Eiffel Tower Entry Tickets with Audio Guide & Optional Cruise Paris

The Eiffel Tower, the iron landmark of Paris

The Eiffel Tower was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch of the World's Fair that marked the centenary of the French Revolution. Its engineer's company assembled around 18,000 pieces of wrought iron with two and a half million rivets in just over two years, and at 300 metres it was the tallest structure in the world for four decades. Planned as a temporary exhibit, it survived because its height made it useful for radio transmission, and today, with its antennas, it reaches 330 metres and is repainted by hand roughly every seven years.

An Eiffel Tower tour by elevator takes you through three levels: the 1st floor at 57 metres, the 2nd floor at 115 metres and the summit at 276 metres. With these Eiffel Tower tickets you have access to all three. Most visitors spend between ninety minutes and two and a half hours on the tower, which is why the time slot allows that much.

The 2nd floor and its views of the Seine

The elevator from the ground takes you first to the 2nd floor, 115 metres up, which many Parisians consider the best viewing level because the city is close enough to read in detail. From the open galleries you look across the Seine to the Trocadéro and the Palais de Chaillot, down the Champ de Mars to the École Militaire, and along the river to the golden dome of Les Invalides, the Grand Palais and the long white silhouette of Sacré-Cœur on the hill of Montmartre.

The audio guide app names each monument as you walk round the four sides, so you understand the layout of Paris before you climb higher. Information boards and telescopes help you spot the Arc de Triomphe and the glass pyramid of the Louvre. This is also where the separate summit elevators depart, and there can be a line for them, so allow time on this floor rather than rushing straight up.

The summit at 276 metres

The summit of the Eiffel Tower is the highest public viewing platform in Paris, 276 metres above the ground, reached by a second set of elevators from the 2nd floor. Up here the view becomes a complete 360-degree panorama: the Seine curving west towards the Bois de Boulogne, the towers of La Défense, Montparnasse Tower to the south and, on a clear day, the countryside beyond the city. A glazed level protects you from the wind, and an open terrace above it lets you feel the height.

The summit also holds the reconstructed office of the engineer whose name the tower carries, with wax figures recalling the visits of the early years. Is the Eiffel Tower summit worth it? For most visitors yes, particularly at sunset, when the city turns gold, or after dark when the lights of Paris stretch to the horizon. In strong wind the summit may close for safety; in that case the visit continues on the two lower floors.

The 1st floor glass floor

Many people skip the 1st floor, which is a mistake. At 57 metres it was rebuilt in 2014 with a transparent walkway that lets you look straight down between your feet to the crowds on the esplanade, an experience that is thrilling for children and adults alike. Around the glass floor are exhibition panels on the tower's construction, its painting campaigns and the lighting system, and large windows that frame the Champ de Mars and the Seine from a lower, more intimate angle.

The audio guide explains the engineering here: the four pillars set on concrete foundations, the hydraulic lifts of 1889 and the 20,000 bulbs that make the tower sparkle for five minutes every hour after dark. If you book an evening slot, try to be on the 1st or 2nd floor on the hour to see the lights come alive around you. Spend twenty to thirty minutes on this floor before taking the elevator down.

Place de Sydney and the Champ de Mars

Place de Sydney is a small square on the Avenue de Suffren side of the tower, in the 15th district, and it is where our host meets you for this visit. It is an easy place to find: Bir-Hakeim metro on line 6 and the Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel RER C station are both about a ten-minute walk, and the host is there at your booked time with your tickets. How to get to the Eiffel Tower from central Paris is simple: line 6 gives you the classic view of the tower from the elevated metro before you arrive.

After the visit, the Champ de Mars stretches south of the tower for almost a kilometre of lawns, the perfect spot for the photo everyone wants, while across the river the terraces of the Trocadéro give the famous head-on view. The best time to visit the Eiffel Tower for photos is the hour before sunset; the best time for short lines is the first slot of the morning.