France travel tips

France visa requirements

The rule for your own passport, from France's official immigration page, with the date it was last checked. The same answer for every guide in France: Paris, Nice, Provence, Chamonix, Bordeaux, Lyon and 9 more.

No visa needed

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland

Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.

No visa neededup to 90 days

United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama

90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.

Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)

Every other passport

A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.

How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.

Official government source · checked 2026-08-09

Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, your route and the purpose of the trip. Confirm on the official page before booking.

The guides in France

bridge during night timeParisFranceThe city of light, love, and croissantsan aerial view of a city next to the oceanNiceFranceThe French Riviera at its most liveableRows of lavender in flower on the Valensole plateau in Provence at first lightProvenceFranceLavender, limestone villages and a light that brought half the painters of Europe here and kept themsnow covered mountain under blue sky during daytimeChamonixFranceThe town at the foot of Mont Blanc, where alpinism was invented and where the Aiguille du Midi cable car puts you at 3,842 metres in twenty minuteslow angle photo of white concrete buildingBordeauxFranceAn eighteenth-century city of pale stone, with the world’s most famous vineyards half an hour outbrown concrete building near river during daytimeLyonFranceTwo rivers, Roman ruins on the hill, secret passages through the buildings, and the food capital of Francea harbor filled with lots of boats next to a cityMarseilleFranceFrance’s oldest city, a Mediterranean port with limestone fjords on its southern edgeHistoric buildings reflected in a calm canal waterwayStrasbourgFranceHalf-timbered houses over canals, a cathedral that was the tallest building on earth for two centuries, and Germany across the riverwhite and black rock formation on blue sea under blue and white cloudy sky during daytimeCorsicaFranceA mountain range in the sea, with the GR20 down its spine and water the colour of a swimming pool around itgreen lake surrounded by mountains under white clouds and blue sky during daytimeAnnecyFranceA canal town on the clearest lake in Europe, an hour from Geneva and forty minutes from the nearest ski lift — the base people use when the whole family does not skiman in orange jacket and black pants riding ski blades on snow covered mountain during daytimeVal d’IsèreFranceA high resort that links with Tignes into the Espace Killy, holds snow into May, and has a village underneath the ski area rather than a car parka snow covered mountain with a ski lift in the distanceCourchevelFranceFour villages stacked up one mountainside, from a working valley town to the most expensive address in the Alps, all of them on the Trois Vallées lift passa couple of people walking across a snow covered fieldTignesFranceA resort built high and ugly on purpose, with a glacier that skis in summer, a lake that freezes hard enough to walk on, and the snow record to justify all of itMéribel at dusk, the village lights under a pink skyMéribelFranceThe middle valley of the Trois Vallées, built in wood and stone by a Scotsman who thought concrete resorts were a mistake, and still the only one that looks like a villageaerial view of snow covered mountainsAlpe d’HuezFranceA sunny plateau above Grenoble with the longest black run in the Alps dropping off the back of it, and twenty-one hairpins of Tour de France road climbing up to it