Cost: The Château - the main palace - costs €13.50 (€10 after 16:00, under 18 always free, covered by Paris Museum Pass and Le Passeport pass, see below). The Château contains the Chapel, the Opera House (closed through June 2009), the King's and Queen's State Apartments (with the famous Hall of Mirrors), the French History Galleries (rarely open), the Dauphin's Apartments (heirs to the throne), and the Mesdames Apartments (Louis XV's daughters, open weekends only); all are included with your Château ticket.

Entry to the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, the estate of the queen, costs €9 from April through October (€5 after 16:00, under 18 always free; covered by Le Passeport and the Paris Museum Pass). In winter, it costs €5. Tickets are available at the entry to the Domaine or at the main Château ticket office. With this ticket, you'll see the queen's Hamlet, the Grand and Petit Trianons, and a smattering of other nearby buildings.

The gardens are free, except on April-Sept weekends, when the fountains blast and the price shoots up to €8 (see "Fountain Spectacles").

Passes: Many travelers arrive at Versailles with one of these two passes.

The Le Passeport one-day pass is a good deal for serious sightseers lacking a Paris Museum Pass (April-Oct it's €20 Mon-Fri, €25 Sat-Sun; Nov-March it's €16 Tue-Sun). The pass covers your entrance to just about everything, as well as audioguides. (The pass is not a good value on Mon, when only the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette and gardens are open.) The pass gives you access to all open sections of the Château, the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, and the fountain spectacles (that flow only on spring and summer weekends - hence the higher weekend pass prices). Le Passeport passes are sold on the Internet, at FNAC stores in Paris, the Ile de France TI in the Louvre, the TI in Versailles, and the palace itself (see www.chateauversailles.fr).

The Paris Museum Pass works at Versailles, covering entrance to the Château and the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette but not the gardens (on fountain spectacle weekends) or audioguides. Since a visit to Versailles can take up an entire sightseeing day, you'll likely get better use out of the Museum Pass in Paris, where it's easy to visit several sights in a day.

Hours: The Château is open April-Oct Tue-Sun 9:00-18:30, Nov-March Tue-Sun 9:00-17:30, closed Mon. The Domaine de Marie Antoinette is open daily April-Oct 12:00-19:30; Nov- March 9:00-17:30. The gardens are open daily from 9:00 to sunset (17:30 to 21:30), except on Sat in summer when they close at 18:00 to prepare for evening events. Last entry to all of these areas is one hour before closing.

When to Go: From May through September, Versailles can be a zoo between 10:00 and 13:00, and all day Tue and Sun. For fewer crowds, go early or late: Arrive by 9:00 (when the palace opens - tour the palace first, then the gardens). If you arrive later, tour the Gardens first and the Château after 13:00 when crowds dissipate (except on Tue and Sun, when the place is packed from open to close). Note that the last guided tours of the day generally depart by 15:00.