★★★★★
The interior is extraordinary and the audio tour was worth the extra money. It is genuinely informative rather than decorative. I came out knowing a lot more than I went in with.
Zoe · Verified booking · August 2026
Paris Opera House Tours Reviews
What travellers wrote after these visits, in their own words, grouped by the departure they took. Three of them arrived on a day when the auditorium was shut and said so, two found the rooms uncomfortably crowded after mid-morning, and one worked out that a private fare bought him the same rooms as a thirty-dollar ticket. All of it is here.
What visitors consistently say
- The guide is the product. Almost every five-star review here names a person rather than a room. That is what a private fare is buying.
- Go first thing. Two reviewers describe the rooms as uncomfortable after mid-morning, and one says it was hard to hear a private guide over the noise.
- The auditorium is a lottery. Three separate visits across two operators arrived on a day it was closed for rehearsal.
- The tablet is worth the extra. Four people who bought the ticket alone say unprompted that the multimedia handset is what made the visit.
Paris: Palais Garnier Self-Guided Tour
Palais Garnier self-guided ticket · ninety minutes, no guide — rated 4.6 from 19,224 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
We were let in without waiting at all. The whole thing was straightforward. It is a place you should see.
Beste · Verified booking · August 2026
★★★★★
We came by metro and the door was easy enough to find. The opera house is an absolute highlight of Paris. Walking it with the audio guide is the way to do it.
Katrin · Verified booking · August 2026
★★★★★
A good self-guided visit, and paying extra for the tablet is what makes it. Phantom fans will get what they came for, but the building tells its own story without any of that.
Emma · Verified booking · August 2026
★★★★★
A lovely visit, and you should take the tablet with the live guide on it. It gives you the whole history of the building as you walk. Without it you are looking at gold and guessing.
patricia · Verified booking · September 2026
★★★★★
I had not expected rooms like these. It is magnificent inside. That is really all there is to say about it.
Emilie · Verified booking · August 2026
Opera Garnier Mysteries Private Guided Tour with Entrance
Paris Opera House guided tour · ninety minutes, entry included — rated 4.9 from 73 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
Nick was the best guide we had in Paris. Ninety minutes, private, and he knows the opera house and the city equally well. He can hold a conversation about almost anything while he does it.
Amy B. · Verified booking · May 2026
★★★★★
Our guide went out of his way over mobility restrictions and never made it feel like a problem. The languages were excellent too. He even walked us on towards our next stop afterwards.
David M. · Verified booking · May 2026
★★★☆☆
The guide was knowledgeable and helpful about everything we could see. We did not get into the auditorium itself, and that was the part we had come for. The operator replied to say the opera house restricts it for technical and artistic reasons and publishes no schedule for it.
Jessica W. · Verified booking · April 2025
★★★★★
The building is remarkable and Nick let us set the pace. We were never hurried along. That matters more here than it sounds.
Brian G. · Verified booking · January 2025
★★★★★
This was a personal tour, just the two of us, with nobody else tagging along. Nick texted the day before to say exactly where to meet, which took the confusion out of it. The opera house did the rest.
Teree R. · Couple · October 2024
★★★★★
Only two of us made it in the end, because jet lag took out the rest of the party. My daughter dances, and Nick shaped the whole visit around ballet for her. She talked about it for days.
Tonya C. · Family with teens · September 2024
★★★★★
My wife and I have taken this tour twice now. We probably will not do it a third time, and we would still recommend it to anyone. Both guides made it memorable.
dwight d. · Repeat visitor · August 2024
★★★★★
The history and the styles of the building were covered at several levels at once. We saw the things that actually interested us rather than a fixed route. That is what a private guide is for.
Gail D. · Verified booking · November 2024
★★★★★
Taking a private tour was the right call. Our guide listened to what we wanted to see and built the visit around it. Marc Chagall's ceiling was the thing I came away talking about.
citygirllh · Verified booking · July 2025
★★★★☆
Nick is a good guide and the price felt high for what it is. There was no behind-the-scenes access and no private entrance, whatever the title suggests. It is a personal guided tour of rooms you could walk through yourself.
Mary S. · Verified booking · September 2022
★★★☆☆
Nick was hugely knowledgeable and good company. The problem was the day: we could not get into the theatre at all, which was a real disappointment. The artwork in the entrance halls is fine, but it is not what we booked for.
RICHARD K. · Verified booking · October 2022
Private Opera Garnier Theater 2-Hour Tour in Paris
Paris Opera House tour · two hours, ending on the roof — rated 4.8 from 55 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
Mauricio was easy to find and knows every detail of the place, including the social history behind why it was built at all. The building gets very crowded and he cannot promise you the auditorium. If you are happy with that, it is worth it.
Ann C. · Verified booking · October 2024
★★★★★
Maurizio packed a lot into two hours and made us part of the story rather than an audience for it. Afterwards there was time to stay and take photographs on our own. I have been recommending it since.
Suzanne S. · Verified booking · September 2026
★★★★★
Mauritzio delivers art and architectural history quickly and with a lot of humour. Two hours went in what felt like forty minutes. We would have understood a fraction of it on our own.
JEAN W. · Verified booking · April 2026
★★★★★
Our guide was friendly and personable and he made the day what it was. The opera house was the main event and seeing it again from the roof of the building next door was a good way to finish.
Charlotte M. · Verified booking · January 2025
★★★★★
Maurizio walked us through as though we were arriving for a performance in the 1870s, as a duke and duchess. It was the highlight of our annual trip to Paris. The building suits being told that way.
Kat C. · Verified booking · February 2026
★★★★★
Maurizio is a storyteller first and a guide second, which is the right order here. The anecdotes gave the history somewhere to sit. Worth doing if you are staying in Paris at all.
Rayana H. · Verified booking · December 2025
★★★★★
One of the best guides I have had anywhere. Knowledgeable, funny, and he made the information land personally rather than as a lecture. That is a hard thing to do in two hours.
Rene C. · Verified booking · November 2024
Paris: Private tour of Opéra Garnier Theater
Opera Garnier Paris tour · two hours, private group — rated 4.9 from 19 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
Mauricio tells the story of the art and of the architect theatrically, which suits the room. You do not need to go out to Versailles for over-the-top opulence. It is all here on the Place de l'Opera.
Tracy · Verified booking · June 2026
★★★★★
Our guide was funny and informative and put a modern twist on Garnier's story. The best money we spent on the trip. We would book this company again.
Brent · Verified booking · August 2026
★★★★★
Elegant, immersive and full of history, with a guide whose warmth carried the whole thing. He drew comparisons with the present that made it stick. We came away curious about Charles Garnier himself.
Mary · Verified booking · April 2026
★★★★★
The best tour we took in Paris that week. Our guide painted a picture of what life here was like when the building opened. Worth it for anyone interested in the city's history.
Linda L · Verified booking · June 2026
★★★★★
Claudia was waiting for us fifteen minutes early. She was excellent throughout. Full marks for that alone.
Rob · Verified booking · December 2016
Private Opera Garnier Tour
Paris Opera Garnier tour · ninety minutes from Rue Scribe — rated 5.0 from 11 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
The tour was excellent and the opera house is something to see. Claudio was a very good guide and brought the building to life. A straightforward recommendation.
Julie A. · Verified booking · June 2026
Opera Garnier with private guide
Paris Opera House private tour · two hours at a group fare — rated 4.4 from 28 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
A very good and informative couple of hours. Our one small disappointment was that the auditorium was closed for a rehearsal, which we understood. It was worth doing regardless.
Thomas S. · Verified booking · April 2024
★★★☆☆
Be ready for crowds unless you are through the door first thing in the morning. Getting through the rooms was uncomfortable at points. It was hard to hear our own private guide over the noise.
Susan G. · Verified booking · July 2025
★★★★☆
The building should be on any Paris list and the private tour made it more worthwhile. Two hours was a stretch for our ten- and twelve-year-olds, who were flagging after about an hour. With a family I would keep it to ninety minutes, which is enough to see all of it.
Chris W. · Family with children · June 2025
★★★★★
Emilie knew the history and the small details and clearly enjoyed telling both. One of our party found stairs difficult, so she made sure we took the lift. We would happily have stayed longer than the building allowed.
MaryEllen B. · Travelling as a group · May 2026
★★★★★
I did this with friends and our guide was excellent. We went straight to the front of a very long queue and were looked after the whole way round. Worth the money.
Denise G. · With friends · April 2024
★★★★★
The guide held the attention of adults and of children aged ten, thirteen and fifteen for the full two hours. That is not easy. Nobody was bored.
Karen D. · Family with children · July 2024
★☆☆☆☆
No complaint about the guide, who did the job well. My problem was the sum: we paid a private-tour price to walk the same rooms as everyone holding a thirty-dollar ticket. Work out what the commentary is worth to you before you book this one.
Jim M. · Verified booking · May 2024
★★★☆☆
Our guide was warm and eager and we liked her a great deal. She could do with more time in the building before she guides it. The knowledge was thinner than we had expected.
Rosario B. · Verified booking · May 2024
★★★★☆
A great place to visit and a kind, professional guide. Her English was a struggle in places, though we followed the sense of it. Worth knowing before you book.
Ingram J. · Verified booking · January 2025
2 Hour Private Opera Garnier Guided Tour
Paris Opera House guided tours · two hours, ticket bought separately — rated 5.0 from 15 reviews on its own booking listing.
★★★★★
We missed this on our last trip to Paris and were not going to miss it again. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and gave us a genuinely in-depth two hours. We would not have got half as much out of it alone.
LaurenceD S. · Repeat visitor · April 2024
★★★★★
Iuliana's knowledge of the building is impressive and she brought it to life. She told us how the architect won the contract, what an evening here was like for the society that came, and why the innovations in the design mattered. We learned a great deal.
Pennie S. · Verified booking · April 2024
★★★★★
Our guide took us back to the Paris of the 1880s and explained the architecture, the design and the social rules together. One of the best two hours of the trip. Do not skip this one.
Belinda F. · Verified booking · November 2023
Each operator's own rating
These are the operators' figures, published on their own booking listings, not ratings collected here.
| Tour | Operator | Rating | Reviews | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris: Palais Garnier Self-Guided Tour | Opéra national de Paris | 4.6 ★ | 19,224 | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Opera Garnier Mysteries Private Guided Tour with Entrance | NickInParis | 4.9 ★ | 73 | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Private Opera Garnier Theater 2-Hour Tour in Paris | Napoleone Tour | 4.8 ★ | 55 | 2 hours |
| Paris: Private tour of Opéra Garnier Theater | Napoleone Tour | 4.9 ★ | 19 | 2 hours |
| Private Opera Garnier Tour | Parisian Private Tours | 5.0 ★ | 11 | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Opera Garnier with private guide | My Visit Experience | 4.4 ★ | 28 | 2 hours |
| 2 Hour Private Opera Garnier Guided Tour | Iuliana Pintea | 5.0 ★ | 15 | 2 hours |
Where to go next
Paris Opera House Tours sets every departure side by side with its price and its refund window, the private tours page does the per-head arithmetic on the group fares, and visitor information has the hours and the admission prices.