Choosing Between CDG, Orly, and Regional French Airports

Start with This Rule: Add a 6-Hour Train Cost to Any Paris Arrival for Southern France

The single most useful fact on this page: flying into Paris Charles de Gaulle for a trip to Provence or the French Riviera adds a 6-hour train leg to your itinerary. A direct flight into Nice Côte d'Azur costs roughly the same fare and saves a full day of transit. The decision between CDG, Orly, and a regional airport comes down to itinerary shape and whether you are willing to burn time backtracking through Paris. If your trip touches only Paris, use CDG or Orly. If it touches anywhere south of Lyon, skip Paris entirely on arrival.

CDG Vs. Orly for a Paris-Focused Trip

For a trip that stays in Paris, CDG is the default for long haul flights. It handles the bulk of transatlantic and Asian carriers: Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Delta, United, American Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air France all operate multiple daily services from CDG. The RER B train reaches central Paris in 25 to 45 minutes for €11.80. A taxi costs a flat €56 to the right bank or €65 to the left bank.

Orly serves a different set of airlines. It is the Paris base for Air France domestic and leisure routes, easyJet, Transavia France, Vueling, French bee, La Compagnie, and Corsair. Orly is closer to central Paris than CDG, 14 km south versus 25 km northeast. The Orlyval light rail plus RER B combination costs €14.10 and takes 25 to 35 minutes. A taxi to the left bank costs €38, cheaper than CDG. Use Orly if you are flying easyJet, French bee, or any Air France domestic connection and your accommodation is on the south side of the city.

When to Choose Beauvais

Beauvais is 85 km from central Paris, not in the Île-de-France region at all. It is served by Ryanair, Wizz Air, Volotea, and a handful of other low cost carriers. The shuttle bus to Porte Maillot takes 75 to 90 minutes and costs €16.90 one way or €29.90 return. There is no direct train. If your airline lands here, budget an extra two hours and €34 for the round trip. The failure case: the last shuttle leaves at a fixed time, and a missed bus means a €60-plus taxi ride through the Oise countryside. Do not book Beauvais unless the flight is cheaper than the CDG or Orly equivalent and you have a full afternoon to waste on the bus ride.

Which Regional Airport Serves Which Region

If your itinerary avoids Paris, match the airport to the region you visit first. The table below lists the major regional airports, their best served area, ground transport time to the city centre, and whether long haul direct flights exist.

The key failure case: many regional airports have no year round long haul direct flights. Nice is the exception, with direct service to New York JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dubai, Doha, and Montreal. Lyon has direct to Dubai, Montreal, and Doha. Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, and Montpellier have zero year round long haul connections. If you fly from North America or Asia and your destination is the Loire Valley or Dordogne, you route through Paris. If your destination is the Côte d'Azur or the French Alps, you route through Nice or Geneva.

How to Match Your Itinerary to the Right Airport

Use this three step test. First, locate your first destination on a map. If it is Paris itself, pick CDG for most long haul or Orly for easyJet and Air France domestic. Second, if your first destination is anywhere in Provence, the Côte d'Azur, or Occitanie, fly into Nice. The Paris to Nice TGV burns a morning you could spend on the Promenade des Anglais. For the French Alps, fly into Geneva: the shared shuttle to Chamonix takes 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes and costs €25 to €35, versus a 5-hour train from Paris via Saint Gervais. For Alsace, fly into Basel Mulhouse Freiburg and take the 70 minute train to Strasbourg for €4.70. For Burgundy or the Rhone Valley, Lyon Saint Exupéry puts you 29 minutes from Part Dieu station.

Third, check your airline options before buying. Nice handles Emirates, Qatar Airways, Delta, United, and American Airlines direct from the US and Middle East. Lyon has Emirates and Turkish Airlines. Geneva has the widest long haul selection for the Alps. If your budget airline flies into Beauvais, run the cost comparison against a CDG or Orly ticket before committing. The bus ride alone costs €16.90 and takes longer than the flight from some European cities.

The Cost of Backtracking

A common mistake is trying to cover both Paris and Nice in one trip. Paris to Nice is a 6-hour train. A see it all itinerary that adds Provence, the Riviera, and a Bordeaux detour burns half the trip in transit. The failure case is the traveller who lands at CDG, takes the RER B into Paris for €11.80, spends two days in the city, then buys a TGV ticket south, only to repeat the reverse trip four days later. The direct flight into Nice costs the same and eliminates two full travel days. If you have 7 days minimum recommended for France, do not spend 12 hours of them on a Paris to Nice round trip train ride.