Your guide to getting around Paris during the Olympics

If you're lucky enough to have secured tickets to watch the world's best athletes battling it out in Paris, you won't want to miss anything due to getting lost or arriving late.

Transport in a strange city can be confusing at the best of times and there will be plenty of changes to public transport while the Games are on that even locals may want to swot up on. 

It's worth giving yourself plenty of time to get to Games venues - both for the transport and for security. Even in normal times entry to a big event in Paris involves a bag search and a security pat-down - plus a ticket check - and security will be very tight indeed during the Games, so allow plenty of time to get into the venue.

There will also be some Metro stations, especially those that are in areas that have been repurposed as Games venues, that will be closed during some or all of the Games period. The exact details of the changes can be found on the Anticiper les Jeux website.

READ MORE: New website launched to help Parisians avoid Olympics travel headaches

When you arrive in Paris it's well worth downloading a transport app such as CityMapper, Google maps or the Paris-based Île-de-France Mobilitiés that will give you route suggestions from your location to each venue, based on up-to-date information on public transport services.

If you're planning on using public transport, you may also want to buy in advance the special Olympic travel pass - full details here. 

Games venues in the Paris region are broadly divided into three types; events held in city centre venues, events held in sports stadiums in Paris and its suburbs and events held at venues further out in the greater Paris Île-de-France region.

City centre venues

One of the unique features of the Paris Games is that events will be held in the city centre in non-sports venues - the concept being to bring sport 'out of the stadiums and into the city'.

These locations include the Place de la Concorde, the Champ de Mars and Trocadéro (in front of the Eiffel Tower), the Grand Palais and Les Invalides. Some events such as the triathlon and the opening ceremony are also taking place in the River Seine as it runs through the city centre.

The big advantage of these venues is that they are right in the centre of the city and as they are all established tourist venues they're well served by public transport and clearly signposted.

If you're staying in the city centre they may well be within walking distance - Paris is a compact capital and you can walk across the entire width if the city in just over two hours, so when looking up a route it's worth checking how long it would take you to talk there.

You can also take advantage of the city's Vélib' network and hire a bike to get around, or take the Metro as all of these venues are well served by multiple Metro lines.

Paris also has a network of official city taxis, plus ride-hire services (known as VTCs) such as Uber, Bolt and their local equivalent Heetch.

READ ALSO What you need to know about taking a taxi in Paris

Paris sports stadiums

Slightly further away from the city centre are most of the stadiums - these are mostly existing sports venues that are being used for Olympic and Paralympic events, such as Parc des Princes (normally the home ground of Paris-Saint-Germain football club) and Roland Garros which is the usual venue for the French open.

Although slightly further away from the city centre, these venues are all within Paris itself and can be easily accessed by bike, Metro, bus or on foot. They are well served by Metro stations and are part of Zone 1, meaning they can be accessed by any type of travel ticket. 

Suburban sports stadiums

There are three venues that although they are not far from the city centre are technically in the suburbs, rather than Paris itself, which is important in transport terms.

Although it's only 6km from the Eiffel Tower, the La Défense Arena is the other side of Bois de Boulogne, meaning it is not technically in Paris itself. It is easily accessible by bus or Metro, or by bike, but if you are travelling on public transport you will need a ticket that covers Zone 1 and Zone 2. The standard single tickets available from ticket machines or the Île de France Mobiltés app only cover Zone 1. 

Likewise Stade de France and the newly built aquatics centre, which is next to Stade de France, are also outside of Paris itself.

Slightly further away than La Défense they are well served by public transport, but require a ticket that covers Zone 1 and Zone 2. Stade de France is not especially walkable because the route involves crossing several motorways, but there is a newly constructed cycle path that takes you out of northern Paris from La Villette and directly to the stadium. There is bike parking and Vélib' racks outside the stadium. 

Venues in the Île-de-France region 

Then there are the venues further out - these are still in the greater Paris region, but it should be noted that French regions are pretty big and Île-de-France is 12,000 square kilometres.

If you're using public transport to reach these venues you will either need a travel pass that includes the entire region, or buy individual tickets to these venues - these are more expensive than the single city centre tickets, usually around €4-€5 per person for a single ticket.

All the Games venues are connected to the Paris public transport network, but you're more likely to be using the RER suburban rail network than the Metro. They're probably a bit far to walk or cycle unless you're feeling very sporty - although there is a cycle path that runs directly from Paris city centre to the chateau of Versailles, covering about 20km.

Getting from Paris city centre to venues such as Versailles, the Vaires-sur-Marnes water park (for canoe and kyaking events) and the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX track with take you around an hour-and-a-half.

There are also 6 Games venues that are not in the Paris region - Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille. Plus the overseas territory of Tahiti, where the surfing competition will take place. If you're travelling between these venues (with the exception of Tahiti) your best option is likely to be the train since all 6 are on the high-speed TGV network.

Useful websites and apps

Extremely useful for planning city transport are travel apps such as CityMapper, Google Maps or Ile de France Mobilities. These use GPS to find your current location and then give you suggestions for how to get to your destination. Their suggested public transport routes are based on real-time updates so will avoid lines that are closed or disrupted. All three are generally reliable for Paris and the surrounding area.

Venue websites - almost all of the Paris Games venues are existing sites that are either used for sports or tourist attractions - which means they all have websites with a 'plan your visit' section giving information on the best way to get there by car, bike or public transport. Most of the bigger ones, such as Stade de France, have websites available in French and English.

Paris 2024 - the Games organisers have a well-designed website packed with useful information, available in French or English. The venues page, as well as having a map of all Games venues, has a tool allowing you to get estimated travel times between Games sites - find it here. Their estimates seem on the generous side, but we're all in favour of allowing yourself plenty of time to get where you need to be.

VTCs - if you need to get somewhere in a hurry your best best will probably be either a taxi or VTC so it might be a good idea to download a couple of apps in advance. Uber and Bolt both operate in Paris, G7 is the app of the official Paris taxis while Heetch is a local start-up that operates in basically the same way as Uber. VTCs apply 'dynamic pricing', which means they may become more expensive during periods of high demand.

Please note - extra information about come Games venues - eg which entrance to use at Versailles - will be released nearer the time. We will update this article