Seine river cruise companies: who sails, from where, and what

Seine river cruise companies: how to read this register

On the Seine in Paris, you tell a company apart first by its pier. The river stops are managed by the Port of Paris (HAROPA PORT); each company has its own pontoon, and two neighboring pontoons can belong to two rival firms. At the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Bateaux Parisiens boards at Port de la Bourdonnais, upstream of Pont d'Iéna, and Vedettes de Paris at Port de Suffren, downstream: check the name on your ticket.

We have sorted the companies into six families: narrated sightseeing cruises, restaurant boats, the Canal Saint-Martin, private boats, bus + boat packages and multi-day river cruises. For each one, a few lines on what it does, where it leaves from and what to know before booking, then a link to our full review when we have written one.

The table below lists every company, with its pier, its types of cruise and its lowest adult price outside holiday dates, a ballpark figure that moves with the seasonal menus.

Paris boat tour companies: the four sightseeing operators

Bateaux Parisiens (Port de la Bourdonnais, pontoon 3, Eiffel Tower) belongs to the Sodexo Live! group. One-hour sightseeing cruise at €18 online, audio guide in about 14 languages, lunch at 12:45 pm and dinners at 6:15 pm and 8:30 pm. Its bookings can be neither canceled nor refunded, but the sightseeing ticket stays valid for a year. Our Bateaux Parisiens review.

Bateaux Mouches (Port de la Conférence, Pont de l'Alma, right bank) is the company founded by Jean Bruel, who launched his first boat in 1949; in French its brand name has become the generic word "bateau-mouche" for any sightseeing boat. Big boats with an open upper deck, sightseeing cruise at €17 online, dinner with violin and piano, free parking during the cruise. Our Bateaux Mouches review.

Vedettes de Paris (Port de Suffren, Eiffel Tower, downstream of Pont d'Iéna) has been sailing since 1976 with an electric fleet (and one hybrid boat). Live guide in French and English, an evening drinks-and-music cruise, free cancellation up to 24 hours before for a timed ticket. It is also the best equipped for wheelchair users. Our Vedettes de Paris review.

Vedettes du Pont Neuf (Square du Vert-Galant, at the tip of Île de la Cité) has been around since 1959. Live guide in French and English, €15 online on its own site, a departure right in the center of town and a route that heads downstream to the Eiffel Tower first. You reach it by the stairs from the Pont Neuf. Our Vedettes du Pont Neuf review.

All four follow almost the same route; the choice comes down to the pier, the type of commentary and the cancellation terms. Our comparison is on one-hour Seine cruise. At Port de Suffren, Ô Chateau also runs a one-hour tasting of three grower champagnes with a sommelier, in English, at 6:30 pm.

Seine dinner cruise companies: dinner, lunch, brunch

Paris en Scène (Port de Javel Haut, at the foot of Pont Mirabeau) only does dinners: two 1h45 sittings, at 7:15 pm and 9:45 pm, with the package priced by the drinks, from €59 with water only. It is the cheapest dinner in the register. Our Paris en Scène review.

Le Capitaine Fracasse (also at Port de Javel Haut, same Esprit Seine group) serves dinner at 8 pm Sunday to Friday, twice on Saturdays, from €75, and a Sunday brunch at 12:30 pm. No dress code, and a long route that goes all the way up to the BnF, the national library. Our Capitaine Fracasse review.

La Marina de Paris / Paris Seine (Port de Solférino, at the foot of the Musée d'Orsay) is one and the same company, which also runs Maxim's sur Seine. Dinners at 6:45 pm (1h15) and 9:15 pm (2 hours), lunch at 12:30 pm from €69; drinks are extra on the standard packages. Our La Marina de Paris review.

Maxim's sur Seine (Port de Solférino) boards two small boats, Le Vert Galant and Le Bateau Ivre, at 6 pm and 8 pm, with a pianist-singer and a cabaret mood, at around €145 to €165. Our Maxim's sur Seine review.

Le Calife and L'Estello (Port des Saints-Pères, facing the Pont des Arts) serve dinner at 8:30 pm and 6:30 pm, and lunch on weekends. None of our partner platforms sells them: you book with them directly. Our Le Calife review.

Ducasse sur Seine (Port Debilly, right bank facing the Eiffel Tower) is a 100 % electric boat with a kitchen on board: lunch at 12:45 pm, dinner at 8:30 pm, menus from €115 and €175 before drinks. It does not have a Michelin star. Our Ducasse sur Seine review.

Le Diamant Bleu and Le Théo (Port de Passy, 2 rue du Ranelagh, by the Maison de la Radio) belong to the same company. Le Diamant Bleu serves dinner around 8:15 pm with a singer, then a DJ once back at the quay; Le Théo runs an Italian "Trattoria en Seine" at 6:30 pm and 9:15 pm. Neither has a dress code. Our review of Le Théo, Le Diamant Bleu and Green River.

Le Don Juan II (Port Debilly, Yachts de Paris) is the only Michelin-starred boat: dinner Tuesday to Saturday, €250 before drinks, no kids' menu. It is covered on luxury dinner cruise.

Le Bistro Parisien (pontoon 2 at Bourdonnais) is a Bateaux Parisiens restaurant on the quay that does not sail; it is sold together with a one-hour sightseeing cruise. Our Bistro Parisien review. Also staying at the quay are the jazz barge Le Son de la Terre (Montebello) and the floating hotel OFF Paris Seine (quai d'Austerlitz): our OFF Paris Seine review.

Canal Saint-Martin: the two companies, and license-free boats

Paris Canal links Port de Solférino, at the foot of the Musée d'Orsay, with the Parc de la Villette in 2h30, one-way, through the locks and the vaulted tunnel under Bastille. An adult ticket is around €25. Canauxrama, a sister company of Vedettes du Pont Neuf, runs between Port de l'Arsenal and the Bassin de la Villette in about 2h30, from €23, or in an express version of 1h15. Both are covered in our review of Paris Canal and Canauxrama.

A license-free boat on the Seine in Paris does not exist: since the river police rules were revised, boats you can drive without a license are banned from the Seine inside the city. AKWA rents license-free electric boats at the Bassin de la Villette, from €45 an hour for four, but only on the basin and the Canal de l'Ourcq. On the Seine, you need a boat with a skipper. See Canal Saint-Martin cruise.

Private Seine boat companies: rentals with a skipper

Paris Boat Club (Escale de Beaugrenelle) rents out two nine-passenger boats with a skipper, a cabin and a toilet: about €450 to €500 for two hours, bring your own food and drinks. Green River Cruises boards at 36 quai d'Austerlitz and at the foot of Pont Marie, with wine or champagne included, from €55 per person for a group of at least six; the package it sells on Headout can be neither canceled nor changed.

My Paris River uses pontoon boats for up to twelve people, with no toilet, from €390 for 1h30. Further upmarket, Paris Private Boat quotes about €1,000 for an hour and a half, and Yachts de Paris rents out its yachts on request. As a rough guide, count €390 to €800 for 1h30 for up to six people on a small boat. The packages are detailed on private Seine cruise.

Hop-on hop-off bus and boat, and the amphibious bus

Batobus is a hop-on hop-off shuttle, not a tour: nine stops from the Eiffel Tower to the Jardin des Plantes, a loop of about two hours, no guided commentary, and a 24-hour pass at €23. It is run within the Bateaux Parisiens group. Our Batobus review.

Big Bus and Tootbus sell their double-decker buses with an optional one-hour cruise. With Big Bus, the cruise leaves from Bateaux Parisiens' pontoon 3 (the "48-Hour + River Cruise" ticket gives you the Batobus instead); with Tootbus, it is with Vedettes de Paris, on a ticket valid for 15 days with no time slot to book. Tootbus's "Paris by Night" is a bus, with no boat. Our Big Bus and Tootbus review.

An amphibious bus, sold on the platforms under the Canards de Paris name, leaves according to the listing from Place Jacques-Rueff, on the Champ-de-Mars, for an outing of about 1h45, of which around twenty minutes are in the water, at Sèvres; children under 2 are not allowed. We could not confirm that the company still runs it: check the listing. Finally, the Seine River Pass® is not a company but a reseller's brand: a one-hour sightseeing cruise from Bourdonnais, with add-ons.

Seine river cruise lines: the multi-day trips to Normandy

These floating hotels leave Paris for a week, calling at Vernon, Rouen and sometimes Honfleur or Le Havre. We have no partner among them: our reviews present them and send you to their own websites.

Viking runs six sister ships of 168 guests, docks at Port de Grenelle and turns around at Rouen. Avalon sails the Avalon Tapestry II as far as Rouen. Uniworld offers the S.S. Joie de Vivre as far as Caudebec-en-Caux, with drinks and spirits included. AmaWaterways goes on to Le Havre, with two nights there. Tauck includes everything, gratuities too, on the ms Serene and the ms Reverie. Scenic reaches Honfleur on a ten-night trip aboard the Scenic Gem, and Emerald takes the Emerald Lumi there. CroisiEurope, the French line, also moors in Honfleur, from about €1,659 for eight days. Riviera Travel sells a week on the MS Jane Austen in the UK, with flights or Eurostar included. Add nicko cruises and A-ROSA for German-speaking travelers (A-ROSA starts from Le Pecq), and Gate 1 for Americans.

The full comparison (ships, furthest point, drinks, entry prices) is on Seine river cruises to Normandy.

Booking platforms are not cruise companies

GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Headout sell these companies' tickets, but they don't own a single boat: you board at the same pontoon, on the same boat, at the company's own online fare in most cases. Each platform has its strengths. GetYourGuide has the widest range (private boats, holidays, the canal), Tiqets puts forward tickets in the operators' own names, and Headout focuses on museum + cruise combos and smaller companies such as La Marina, Le Diamant Bleu, Le Théo or Green River.

Some companies appear on none of them: Le Calife, Ducasse sur Seine, the Don Juan II and the multi-day lines are booked directly. Cancellation terms depend on the offer, not the platform, and are shown before you pay. Our detailed comparison is on GetYourGuide, Tiqets or Headout, and the fare tables on tickets and prices.

How we rate the companies

Every review uses the same criteria: what you see from the boat, the quality of the commentary or the meal, how clear the prices are, the cancellation terms, wheelchair access and how easy boarding is. When a company does not publish a piece of information, we say so rather than guess.

The score out of five does not measure prestige: a simple, well-narrated sightseeing cruise can score higher than an expensive, muddled dinner. A company that lets you cancel for free, publishes its timetable and answers clearly about wheelchair access earns points. The dinner companies are also compared with each other on Seine dinner cruise, and the full guide starts on the home page.

Frequently asked questions