Paris Airport Transport: Best Way to the City Centre

You have a booked flight and a date, and one problem left to solve: getting from the plane to your hotel. Paris makes that harder than it should be. Three airports serve the city, and they do not share an answer — one sits on a fast rail line, one is now on the metro, and one is not really in Paris at all. On top of that, the way you pay for the journey has changed. Paper tickets are gone from the network, and a contactless bank card will not open a metro gate, so the ticket you need exists only on a card or a phone you sort out before you reach the barrier. This guide gives you the best route from each of the three airports, the honest case for paying more, the payment step to handle first, and the arrivals — late landings, heavy bags, groups — where the usual answer stops working.

Quick Answer

The RER B from CDG — and Metro Line 14 from Orly — is the best option for most travelers. A regulated flat-fare taxi is the alternative that wins for groups and heavy luggage. Paper tickets no longer exist, so load the airport ticket onto a Navigo Easy card or your phone before the turnstile.

Trust Layer

Tripstou transport guide for travelers deciding how to make a specific journey. Covers realistic options, tradeoffs by traveler type and luggage, passes, and arrival cases.

Produced with AI assistance and reviewed by Alex Perrut, working in tourism since 2015, for the Tripstou editorial team. See our editorial process for details.

Last factual review: August 7, 2026.

Official sources consulted: France.fr, Atout France.

Key Takeaways

• From CDG the RER B is the default pick, reaching central interchanges in well under an hour without traffic risk.
• Orly now sits directly on Metro Line 14, so your exit station — not the fare — should choose the route.
• A regulated flat-fare taxi beats the train once you are three or four people or carrying multiple heavy cases.
• Paris has no paper tickets and no bank-card tap at gates, so load the airport ticket before arriving at the turnstile.
• Beauvais is a road journey to the city edge, not an airport transfer, so budget two hours at each end.
• Land after the trains stop and the choice narrows to a night bus or the taxi rank’s fixed fare.

Table of Contents

Which Paris Airport Are You Flying Into?

Paris has three airports, and the right way into the city is different at each one. Charles de Gaulle sits far out but is well connected by rail. Orly is closer and now sits directly on the metro. Beauvais is not really a Paris airport at all: it is a road journey.

Check your boarding pass before you read any further, because the airport code decides everything below:

• Charles de Gaulle (CDG) — the main international gateway, north-east of the city, with its own rail station and the widest set of options. Most long-haul arrivals land here.
• Orly (ORY) — south of the city and closer in, served directly by Metro Line 14. Most domestic and short-haul European flights use it.
• Beauvais (BVA) — a budget-airline airport well outside the Île-de-France region, with one realistic coach link. Treat it as a separate leg of the trip.

Distance is not the same thing as difficulty at these three airports. CDG is the furthest from the centre and still one of the easiest to leave, because a single train drops you at central interchanges without a change. Beauvais is the reverse: the flight looks cheap, then the ground journey quietly takes a couple of hours off each end of your trip.

Where you booked matters more than most arrival advice admits, because your arrival station and your base interact. A Left Bank hotel is awkward from a Right Bank coach terminus and easy from an RER station on the same line, so it is worth reading where to stay in Paris alongside your flight times if the booking is not locked in yet. If you are still assembling the wider trip, our first-time Paris travel guide covers the orientation this page deliberately leaves alone — here, the story starts when the wheels touch down.

From CDG, the RER B Is the Best Option for Most Travelers

The RER B is the fastest affordable way from CDG into central Paris. It runs directly to Gare du Nord, Châtelet-Les Halles and Saint-Michel, where you can change onto most metro lines. Trains run every few minutes, and road traffic cannot delay them. The trip takes roughly 35–50 minutes.

Five options realistically compete for this journey, and each one wins for a different arrival:

• RER B train — best for most arrivals heading into the centre with luggage you can carry. Tradeoff: stairs at the interchanges, crowded carriages at peak hours, and no guaranteed seat.
• Roissybus — a direct coach to Opéra, best for stays around the Right Bank boulevards who want one vehicle and a luggage hold. Tradeoff: it sits in road traffic, and it costs more than the train.
• Official taxi — best for groups, heavy bags, late landings and anyone who cannot face stairs. Tradeoff: the highest cost by far for one person travelling light.
• Ride-hailing — best when you want a quoted fare in an app you already have installed. Tradeoff: the price moves with demand, and pickup points sit away from the terminal doors.
• Private transfer — pre-booked and met at arrivals, best for families and anyone landing tired with children. Tradeoff: more expensive than a taxi for one or two people.

Cost bands are for comparison — check current fares before you travel.

The train ticket is a low-to-mid-teens euro fare one-way — a few euros above a standard metro ticket, and a fraction of the taxi flat rate. Buying it is the part that catches people out, and it has its own section further down. One terminal note, and only one: Terminal 2 has its own rail station, while Terminals 1 and 3 reach it on the free CDGVAL shuttle.

What actually settles this journey is that a train cannot be stuck on the motorway. The gap between the RER B and a car is small on an empty Sunday morning and enormous at six on a weekday evening, which is why the rail option wins on reliability even for travelers who would happily pay for a taxi.

Roissybus earns its place in one specific case: a hotel within walking distance of Opéra, a suitcase you would prefer not to carry down steps, and no hurry. Outside that case, the train beats it on time and price, and a taxi beats it on comfort.

How Do You Get From Orly to Paris?

Metro Line 14 runs directly from Orly into central Paris and is the default for most arrivals. It reaches Châtelet and Gare de Lyon without a change, and it runs frequently. The older Orlyval route now costs the same, so the choice is about destination, not price.

Orly’s ladder is shorter than the one at CDG, which is part of why it is the easier airport to land at:

• Metro Line 14 — best for anyone heading to the central north-south spine, from Bercy up through Châtelet to Saint-Lazare. Tradeoff: it is a metro, so luggage space is metro-sized and interchanges mean stairs.
• Orlyval plus RER B — best for stays along the southern RER B corridor and for onward connections north. Tradeoff: two vehicles and a change at Antony with your bags.
• Airport bus — best for a direct road link to a specific point such as Denfert-Rochereau. Tradeoff: traffic sets the pace, and there is no way to hurry it.
• Official taxi — a regulated flat fare, roughly half to two-thirds of the CDG equivalent. Best for groups, heavy luggage and late arrivals.

Is Line 14 or Orlyval Better From Orly?

Line 14 is better for most travelers, because the two routes now cost the same under the unified airport ticket. That parity removes the only argument Orlyval used to lose on price, and it leaves two practical questions instead. Which station do you actually want to walk out of? And how much are you carrying?

Line 14 suits you if your hotel sits near Châtelet, Gare de Lyon, Bercy or Saint-Lazare. Orlyval plus the RER B suits you if you are heading south of the centre or connecting onward from the RER B corridor. With two large suitcases, the single-vehicle option is worth a small detour on foot at the far end, because one change with cases is worse than five extra minutes on a train.

Because the price argument at Orly has disappeared, decide your exit station first and let it choose the route. That reverses how most people plan an airport journey, and at this airport it is the only ordering that works.

How Do You Get From Beauvais Airport to Paris?

The official shuttle coach to Porte Maillot is effectively the only realistic way into Paris. Beauvais sits well outside the Île-de-France region, so there is no airport rail link and a taxi is punishingly expensive. Plan it as a long road transfer, not an airport transfer.

The coach terminates at Porte Maillot, on the western edge of the city, where you pick up Metro Line 1 and the RER C for the rest of the way in. Some guides still send Beauvais passengers to La Défense; that arrangement has ended, and following it will leave you in the wrong place with a suitcase. The road journey itself runs roughly 75 to 90 minutes before traffic, and departures are timed around flight arrivals.

Fares sit in the high-teens euro range one-way, and the one durable point worth knowing is that booking online is cheaper than buying at the airport desk. Book it when you book the flight.

The honest framing for Beauvais is that the coach fare and the two hours it adds at each end belong in the cost of the flight, not the cost of the transfer. That is the calculation budget airlines depend on you skipping, and it is the only thing this page has to say about which airport you fly into.

Taxi, Uber or Private Transfer: When Paying More Is Worth It

Official taxis charge a regulated flat fare with luggage included and card payment mandatory. The price is the same day or night, weekday or weekend, so there is no meter to watch and no surge to time. That makes the taxi the benchmark every other door-to-door option has to beat.

At CDG the flat fare sits in the mid-to-high fifties of euros for the Right Bank and around the mid-sixties for the Left Bank, and which bank your hotel is on is the only variable. From Orly the equivalent fares run roughly half to two-thirds of the CDG level. Those are regulated bands posted at the rank, and the structure matters more than the number: fixed price, luggage included, card accepted, no negotiation.

The three door-to-door options separate cleanly:

• Official taxi — best when you want a fixed price with no app, no account and no pickup hunt. Tradeoff: you queue at the rank, which can be long after a bank of long-haul arrivals lands together.
• Ride-hailing — best when you want the fare confirmed before you commit. Tradeoff: pricing moves with demand, so the taxi’s fixed fare can undercut it exactly when you need a car most.
• Private transfer — best for families, groups and anyone who wants a driver waiting with a name board. Tradeoff: above the taxi fare for one or two people, and competitive per head only once you fill the vehicle.

The flat fare is what makes the taxi rank so predictable at these two airports: the worse the traffic, the better the value, because the price cannot climb while you sit in it. A metered ride would punish you for the same jam, and a ride-hailing quote would have priced the jam in before you booked.

Pre-booking is worth it when a failure would be expensive — a family with small children, a pre-dawn departure, four people and six bags, or a first arrival at an airport you have never seen. Deciding on arrival is fine for everyone else, and it keeps your options open if the flight is delayed. Two people with cabin bags landing at midday do not need any of this: the train is not just cheaper, it is the better journey.

One warning that still matters at both main airports. Ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal offering a car. Licensed taxis queue at the official rank outside, the regulated flat fare only applies there, and every story about being overcharged from a Paris airport starts with an unofficial offer accepted indoors.

How You Pay Now: No Paper Tickets, No Bank-Card Tap

You cannot buy a paper ticket in Paris, and you cannot tap a bank card at the turnstile. The airport train ticket exists only on a Navigo Easy card, in the Île-de-France Mobilités or Bonjour RATP app, or in Apple Wallet. Sort it out before you reach the gate.

A single ticket, Paris Région to Aéroports, now covers airport rail travel to and from both CDG and Orly, and it includes onward connections within the network for a limited window after you validate it. In practice that means one purchase usually carries you to your final stop, not just out of the airport. What it does not do is exist as a piece of cardboard.

Do this before you reach the turnstile:

• Buy a Navigo Easy card at a staffed counter or machine in the airport station, for a small one-off card fee, then load the airport ticket onto it.
• Or load the ticket in the app — Île-de-France Mobilités or Bonjour RATP — if your phone is compatible and you have working data.
• Keep a bank card in hand for the machine or counter. It pays for the ticket perfectly well; it simply will not open the gate.
• Do not queue twice. If someone in your group is buying, buy for everyone at the same machine before you all walk to the platform.

One quirk can catch you at the machine: you may not be able to hold the airport ticket and standard metro tickets on the same Navigo Easy card at once. If the combination is refused, buy a second card or use your phone instead of troubleshooting it with a queue behind you. The same media rules apply across the whole Paris network, not only the airport routes, so whatever you set up on arrival day will carry you through the rest of the trip.

The failure that actually strands people is arriving with no local card, no data and no ticket, then discovering that the machine queue is long and your bank card opens nothing. A working connection turns the whole problem into a two-minute app purchase, which is why sorting a French SIM or eSIM before you land is a genuine part of your airport transport plan rather than a general packing tip. If you land without data, go to a staffed counter and buy the physical card — it is slower, but it always works.

The Right Choice for Your Traveler Type

Your luggage, group size and arrival time decide the answer, not the fare alone. A solo traveler with a cabin bag and a family of four with three suitcases are making different journeys out of the same terminal. Match the mode to the load you carry and the hour you land.

Four profiles cover almost every arrival:

• Solo traveler, light bag, daytime landing — take the train. The RER B from CDG, Line 14 from Orly. Nothing else on the ladder earns its price difference for one person carrying one bag.
• Family with children and cases — take a taxi or a pre-booked transfer. One vehicle, one fare, luggage included, and no interchange stairs at the end of a flight with tired children.
• Time-critical arrival — take the train. Traffic is the one variable no road option controls, and a meeting is not the place to find out how bad the ring road is today.
• Group of three or four on a budget — take a flat-fare taxi. Split four ways it lands close to, and often below, four separate rail tickets, with the door-to-door service included.

The cheapest option is not automatically right, and the most expensive one rarely is. The gap between four train tickets and one flat-fare taxi at CDG is roughly the price of a shared meal, which is why the group verdict flips so easily while the solo verdict almost never does. Count heads before you count euros.

This guide stops when you reach the city. From your arrival station onwards, tickets, passes and mode choice work differently, and our guide to getting around Paris picks up exactly where this one ends. If you land in the morning and want to use the afternoon well, our 2-day Paris itinerary and 3-day Paris itinerary both start with a half day, which is the realistic shape of an arrival day.

Night Arrivals, Heavy Luggage and Groups: When the Verdict Flips

Land late at night and the trains have stopped, so the answer becomes a taxi or a night bus. Heavy luggage, a group of three or four, and a pre-dawn departure back out do the same thing: they overturn the rail verdict for reasons that have nothing to do with price.

Landing after the trains stop. Rail services into Paris finish in the late evening and night buses take over. The usable overnight route from CDG is the N143, running roughly half-hourly through the small hours via Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord. It works, but it is a bus with luggage in the middle of the night, and the taxi flat fare does not rise after dark — which is the argument that settles most late arrivals in favour of the rank.

Travelling with heavy bags. The luggage objection to the RER B is really a stairs objection. The train itself handles suitcases fine; the interchange at Châtelet-Les Halles does not, and much of the network has stairs and no lift. Two people with one case each are fine. One person with two large cases and a connection to make is better off in a taxi. In a crowded carriage, keep bags closed and in front of you, as on any big-city commuter train.

Travelling as three or four. The flat fare turns the group into the taxi’s best customer, because the price is per car while the rail fare is per person. Add the luggage that usually comes with three or four people and the case gets stronger.

Heading back out on an early flight. The logic mirrors itself, with less margin for error. Book a car the night before for anything departing before the network fully wakes up, and do not plan a first-train connection for a flight you cannot miss. A missed check-in costs more than every fare on this page combined.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get from CDG to central Paris?

Allow roughly 35 to 50 minutes on the RER B to central interchanges such as Gare du Nord or Châtelet-Les Halles. A taxi covers the same ground in about 45 to 75 minutes, depending entirely on road traffic. The direct coach to Opéra typically takes around an hour.

Is the Roissybus still running, and is it worth it?

Yes. The Roissybus runs as a direct coach between CDG and Opéra, with a luggage hold and one vehicle end to end. It costs more than the train and far less than a taxi. It earns its price only for stays within walking distance of Opéra.

Can you tap a bank card at Paris metro turnstiles?

No. Contactless bank cards open no metro or RER gate in Paris, and that applies across the whole network, not just airport routes. Buy a Navigo Easy card at a machine or counter, or load the ticket into a phone wallet. Your bank card pays for it either way.

Does the Paris Visite pass cover the airport journey?

Yes, in its all-zone version — the pass covers travel to and from both CDG and Orly on the rail network. Whether it beats buying single tickets is a separate question that depends on how much you ride; our Paris transport guide settles that verdict.

Which CDG terminal do you catch the RER B from?

Terminal 2 has its own rail station beneath it, so you walk straight down to the platforms. From Terminals 1 and 3, take the free CDGVAL shuttle to that station first. Build in a few extra minutes for that transfer when you plan your arrival.

Do you need to book a Paris airport transfer in advance?

No, except in specific cases. Advance booking rarely saves money — the taxi flat fare is the same whenever you turn up — so it buys certainty instead. The exception is the Beauvais coach, where the online fare undercuts the airport desk. Pre-book that one with your flight.

Related Guides

• Getting around Paris — tickets, modes and passes once you have left the airport.
• Paris travel guide for first-time visitors — orientation and how the city fits together.
• Where to stay in Paris — how your base interacts with your arrival station.
• 2-day Paris itinerary — a route that starts with an arrival afternoon.
• 3-day Paris itinerary — the same start, spread across a longer stay.
• France SIM cards and eSIMs — getting data before you need to buy a ticket.