The Louvre in Two Hours: A Highlights Route That Works

The Louvre has 403 rooms and around 30,000 works on display, and it welcomed nine million visitors in 2025. You will not see it in two hours, and you should not try. What you can do in two hours is see the three works most people come for, in a sensible order, without spending half your time lost between wings. This is that route, plus the tickets, entrances and rules that make it work.

Before you go: tickets, days and times

• Price: since January 14, 2026, adult admission is €32 for visitors from outside the European Economic Area and €22 for EEA citizens and residents. Under-18s go free, as do EEA residents under 26.
• Time slots: the Louvre recommends booking a slot, even for free admission, and has made it mandatory during busy periods (in 2026, July 1 to August 31 and October 17 to November 1). No mandatory period has been announced for Christmas 2026, but book anyway.
• Closed Tuesdays, and on January 1, May 1 and December 25.
• Hours: 9am to 6pm on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; 9am to 9pm on Wednesday and Friday.
• Last entry is one hour before closing, and rooms are cleared 30 minutes before closing. On a 6pm day, a two-hour visit needs to start by about 3:30pm.

If you can, go on a Wednesday or Friday. The three extra hours of opening take the pressure off your time slot.

Which entrance to use

The Pyramid is the main entrance for individual visitors, with separate lines for ticket holders, visitors without tickets, and disabled visitors. The glass tube lift inside is reserved for disabled visitors and strollers. The Galerie du Carrousel entrance, at 99 rue de Rivoli, is open to all ticket holders and is the alternative when the courtyard looks busy.

A third entrance, the Porte des Lions on the river side, is for ticket holders only. Its hours are inconsistent across the Louvre’s own documents (one says it is closed on Fridays as well as Tuesdays), so do not build a tight plan around it. The nearest métro stops are Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) and Pyramides (line 14).

What to leave at the hotel

Bags larger than 55 × 35 × 20 cm are not allowed. There are free self-service lockers under the Pyramid, but a small daypack is simpler. Photography for personal use is allowed in the permanent collections, but not with flash, a selfie stick or a tripod.

The two-hour route

The trick is geography. Two of the big three are on the same floor of the same wing, so you see them back to back, then drop one level and cross to the third.

1. Winged Victory of Samothrace (allow 15 minutes)

Head into the Denon wing and up to Level 1. The Winged Victory stands at the top of the Daru staircase, in Room 703, and you see her from below as you climb. That approach is the point, so take the stairs slowly rather than rushing to the top.

2. The Mona Lisa (allow 25 to 30 minutes)

Stay on Denon Level 1 and continue to Room 711, the Salle des États, the largest room in the museum. The Mona Lisa hangs in a climate-controlled glass case, and the room fills up around it. Take your look, then turn around: Veronese’s enormous Wedding Feast at Cana covers the opposite wall, and it is easy to miss with your back to it.

The Mona Lisa’s setting is due to change. Under the “Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance” plan, she will get a dedicated space. An architecture team was chosen in May 2026, but the Louvre has not announced dates for the works or the opening, so for now she stays in the Salle des États.

3. Venus de Milo (allow 15 minutes)

Go back down to the ground floor (Level 0) and cross to the Sully wing, where the Venus de Milo stands. The Louvre’s own documents give two different room numbers, so follow the museum signs for the Venus de Milo rather than a number.

4. Your buffer (the remaining 40 minutes or so)

Security, finding your way and the crowd around the Mona Lisa will use more time than you expect, so keep the rest of your two hours unplanned. If you have time left, wander the galleries near wherever you end up. One note on the Galerie d’Apollon: it reopened on July 22, 2026, after the October 2025 jewel theft, but it now shows only its painted and sculpted décor, with no jewels on display. It is lovely if you like interiors, and skippable if you don’t.

When a guide is worth it

You can do this route on your own with a timed ticket and the museum map. A guide earns the fee when it is your first visit and you want the stories rather than just the sightings, when you are traveling with children, or when you would rather not navigate at all. Anyone guiding a group inside the Louvre must be accredited, usually with France’s official guide-lecturer card, and small groups are capped at six people plus the guide, which keeps them manageable.

The best-reviewed option we compare is a semi-private tour of no more than six guests, with entry included. One catch from its listing: when the tour ends, you leave the museum with your guide, so it is not a ticket for staying on afterward.

If you want the guide to yourselves, a private tour with timed entry is the next step up. You set the pace, and you can trade the Venus de Milo for whatever you care about most.

We compare every private and small-group option, including family tours, in our guide to private Louvre tours.

Make a day of it

The Seine is a short walk from the Pyramid. A late-afternoon cruise from the Square du Vert-Galant, at the tip of the Île de la Cité, is an easy way to rest your legs after the museum; our comparison of Bateaux Mouches, Bateaux Parisiens and the alternatives explains which boat to pick. If you are visiting in December, remember that the Louvre is closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day: see what’s open in Paris over the holidays. For something completely different underground, try the Catacombs.