Doing Paris With a Teenager and Somehow Everyone Had Fun

Paris is amazing but a lot of the "must see" stuff is genuinely boring if you're 15 and would rather be on your phone. So this itinerary isn't about skipping the big stuff, it's more about doing the big stuff in a way that doesn't make everyone want to cry by 2pm. Six days, London to Paris, then a quick hop to Bruges at the end. Here's how it went, or how it's supposed to go, plan ahead people. Basically the trick is you don't just look at things, you do things. Instead of standing there staring at Notre Dame for two minutes and moving on, you climb the actual tower. Instead of shuffling through the Louvre bored out of your mind, you turn it into a competition.


Take the Eurostar over, it's honestly the easiest part of the whole trip, a couple hours and you're just there. Check into wherever you're staying and actually unpack, don't be one of those families living out of suitcases the whole trip, it's not worth the stress later.



Once you're settled head over to Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame, which is back open now after the fire and all the restoration work. This is the one thing you actually need to book ahead of time: the tower climb. It's back open too. 424 steps up (yes someone will complain around step 200) but you end up basically face to face with the gargoyles and the view over the city is unreal. Way more interesting to a teenager than just walking around inside looking at stained glass, no offense to stained glass.




After that just wander into the Latin Quarter for dinner, get crepes, there's a million places, and just walk along the Seine after.




Go early if you can, before it gets packed. Walk up to Sacré-Cœur (yes there's a lot of stairs, no you can't avoid it) and check out Place du Tertre where all the street artists set up and do portraits.





End the day at Trocadéro for sunset, right across from the Eiffel Tower, watch it sparkle when it gets dark. Everyone gets the same photo but it's a classic for a reason.






The Louvre by itself can be brutal for a teenager, it's huge and if you just wander it turns into a slog fast. For lunch just grab stuff from a bakery, baguette, cheese, some pastries, and go sit in the Tuileries Gardens for a picnic. Easy, cheap, nice atmosphere.








Evening, we do a Seine river cruise, it's nice at night when everything's lit up and you can just sit and not walk for once.






Book the stairs plus lift ticket, don't just take the elevator the whole way. Climb to the second floor yourself then take the lift up to the top from there. Burns off energy, feels like an actual accomplishment, and the stairs line is usually way shorter than the elevator line anyway so you're not standing around forever.






Evening, gelato crawl around Saint-Germain. Go to Amorino, they make the gelato look like a rose, it's a small thing but it photographs well and tastes good too.




Half day at Versailles is honestly enough, the palace itself gets old fast for a teenager. What actually works is the gardens, book a golf cart ahead of time (or rent bikes or rowboats if that's more your thing) so you're not just walking the entire massive grounds on foot. Letting a 16 year old drive a golf cart around a former royal palace garden is somehow the highlight of the whole Versailles visit every single time.

Head back to Paris in the afternoon and go to Le Marais, it's the trendy neighborhood, lots of concept stores and streetwear shops like Supreme, also the big Citadium store. This is a good spot to just give your teen some independent time, set a meeting spot and time and let them wander on their own for a bit. Also apparently a bunch of Emily in Paris was filmed around here if that means anything to your household.

Dinner has to be falafel from L'As du Fallafel, it's on Rue des Rosiers and it's genuinely famous, all over social media for good reason. Grab it and eat standing in a square nearby, that's just how it's done.


Keep it slow. Last stop should just be a bakery for pain au chocolat to eat on the train, still warm if you time it right. Then train up to Bruges for the afternoon.

Get in, unpack, and just go for an evening walk along the canals, it's a totally different pace than Paris and honestly really pretty at night with everything lit up. Grab some frites and do a chocolate tasting to kick things off in country number two.

You're not skipping anything major, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, it's all still there. The only real difference is how you approach it, climb instead of just looking, turn it into a game instead of a lecture, let them get a little lost on their own instead of following you around all day. Small changes but it's the difference between a trip they complain about and one they actually bring up years later without you asking.