By Harry Nara · Last updated
Stay in the 5th or 6th for a first visit, the Marais for the Paris people describe to you afterwards, the 1st to walk out into the middle of everything, and Montmartre only once you have accepted the journey. The arrondissement number is a distance measure, and it is printed on the postcode.
Paris numbers its twenty arrondissements in a clockwise spiral that starts at the Louvre and winds outward, which is why locals call the shape an escargot. The practical consequence is unusual and genuinely useful: the number tells you roughly how far from the centre a place is before you have looked at a map. It is also printed on every address, because the postcodes run 75001 for the 1st through to 75020 for the 20th. A hotel in the 75004 is in the middle of things. A hotel in the 75018 is not.
That matters more than it sounds, because the arrondissements with the most romantic reputations tend to carry the highest numbers. Montmartre is the 18th, right out at the top of the spiral and up a hill, and people book it on the strength of the postcard and then discover the journey. None of this makes the outer numbers wrong, and the Métro runs sixteen lines across all twenty arrondissements for €2.55 a ride. But the number is also a price gradient, which is the part worth planning around: when Fashion Week prices the 1st and the 8th out of reach, the standard advice is to move up the spiral, and a room in the 18th or the 10th runs thirty to forty per cent less.
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The best areas to stay in Paris
The 5th and 6th, and the safest answer for a first visit
Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter
Suits: First visits, walkers, and anyone who wants dinner within reach of the bed
These are the two arrondissements that face each other across the Boulevard Saint-Michel, and between them they hold more of what a first-time visitor wants within walking distance than anywhere else in the city. Notre-Dame, the Panthéon, the Luxembourg Garden, the Musée de Cluny and the Sorbonne are all here or a few minutes from here, and the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay are a walk across the river rather than a journey.
The Left Bank also solves the evening, which the dead-central arrondissements do not. Saint-Germain has the cafés people have read about and the Latin Quarter behind it has the cheaper end, so dinner does not require a decision about transport.
Watch out: This is the most heavily walked ground in Paris and it is priced accordingly. It is also the least surprising choice on this page, which is exactly why it works: you are paying for a centre-of-everything postcode rather than for a discovery.
- Splurge Hôtel Dame des Arts A rooftop bar that looks across the rooftops to the Eiffel Tower, a garden terrace under it and two restaurants below that, which is a lot of hotel for a building this central. Saint-Michel Notre-Dame station is 250 metres away and the Luxembourg Garden and Notre-Dame are both about a ten-minute walk, so the location is doing as much work as the roof is.
- Sweet spot Hotel d’Angleterre A garden, twenty-seven soundproofed rooms and a bar, in a Saint-Germain-des-Prés building that has been taking guests for a very long time. The Seine and the Pont du Carrousel are five minutes on foot, which puts the Louvre on the other side of one bridge, and Musée d’Orsay station is seven hundred metres off.
- Budget Hôtel Henri IV Rive Gauche Air conditioning and a bathtub at a price the 5th does not usually offer, which is the entire argument. It sits between the Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain boulevards with Notre-Dame about 350 metres away and the same station 250 metres in the other direction, so the budget is going on the postcode rather than the furniture.
The 3rd and 4th, and the one that feels like a neighbourhood
The Marais
Suits: Second visits, Sunday arrivals, and anyone who would rather have streets than monuments
The Marais is the oldest surviving piece of Paris and the only central district that escaped Haussmann’s rebuilding, which is why the streets here still bend. It covers the 3rd and the 4th, runs from the Place des Vosges across to the Pompidou, and holds the Picasso Museum, the Musée Carnavalet and the Jewish quarter along the Rue des Rosiers.
It is also the part of Paris that stays open. The Marais has long been the centre of the city’s gay scene and much of its independent retail, and unlike a good deal of Paris it does not close on a Sunday, which matters more than it should on a short trip that happens to include one.
Watch out: The Métro is the weak point. The district sits in a gap between lines and several of its best streets are a genuine walk from any station, which is the price of the medieval street plan that makes it worth staying in.
- Splurge Hôtel du Petit Moulin Every room decorated by Christian Lacroix, which is unusual enough to be the reason to book rather than a detail inside it, along with a bar and the rarest thing in central Paris, its own parking. The Picasso Museum is roughly three hundred metres away and Saint-Sébastien-Froissart station four hundred, which is about as connected as the Marais gets.
- Sweet spot Hôtel Jules & Jim Two paved courtyards, a terrace with an outdoor fireplace and rooms that are soundproofed and air-conditioned, with views over the Paris roofs from the upper floors. It stands between the Place des Vosges and the Pompidou, three minutes from Arts et Métiers, which is the stretch of the Marais most people picture when they picture the Marais.
The lowest number on the spiral, and the shortest walks
Place Vendôme and the 1st
Suits: Three-day trips built around the museums, and anyone who hates commuting
The 1st is the lowest number on the spiral and the tightest concentration of set pieces in the city. The Louvre, the Tuileries, the Palais-Royal, the Place Vendôme and the Opéra Garnier are all inside it or a short walk beyond, and the Seine and the islands are at the southern edge.
If you want to see a great deal in three days and do not mind finding dinner elsewhere, nothing on this page beats it for sheer walking time saved. If you want somewhere to come back to rather than somewhere to set off from, look at the 3rd or the 6th instead.
Watch out: It empties at night. This is the arrondissement of jewellers, ministries and luxury flagships, so you will be walking to the Marais or the 6th for dinner most evenings. You are buying proximity, not a neighbourhood.
- Sweet spot Hôtel Mansart, Esprit de France Rooms furnished with antiques above a bar, in a building that occupies the corner of the Place Vendôme itself. The Opéra Garnier is a five-minute walk and the Opéra métro station around 350 metres, and it scores 9.5 across more than twelve hundred reviews, which for a hotel on that square at that price is the surprising part.
The 7th, and the only place the view is a realistic booking
Invalides and the Eiffel side
Suits: Couples, museum-led trips, and anyone who wants the Tower from the window
The 7th is where the Eiffel Tower actually is, along with the Invalides, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Rodin and the Champ de Mars. It is the most formal part of central Paris, laid out in wide ministerial streets, and it is the one area where a room with the view is a realistic thing to book rather than a fantasy.
It also sits directly across the river from the 1st and the 8th, so the walking radius is better than the quiet suggests. For a couple who want the Tower from the window and the museums on the doorstep it is close to ideal.
Watch out: It is quiet in a way that is either restful or dull. There are few bars, the shopping is thin and the restaurants skew expensive and traditional, so evenings tend to mean crossing the river.
- Splurge The One Alma Paris A hammam, a sauna and a gym, and a rooftop restaurant where the Eiffel Tower is the view rather than a detail in it. The Tower itself is a fourteen-minute walk and Invalides station seven hundred metres, and guests keep singling out breakfast on the roof, which tells you where to eat the first morning.
The 18th, and the honest one about distance
Montmartre
Suits: Second visits, longer stays, and early risers
Montmartre is the 18th, which by the logic of the spiral puts it about as far from the middle as a visitor is likely to sleep, and everything good and bad about staying here follows from that. What you get is the best of it early and late: Sacré-Cœur before the coaches arrive, the Place du Tertre at eight in the morning, and the steep lanes behind the basilica with nobody on them.
What you give up is spontaneity, because every unplanned afternoon starts with a journey. Stay here on a second visit, or a longer one, or if the version of Paris you came for is the one in the photographs rather than the one in the museums.
Watch out: You are near the outer edge of the spiral. Most of central Paris is half an hour door to door, the hill is genuinely steep, and the funicular only covers the last part of it. This is the area people most often book on the photographs and most often regret on a three-day trip.
- Budget Timhotel Montmartre A hundred yards from Abbesses station, which on this hill is the single most valuable measurement on the page. Sacré-Cœur, the Moulin Rouge and the Dalí Museum are all about five minutes on foot, and guests rate the location 9.5 out of 10, comfortably above what they give the rooms.
When to book, and what it costs you
Paris prices by event rather than by weather, and the events are unusually concentrated. Two months ahead covers most of the year.
The best value is usually January, February and November.
Prices and availability tighten most in June, September and December.
Fashion Week is the sharpest of them and it happens four times a year: menswear and haute couture in January, womenswear at the turn of February and March, then the same pair again in June and at the turn of September and October. It lifts the 1st, 2nd, 8th and 16th far more than anywhere else, which is why the standard fix is to move up the spiral rather than to move your dates. Christmas and New Year is the other genuine peak. Against that, November is the cheapest and calmest month of the Paris year, with quality three-star rooms around €80 to €130 against €180 and upward in summer, and January is nearly as good once the first week has passed. One cost catches people whatever the month: the tourist tax is charged per person per night on top of the room rate, and in Paris it is not small.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which arrondissement is best for a first visit to Paris?
The 5th or the 6th. They put Notre-Dame, the Luxembourg Garden, the Panthéon and the Latin Quarter on foot, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay across one bridge, and unlike the 1st they have somewhere to eat at nine in the evening. The Marais is the better answer if you would rather have the neighbourhood than the monuments, and the 1st if you have three days and want to see everything.
Should I stay in Montmartre?
Honestly, mostly no, and the reason is geometry rather than snobbery. The 18th sits near the outer edge of the spiral, so you are half an hour from most of what you came to see, and the hill between the station and the good part is steeper than photographs suggest. It is a lovely place to wake up and a tiring place to base a short trip. Come on a second visit, or stay centrally and walk up early when it is genuinely empty.
Right Bank or Left Bank?
It is a real distinction and a weaker decision tool than the arrondissement number, which is why this page is organised the other way. Broadly the Left Bank, meaning the 5th, 6th and 7th, is quieter, older and more residential, and the Right Bank has the Louvre, the Marais, the department stores and most of the nightlife. But the 1st and the 6th face each other across one bridge and feel far more alike than the 1st and the 18th do, and those are both Right Bank. Distance from the centre separates Paris neighbourhoods better than the river does.
How do I get from the airport to these areas?
Take the train, and buy the right ticket before you land. The Ticket Paris Région Aéroports costs €14 for an adult and €7 for a child aged four to nine, and it covers both airports: the RER B from Charles de Gaulle in around forty-five minutes, and either métro line 14 or Orlyval plus the RER B from Orly in around thirty-five. It is valid for two hours across zones one to five, so it also covers the métro leg to your hotel rather than stopping at the terminus. There is no paper version, so it has to be loaded onto a Navigo Easy card, the app or Apple Wallet.
How much is the Paris tourist tax?
It is charged per person, per night, and it scales with the hotel’s rating rather than the room price, so it lands hardest on families and on longer stays. The 2026 rates run from a couple of euros at the bottom of the scale to €11.70 a night in a five-star and €15.93 in a palace. Paris sits well above the national scale because the city adds a 200 per cent Île-de-France Mobilités surcharge that funds the transport network. Expect it as a separate line at checkout rather than inside the price you booked.
Checked against Île-de-France Mobilités airport ticket, Ville de Paris taxe de séjour, Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hotel details are verified on each property’s own Booking.com listing.
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