I booked a Seine River cruise with Vedettes de Paris for eight adults and three children during a…read morehuge family vacation earlier this month. It was pretty easy to do this online, which is more than I can say for the other group excursions I organized for this trip.
Tickets were €21 per adult, €10 for our six-year-old, and free for the other two kids, our younger son squeaking through a month before his fourth birthday. Not bad for a one-hour boat ride.
Vedettes is a major player in the Paris tourism game, an enormous operation with cruises running every half hour from 10AM to 5:45PM every day of the week. The boats are big, and you can expect to share your cruise amid a throng of tourists. Not the most luxurious or personalized experience, but it gets you on the water at that mass market price point.
Our tickets were for a Thursday at 5:45, the last departure of the day. We scheduled it for after our 4:00 entry to the Eiffel Tower, and it worked out quite nicely, as the meeting point was right by the tower. There was a long line to get on the boat, and we absolutely did not leave at 5:45, but other than that, it was really smooth sailing.
We found seats among the many rows of benches on deck and enjoyed the river equivalent of a popular bus tour, cruising down the Seine while a guide pointed out notable sights in both English and French. It was pleasant and relaxing, and I wasn't mad when my jet-lagged three-year-old fell asleep on my lap. My toddler niece had a good time running around, but there were enough kids doing the same that it wasn't a problem.
We got dropped off at the same place we got on, around 7:00. We were late to dinner, as I'd anticipated an on-time departure, but as no one in Paris eats that early anyway, this wasn't a problem. The Vedettes cruise was not my favorite way of seeing the city, but it worked well for a large group with children on the first full day of the trip. Would recommend if a busy boat tour fits your travel needs.