Tootbus or Big Bus Paris: the hop-on hop-off bus with a Seine cruise

Two buses, two boats, one Eiffel Tower

On land, Big Bus Paris and Tootbus Paris do the same thing: hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses you can get on and off freely for one, two or three days. Both also sell a "with cruise" version, with an hour on a boat on the Seine, and that is what we compare here.

The key point: the boat is not the same. The Big Bus ticket puts you on Bateaux Parisiens, at Port de la Bourdonnais, pontoon 3, upstream of Pont d'Iéna. The Tootbus ticket puts you on Vedettes de Paris, at Port de Suffren, downstream of the same bridge. The two piers are a few minutes' walk apart at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, but they are two companies, two boats and two styles of commentary.

On the corporate side, Big Bus Paris belongs to Big Bus Tours Limited, an English company; on GetYourGuide the operator shows up as "Big Bus Tours/Les Cars Rouges". Both products are among the most booked in the category: thousands of reviews on GetYourGuide for the Big Bus with optional cruise and for the Tootbus with optional cruise.

Big Bus: the tickets that include a cruise

The Big Bus website shows its prices crossed out, with a "from" fare that changes with the current promotions. The last time we checked, these were the tickets that include the one-hour cruise:

• Essential: 24-hour bus + cruise, from about €49 per adult (€60 at full price), from €29 per child.
• Explore: 48-hour bus + cruise, from €64 to €65 (€75 to €79 at full price).
• Essential + Night Tour from €86, Explore + Night Tour from €99 (€66 for a child aged 4 to 12): these add the night bus tour.
• 48-Hour Ticket + River Cruise: 48-hour bus and a 48-hour Batobus pass, covered below.

For comparison, the bus alone (Discover, 24 hours) starts at about €39, and the 48-hour ticket at about €49. Two official pages also showed €49 and €52 for the same Essential ticket: keep the ballpark in mind, and go by the price shown when you pay.

According to resellers, you exchange the voucher at the Big Bus center at 11 avenue de l'Opéra or at a stop, then show your Big Bus ticket at the Bateaux Parisiens ticket office on pontoon 3, which issues the cruise ticket. Big Bus publishes neither these rules nor how long the boat ticket is valid: read your voucher.

Batobus & bus

GetYourGuide1 - 2 daysEiffel Tower

Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional River Cruise

4.4 (16,259)

from €39Check dates

Batobus & bus

HeadoutEiffel Tower

Big Bus: Paris Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Optional Seine River Cruise

4.6 (4,674)

from €36Check dates

Batobus & bus

GetYourGuide1 - 2 daysEiffel Tower

Paris: Big Bus Hop-on Hop-off Tour and Seine River Cruise

4.5 (1,348)

from €49Check dates

Batobus & bus

HeadoutEiffel Tower

Big Bus: Paris Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour + Seine River Cruise

4.4 (722)

from €45Check dates

Big Bus & Tootbus on GetYourGuide →Big Bus & Tootbus on Headout →Prices checked on October 17, 2026

The Big Bus cruise: Bateaux Parisiens, pontoon 3

The boat on the Big Bus ticket is the one-hour narrated cruise of Bateaux Parisiens, at Port de la Bourdonnais, on the left bank at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, near the Big Bus Eiffel Tower stop. It is the most-reviewed cruise in our catalogue, and it is exactly the same boat as the passengers who paid for their ticket separately.

Sold on its own, this cruise costs €18 online and €20 at the ticket office. From April to September, boats leave roughly every 30 minutes from 10 am to 10:30 pm; from October to March, more like once an hour, from 10:30 am to 10 pm. The commentary comes through an audio guide in about 14 languages, with a live hostess.

The boat heads upstream first toward Île Saint-Louis, then comes back down past the Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, under about 20 bridges. Luggage other than small backpacks is refused at boarding, worth remembering if you are heading on to a train.

In our view, that is the advantage of the Big Bus ticket: departures into the evening, so you can do the bus by day and the boat by night. Our Bateaux Parisiens review covers the rest of the company's range.

The DUO Liberté pass: Big Bus 48 hours and the Batobus

The Big Bus "48-Hour Ticket + River Cruise" does not get you a narrated cruise: it includes the DUO LIBERTÉ pass, which combines 48 hours of Big Bus with 48 hours of Batobus, the hop-on hop-off river shuttle. On the Batobus website the DUO costs €84 per adult and €49 per child; Big Bus was showing it on promotion from about €75.60 (€44.10 per child) when we checked.

The Batobus is a different product. It serves nine stops: Eiffel Tower, Invalides, Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Notre-Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel de Ville, Louvre and Concorde, with no guide (a free audio guide is available on the web). In winter it closes at 5 pm Monday to Thursday, and the 48 hours run nonstop from your first boarding.

In our view, the DUO makes sense if you really want to get around by boat for two days, hopping off at Notre-Dame or Orsay. If what you want is an hour of commentary on the Seine, take an Essential or Explore ticket instead. How the Batobus works is explained on our Batobus page and in our Batobus company review.

Tootbus: Must See Paris and Paris Smart Tour

At Tootbus, only two products include the cruise:

• Must See Paris: bus for 1, 2 or 3 days, a one-hour Seine cruise and five audio walking tours. When we checked, €56.70 per adult on promotion (€63 at full price), €33.30 for ages 4 to 12, €146.70 for a family of two adults and two children. The tour list was showing €47.25 with a 25 % discount on the same day: the promotion changes with the day and the length you choose.
• Paris Smart Tour: bus for 2 or 3 days, cruise, walking tours and "Tootie", an AI guide; €66.60 for two days on promotion (€74 at full price), €37.80 per child.

Blue-line buses come every 8 to 15 minutes, from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm. The other Tootbus products, including the Kids Tour, the Christmas tour and "Paris by Night", have no boat. That last one deserves a warning: the Vedettes de Paris website also lists a "Paris la Nuit" that is in fact this night bus tour, with no cruise.

Batobus & bus

GetYourGuideSuffren

Paris: Tootbus Hop-on Hop-off Tour with Optional Cruise

4.4 (17,948)

from €37Check dates

Batobus & bus

HeadoutSuffren

Tootbus: Paris Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour (Optional Seine River Cruise)

4.5 (3,287)

from €37Check dates

Big Bus & Tootbus on GetYourGuide →Big Bus & Tootbus on Headout →Prices checked on October 17, 2026

The Tootbus cruise: Vedettes de Paris, Port de Suffren

The cruise on the Tootbus ticket is the Vedettes de Paris one, at 2 Port de Suffren, on the left bank, downstream of Pont d'Iéna, near the Tootbus Eiffel Tower stop. Look for the three big French flags; a step-free path comes down from Pont de Bir-Hakeim.

The cruise ticket is valid for 15 days, with no time slot to book: you turn up about 20 minutes before a departure. According to Tootbus, the first boat leaves at 10:45 am and the last at 5:45 pm, every 30 to 45 minutes from April to October and every 45 to 60 minutes from November to March. Depending on the departure, you get a live guide in French and English, or background music with no commentary.

The route leaves from the Eiffel Tower, heads upstream past the Grand Palais, Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Orsay, the Louvre, the Conciergerie and Notre-Dame, turns around near the Institut du Monde Arabe and comes back. The fleet is electric, with one hybrid boat. Sold on its own, this guided cruise costs €18 online, €21 at the counter on the company's website.

The table compares the same Tootbus ticket on our two partner platforms. Cancellation terms depend on the listing and are shown before you pay.

Bus and boat together, or separately?

Let's do the math with the prices we recorded, in round numbers. At Big Bus, the gap between the 24-hour bus alone (from about €39) and the Essential ticket with cruise (from about €49) is around €10, for a cruise that Bateaux Parisiens sells for €18 online. At Tootbus, the Vedettes de Paris cruise sells for €18 on its own; it is folded into the Must See Paris price.

The bottom line: if you are taking the bus anyway, the cruise option almost always pays off. If you are on the fence about the bus, do not buy it for the boat: a one-hour Seine cruise on its own costs around €20, and the Bateaux Parisiens ticket bought direct is open-dated and valid for a year.

Two constraints to weigh. The bus is a daytime thing: the Tootbus blue line runs from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, and Tootbus lists boats from 10:45 am to 5:45 pm. And a bus loop plus an hour on the boat quickly fills half a day. For the illuminated Seine, keep a separate evening; our Seine night cruise guide gives the right times.

Who it suits, and who it does not

The bus with a cruise suits a short first visit, two or three days, when you want to see the highlights without thinking about the métro: a family with kids aged 4 to 12, travelers who do not walk much, a group that wants a single ticket for everything. The Tootbus, with its cruise valid for 15 days and no time slot, is the more flexible; the Big Bus, with Bateaux Parisiens departures into the evening, gives you more choice of times on the boat.

It suits people less well who want a real moment on the water, a dinner or the sparkling Eiffel Tower: book a dedicated cruise for that. For wheelchair users, Vedettes de Paris is the better equipped (the Bir-Hakeim ramp, a wheelchair area on board); Bateaux Parisiens welcomes wheelchairs in limited numbers, to be flagged when booking.

If you just want to get around by boat, the Batobus alone (24 hours from €23) costs far less than the DUO. And to compare every boat ticket in Paris, see our Seine river cruise tickets page.

Our verdict on Big Bus and Tootbus

We rated the two offers together, looking mainly at what the cruise adds to the bus ticket, not at the quality of the bus tour itself.

Big Bus and Tootbus FAQ