5 Days in Paris with Tweens

1. Morning

   Arrive, drop bags, and hand over the map. Give your tween the job of getting the family from the apartment to lunch using buses or the Métro — with supervision, but let them make the calls and the mistakes.

2. Afternoon

   Montmartre. Take the funicular up rather than the steps, walk out onto the terrace in front of Sacré-Cœur for the view across the whole city, then wander the Place du Tertre where the portrait artists work.

3. Evening

   Dinner in the streets below Montmartre, away from the square — the restaurants directly on Place du Tertre are the most touristed food in Paris. Ten minutes' walk downhill improves both price and quality.

1. Morning

   The Louvre, booked for opening. At this age you can hand over the map at the entrance and let your tween route the family to three chosen works — it converts a museum from an endurance test into a task with a finish line. Free entry for under-18s means nobody is calculating whether they got their money's worth.

2. Afternoon

   The Musée d'Orsay across the river, or the Tuileries if the Louvre used everyone up. Orsay is in a converted railway station with the original station clock you can stand behind, and it's smaller and more manageable than the Louvre.

3. Evening

   Let them choose dinner within a budget you set. A crêperie, a Vietnamese place, a bistro — the choosing is the point.

1. Morning

   Disneyland Paris, out on the RER A to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy, which puts you at the gates in around forty minutes. Leave early — arriving mid-morning wastes the expensive part of the day.

2. Afternoon

   Stay in the park. This is the day that has no second plan and needs none.

3. Evening

   Come back on the RER after the evening show if everyone can face it, or leave an hour before to travel with seats and no crowd. Eat something small on the way back rather than queuing for park food at closing.

1. Morning

   Something deliberately different after the park: the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution at the Jardin des Plantes, or the Musée des Arts et Métiers for a tween who likes machines — Foucault's pendulum and early flying machines, and rarely busy.

2. Afternoon

   The Marais on foot. Vintage and streetwear shops around rue des Francs-Bourgeois, falafel on rue des Rosiers, and the Place des Vosges to sit down in. Give them the afternoon's spending money and let it run out.

3. Evening

   Ice cream on the Île Saint-Louis and a walk along the river as the light goes. Notre-Dame from the outside, and the booksellers' green boxes along the quays.

1. Morning

   The Eiffel Tower, booked ahead, or the Panthéon with its own Foucault pendulum and the crypt below. If the weather is poor, the covered passages of the 2nd arrondissement make a good final wander.Book Family-Friendly Eiffel Tower Small-Group Tour on Viator

2. Afternoon

   Lunch, then travel. Let your tween navigate the route to the airport as the last handover of the trip.

3. Evening

   Fly home.

Book opens Viator; ages and cancellation terms are listed per tour.