Eiffel Tower summit ticket and dinner reservation

If the tickets are nonrefundable, go somewhere else for dinner that night so you can enjoy yourself with no rush. I would neither rush my time there nor buy tickets for a different day as that would be wasting hard-earned money.

That would be a great idea, however I had to prepay for the dinner and the tickets! So if I were to forfeit one of them, it would be the tickets, not the dinner.

Theresa,

It's been years since I've gone up in the Eiffel Tower, so I'm a bit confused by your question.

I've never reserved a time to go up in the tower -- when you say you have a 1730 reservation, how long do you anticipate it taking for you to actually get to the top level?

Perhaps some like to camp out up there, but 15 to 20 minutes looking at the flat topography, street pattern, and rooftops should be plenty, I would think.

That would give you what -- 10 minutes to get down to your restaurant level leaving 30 to 35 minutes to get to the top? That doesn't seem that difficult to me, but maybe things have changed in the last few years.

Can't you change your dinner reservation to 1900 or 1930?

People have reported here recently waiting in line for the elevator at the bottom for an hour WITH reservations; in the past this ran usually about 15 minutes. It can easily take 45 minutes to get the elevator to the top once on the second level. It will be a nervous making rush to make dinner. If the OP goes ahead I would plan to get in line for the reserved leg at least 45 minutes before the reserved time. They may get delayed if they unexpectedly end up at the ticket point half an hour ahead -- but then they just tread water until time. It will be rushed but if you strategize that way maybe it shakes out.

Remember too that there is now cumbersome perimeter security so add in half an hour there.

Hi there,

Thank you for all your helpful suggestions. I emailed the 58 restaurant and asked if I could change the dinner to the later seating, but I'm not confident as the website shows it is totally sold out for that evening. If I cancel the dinner reservation, I would have to pay 50% of the prepaid price. In that case, it would be cheaper to forfeit the 1730 lift tickets and just buy another set. I will wait to see what the restaurant has to say!

Oh, and to the person who was asking about timed tickets, yes that is how it is done now. I don't know how long they have been doing it like that but if you go to the website you can see how it works.

Theresa

Hi Theresa, don’t cancel either of your reservations. Plan to arrive 30 minutes prior to your 1730 ticket time so you can get through Security. At 1730 take the elevator to the second level, walk around and take photos. At 1815 get in line for your dinner reservations. Enjoy your dinner. Go to the Summit after dinner. There is a separate elevator (and another line) to go from the second level to the Summit.

The 1730 time does not mean that you have to be at the Summit at that time. It is the time you are allowed to get on the elevator to access the Tower. I’ve been to the Summit 8 times, the last time was April 2018. Beware of pickpockets. Have fun in my favorite city!

Donna's suggestion is the winner here. I would not try to summit before dinner -- just too crazy rushed, but it does seem like you might be able to do that after dinner or at least give it a shot. The problem would not be the ticket to the top which is not timed, but getting from the first to the second floor a second time. But people do stop on the first and then go to the second so maybe that would work. Maybe if they wouldn't let you board the elevator on one for two, you could walk up. Your ticket is scanned at the bottom and the ticket for the summit is scanned on level two but I didn't notice that they scanned to board the elevator on one, although they might so that walkers don't try to ride.

I was there during the middle of June and visited the Eiffel Tower with a prepaid ticket. There is/was a lot of construction going on around the base so I reconnoitered it in advance to see what may have changed from my prior visits.

I arrived early and went through security at the SW leg to gain access to the grounds of the tower. They did not pay any attention to my time reservation – I do not think they even looked at my ticket. I then went to the prepaid ticket line to go through security a second time to get into the elevator area at the NE leg. They DID physically check my time reservation and said I needed to wait until my reserved time. After clearing the elevator area security, no asked to see my ticket, I just machine scanned it as needed. It did take some time to make it to the top. There were many people waiting for the summit elevator and I did not see anyone having problems with machine scanning. It took 45 minutes or so to reach the top (weekday - 4:00 PM reservation time).

It may be a moot point through. It appeared that guests with dinner reservations to the restaurants had a dedicated entry point at the SE leg. If worst comes to worst, I would have dinner and then try the summit elevator. I would suspect that once you have gained access to the first or second level, while you will need to scan your ticket at the summit elevator, the reseservation time on the ticket is not - but do not hold me to that!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to update you all on what happened with my booking and thank you for your help! I emailed the 58 restaurant and they gladly changed my booking to the 2100 dinner reservation with no problem at all. So, thank you all for your help and suggestions!