49.19° N · 2.46° E
The château and Condé museum, the Grandes Écuries with their horses, a Le Nôtre park and crème chantilly. 25 minutes from Paris by train.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Visit · 2 h · day ticket €18, €14.50 for ages 7 to 25 · includes park and Grandes Écuries · closed Tuesdays
Visit and show · 1 h 30 · included in the day ticket · Christmas show €24, 28 November to 3 January
Walk · 2 h · park ticket €9 or included in the day ticket · 115 hectares · closed Tuesdays
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
From April to June and in September the park is at its best and there are fewer people than in summer. In December there is a Christmas equestrian show. In January, the estate closes from the 4th to the 22nd for its annual holiday.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Chantilly is closer to Charles de Gaulle airport than Paris itself: twenty minutes by car. With direct flights to CDG from the main Spanish cities, it can be done on the first or last day of the trip, with your suitcase in the hotel's left-luggage room.
The train from Gare du Nord and a free bus drop you at the castle. Within the estate everything is done on foot: castle, Grandes Écuries, park and Hameau.
40 km from Paris on the A1 or A3, Chantilly by car also opens up the forest, the Commelles ponds and Senlis. Parking next to the castle costs €5.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Chantilly is one of the castles that works best with children, thanks to the horses. The Grandes Écuries, the park and the cream tea at the Hameau are worth more than the whole museum to a six-year-old.
With small children, stick to the park and the horses. They put up with the castle, with its paintings up to the ceiling, for only so long; the stables and the cream at the Hameau, on the other hand, are a sure hit.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Five-star Relais & Châteaux hotel next to the castle and the Grandes Écuries, with 92 rooms and suites, a Valmont spa and the restaurant Le Jardin d'Hiver.
Why we like it: Four-star hotel in the centre of Chantilly, between the station and the castle, with guarded parking, a wellness area and the restaurant Le Cob.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
© Château de ChantillyThe home of Chantilly creamWhat to order: strawberries with home-made Chantilly cream on the Hameau terrace
© Château de ChantillyIn the castle's former kitchensWhat to order: any dish with Chantilly cream for dessert, in the vaulted stone room
What to order: the seasonal menu on the garden terrace
Map
The places to stay and services on the map are the ones for the way you travel. Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
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Tips
Start with the château, which opens at 10:00, and leave the horses for after lunch.
The displays change by day; check them before you go.
Tickets carry a time slot and sell out at weekends.
The tearoom is open until 17:45.
The whole estate is closed. Also from 4 to 22 January.
By train from the Gare du Nord to Chantilly-Gouvieux: 25 minutes on the long-distance TER or 45 on the RER D. From the station, two free buses (the DUC town bus and line 645 towards Senlis) leave from platform A1 for the château; at weekends and on public holidays there is also a tourist shuttle. On foot it is about twenty minutes.
By car it is 40 km on the A1 or the A3, exit Chantilly, and the château's P1 car park costs €5. Chantilly is also only twenty minutes from Charles de Gaulle airport: if you fly from Spain to CDG, it can be your first or your last afternoon of the trip.
Three things on a single ticket. The château and Condé museum, with the Duke of Aumale's collection of old master paintings hung as he left it, in rows up to the ceiling, and the library of the Cabinet des Livres. The Grandes Écuries, 18th-century stables the size of a palace, with horses and equestrian displays. And the park, of 115 hectares, with Le Nôtre's French garden, the Anglo-Chinese and the English ones.
In the Anglo-Chinese garden is the Hameau, a hamlet of rustic cottages from 1775 that inspired Marie Antoinette's at Versailles. In one of them, the restaurant serves the homemade crème chantilly that made the place famous. Outside the estate, if you have a car, the forest runs down to the Étangs de Commelles, a flat walk among oaks.
The one-day ticket, with a time slot, costs €18 (€14.50 for ages 7 to 25) and includes the château, park, Grandes Écuries and the day's equestrian displays. With the Cabinet des Livres, €21. The park only, €9. There is a two-day ticket (€26) and a family ticket (€55). On high-season weekends, public holidays and school holidays, only buying online guarantees entry.
Now, in November, the château is open from 10:00 to 17:00, the park from 10:00 to 18:00 and the Grandes Écuries from 12:00 to 17:00. It is closed on Tuesdays and from 4 to 22 January. At Christmas 2026 there is an equestrian show, Le Noël oublié, from 28 November to 3 January, for €24 (€19 for ages 3 to 25).
A whole day: château in the morning, lunch at La Capitainerie or at the Hameau, Grandes Écuries first thing in the afternoon, when they open, and a walk in the park before closing. If you have time to spare and a car, Senlis, a small medieval town with a Gothic cathedral, is ten minutes away.
Within the estate, La Capitainerie, in a vaulted room of the château, and the Hameau restaurant, with a terrace and tearoom. In the centre, Le Cob, the bistro of the Hôtel du Parc, for dinner when the estate has closed.
For sleeping, the Auberge du Jeu de Paume, a five-star Relais & Châteaux with a spa between the château and the stables, and the Hôtel du Parc, a four-star between the station and the centre that admits dogs.
Questions
By train from Gare du Nord to Chantilly-Gouvieux, 25 minutes on the TER or 45 on the RER D, and a free bus to the château.
€18 for a one-day ticket, €14.50 for ages 7 to 25; it includes the park and the Grandes Écuries.
Tuesdays, and from 4 to 22 January.
At the restaurant and tearoom of the Hameau, inside the park.
About 20 minutes by car from Charles de Gaulle.
The Hôtel du Parc admits dogs for a supplement. For the estate, check the visiting rules first.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/france/hauts-de-france/chantilly
