The cheapest Château de Fontainebleau tickets I compared are two $117 day trips from Paris, and the most reviewed is the $117 Extime coach tour with 4.4 stars from 607 reviews. The official site sells plain entry at 17 euros, per chateaudefontainebleau.fr. For a first visit with a guide I’d book the $245 Blue Fox small-group tour.
Tour
From
Rating
Length
Free cancellation
Book
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Châteaux Day Tour from Paris
I compared all 5 Château de Fontainebleau tickets and tours on GetYourGuide, and every one of them is in the table above. None is a stand-alone entry ticket: all five are day trips from Paris, because the château lies about 55 km southeast of the city centre, according to Wikipedia. Prices are in US dollars from the listings, checked in November 2026. The links that open GetYourGuide are affiliate links (more on that on my about page).
Château de Fontainebleau Tickets at a Glance
Here is every one of the Château de Fontainebleau tickets in one table, so you can see what the money buys before the detail.
What
Details
Ticket types
5 day trips from Paris with entry or transport: 3 group tours, 2 private tours
Price range
$117 (coach day trip or half-day minibus) to $295 (private half-day)
Areas by type
The official ticket covers the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum; the listings say entry or audio guide, and none names rooms
Combined stops
Vaux-le-Vicomte on 4 of 5 tours; Barbizon village on 1; Forest of Fontainebleau on 1
Official ticket
17 euros full, 15 euros reduced, per the official site
Time to allow
5 to 10 hours door to door on the tours
Address
Place Charles de Gaulle, 77300 Fontainebleau (official site; Google Maps shows 77300 Fontainebleau)
Google Maps hours
Closed Tuesday; 9:30 am to 5 pm the other six days
What separates these Château de Fontainebleau tickets is the extra stop and who does the talking. Vaux-le-Vicomte is a second château, built for Louis XIV’s finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, and four of the five tours pair it with Fontainebleau. The official ticket stays the same underneath: it opens the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum. So when you read the Château de Fontainebleau tickets section by section below, the real question is not which château you see but how you get there, how long you stay and whether you have a person or an audio guide to explain it.
Château de Fontainebleau Tickets and Prices
Château de Fontainebleau tickets and prices start with the official figure, 17 euros full and 15 euros reduced, and the cheapest tour I found adds the coach for $117. That tour is the Extime Travel full-day trip, 9 hours with 4.4 stars from 607 reviews, the most reviewed product here by a wide margin. It leaves Paris at 9:15 from the Pullman Paris Centre Bercy hotel, 1 Rue de Libourne, and the listing puts you back in central Paris at around 6:15 pm. Admission to both châteaux and an audio guide at each are included, plus the 3D surround-sound show at Vaux-le-Vicomte, and the audio languages run from English to Japanese, eleven in all.
It is not guided. The listing lists a live guide as not included, and one reviewer put it bluntly:
“Make no mistake, however, this trip was essentially getting you to the two chateaux and nothing more.”
— GetYourGuide reviewer
The same reviewer calls the prepaid audio guides excellent. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before.
Extime Travel
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Châteaux Day Tour from Paris
★4.4 (607 reviews)
9 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The cheapest day trip and the most reviewed: $117, 4.4 from 607 reviews, entry to both châteaux and audio guides, but no live guide.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Round-trip transportation from Paris by air-conditioned coach
✓ Audio-guided tour of the château at Vaux le Vicomte and a visit to the formal gardens
✓ Audio-guided tour of the château at Fontainebleau
✓ Admission to both châteaux
✓ Surround-sound experiences in 3D
✓ Period costume rentals for children
Not included / not suitable
✕ Hotel transfers
✕ Lunch
✕ Live tour guide
✕ Headphones
Meeting point: 1 Rue de Libourne, 75012 Paris – Hotel Pullman Bercy – Meet our Extime Travel ambassador outside the hotel, in front of the main entrance
In case of problem, contact us on:
1/ WhatsApp +33 6 14 96 42 81
2/ Phone +33 1 44 55 60 00 1 Rue de Libourne, 75012 Paris, France
Skip-the-line Château de Fontainebleau tickets are not a separate product here: the official site says that buying online lets you go straight to the entrance without the ticket office. What the tours add is that the entry is bought for you. The best-rated of the guided group tours is the Blue Fox Travel small-group trip at $245, 4.8 stars from 124 reviews, ten hours long. It includes entrance fees to both châteaux, an A/C minibus, an English-speaking driver-guide and an audio guide in each château. You meet outside 6 Avenue de Wagram in Paris 15 minutes before the start, and the listing warns that there is no way of catching up with the group once the tour has started.
Gratuities and food are not included. Reviewers describe a driver who is more logistics than lecturer in some cases and a real storyteller in others, so the guiding depends on who is on your day.
Blue Fox Travel
Chateau de Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Tour
★4.8 (124 reviews)
10 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: My pick for a first visit: 4.8 from 124 reviews, a small group in a minibus, an English-speaking guide and both entries included.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Entrance fees to both châteaux
✓ Transportation by A/C minibus
✓ English-speaking guide
✓ Audio guide in each chateau
Not included / not suitable
✕ Food & drinks
✕ Gratuities
Meeting point: Meet with your driver-guide outside of 6 Avenue de Wagram in Paris, 15 minutes before your tour starts.
A café called "La Flamme" is located at that address.
Your driver-guide will arrive with a grey minibus about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time of the tour.
Please be there at least 15 minutes before the official departure time.
Tours always start sharp at the appointed starting time. For this tour it is absolutely necessary that you arrive before the tour starts as there is no way of catching up with the group once the tour has started. 6 Av. de Wagram, 75008 Paris, France
Languages: English
Duration: 10 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“A fabulous day with a great guide. Interesting, informative and well paced. Definitely a tour to do.” – GetYourGuide review
“A fabulous day with a great guide. Interesting, informative and well paced. Definitely a tour to do.”
— GetYourGuide reviewer
Château de Fontainebleau Pass and Education Offers
Searches for a Château de Fontainebleau pass usually mean one of two things, a youth or school offer or a combined ticket. A Château de Fontainebleau pass in the sense of a multi-site card is not something I found: the official ticket is a single admission to the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum. What the official site does have are education and youth rules. Under-18s and long-term EU residents aged 18 to under 26 enter the Grands Appartements free with ID, and pay a reduced price for the cultural offerings. School groups have their own conditions, with one accompanying adult for every five kindergarten pupils.
The nearest product to a combo is the Welcome Pickups private half-day, $295, 5 hours, with an English-speaking driver-guide and hotel pick-up. It is not a pass. It combines Vaux-le-Vicomte, Fontainebleau and a drive through the forest, and the included list names fuel, tolls, water and Wi-Fi but not the château admission. Ask the operator who pays for entry before you book. It has no ratings yet.
Welcome Pickups
Paris to Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte Half-Day Tour
5 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The private half-day at $295, English and French, no ratings yet, and entry is not on the included list: ask before you book.
What you get, where you meet
Included
✓ Hotel pickup and drop-off
✓ Fuel and tolls
✓ All taxes, fees and handling charges
✓ Free Wi-Fi on-board
✓ Personal English speaking professional driver/guide
✓ Water (bottled)
Languages: English, French
Duration: 5 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
The Château de Fontainebleau ticket price on the official site is 17 euros full and 15 euros reduced, so Château de Fontainebleau tickets from Paris at $117 and up mostly pay for the journey, which covers the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum. Entry during the last hour before closing is a flat 13 euros, the videoguide is 4 euros, and a guided tour is 7 euros on top of admission, per the official FAQ.
The product in this section is the leftover of the set, and I’ll say so. The ALENTOURS half-day is $117, the same price as the Extime coach trip, for 5 hours with 4.1 stars from 57 reviews. It includes the entrance ticket and an audio guide at the château, a trilingual guide in English, Spanish and French, a minivan limited to 8 travellers and a drive through Barbizon, where Corot, Millet and Rosa Bonheur painted. You pass Barbizon, you do not stop to walk it. The meeting point is the France Tourisme Agency at 6 Rue de l’Amiral de Coligny, and hotel pick-up is not included.
ALENTOURS
Half-Day Tour to Fontainebleau Castle & Barbizon
★4.1 (57 reviews)
5 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The short option at $117: 5 hours, entry and audio guide included, 4.1 from 57 reviews, and Barbizon only as a drive-through.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Round-trip transport from central Paris
✓ Air-conditioned minivan
✓ Professional trilingual guide (EN/ES/FR)
✓ Entrance ticket to Château de Fontainebleau
✓ Audio guide inside the castle
✓ Scenic drive through Barbizon village (passing by)
Not included / not suitable
✕ Hotel pickup and drop-off
✕ Gratuities
✕ Food and drinks
Meeting point: France Tourisme Agency
Languages: English, Spanish, French
Duration: 5 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“We thoroughly enjoyed touring Chateau Fountainnebleau Castle. Our driver Benjamin was courteous and made sure we were in the right place at the right time for our audio tour of the castle. Recommend this tour guide and company.” – GetYourGuide review
Prices are the lowest per-person prices on GetYourGuide when I last checked; the final price depends on the date, time slot and age.
Château de Fontainebleau France
Château de Fontainebleau France is the full name of a palace that, according to the OK Tours listing, was the only royal château continuously inhabited for seven centuries. Wikipedia describes it as a hunting lodge and autumn residence used by Louis VII, Francis I, Henry II, Louis-Philippe, Napoleon I and Napoleon III, and says it became a national museum in 1927 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
Of the Château de Fontainebleau tickets here, this is the private one with the best score. If you want the whole day to yourself, the OK Tours France private trip costs $286 for 8 hours and has 4.9 stars from 45 reviews, the highest rating of the five. It includes hotel pick-up and drop-off and the entry tickets; a guide is not included, so your driver is a driver who talks, which is how the reviewers describe him. Several reviewers thank their driver for restaurant recommendations in Fontainebleau, and one wished for more time in the gardens after the self-guided audio tour inside.
OK Tours France
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Private Tour
★4.9 (45 reviews)
8 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The highest rated at 4.9 from 45 reviews: a private 8-hour day with hotel pick-up and both entries, but a driver instead of a licensed guide.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Hotel pickup and drop-off
✓ Entry tickets
Not included / not suitable
✕ Lunch
✕ Guide
Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“We had a fabulous day! Our driver was fantastic, giving us loads of information along the way. Both Château were amazing and we particularly loved the audio guide at Vaux-le-Victombe. Would highly recommend” – GetYourGuide review
Fontainebleau is worth visiting if you like layered interiors and can spare a day. The Wikipedia summary says the monarchs only stayed a few months a year but gradually turned the lodge into a genuine palace filled with art and decoration. That is the point of the visit: Renaissance galleries, the royal apartments and Napoleon I’s throne room, with the horseshoe-shaped staircase outside, all named in the product listings. The Grands Appartements are the heart of the official ticket.
Google Maps gives the château 4.6 stars from 30,852 reviews, and reviewers on the day trips say it is quieter than Versailles. One says both châteaux were not crowded, another reports a busy day with school groups, so it is not always empty. The cost is time: the shortest tour here takes 5 hours and the longest 10. Buying Château de Fontainebleau tickets for a day trip only makes sense if the whole day is free. If you only have a few hours in Paris, my Palace of Versailles tickets comparison covers the more famous day trip.
Château de Fontainebleau Billet and Billetterie
Billet and billetterie are the French words for ticket and ticket office, and the official ticketing site is the place to use them. The château sends visitors to an online shop at chateaudefontainebleau.tickeasy.com, and the FAQ says that buying there lets you go directly to the entrance without the ticket office. The ticket office exists, but I couldn’t check queue times, so I won’t promise how long it takes.
For Château de Fontainebleau tickets bought from GetYourGuide the logic is different. The tour operator has already arranged the entry, so these Château de Fontainebleau tickets arrive with the booking and not at the office, and on the Extime coach reviewers describe being sent off to a ticket office to collect prepaid audio guides. So you may still pass a desk even though the entry is paid.
Château de Fontainebleau Entrée Gratuite
Entrée gratuite, free entry, applies on certain days and to certain visitors. The official site says the château is free on the first Sunday of each month except in July and August. The next such day after today, 7 November 2026, is Sunday 6 December. Under-18s and long-term EU residents aged 18 to under 26 enter the Grands Appartements free with ID, and children under 4 are free for the cultural offerings.
The park and gardens are free every day, and the park is open around the clock, per the practical information page. That means you can walk the grounds without any of the Château de Fontainebleau tickets above, and you only need Château de Fontainebleau tickets for the rooms. A free Sunday is also a day I’d expect to be busier, but I have no data on that, so treat it as a guess.
What Château de Fontainebleau Tickets Cover
Every one of the Château de Fontainebleau tickets I compared rests on the same official admission, which the practical information page defines as the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum. That is the interior route through the state rooms, galleries and imperial apartments. The park, courtyards and gardens sit outside it and cost nothing, so no tour needs to charge you for them.
Extras are priced separately on the official side: 4 euros for the videoguide and 7 euros for a guided tour on top of admission. The tours here fold an audio guide into the price, which is why the ALENTOURS and Extime trips list one. Inside, the official rules ban drones, selfie poles, camera stands and flash photography, and bulky pushchairs go into the free lockers at the entrance. A day-trip ticket from Paris follows the same rules, because the operator only buys you entry to the same château.
Opening Hours and Getting There
The château opens at 9:30 am and closes at 5 pm from October to March, or at 6 pm from April to September, and it is closed on Tuesdays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, per the official site. From Paris Gare de Lyon take a train towards Montargis, Montereau or Laroche-Migennes to Fontainebleau-Avon, then bus line 3401 to the Château stop. My Château de Fontainebleau opening hours and visitor guide has the full table, last entry and what to bring.
Which Ticket Fits You
The right Château de Fontainebleau tickets depend on how much you want to see beyond the château and whether you want a live guide. This table puts the five side by side.
Ticket
Kind
Price from
Duration
Areas included
Best for
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Day Tour (Extime Travel)
Group tour with entry
$117
9 hours
Both châteaux, audio guides
Cheapest, coach from Paris
Half-Day Tour to Fontainebleau & Barbizon (ALENTOURS)
Small-group tour with entry
$117
5 hours
Château with audio guide, Barbizon drive-through
Short on time
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Tour (Blue Fox Travel)
Small-group tour with entry
$245
10 hours
Both châteaux, audio guides, guide
First visit with a guide
Private Tour (OK Tours France)
Private tour with entry
$286
8 hours
Both châteaux, hotel pick-up
Private, door to door
Private Half-Day (Welcome Pickups)
Private tour, entry not listed
$295
5 hours
Vaux-le-Vicomte, Fontainebleau, forest
Flexible private day
Near Château de Fontainebleau
Château de Fontainebleau tickets are best planned around the rest of your trip, so here is where the château sits.
My Google Maps data for this page holds no sights beside the château, so I won’t invent walking times to places I can’t check. The Paris landmarks people pair with a Fontainebleau day are far away: the Louvre is about 57 km in a straight line, Notre-Dame about 57 km and the Eiffel Tower roughly 58 km, and Disneyland Paris about 56 km. These are straight-line distances, not travel times.
Cheapest: the $117 Extime coach day trip, which also has the most reviews, or the official 17 euros if you take the train.
First visit with a guide: of all the Château de Fontainebleau tickets, the $245 Blue Fox tour, 4.8 from 124 reviews.
Short on time: the $117 ALENTOURS half-day, 5 hours with Barbizon on the way.
Private and door to door: the $286 OK Tours France day, 4.9 from 45 reviews.
Flexible private route with the forest: the $295 Welcome Pickups half-day, after you confirm entry is included.
Free option: the park, any day, or the château on the first Sunday of the month outside July and August.
Frequently asked questions
How much are Château de Fontainebleau tickets?+
The official site lists entry to the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum at 17 euros, or 15 euros reduced. The five GetYourGuide products I compared are day trips from Paris, priced from $117 to $295, because they add the transport. Check the official ticketing page for the price on your date.
What is Fontainebleau in France?+
Fontainebleau is a town about 55 km southeast of the centre of Paris, per Wikipedia, and its palace is one of the largest French royal châteaux. French kings used it as a hunting lodge and autumn residence, and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1981.
How do I get to Château de Fontainebleau from Paris by train?+
The official practical information page says to take a train from Paris Gare de Lyon towards Montargis, Montereau or Laroche-Migennes and get off at Fontainebleau-Avon. From the station, bus line 3401 towards Les Lilas goes to the Château stop. The page gives no journey time, so check SNCF Transilien.
Is the Château de Fontainebleau free on any day?+
Yes. The official site says the château is free on the first Sunday of each month except July and August, and free to the Grands Appartements for under-18s and for long-term EU residents aged 18 to under 26, with ID. The park and gardens are free every day.
Can I take a day trip from Paris to Château de Fontainebleau?+
Yes, and all five products I compared are exactly that. They run from 5 to 10 hours and leave from central Paris. Four of the five also stop at Vaux-le-Vicomte, and one adds a drive through the village of Barbizon.
Is Fontainebleau worth visiting?+
I think so if you want royal interiors without the Versailles crowds. Reviewers on the day trips describe the châteaux as less crowded than Versailles, and the official ticket covers the Grands Appartements and the Napoleon I Museum. It does need a half day from Paris at the least.
Is it cheaper to buy Château de Fontainebleau tickets on the official site?+
For entry alone, yes: 17 euros is the official full price. A GetYourGuide day trip costs more because it includes a coach or minibus from Paris and a guide or audio guide. I'd go to the official site if you take the train, and book a tour when you want the transport handled.
Do I need to book a time slot for Château de Fontainebleau?+
The official FAQ says buying online lets you go straight to the entrance without the ticket office. It does not say that general admission needs a timed slot, though guided tours have their own slot. Check the official ticketing page before you travel.
Every Château de Fontainebleau ticket and tour I compared
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Châteaux Day Tour from Paris★ 4.4
Chateau de Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Tour★ 4.8
Fontainebleau & Vaux-le-Vicomte Private Tour★ 4.9
Half-Day Tour to Fontainebleau Castle & Barbizon★ 4.1
Paris to Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte Half-Day Tour
