Top Unique Tours To Book When Visiting Paris

Many visitors will want to see the top attractions in Paris, especially if it’s your first time, however, there are some original ways you can do this. We also encourage discovering the less touristy sides of the city and experiencing it as a local. One of the best ways to achieve this is by taking a unique guided tour and, luck would have it, there are LOTS of cool tours in Paris. From spooky to thrilling and from learning about inspirational women to the city’s vibrant African communities, here are our top picks for unique tours to take while visiting Paris.

*Some of the links in this article will earn a small commission if you click them and then purchase something. Thanks in advance for your support!

(WA=Wheelchair Accessible)

This is an image of a group of women walking in a group on the street. The woman in the centre is smiling.

Image Courtesy of Viator

Discover the exceptional women who’ve influenced Paris

This walking tour of the Left Bank highlights the fascinating, renowned women who have impacted French history. Starting in the Luxembourg Gardens, you’ll discover the statues of 20 French queens and prominent women over the centuries, which provides the perfect foundation for the topic. Leaving the gorgeous gardens, your expert-guide will lead you through the quiet streets of the area, stopping at sites linked to other important women such as Genevieve, the patron Saint of Paris who’s said to have saved the city from Barbarians, and Marie Curie, the acclaimed scientist honoured in the Panthéon. By the end of this unique Paris experience, you’ll have a different perspective of the city and its inspiring women.

Learn more about the Great Women of History Walking Tour | 5th and 6th Arrondissements | WA

This is an image of a woman stood in front of a vibrant red background. She is wearing cool casual wearing that is dark and looks happy.

Image Courtesy of Viator

Spend a day learning about Black history in Paris combined with a tour of the Little Africa district

This six-hour tour follows in the footsteps of important Black figures who left their mark on Paris while also visiting the heart of its current-day African communities. The tour begins with breakfast at the famed Left Bank café, Les Deux Magots, once the meeting place of creatives including James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Journeying through the streets of Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter, you’ll learn about other sites connected to significant African and African Americans who spent time in this historically bohemian area. You’ll then travel up to the multicultural Goute d’Or district, located in northern Paris close to Montmartre. Weaving through the area’s streets, you’ll encounter a crossroads of African fashion, design, and spices and soak up the buzz of this vibrant, very living neighbourhood.

Book Book a day of Exploring Black Paris Tour | 5th, 6th and 18th Arrondissements

This is an image of bright and colourful graffiti on a big wall.

Hunt down the best street art in Belleville with an artist

Among the unique things to do in Paris, we highly recommend visiting the artsy, edgy neighborhood of Belleville. There are many reasons to explore this hilly northeastern district – and discovering its street art scene is high on that list! What better way to get to know its street art than in the company of a local artist? These unique tours to take while visiting Paris include Belleville’s best street art masterpieces and also cover the area’s creative, bohemian, and rebellious past (and present!). The art and vast murals are constantly changing and your artist guide will know exactly where to take you. After your experience, you’ll see Paris with new eyes, and keep on the lookout for other examples of its street art as you tour other neighborhoods.

Discover Paris’s covered passages with a wine tasting

Paris has a bunch of insanely charming historic covered shopping arcade, which are some of my favorite spots in the whole city. They’ve got glass ceilings, mosaic floors, and that slightly secret, tucked-away feel that makes you wonder how more people don’t know about them.

I’ve sprinkled a few of my personal favorites throughout the walking routes in our Paris itinerary, but if you want the full experience (and a few hidden gems you’d never find on your own), this guided tour is the way to go.

You’ll meander through some of the prettiest passages, and it really does feel a bit like stepping back in time. The tour wraps up at a fabulous wine bar, where you’ll sip your way through some excellent French wines. Wandering, history, and wine? Not a bad way to spend an afternoon in Paris.

Join a Paris Covered Passages Small-Group Walking Tour with Wine Tasting | 1st and 2nd Arrondissements | WA

This is an image of two people in a vintage sidecar smiling and looking happy. The Eiffel Tower is in the background and trees as well. This is one of the most Unique Tours To Take While Visiting Paris.

Take in the city from a different vantage point on a vintage sidecar tour

Skip those double decker tour buses and discover Paris’s top sites in a more unique way… by vintage sidecar! Accompanied by an experienced driver-guide, these cool tours of Paris zoom you around the city’s most famous monuments and avenues while your guide tells you about their history and shares fascinating anecdotes. Lasting between 40 and 90 minutes, you can choose from several options which could include the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Montmartre, and the Latin Quarter. For a more romantic experience, select the “City of Light” by night tour, a magical way to experience Paris that also includes a glass of champagne in front of the Eiffel Tower. Très romantique.

Hop Aboard a Vintage Sidecar Tour of Paris | Various Arrondissements | WA

This is an image of a storefront that reads Shakespeare and Company on its front. The writing is old fashioned and it looks dimly lit inside the shop. There are various books displayed outside the store and there is also a tree in the foreground of the image covering up some of the writing of the stores name.

Image Courtesy of Shakespeare & Company

Travel back to the 1920s on a tour of the Lost Generation writers of the Left Bank

Another original vantage point to explore the Left Bank, this tour delves into one of Paris’s most renowned literary periods: the 1920s. During this period writers, artists, and Jazz musicians gravitated towards what was then the city’s bohemian hotspot, la Rive Gauche, or the Left Bank. Led by a literary expert, you’ll see where Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote his early works. Nearby you’ll peer at the residence where James Joyce completed his masterpiece, Ulysses. You’ll also visit the original location of the legendary bookstore Shakespeare & Company bookshop, a meeting point for many of these writers. The tour ends in the perfect place – where these Lost Generation writers spent many nights back in the era: at one of the historic Montparnasse cafés. Here you can enjoy a drink and feel like you too are living it up in the literary heyday of the 1920s.

This is an image of a cemetery. There are gravestones and trees around but no people.

Get a little spooked out on a haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery tour

The final resting place of over a million people, including scores of famous personalities, Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most unique places to visit in Paris. You can learn about the history of the cemetery, alongside its more macabre tales and those of its eternally slumbering residents on this haunted Père Lachaise tour. Taking the narrow pathways of the cemetery, you might pass by the tombs of Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, or Jim Morrison… and possibly encounter some ghosts along the way. If you don’t witness paranormal phenomena yourself, your guide will reveal some of the spookiest stories the cemetery holds.

Dare to be scared on the Haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery Guided Tour | 20th Arrondissement

Experience the “City of Light” on an evening bike and boat tour

Want to see why Paris earned its “City of Light” title? Don’t just take someone’s word for it—go experience it after dark. This bike + boat combo tour is basically the ultimate glow-up of the city. You’ll start with a guided bike ride as the sun dips and everything turns golden (hello, main character moment), cruising past some of Paris’s prettiest streets and landmarks.

Then, just when you think it can’t get better, you’ll swap your wheels for a boat and see the city from the water—arguably its most magical angle. As you drift along, you’ll pass icons like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, and Notre-Dame Cathedral, plus a lineup of those ridiculously romantic bridges Paris does so well. Honestly, it’s the kind of evening that makes you forget to check your phone—and that’s saying something.

Take a Paris Evening Bike & Boat Tour | Various Arrondissements

Pin this…