The Best Paris Travel Guide Books – Plus, What Not To Buy

For the best Paris travel advice, and the latest on events and activities, you're in the right place, here at Paris Insiders Guide. Our goal is to give you all the travel advice you need and to keep all of our information current. . For instance, what guide book is going to share with you 14 Paris Dining Tips You Won't Read In A Guide Book? Only us, dear reader. But, we know, we know, sometimes there's nothing like having a book in your hand.

We use guidebooks for armchair travel, and the best of them make for interesting reading. So, if you're dreaming of Paris and want to take a break from the screen, here are our takes on the best of the Paris travel guidebooks, with a few notes on what not to buy.

Four Useful to Really Good Paris Travel Guides

The Rough Guide to Paris

No longer rough, the editors polished up the latest editions of the Paris guide and produced one of our favorites. It's filled with useful information about the things you want to do, such as museums hours and neighborhoods of interest. The last update was in 2018, but most of the information still applies.

The color maps and photographs are reproduced beautifully on the polished paper used for the guide. And, there are plenty of those maps that will help you explore the areas that interest you. Nicely filled out with historical tidbits and unusual places. While you probably won't want to carry it around in your bag, it's a good tool to reference before you head out each day. Our #1 pick.

• 416 page paperback
• 14.1 oz
• Highly Recommended

Michelin Green Guide Paris

If you want to really see and thoroughly experience the historic sights, monuments and museums of Paris, this is the only book to get. The Michelin Green Guide to Paris thoroughly covers virtually every museum, every attraction, every building you will want to visit. There are detailed maps of the major museums with discussions of art, artists, architecture and schools of painting.

There's a short but useful section of practical information, good maps, and even suggested walking itineraries. The Michelin Green Guide to Paris is about the only guide of this weight that we would carry around with us — it's that useful!

• 560 page paperback
• 14.5 oz
• Highly Recommended

Michelin Red Guide to Restaurants

You know us well enough by now to predict there was going to be a restaurant book in our list of best Paris travel guides, and this is it. Michelin is our top favorite restaurant guide for France. This is the lated annual edition that leads you to the best bistros, brasseries, and cafes — including the 1-, 2- and 3-starred restaurants. It's the one we most often consult when we're mapping out our restaurants, and it's the only guide that's important to French chefs. The maps are superb and all reviews of the to restaurants include photos. Mind you, it is in French, but it's not at all difficult to figure out what they're saying !

• 543 page paperback
• 16 oz
• Highly Recommended

Rick Steves' Pocket Paris

The last entry in our Useful to Really Good Guides list is from Rick Steves. Immensely popular, good value, always updated, and filled with useful tourist tips. We're not so keen on the footstep-by-footstep approach to sightseeing often found in Steves' guides. Adhere to this too strictly and you tend not to look around you, notice the life of the city, or follow other interesting paths. Paris, we always tell our readers, friends and guests, is meant for meandering. Even so, this is a safe if predictable choice.

• 240 page paperback
• approx. 8 oz
• Good & Predictable

Three Paris Walking Guides

Forever Paris: 25 Walks in the Footsteps of Chanel, Hemingway, Picasso…

This is one of the few walking guides we like and that's because it has a great theme — walking in the footsteps of famous Parisians. It takes you to the haunts of Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Picasso, up to Edith Piaf's neighborhood of Belleville, and even to the favorite restaurant of Napoleon. In doing so Forever Paris leads you into fascinating areas of Paris that you are unlikely to discover on your own.

• 108 pages
• approx. 7 oz
• For History Buffs

City Walks: Paris Card Set

From the same author is City Walks: Paris, a set of 50 cards, each with its own Paris walking adventure and map. It's great to stuff a few of these in your pocket when you're heading out to a certain arrondissement.

• 50 cards
• For Walkers & Explorers

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

We don't want to forgot about John Baxter's lovely book for strollers in Paris. Another walking book we highly recommend.

• 298 pages
• 7 oz
• Highly Recommend

Other Paris Travel Guides We Sorta Like

• FROMMER'S PARIS DAY-BY-DAY
  Find it at Amazon…

• ROUGH GUIDE FRENCH PHRASEBOOK
  Find it at Amazon…

• CITY TRAILS PARIS – LONELY PLANET KIDS
  Find it at Amazon…

Not So Much…

• National Geographic Walking Paris…
• Eyewitness Top 10 Paris Guide…
• France: Berlitz Handbook…
• Lonely Planet Pocket Paris…
• Fodor's Paris Guides…