Versailles Guided Tour with Optional Fountain Show

Paris, France

Throughout the tour your guide-interpreter will bring back to life the history of the Palace of Versailles where, from 1682, Louis XIV officially settled his court and his government. In particular, you will discover the Great Royal Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen's Apartments.

Take advantage of some free time at the end of the excursion to stroll through the French gardens surrounded by sculptures (statues, busts, marble vases) made from 1661 by teams of sculptors initially supervised by Charles Le Brun, the King's favorite painter.

Versailles Fountain Show Special Program:
April 3rd to October 31st (Saturdays & Sundays) and May 18th to June 29th (Tuesdays). For a selected time you have the option to see the magnificent fountain displays, which reveal the skill and artistry of 3 centuries of French garden design and engineering. The display is accompanied by music composed at the time of Louis XIV's court.

Please note, the first Sunday of each month the visit will be unguided, you will be provided with an audio guide.

USD $90.65

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Neil P H	April 2012
Palace is great. Gardens are better. Wish we had more time in the gardens. A lot of time waiting for people to show up on time. Still a great tour.

Review by: Chi Kai L	April 2012
This trip will be a great idea to skip the horrible line during peak season. Many tourist did not get to go it to the palace even they went there much earlier than us.The only thing I dislike about the trip was too many people (due to peak season) and our earphone often connect to the other tour guide. If the earphone issue can be solved, everything will be great!

Review by: micvii	March 2012
Amazing and a definite for your Paris trip.

Review by: Laurie A	March 2012
Very nice tour and great guide!

Review by: Zilya	March 2012
very much enjoyed the trip!! recommended!!

Review by: Ray	February 2012
A must see.

Review by: Sriramacha M	January 2012
Small group tour and the tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly.

Review by: Lawrence M	December 2011
was a little confusing at the entrance since we were split up ad hoc and not much direction. Guide was knowlegeable but a little brusque. Fountains were not operational and seems like a discount should have been given for this. Would have been nice to have a little more explanation of sights on the way back to Paris

Review by: Yoly	December 2011
This place is amazing! Having a guide provides lots of information.

Review by: Carol	December 2011
This tour was amazing. Our guide was fabulous and very organised. He gave us lots of information about the palace and seemed to get us into the right position to enjoy each room. We had plenty of time after the official tour to have a wander in the gardens and gift shop. Highly professional. The driver was also great winding us through the chaotic Parisienne traffic.

Review by: Norma W	November 2011
good guide, little rushed in the rooms. The fountain show is beetter at night with colored lights

Review by: Traveller	November 2011
The tour was 30 minutes late leaving the depot. It took the guide 20 minutes to collect the headsets. There was a further 40 minute delay to enter the palace to commence the tour as the "skip the line" aspect of the tour had zero impact, in fact single entry tourists entered much faster than the group. The guide was very heavily accented, difficult to understand, left his mike on whilst speaking to other guides and was difficult to follow as he carried no visual aid for us to follow. Because of delays no time to visit the garden which was a great disappointment. A detailed written complaint left with the tour depot on return has not resulted in a response. Feel the tour was a waste of money as we could have done better on our own.

Review by: Amy P K	October 2011
Absolutely stunning!

Review by: Ilene R	October 2011
This was wonderful.

Review by: CGDonna	October 2011
Our guide was excellent and coped with several things beyond her control: the audio sets would not work and several of our group were late, making the whole tour very rushed. U definitely recommend the fountains part of the tour; it puts the palace in perspective.

Review by: LINDA M	October 2011
Somewhat disappointing, altho the fountains were in service. Probably the rainy weather had something to do with it, but the trip there and back were just fine. I guess I expected more for some reason.

Review by: Isobel	October 2011
This was a delightful tour. I'd absolutely recommend the fountain add-on, which was a highlight. The gardens were stunning and the fountain show perfectly expressed the music that was playing. We were glad to have a guide show us around the gardens as I'm sure we would have missed a lot on our own. Inside Versailles was stunning, even if it was too crowded. Altogether a very lovely day. Highly recommended.

Review by: Lumar	October 2011
If you go in August like we did, you have to this. It was supper crowded. We had a great guide who made sure to get us throught the crowds and close to everything so we could enjoy the palace and surounding gardens. Wish we could remember her name. She was great and informative. Our teenagers even enjoyed this. The gardens were amazing.

Review by: Clare S	October 2011
A great tour. Our guide was very enthusiastic and her information and insights help make the tour.

Review by: Loxie Francis	October 2011
I visited Versailles 10 years ago and loved it then. This time it was incredible. The Fountain show is entirely spectacular. To see the fountains in working order with the music is just sublime. Love Paris. Love Versailles, Loved the tour

Review by: MaryAnne	October 2011
we took the AM tour, not so great, they were abit disorganized and I felt our time in the castle was taken up with their trying to get the act together, Versaille of course, beautiful, best views of the gardens, from the castle. Crazy crowded, I guess Sat. wasn't my best idea. Would definitely do it on my own next time.

Review by: Bob M	October 2011
Excellent. The tour guide, Jean Louis, was fabulous. Very knowledgeable and an excellent tour guide

Review by: Claudia A. C	October 2011
The place is gorgeous and the tour guide was really nice. My sister, her husband and I wanted to see the Fountain show and the fountains were not working or some of them were. So because of that we could not see them. To us that was a shame.

Review by: Jennifer B	October 2011
Overall this guided tour was great! It started on time and we had an excellent tour guide who spoke English clearly! yay! Also, the actual tour was excellent and it put this amazing chateau and city into context. We learned a lot and would absolutely do this again. The only downside to this tour was the audio headset, which picked up a lot of static at certain points (so we could not hear the tour). Other than that, it was great!

Review by: pacifica1	October 2011
like the tour but it is a quick tour, time spared for visiting gardens can be more.

Review by: Maryanne M	September 2011
Guide was good.

Review by: Todd R	September 2011
The optional fountain show was pointless - our tour guide led us away from the main fountain to show us some smaller ones when the show started. Then, they shut down the fountain show 10 minutes after it started, saying they needed to conserve water and there wasn't enough to run the fountains. But of course they wouldn't dare refund your 8 euro entrance fee to see the fountain show! Overall, the outside of Versailles is beautiful, but the inside of is forgettable, as I am writing this review I cannot remember one thing my tour guide told me about it. Additionally, the tour guides waited an extra 30 minutes for people to come back to the bus - after being told that if you are not back on time, we will leave you.

Review by: Randy and Karen	September 2011
Highly recommend going to Versailles on a day the fountains are operating. I think we would have missed a lot if we had gone a different day. our may have felt a little rushed, but that is to be expected considering the size of the museum and the size of the crowd.

Review by: adora	September 2011
Versailles was beautiful. Our guide was informative. It took too long to get in for the guided tour/time wasted outside approximately 1-1.5 hours lost. Lost time touring the garden and fountain. Tour did not compensate for time lost,we left Versailles on time without having time to tour the whole area on our own. It was our loss not the tour company. We were not happy with this and will not recommend to others.

Review by: shelly	September 2011
Good tour if you go in the cooler months. Day we went was unbearably hot and huge crowds made seeing inside the Palace very difficult especially for a child. Gardens were amazing. Perhaps the number of tour buses need to be reduced so that tourists can actually see. If you stopped for too long you got swept away in another tour group!! otherwise definitely worth doing.

Review by: Thomas S	September 2011
Rather pricey for what wegot. The guides were confused as to how many English speakers there were in the tour. As a result, we were delayed getting into Versailles and had to speed up a little to get through. NOTHING was was said about the fountain show. Versailles was extremely crowded,making it difficult to see everything.

Review by: Heidiho	September 2011
Quite disappointed in ths tour. For the cost we did not think it was worth it. The tour left about 1/2 to 3/4 hour later than it was suppose to. Then when we got to Versailles we had to wait about 15 minutes for the tour guide to get headsets and then about another 1/2 hour at another point to get into the building. All these delays cut into time to actually see Versailles.

Review by: Rebecca C S	September 2011
The palace tour was fantastic. The tour guide we were given was excellent, a young girl with long black hair, sorry I forgot her name. When we arrived at the station there seemed to be a lot of confusion with the tour guides. Once we arrived at the Palace there was even more confusion and that wouldn't have been so bad but it cut into the time limit we were allowed at the palace. The tour needs to be more organized. It seemed as if this was the first time the company toured the palace.

Review by: LYNNE V K	September 2011
Our guide was very informative and friendly. We would recommend booking this tour as it saves you waiting in a line.

Review by: Kirsten B	September 2011
Fantastic tour. Great tour guide. We crammed as much as we could in the few days we were there and thought we would miss certain monuments, To our delight the bus took us right past them. Well worth the money.

Review by: Margaret B	September 2011
Unpleasant experience due to major overcrowding and disorganisation. Prebooked tickets were worthless, still had to joing queue and even the tour entrance queue at Versailles was shambolic due to overcrowding. Hugely overprices for an ordinary experience. Could not even find our 'guide' within the crowd. In all, terrible

Review by: Nancy H, United States of America	June 2010
Excellent tour, our guide Vincent was great. Very informative and personable.

Review by: Anonymous, Canada	June 2010
The morning tour was amazing because we didn't wait in line at all, we by-passed everyone and the tour guide was really great and fun.

Review by: dolores d, United States of America	June 2010
Had a great tour and our guide was very informative. He kept us going so we saw much more then expected. He handled the crowds well and was very intentive.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	June 2010
Could never have seen what we saw in the time that we had to spare without a guide. Just be prepared for walking and crowds. But you definitely can't go to Paris and not see Versailles.

Review by: Jemma T, Australia	May 2010
Brilliant tour. I think a must do whilst staying in Paris. Spectacular gardens. Excellent tour guide. Palace was great. The fountains only run properly on Sat and Sun. You shouldn't bother doing this trip unless the fountains are running. Much less spectacular otherwise. Only did afternoon trip and that was more than enough time to see all the main sights. Full day would have been way too long

Review by: Jacqueline E, United Kingdom	April 2010
Comfortable coach to venue. Informative guide with excellent English, delivered with a delightful manner. A pleasure to listen to. Just the right length of time for an excursion. Your initial description of 'optional fountain show' should be more clearly and accurately indicated as 'weekends and special holidays only'. We were disappointed that this did not occur on our mid-week visit.

Review by: evelyn g, Philippines	April 2010
France never do things in moderation. All in a grand scale and this castle is a good example.

Review by: Anonymous, Australia	December 2009
No waiting, great guide and the size of the group was not to big.

Review by: Ronnie B, Australia	November 2009
Very very good. Words can't describe it, you have to go yourself.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	November 2009
Again- a great tour from Viator. I will book this company in the future without hesitation. A great bargain.

Review by: Melissa D, United States of America	November 2009
Wow, this place is huge. Not enough time to see all of it but really was a great experience and enough time for me and my two teenagers. The tour guide we had was great at what he does. I am sorry I cannot remember his name. We really enjoyed seeing this and this tour enabled us to get a chance to see and experience the ways some of the royaly lived. Amazing!!

Review by: Phyllis B, United States of America	October 2009
Beautiful & full of history! Tour guide was great!

Review by: Gail T, Australia	October 2009
Saturday afternoon was a great time to see Versailles, plenty of time to see the fountain shows spectacular, then into the Palace, not too crowded. Our guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. The public toilets are a concern, not enough and long lines.

Review by: Eguert N, United States of America	September 2009
The tour guide was very professional and entertaining covering dry historical facts with sharp since of humor which made the trip even more exciting.