Paris · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Expensive to sleep in, cheap to look at — Paris gives away more than it charges for.
Belleville and the canal
The tenth, eleventh and twentieth hold the good-value hostels, with Belleville cheapest and Canal Saint-Martin the one everyone wants.
What a day costs
Around €65–100 a day, roughly $70–110: dorm €30–50, boulangerie and market food €20–30, metro and one museum €15–25.
Getting around cheap
Buy a Navigo Easy card and load ten-trip bundles, or the weekly Navigo if you arrive on a Monday. Vélib bikes cost a few euros a day.
Free by day
The permanent collections at Carnavalet, the Petit Palais and the Musée d'Art Moderne are free, as is Père Lachaise. National museums open free on first Sundays.
Where travellers meet
In summer the Canal Saint-Martin quays turn into a picnic — bottle from the corner shop, sit on the stone, wait for someone to say hello.