So you have less than 24 hours in Paris, but your traveling companion can’t walk far? You can still do Paris without much walking.
I took my parents to Paris in summer 2025. The City of Light is close to my heart, since I spent my junior year of college there. Back in 1993, when I went, my parents could have kept up with me all over Paris. My dad was a mail carrier at the time, so he was used to walking miles every day! Unfortunately, they couldn’t visit at that time because they were putting all their extra money toward college for my brother and me.
More than 30 years later, we finally took on Paris together. Unfortunately, our itinerary allowed less than two days to do it! Also, my dad can no longer walk long distances, and he can’t walk up more than 50 stairs. He used a rolling walker to get around.
To limit things even more, my parents arrived on a trans-Atlantic flight on the morning of Day 1.
So, I crafted this low-mobility Paris itinerary, with most of the activity happening on Day 2.
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How to see Paris without walking much
Before we get into the hour-by-hour Paris itinerary, let me lay out the conditions I used when planning:
- No more than one to two miles of walking per day.
- No more than half a mile walking at one time.
- No long lines.
- No climbing more than one flight of stairs.
- No museums. (What is Paris without museums? Well, skipping them eliminates a lot of walking, and there is plenty to see in the streets of Paris.)
Paris two-day itinerary without much walking
One strategy to keep walking and stairs to a minimum: Take buses — or better yet, Uber and taxis — rather than the Metro. While there are escalators at many Metro stations, most of the escalators go up only, not down. Taking buses or cars had the side benefit of allowing us to see more of Paris.
More basic building blocks of a low-walking Paris itinerary:
- Seine boat tour. You can see several of the main sights — Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower — from the boat.
- Sit in picturesque locations. Sidewalk cafes, the Jardin du Luxembourg or Les Tuileries are great ones.
- Stay in a central location with a view terrace. Even when resting at your base, you can still be experiencing Paris.
- Plan some separate activities for group members. My son and I visited Disneyland Paris, obviously not a low-walking destination. But we planned that part of our trip for the day my parents were in the air.
- Plan the must-see sights at the beginning of the day, with optional activities after lunch. That way if people get tired, they can head back early.
Day 1 low-walking Paris itinerary: Relaxed jet lag recovery day (Total walking: Half a mile or less.)
9:20 a.m.: Flight lands at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (My parents had requested wheelchair assistance through British Airways. They were surprised and delighted to be whisked to the front of the security line! So if you’re meeting folks who receive wheelchair assistance, know that they might get through immigration quicker than you expect.)
10:30 a.m.: Take Uber to lodging. We stayed at a HomeExchange property in the 7th arrondissement.
11:30 a.m.: While my folks rested, I slipped out to La Grande Épicerie de Paris, inside the Bon Marche department store, to gather some delicious items for our first French lunch: rotisserie chicken and potatoes, pate, baguette, butter, cheese, etc.
1:30 p.m.: Lunch at our lodging.
3 p.m.: Bus to the Jardin du Luxembourg. (Due to a series of mishaps, this ended up taking us about an hour instead of the 15 minutes I expected.)
4 p.m.: Sit on a park bench, watch kids play with boats on the fountain.
5 p.m.: Taxi to sidewalk cafe across the street from our lodging. Enjoy happy hour drinks and snacks.
6 p.m. My parents settled in for the evening and went to bed early, while my son and I headed out to visit two museums that were open late that night: the Musée de Cluny-Musée National du Moyen Âge, the Catacombs and the Musée d’Orsay.
10 p.m. My son and I had dinner on the sidewalk at Cafe Louise in Saint-Germain-des-Près.
Day 2: See Paris in one day, low mobility style (Less than 1 mile walking.)
This itinerary got us through Paris without much walking, but still took in a lot of sights.
7 a.m.: I ran out for pastries from La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac.
8:00 a.m.: We enjoyed pastries and coffee along with the view of the Eiffel Tower from our lodging.
9:00 a.m.: We walked a quarter mile to take the 96 bus to the Tour Montparnasse. Upon arrival, it’s .16 miles from the stop to the tower. (For able-bodied people, this is a 10-minute trip. I planned 30 minutes from door to door.)
9:30 a.m.: With our timed entry ticket, we took the elevator to the top of the tower to enjoy the view of Paris. (9:30 is the first timeslot of the day; we ended up waiting outside the doors with other visitors for it to open, which was fine.)
11 a.m.: Take an Uber to Pont Neuf.
12 p.m. One-hour Seine cruise with Vedettes du Pont Neuf.
1 p.m. Take an Uber to La Grille Montorgeuil.
1:30 p.m.: Eat lunch.
3 p.m.: Walk down Rue Tiquetonne, the street where I lived as a student.
3:30 p.m.: At this point, we could have shopped in the area, and/or taken an Uber to Les Tuileries to sit and enjoy the garden, or to the Île de la Cité to see the Notre-Dame cathedral up close. However, my father was tired, so we took an Uber back to our lodging. (Our driver — like many Uber drivers in Paris, he was also a regular taxi driver — was kind enough to pull over in the Place du Carrousel just outside the Louvre so we could look around this scenic area from the car.)
4 p.m.: My mother, my son and I walked to Angiolo, a fancy glacerie (ice cream shop) in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood.
5 p.m. My parents chilled at our lodging while my son and I headed out for another evening museum visit, this time to the Arc de Triomphe, then the Louvre!
My plan vs. how things turned out
I had originally planned to take mostly buses — but Ubers turned out to be much more practical for my dad, especially since it was really hot out during our July visit. For one thing, my parents didn’t have any cell phone service in Paris, so we had to buy paper tickets at the Metro station in order for them to get on the bus. Then, on our first attempt to take the bus, I misunderstood Google Maps and led us to the wrong corner, which used up a lot of my dad’s walking stamina for the trip. Then, there was a traffic disruption, and we ended up waiting at least half an hour for a bus that never showed up.
Ubers are pretty affordable in Paris as well. Most of our trips around Paris cost $15 or less. Tips aren’t expected there — although I often did tip because our drivers gave us extra help with the walker.
I had also hoped to show my parents more sights, but everything took longer than I expected. That said, they enjoyed the sights we did see, and had a really nice day together.
Can you rent a wheelchair or a scooter to get around Paris without much walking?
Yes! Another way to see Paris without much walking is to rent a wheelchair or scooter. Motion4Rent offers both starting at $8 a day and surpassing $150 a day for fancy scooters. I actually wish we would have rented a wheelchair for our visit.
Should you take pedicabs in Paris to avoid walking too much?
You need to watch out for scammy pedicabs in Paris! Like in other big cities, there are rogue operators pedaling around major attraction, who will quote one price then try to charge a much higher one. We didn’t end up using it, but I had downloaded the Turtl app on my phone to hail pedicabs.
This was the second trip we’ve taken with my parents, who are over 70. Two years ago we went to Iceland and Norway together. We traveled by boat all the way up the coast of Norway. I learned a lot on that trip! The biggest thing I learned is that you do not need to be able to walk a long way to get a lot out of international travel.
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