If you are working out what to do before a flight in Paris, London or Amsterdam, and the hotel already has its key back, start with the bag. The big museums in those three cities disagree about it. The Musée d’Orsay will let you leave a cabin-size suitcase in its free cloakroom, while the National Gallery refuses wheeled luggage and the Rijksmuseum has nowhere to put one.
Qeepl’s own guide to spending a last day in a city without luggage lists big museums with screening and timed tickets among the things that can trap you, and it has a point. You will still go through security at the door in Paris and London, and the Rijksmuseum insists on a booked start time. I would go anyway, to these three, because each has a quick way out to the airport: a station under the Orsay, the Piccadilly line a few minutes from the National Gallery, and an airport bus that stops at the Rijksmuseum.
The Short Version
- Paris, the Musée d’Orsay: a carry-on can go in the free cloakroom, anything bigger cannot. RER C and then RER B to Charles de Gaulle on a €14 ticket.
- London, the National Gallery: free entry, no wheeled luggage of any size. Piccadilly line to Heathrow in about 50 minutes for £5.90.
- Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum: book a start time, and only handbags up to A4 go into the galleries. Bus 397 to Schiphol from €6.50.
Whichever city you are in, leave the big case in luggage storage near the museum, keep a small bag for the passport and charger, and collect everything on your way to the station.
What to Do Before a Flight in Paris: The Musée d’Orsay
The Orsay was built as a railway station for the 1900 World’s Fair, and trains still stop underneath it, at an RER C station called Musée d’Orsay. Its big station clocks still face the Seine, and from the top floor you can look out at the city through one of the dials.
The museum is closed on Mondays. Other days it opens at 9:30, lets the last visitors in at 5pm and starts clearing the galleries at 5:30, with a late opening on Thursdays until 9:45. Tickets are €16 online and €14 at the museum, and under-18s go free. Public areas are under renovation from March 2026 to summer 2028, and while the museum says all collections stay open, it says online booking is highly recommended for the duration of the works. Arrive at least 15 minutes before your slot.
A Sample Day for a 7pm Long-Haul Flight from Charles de Gaulle
- Check out at 11am, leave the big case in storage near the museum and keep a small bag.
- Be at the Orsay by 11:45. With a carry-on, use Entrance 2 on the forecourt; cases up to 56 by 45 by 25 centimetres go in the self-service cloakroom, anything bigger is refused at the door, and whatever you leave has to be collected the same day.
- Noon to 2:30pm is for the paintings. Start on the top floor with Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe in room 29 and Degas’s dance class in room 31, then room 36, the Van Gogh room, for the 1889 self-portrait and the starry night over the Rhône. Then head down to the ground floor for Courbet’s Burial at Ornans in room 7 and Manet’s Olympia in room 14.
- By 3pm you have the bags back and are on the RER C, one stop from the museum to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, where you change to the RER B. The RER B leg takes around 35 minutes on the €14 Paris Région-Aéroports ticket. Check the RER C’s status on the morning you fly.
- You reach Charles de Gaulle around 4pm, three hours before departure. Paris Aéroport’s check-in page asks for anything between 40 minutes and three hours, depending on destination and airline.
For Orly, the same €14 ticket covers metro line 14, about 25 minutes to the airport from Châtelet-Les Halles. Line 12 from Solférino, round the corner from the museum, joins line 14 at Madeleine.
When the day is built around a train, it helps to know how long a guide will take before you start it. The Orsay’s own audio guide is a handset rented for €6 at a counter in the upper nave, with over 300 commentaries. Chiaro’s audio guide to the Musée d’Orsay puts the length of each stop on the page before you press play, so you can see that the Van Gogh takes two minutes and four seconds and Olympia just under three.
London: The National Gallery
The National Gallery is free, which on a flight day takes the pressure off. Leave early and you have lost nothing but time. It opens every day from 10am to 6pm, until 9pm on Fridays, and a free booked ticket gets you fast-track entry, though walk-up entry works too.
Everyone comes in through the Sainsbury Wing, on the Trafalgar Square corner of Pall Mall and Whitcomb Street. There are walk-through metal detectors at every door and bags get checked, so give it a few minutes. A soft bag up to 56 by 25 by 45 centimetres can go in the cloakroom for £3.
The Sainsbury Wing puts you next to the oldest pictures. Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks is in room 51 and van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait is next door in room 52. From there, cross into the main building for Holbein’s Ambassadors in room 4, then work your way toward Turner’s Fighting Temeraire in room 40 and Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Cypresses in room 43. Some rooms are shut during building work and pictures get moved around, so look at the floor plan when you arrive.
The five stops on Chiaro’s free walk through the National Gallery are the Arnolfini, the Leonardo, the Holbein, Delaroche’s Execution of Lady Jane Grey in room 38 and the Turner. If you have time left, add Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus in room 19.
Heathrow asks for three hours before an international flight and two before a domestic or European one. Which train you take depends on the airport.
Heathrow
Leicester Square is a few minutes’ walk away, and the Piccadilly line runs from there to Heathrow without a change in about 50 minutes, £5.90 on contactless. Short of time, take the Northern line one stop to Tottenham Court Road and the Elizabeth line from there, about half an hour for £15.50.
Check the Piccadilly line before you commit to it. TfL has announced no service to Heathrow on 17 and 18 October, no service through central London from 28 to 30 October, and no trains on the whole line on 31 October and 1 November.
Gatwick
Gatwick trains leave from Victoria. The Gatwick Express costs £24 on contactless and Southern’s ordinary train costs £10.70 off-peak, and both get there in a little over half an hour. Take the Southern train and spend the difference on a coffee at the gate.
Southern’s peak fare is £19.20, on weekdays between 6:30 and 9:30 in the morning and between 4pm and 7pm.
Stansted
The Stansted Express leaves from Liverpool Street every 15 minutes during the day, calls at Tottenham Hale on the way, and reaches the airport in about 48 minutes. From the gallery, allow well over an hour door to door.
Amsterdam: The Rijksmuseum
Go for the Night Watch. Rembrandt’s painting has its own gallery on floor 2, and the restoration is happening in front of visitors, inside a glass chamber built for the job. Asselijn’s Threatened Swan is on the way, in the Gallery of Honour, and Petronella Oortman’s dolls’ house is in room 2.20. Chiaro’s independent guide to the Rijksmuseum keeps all five of its stops on that one floor and finishes at the Night Watch, about forty minutes on foot.
Everyone books a start time here, Museum Card holders included. Daypacks and other bags go to a free, supervised cloakroom, but it has no facilities for large bags or travel luggage. It opens every day of the year from 9am to 5pm, adults pay €25, and 18 and under go free. Once you are in you can stay as long as you like, but you cannot step outside and come back. It is usually quieter before 11am and after 3:30pm.
The building is easy to find from the bus. A public passage runs under the middle of the museum at street level, with a cycle path down the centre, and Amsterdam’s cyclists use it as a road.
Bus 397, the Amsterdam Airport Express, stops at Museumplein and at a stop called Rijksmuseum and runs to Schiphol without a change. Buses leave Schiphol every 10 minutes, and singles start at €6.50, paid by bank card or phone. No cash.
Schiphol gives no fixed time to arrive and sends you to your airline’s advice instead. You can book a 15-minute security timeslot from three days before you fly.
