France’s most spectacular walled city, with its double ring of walls, cone-roofed towers and the counts’ castle. Here you’ll find which Carcassonne castle tickets to buy, the weather during opening hours, opening times and tips for your visit.
Queues and crowds → · Carcassonne, Occitanie, France
Weather at 5:00 PM. The castle opens at 09:30.
The streets of the Cité are free and always open. You need a ticket for the counts’ castle and the walk along the ramparts, the best part.
Our pick: the Tiqets ticket, which costs the same as the official one but can be cancelled until the evening before. For more detail, add the audio guide on site.
Arriving by train? With a TGV Inoui or Intercités ticket less than 5 days old, you pay €16.50 in summer and €11.50 in winter at the ticket office.
Cancel until 11:59 pm the day before · audio guide not included · 4.6 from over 3,000 reviews
The price follows the official one (€13 October to March, €19 April to September), with cancellation until the evening before.
Indicative prices, checked onOctober 26, 2026: they may change: the final price is the one shown by the seller.
Perfect day
Perfect day: fair, 14 to 18 degrees, no rain.
| Time | Sky | Temperature | Rain | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | Cloudy | 14° | – | 3 km/h |
| 11:00 | Fair | 16° | – | 4 km/h |
| 12:00 | Fair | 16° | – | 5 km/h |
| 13:00 | Fair | 17° | – | 7 km/h |
| 14:00 | Fair | 17° | – | 7 km/h |
| 15:00 | Fair | 18° | – | 8 km/h |
| 16:00 | Fair | 18° | – | 8 km/h |
Good
Good: fair, 12 to 16 degrees, no rain.
| Time | Sky | Temperature | Rain | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | Fair | 12° | – | 30 km/h |
| 11:00 | Fair | 14° | – | 32 km/h |
| 12:00 | Partly cloudy | 14° | – | 34 km/h |
| 13:00 | Partly cloudy | 15° | – | 33 km/h |
| 14:00 | Fair | 16° | – | 32 km/h |
| 15:00 | Clear | 15° | – | 30 km/h |
| 16:00 | Clear | 15° | – | 28 km/h |
The best days are Saturday, October 31, Monday, November 2 and Friday, November 6. The rating only looks at opening hours: rain at night doesn’t spoil the visit.
Today and tomorrow the forecast is accurate hour by hour; up to day seven it is reliable on the trend; the last days give a rough idea. Updated every hour.
Today, Friday, October 30: open 09:30–17:00.
| Period | Hours |
|---|---|
| April 1 – September 30 | 10:00–18:30 |
| October 1 – March 31 | 09:30–17:00 |
Closed on January 1, May 1, and December 25.
Castle and ramparts hours: from 1 April to 30 September, 10 am to 6:30 pm (last entry 5:45 pm); from 1 October to 31 March, 9:30 am to 5 pm (last entry 4:15 pm). Closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
Best time to visit: May, June and September. Warm but not scorching days, between 21 and 26°C.
| Month | Average high | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10° | 10 |
| Feb | 11° | 8 |
| Mar | 15° | 8 |
| Apr | 18° | 9 |
| MayRecommended | 21° | 8 |
| JunRecommended | 26° | 6 |
| Jul | 29° | 5 |
| Aug | 29° | 5 |
| SepRecommended | 25° | 6 |
| Oct | 20° | 7 |
| Nov | 14° | 9 |
| Dec | 11° | 9 |
1991–2020 normals for the Carcassonne weather station: average high and days with at least 1 mm of rain. Source: Météo-France (via Meteociel), table published on Wikipedia (article “Carcassonne”).
Most of the visit is outdoors: the ramparts, the wall walk and the castle courtyards.
An hour-by-hour crowd estimate is coming later, always marked as an estimate and with its source.
Guided tours: the castle also runs paid “discovery” guided tours, to be booked.
By train: to Carcassonne station, in the lower town; the Cité sits on the hill across the River Aude.
By car: via the A61 and A9 motorways, then the N113 towards the centre of Carcassonne. The castle is on rue Viollet-le-Duc, inside the Cité.
From Toulouse: there’s also a day trip with audio guide sold on Tiqets.
Perfect day: fair, 14 to 18 degrees, no rain.
Saturday, October 31: Perfect day: fair, 14 to 18 degrees, no rain. Sunday, November 1: Good: fair, 12 to 16 degrees, no rain.
The castle and ramparts ticket costs €19 from April to September and €13 from October to March. Free under 18 and for EU citizens aged 18–25. On Tiqets it’s from €13, with cancellation until the evening before.
Yes: the streets, squares and basilica of the Cité are free. You only pay for the counts’ castle and the ramparts walk.
From 1 April to 30 September, 10 am to 6:30 pm; from 1 October to 31 March, 9:30 am to 5 pm. Last entry 45 minutes before closing. Closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
Yes: the audio guide costs €5 and is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Catalan. There’s also a children’s trail for ages 6–10.
About two hours for the castle and ramparts, plus time to explore the streets of the Cité. For a relaxed visit, allow half a day.
Reliable forecasts reach about 10 days: here you get the next 10, hour by hour for today and tomorrow and as a trend after that. To pick a month, check the climate month by month.
Forecasts come from MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates and updated every hour during the day and every 3 hours at night. Crowd figures are labelled as estimates, with their source.
Castle and ramparts ticket · from €13
Forecast by MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates. Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0), updated every hour. Updated: October 26, 2026.