Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.
destination · Paris
Paris in 2026: the Louvre now charges non-EU visitors 45% more, and paper metro tickets are being phased out
Review of Paris
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Share your experienceParis earns its reputation, and two years after hosting the 2024 Olympics the city is still cashing in the legacy. The Seine reopened to public swimming after a century-long ban, with three supervised sites at Bras Marie, Bercy and Grenelle that opened on July 5, 2025, following a roughly 1.4 billion euro water-quality cleanup. For summer 2026, Paris is expanding to eleven supervised swimming areas starting July 4. The Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis is now a public facility and hosts the 2026 European Swimming Championships, a rare case of Olympic infrastructure actually benefiting locals afterward instead of sitting empty. The money side is where honesty matters most. As of January 14, 2026, the Louvre introduced a two-tier price: 22 euros for EU/EEA residents and 32 euros for everyone else, a 45 percent jump for non-EU visitors from the old flat rate. Entry is free under 18, for EU residents aged 18 to 25, and on the first Saturday evening of each month from 18:00 to 21:45, but timed-slot booking through ticket.louvre.fr is mandatory for every visitor, free entry included, and slots are released up to 60 days ahead and do sell out in peak season. The Eiffel Tower runs the same logic: stairs to the second floor start around 14.80 euros for an adult, summit access by lift runs up to about 36.70 euros, and lift slots can be booked 60 days out versus 40 days for stairs. If you're doing several paid sites, the Paris Museum Pass runs 85 euros for two days, 105 for four, or 125 for six, covering 50-plus attractions including Versailles, Orsay and the Arc de Triomphe, though nine of the biggest names, including the Louvre and Orsay, still require you to book a free timed slot separately even with the pass in hand. Getting around is in the middle of a real transition. The old paper Ticket t+ was discontinued in 2025 and replaced by a Metro-Train-RER ticket and a separate Bus-Tram ticket, both loaded onto a Navigo card, with a single fare priced at 2.55 euros as of January 1, 2026. A reusable Navigo Easy card costs 2 euros to buy. Remaining magnetic paper tickets stop working on buses in May 2026 and across the entire metro, RER and train network in June 2026, so anyone still carrying old paper stock needs to use it up or switch over. From Charles de Gaulle airport, the RER B into central Paris runs on a dedicated Paris Region-Airports fare priced at 14 euros for an adult as of January 1, 2026, with trains roughly every 6 to 15 minutes and a ride of around 30 to 40 minutes. The tourist tax adds up fast and is easy to miss when comparing hotel prices online. As of January 1, 2026, Paris raised its taxe de sejour rates and folded in an Ile-de-France Mobilites transport surcharge equal to 200 percent of the base tax, pushing the per-adult, per-night charge to roughly 15.93 euros in a palace or unclassified rental, 11.70 euros at a 5-star, around 8.45 euros at a 4-star, and 5.53 euros at a 3-star. It applies per adult per night and is charged on top of the room rate, not included in it, and children under 18 are exempt. Drivers should also know that since January 1, 2025, only vehicles carrying a Crit'Air 0, 1 or 2 sticker are allowed into the central low-emission zone, with a 68 euro fine for noncompliance, though an exemption for older Crit'Air 3 vehicles has been extended through the end of 2026. None of this is exotic danger, but the friction is real and repetitive. The petition scam near the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, where someone posing as deaf or mute pushes a clipboard at you while an accomplice works your pockets, is still active. So is the friendship bracelet trick around Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur, where a stranger ties a bracelet on your wrist before demanding payment for it. Unofficial ticket sellers and people posing as helpful strangers at metro machines are a smaller but persistent nuisance. None of it is violent, all of it is avoidable by not engaging, but tourists who show up expecting a stroll through a museum brochure get caught off guard by how transactional the city has become around its own landmarks.
What was great
The Seine swimming reopening is a genuine, verifiable win from the Olympics, not marketing spin. Three supervised sites opened in 2025 and the city is expanding to eleven for summer 2026, alongside a public Olympic Aquatics Centre that now hosts real community swimming instead of sitting fenced off. The city's core appeal, walkable historic neighborhoods, food, and world-class museums, hasn't changed, and options like the Paris Museum Pass make it possible to see a lot for a fixed, predictable cost if you plan the reservations. Transit remains cheap by major-city standards even after the 2026 fare update, at 2.55 euros a ride, and the RER B gives a fast, direct link from Charles de Gaulle without needing a taxi or rideshare. For travelers willing to book ahead, timed entry actually means shorter lines once you arrive, since crowd flow is capped by design rather than by chance.
What nearly ruined the trip
The friction is all in the fine print. The Louvre's new two-tier pricing, 22 euros for EU/EEA residents versus 32 euros for everyone else since January 14, 2026, is a real cost difference many non-EU visitors won't see coming until they're at checkout. Mandatory timed-entry booking at the Louvre and Eiffel Tower means spontaneous visits are largely dead, walk-ups risk being turned away when slots are full, and the booking windows (60 days for most, 40 for Eiffel Tower stairs) require actual pre-trip planning. The metro ticketing changeover is genuinely confusing right now, with paper Ticket t+ discontinued, a new Navigo-based system in place, and old magnetic tickets set to stop working entirely by June 2026, a rolling deadline that trips up visitors using outdated guides. Add a tourist tax that can run close to 16 euros per adult per night on top of the room rate, and persistent low-grade scams (the petition trick, the friendship bracelet con) clustered right at the landmarks you came to see, and the honest picture is a city that rewards research and punishes anyone who shows up assuming it will just work like it used to.
Safety
★★★★☆ Mostly fineValue for money
★★★☆☆ FairMore from Paris
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