Twiztour is now closed with no re-opening date.
The following article is left as-is for historical and archiving purposes.
Twiztour Tours in electric cars around Paris
CLOSED - Company has no re-opening date
This is a unique concept where you drive an electric car around Paris with a GPS audio guide that not only provides directions, but different facts and anecdotes as you travel past tourist attractions and monuments.
About Twiztour Tours in Paris
Twiztour was first created back in 2012 after the launch of the Renault Twizy, with the concept of providing an entirely different type of tour with an eco-friendly car, where you do not have to rely on a human guide and have freedom to travel around the city in a fun and novel way.
The cars themselves are called a Twizy, and are small eco-friendly electric cars, which are also automatic for ease of use, and these are designed to travel on the roads just like a normal car, but can only cater for the driver and one passenger. However, there are child car seats and booster seats available for children over the age of three, yet if there is more than two of you, you can still communicate between cars via walkie-talkies.
The Different Twiztour Options
The first tour of Paris with Twiztour is known as the Essential Tour, which is a duration of one hour and takes you to places such as the Trocadero, the impressive Arc de Triomphe and down the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Grand Palais and on to the Place de la Concorde. You get to see Les Invalides, the Musee Rodin, the Champ de Mars and of course the Eiffel Tower before your return, and this is just a few of the monuments in Paris you can see on the Essential Tour, which is a cost of €58 as of 2015 for one or two people.
The next option is the Spectacular Tour with Twiztour, which is a cost of €78 as of 2015 for one or two people, with a duration of two hours. And on top of the places we mentioned above you get to see additional tourist attractions in Paris such as the Opera garnier, Place Vendome, the former prison called La Conciergerie, the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite, the impressive Fontaine Saint-Michel constructed on the side of wall, the Musee d’Orsay, etc.
TwizTour also have a three hours option available, which is called The Unforgetable Montmartre Tour, and this is a cost of €98 for one or two people as of 2015. And on this tour in the little Twizy car with the GPS audio guide you will get see places such as the Musee Jacquemart-Andre, the impressive Sacre Coeur Basilica and the Moulin de la Galette. Yet a visit to this area of Paris is not complete without seeing the famous cabaret with its red windmill called the Moulin Rouge and the Pigalle area, before doing a return journey going past monuments like the Ecole Militaire.
There is also the Paris by Night Tour with Twiztour, and a one hour trip costs €70, or a two hour tour of the City of Lights is a cost of €90 as of 2015, which is quite an unusual adventure seeing the monuments lit up and the streets come alive. But the Twiztour Night Tours are only available on a Saturday evening and from October through to March these are available from 7.30pm to 10.30pm, yet from April through to the end of September these are available from 8.30pm to 10.30pm, and they follow the Essential or Spectacular tour routes.
However, if you still prefer the idea of having your own personal guide that you follow in another Twizy, or you would like a customised route, then this is also possible with the VIP Paris Tour. And communicating via walkie-talkies you can even ask the guide to stop at specific places, whether it be for photos or to purchase something like French specialities of cuisine.
Plus you can also add the option of having a GoPro camera, so that your tour can be captured on video, and you get to take this home with you on an SD card for only €25 as of 2015, which is a great way of capturing and remembering all those special moments of your tour in Paris.
Access to Twiztour in Paris
You will find the Twiztour desk located in front of the Vedettes de Paris dock on the esplanade at the Port de Suffren in the 7th Arrondissement right next to the Pont d’Iena. And they are open on a Tuesday through to a Friday from noon until 5pm, on a Saturday from 10am through to 10.30pm and on a Sunday from 10.30am through to 6pm, however, they are closed on a Monday and on specific National French holidays.
Now when it comes to getting here, the closest Metro stations are either the Bir-Hakeim stop serving line 6, or across the River Seine you have to Trocadero stop that serves lines 6 and 9. Alternatively, if you are travelling on the RER trains, then the nearest station is the Champ de Mars - Tour Eiffel stop that serves line C.
In order to be the driver of a Twiztour car, you must be at least 18 years of age and hold a full driving licence, and as you read earlier, the Twizy cars are only suitable for the driver and one passenger. Plus you will need to have a credit card in order to sort out the security deposit, which is required before your tour, yet the tour itself can be paid by cash, American Express, credit or debit card.
Once you booking reservation has been confirmed, full refunds are possible if you notify Twiztour at least 48 hours in advance, but if between this and 24 hours, then you will only get a 50 percent refund of the booking fee, and any duration less than this, unfortunately the full cost is still payable.
We would like to point out that at present the GPS audio guides are currently only available in French and English, however, if you choose the VIP option, then these can be organised in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, although other languages can be accommodated if there is a guide available on the time and day you are requesting.
