First-Timer’s Guide To Visiting The Louvre Museum In Paris (Avoid The Mistakes We Made)

We’ve made every mistake in the book across our two visits to the Louvre Museum in Paris. We booked the wrong time slots, stood in long lines because we didn’t know about alternate entrances, rushed around without a plan, tried to see every single room and suffered from serious museum fatigue.

What would we do next time? We’d book afternoon time slots (or better yet evening time slots on a Wednesday or Friday), skip the main Pyramid entrance, and plan a more efficient route to see just the major highlights. Or, we’d scrap the DIY-style visit and instead book a top rated guided tour to let someone else do all the navigating and explaining.

Here’s what we learned after two trips: The Louvre Museum contains over 30,000 priceless paintings, sculptures, artifacts and works of art – so it’s impossible to see everything in one day. Trust us, we tried twice. Oh, and the crowds are always intense (our two visits were in July 2018 and November 2023, and it was jam-packed both times).

There are different ways to visit the Louvre and some are going to give you a better experience than others. In this guide we show you our experiences, the mistakes we made, your ticket options, works of art to prioritize and what you should do to get the most out of your first time at the museum. Let’s dive in.

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Our Two Experiences

We want to start with a walkthrough of what happened during our visits. It’s important because it shows you what to expect and helps you understand our mistakes, so you don’t repeat them.

July 2018

It was our very first time visiting Paris and we couldn’t wait to see the iconic Louvre Museum. Would it live up to the hype? We pre-booked 9:00 AM time slot tickets for €17, the earliest time available, thinking that we’d get ahead of the crowds and it wouldn’t be so busy.

So we arrived at the main entrance called “Pyramid” (the famous glass pyramid) by 8:45 AM, and our time slot line was already enormous. Even the 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM lines were filling up. It was a hot and sticky morning, so people were getting agitated in the lines. And we didn’t end up getting through the door until nearly 9:30 AM.

Once inside we put our backpacks in a locker in the free-to-use locker room, grabbed a map, paid €6 each for audio guides, bought coffees at Paul, and quickly followed the crowds. We’ll admit we were overwhelmed and we didn’t have a plan as we aimlessly wandered around, attempting to follow the map to see the museum’s most famous works of art.

In the end, we essentially spent 4 hours hustling around as many rooms and floors as we could manage, occasionally listening to the audio guide description if something piqued our interest. Floors -1, 0 and 1 were outrageously crowded and it just kept getting busier into the late morning. So we went to the level 2 and it was just endless paintings that started blurring into one.

November 2023

You’d think we’d do a better job second time around, right? We hoped booking the 11:00 AM time slot would help us avoid the morning rush at Pyramid entrance but it didn’t really work. When we arrived at 10:45 AM the whole place was swarming with tourists, despite being a cold morning in November. And history repeated itself, we found ourselves at the back of our time slot line – it took until 11:30 AM to get inside.

Like last time, we put our coats and bags into the locker room, picked up a map, paid €6 for audio guides and followed the crowds into the museum. To be fair, we did have more of a plan of attack this time. We didn’t get lost and we didn’t get deja vu as many times, we figured out that only specific elevators went to some areas, we made it down to Islamic Art on level -2 for the first time, and we ate an overpriced lunch at Angelina (that took ages to come out).

Levels 0 and 1 were still ridiculously busy, but levels -1 and 2 were quieter than our July trip which gave us some relief. We were less overwhelmed and we were more aware of our time, so we managed to split up the areas more effectively. But we still spent 4 hours trying to squeeze in every room, exhibit and painting – which inevitably ended with us being museum-ed out, again.

It wasn’t until after this second trip that we really started to understand how we could have done it better. Time of day, entrance used, route, length of visit, using audio guides. We would 100% go back to the Louvre, it’s an amazing museum that never gets old for us, but we’d definitely do things a lot differently next time – and you should too.

Avoiding The Biggest Louvre Mistakes: Our Top Tips For Your Visit

Here are the mistakes we made and saw others making across our two trips, along with our tips and exactly what you should do instead:

Not Booking In Advance

Mistake: Turning up at the Louvre without a pre-booked time slot entry is a bad idea, especially in peak summer months. We saw the “no ticket” line and it didn’t look like fun.

Tip: Buy your tickets well in advance so you guarantee entry and can plan a more efficient itinerary. Otherwise you’ll either waste hours or not get in at all.

Going Too Early

Mistake: Consider that 8.7 million people visited the Louvre in 2024. Now, most people – including us on both our trips – book morning or lunch time slots. And the result? The museum is crammed full of tourists from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM pretty much every day.

Tip: If you want to visit the Louvre without overpowering crowds, book an afternoon time slot. We’d book the 3:00 PM time slot if we visited on a Monday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.

Not Going At Night

Mistake: Most people aren’t aware they can visit the Louvre at night on a Wednesday or Friday when the museum stays open until 9:00 PM.

Tip: We would absolutely without question visit on one of these two weekdays next time because it would be so much quieter inside – we’d book a time slot around 5:30 PM. If you can make it work with your Paris itinerary, plan to do the Louvre on a Wednesday or Friday.

Mark’s top planning tip: The Louvre is closed every Tuesday. Make sure you plan to visit the museum on a different day if you’re only in Paris for a few days early in the week – ideally Wednesday so you can do the later time slot.

Not Using Other Entrances

Mistake: We didn’t know there are four entrances to the Louvre Museum until researching after our second trip. It seemed odd to us that so many people had to wait in massive lines in just one place. The reality is, you don’t.

Tip: Skip the Pyramid entrance, and instead enter through Carrousel or Porte des Lions (Richelieu entrance is only for groups). The lines for each time slot will be so much shorter.

Turning Up Without A Plan

Mistake: We know a lot of people who said they were underwhelmed by the Louvre. When we asked them if they arrived with a set plan or winged it, they all winged it. We had no plan the first time and our visit was a mess. Our second time wasn’t perfect either, but by having at least some idea about a route, we did leave feeling like we actually did a reasonable job of ticking things off.

Tip: Think about what you want to get out of your visit before arriving. Take a look at this map of the museum and familiarize yourself with the levels, layout and major art works. It will help more than you know!

Trying To See Everything

Mistake: There are more than 30,000 works of art on display at any given time in the Louvre, so don’t try to see it all in one day. We tried it twice and both times we ended up suffering with severe museum fatigue, which definitely detracted from the experience.

Tip: Pick just a small handful of unmissable art works and think about the best way to connect between them using the map above. Once you’ve seen them, it will feel like you achieved what you wanted to do rather than feeling like you have fear of missing out and trying to see every single recommendation.

Only Prioritizing The Mona Lisa

Mistake: We’ll admit the Mona Lisa was the only thing we’d heard of before our first visit in July 2018. And we’re sure millions more each year are in the same boat.

Tip: We know you’re going to see the Mona Lisa no matter what. But honestly? We found it to be massively underwhelming both times we visited. It’s tiny and it’s so far back from the barriers that we couldn’t appreciate the artistry. All we could see was a dozen arms in the air holding phones. Make sure you have a few more must-see pieces. (If you’re not sure what you want to see, we’ll show you what to prioritize later in the guide.)

Thinking It’s All Open

Mistake: We had no idea about this, but lots of museum rooms close periodically for maintenance or renovation work. There were at least a few times we picked an area, took ages to figure out how to get to it, and eventually arrived to find it closed.

Tip: Take a look through this schedule of open rooms to see which rooms will be closed during your visit. It could save you a lot of time and effort.

Not Knowing About Paris Passes

Mistake: Many visitors don’t know the Louvre is included on the Paris Museum Pass and the Go City All-Inclusive Pass Plus.

Tip: Take a look at both passes to see if either is a cost effective way to see the Louvre and other attractions in Paris. We don’t have a discount for the Museums Pass, but you can take 5% off your Go City order by clicking the link above and using MORGANS5 as a promo code. Here’s our Paris pass comparison to learn more.

Forgetting To Eat

Mistake: The first time we went 4 hours solid without stopping to eat, drink and recharge. We were like zombies by the end.

Tip: There are places to eat inside the Louvre, as well as around the grounds. On level -2 after entering, we grabbed coffee and pasties at Paul the first time and had a sit down lunch at Angelina inside Le Cafe Mollien the second time. The food was just okay, the prices were inflated and it took ages to come out. But we felt so much better for eating and it gave us the energy we needed to keep exploring.

Not Booking A Guided Tour

Mistake: Both times we’ve done DIY self-guided tours of the Louvre with audio guides. It’s the cheaper way to do it, but honestly we didn’t learn much, we got overwhelmed and we didn’t know the best ways to get around.

Tip: Consider booking a private tour to let someone else do all the navigating and explaining. We’ll walk you through the top rated guided tour options later in the guide.

Louvre Tickets

Some major attractions around the world have complicated ticket processes – thankfully, the Louvre isn’t one of them. We haven’t had any issues across our two trips and don’t expect to in the future. Here’s everything we learned about tickets, hours, getting there and lines.

How to book tickets:

• Head over to the official ticketing service
• Click “book a ticket”
• Select a date and time slot
• Add number of adults and children
• Add visitor names
• Select number of audio guides
• Review and pay

Prices:

• Adults general admission: €22
• Under 18’s and EEA residents under 26: Free
• Audio guide: €6
• Free days: Every first Friday of the month after 6:00 PM (except July and August)

Important ticket price update: As of 14th January, 2026 general admission tickets for non-EEA residents are going up to €32 per adult. Prices remain the same (€22 per adult) for residents of the European Economic Area. Mark’s from England and Kristen’s from the US, so we’ll both have to pay €32 next time we go.

Opening hours:

• Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Wednesday and Friday: 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM
• Tuesday: Closed

Closest metros:

• Palais-Royal / Musee du Louvre: Lines 1 and 7
• Pyramides: Line 14

Entry lines:

• Green: Advanced ticket holders and Paris Museum Pass holders
• Orange: Need to buy tickets
• Blue: Priority access for disabled visitors
• Yellow: Membership holders

What To See Inside The Louvre

Once we got through security and descended into the reception hall, we were standing in the central hub of the Louvre. The museum’s vast collection is housed in three interconnecting wings, displayed across five levels – and during both visits we started by saying “oh boy, where do we even begin?”

We had three choices:

Denon Wing: The most visited area containing the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It also features the Apollo Gallery (French Crown Jewels), Greek/Roman Antiquities, and major Italian, Spanish and French paintings.

Richelieu Wing: Features northern European paintings, the spectacular Napoleon III Apartments, Mesopotamian Antiquities (including the Code of Hammurabi), and European decorative arts.

Sully Wing: Contains the museum’s oldest artifacts. Our favorites include Egyptian Antiquities, the remnants of the Medieval Louvre, and the famous Venus de Milo.

Both times we decided to begin in the busier Denon Wing to get the most important things out of the way first and fight our way through the crowds while we were still fresh. The other two wings were quieter and everything we saw after leaving Denon was a bonus.

Our Must-See Checklist

After our two visits, we compiled this list of absolute highlights, spread across multiple floors and rooms. Use it to ensure you hit all the major sights.

Denon Wing Highlights (Level 0 and 1):

Artwork/Site	Location (Room/Level)
Mona Lisa	Room 711 (Level 1)
The Wedding Feast at Cana	Room 711 (Level 1)
Winged Victory of Samothrace	Room 703 (Level 1)
Liberty Leading the People	Room 702 (Level 1)
The Coronation Of Napoleon	Room 702 (Level 1)
The Raft of Medusa	Room 700 (Level 1)
The French Crown Jewels	Room 705 (Apollo Gallery, Level 1)
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss	Room 403 (Level 0)
Michelangelo’s Slaves	Room 403 (Level 0)

Sully Wing Highlights (Level -1, 0 and 1):

Artwork/Site	Location (Room/Level)
Venus de Milo	Room 346 (Level 0)
The Caryatids	Room 348 (Level 0)
Great Sphinx of Tanis	Room 338 (Level 0)
Medieval Louvre	Room 113 (Level -1)
Egyptian Antiquities	Multiple Rooms (Level 0 and 1)

Richelieu Wing Highlights (Level -1, 0 and 1):

Artwork/Site	Location (Room/Level)
Napoleon III’s Apartments	Starts at room 544 (Level 1)
Sarcophagus of the Spouses	Room 663 (Level 1)
Code of Hammurabi	Room 227 (Level 0)
The Cour Khorsabad	Room 229 (Level 0)
The Cour Puget	Room 105 (Level -1)

Mark’s planning tip: Notice how almost all of the most important works of art are on level 0 or level 1? If you want to plan a quick and efficient visit to the Louvre Museum, spend 2 hours walking around levels 0 and 1 only. Skip level 2 entirely and only go down to level -1 if you have spare time at the end.

Do It Yourself Or Book A Guided Tour?

Okay, we’ve covered mistakes to avoid, ticket options and what to see. The next thing to decide is that age old travel dilemma – visit independently or book a guided tour? Nobody (including us) wants to waste money, and it’s hard to know the right time to splurge on a guided tour.

After more than 10 trips to Paris and having done most attractions more than once, we can confidently say the Louvre is the number one thing in Paris that we would pay for a tour. The Eiffel Tower does not need a guided tour. Nor do any of the other museums. Maybe the Palace of Versailles, but definitely the Louvre.

Not paying for a guided tour at the Louvre was our biggest regret from the 8-day trip we took to Paris in November 2023. We know it would have made a massive difference to our experience. This is the world’s most visited museum, not some throw-away or gimmicky attraction. We’ll rectify the mistake next time.

DIY

Visiting the Louvre independently is the cheapest and most flexible way to do it. This works best if you’re on a tighter budget or you can’t meet specific tour starting times. We’ve taken DIY Louvre trips twice and it works just fine.

We thought the audio guides were decent value at €6 and the explanations were good, but we definitely found ourselves losing interest because we weren’t being kept accountable throughout our visits. That said, without the audio guides we’ve have ended up wandering even more aimlessly around the museum, so they are worth getting.

Guided Tours

There’s a few different ways you can take a guided tour of the Louvre if you don’t want to deal with tickets, lines, figuring out how to navigate the maze-like museum or listening to generic audio guides. Let’s walk through your options and which one we will do the next time we’re in Paris.

Official Louvre tour: You can buy a combined tour + admission for €31 (this will cost more for non-EEA residents as of January 2026 – likely €44 per person). English tours run every day at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, plus every Friday at 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Spanish tours run every day at 10:30 AM and Italian tours run every Monday at 10:00 AM. Tours last 1 hour 30 minutes. This is the cheapest way to get a guided tour, but it doesn’t last long.

Take Walks: This is the same company as Walks of Italy and every tour we’ve done with them in Italy has been top-notch. At the Louvre, they run two different tour options – this cheaper 2-hour highlights tour of the most important pieces, and this special 3-hour closing time tour with late afternoon or early evening start times depending on the day. The closing time tour is the one we will 100% book next time, we know it will be fantastic.

Viator: If we couldn’t get on a Take Walks tour, our backup option would be this cheaper 2-hour tour or more likely this highly rated 2.5-hour tour with Viator. We’ve done tours with Viator all over the world and they’re always great.

Pros & Cons

After two trips, here are our pros and cons to visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris:

Pros ✅:

• Artworks are nothing short of incredible
• Some of the most important collections in the world
• Diverse architecture inside the museum
• Impressive themes, rooms and halls
• Plenty of places to eat and drink
• Free lockers for coats and bags

Cons ❌:

• Crowds are out of control
• Long lines at main entrance exposed to elements
• Alternate entrances aren’t advertised well
• Navigating the museum is difficult (even with map)
• Some areas are very hard to find
• Mona Lisa is underwhelming
• Sit down meals are overpriced and not great
• Restrooms are few and far between
• Price hike for non-EEA residents is annoying
• Almost too much to see, leave feeling like missed out

Is The Louvre Worth Visiting?

Let’s finish with the most important question of all: is it worth visiting the Louvre when you go to Paris?

It’s a long day, it’s overcrowded, and you’ll be tired when you leave but yes, the Louvre is definitely worth visiting. If you have any interest in history, art or architecture, you’ll love walking around this museum. That said, if you’re not overly interested in those things, you might just get frustrated by how busy it is and leave underwhelmed.

Personally, we think the Louvre is one of few truly unmissable tourist attractions in Paris. But that’s because we’re huge fans of places or museums with historical significance, and this is one of the most important collections of artwork in the world.

Next Steps

We hope our guide on how to visit the Louvre Museum for the first time helps with planning your trip to Paris.

Don’t forget you can book a travel planning video call with us if you’d like our expert help organizing your first trip to the city. We can answer any questions you have or adapt our itinerary to suit your travel style.

Still researching for your trip?

• Read our 2 day Paris itinerary.
• Don’t miss these top Paris experiences.
• Here’s where to stay in Paris.
• Find out what it’s like to visit Paris in November.

Finally, if you’ll be visiting more places on the same trip, we recommend reading our France travel guide for helpful tips and advice.

Happy Travels,

Mark and Kristen

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