Last winter break I turned 63,000 SkyMiles into $2,700 in Delta Air Lines vouchers. While we weren’t sure what to do with our good fortune, we ended up booking this winter break’s trip to Paris.
During our trip, there was one site that was a must- visit. I had visited the Paris Catacombs years back and always wanted to return.
From what I had read, the Paris Catacombs were now one of the busiest sights in the city. Due to this, lines could get very long.
This left us with a couple of options. We could pay a premium and purchase Skip the Line Tickets (with the audio guide included) for 29€. Or head over for a ‘free visit’ which costs 13€ and go at any time. (If you want an audio guide, that will set you back an additional 5€.)
Our plan all along was to purchase the tickets in advance to avoid a potentially long wait on a line. The thing is, the price is a big difference, we’re talking over double the price since we didn’t plan to get audio guides.
We debated back and forth and figured we could book a Skip the Line ticket when we arrived to Paris.
We asked at our hostel what they thought about waiting on line or paying the extra fee. We were told that they heard lines weren’t too bad at this time of year. With this bit of info, Kim and I figured we’d wait on the line, expecting it to be no more than a half hour wait.
When we showed up at the Paris Catacombs, we couldn’t believe how long the line was. At first it seemed to move pretty fast but then it slowed down. We regretted not paying the extra fee to skip the line!
Besides the price, another reason we didn’t want to purchase the Skip the Line tickets was due to the fact that they are timed tickets. We weren’t sure of our plans for the day and no early tickets were available. It didn’t sound like a good move to by tickets to the Catacombs for mid- day.
In the end, we waited close to two hours to enter the Paris Catacombs. I loved revisiting one of my favorite sites so it was worth the wait. However, it would’ve been even more enjoyable if we paid to skip the line, getting to avoid a long cold wait!
After the fact, I wondered, was saving 16€ per person, worth two hours of our time spent waiting on a line? Probably not.
HChris- I think for 3€ it’s a no brainer!
The best example I have was the St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The line gets pretty long early in the morning after all the cruise ship tourists flood the city. There was a much shorter and quicker line to the left entrance of the Basilica for which you need to have a prepaid “skip the line” ticket (3 Euros per person vs. free admission). While we were waiting in that line I quickly purchased the tickets over my iPhone at it was easily worth the 3 Euros per person considering we saved about an hour.