Paris dinner cruise: all 14 sailings compared

A dinner cruise on the Seine is a restaurant that moves. You board at a quay in the middle of Paris, you are shown to a table, and for somewhere between seventy-five minutes and two and a half hours the city goes past the window while the courses arrive. Most of these boats are glass — glass-enclosed, glass canopy, bay windows, an open upper deck — because the view is half of what you are paying for. The route is the same one every evening: the central stretch of the river, the bridges, the quays, and the monuments with their floodlights on.

That makes the first real decision a simple one, and it is not the route. It is what the fare puts on the table. At $68 you get a three-course bistronomic menu with butlers serving at the table on a panoramic boat with an outdoor terrace. At $132 the listing includes an all-inclusive à la carte meal of three or four courses depending on the menu, with Champagne and appetisers on some options. At $190 it is the refined cuisine of the historic Maxim’s restaurant, a Champagne aperitif, wine, water and coffee, and window seating guaranteed in writing. Same river, three quite different tables.

The second is how long the boat is out. Four of the fourteen run seventy-five minutes — $100, $100, $114 and $190 — and four run two and a half hours: $132, $132, $77 and $76. That is not a small gap. Seventy-five minutes is a dinner with a view. Two and a half hours is an evening, and it is usually the sailings with music that take it, because the room needs time to fill out.

Which brings the third thread. Five listings name live music on board: a singer on $132, musicians on piano and violin on $132, live singers and a DJ set with a dance floor on $77, a live singer on $127, and a live singer pianist on $190. The other nine are quiet rooms with a view. Neither is better — but booking the wrong one is the single most common mistake in this niche, and the live music page sets out which boat does what. Most of these sailings board by the Eiffel Tower; Bateaux Mouches boards at its own pier, and $68 at the Pont Alexandre III.

Six numbers decide most bookings — fare, length, what is included, rating, review count and what an hour on the water costs — and all six are in the table below. What a table cannot show is what each kind of evening is, so here it is first.

The long evenings with music: four sailings, two and a half hours. $132 is our top pick and the most tested sailing with music on the river: an all-inclusive à la carte dinner of three or four courses, boarding at the Eiffel Tower, an all-glass boat, the historic quays, and live entertainment by a singer; 8,505 reviews at 4.7. $132 is the Bateaux Mouches service — a three or four-course à la carte meal, a glass of wine with the Harmonie menu and half a bottle with the Prestige and Excellence menus, live musicians on piano and violin, a main deck with bay windows and an upper deck with a 360° view; 4,267 reviews at 4.5. $77 runs a three-course menu from Tuesday to Saturday and an all-you-can-eat buffet on Sundays only, with an onboard chef, live singers, a large upper deck and a DJ set with a dance floor to finish; 2,978 reviews at 4.4 and the lowest cost per hour on this page. $76 is the odd one of the four: a one-hour sightseeing cruise from the Eiffel Tower plus a three-course dinner with a drink at the Bistro Parisien on the quayside, and you choose which half comes first; 1,525 reviews at 4.4.

The two-hour dinners: four sailings. $68 is the lowest dinner fare here — boarding at the Pont Alexandre III, a panoramic boat with an outdoor terrace, butlers serving at the table, three courses and the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Conciergerie going past; 5,732 reviews at 4.2. $92 sails the Capitaine Fracasse with a three-course dinner, a glass-enclosed boat and an outdoor panoramic terrace; 2,377 reviews at 4.3. $127 pairs a three-course seasonal menu with a glass of Champagne and a live singer; 405 reviews at 4.4. $75 sits just under two hours at one hour forty-five, serves traditional French cocotte cuisine with first course, main, dessert and mineral water, and has an outdoor terrace — and with 11,893 reviews it is the most booked listing on this entire site.

The seventy-five-minute dinners: four sailings. These are shorter and, per hour, the most expensive water in Paris — which is the trade you are making for the table. $100 is a three-course dinner on a glass-enclosed boat with coffee or tea, a glass or two of Champagne on some options, sailing under the Pont Neuf and past Notre-Dame; 5,915 reviews at 4.3. $100 is the early evening sailing aboard Extime Paris Seine, with a classic French menu and gourmet desserts with coffee or tea as the floodlights come on; 941 reviews at 4.2. $114 includes the drinks in the fare — aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee — on a glass canopy boat from the foot of the Eiffel Tower, with Champagne on the front-boat seating option; 496 reviews at 4.6, the second highest rating here. $190 is the Maxim’s de Paris table: a three-course gourmet menu, a Champagne aperitif, wine, water and coffee, guaranteed window seating and a live singer pianist; 592 reviews at 4.5.

The two lunch cruises. $91 is the same river in daylight — two hours from the Eiffel Tower on a glass canopy boat with an all-inclusive à la carte lunch, a cheese course on the Privilege and Premier services, and aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee or tea included. At 4.8 across 5,268 reviews it holds the highest rating on this site. $80 is the ninety-minute version with a classic menu, gourmet desserts and coffee; 1,567 reviews at 4.4. Neither is a dinner cruise, and both are set out on the lunch cruise page.

If you want the full evening, book $132. It is our top pick and the deepest record here for a sailing with music: two and a half hours from the Eiffel Tower, an all-glass boat, an all-inclusive à la carte dinner of three or four courses, and live entertainment by a singer, at 4.7 across 8,505 reviews. Nothing else with music on this river has been through that many hands.

If the fare decides it, book $68. Two hours, three courses, butlers at the table, a panoramic boat with an outdoor terrace, boarding at the Pont Alexandre III, and 5,732 reviews behind it. It rates 4.2, the lowest number on this page, and it is worth knowing that before you pay — what those 5,732 people are rating is a full dinner service at the lowest fare on the river. $75 is the other end of the same thought: one hour forty-five, an outdoor terrace, and the largest record on the site at 11,893 reviews.

If the table is the point, book $190. The menu comes from the historic Maxim’s restaurant, the window seat is guaranteed rather than hoped for, a Champagne aperitif, wine, water and coffee or tea are in the fare, and there is a live singer pianist in the room; 592 reviews at 4.5 over seventy-five minutes. $114 is the same idea for less — drinks included, glass canopy boat, 4.6 across 496 reviews.

If you are two, book $92 or $127. The first is two hours on the Capitaine Fracasse with a three-course dinner, a glass-enclosed room and an outdoor panoramic terrace; the second adds a glass of Champagne and a live singer to the same two hours. The cruise for two page compares them line by line.

If you would rather eat in daylight, book $91. Two hours from the Eiffel Tower, an all-inclusive à la carte lunch with drinks, and the highest rating on this site at 4.8 across 5,268 reviews. The river is the same river; the difference is that you can see the banks rather than the lights.