Eiffel Tower is out of online tickets?

Yes no problem, only a very small amount are for sale online in advance.

Relief!

Thank you Pat.

-George

We did an Easy Pass Tour which I booked just 2 weeks out. Their office is just a couple of blocks from the tower. More expensive than standing in line - but it sure was nice to just walk right past that long line of people waiting to buy tickets!. With the tour we got right on the elevator. The tour guide was great - they all speak English. Our guide was French, but had grown up in the U.S. He gave a great history of the tower and of the city as he pointed out all the important sites of Paris to be seen as we walked around all sides of the tower. It also included the elevator to the top, and he made sure everyone was on, that wanted to go all the way up. We felt it was well worth the extra cost, and gave us more free time to see more sites of Paris on our own, instead of spending time waiting in line.

I agree that your best bet is a tour. We gave ourselves plenty of time to order tickets and still could not get the time that we wanted. You might pay a little more for a tour than you had planned but they do walk right past the lines and get you where you want to go.....well worth it!

speaking of tour companies that will take you past the other people standing in line...ever wonder why all of those online tickets sell out in a matter of seconds??? Yep - tour companies snatch them up so they can charge you more than you would initially have paid. Nobody "needs" a tour company to go to the Eiffel Tower.

Hi Bee, well, I love the Eiffel Tower and going up to the summit is a "must do" for me. Try a Get Your Guide tour. You can purchase tickets online for a behind the scenes tour. The tour takes about 45 min then you can skip the lines to go to the second floor. If you want to go to the top, there's another very short line and a separate ticket. I've taken the tour with this company twice and thought it was worth the few extra dollars. Hope you enjoy your time in Paris!

If you are out late and want to go up at night we just came from Paris and we're going by about 10pm and barely a soul in line. I was almost tempted to go up but we did it in 2010. We did get to see an awesome light and music show...there was a gala for breast cancer that evening and they had the tower all lit up in pink with the b.c. Ribbon on it. And opera music playing and different light designs (not just the twinkles). So glad we were in the right place at the right time. Make sure you go over to trocadero for an amazing view!

Walking up may be an option. The walking (stairs) line was significantly shorter than the lift line during our visit.

It's funny Ben...this was our third time to Paris but only the first time we bothered to walk over to trocadero! I think it's because I didn't realize how nice the view was until I started looking at photos on Instagram and I'm like...why haven't we gone over there!? It helps that our Airbnb was a ten min walk away. We also did a boat tour with vendettes du pont Neuf (I hope I spelled that right..ten euro bought beforehand online) and that gave a nice perspective as well of the tower from the river.

We skipped the going-up part for the Trocadéro at night and have never been sorry. There were other lofty places that worked just fine for seeing the rooftops of Paris. I know we're in the minority, though. :O)