Our Versailles Bike and Brunch tour is the most time efficient way to see the best of Versailles with ease in just half a day. Why walk with the crowds & stand in line when you can bike, brunch & skip the line?
Join us to ride, taste & hear the scandalous tales of the French Royal Family on this truly memorable half day trip.
What's Included
Roundtrip Transportation from Paris to Versailles
Classy Bike & Optional Helmet
Skip the Line Entry to the Château via a Side Entrance Reserved for Licensed Guides
Guided Tour Inside the Château de Versailles with a Licensed Guide
Guided Tour of the Royal Inner Gardens & Fountains
Visit to Versailles' Award Winning Open Air Food Market
Guided Bike Tour of the Royal Grounds
Queen's Hamlet
* Please note that on our half day tour we do not visit the Queens’ Hamlet due to time restraints. If you would like to see this check out our Full Day Versailles Tour.
Why walk with the crowds & stand in line when you can bike, brunch & skip the line?
We take the train to Versailles where we are licensed to guide inside and Skip the infamous Line through a dedicated side entrance reserved for licensed guides to explore the Château & iconic Hall of Mirrors. We ride through the town, and visit the local market to shop for our picnic lunch, before riding into the breath-taking Royal Grounds.
The stunning 2,000 acres of Versailles are far larger than most expect. You can save your feet, escape the crowds & discover secret places seen by few tourists & unknown to Parisians. Our bikes enable us to access places others cannot, the ride is leisurely, far from the Tour de France!
Having worked up an appetite we lay out our French picnic brunch by the Grand Canal. The perfect way to finish a day exploring, with a view of the Palace!
Good to Know
All adult guests must be able to ride a bike. Leisurely riding on this tour – far from the Tour de France!
Meet in Central Paris & travel to Versailles with your Guide.
Bikes based in Versailles (no need to carry them on the train).
Bikes available for all ages: including childseats & tag alongs.
All of our tours are available as private experiences which are tailored just for you – Versailles at your pace with only your favourite people.
Our Guided Tour of the Château
We enter via a side entrance reserved for licensed guides & guide you inside the Château through the Grand Apartments, State Rooms, King’s Apartments, Hall of Mirrors & Queens Apartments.
Your guide will skilfully lead you through the Château and bring it to life with stories & anecdotes – crafting a meaningful, entertaining & engaging experience.
We are proud to be one of the few tours licensed to guide inside the Palace & mic up so you that you won’t miss a thing!
The tour guide was Nico. He was absolutely superb. I highly recommend this tour because you get so much more than just walking around the Château With a pre-recorded audio that will put you to sleep. He gave us a tour of the town, took us to the market, gave us history told us stories, riding bikes with so much better than walking. The picnic was so much fun and touring the Château with him was infinitely better than just listening to an audio. He was kind, thoughtful, knowledgeable and connected all the dots to make the tone of Versailles and the Château and the town come together for us.
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Lucy
11/02/2021
Really lovely tour, visiting both the market and the palace in Versailles. We loved our tour guide, Lola. The picnic in the gardens of Versailles was unforgettable and we loved riding the bikes!
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Tovah
9/01/2019
We did the Versailles Bike Tour during our Honeymoon trip to Paris and I can say it was one of the highlights of our trip. We really enjoyed the tour.
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silvia
11/18/2022
Irina was extremely knowledgeable about French history and so so kind. She treated us like royalty. Farmers markets and picnic in Versailles was an amazing experience. Biking is the only way to appreciate the beauty of the gardens. I really recommend this excursion.
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Ameline
10/11/2019
We love to travel. And we aren't passive travelers. This is our first time in Paris and after researching, we chose two tour with Boutique Bike Tours.
Stu is immensely knowledgeable and connected and quite talented at his craft. I love the serendipitous moments when you are around folks doing what they love. It is almost a superpower. Stu leads amazing tours of Paris and the palace.
Nikki is a perpetual source of happy and manages the logistics of where you need to be. It is such a pleasure to have a great tour and a really really well run experience. They really care to ensure you have a fabulous experience.
Stu and Nikki manage not only your learning but your experience. This is so unique.
Our Versailles Tour was led for the first part by Pascal who is also statistically awesome. An expert and perhaps one of the world's most interesting men. Seriously he could star in a Heineken commercial. A family on our tour brought their 5 and 8 year old kids and you can imagine the complexities that adds to any tour. Especially 9 hour tours. Pascal managed and engaged with hose kids like Maria Montessori. Brave family for taking them but what could have been so derailing was manged in a way that was inspiring.
Seeing folks do what they love and doing well is contagious.
You should have no second thoughts about booking anything with Stu and Nikki as along as you are somewhat decent shape and know how to ride a bike and have some serious interest in France.
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brett f
10/20/2019
Our guide was so friendly and knowledgeable! She is highly educated in French history and has a great deal of experience as a guide.
The tour company made sure that the bikes were an appropriate height for safety purposes and explained the gears, brakes, etc. for novices. As well, the process of riding through the streets and gardens were well explained regarding safety and route. The bikes were comfy and came with panniers that held blankets and rain ponchos. Those pochos came in handy throughout the day.
We visited the palace, saw the exterior of the Grand and Petite Trianon, saw some of the gardens (although it was winter it was still pretty), the hamleau of Marie Antoinette, the grand canal and the Temple of Love. Mid Day, we stopped at a local market to pick up items for a picnic. Our guide, Noema, had all of the cutlery, serviettes, wine openers etc. We were able to enjoy lunch on the banks of the grand canal with in view of the Château.
Noema was so knowledgeable about the royal family and the history of the time that we had a highly educational experience as well as a feast for the eyes. This was an excellent choice of tour as we saw some of the town of Versailles and as a group were able to enter without waiting in the long lines.
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Ellamenohpee
11/15/2023
We absolutely loved our day trip to Versailles! Stu and Niki‘s team are first class. They are personable, welcoming, and well-informed about the present and past culture of Paris and France. They are also the kind of people you would like to become friends with. Your group is small, so you have opportunity to ask questions and interact with your group members. They also inform you of exactly what you will be doing along the way. There are no surprises.
The train trip from Gare Montparnasse to Versailles is a quick 12 minute ride. Once you are in Versailles you pick up your bikes and then ride to the center of Versailles where you stop at the local market to pick up your lunch items. This gives you the opportunity to try out your fledgling French by ordering rotisserie chicken, cheese, nuts, bread, wine, or any number of luscious local fruits. In the market we picked up the best strawberries I have had in my adult life. They reminded me of the strawberries on my grandparents farm. Amazing!
After loading your bikes down with too much food, the tour heads to the Palace of Versailles. We started in the garden area first where there were very few people. Our guide for the Versailles palace, Nicolas, was outstanding. He is very well informed and has a great sense of humor! He was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
Riding bikes at the Versaille Palace makes it possible to navigate a large part of the 2000 acre château that you would never see if you were just on foot. It gives you a greater sense of just how huge the palace of Versailles is. For lunch, we stopped alongside the Grand Canal and sat in the shade of the gorgeous trees lining in the canal. It was a grand lunch by the grand Canal!
After a scrumptious lunch and a quick nap, we toured the palace itself. Nicolas brought French history to life for us and made it relevant and thought-provoking for our lives in the United States.
Stu and Niki have the tour timed perfectly. Let me also say that there is a great rhythm to the day in that there is a perfect blend of guiding and then giving the participants time to wander and explore on their own. Just when you are getting a little tired, they know it’s time to rest a little bit. Or, if you’re getting a little tired of touring, it’s time to stop at a coffee shop.
I could go on and on--I already have! But suffice it to say that you owe it to yourself to go on this trip. It is money well invested.
One final thing: what Stu and Niki and team do is very important. It cultivates joie de vivre, the joy of life, appreciation of other cultures, and new friendships among unlikely people. It gives you the opportunity to experience things you never would on your own. These kinds of trips our life giving. My wife and I will not forget this trip anytime soon. Thank you Stu, Niki, and Nicolas!
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Joe
7/05/2019
The tour of was great. Our guide was very attentive to the needs of the guests and knowledgable about Versailles and its history. The timing of the whole thing was also amazing- We avoided the crowds, saw the beautiful fountains at work and visited the amazing food market at the town of Versailles. I am convinced that visiting Versailles on our own would have been a total waste of time. We really had a great time.
If you are considering booking the experience- Just do it! But one word of advice- Depending on where you are staying in Paris, allow yourself plenty of time to get to the meeting spot. We checked the night prior and the time estimate was 35min from Bastille; however, one of the metro lines was closed that Sunday morning and the trip took ~ 1:15min. We almost missed the tour.
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Bruna
9/05/2021
It was an amazing day. Riding bikes was the best way to see Versailles. Our guide was fun and very personable. I would recommend the tour to everyone.
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Autumn
6/07/2022
This was a wonderful tour for our family of four with two teenagers.
It was fun biking around Versailles, but the best part was learning about the history / the kings and their extravagance through story telling by Niki. She is an amazing story teller.
I would recommend to other families and visitors to experience this amazing tour when in Paris.
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Sunnie
8/09/2019
The bike and brunch has been a highlight of our Paris trip so far. Versailles is huge so being able to have a personalized guided tour of the chateau and gardens and then biking around more of it was just delightful. Our 3 teenage kids loved it too.
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Cara
7/27/2023
This was such a fun day. The stress of getting yourself to Versailles is gone as we met Fiona at the train station in Paris! Riding bikes in the city was easy, and riding around the grounds was fantastic. The picnic was perfect with delicious cheese and other treats (and good wine!!) our guide, Fiona, was so fun and is a wonderful story teller. This was my first time at Versailles and I think it’s the perfect day trip to enjoy some history and then have a lovely picnic in the beautiful grounds of the magnificent palace. Highly recommend this adventure!
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Alexandra
10/12/2022
You'll Love
Skipping the lines into the Château, to see the famed Hall of Mirrors, while your guide shares insights and stories, bringing history to life.
Riding away from the crowds into the beautiful grounds of Versailles.
It is almost as if Versailles was designed with our bike tour in mind. The majority of our ride takes place within the Royal Gardens, where we can enjoy stress-free cycling, far from the traffic and crowds. Outside of the gardens, cycle paths weave their way throughout the town and are set on the footpaths, away from traffic.
We frequently have children join our tours, and have a fleet of children’s bikes, tandems, child-seats and helmets for them – we love sharing the day with families and take great pride in entertaining and ensuring the safety of all ages throughout the day.
Of course. All our tours of Versailles include a guided tour of the Palace with a fully licensed member of our team. We do not abandon you with an audio guide. We use earpieces so you can hear your guide, can ask questions & don’t miss a thing! If there is one Palace in the world to visit, this is the one!
All of our tours operate rain or shine and we provide free rain jackets. As we are licensed to guide inside the Château we do adapt & spend more time inside the Palace. We bring rain jackets, good humor & a sense of adventure!
We provide all the essentials for your day in Versailles; all you need to remember is to pack your camera, comfortable clothes & some euros for purchasing your picnic lunch at the local market.
This is our most comprehensive tour of Versailles. It is a full day but not structured like a normal tour with plenty of time to relax, drink wine, ride a bike and explore. On this tour we visit:
The town of Versailles
The award-winning farmers market
The Inner Gardens & Fountains (on set days)
Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet
Picnic by the Grand Canal
Guided Tour of the Château
Picnic lunch at guest’s cost, while exploring the local farmer’s market
Bike & Brunch: The Best of Versailles
This tour is designed for those travellers who wish to see as much of Versailles as possible in just half a day. On this tour we visit:
The town of Versailles
The Inner Gardens
Picnic by the Grand Canal
Guided Tour of the Château
Picnic lunch at guest’s cost, while exploring the local farmer’s market
We do not visit Marie Antoinette’s hamlet on this tour.