Is Versailles very crowded?

My Paris guide book warns the reader that Versailles is very crowded, you have to queue everywhere there. Now I%26#39;ve started to doubt if I shouldn%26#39;t go there but spare the time for something else nice. I%26#39;ll arrive Paris on afternoon the 2nd July (Saturday) and leave it early evening the 5th (Tuesday) and my plans would be following: Saturday, Sunday and Monday: Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elyseesees and other must-sees, Louvre, Montmartre, just walking and enjoying the atmosphere, doing some shopping in their cute clothing stores. Tuesday: Versailles. - So if you were me, would you leave the Versailles trip away or not? I am interested to see it but it%26#39;s frustrating to spend a lot of time in queues during such a short trip like mine, so what do you think?

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ON a Tuesday if you arrive early you should be allright, make sure you get there before the appartments open. Or you can buy a day-pass if you want to spend the whole day there. It is certainly worth it!!

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Raphy

You seem to know the place reasonably well! I am planning to go on a Sunday in order to see the fountains. I hoped that arriving as the gates open might help. Is this also true on a Sunday (in June)? Does buying the all day pass from Transilien before you arrive save any time in queues? I really, really want to see it properly and I hate crowds.

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We were there last Saturday. Crowds were pretty bad in the entry line and in the state apartments but they were tolerable elsewhere. Crowding increased throughout the day. We%26#39;d planned to go by RER but the line to Versailles was down for the weekend, so we had to take SNCF through Montparnasse - bottom line, we didn%26#39;t get there until 10. By that time, the entry line required 30-40 minutes of waiting. We did buy the all-day pass for 20 euros and were very glad we did; we didn%26#39;t wait in any more lines. Either arriving when the gates opened or buying the pass in advance would%26#39;ve obviated the greatest of our frustrations. We also took the little tram from the gate marked %26quot;H%26quot; to Grand Trianon, Petite Trianon and the Grand Canal - we got to see plenty of the gardens from the tram, tour the areas around each of the stops at our leisure and we saved ourselves miles of walking on tired feet... the cost was 3,50 euros (discounted by 1,50 because we had the day pass); there was a line for that because only one person sold tickets, but it wasn%26#39;t too bad. We had 10 days and were delighted to have spent one at Versailles - with good planning, you should be able to include it and can probably even get some museum or shopping time in when you get back to Paris.

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That%26#39;s really handy to know, thanks, Much2learn. I hadn%26#39;t thought about the train system spoiling any of my plans either!! Sounds like if we stick to the plan to be up and at %26#39;em very early with passes in hand we should do OK. We want to hire bikes once we%26#39;ve done a few of the main appartments so I understand we need to be through and out to the bike queues well before lunchtime. The little train sounds like a good fallback option if the bikes are too popular.

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Is Versailles very crowded ? Surely you jest !

The massive crowds are the reason I will not

be returning. There are some creative ways

to minimize the effects, but no matter what,

the are a LOT of people. Once I thought I would

return and just see the Gardens; I gave up

on that too.

If you decide to brave it, please post your response.

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My wife and I visited Versailles over parts of two days in early May. Rented a car in Paris on a Sunday (May 1) in the early afternoon and reached Versailles at about 2:15. Saw Les Grandes Eaux Musicales. Definitely a large number of people, but the gardens are so immense that it didn%26#39;t really seem %26quot;crowded.%26quot; We returned on the following Tuesday, reaching the state apartments entrance at about 3:30. The entry fee is reduced by a couple of euros after 3:30, and I had read that the last tour groups start at 3. Well, apparently the groups were running late that day as it was wall to wall bodies in nearly every room. Tour guides and their groups are exceedingly annoying IMO as they seem to regard anyone who ISN%26#39;T in their group as an obstacle to be moved or run over/through/into/etc.

We actually backtracked after getting herded to the end of the tour. HUGE difference in the crowds between 3:30ish and 5:15ish. The hall of mirrors is quite nice without hordes of pushy tourists. We were kind of bummed about half of it being closed, but you still get a very good sense of the grandeur. After we left the apartments, we strolled around the gardens for another couple of hours. Even made it to the Trianons and the Queen%26#39;s Hamlet (on foot no less, which is quite a hike!).

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If you intend to go on the week-ends to see the fountains on, you WILL have crowds, although the queue at the booth will be short. Actually i was there today for work, and it was quite crowded with schoolchildren, in May and June it is often like that. During the week in the morning or during lunchtime (12 to 14) it should be all right, although i would still recommend the pass sold at the SNCF train deck that includes the palace ticket and train ticket. Then you can pass the queues .For the gardens during the week, or fountain shows on the week-end you shouldn%26#39;t have queues to buy.

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Given your tight schedule, I wouldn%26#39;t recommend it. There is plenty to do in Paris.

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MDV,

I AM a tour guide and i didn%26#39;t know we were an annoyance!

See how difficult it is to do a guided tour there, and you will understand. Often we have tight schedule, our groups keep scattering when we ask them to remain as one group etc...With all the noise that people make, you will see it is not easy to do a tour there!

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I went last Friday %26amp; the longest line was to get your bag x-rayed. We had museum passes, but the ticket line didn%26#39;t seem long. We also got there at 10 - I%26#39;d suggest getting there early, which was my intent, but my SO didn%26#39;t feel the same. It was ungodly hot, so I didn%26#39;t get to enjoy the grounds too much. The train to the Trianon was worth it %26amp; I really liked the Grand %26amp; Petite Trianon the best (admission is included in the museum pass). With such a short trip, I%26#39;d skip Versailles %26amp; check out Napoleon%26#39;s apartment in the Louvre if you want to see monetary excess spent on a dwelling! I liked Versailles, but I think I would have rather gone to a less crowded chateau - if the exist! Also, the hall of mirrors is being partially worked on, so you only see one half of it - which wasn%26#39;t a big deal to me, but it might be to others.