Paris lunch cruise

Almost everything written about boats on the Seine assumes you want to be on one after dark. Twelve of the fourteen sailings on this site are evening trips and they are what the river is famous for. But two of them serve lunch, they run the same stretch of water past the same monuments, and they cost less than most of the evening boats do. If your evening in Paris is already spoken for — and in a city with this much to do after dark, it often is — a lunch cruise is not a consolation. It is a straightforwardly good use of the middle of a day.

The first is the $91 Lunch Cruise with 3-course menu from the Eiffel Tower. Two hours, boarding at the Eiffel Tower, on a glass canopy boat that runs through the heart of Paris. Its listing states an all-inclusive à la carte lunch of three courses — starter, main dish and dessert — with a cheese course added on two of the option levels, and it states beverages: an aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee or tea. It is rated 4.8 across 5,268 reviews. Nothing else on this site is rated that highly, in the evening or otherwise.

The second is the $80 3-Course Lunch Cruise on the River Seine. Ninety minutes, a selection of starters and a choice of main course, gourmet desserts with coffee, and the listing takes you under the Pont Neuf and past Notre-Dame, naming the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre along the way. It is rated 4.4 across 1,567 reviews and its listing carries a skip the line marker. At $80 it is the cheaper of the two by $11.

Set them beside the evening boats and the comparison is blunt. The $91 lunch cruise states the same drinks — aperitif, wine, water, coffee — that the $114 wine cruise states across seventy-five minutes and the $190 Maxim’s sailing states across the same seventy-five minutes. It runs two hours. And it costs less than either.

What you give up is the thing the evening boats sell hardest: the monuments floodlit. Several evening listings here build their whole description around it, and they are right to — it is why most people book at night. In daylight you get the opposite trade. You see the bridges properly, you see the stonework, you see what the boat is actually passing, and you get the afternoon back.

$91 — Lunch Cruise with 3-course menu from the Eiffel Tower. Two hours, 5,268 reviews at 4.8, and the sailing we would book. The listing is unusually complete for this river: two hours aboard a glass canopy boat through the heart of Paris starting from the Eiffel Tower; a three-course lunch of starter, main dish and dessert, with a cheese course added if you choose the Service Privilege or Service Premier option; and beverages stated outright as an aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee or tea. Its highlights name Notre-Dame among the landmarks you pass and make a point of the panoramic views from a glass-enclosed boat. Two hours is the same length as the $68 bistronomic dinner cruise and the $92 romantic dinner cruise, and it is longer than seven of the twelve evening sailings.

The rating is the part worth sitting with. A 4.8 across 5,268 reviews is not a small sample landing well. It is the fifth-largest review count on this site and the highest score on it, and the sailings above it in volume — the $75 panoramic cruise at 4.3 across 11,893 and the $132 live-music cruise at 4.7 across 8,505 — are both evening trips. Whatever this boat is doing at lunchtime, people come off it happy.

$80 — 3-Course Lunch Cruise on the River Seine. Ninety minutes, 1,567 reviews at 4.4, and the one to book when two hours is more than your day can spare. Its listing states a lunch cruise, food, and coffee or tea, with the highlights filling in the shape of the meal: a classic menu with a selection of starters and a choice of main course, then a selection of gourmet desserts with your coffee. It cruises down the Seine in the midday sun, under the Pont Neuf and past Notre-Dame, and names the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre among the monuments. The listing carries a skip the line marker and states that you must book at least an hour and a half in advance.

Worked per hour the two land closer than the fares suggest: $45.50 an hour for the two-hour sailing against $53.33 an hour for the ninety-minute one. The longer lunch is the lower figure of the two, which is the opposite of what people expect and the reason we would pay the extra $11 unless the clock decides it.

What neither of them states. Live music is not mentioned on either listing. If a singer is part of the picture you had in mind, that is an evening booking: five sailings state it, from the $77 gourmet cruise with singers and a DJ set to the $190 Maxim’s sailing with a singer and pianist. Neither lunch listing states an outdoor terrace either — both are glass-enclosed — so if sitting outside matters, the $68 bistronomic dinner cruise and the $75 panoramic dinner cruise are the listings that state one.

And what both of them do. They put you on the Seine for the price of a decent meal on land, with the city moving past the window instead of a wall. Both carry free cancellation. Both leave your evening in Paris completely untouched, which for a two- or three-day visit is worth more than the fare difference between them.

Book the $91 Lunch Cruise from the Eiffel Tower. Two hours, a glass canopy boat, boarding at the tower, a three-course à la carte lunch with a cheese course on the two upper option levels, and an aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee or tea stated in the fare. It is rated 4.8 across 5,268 reviews — the highest score of the fourteen sailings here, evening trips included — and at $45.50 an hour it is one of the lower hourly figures on the whole river.

Book the $80 3-Course Lunch Cruise if ninety minutes is the right shape for your day. Starter, choice of main, desserts with coffee, under the Pont Neuf and past Notre-Dame in the midday sun, rated 4.4 across 1,567 reviews, with a skip the line marker on the listing and a minimum of an hour and a half’s notice to book. It saves you $11 and half an hour.

Book dinner instead if the lit city is the point. Nobody should talk you out of that: it is what this river is known for. The $132 3-Course-Dinner Cruise with live music is two and a half hours on an all-glass boat from the Eiffel Tower with a singer on board and 8,505 reviews at 4.7, and the $132 Bateaux Mouches service is the same fare with two decks and musicians on piano and violin.

And book both, if you have the days. They are not the same trip twice. A lunch cruise shows you what the boat passes; a dinner cruise shows you the same stretch lit. Every fare on this page carries free cancellation, so holding two dates costs you nothing while you watch what the week looks like.

1. Assuming lunch means a lesser boat. The $91 lunch cruise runs two hours on a glass canopy boat from the Eiffel Tower and is rated 4.8 across 5,268 reviews — the highest rating of all fourteen sailings on this site.
2. Comparing the two lunch fares without the drinks line. The $91 sailing states an aperitif, wine, mineral water and coffee or tea. The $80 sailing states coffee or tea. That is most of the $11 between them.
3. Booking the ninety-minute sailing at the last minute. Its listing states a minimum of one and a half hours’ notice. Leaving it to the walk down to the quay does not work.
4. Expecting live music. Neither lunch listing states it. The five sailings that do are all evening trips, from the $77 gourmet cruise to the $190 Maxim’s sailing.
5. Expecting an outdoor terrace. Both lunch boats are glass-enclosed. The listings that state a terrace are evening ones: the $68 bistronomic cruise and the $75 panoramic cruise, and the $132 Bateaux Mouches service with its 360° upper deck.
6. Treating lunch as a substitute for the lit city. It is not, and it does not pretend to be. If the floodlit monuments are why you came, book an evening sailing and use lunch on a different day.