If you have never been to Paris before and are planning your trip while budget backpacking, this is the guide for you! As of now (July 2023), I’ve been to this beautiful city a few times and will be moving there soon. After this time, I believe this is the best itinerary for three days in Paris, especially if it’s your first time!

For my spring break while studying abroad in France, we had two full weeks off. I was only expecting to travel for the first week, but I was able to move my budget around to travel most of the second as well. I knew I at least wanted to go to Paris since I hadn’t been yet, and how could I leave France and return home without visiting Paris at least once? Luckily my close friends here also wanted to go to Paris despite having already visited multiple times. They were my tour guides and made my trip so much fun! Since we were traveling for two weeks, we all were backpacking. I brought one carryon and a purse, that was it!

We spent two nights and three days here. Since there were four of us, we all split the cost of an Airbnb which made it super affordable. To get around, we used the metros sparingly, only when first arriving to get to the Airbnb and then if we were trying to make it to a certain place by a certain time. Other than that we walked everywhere, at one point we walked over an hour to reach the Eiffel Tower! But the walk was so enjoyable and barely felt like anything. Over the course of 3 days I walked about 1.5 marathons!

In this blog, I’m going to share my full itinerary for spending three days in Paris. Use this itinerary as inspiration when creating your own!

My itinerary at a glance:

Day 1:
Arriving in Paris + finding lunch
Seeing Eiffel Tower for the first time
Trendy cocktail bar (was a no from me – but there’s another I love)

Day 2:
Breakfast at a Parisian café
Views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe
Exploring the art district of Montmartre

Day 3:
Musée d’Orsay + catching my flight to Rome

Day 1 – Arriving in Paris + Exploring

Monday, April 18th, 2022

We took an early train from Lyon to Paris that left around 6:30am, and we arrived in Paris around 11am. There is a faster train, but this one was cheaper for us since we are budget traveling and backpacking. Arriving at 11:30 was a great time because we still had the whole day ahead of us!

On our first day, we walked 13.2 miles and saw sooo much. We first walked by Hôtel de Ville and saw the Olympic Rings displayed for the Olympic Games that are taking place in Paris in 2024. Then, we walked to Notre Dame, which is still under construction from the fire that happened a few years back so we could only admire it from the outside. From there, we had lunch and Pee & Bee where I had a really tasty vegetable pizza.

After lunch, we walked to Saint Chapel, which is a stunning church that housed the King of France until the 14th century. I was mesmerized by the stain glass windows!

From there, we headed towards the infamous Eiffel Tower. Along the way, we passed by the building where Yves Saint Laurent lived when he was alive!

My first view of the Eiffel Tower

Finally, we came upon the Eiffel Tower! It was surreal to actually see it in person after hearing about it for years.

Across the street from the Eiffel Tower was a pop up food festival celebrating Easter (which was the day before). We decided to have Paellas from here for dinner, it was delicious!

From here, we walked to the Arc de Triumph in hopes to climb to the top, but the line was quite long so we decided to save that for Tuesday.

After, we walked around Paris just exploring the streets, and then decided to watch the sunset from the edge of the garden that surrounds the Louvre, the Garden of Tuileries. It was the perfect view of the sunset with the Eiffel Tower on the horizon!

Night One in Paris

After the sunset, we went back to our Airbnb to recharge our phones before going out at night. We had seen many Tiktoks about speakeasy’s in Paris so we wanted to try one of those, but we figured since it was a Monday night they might be dead so we went to another cocktail bar that we found on Tiktok.

This cocktail bar was called Bisous, and they had a unique concept: they had no menu, we had to tell the server our drink preferences and then they created a drink for us based off of what we liked!

For me, I said fruity, sour and rum. My turned out to be very tasty and had sparkles in it! I do think it was a little pricy, €12 for a small cocktail, but it was a fun experience.

The server, however, was a little rude because we said we spoke French but he said he wasn’t going to be our teacher so he spoke in English. But that sort of response was expected from the Parisians because they have a stereotype of being rude. He was the only Parisian that we encountered that was a bit rude, the rest of the Parisians were really nice and let us speak French!

Personally, I will not be going back to Bisous, I expected a lot more from the hype it has on TikTok. Go to Candelaria instead!! My second time I went to Paris, I went to a here and it was so much better than Bisous. It is in the back of a Mexican restaurant, and the vibes were a lot better.

After our drinks at Bisous, we were hungry so we stopped at McDonald’s for a late night snack before heading back to the Airbnb.

---

My first day in Paris was so much fun and I saw so many sites! At first, Paris was quieter than I expected but that was because we walked on a lot of side streets and not the main touristy streets. I really liked that we walked everywhere, it allowed us to see things we wouldn’t have. Overall, 10/10 first day!

Day 2: The Arc de Triomphe + Montmartre

Tuesday, April 19th, 2022

We started off our first morning in Paris at a café by the Notre Dame. We came across Le Lutèce and decided to try it out. We hadn’t searched for where we wanted to eat before hand, we figured we would come across a good place! Here, I had a croissant and scrambled eggs, and everything was amazing. The food here was truly living up to the hype.

After breakfast, we went into Shakespeare and Company, which is a world famous English bookstore where authors like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald have all came to write. The bookstore was small, but it held so much character. I really enjoyed walking through it. I actually wish it had French books because I was looking to read more in French, but it was meant to be an English bookstore!

The Top of the Arc de Triomphe

After browsing Shakespeare and Company, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. We had walked by it our first day, but we wanted to go to the top! I actually had no clue that this was possible. My friends and I all got in for free since we were students in France, this was so nice.

There was a really long line outside of the Arc so we actually had waited quite a while to finally go inside and climb the stairs. But we didn’t have a lot planned for the day so we had time.

I’m glad we waited, because once we reached the top, the view of Paris is incredible! You can see a complete panorama of the whole city, and how the Arc de Triomphe is at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle. You can see all of the streets spanning out from the arc, almost like rays of a sun.

Exploring Montmartre

Our main event for today was seeing Montmartre! Montmartre is in Paris’ 18 arrondissement and you can reach it easily by taking the metro – it’s only about a 25 minute metro ride from the Arc de Triomphe.

Montmartre is known for being Paris’ art district, as well as being the home of the beautiful Sacré-Cœur basilica at the top of the hill. You can also see the rest of Paris from the Sacré-Cœur, which gives you such a different perspective of the city versus when you are near the Eiffel Tower. This basilica was free to enter and stunning! Definitely add this to your itinerary if you are planning a trip to Paris!

After seeing the basilica, we strolled through the back streets, which is where all of the artists were. Every artist set up their own space, and were either selling art, making portraits, or making music! It was such a lively place to be. Even the quieter streets as we walked down the hill were so pretty. Montmartre is so cute!

Night 2 in Paris: Dinner + the Clubs

For dinner, we all decided on an Asian restaurant right near our Airbnb. The place is called ZG Ramen and it was the first time I’ve tried ramen from a restaurant! Growing up, I thought ramen was just a quick and easy meal you made from a packet. I didn’t realize until living in Arizona that it was a classic Japanese dish, and now one of my favorite things to eat.

After dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle at night! When we arrived, we had just made it in time to see it sparkle at the top of 10pm, but we saw it up close and couldn’t enjoy it. We decided to wait until 11pm to see it sparkle again! The hour went by fast. We found a spot across the river and had a great view for when it went off again.

After the Eiffel Tower sparkled again, we went to Place de la Bastille where a lot of bars are. Though, since it was a Tuesday night, a lot of the bars were quite empty. But we still had a fun night out and met new people!

Day 3: Musée d’Orsay + Flying to Rome

On our final day in Paris, we were all parting ways. Amelie and Lucy were flying to Mallorca. Ansley was flying to Ireland. And I was flying to Rome. Their flights all left early in the morning, but mine wasn’t until 4pm so I had lots of time to still explore Paris!

We all stopped for a quick breakfast at a boulangerie right near our Airbnb called Boulangerie Nicolas Flamel. I had a pain au chocolat from here, and oh my god this was without a doubt the best pain au chocolat I’ve ever head. It wasn’t too flakey, perfectly baked, and the flavor was amazing. I was in heaven.

After the boulangerie, I headed to the Louvre while my friends headed to the airport. I dropped my bag off at a café using Nannybag. My friends told me about this super simple service and honestly it was so convenient! Basically, different businesses will sign up with Nannybag, and you pay to have them store your luggage for a few hours. I was so happy to not have to lug my bag around in the museum or on the streets of Paris!

I had planned on going to the Louvre that morning because my friends said I could get in without a ticket, but I guess they weren’t allowing walk ins that day. So I went to Musée d’Orsay instead, which was super close.

I honestly loved Musée d’Orsay! I’m not normally a big museum person, but I do know I love impressionism art, and they had a whole section dedicated to impressionism. My favorite artist is George Seurat, so I was happy I could see some of his paintings!

I spent just over an hour there before picking up my bag, grabbing a quick lunch, and heading to the airport!

---

After my first trip to Paris, I was surprised by how much I loved the city. I had heard so many people’s opinion prior; some people loved it, some thought Parisians were rude, and some just hated Paris. But honestly I loved how big it is and how there is to see and do!

I hope you found this detailed itinerary helpful! À plus!