Where to stay in Paris

A Paris hotel is only as good as the arrondissement around it, because every day in the city starts and ends at the same metro station. The difference between a good choice and a bad one is rarely the star rating — more often it's whether the metro is three minutes away and whether the night bus runs under your window.

The prices below are for two, per night, in season (April–June and September–October), in a three-star hotel or a decent flat; out of season and in August, when Parisians leave for the coast, count on 20–40% less. The city tax is paid separately and is not in the booking price.

Paris has twenty arrondissements spiralling outwards from the centre like a snail shell: the 1st is the Louvre, the 20th is Père-Lachaise. The arrondissement number is the last two digits of the postcode — 75004 is the 4th, 75018 the 18th — and that is the fastest way to check where a listing's address really is.

The 1st to 4th — for a first visit and a short one

The geographic centre: the Louvre, Châtelet, the Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis, the Hôtel de Ville. Who it suits: a two- or three-night stay, when time costs more than money — Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Seine and Le Marais are a fifteen-minute walk away, and Châtelet is the biggest interchange in the city. Price for two in season: €200–400, and that for twelve square metres facing a lightwell. Transport: every metro and RER line at Châtelet–Les Halles, direct from Charles de Gaulle on RER B. The drawback: the whole quarter is a shop window — the bakeries work for visitors, the delivery vans start at six, and the nearest supermarket is surprisingly far. The Île Saint-Louis is the exception: in the middle of everything, and village-quiet at night.

3 daysFrom the centre the three-day plan barely needs the metro:Paris in 3 days →

Le Marais, the 3rd and 4th — for the evening, not the morning

The quarter that survived Haussmann's rebuilding, so it still looks like pre-boulevard Paris: narrow streets, 17th-century courtyards, the Place des Vosges, the Jewish Rue des Rosiers and more bars per square than anywhere in the city. Who it suits: anyone who cares more about where they are at nine in the evening than at nine in the morning. Price for two: €180–330; there are more flats than hotels and they are generally better. Transport: metro Saint-Paul (line 1), Rambuteau (11), Hôtel de Ville (1 and 11) — line 1 puts you at the Louvre in four minutes. The drawback: at weekends Rue des Francs-Bourgeois carries so many people you move at queue pace, and the old buildings have neither lifts nor sound insulation. Ask for a room on the courtyard, 'sur cour'.

The Latin Quarter, the 5th — a first visit on a Left Bank budget

The Sorbonne, the Panthéon, Rue Mouffetard, the Jardin des Plantes: a student quarter since the thirteenth century, with more small hotels than anywhere else in Paris. Who it suits: travellers who want the Left Bank without Saint-Germain prices, and anyone arriving from Charles de Gaulle — RER B stops at Saint-Michel and Luxembourg. Price for two: €150–280. Transport: RER B and C, metro 4, 7 and 10; Notre-Dame and the Louvre on foot. The drawback: rooms in the old hotels are small and usually without air conditioning, which in July and August is not a detail; around Rue de la Huchette and Place Saint-Michel it is loud until two, and the restaurants there are the worst in the city.

Saint-Germain and the 7th — for quiet, classic and a lift

The 6th and 7th: bookshops, galleries, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Orsay, the Invalides and Rue Cler. Who it suits: older travellers, couples not planning nights out, and anyone who wants a hotel with a reception desk, a lift and room to open a suitcase. Price for two: €230–400, the most expensive choice on this list. Transport: metro 4, 10 and 12, RER C along the river; the Orsay and the Louvre on foot across the bridge. The drawback: the evenings are dead — by ten everything but a few brasseries has closed, and a cheap meal in the 7th takes a search party. If you travel for nightlife, this is the wrong address.

BudgetA room is only half a Paris bill:What Paris costs →

Montmartre and the 18th — the most city for the least money

A hill with a basilica on top and a village underneath: steps, a vineyard, studios and a view over the whole of Paris. Who it suits: travellers on a budget who don't mind climbing, and anyone who wants to step out onto an empty square in the morning. Price for two: €120–230, the cheapest of the quarters you would actually want to be in. Transport: metro 2 and 12, at Abbesses (the deepest station in the city, with a lift that sometimes isn't working), Lamarck – Caulaincourt and Anvers. The drawback: the hill is a real hill — you don't take a suitcase up it, you go around it; and the southern edge, around Pigalle and Barbès, is unpleasant in the evening in a way that isn't dangerous but is tiring. Choose the north and west of the hill, around Rue Caulaincourt and Rue des Abbesses.

Hidden gemsMontmartre in the morning is one of the hacks:Paris past the postcards: the Arc on Wednesdays, free views →

Bastille and République, the 11th — for the city that works at night

The quarter between Place de la République, the Bastille and Père-Lachaise: Oberkampf, Rue de Charonne, the canal along the northern edge, and more good small restaurants than anywhere in Paris at prices that are not tourist prices. Who it suits: travellers between twenty and forty who plan their evenings, and returning visitors who have done the centre. Price for two: €130–250. Transport: metro 1, 5, 8, 9 and 11; line 1 reaches the Louvre in ten minutes. The drawback: on Friday and Saturday nights Rue Oberkampf and Rue de Lappe are loud until three, and the Eiffel Tower and the Orsay are twenty-five minutes away with a change — this is not the quarter for someone with two days and a list of sights.

What to avoid

• Around Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est at night. By day it is just a station; after ten the streets east of Gare du Nord and around La Chapelle are not where you want to be walking with a suitcase. If you have an early train, take a hotel west of the station, towards Rue La Fayette.
• The 19th and 20th on a first stay. Cheap and on the metro, but thirty to forty minutes from everything you came to see — which is two hours a day in a tunnel.
• 'Close to the metro' with no station name. Paris has sixteen lines and over three hundred stations; if the listing doesn't say which station and which line, measure it on a map yourself. And check the floor: 'second floor, no lift' in Paris means three flights, because the ground floor isn't counted.
• The Champs-Élysées and the 8th. A prestige address, but empty in the evening, expensive and full of chains; what you came to Paris for is two kilometres east.
• A ground-floor room facing a boulevard. Paris boulevards run twenty-four hours, and old single-glazed windows stop nothing.

Day tripsFor Versailles and Giverny the station matters, not the quarter:Day trips from Paris →

Rough prices by quarter

For two per night, 2026 season, tax not included — ≈

GuideNot sure Paris is your city at all?Paris →