Versailles summer afternoon crowds.

How long is the wait to get inside the Chateau on a busy summer Saturday at 4:30 pm or so? Is the line sorter first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon?

We (2 adults, 3 teenagers) will be visiting Versailles July 26 (the day before Tour de France enters Paris). I am expecting huge crowds, but it is the only day we are able to visit, so that is ok. Would it be better to arrive first thing in the morning or to wait until 4:30 pm to tour the chateau? I%26#39;ve read that later in the afternoon the crowds die out somewhat. We plan to arrive with tickets in hand to avoid the ticket line, but I don%26#39;t want to spend too long waiting in line to get into the chateau. Once inside we will have a podcast to be our guide, so we dont need to join a tour. We also want to rent bikes and tour the gardens. If we arrive in the gardens after 12:00 will all the bikes be taken on a busy day like that? If so, we may be better off renting bikes ahead of arrival at an outside vendor.

|||

Sorry--typo--Is the line SHORTER first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon?

|||

I can%26#39;t say for sure but I would imagine the lines to get in would be shorter in the late afternoon. The tour buses would have already arrived and they are what filled the parking lot completely by 10am. We arrived at 10:30 and only took about 15 minutes to get through the security line. We took a little over an hour to go through the chateau (yes it was crowded, but there were breaks and if you aren%26#39;t on a tour you can stay in each room to your hearts content.)

We went on a Saturday in June. If you plan on touring the gardens you really would want all afternoon to see the fountains and do not miss the grande finale at the Neptune pool which starts at 5:15

So your idea of touring the chateau at 4:30 would not allow you to see the finale...nix that one right now.

We saw very few bikes...I do not believe there were any up by the Chateau, only from outside the garden gates.

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 3:18 am, September 21, 2009