Eiffel Tower Guided Stairs Climb to 2nd Floor with Summit Option

The Eiffel Tower: iron, rivets and a monument that was meant to be temporary

The Eiffel Tower was built in two years, two months and five days for the World's Fair of 1889, the centenary of the French Revolution, and at 300 metres it was the tallest structure in the world for four decades. Its 18,000 iron parts are held together by 2.5 million rivets, the whole frame weighs about 7,300 tonnes, and it was designed to stand for only twenty years before being dismantled; it survived because of its value as a radio mast. Today, with its antennas, it reaches 330 metres and welcomes around six million visitors a year.

An Eiffel Tower guided tour by the stairs is the way to feel this engineering rather than just photograph it, because you walk inside the lattice and see every rivet. Your guide tells the story of the construction, the artists who protested against the tower, and how it became the symbol of Paris, while you wait at security and begin the climb.

The stairs and the glass floor on the 1st floor

The staircase begins inside one of the four pillars and winds up through the open iron structure, with landings where the guide stops to explain and the group catches its breath. The first section brings you to the 1st floor at 57 metres after about 330 steps; the climb takes twenty to thirty minutes at an easy pace, and the views change at every turn as the Seine and the roofs of Paris open out below. This floor is the largest, with a walkway around the whole tower, exhibitions on the history of the monument and a transparent glass floor you can stand on and look straight down to the ground.

Most of the guided hour is spent on this level, because it is here that the tower is best understood: the iron arches, the view up through the structure to the summit and the Champ de Mars laid out below. Children usually dare each other onto the glass floor; adults often take a little longer.

The 2nd floor and the panorama of Paris

The second section of stairs, another 350 or so steps, takes you to the 2nd floor at 115 metres, which many visitors consider the best viewpoint on the tower because the buildings are still close enough to recognise. The guide points out the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Élysées, the golden dome of Les Invalides, the white basilica of Sacré-Cœur on the hill of Montmartre, the towers of Notre-Dame on its island and the skyscrapers of La Défense in the distance, and explains how the city was reshaped by the boulevards of the 19th century.

The guided part on the 2nd floor lasts about forty-five minutes. After that you are free to stay as long as you like, walk around both levels of the deck, use the viewing tables to identify monuments and take the stairs or the elevator down at your own pace. On clear days the view extends about seventy kilometres.

The summit and the top of the tower

The summit of the Eiffel Tower, at 276 metres, is reached only by elevator from the 2nd floor. It has a glass-enclosed level and an open-air platform above it, the highest public viewpoint in Paris, and a reconstruction of the small office the engineer kept at the top, with wax figures showing him receiving a guest. From up here the city becomes a map, with the Seine curving through it and the whole Champ de Mars reduced to a green rectangle.

The summit is not included in the standard guided climb; elevator access to the top may be added at the time of booking when the summit is open, so tell our team if you want it. On windy days, during maintenance or when the tower is at capacity, the summit can close without notice, in which case you still enjoy the full guided climb to the 2nd floor and the free time on the tower.

The Champ de Mars, the Trocadéro and getting to the meeting point

The tower stands at the end of the Champ de Mars, a long park that was once a military parade ground and is now the best place in Paris for a picnic with the tower in view. Across the river, the terrace of the Trocadéro gives the classic front-on photograph, and the Pont d'Iéna links the two. The meeting point for this tour is a few minutes' walk from the tower on the south-east side, at the corner of Avenue Silvestre de Sacy and Avenue Élisée Reclus, a quiet residential street that is easy to find.

To get there, take metro line 8 to École Militaire and walk about fifteen minutes through the 7th arrondissement, or the RER C to Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel, which is a little closer. After the tour you are left on the tower itself, so a walk along the Seine, a visit to the Trocadéro gardens or the Seine cruise option are natural ways to finish the morning.