OFF Paris Seine review: a floating hotel, not a Seine river cruise

What OFF Paris Seine really is

OFF Paris Seine calls itself "a hotel at the quay". It is a floating building moored on the left bank, on the quai d'Austerlitz, facing the 12th arrondissement. You can sleep in one of 54 rooms laid out like cabins or in one of 4 suites; have a drink at the bar, which is built around a swimming pool; or come for brunch on weekends. It is on the water, but it does not move: there is no departure, no route and no return to the pontoon.

We give it a page because the name is confusing. "Paris Seine" is also the trading name of a dinner cruise company at Port de Solférino, the same business as La Marina de Paris, which has nothing to do with this hotel. And plenty of travelers land on OFF while looking for "a drink on the Seine", thinking they are booking a boat trip. They are not.

To be clear about where we stand: seine.boats is a guide to Seine river cruises. We do not sell hotel nights, we have no commercial link with OFF Paris Seine, and no partner platform sells a cruise under its name. We do not publish prices for its rooms, bar or brunch, because we have not been able to confirm them; check the hotel's own website. What we can do is tell you what you will find there, and where to go if it is a real cruise you are after. Every company that actually sails is on our Seine cruise operators page.

Quai d'Austerlitz: where the hotel is and how to get there

The address is 86 quai d'Austerlitz, in the 13th arrondissement, on the left bank, upstream of the Île Saint-Louis. Two major train stations are close by: Gare d'Austerlitz (Métro lines 5 and 10, RER C), the nearest, and Gare de Lyon (Métro lines 1 and 14), across the river. It is a riverside neighborhood that is changing fast, between the Cité de la Mode et du Design, the National Library further east and the Jardin des Plantes to the west.

This stretch is also where you find moored boats that look like cruises without being cruises. Further toward the National Library, on the quai François-Mauriac, the El Alamein barge is a bar and concert venue that does not sail either. Toward Notre-Dame, on the quai de Montebello, Le Son de la Terre hosts dinner-concerts on a moored barge, and La Nouvelle Seine is a theater-restaurant, also moored. Nothing wrong with any of them: they are pleasant places. But none of them will take you under a single bridge.

To see where the quai d'Austerlitz sits compared with the piers where cruises actually start, our Seine piers guide follows the river from upstream to downstream, quay by quay. The short version: the big cruise companies all leave from much further west, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, at Pont de l'Alma or at the Pont Neuf.

The building, the rooms and the bar

What the hotel describes: cabin-style rooms that play on the idea of a ship, four suites, a pool with the bar arranged around it, and the option of chartering a boat from its pontoon. That last point needs a word of caution. The hotel itself does not sail; a separate boat can be hired from the pontoon for a private outing. The terms, the boat and the price of that charter are not published, so ask the hotel directly before you count on it.

For a pre-dinner drink, the bar has an obvious advantage: you are right at water level, at the dock, with no departure time to make and no ticket to show. You arrive when you like and stay as long as you like. That is exactly what a cruise does not let you do. On the other hand, the view stays the same all evening: the opposite bank and the nearby bridges. You will not see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre or Notre-Dame from your glass.

That is the whole difference, and it is why we do not score OFF Paris Seine as a hotel or as a bar. We have not reviewed it from that angle. The score below only measures how useful it is to someone who wants to get out on the river.

The weekend brunch: also at the dock

Brunch is served on weekends, from 12:30 pm to 4 pm. It is one of the things people most often ask about here, usually imagining a brunch that sails. It does not: you brunch at the dock, just as you drink at the bar.

If you really want a brunch on the move, there are very few in Paris. The most affordable is the Sunday brunch of Le Capitaine Fracasse: departure at 12:30 pm from Port de Javel Haut, back at 2:15 pm, from €52 on the company's website, served plated. Le Diamant Bleu runs a pricier Sunday buffet brunch from Port de Passy. Beware the Bateaux Mouches brunch, though: it is served at the dock and the boat does not sail. Every lunch and brunch that genuinely leaves the pier is compared in our Seine lunch and brunch cruise guide.

Our advice, if you are staying at the hotel or nearby: keep the hotel brunch for a lazy Sunday, and book the cruise for an evening, when Paris lights up. One does not replace the other.

For a drink on the move: evening drinks and champagne cruises

If the idea of a drink on the Seine is what brought you here, this is what really sails. The simplest option is the evening aperitif cruise run by Vedettes de Paris from Port de Suffren, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower: no guide, a playlist of French songs, from €22 on the company's website, and a little more with wine, beer or champagne. The platforms also sell it as a "happy hour" cruise, from about €17.

For champagne, several cruises with a glass served on board come in at around €30 to €40. For something more specialized, the Ô Chateau cruise, also from Port de Suffren, gathers you around a sommelier for three grower champagnes, in English, at 6:30 pm. Our Seine champagne cruise page covers each of these in detail.

Drinks & champagne

GetYourGuide1 hour

Paris: Seine River Sightseeing Evening Cruise with Champagne

4.6 (825)

from €32Check dates

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GetYourGuide1.5 hoursSuffren

Paris: Happy Hour Evening Cruise on the Seine River

4.3 (2,355)

from €17Check dates

Night

TiqetsSuffren

Seine River: Evening Cruise with Music Onboard by Vedettes de Paris

4.3 (2,556)

from €22Check dates

Drinks & champagne

HeadoutPont de l'Alma

Seine River Cruise from Pont de l'Alma with Sparkling Champagne

4.5 (2,084)

from €60Check dates

Drinks & champagne

GetYourGuide1 hourSuffren

Paris: Champagne Tasting Cruise by Ô Chateau

4.7 (270)

from €79Check dates

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GetYourGuide1 hourEiffel Tower

Paris: Seine River Cruise with Champagne from Eiffel Tower

4.4 (448)

from €32Check dates

Prices checked on October 17, 2026

The best time, in our view, is the first departure after sunset. The Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes at the start of every hour after dark, until at least 11 pm; on some evenings, especially in summer, it carries on later — check the tower's website for the day. A departure 20 to 25 minutes before the hour usually puts it in view at the right moment. Sunset times month by month are on our Seine sunset cruise page.

A private boat from the quai d'Austerlitz

There is a genuine boat trip right next to the hotel. Green River Cruises runs its private boats from 36 quai d'Austerlitz, at the foot of the Cité de la Mode et du Design, on the same quay. These are private charters only, with two bottles of wine included (or champagne on the romantic packages) and the option to bring your own food, from €55 per person on the company's website, priced for a minimum of six people.

On Headout, the Green River offer is a pontoon boat for 1 hour 30 minutes, for up to twelve people. It cannot be cancelled or changed, so book once your date is certain. The details are in our review of small Seine operators, and every private option is in our private Seine cruise guide.

Private

HeadoutAusterlitz

Private Seine River Cruise with Wine or Champagne by Green River Cruises

No reviews yet

from €83Check dates

Prices checked on October 17, 2026

Finally, if you want to get around by water rather than sip a drink, the Batobus Jardin des Plantes stop is on the quai Saint-Bernard, the continuation of the quai d'Austerlitz heading west. The 24-hour pass lets you hop on and off at nine stops; see our Batobus guide.