Are you looking for Versailles Palace last minute tickets?
Did you forget to get your tickets for Versailles Palace ahead of time? Will you be in Paris in less than two weeks, and all the days are sold out for the time you are there? Don’t worry, you are not alone.
Read below for suggestions on how to get Versailles Palace last-minute tickets from sources other than the official website.
Don’t feel like reading ahead? Go ahead and book your Versailles Palace ticket right now.
How can I buy Versailles Palace last minute tickets when it is sold out on the official website?
As you have probably already seen on the Versailles Palace official website, entrance tickets often sell out fast. It is almost impossible to buy a ticket online at the last minute. Usually, you need to book your tickets in advance, often one to two weeks ahead of time.
Don’t worry. There are many websites (known as resellers) where you can buy Versailles Palace tickets. Some may have tickets still available for your preferred date.
Normally, you would have to check dozens of websites one by one to find your ticket, but you came to the right place to avoid that. TourScanner aggregates all your ticket options, so you can easily check which site has what you’re looking for.
If you still don’t find any Versailles Palace tickets, then it’s probably really sold out. The only way to visit the Versailles Palace would be to book a guided tour, which you can also easily find on TourScanner.
How much do Versailles Palace tickets cost?
There are three types of tickets: Palace, Passport, and Estate of Trianon. Each one gives you access to different areas of Versailles Palace and allows you to add on experiences.
Please note that the prices below are for on-site booking. For online booking, add €1.50 per ticket.
The Palace ticket
Your key to the interior of Versailles Palace and its temporary exhibitions, the gardens, the park and the gallery of coaches (the Musical Gardens and Musical Fountains Show are not included).
- Palace ticket standard price: €18
- Palace ticket and Self-guided tour of Equestrian Academy price: €20
- Palace ticket and Equestrian Show ticket price: €38
- Palace ticket reduced price: €13 (for large family reduction card holders and friends of national museum society members)
- Free admission for anyone under 18, EU residents under 26 and people with disabilities plus one companion
The Passport ticket
This is a more complete version of the Palace ticket and also includes the Estate of Trianon, Musical Gardens and Musical Fountains Show.
- Passport ticket standard price: €20, or €27 on days with Musical Gardens and Musical Fountains Show
- Passport ticket and Return Trip by Little Train price: €33
- Passport ticket and Copy of the Palace Official Guide price: €44
- Passport ticket and Equestrian Show price: €52 (includes Passport ticket access for two consecutive days)
- Passport tickets and Rowboat Ride price: €62 (for 2 adults)
- Passport tickets and Bike Ride price: €62 (for 2 adults)
- Passport tickets and Gourmet Break price: €108 (includes Lunch at Le Petit Venise for 2 adults)
- Passport ticket reduced price: €18 (for large family reduction card holders and friends of national museum society members)
- Free admission or reduced price for anyone under 18, EU residents under 26 and people with disabilities plus one companion (€10 on Musical Fountains Show and Musical Gardens days)
The Estate of Trianon ticket
This is a budget option and only includes access to the Estate of Trianon (Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, the Queen’s hamlet and their gardens).
- Estate of Trianon ticket standard price: €12
- Estate of Trianon ticket and Bike Ride price: €32
- Estate of Trianon ticket reduced price: €8 (for large family reduction card holders and friends of national museum society members)
- Free admission for anyone under 18, EU residents under 26 and people with disabilities plus one companion
The 2-day Passport + Equestrian Show ticket
This is a great deal. Spend two consecutive days exploring the estate, which includes access to the palace on Saturday at 9:30 AM and a horse show at the Equestrian Academy of Versailles on Saturday at 6 PM.
- 2-Day Passport ticket and Equestrian Show price: €52
What will I see during my visit?
Versailles Palace is one of the most extraordinary achievements in 17th-century European art. Located only 30 minutes outside of Paris, this elaborate complex once thrived as the epicenter of political power for the Kingdom of France.
As one of the most impressive places on earth, it’s not surprising that Versailles Palace is the most visited palace in the world, attracting over 10 million visitors every year.
Here is only a small selection of some of the sights you will see at Versailles Palace.
Hall of Mirrors
The Hall of Mirrors is the palace’s central gallery. As you walk from the War Room to the Peace Room, you will gaze upon 357 mirrors adorning 17 arches — each reflecting the view of the gardens from the arcaded windows on the other side.
When you look up, you will see the vaulted ceiling decorated with 30 compositions by the First Painter to the King — Charles Le Brun. Each one illustrates the glorious success of Louis XIV’s reign.
Although courtiers and visitors would traverse this hall on daily, mundane affairs, it would also be used for lavish ceremonies to mark historical events — even in more modern times. This is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end the First World War.
The Royal Chapel
The Royal Chapel was the fifth (and final) chapel built in Versailles Palace. The building’s overall design, large glass windows, and buttresses were inspired by Gothic architecture. Its opulent architectural wonder is by far the most extraordinary. The wedding of Queen Marie Antoinette took place there.
The Royal Chapel was Louis XIV’s last major building project. The King’s Architect, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, sought to follow the tradition of French royal architecture while adding a modern, grand royal style consistent with the rest of the palace.
When you look up, you will see a vaulted ceiling with no transverse ribs. This gives an uninterrupted surface to display Coypel’s God the Father in his Glory, de La Fosse’s The Resurrection in the apse and Jouvenet’s The Descent above the Royal Tribune.
The chapel features an organ designed by Clicquot and decorated with a beautiful depiction of King David in relief. In the past, the music of motets would ring out on a daily basis. More recently, the chapel has hosted concerts of the works of Bach, Brahms and many others.
The King’s State Apartments
The King’s State Apartment is composed of seven lavish rooms. Each is named after a Greek deity (Hercules, Venus, Diana, Mars, Mercury and Apollo) except for one — the Room of Abundance.
Guests would be paraded through these chambers to see the king and royal family on their way to the royal chapel. This was also the space where the sovereign’s official acts would be decreed.
In the evenings, extravagant gatherings were often held. Attendees would be impressed not only by the baskets of rare fruit and flowers but also by the paintings and sculptures adorning each corner and every wall — even the ceilings!
Some of the highlights include François Lemoyne’s ceiling painting The Apotheosis of Hercules, Hyacinthe Rigaud’s famous portrait of Louis XIV and Carle Van Loo’s State portraits of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska.
The King’s Private Apartment
The King’s Private Apartment is composed of the King’s Guard Room, the Antechamber of the Great Dining Room, the Council Room, the Bull’s Eye Antechamber and the King’s Chamber. Those last two rooms are temporarily closed to the public due to restoration works.
Here you will find a relatively understated style compared to the State Apartments. You will see how the decor reflects the change in the king’s tastes. Now you have white ceilings and gold woodwork instead of rich marble panels and extravagantly painted ceilings.
The King’s chamber is the most important and symbolic room in the apartment. This is where dozens of courtiers would assist in the king’s “getting up” and “going to bed” ceremonies. This is also where Louis XIV passed away on 1 September 1715 after a 72-year reign.
Louis XIV personally chose the paintings that you see hanging in this chamber, which include Boulogne’s The Tribute to Caesar, Lanfranco’s Hagar in the Wilderness, Caracciolo’s Saint John the Baptist and Zampieri’s Mary Madeleine, among others.
The Gardens
Master gardener André Le Nôtre and court painter Charles le Brun designed these gardens not as a repose from the opulence of the palace interior but as an extension of its extravagance and grandeur.
In the over 830 hectares of gardens surrounding the palace, you will find an assortment of immaculately-arranged trees and bushes. Among these are dozens of ornate fountains and hundreds of statues that are equally as elaborate and impressive as the interior of the palace.
As you step out onto the lawn of Versailles Palace, you will see:
Fountains and Water Features
These marvels of architecture and engineering required no electricity when first built. Hydraulic wheels redirected millions of liters from the Seine River, and innovative pipe designs supplied the pressure to pump water through dozens of intricately-designed fountains.
- The Four Seasons Fountains stand at the crossroads of The Royal Way. Each is named after a season of the year and is represented by a Greek deity — Spring and Flora, Summer and Ceres, Autumn and Bacchus, and Winter and Saturn.
- The Fountains of the Fight of the Animals are west of the Water Parterre on either side of the central axis. The Evening Fountain features lions bringing down a wolf and wild boar. The Daybreak Fountain features a tiger and bloodhound hunting a bear and stag.
- The Dragon Fountain is at the end of the Water Walk and is the tallest of all the fountains — its water jets reach over 27 meters high! The fountain portrays young Apollo killing the serpent Python with an arrow shot.
- The Neptune Fountain has the biggest and the most variety of water jets. The fountain requires a complex hydraulic system to stream water from its 99 jets.
- Latona’s Fountain recounts the myth of the peasants of Lycia who hurled insults at young Apollo and Diana. Their mother, Latona, pleaded with Jupiter for vengeance. He complied by turning the peasants into lizards and frogs, which you can see delicately placed in and around the fountain.
- The Grand Canal is the largest pool in the gardens. This cross-shaped canal is over 1,670 meters long. Under Louis XIV’s reign, this was the site of elaborate fireworks displays that would light up the eyes of guests during royal galas.
Groves
These pocket gardens ensconced among the trees and off the main pathways are where the kings would often go for walks to connect with the beauty of nature and escape the weight of the crown, at least for a moment.
There are over a dozen different groves to discover. Many of them feature fountains and waterfalls, along with an assortment of vases and statues.
- The Queen’s Grove was designed to highlight the Virginia tulip tree, which is planted in its center and was first introduced to the country at the end of the 18th century. It is only open during the days of the Fountain Shows and Musical Gardens.
- The Ballroom Grove is an amphitheater of greenery and contains the only waterfall on all the palace grounds. The cascade has eight levels and is decorated with marble ramps, millstones and shells.
- The Star Grove takes its name from its complex shape. It features circular, meandering paths, which lead to an open lawn at the heart of the grove.
- The Water Theater Grove was the place for elaborate fountain shows forming seemingly impossible figures, much to the delight of onlookers. In 2015, landscape architect Louis Benech and artist Jean-Michel Othoniel introduced a more modernist fountain and garden design to the grove.
The Orangery
A masterpiece of architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, you will likely be taken aback by the sheer scale, height and pure lines of the building. The central gallery is over 150 meters long and has a 13-meter-high vaulted ceiling.
The Orangery’s parterre is over three hectares and was originally stocked with orange trees gathered from all the royal houses, plus more shipped in from Portugal, Spain and Italy. Today, there are also over 1,000 oleander, pomegranate and palm trees planted in movable containers that are brought indoors every winter.
The Estate of Trianon
- The Grand Trianon is a “little palace of pink marble and porphyry,” as the architect Hardouin-Mansart once described it. The fragrance of tens of thousands of aromatic herbs and flowers will welcome you on your approach to the building.
- The Petit Trianon has a simple cube shape. However, each façade has its own look, adding harmony and elegance to the design. Louis XVI gave it as a gift to his wife Marie-Antoinette, whose apartment overlooks the English Gardens and the Love Monument.
- The English Gardens was originally a botanical garden, but Marie-Antoinette transformed it into an Anglo-Oriental garden with fewer buildings and more natural features like the Grotto.
- The Love Monument is an intimate expression of Marie-Antoinette’s sensibilities and was realized with the help of architect Richard Mique. In its center is a sculpture symbolizing love — a replica of Bouchardon’s Cupid Cutting His Bow from the Club of Hercules.
- The Queen’s Hamlet is actually a grouping of 10 relatively small buildings — each with its own garden of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Its design is in step with Rousseau’s spiritual guidance of getting back to nature and, at times, looks better suited for hobbits than royalty.
The Musical Fountains Shows & the Musical Gardens
On Musical Garden days, the rhythm of baroque music provides a pleasant backdrop for your wanderings among the neatly-pruned, geometric bushes and the impressive fountain sculptures of the gardens. This is a classical music concert in the largest open-air sculpture museum in the world.
You can also enjoy the groves, which are only open in the high season. These are secluded, small gardens off the main paths, decorated with vases, statues and even waterfalls.
Musical Fountains Show days are the only times when you can see the fountains at their full glory. For most of the year, the fountains serve only as pools with elaborate monuments as their centerpieces. During Musical Fountain Show days, the fountains come alive, and water spurts from hundreds of jets in majestic hydraulic displays.
From 10 AM to 7 PM, you can watch as the water dances to the rhythm of baroque music in over a dozen fountains throughout the estate. See the Neptune Fountain with its 99 water jets, the Dragon Fountain reaching 27 meters high or the newly-constructed modernist fountain in the Water Theater Grove.
The Royal Stables
The Royal Stables, created by Louis-Philippe, is a valuable collection of carriages, sleds, cars, and harnesses. Step back in time and admire the fantastic works showcased.
Travel tips
Avoid Mondays
Keep in mind when planning your visit to Versailles that the palace is closed on Mondays.
Make sure to skip the line
All ticket options give you access to the palace. However, you might have to wait in line for quite a long time, from 30 minutes to over 2 hours! This depends a lot on the season. We recommend booking a skip-the-line ticket or a guided tour with priority access to avoid these long lines.
Hot tip: We’ve outlined the best Versailles tours from Paris to help you choose your perfect palace experience.
Enjoy the park and gardens
The Versailles Palace park and gardens are open every day. The entrance is always free to the park and is free to the gardens every day except on days featuring the Musical Gardens or Musical Fountains Shows.