Big Bus Paris: Red Route Stops, Hours and Tickets
Big Bus Paris runs open-top double-deckers on a single loop, the Red Route, with 10 stops between the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Musée d'Orsay, the Champs-Élysées, the Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower. A ticket gives you unlimited hop-on hop-off rides for 24 or 48 hours, recorded commentary in 8 languages, free WiFi and headphones. Tickets start at €28.80, with the Seine cruise and a two-hour night tour available as options in the same booking.
Big Bus Paris Red Route: all 10 stops
The stop list as published for the Red Route. One stop is currently closed.
| No. | Big Bus stop | Where exactly |
| 1 | Louvre-Pyramide | 11 avenue de l'Opéra, by the Big Bus information centre |
| 2 | Louvre-Pont des Arts | Quai François Mitterrand, near the Pont des Arts |
| 3 | Notre-Dame | 3 rue Lagrange, opposite the park entrance |
| 4 | Musée d'Orsay | 58 place Henry de Montherlant, facing the museum |
| 5 | Champs-Élysées | 156 avenue des Champs-Élysées, facing the Arc de Triomphe |
| 6 | Grand Palais | Avenue Winston Churchill, facing the Grand and Petit Palais |
| 7 | Trocadéro | Place du Trocadéro, next to the Musée de l'Homme |
| 8 | Eiffel Tower | Quai Branly, Entrance 2 of the tower |
| 9 | Champ de Mars | Avenue Joseph Bouvard - closed at the time of writing |
| 10 | Opéra Garnier | Facing 15 rue Scribe, next to the Roissy airport shuttle stop |
For what to do at each stop on foot, and where it overlaps with Tootbus and the Batobus, see the Paris hop-on hop-off map guide.
Big Bus Paris hours, loop time and frequency
Big Bus runs every day. Its own site gives the Red Route as 09:45 to 17:30 with a bus every 10 to 20 minutes; the booking page lists the last bus at 17:45. Plan around the earlier time and you will not be caught out.
A full loop takes about 2h15 according to the product listing, and its instructions mention 2.5 hours. The difference is traffic. Mid-afternoon on the Champs-Élysées is the slow bit.
What a Big Bus Paris ticket includes
- Unlimited rides on the Red Route for 24 or 48 hours
- Recorded commentary in English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish
- Free WiFi and free headphones on board (bring your own if you prefer)
- A free rain poncho
- A downloadable bus map
Not included: entry to any museum or monument. Those are separate tickets, or one of the bus and attraction combos.
Bus only
The Red Route for 24 or 48 hours. The simplest Big Bus ticket and the right one if you plan your own boat or museum days.
Bus + Seine cruise
Adds a one-hour cruise with Bateaux Parisiens. Worth it if you would have booked a boat anyway. Details on our bus and cruise page.
Two-hour night tour
A separate evening loop leaving at 20:30 according to Big Bus. Covered on the night bus tour page.
Where to start the Big Bus Paris tour
Stop 1 by the Louvre is where the voucher exchange happens, so it is busy from opening. If your ticket scans on the phone, start at stop 2 on the river or stop 4 at the Musée d'Orsay instead and you skip the crowd that forms at 09:45.
Staying near the Opéra? Stop 10 on rue Scribe is your stop. It sits right next to the airport shuttle, which helps on the day you leave.
Big Bus Red Route stop by stop: what is next to each
| Stop | On foot from the stop | Allow |
| 1 Louvre-Pyramide | The glass pyramid, the Tuileries Garden, the Palais-Royal arcades | 30 min outside, 3 h inside the museum |
| 2 Louvre-Pont des Arts | The footbridge to the Institut de France, the bouquinistes on the quays | 20 min |
| 3 Notre-Dame | The cathedral square, Sainte-Chapelle, the Latin Quarter across the bridge | 1 to 2 h with lunch |
| 4 Musée d'Orsay | The Impressionists, the footbridge over to the Tuileries | 2 h inside |
| 5 Champs-Élysées | The Arc de Triomphe and its rooftop, the top of the avenue | 1 h |
| 6 Grand Palais | The Petit Palais, free to enter, and the Pont Alexandre III | 45 min |
| 7 Trocadéro | The terrace facing the Eiffel Tower, the gardens running down to the Seine | 30 min |
| 8 Eiffel Tower | The tower, the Champ de Mars lawns | 2 h if you go up |
| 10 Opéra Garnier | The opera house, the department store rooftops on boulevard Haussmann | 1 h |
Pick three of these for a 24-hour ticket and five or six for 48 hours. The Grand Palais stop is the quiet one most people ride past, and the Petit Palais across the road is one of the few museums in Paris with a free permanent collection.
Listening to the Big Bus commentary
The recorded commentary plays on every seat and follows the bus as it moves, so the story about the Pont Alexandre III starts as you reach the bridge. Pick your channel once at the start and leave it.
- Languages: English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.
- Headphones: free on board. A wired pair of your own sounds better on the open deck, where the wind gets in.
- WiFi: free on the bus, handy for checking the next stop or uploading a photo.
- Map: a downloadable bus map comes with the ticket. Save it offline before you set out.
Korean speakers in particular should note that Big Bus is the only one of the two bus companies with a Korean channel.
A half-day on the Red Route
- 09:45 - board at stop 2, Louvre-Pont des Arts, and ride to the Champs-Élysées with the commentary on.
- 10:45 - off at stop 5. Climb the Arc de Triomphe for the view down the twelve avenues.
- 12:00 - back on to stop 7, the Trocadéro. Photos of the tower from the terrace.
- 12:30 - walk over the Pont d'Iéna to the Eiffel Tower and lunch on the Champ de Mars.
- 14:30 - board at stop 8 and ride back along the river to the Louvre. Done by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free.
Big Bus in winter and in summer
The Red Route runs every day of the year, but the season changes how much you get out of the same ticket. Plan the loop around the light, not around the clock.
| Winter | Summer | |
| Last bus | Around 17:30 | Check the timetable for your date |
| Best time on the top deck | Late morning, when it is mildest | Early morning and the evening loop by the river |
| What to pack | Warm layer, gloves, hat | Hat, sunscreen, water: the top deck has no shade |
| How to split the day | Bus in the morning, museum near a stop after lunch | Bus early, long shaded lunch, bus again at dusk |
Rain or shine, the poncho that comes with the ticket and the covered lower deck keep the loop usable. Very hot afternoons are the harder case, which is why a 24-hour ticket scanned in the morning and used again in the evening works so well in July.
Big Bus with a Seine cruise: how the package works
The cruise option adds a one-hour Bateaux Parisiens boat to the bus ticket, on the same booking. The boat leaves from the foot of the Eiffel Tower, a short walk from stop 8, which makes the day almost plan itself.
- Morning: ride the full Red Route with the commentary, without getting off.
- Late morning: get off at stop 8, Eiffel Tower, and have lunch on the Champ de Mars.
- Early afternoon: walk to the Bateaux Parisiens pier below the tower and board the one-hour cruise.
- After the boat: back on the bus at stop 8 to the Louvre or the Opéra.
Leave at least half an hour between getting off the bus and the boat departure: traffic decides when the bus arrives, and the boat leaves on time. Big Bus also sells the evening version, with the two-hour night tour instead of the daytime boat, on the same product page.
Prices are "from" prices in euros and vary by date and option; the price at checkout is the one that applies. Independent guide, not affiliated with Big Bus, Tootbus, Batobus or Bustronome.