its glass pyramid, its Egyptian art collection or Da Vinci's Giocconda and the Venus de Milo. My recommendation is to buy tickets in advance so you don't have to wait in line for hours at the door. These are the best options you can find online:

The most economical

Louvre Museum Tickets

Access the Louvre without queues at the best price

Perfect if you are eager to lose yourself in the endless corridors and galleries of the Louvre at your own pace, without having to join any organized group but without wasting time in the queues at the ticket office.

From $45 at Hellotickets

If you want to visit the Louvre on your own I recommend buying your ticket in advance online, because you can access the museum whenever you want, spend as much time inside as you want and stop to contemplate the works that interest you. Of course, do not forget to pick up the free map of the museum at the entrance if you want to locate the great works of each room quickly: the map is designed precisely for this purpose and will be very useful to locate you.

As for the audio guide is highly recommended. It costs five euros at the entrance, is in several languages and is usually included in many ticket packages.

Why I like this option: this option allows you to avoid endless queues, visit the museum for as long as you want and decide yourself which works you want to stop at.

Recommended if... you want to enjoy the museum at your own pace, without fixed schedules or guided groups.

If you want to visit the Louvre, you can enter Hellotickets and buy your ticket to the Louvre quickly and easily. You only have to select the day and time you want to visit the Louvre.

You can also buy your tickets at the ticket office but, in this case, you will have to wait in long queues and you will have to assume the risk of running out of tickets.

You can also book a guided tour without queues to the Louvre Museum, a highly recommended option because for a little more money you can tour the museum with the explanations of an expert guide.

The price of tickets to the Louvre in Hellotickets without queues and access to temporary exhibitions, is around 40€.

You also have the option to book a combined experience and in addition to tickets to the Louvre take a cruise on the Seine, in which case the cost will be from 24 €.

Or even book a guided tour without queues in which you will be accompanied by a professional guide who will explain the different collections that you can enjoy along the way.

In my opinion, booking a guided tour is the ideal option to enjoy the Louvre, as there is so much to see that it is the best way to take in the immensity of this museum in the shortest time possible. Plus, you'll be freed from the queues at the entrance.

And thanks to an expert guide who will accompany you throughout the tour, you will get all the details of the main works such as the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace or Liberty Leading the People. This way, you will be sure to contemplate the main works and leave nothing behind. And, of course, if you want to continue the visit on your own, you can continue the tour on your own.

Enjoy Paris 100% with two of the most sought-after experiences: a cruise on the Seine and a visit to the Louvre. What more could you ask for?

On your tour along the Seine you will contemplate incredible monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Alexander III Bridge, the Musée d'Orsay or the Notre Damme Cathedral from a unique mobile observatory.

And, of course, with the entrance to the Louvre Museum you will be amazed by some of the most famous works of art, paintings and sculptures in the world such as La Gioconda, by Leonardo Da Vinci. More than 5,500 paintings and 2,000 sculptures by artists that you can see at your own pace. In addition, you will avoid the entrance queues that are usually quite crowded.

So that you have everything much clearer, I leave here a small summary of the different options you have if you want to enter the Louvre Museum.

If you buy your tickets for the Louvre at the box office you can save two or three euros (the extra handling fee when you buy them online), but in return you will have to wait in long lines and you risk that when you get to the box office they are already sold out for the day and time you want to see the museum.

To avoid that, if you finally decide to buy your tickets at the box office, try to go early (opens at 9 am) and do not choose a holiday to visit the museum. With this option, the audio guide goes separately for about five euros.

I take this opportunity to leave you also an article with tips to see the Louvre with children.

• When to go: the museum is open almost every day of the year except Tuesdays. Any time is good to visit this impressive collection, but in the evening hours, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays that extends until almost 22 hours, and in the lunchtime there is usually less crowded. Check all the information about opening hours here.
• How to get there: the Louvre is in the center of Paris. The entrance is through the glass pyramid and can also be accessed directly from the metro stop "Palais Royal Musée du Louvre" on line 1 in Paris. If you have doubts, see the post how to get to the Louvre.
• Duration of the visit: seeing the Louvre in less than three hours does not make sense unless you choose to book a guided tour focused on certain works. I explain here the different types. An in-depth visit will probably take you a day. For more information, visit the post how long does it take to see the Louvre.
• Free tickets: there are certain groups that enter the Louvre for free, such as children under 18, EU citizens under 25, art teachers and disabled people with an accompanying person. In addition, there are some days and times when admission is free for everyone as the first Sunday of the month and July 14 (Bastille Day) from 18 hours. Even if you have free admission you must book day and time slot from the official website of the museum. See more details about prices here.
• Where to eat: inside the Louvre Museum there are cafeteria and restaurant. It will be the most recommended if you visit the museum. In the surrounding area, however, it will be a bit more difficult to find places to eat. Still, if you want more details read the post where to eat near the Louvre.
• Visit the store: I highly recommend you to visit the store, although I anticipate that you will crave everything, so if your budget is tight, think twice.
• How to behave: in the Louvre the usual rules of the big museums apply. You are allowed to take pictures, you must not touch the works of art, you must maintain a certain silence and you can not enter with food.

If you visit the museum with children, make sure they won't get tired and run around the corridors and rooms. A very good option is to take a tour of the Louvre adapted for children; this way you will encourage their interest in art and they will enjoy the museum much more.

I recommend taking an adaptedaudio guide so that all members of the family can explore the museum at their own pace, focusing on the topics of most interest.

Personally, I have never been in any museum where I knew so many works of art as in the Louvre. If this is the most visited museum in Europe is also because it is not only a delight for art lovers, but also because the general visitor will recognize a significant number of works of art housed in the museum.

Making a selection of what to see is more difficult in the Louvre than in any other museum (there are 35,000 works of art in its interior from almost all artistic periods and of diverse origins). However (and let's not forget important omissions) if we had to make a top list of the best known, it would be similar to this one:

• La Gioconda by Leonardo Da Vinci: it is the star work of the museum. Of course, before you get "disappointed" I will tell you that you are not going to see it up close; the painting is protected by a security barrier of several meters because on several occasions there have been attacks against the painting. Even from a distance, you have to see it because it is the star work of the Renaissance and one of the most mythical paintings in existence.
• Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix: the painting represents the popular uprising against the crown in Paris in 1830 that ended with the destitution of the last Bourbon that would reign in France: Charles X. In this work freedom is represented allegorically as a woman in the center of the painting wielding a flag.
• The Venus de Milo: one of the most representative statues of the Hellenistic period of Greek sculpture. This female figure has not always been a torso without arms, but it is unknown how she "lost" them and there are even several theories about how they were represented. The fact is that the perfection of the forms is well worth a few minutes of recreation.
• The Wedding at Cana by Veronese: one of Veronese's most famous paintings. It represents the first miracle of Jesus Christ; during a wedding the Gospel of St. John says that he turned water into wine. The illumination of the painting and the detail of its characters is worth several minutes of your time.
• The Victory of Samothrace: one of the largest statues you will find in the museum. It represents the Greek goddess Nike, Goddess of Victory. Although its aesthetics (the sculpture lacks a head) has been criticized by many, it is considered a key work of sculpture and you only have to look at the detail of its folds to verify this statement.
• Code of Hammurabi: the most emblematic piece of Mesopotamian art. It contains the civil laws in force during the reign of Hammurabi, so it has been an essential find to learn more about the culture of this historical period.

I leave you a very interesting post in case you want to learn more about these works.

The magnitude and fame of the Louvre museum is so great that it is easy to overshadow other museums in the city of Paris. After contemplating all the works of the Louvre it is easy to ask yourself: but can there be more? There is. Paris is full of museums and each one is worth a visit.

My favorites are the Musée d'Orsay (a real marvel) and the Pompidou Museum of contemporary art, but the list of options is much longer. If you want to know more you can read this article on Museums Paris.