If you're visiting Paris for just a few days and you expect to move around the city quite a lot by public transport, you may save money with a Paris Visite transit pass from RATP.

Then again, you may not. Read on.

The Paris Visite (pah-REE vee-ZEET) card allows 1, 2, 3 or 5 days of unlimited travel on Paris's convenient Métro, city buses, funiculars, RER suburban trains and SNCF Transilien regional trains. (For five days or more, you're probably better off buying a Navigo Découverte pass. More...)

The cost of a Paris Visite adult card for Zones 1 to 3 ranges from 8.80€ for a one-day pass to 28.30€ for a five-day pass; kids 4 to 11 pay half price. Zones 1 to 3 include all of central Paris and some nearb y suburban destinations, but not the airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly, or Disneyland Paris, or the Château de Versailles, all of which are in Zones 4 and 5. (Compare this cost to that of a one-week Navigo Découverte pass at 17.20€—but more about that below. Read on!)

A Paris Visite adult card for Zones 1 through 6, including the airports, Disneyland and Versailles, costs 18.50€ for one day to 48.40€ for five days; kids pay half.

The validity of the card begins at 05:30 am on the first day that you use it and continues for 1, 2, 3 or 5 days, ending at 05:30 am on the last day. Even if you first use the card at 22:00 (10:00 pm), the validity will be calculated as beginning at 05:30 am on that day; so it makes sense to begin using the card early in the day.

Paris Visite also entitles you to discounts of 15% to 20% and more on a number of museums, activities and attractions in and around Paris, and on some shopping.

The challenge is to determine whether the Paris Visite card makes economic sense for you. If you plan to use public transport numerous times each day; if you look at the card's discount offers and decide that you may take advantage of several of them; then the card may make sense for you.

But remember: a single Métro/bus ticket costs only 1.40€, and if you buy a carnet of 10 tickets for 11.40€, the cost per ticket drops to 1.14€. At that price, two people can take five Zone 1 & 2 rides (virtually all of historic Paris) each in a day for 11.40€—and if you don't take that many rides, you can use the tickets another day. If two people buy Paris Visite cards, they will pay 17.60€ total (Zones 1 to 3), which makes sense if they expect to take more than seven rides each per day, and to use some of the discounts offered.

Seven rides each is a lot of time on the bus and subway in one day...and if you spend that much time in transit, will you have any time left over to take advantage of the discounts?

When in doubt, I would say...stick to buying carnets of tickets.

For anyone staying five days or longer, and particularly those who expect to return to Paris for similar periods of time in the future, the Navigo Découverte card can make a lot more sense. More...