Buy skip-the-line timeslot tickets for the Louvre Museum online or book guided tours for fast-track admission to the Mona Lisa and top art in Paris.
Time-slot reservations and skip-the-line tickets are not obligatory to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris. However, reservation tickets remain utterly sensible for all visitors including pass holders, children, and young people qualifying for free admission. Lines at the Louvre are notoriously long making online fast-track tickets a good timesaving deal. On busy days, tickets sell out but guided tours, which are the fastest way to enter the Louvre, may still be bookable. The best time to see the famous Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and other top works of art is to visit the Louvre late afternoon.
Plans to move the Mona Lisa to a special new gallery and to add more entrances to the Louvre Museum were announced in early 2025. However, it will be years before anything changes for visitors. The pyramid entrance remains the main admission entrance to the Louvre Museum for individual ticket holders. Entry through the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall entrance is usually faster.
Cheap Tickets for the Louvre Museum in Paris
In 2024, ticket prices for the Louvre Museum in Paris increased sharply to €22. Timeslot reservations are currently optional but remain sensible even on quiet days. Buying Louvre tickets at the museum is only possible at the quietest of times as visitors without advance tickets are last in line at the notoriously long security checkpoint queues. Spending €2 more on advance purchase specific time-slot tickets could save hours of queuing.
Admission to the Louvre Museum in Paris is free for the following but make free time-slot reservations on the Louvre website:
- All visitors younger than 18 years old.
- Visitors 18 to 25 who are residents of the European Economic Area (EU and EEA).
- Paris Museum Pass holders — special link for making free time slot reservations.
- All visitors on the first Friday of the month after 18:00, excluding July and August. Free ticket reservations are essential and only possible a few days in advance.
All visitors on the first Sunday of the month from October to April and on 14 July. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month remains suspended at the Louvre but is possible at many other Parisian museums.
Buy Time-Slot Skip-the-Line Tickets for the Louvre Museum
Time-slot reservation tickets give visitors priority at the security checkpoints within a specific half-hour period and thereafter direct admission to the galleries. (If missing the half-hour timeslot, join the queue for visitors without tickets and wait.)
Skip-the-line tickets for the Louvre Museum in Paris are €22 and are available from many resellers including Tiqets and Get Your Guide. (Resellers may have different availability in peak periods.) Resellers usually have more generous cancellation options too and sometimes have savings deals if buying tickets for further sights in Paris in the same transaction.
Avoid resellers that require vouchers to be exchanged for paper tickets at a nearby shop or office. These add hassle rather than convenience.
The official audio guide is available for anyone for rent at the museum (€6), or even better, download a guide or study a good guidebook before visiting – many are available online ranging from free with good visiting tips to premium guides by art experts. The Louvre claims to be the world’s largest museum — the permanent collections are spread over 400 rooms and include around 35,000 artworks ranging from ancient civilizations and Egyptian antiquities to the French Revolution and early 19th century. (More 19th-century art is in the MusĂ©e d’Orsay and modern art in the Pompidou.)
Guided tours give the fastest admission to the Louvre Museum – see more details below.
Official combination tickets with other sights are not sold by the Louvre. Some resellers offer small discounts if buying tickets for the Louvre and other sights at the same time. (Visits may be several days apart if preferred). Tiqets sells Louvre Museum package deal tickets with for example the MusĂ©e d’Orsay, Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, Centre Pompidou, Opera Garnier, Sainte Chapelle, Arc de Triomphe, or the Palace of Versailles.
Best Times to Visit the Louvre Museum in Paris
The Louvre Museum in Paris is open Wednesday to Monday from 9:00 to 18:00, closing at 21:00 on Wednesday and Friday.
The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays (including public holidays), 1 January, 1 May, and 25 December.
The best times to visit the Louvre are weekdays after 15:00 and on open evening days (except on the first Friday of each month when admission is free). See the Mona Lisa last – rooms start to close from half an hour before closing.
Another good time for a Louvre visit is first thing in the morning on weekdays – be in the queue at 8:45 rather than 9:30 – and see the Mona Lisa (and other top 10 sights) first.
The worst time to see the Louvre Museum is any day when admission is free, most weekends (especially long weekends), school vacations, July and August.
No one can see all of the Louvre in a day – even on the busiest day, once past the security line and the scrum at the Mona Lisa, many of the rooms further away from the most famous artworks will be surprisingly quiet and very easy to enjoy in peace.
Louvre Museum Entrances
The main entrance to the Louvre Museum is via the large glass pyramid in the central courtyard. The Pyramid entrance is always open for individual travelers.
The Carrousel entrance in the underground shopping mall is a great choice and may save time even for visitors with time-slot reservation Louvre Museum tickets. The Carrousel du Louvre entrance may be inside a bland underground shopping mall off Rue de Rivoli but it offers protection against rain, wind, and sun — on busy days, this is the best way to enter the Louvre as fewer people use this handy entrance.
Other entrances – Passage Richelieu and Porte des Lions are usually not for individual travelers but often give groups fast access. (The Porte des Lions entrance is sometimes open for individuals at busy times but no bag storage is available.)
Louvre Museum Queueing System
Queuing at the entrance to the Louvre Museum is for the security check. Entering through the glass pyramid is free and tickets are only required (and checked) once entering the museum galleries. The basic queues follow the following color system in order of preference for admission:
- Blue Line – visitors needing assistance, e.g. disabled, infirm, pregnant.
- Green Line – visitors with specific time-slot tickets (almost everyone) — note Paris Museum Pass holders currently must make free time-slot reservations at the official Louvre ticket website.
- Orange Line – visitors with tickets.
- Yellow Line– visitors without tickets (a limited number of tickets are sold daily on-site from vending machines).
Visitors qualifying for free tickets and Paris Museum Pass holders should also make time-slot reservations at the Louvre official website. In contrast to so many other sights, these reservations actually are free. Otherwise, wait in the yellow line but may join the other queues if traveling with someone with a paying ticket.
Time-slot tickets are valid for the whole calendar day. If you missed a timeslot, join the orange or yellow queue. If lines are very long, try your luck at the green queue first!
There is little point in turning up too early for time-slot reservations. If pressed for time, the best is to arrive five to ten minutes after the time so the specific queue is already moving. On the hour and half-past ticketholders queue in different lines.
Quick Entry Guided Tours of the Louvre Museum
The quickest way to enter the Louvre Museum is as part of a guided tour. A huge variety of tours are available and in some cases may even be booked on the day of the tour itself. Visitors may stay inside the museum after the tour.
A few things to consider when booking Louvre Museum guided tours:
- A short 2-hour highlights tour (or even a 90-minute top-ten express tour) is a good way to enter the museum fast and to see the top famous works. At the end of the tour, visitors may of course stay in the museum until closing time.
- Longer 3-hour tours are hardly more expensive than the highlights tours and are better options for visitors less interested in staying behind to explore further on their own (although you may of course remain in the museum).
- A private tour may cost more but is generally more pleasant and a better option for visitors who may struggle with stairs. Private tours for families are also great when traveling with children.
When comparing tours, be careful of advertised “from” prices. Some cheap tour prices are only available at limited time slots if booked months in advance. Always compare the final prices before booking.
Some “tours” provide little more than an accompanied walk through security (using the group entrance) and a fast-track shortcut to the Mona Lisa. These add very little value except right at the museum’s opening time. Rather take a proper guided tour, top-ten highlights if time is pressing, or do it alone. The Mona Lisa room is going to be crowded anyway.
Tour groups not offering fast-track admission to the Louvre, or meeting inside the museum, are saving at the wrong end.
Combining Tours for the Louvre Museum in Paris
Combining a guided tour of the Louvre Museum with longer Paris day tours and other sights may be a good money-saving deal and a good option for travelers with limited time. However, read the fine print – some “tours” offer little more than tickets and a map for a self-guided tour.
Popular combination tours recommended by Get Your Guide include for example touring the Louvre and a Seine cruise, the Eiffel Tower and Seine River cruise, a guided tour of the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay for a lot of top art in a few hours, or the Palace of Versailles to include two top Paris sights in a full-day tour.
Seeing the Louvre is also possible on a day trip from London using the Eurostar trains.
