Six of the ways into the Palais Garnier are private tours, and they are not variations on one another. Three quote a fare for the whole party and three quote it per head, which changes the sum entirely once there are four of you. One excludes the entrance ticket. One ends on a rooftop three streets away. Paris Opera Garnier tours include the self-guided ticket as well; this page is only about the private ones.
Ninety minutes with an official guide, tickets pre-booked in your name, and a choice of morning or afternoon. The party caps at five and children book at a reduced rate.
From $236 per person
An hour and forty inside, then Haussmann's boulevards and the Galeries Lafayette roof terrace. Takes up to fifteen on one booking, with a minimum of two adults.
From $200 per person
Two hours from the Cafe de la Paix with a fast-track ticket inside the fare. Guided in French, Italian or English, and confirmed within a day of booking.
From $193 per person
Two hours from 1 Rue Auber at one price for the whole party of up to five, which is about $115 a head at the cap. Guided in five languages, and refundable at twenty-four hours.
From $579 per group
About $115 a head at 5 travellers
Ninety minutes from beside the Perfume Museum with admission already paid. One fare covers up to five travellers, and you can cancel a day ahead and get everything back.
From $591 per group
About $118 a head at 5 travellers
The largest private party here at up to eight on one fare, meeting in front of the main staircase. The guiding is included and the entrance ticket is not, so budget the Opera's admission on top.
From $681 per group
About $85 a head at 8 travellers
Paris Opera House Tours lists the self-guided ticket alongside these, and the map page puts every meeting point on the ground.
It is your own party, your own guide and a start time you pick, walking the same eight rooms a €25 ticket opens. There is no separate entrance, no priority lane and no ninth room. Every operator here states that only your travel party takes part, and that is the thing you are buying.
What you get on top of the rooms is somebody who knows the building well enough to rearrange ninety minutes when a door is shut, and a party small enough to hear them in a room made of marble. Both of those are worth more here than they sound.
Five of these six fares include the admission and pre-book the slot, so the dated ticket the Opera insists on stops being your problem. The sixth covers guiding only and says so plainly, which means budgeting the Opera's €25 on top for everyone in your party.
A visit ticket gives you the slot that is left. Two of these operators offer a morning or an afternoon and let you pick, which matters in a building whose rooms fill after mid-morning and where the Grand Foyer takes its light from the west.
Caps here run from five to fifteen, and nobody is added to fill a departure. That is the difference between a conversation and a broadcast, and it is why the reviews of these fares name a person rather than a room.
The auditorium closes for rehearsal without notice and rooms shut at short order. A guide arrives knowing which, and rebuilds the ninety minutes around it. Nobody carrying a ticket alone gets that.
This is the comparison the page exists for, and it is closer than the price gap suggests. The rooms are identical. What differs is who is talking, when you go and what happens when the building changes its mind.
| A private tour | The self-guided ticket | |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms opened | The eight public spaces | The eight public spaces |
| Guide | Yours, for the whole visit | None, unless you rent the tablet |
| Ticket | Included on five of the six | Bought direct from the Opera |
| Start time | Chosen, on two of the six | The slot that is available |
| Adult price | From $193 a head | €25, or €15 with a European address |
| Commentary | A person who adapts | A rented handset at €8 on site, €7 booked ahead |
| Queue | The same queue | The same queue |
| Auditorium | Not guaranteed | Not guaranteed |
Compare the Paris Opera House tours
If the answer to “do I want somebody explaining this?” is no, take the ticket and keep the difference. The decision guide does the arithmetic properly.
Fares run from $193 to $681, and comparing those two numbers directly is meaningless until you know which are per head. Do the division first.
| Tour | Price | Quoted | Per head at the cap | Party cap | Length | Refunds at 24h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera Garnier Mysteries Private Guided Tour with Entrance | From $236 | Per person | — | 5 | 1 hour 30 minutes | No | Book |
| Private Opera Garnier Theater 2-Hour Tour in Paris | From $200 | Per person | — | 15 | 2 hours | No | Book |
| Paris: Private tour of Opéra Garnier Theater | From $193 | Per person | — | Not stated | 2 hours | No | Book |
| Opera Garnier with private guide | From $579 | Per group | $115 | 5 | 2 hours | Yes | Book |
| Private Opera Garnier Tour | From $591 | Per group | $118 | 5 | 1 hour 30 minutes | Yes | Book |
| 2 Hour Private Opera Garnier Guided Tour | From $681 | Per group | $85 | 8 | 2 hours | No | Book |
Book a Paris Opera House private tour
Two things fall out of that table. A party of five on the $591 group fare pays about $118 each, which is half the per-person private rate for the same building — and the same fare booked by two people is close to $300 a head. And only two of these six refund anything at all if your plans change.
Book further ahead than you would for a ticket. Four of these listings cap at eight travellers or fewer, so one family booking fills a departure, and one is flagged by its own platform as likely to sell out.