Carte orange or carnet?

Question

We a group of 4 adults and 2 chidren will be arriving in Paris on Sunday afternoon (about noon-1pm) and leave the next Saturday morning. Should I purchase orange cartes or just get a carnet of 10 tickets and use them as I go?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Get the carte orange.

It is useful if you make more that 2 trips per day on the metro.

Note that the carte starts on mondays, so you'll need to get a carnet for the sunday afternoon.

Make sure you ask for a "carte orange hebdomadaire zones 1 & 2" (the cheapest one) and prepare a photo of everybody's face for the carte.

Enjoy your stay.

Answer 2

Carte orange is not good  if on 5 days * 2 travels = 10

If beyond 10 on 7 days it is profitable - otherwise buy tickets

Answer 3

Added advice - you ddin t say how old your children are. Children under ten travel half price. Under four are free.

So you will have to get the half price carte orange/carnet for them. Resist the temptetation to use one of the half price tickets for yourself, as you sometimes come accross inspectors who can impose an on the spot fine.

Also, the physical carte orange is being phased out and replaced by a Navigo RFID pass. The phasing out means that you can buy the carte orange at fewer stations each month. Current 60 (out of the 400 or so) stations have stopped selling the carte orange, even at the automatic machines. You can buy immediate Navigo passes, for 5 euros, plus the carte-orange free.

Answer 4

I am assuming that the two children are not toddlers but capable of keeping up with adults on their own.

A carte orange will cost 16.30 euros or 3.26 euros per day for the five days you will be sightseeing. Tickets bought with a carnet cost 1.11 euros apiece. Further, there is a one day pass called a "mobilis" which costs 5.60. euros.

So on any one given day which will be more cost effective depends on how many times you will be traveling on public transport.

I personally like to walk and usually just buy a carnet of 10 tickets and leave it at that. On the rare days when I know I will be running all over the place I buy a mobilis.

Answer 5

It depends on whether or not you think you'll be using the bus and metro a lot.  If you plan to walk almost everywhere, then a carnet would probably be more economical.  However, I would think that children would probably get tired of walking, so you might be hopping on and off transit a lot.  In that case, a Carte Orange would be better.  Just remember that you can only buy a Carte Orange on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the current week.

Have fun, safe travels!

Answer 6

Buy a carnet for sunday (1 carnet for 2 people) and the carte orange on monday as they only sell the one week card on monday. A carnet costs 10.90€ and will last about 2 days while a carte orange costs 19.00€ and will last you a whole week so I think its more worth it. If using the carte orange don't forget to take a passport photo.

Answer 7

Go for the cartes orange.  You will most likely be going all over the city and it is really easy to go through the single trip tickets really fast.  Also, I have found the tickets int he carnets tend to be defective and a pain in the butt.