Paris Catacombs ToursParis Catacombs Tours
Below the 14th arrondissement

Paris Catacombs Tours

Timed entry, small-group walks and the departures that unlock the closed chambers

Paris Catacombs tours take you twenty metres beneath the 14th arrondissement, along a mile and a half of galleries stacked with the remains of several million Parisians. Compare timed entry tickets, small-group walks and the departures that unlock chambers closed to everyone else, with free cancellation on most of them.

Hours, prices and access verified by the Paris Catacombs Tours team — last checked August 14, 2026

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1786Ossuary consecrated
20 metresBelow the streets
From $43Per person
Paris Catacombs Tours›Tours & Tickets 2026
Updated: August 14, 2026
Most booked

Top Paris Catacombs Tours for 2026

Paris Catacombs tour tickets all include admission, so these three fares cover the whole decision: the cheapest way through the door, the walk that opens the locked chambers, and the one that adds the river.

Best valueParis Catacombs Entry Ticket and Audio Guide

Paris Catacombs Entry Ticket and Audio Guide

★ 4.6 (12,076)1 hour underground

Audio guide in 4 languagesSelf-guidedTimed entry

Collect a pre-booked ticket, walk past the counter and take the full 1.5 km public route at whatever pace suits you. This is the plainest of the Paris Catacombs tickets — no group to keep up with, and the whole story carried by an audio guide in Spanish, English, French or German. An hour is the usual visit, and a timed slot means the 200-person cap is never your problem. The ticket is non-refundable, so settle your date before you buy.

From $43 per person
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Non-refundable — fix your date first

Restricted accessParis Catacombs Special Access Tour

Paris Catacombs Special Access Tour

★ 4.7 (985)2 hours undergroundMax 14

Underground chapelMax 14 or 6Skip the line

Guards unlock gates for your group alone on this two-hour walk, which is what a Paris Catacombs tour with secret rooms and privileged access actually means. Behind them sit a chapel decorated with skulls and femurs and a stretch of the quarryman’s carvings. Numbers run to fourteen, or six on the 1:30, 4:30 and 5:30 pm departures, with a licensed English-speaking guide throughout. Skip-the-line admission is included and the group meets at the Café du Rendez-Vous, a short walk from the entrance.

From $160 per person
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Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead

Paris Catacombs Entry & Seine River Cruise with Audio Guide

Paris Catacombs Entry & Seine River Cruise with Audio Guide

★ 4.5 (1,525)3 hours

Audio guide1-hour Seine cruise3 museum entries

Pair Paris Catacombs entry with the river in a single booking: a timed slot with your own audio guide in four languages, then a one-hour narrated Seine cruise from Port de la Conférence. The cruise ticket stays valid for six months, so the two halves need not fall on the same afternoon. Entry to as many as three temporary exhibitions in listed Paris museums comes with it, from the Musée Cognacq-Jay to the Maison de Victor Hugo. There is no live guide on either half, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours ahead.

From $132 per person
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Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead

Every fare below includes admission. Compare all Paris Catacombs tours

Why book with us

Trusted by Thousands of Visitors

Guided walks led by people who know the galleries, prices that are the operators’ own, and a refund window on nearly every departure.

★

Best Guides

Every guided walk here is led by a licensed English-speaking guide who knows which chamber is worth stopping in and why the bones are stacked the way they are.

✓

Book With Confidence

Most of these tours refund in full up to 24 hours before you start, and each card states its own policy so there is never a surprise at checkout.

☼

Experience of a Lifetime

Twenty metres under the 14th arrondissement, in the quiet and the cool, you walk a mile and a half through the remains of a city that no longer exists.

Visit FranceTripadvisor Travellers’ Choice
Most of these tours cancel free up to 24 hours ahead.
Every option

All Paris Catacombs Tours & Tickets

Self-guided entry with an audio guide, semi-private walks capped at six, and restricted-access departures that open a chapel and a set of carvings — every one with admission inside the fare.

Small groupParis Catacombs Semi-Private Max 6 People Guided Tour

Paris Catacombs Semi-Private Max 6 People Guided Tour

★ 5.0 (236)1 hour 30 minutes undergroundMax 6

Max 6 travellersRestricted areasSkip the line

Six travellers is the hard cap, which makes this the closest thing to a Paris Catacombs private tour you can book. Ninety minutes take in the arranged bone walls and the restricted stretches that a standard ticket route leaves locked, with a professional guide setting the pace. Skip-the-line entry is included, so your time goes on the galleries rather than the pavement. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, and gratuities are optional rather than expected.

From $245 per person
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Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead

Top ratedCatacombs of Paris Small Group Restricted Access Tour

Catacombs of Paris Small Group Restricted Access Tour

★ 4.9 (315)2 hours undergroundMax 7

Max 7 travellersRestricted roomsAdmission included

Descend twenty metres below the boulevards on a Paris Catacombs guided tour capped at seven travellers. Your guide carries the key to gates the standard route never opens, so you see obscure side chambers as well as the main bone galleries. Two hours underground, with skip-the-line admission and a fixed entry slot booked months in advance. Meet outside the main gate at Denfert-Rochereau, with a full refund available up to 24 hours before you start.

From $223 per person
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Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead

Top ratedParis Catacombs Guided Tour

Paris Catacombs Guided Tour

★ 4.9 (248)1 hour 30 minutes undergroundMax 19

90 minutesOptional Seine cruiseAdmission included

Ninety minutes in the Paris Catacombs with a local expert who explains how to read the bone walls and the quarrymen’s carvings rather than walking you past them. The descent runs more than sixty feet below street level, and the commentary covers who was moved down here, when and why. A gift-shop stop closes the visit, and an optional upgrade adds a narrated Seine cruise valid for a year from your tour date. One thing to weigh first: this experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed.

From $163 per person
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Non-refundable — fix your date first

Named chambersParis Catacombs Tour with Restricted Areas

Paris Catacombs Tour with Restricted Areas

★ 4.7 (88)1 hour 30 minutes undergroundMax 19

Two restricted chambersTimed-entry ticketsThe lower galleries

Two restricted chambers are the reason to take this Paris Catacombs tour: the Barrel in the Crypt of the Passion, and a stretch of the lower galleries that timed-ticket holders never reach. Your guide meets you near the Denfert-Rochereau entrance and leads you down the spiral staircase into passages first cut as medieval limestone quarries. Timed-entry tickets are included, so there is no queue and no separate booking to make. Ninety minutes below ground, with a full refund up to 24 hours before departure.

From $198 per person
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Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead

Skip the lineParis Catacombs Tour with VIP Access to Restricted Areas

Paris Catacombs Tour with VIP Access to Restricted Areas

★ 4.6 (1,099)2 hours undergroundMax 15

Restricted areasSkip the ticket lineSmall group

Skip the lines on a Catacombs of Paris tour that follows an English-speaking guide into sections closed to general admission. Two hours cover the main galleries and the special-access chambers, with the story of how these corridors filled as the city’s graveyards overflowed in the late eighteenth century. Admission sits inside the fare and the group is capped, so you hear the guide rather than a headset. Cancellation runs to two days ahead rather than 24 hours, so book with that in mind.

From $292 per person
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Full refund with two days’ notice

The destination

About the Paris Catacombs

Twenty metres under the 14th arrondissement runs the municipal ossuary of Paris, cut first as limestone quarries in the fourteenth century and consecrated for the dead on 7 April 1786. When the Saints-Innocents cemetery closed six years earlier the city had nowhere left to bury anyone, so it moved the graveyards downstairs instead. What you walk today is a mile and a half of galleries whose walls are built from the people who once lived in the streets above, arranged into courses, crosses and inscriptions by a quarry inspector with an eye for composition.

History below Paris

The Saints-Innocents closed in 1780, the quarries were consecrated as the Paris Municipal Ossuary in 1786, and transfers ran on and off until 1860. Inspector Héricart de Thury rearranged the bones into walls between 1810 and 1814, which is the arrangement you see.

Hours, tickets and access

Open Tuesday to Sunday, last admission at 19:30, closed Mondays. Admission is €31 with the audio guide, only 200 people are allowed inside at once, and the route is 131 steps down and 112 back up with no lift at either end.

The galleries and monuments

Bone walls a metre deep faced with skulls, stone tablets naming each cemetery and its date, the Samaritan Fountain, the Sepulchral Lamp and the Wall of the September Martyrs, rebuilt in dry stone during the works that closed the site until April 2026.

The inscribed doorway into the Paris Catacombs ossuary Skulls set into a course of stacked leg bones in the Paris Catacombs A vaulted stone passage on the Paris Catacombs route
Plan your visit

Five things worth settling before you book

The decisions that actually change how the day goes, answered in order.

Getting in

Only 200 people are allowed inside at once, so a Paris Catacombs reservation is a timed entry slot rather than an open ticket. Book the official one at billetterie-parismusees.paris.fr, or take a guided departure that holds its own. Turning up without either works in February and rarely in August.

Read the visiting guide · Book a Paris Catacombs tour

What it costs

Official admission is €31 full rate, €25 reduced and €15 for children 8 to 17, audio guide included. Guided fares run from From $43 to From $292, with entry inside the fare. Paris Catacombs ticket prices are set by the Ville de Paris and move rarely; tour fares move with demand.

Ticket versus guided tour

The stairs

131 steps down a tight spiral, 112 back up, no lift at either end, and a level 1.5 km walk in between. Closed shoes with grip matter more than fitness; the floor is damp stone.

What it is like inside

Best time

Mid-week mornings in the shoulder seasons are the quietest slots on offer. Weekend afternoons in July and August are the hardest to get and the busiest once you are in. Nothing changes underground with the season except the number of people between you and the wall.

More questions answered

Access

Not wheelchair accessible, and not recommended by the site for anyone with reduced mobility, claustrophobia or a cardiac or respiratory condition. Children are welcome and under-14s must be with an adult. There are no toilets and no cloakroom.

Kids, knees and claustrophobia

What you will see

Six things on the route, by name

These are the six moments people describe afterwards. Every ticket reaches all of them, and a guided walk opens locked rooms beyond.

The 131-step spiral descent

A tight stone staircase drops you twenty metres below the street in about two minutes.

« Arrête ! C’est ici l’empire de la mort »

The inscribed lintel at the threshold of the ossuary, and the line everyone photographs.

The bone walls

Femurs stacked in courses and faced with skulls, arranged deliberately rather than piled.

The Tonneau, in the Crypt of the Passion

A barrel-shaped column of bones built as the centrepiece of its own chamber.

The Samaritan Fountain

A quarrymen's well cut into the rock, named for the woman at the well.

The Wall of the September Martyrs

Rebuilt in dry stone during the works that closed the site until April 2026.

The full monuments index
Before you buy

Do you need a guided tour at all?

Sometimes the honest answer is no. Here is what each way in actually buys you.

Buy the official timed ticket

The Ville de Paris sells timed entry through its own ticket office at billetterie-parismusees.paris.fr, €31 full rate with the audio guide included. That covers the whole 1.5 km public route.

Right for you if you only want to see the ossuary and set your own pace.

Catacombs of Paris tour skip the lines

A guided departure holds its own reserved slot, so you join a group rather than a queue. Admission is inside the fare on every guided walk.

Right for you in July and August, when official slots go days ahead.

Pay up for restricted access

Only a guided tour can open the locked side chambers — the skull-lined chapel, the quarryman's carvings, the lower galleries. No ticket reaches them.

Right for you if you have already decided this is worth doing properly.

Which one is me?

I just want to see it, cheaply

The entry ticket with the audio guide covers the full public route for the price of a museum entry. Note that it is non-refundable.

I want a guide, not a crowd

Closest to a Paris Catacombs private tour: the six-guest semi-private walk, capped hard at six travellers.

I want the locked rooms

Five departures hold restricted access. The special-access walk is the best rated of them and refunds at 24 hours.

I have one day and want more than an hour underground

The Catacombs-and-Seine combination adds a narrated river cruise and up to three museum entries to the same booking.

I am bringing teenagers

Any guided small group works; under-14s must be with an adult, and the stairs suit older children far better than toddlers.

Someone in my group cannot manage stairs

No tour can help here — there is no lift and the site does not admit wheelchairs. Plan a surface afternoon in Montparnasse instead.

Compare Paris Catacombs guided tours

Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on most departures.

What to expect

How the visit runs, start to finish

Street level to the bone galleries and back out again — here is how your afternoon unfolds.

1

Meet above ground

Guided groups gather outside the entrance at Denfert-Rochereau, or at a café a few minutes away. Ticket holders go straight to the door.

2

Down 131 steps

A tight spiral staircase takes about two minutes and puts you twenty metres below the street. There is no lift.

3

Twenty minutes of quarry

The route runs through plain limestone galleries first. The bones start at the inscribed doorway.

4

Out at a different street

The exit is nearly 700 metres from the entrance, at 21 bis avenue René-Coty. Bags are checked on the way out.

What To Expect
Compare

Which Paris Catacombs Tour Is Right for You?

Paris Catacombs tours and tickets side by side — price, length, group size and who each one suits.

TourFromLengthGroupBest forBook
Paris Catacombs Entry Ticket and Audio GuideFrom $431 hourSelf-guidedIndependent visitors and photographers who want the route at their own paceBook
Paris Catacombs Special Access TourFrom $1602 hoursMax 14Anyone set on the skull-lined chapel and the carvings, with flexible plansBook
Paris Catacombs Entry & Seine River Cruise with Audio GuideFrom $1323 hoursSelf-guidedFirst-timers with one full day who want the river as well as the ossuaryBook
Paris Catacombs Semi-Private Max 6 People Guided TourFrom $2451 hour 30 minutesMax 6Anyone who wants the closest thing to a private walk through the ossuaryBook
Catacombs of Paris Small Group Restricted Access TourFrom $2232 hoursMax 7Couples and small parties who want the locked chambers and a guide they can talk toBook
Paris Catacombs Guided TourFrom $1631 hour 30 minutesMax 19Visitors who want the history explained properly without giving up a whole afternoonBook
Paris Catacombs Tour with Restricted AreasFrom $1981 hour 30 minutesMax 19Return visitors who have done the public route and want the named side chambersBook
Paris Catacombs Tour with VIP Access to Restricted AreasFrom $2922 hoursMax 15First-time visitors who want the fullest access and the busiest, best-known departureBook

“Our guide’s enthusiasm carried the whole two hours, and it held our fifteen-year-old’s attention the entire way down. He kept feeding her details she is still repeating weeks later.”

— Michael H., United States · August 2026

“Doing the Paris Catacombs at our own pace with the headset suited us perfectly. The cool air was a relief in August, and the commentary is genuinely good.”

— Annie L., Canada · August 2026

“Our guide was superb, but on our date none of the restricted areas were open and we walked the same route as everyone with a door ticket. Worth asking before you book.”

— Elizabeth R., United States · April 2026

Traveller proof

Paris Catacombs Tours Reviews

Guides get named, the cold gets mentioned, and nobody forgets the first wall of skulls. Here is what travellers said this year.

★★★★★

Our guide’s enthusiasm carried the whole two hours, and it held our fifteen-year-old’s attention the entire way down. He kept feeding her details she is still repeating weeks later.

Michael H. · United States · family · August 2026

★★★★★

Being taken through gates that stay locked for everyone else is what made the Paris Catacombs feel worth the money rather than just interesting. Worth every euro of the difference.

Rebecca C. · United States · couple · July 2026

★★★★★

Doing the Paris Catacombs at our own pace with the headset suited us perfectly. The cool air was a relief in August, and the commentary is genuinely good.

Annie L. · Canada · couple · August 2026

★★★★★

Booking three months out was the only reason we got in at all. Walk-up tickets had gone for the whole day by the time we arrived, and the visit itself is very moving.

Joy W. · United Kingdom · couple · August 2026

★★★★

The audio guide carries all of it in whichever language you choose. It is not cheap for an hour underground, but we would still tell people to go.

Allison R. · New Zealand · solo · July 2026

★★★★★

Our guide knew the Paris Catacombs and clearly loved them. The sections off the main route were the part we talked about for the rest of the trip.

Jacob M. · United States · solo · July 2026

★★★★

The tour was easy to follow and the guide was excellent. The one thing to sort out beforehand is where you finish, because the exit is nowhere near where you start.

Kimberley P. · United States · couple · July 2026

★★★★★

The Paris Catacombs were fascinating, and the boat afterwards was a pleasant change of pace. The cruise commentary was hard to hear over the water, but the underground half more than carried the day.

Aaron T. · United States · couple · August 2026

★★★★★

Six of us and a guide, which meant we could ask questions instead of straining to hear over a headset. Of everything we did in Paris, the Catacombs restricted rooms were the highlight.

Elena F. · Italy · first-timer · June 2026

★★★★★

Andrei was clear, informative and easy to follow the whole way through the Paris Catacombs. Nothing was rushed.

Andrew G. · United Kingdom · solo · May 2026

★★★★

Our guide was superb, but on our date none of the restricted areas were open and we walked the same route as everyone with a door ticket. Worth asking before you book.

Elizabeth R. · United States · solo · April 2026

★★★★★

There are a great many steps down and exactly as many back up. In between is a maze of neatly stacked bone with designs worked into it, and the Paris Catacombs are unlike anything else in the city.

Robin D. · United States · repeat visitor · May 2026

Read all reviews
Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Paris Catacombs tours cost?

Guided walks start at $132 and run to $293 per person, and a self-guided entry ticket with the audio guide starts at $43. The gap is mostly about access: the higher fares open gates the public route never reaches.

Do I need to book Paris Catacombs tours in advance?

Yes. Only 200 people are allowed inside at a time, and the site urges you to book online rather than turn up. In July and August the slots go days ahead.

Is a guided tour worth it, or is the entry ticket enough?

If you only want to see the ossuary, the €31 official ticket with the audio guide covers the whole route. A guided departure buys a reserved slot, someone to ask, and on five of these departures a guard who unlocks side chambers.

What is a Paris Catacombs tour with secret rooms & privileged access?

It is a guided departure whose operator holds an arrangement with the site to enter chambers closed to ticket holders — a skull-lined chapel, quarrymen's carvings, sealed galleries. Five of the eight departures sell that access.

Can I cancel a booking?

Most of these tours refund in full up to 24 hours before the start. Two are non-refundable and one asks for two days' notice. Every Paris Catacombs booking on the card below states its own policy.

How much is a ticket in 2026?

The official full rate is €31, the reduced rate €25 and children aged 8 to 17 pay €15, with under 8s go free. The audio guide is included in the price.

Where do I buy official tickets?

Official Paris Catacombs tickets are sold through the Ville de Paris ticket office at billetterie-parismusees.paris.fr. A guided tour is a separate purchase and already includes admission.

What are the opening hours, and is it closed on Mondays?

The Catacombs open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:45–20:30, with last admission at 19:30. They are closed on Mondays.

How many steps are there in the Paris Catacombs?

131 steps down and 112 back up, with no lift at either end. Wear shoes you can climb in and take the descent at your own pace.

How long does the visit take?

The official guidance is about an hour for the 1.5 km circuit. The guided tours run 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, because the guide stops.

How cold is it down there?

About 14 °C all year, and humid with it. Take a layer even in August — the cool is a relief for ten minutes and a nuisance after forty.

Are the Paris Catacombs wheelchair accessible?

No. The floors are uneven, the passages narrow and there is no lift, and the site does not recommend the visit for anyone with reduced mobility. No operator can work around it.

Where does the visit come out?

At 21 bis avenue René-Coty, nearly 700 metres from the entrance. That distance is exactly why there is no cloakroom, so carry nothing you would want to leave behind.

Can I take a bag underground?

Only bags up to 40 × 30 × 20 cm. Suitcases, large bags and motorcycle helmets are refused at the door, and there is nowhere to leave them.

Why are there bones under Paris?

The Saints-Innocents cemetery closed in 1780 after centuries of overcrowding, and the disused limestone quarries beneath the city were consecrated as the Paris Municipal Ossuary on 7 April 1786. The transfers ran, on and off, until 1860.

See all FAQs
Photographs

Paris Catacombs Gallery

The doorway into the Paris Catacombs ossuary, its lintel reading Arrête ! C’est ici l’empire de la mortA pale stone cross set into a wall of stacked femurs and skulls in the Paris CatacombsTwo visitors walking a bone-lined gallery of the Paris CatacombsClose-up of a wall of skulls and leg bones in the Paris Catacombs under warm lightThe barrel-shaped column of stacked bones known as the Tonneau, in the Crypt of the PassionCarved stone plaque recording bones from the Saint-Eustache cemetery deposited in May 1787
View full gallery
Travel guides

Paris Catacombs Travel Guides

The long answers: which departure to book, what the extra fare opens, and when to go.

All Paris Catacombs guides
Blog

From the Paris Catacombs Blog

One question, one answer — the things people ask before they book.

Read the blog
Where it is

Finding the Catacombs of Paris

Catacombs of Paris
1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris

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Address

1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris

Getting there

Denfert-Rochereau (lines 4 and 6, RER B). Take Sortie 1 and the entrance is across the road. The exit is 21 bis avenue René-Coty, nearly 700 metres away — plan your onward journey from there.

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday, 09:45–20:30. Last admission 19:30. Closed Mondays.

Nearby afterwards

Montparnasse cemetery is ten minutes on foot from the exit, and the Jardin du Luxembourg twenty minutes north. The route and map page has both addresses and the walk between them.

Book your Paris Catacombs tour

Timed entry from From $43, guided walks from From $160, and five departures that open chambers no ticket reaches.

See the top tours

Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on most departures. Reserve now, pay later.