Paris Opera House Tours — Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about visiting the Palais Garnier and about the guided departures that go there: the two adult prices, the door on Rue Scribe, the auditorium, the tablet, the group caps and the refund windows. If you would rather compare the departures themselves, Paris Opera House Tours lists every one with its price and its meeting point.
Do I need to book Paris Opera House tickets in advance?
Yes, and not only because it sells out. Booking online is compulsory: the desks and the machines at the box office do not sell visit tickets at all. Guided departures book out further ahead than the ticket does, because most of them take a maximum of five people.
What are Paris Opera House ticket prices in 2026?
A self-guided adult ticket is €25 for a visitor from outside the European Economic Area and €15 for one who lives inside it. Thirteen to twenty-five-year-olds pay €20 and €10 on the same split, and children under thirteen are free under 13. The Opera's own guided tours run €11 to €35.
Why are there two different adult prices?
Residency, not nationality alone. The Opera charges the higher adult rate to visitors who live outside the European Economic Area and the lower one to those who live inside it, and asks for proof at the door. Carry something that shows your address if you are claiming the lower rate.
Can I see the auditorium?
Sometimes, and no ticket sold anywhere guarantees it. The opera house is a working theatre and rehearsals close the auditorium without notice or schedule, which the Opera says plainly on its own site. Three separate travellers describe arriving on a day when it was shut. Everything else on the ticket stays open.
How long does a visit to the Palais Garnier take?
Ninety minutes covers the eight rooms on the ticket without rushing. That is what both the self-guided ticket and the shortest guided tour allow for. Two hours adds the detail rather than more rooms, and one tour spends its second hour outside the building.
Is a Paris Opera House guided tour worth it?
It depends on what you want from the ninety minutes. There is no queue to skip and no rope a guide gets you past, so the money buys commentary, a start time you choose and a party of one to five instead of a crowd. If you would rather read the rooms yourself, the ticket alone is the honest answer.
What is the difference between a Paris Opera House tour and a performance ticket?
They are different tickets bought in different places for different rooms. A visit ticket gets you the foyers, the staircase and the salons during the day. A performance ticket gets you a seat in the auditorium in the evening and nothing else. A daytime performance closes the building to visitors altogether.
Do I need a Paris Opera House reservation for a specific time?
Yes. Visit tickets are sold online for a dated time slot and are valid for that day and that slot only. Guided departures set their own start times, and two of the operators here let you choose between a morning and an afternoon.
Where is the entrance for visits?
At the corner of Rue Scribe and Rue Auber, on the side of the building, not up the front steps on the Place de l'Opera. The front is the performance entrance. Every guided departure meets outside on one of four streets within two minutes of the visitors' door.
Is the Palais Garnier wheelchair accessible?
Partly, and the operators disagree about it, so check the individual tour before you book. Two of the listings here describe themselves as wheelchair accessible, two say they are not, and one asks you to say when booking. The Opera admits a disabled visitor and one companion free of charge.
Can I take photographs inside?
Yes, for your own use, in the rooms a visit ticket opens. Guides are described taking photographs for the people they are showing round. Tripods and anything that blocks a staircase are a different matter, and the auditorium follows whatever the theatre is doing that day.
Is the Palais Garnier good for children?
Yes, with a limit on how long. Under-13s go in free, the multimedia tablet has a children's route at €6.50, and one operator's own reviewer says two hours was a stretch for a ten- and a twelve-year-old. Ninety minutes covers everything on the ticket and is about right.
What is the best time of day to visit?
First thing. Doors open at ten and the rooms fill up after mid-morning, which is the one complaint travellers make about this building. A late slot works too in summer, when the building stays open an hour longer.
What is on the ceiling of the auditorium?
A canvas Marc Chagall painted in 1964, hung above the chandelier, showing scenes from operas by fourteen composers. The original ceiling is still there underneath it. Whether you get to look up at it depends on whether the auditorium is open that day.
Can I do a Paris Opera House self guided tour without a ticket booked online?
No. Online booking is the only way in for a visit, and the box office does not sell visit tickets over the counter or from its machines. A guided departure handles the booking for you in almost every case, which is one of the practical things the fare covers.
Which of these tours can I cancel?
Two of them refund in full if you cancel at least twenty-four hours before the start. The rest refund nothing at any notice, which is unusual and worth knowing before you pay. Every card states its own window.
What does a private tour work out at per person?
It depends whether the fare is quoted per person or per group, and three of these are per group. A group fare of $591 for a party of five is about $118 a head, which is half the per-person private rate on the same building. A couple paying the same group fare is paying nearly $300 each.
What happens if the auditorium is closed on the day I visit?
The rest of the building stays open and so does the Library-Museum, and neither the Opera nor an operator refunds for it. One operator answered a disappointed reviewer by pointing out that the theatre publishes no schedule for these closures. Book a guide who can re-route rather than a tour sold on the auditorium.
What is the multimedia tablet, and is it worth it?
It is an augmented-reality handset the Opera rents at €8 on site, €7 booked ahead, with a children's route at €6.50. It layers rooms you cannot walk into over the ones you can, including the Foyer de la Danse. Travellers who bought the ticket alone rate it as the thing that made the visit.
What is in the Library-Museum?
The Opera's own collection, run by the Bibliotheque nationale de France from the Emperor's pavilion. It holds close to 600,000 items, including 100,000 books, 10,000 programmes and 100,000 photographs. It is on the same visit ticket and most visitors walk past it.
Is there a dress code?
Not for a daytime visit. You are walking through public rooms in ordinary clothes and comfortable shoes matter more than anything else, because the Grand Staircase is marble and there is a lot of it. A performance in the evening is a different occasion with different expectations.
Can I bring a bag, and is there a cloakroom?
Bring a small bag and plan to keep it with you. The cloakrooms are closed to visitors, which the ticket listing states in its own conditions. Large luggage is not something to arrive with.
Can I bring a scooter or a pushchair?
Scooters are not allowed in, and the ticket says so plainly. Pushchairs are a different question and several of the guided departures describe themselves as stroller accessible. Check the individual listing rather than assuming.
Is there anywhere to eat or drink inside?
Not as part of a visit. None of the tours here includes food or drink and two of them list it explicitly as an exclusion. The Cafe de la Paix is on the corner of the Place de l'Opera and two of these departures meet outside it.
Are there toilets?
Yes, in the public areas the visit covers. It is a nineteenth-century building with the queues you would expect at a busy hour. Going first thing helps with that as much as it helps with everything else.
How far ahead do the guided tours sell out?
Further than you would think, because they are small. Four of the six private listings cap at five, eight or fewer travellers, so a single booking fills a departure. One is flagged by its own platform as likely to sell out.
What languages are the tours guided in?
Between them, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Romanian and English. No single operator offers all of those, and the booking forms differ from the marketing copy on some of them. Check the language on the listing you are about to book.
Is there a minimum number of travellers?
On one of them, yes. The two-hour Napoleone tour takes a minimum of two adults, which matters if you are travelling alone. Everything else here can be booked by one person, though a per-group fare booked by one person is an expensive way to see a foyer.
Does anything here really skip the line?
One listing sells a fast-track ticket and the same operator's other listing states that the opera house does not allow skip-the-line and that you should expect to wait on busy days. We relay each listing as it stands and do not claim a queue-jump on the site's own account. Arriving at ten is the reliable version.
Is there a combined ticket with anything else nearby?
Not from the Opera. The visit ticket covers this building, its current exhibition and the Library-Museum, and nothing else. One guided departure adds the Galeries Lafayette roof terrace, which is free to walk up to anyway.
Do the exhibitions cost extra?
No. The show running in the public areas is included in a visit ticket, and the Wagner exhibition opening on 27 October 2026 is free. Dates move, so check the Opera's own programme before you travel.
How do I get there from the airports?
From Charles de Gaulle, the RER B to Chatelet and the metro line 7 or 8 up to Opera. From Orly, the metro line 14 runs direct to Madeleine, which is a five-minute walk. Both take about an hour door to door.
What is within walking distance?
The Galeries Lafayette and its stained-glass dome are a few minutes up Boulevard Haussmann, and the roof terrace above it is free. The Place Vendome, the Tuileries and the Louvre are all a walk rather than a metro ride. One departure here finishes on that roof deliberately.
Is the Phantom's box real?
The box is a piece of Gaston Leroux's novel rather than a piece of the building's history, though the opera house plays along with it. What is real is the counterweight that fell from the chandelier on 20 May 1896 and killed a woman in the audience, and the water tank under the foundations that the fire brigade still uses. Leroux built the story on both.
Still deciding?
The private tours are set out side by side with what each fare covers, visitor information has the hours and the admission prices in one place, and the rooms page tells you what is behind each door before you pay to walk through it.