Palace of Versailles

High season

• Peak periods are between 10 AM and 3 PM, especially on weekends and Tuesdays. The busiest days of the year are the weekends of 14th of July and 15th of August.

• An average waiting time in high season is about an hours for the A entrance, and an hour more if you’ll need to buy tickets on place. The snaking queue in front of the Palace may seem discouraging, but it moves quite fast.

• Avoid coming at 10 AM or later. Come at 9 AM or even earlier to get the most of your visit.

• Wednesdays and Thursdays tend to be the calmest days of the week (except for the school holidays’ periods).

Low season

• During low season the queue won’t make that much of a problem, less precautions will be needed.

• First half of December and the whole month of January are the calmest times at Château de Versailles, the queue is rare to see.

• Anyway we advise you to choose a weekday to avoid possible queues, especially Wednesdays and Thursdays.

• There are two entrances at the Château de Versailles: entrance B is where you can find the ticket office and purchase the tickets, entrance A hosts the security control that every visitor will need to pass to enter the estate’s territory. In case you didn’t purchase the tickets in advance, you’ll have to queue first at the entrance B and then take the queue for the entrance A, which generally means about an hour spent in each of those. The best way to avoid spending an extra hour queuing is therefore to buy your tickets beforehand. If so, you’ll only need to queue at entrance A. The crowd table above reflects the waiting times only for this entrance, double the indicated time if you plan to buy tickets on place.

• The visitors’ number at Château de Versailles increases every year, and during the high season you may feel yourself quite uncomfortable in the overcrowded Palace. Try to avoid visiting Versailles in high season or, if you have no choice, prefer coming at the opening to enjoy the interiors while they’re still relatively calm.

• Consider spending the whole day in Versailles, but if you don’t have enough time - coming between 9-10 AM or between 4:30- 5:30 PM would be the best way to avoid the peak hours.

Check the day when you plan to visit Versailles in our crowd table above.

• If it’s (or most of it is) green - do as you want! Not many visitors are expected on this day.

• If it’s (or most of it is) orange - start from the gardens and the park (9-12 AM), then head to the Grand Trianon and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate. After 3 PM get back to the Palace to have a better experience in the famous Hall of Mirrors when most visitors will have left for the gardens.

• If it’s (or most of it is) red - we recommend to start your visit from the Palace. Once we advised to leave it for the end, but with the growing annual number of visitors, the Palace doesn’t get calmer on the busy days’ afternoons, the only chance to enjoy it in a crowd-free way is to be one of the first visitors having arrived at the opening.

• Closed on the following dates: 1st of November, 25th of December, 1st of January.

• The Château, the Grand Trianon and the Domaine of Marie-Antoinette will be closed. However, the parks and gardens remain open.

Download our guide for free to avoid waiting lines in the 20 most popular tourist attractions in Paris.

High season (from 1 April to 31 October)

Palace: every day except Mondays from 9.00 am to 6.30 pm. Last admission: 6.00 pm. Ticket office closes at 5.50 pm.

Trianon Palaces and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate: every day except Mondays from 12.00 pm to 6.30 pm. Last admission: 6.00 pm. Ticket office closes at 5.50 pm.

Garden: open every day from 8.00 am to 8.30 pm.

Park: open every day from 8.00 am to 8.30 pm for vehicles.

Low season (from 1 November to 31 March)

Palace: every day except Mondays from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm. Last admission: 5.00 pm. Ticket office closes at 4.50 pm.

Trianon Palaces and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate: every day except Mondays from 12.00 pm to 5.30 pm. Last admission: 5.00 pm. Ticket office closes at 4.50 pm.

Garden and Park: open every day from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm.

• Free left luggage facilities are available at the entrances of the Versailles and Trianon palaces.
• Metal baby carriers are not allowed.
• Animals are not allowed.
• In high season, the average wait to buy tickets on site is around one hour, do not forget to buy them online.

Here is the Hall of Mirrors during high season: hard to enjoy it.