Torre Eiffel: Evite las colas con entrada a la planta superior

Tour operator provided a brief overview of the history of the Eiffel Tower and brought us to the skip the line entrance. The view from the tower spoke for itself. Lines for the elevator very long! Be aware there are entrances to the elevators from both sides of the tower.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the Eiffel Tower. She brought us through security to the special entrance for these tickets. Was on the elevator to the 2nd floor observation deck in no time. Have to walk up stairs to get to the 3rd floor observation deck. Just amazing views of Paris from all directions!

4.5 stars for the Eiffel Tower. It would be 5 starts except for all the chain link fences and dirt floor plaza under the tower. ZERO stars for the guide and service. We were supposed to get notice by email of the time to meet the day before the scheduled day. It never happened. The phone number given was full of voice messages. No 2 pages on the website contained all the information. By pure luck I found the meeting spot address. We showed up at 8:50am as the website said tours from 9am - 11pm. We got lucky and found a confused guide with 3 other families, all of which did not receive confirmations either. We all just showed up. Somehow he had 3 families on his list. We were walked over the the Eiffel tower, told to wait 3 different times in different spots, he finally comes back, gives us tickets and tell us to go up. The family from Australia who was not on his list did not get tickets. Not sure if they ever got them. Then, the guide disappears and we never see him again. No history, no tour, nothing. While at the top of the Eiffel Tower I get an email saying We cannot accommodate your tickets and your Eiffel Tower tour is cancelled. WOW! Once on the 2nd level my wife, children and I had a wonderful time. The views are amazingly breathtaking. I took my 2 kids to the summit. The glass window elevator ride made me nervous and clutch my kids jackets as we stood near the door. Once up top it was amazing but I would imagine everyone was experiencing a little anxiousness as we were. My kids loved looking at the compass with the size comparisons to other skyscraping monuments around the world. We spent a about 45 minutes at the summit. IF my wife would have braved the assent we would have shared a glass of champagne. The experience of The Tower, magnificent. The tour, never again.

When I initially contacted viator to book this activity by phone. I specifically told the representative to include in the notes, that I would make it to paris at 9:35am coming from amsterdam by train. So set my tour up after 11:00am. The company does not give you your appointment time until the day before your tour. They booked it for 10:00am. Long story short, they charged me 30 Euro extra per person when I met the guide, just to change from 10:00am to 12:00am. All the tour guide did, was simply walk us across the lot to the second security line which we did not skip and told us to catch 2 elevators to get there. Choose a different tour, the price was not worth it.

The time from meeting our guide to standing on top of the tower was 1 hour! Some people probably wait that long to get through security! If you want to see the Eiffel Tower, this is the only way to do it!

It was very inconvenient not to know what time our ticket was for until late the night before. And why was it necessary to meet the Viator rep at a restaurant blocks away from the Eiffel Tower just to walk as a group there? What they don't tell you is that you skip one line to wait in another. So yes we waited and the view from the Summit was memorable.

It was very nice not to have to go the ticketing line. Also, when there, the ticketing line had sold out of summit entrance tickets, so it was great having these already. We did have to stand in line for the summit, but I must say, we met a very nice French lady and her daughter who were also going to the top! There were beautiful views. Weather was great! Believe it or not, when we got to the top it wasn't even crowded. My husband and I recommend this!