Navigo in Paris: Which Pass Should Visitors Choose?

A Paris transport pass is easier to choose once you separate two questions: where your ticket is stored, and which journeys it pays for. Navigo Easy is a reusable carrier; Navigo Semaine is a weekly fare. Buying the first does not automatically give you the second. Your arrival weekday, airport and likely number of journeys matter more than the word “Navigo” on its own.

This guide uses the public fares in force in 2026, checked on 25 October. Prices below are full adult fares unless stated otherwise. It explains how to compare the main visitor options without assuming that everyone needs unlimited travel, a physical card or an airport-inclusive tourist pass.

Which Navigo option should a visitor consider first?

For several days of frequent travel within one Monday–Sunday week, compare the all-zones Navigo Semaine at €32.40. It can be loaded onto Navigo Découverte or a compatible phone, but not Navigo Easy. For a few journeys, start with individual tickets on Easy or a compatible phone. For a busy single day, consider Navigo Jour; its €12.30 fare does not cover the principal airport rail journeys. Paris Visite is the airport-inclusive alternative sold for consecutive calendar days.

Choose the transport around the trip you actually want. In supported cities, RoadMe makes this easier by creating a complete personalised trip or day plan around your interests and pace, so you can estimate meaningful journeys before buying a pass.

A card, a phone and a fare are different things

A carrier stores the ticket or pass. The fare determines the modes, dates and destinations you may use. An empty physical card is not a valid journey, and a payment receipt is not a substitute for a loaded, validated ticket. This distinction also explains why two cards with Navigo in their names can have different uses.

The €2 and €5 card charges are separate from the fare, not refundable deposits or prepaid travel balances. If you already own an appropriate usable carrier, do not add its purchase price again when comparing options. Conversely, a first-time physical-card purchase belongs in your actual holiday budget.

Navigo Semaine: the calendar is the decisive detail

The all-zones weekly pass costs €32.40 and runs from Monday through Sunday. It is not seven days beginning when you buy or first validate it. A pass first used on Wednesday still expires at the end of Sunday. The following week's pass goes on sale on Friday; the current week's pass can be bought through Thursday inclusive.

This changes the advice for a Friday arrival. You cannot arrive on Friday and buy a new current-week Navigo Semaine for that weekend. A weekly pass sold then is for the coming Monday. You need another valid arrangement for the intervening days. A Friday-to-Wednesday stay therefore crosses two fare weeks, even though it is shorter than seven days.

For travel involving central Paris and destinations across Île-de-France, compare the zones 1–5 version. Cheaper weekly combinations such as zones 2–3 are not a discounted central-Paris pass: they omit zone 1. Check the actual zones rather than choosing the lowest figure in a price list.

The all-zones pass includes the RER B airport journey to Charles de Gaulle and metro line 14 to Orly within its validity period. It excludes Orlyval. Private airport coaches, sightseeing buses and transport outside the covered network are not automatically included. Airport coverage belongs to the specific product and route, not to the word “all-zones” alone.

Navigo Découverte: how the physical weekly option works

Navigo Découverte is explicitly available to visitors. You do not need to believe claims that the weekly option is a hidden resident-only bargain. The important conditions are its personal identification requirements and the validity of the pass loaded onto it.

The physical support costs €5. Add the €32.40 all-zones weekly fare and a first purchase totals €37.40. Enter your first and last names and attach the required identity photograph. Follow the operator's current photo instructions rather than improvising from a souvenir image or leaving the personal part unfinished.

The transport card and its personalised accompanying card form an inseparable pair. Keep them together and be ready to present both during inspection. A receipt, a photograph on an unrelated phone screen or another person's completed card is not the same thing. Découverte is personal and must not be passed between companions.

It can hold day, weekly and monthly passes, but it is not the carrier for ordinary individual Metro-Train-RER tickets. If your stay changes from a weekly pass to a few single journeys, consider the appropriate separate carrier or compatible phone. Do not assume every fare can be added to whichever card you already own.

Navigo Easy: useful for occasional journeys

Navigo Easy costs €2 before any tickets are added. It can carry eligible Metro-Train-RER tickets, Bus-Tram tickets, the airport ticket and certain short passes, subject to the loading compatibility rules. It does not carry Navigo Semaine. Buying Easy at the airport therefore does not prepare a physical weekly pass.

The carrier itself is not personalised and may be lent for a later, separate journey. However, every person travelling at the same time needs their own valid carrier and fare. Loading several tickets onto one Easy card does not let a family tap that card repeatedly to enter together. The conditions of a named product loaded onto a card also continue to apply.

Individual tickets after the fare changes

In 2026, a full-fare Metro-Train-RER ticket costs €2.55 for eligible rail journeys within Île-de-France. It is not the old distance-based collection of ordinary RER fares, and it is not a universal ticket for every mode. The principal airport station journeys are excluded. TGV services and travel beyond the regional validity are not covered.

The Bus-Tram ticket is a separate product, priced at €2.05. Do not assume a metro ticket pays for a connecting bus, or that leaving a rail station and later re-entering counts as the same journey. The Metro-Train-RER ticket allows eligible rail connections within two hours of the first validation without leaving the network; it is not a sightseeing stopover or a return ticket.

Use the current ticket names when buying. Old instructions about paper t+ carnets, old prices and airport supplements can lead to the wrong purchase even when the accompanying station description is still recognisable. For the wider distinction between buying, activating and validating, see our guide to public transport tickets, zones and validation abroad.

Airport ticket: a separate journey, not an unlimited pass

The Paris Region–Airports ticket costs €14 at the full 2026 fare. It covers eligible journeys involving Charles de Gaulle via RER B or Orly via metro line 14; the current official product description also includes Orlyval. This last point must not be confused with Navigo Semaine, which excludes Orlyval.

Eligible rail connections are possible within two hours of first validation without exiting the network. The ticket does not include an onward bus or tram journey, a return trip after a stop in Paris, or Beauvais airport's Aérobus services. Check the actual airport on your flight reservation: “Paris” in an airline's destination label does not make every airport part of the same fare system.

A practical trap is storage compatibility. Metro-Train-RER tickets and Paris Region–Airports tickets cannot be stored together on the same carrier under the current rules. If you still have ordinary rail tickets on an Easy card or phone, do not leave preparation of the airport journey until the departure gate queue.

Check the available options in the official service or ask a staffed sales point. Another suitable carrier or compatible phone may be needed. Do not delete paid tickets blindly, and do not assume buying the airport ticket immediately after the last ordinary journey will always be offered. This is a loading issue; it does not mean the airport journey is free.

Navigo Jour and Paris Visite: two different short-stay choices

Navigo Jour costs €12.30 for zones 1–5. It covers the selected service day, including the relevant end-of-service overnight operation, rather than 24 hours counted from your first tap. It excludes the airport rail journeys to the Orly airport station on line 14 and to the Charles de Gaulle airport stations on RER B, as well as Orlyval.

Paris Visite offers another pattern: consecutive calendar days with specified airport transport included. The full adult 2026 fares are €30.60 for one day, €45.40 for two, €63.80 for three and €78 for five. A three-day product covers three calendar days, not 72 hours starting on your first afternoon.

That flexibility across weekdays may matter when a stay does not fit the weekly calendar. Compare its price with the journeys you will actually make, including airports. Follow the pass's identification conditions; an Easy carrier's ordinary anonymous status does not cancel the conditions of a named fare loaded onto it.

Paris Visite transport benefits and associated offers do not turn it into an all-museum admission pass. Conversely, a museum pass does not automatically pay for your train. Our separate guide to Paris Museum Pass inclusions and reservations explains that distinction before you buy both products for the same trip.

A comparison based on journeys rather than slogans

Suppose your stay fits within one Monday–Sunday week, you expect eight eligible ordinary rail journeys and two eligible airport rail journeys. At the individual full fares, the travel itself costs 8 × €2.55 + 2 × €14 = €48.40. The all-zones weekly fare is €32.40. In that specific pattern, the weekly fare is cheaper before accounting for carriers.

A new physical Découverte brings the weekly purchase to €37.40. Individual tickets may require an Easy carrier, another suitable medium or a compatible phone, and the airport-ticket compatibility rule still matters. The example compares eligible journeys; it does not promise that every airport transfer, bus connection or phone setup has those same conditions.

Now change the facts: you arrive on Friday, leave before Monday or plan only a few city rides. The previous weekly comparison no longer describes your trip. Start again with calendar dates and actual journeys. Equally, two weeks of travel do not become one weekly pass because the total number of holiday days happens to be seven.

It is much easier to choose a fare when your days already make sense. In supported cities, RoadMe builds a personalised plan around your interests, time and preferred pace, helping you organise the whole trip without filling it with unnecessary transfers.

Using a phone without making the journey depend on a guess

A compatible phone can be a ticket carrier, while a phone can also be used simply to reload a physical card. Those are different functions. The ability to download an app or read a plastic card does not by itself prove that your device can validate a weekly pass at a gate.

Check compatibility, the supported service, account and identity requirements before departure. Complete the purchase and confirm where the pass is stored. A booking confirmation in your email is not a loaded transport pass, and a screenshot of a ticket is not a contactless travel medium.

For a family, arrange a valid medium for each traveller and check age-based conditions product by product. A reduced single fare does not establish a reduced weekly fare. The adult comparison in this guide is a starting point, not a calculation for every child, concession or subscription.

What to check before your first validation

• Confirm the fare name, travel date or fixed week, selected zones and the actual carrier holding it.
• For Découverte, complete the name and photograph and keep its two parts together.
• For airport travel, check the airport, transport mode and whether the fare includes that exact journey.
• Prepare the return airport ticket early enough to resolve any loading incompatibility.
• Validate as required and retain the same valid medium throughout the journey and inspection.

If a reader rejects the medium, move out of the passenger flow and ask staff rather than following another person through a gate. Show the actual carrier and explain which product was loaded. Keep the purchase receipt as supporting information, while remembering that the receipt alone does not authorise travel.