Exploring Paris with Kids: The Budget Friendly Alternative to Orlando?

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First thing. I cannot believe I almost didnt go to Paris. I was tossing and turning about it being the right place to bring my girls. We all hear stories about this dirty, dangerous, pick pocket filled city. It couldnt have been farther from the truth. We all fell in love with the city. I would live there. My teenagers who wanted to spend their spring break on a beach were looking into apartment pricing before we left. Paris has something for everyone - history, culture, food, nightlife, and charm. I dont understand how anyone could not find a reason to fall in love with this city. We never felt unsafe and felt the city was pretty clean. It was a perfect vacation and I feel so lucky to have visited this city.

It all started with looking into flights. Checking Google Flights randomly would show flights to Europe as low as $1800 round trip for me and my four daughters…total…..round trip… with a carry on bag each. We had just spent about $4,000 on a road trip to Tybee Island, Georgia, and I couldn't help but wonder if I could get them to Europe for a little more money.

For April Vacation 2026 I found round trip tickets to Brussels, Belgium for $2,000. From Brussels we could reach Paris in just over an hour via high speed train. Similar time frame flights to Orlando were much more. Double maybe?

Airbnbs in the middle of the city weren’t terrible either. Elevators are rare and good deals are on 3^rd and 4^th floors. Fun fact – What the French call 1st floor we call the 2nd in the US. An Airbnb for nine days could be had for another $2,000 - but we chose one for $3,000 because my dad wanted to tag along and isn’t the best with stairs. So here’s the rough budget so far. Keep in mind this is one to accommodate 5-6 people as well. Here is the core budget of getting there and staying.

Flights – Aer Lingus round trip to Brussels from Boston (5 people) - $2,000 (Non-refundable. I buy travel insurance to offset this) Quick layover in Dublin each way.

Stay – Airbnb in heart of the city in the 2^nd arrondissement with 2 bedrooms and 2 fold out couches - $3,000

Train

High Speed Train Brussels to Paris round trip - $340 total

About $5300 for the trip – which could have been $4300, I don’t think we did too bad for 5-6 people.

Where to Stay

Airbnb’s are regulated in Paris so make sure there is a registration number in the listing. If I had less kids, I would at least price out hotels. Hostels can also have some good options as well for traveling families.

We chose one in the heart of the city in the 2^nd arrondissement right off of a pedestrian walking street called Rue Montorgueil.  This street was alive every night and the café culture pouring onto the streets was everything we hoped it would be.

I wouldnt stay or eat dinner near tourist locations.

Food

Food is tough to budget for. One great thing about Paris is breakfast and lunch can be very cheap. Most baguettes, croissants, and pain au chocolates were between 2-3 euro. Lunch could be a simple traditional ham and cheese baguette that we found for 4-6 euro. If you wanted to picnic on the Seine you could go to fromagerie for some cheese, a convenience store for a 6 euro bottle of French wine, and have yourself a picnic for fairly cheap.

Adventures

The metro is very easy to navigate and use with their app. And clean! I wouldnt bother with any other means of travel - except walking of course.

Surprisingly my kids, whose ages ranged from 9-18, did not complain at all about our 10-25k step days. What I planned was a controlled wander. Each day had a pocket of the city to explore. Heres a rough example of our itinerary -

Day 1 - Walk Champs-Elysees to Arc De Triomphe, metro to Trocedero for Eiffel Tower views. Walk to Eiffel Tower and gather picnic supplies on a nearby street and picnic on the Champ de Mars . Go up the Eiffel Tower to the 2nd floor with the sunset tickets we booked months in advance. The girls also saved for, and bought, custom Longchamp bags for 125 euro on the Champs-Elysees. This includes a custom stamping - this flagship location being the only one where the Eiffel Tower stamp is available! My girls are fancy. Anyway...

Day 2 - Palace of Versailles and the hamlet out back. Surprisingly the girls favorite part of the whole trip. This night I booked our one fancy dinner at Les Artizans on the street near our Airbnb . The girls were excited to try desserts from a highly acclaimed pastry chef - we now follow Cris Massana on instagram. Our host was a well travelled food critic who was attentive and thoughtful. It sounds a little much but yes, it was the best dinner experience of my life to date.

Day 3 - The Louvre, then one lunch meal reservation nearby. Then we explored some local neighborhoods, Palais Royale and the Tuileries Garden.

Day 4 - Sacré-Cœur, Place du Tertre, Rue de l’Abreuvoir. Good day but probably wouldnt go here a second time on a future trip unless the girls wanted a potrait sketch done in the Place du Tertre. The artists there were incredible.

Day 5 - Walking south from our stay we visited the Louie Vuitton museum (free but advance tickets needed) then explored Ile De Cite and then worked our way to the Latin Quarter.

Day 6 - Catacombs, Grand Mosque, Jardin Des Plantes

We finished the last night with a Seine cruise which timed perfectly with the Eiffel Tower sparking on the hour at 10 PM as it does every hour after sunset till 1 AM I believe?

I think anyone would find that the magic in Paris is in the wandering. We picked major highlights and walked, snacked, ate, and picknicking our way to and from these spots. There was always plenty of time for another street, view, bakery, thrift store, or coffee.

These days could be mixed and matched based on weather. I tried not to book too much in advance to leave room for relaxing, wandering, picnicking, etc. I also left extra room in each day as well as a day on the end with no plans to let the girls decide if they wanted to try something new or revisit another spot.

In each arrondissement I wrote down must see spots, less-cool but would like to see spots, and a few different food spots to keep some structure in the day. There is nothing worse than being in a foreign country and constantly doubling back on walking to find something - especially with kids!

Pickpockets!

I don’t understand this one. Proceed with caution like any major city. Parisians will say the same about any US city.

Insurance

For this trip I did buy $1,000,000 in health coverage through BlueCross for around 100 dollars. I also bought travel insurance through Berkshire Hathway to cover the cost of the trip as well as some baggage coverage, trip delay coverage, and a little more health coverage. This cost $107 for the entire family for $4,000 in trip coverage with cancellation for covered reasons such as sickness, death, etc.

So my final note would be to just go. I was intimidated by foreign travel with kids so I planned and planned. But dont plan too much. The best moments were just us exploring, seeing a new culture, and hunting for croissants, falafel, and gelato. Parisians have a reputation of being unfriendly and that wasnt my experience. I would say they are minimal on the small talk. There wasnt much talk about where are you from? or what are you doing while your here? But if you ever needed help or a recommendation they were there. I felt they were just minimal on the small talk which is something I resonate with and appreciate at times.