Need Clear Guidance on Visiting Eiffel Tower and Others

The Chunnel train takes a little over two hours. The round trip would take up half a day, making a day trip from Paris to London a waste.

It's a 4-hour drive from Paris to Brussels. I'm not sure how much you could see in a 2-day trip.

Could you arrange to split your trip, 4-5 days in Paris and the same in London?

Don't sacrifice quality for quantity--you'll probably enjoy yourselves more if you take the time to explore an area rather than just dashing through.

You can see the Eiffel Tower from just about anywhere in Paris. There's a lot to see and do there.

Michael,

Regarding your question 1:

Can we buy the tickets in advance for the lift from the second floor to the top?

If you are planning to take the 700+ stairs to the second floor, you cannot buy tickets for the summit in advance, but you can buy them on the second floor.

Another option is to book your tickets to the second floor or to the summit now (if available) on the official Eiffel Tower website. Tickets go on sale up to 92 days in advance.

Having tickets in advance does help to " skip the lines" (usually) but you may still need to line up to go through security prior to entering most sites.

If you plan to visit several attractions, museums, and Versailles Palace, you may consider getting the Paris Museum Pass.

You can take the Eurostar from Paris to London but do consider that travel time is around 2.5 hours each way, so that does not leave much time to visit London, unless you plan to spend a few nights there.

You don't need a car to get to Versailles, as you can easily get there from Paris by Train.

You may also benefit by buying the Navigo Découverte Pass, which you can use on the Paris Metro, buses and RER trains, including the one to/ from the airport and the one to/from Versailles.

I would never do London as a day trip; too much to see and do and you spend much of the day on the train. Ideally you would have flown into London and spend a few days and then taking the train with tickets bought months in advance for the best deals into Paris and flown home from Paris. Too late now I assume.

Rushing hither and yon doesn't let you see more -- it lets you see more insides of trains and planes and automobiles and spend a lot more time on logistics.

Since you have chosen Paris, I'd make the most of it. You can do day trips to a variety of small cities, villages and chateaux in the Paris regions. With a Navigo Decouverte you can go to much of it with a very cheap transport pass. Versailles, Fontainebleau, Auvers sur Oise can be done with the pass. There is Reims with its champagne houses which is an easy train day trip (outside Ile de France so not on the ND) Another easily visited and quite different small city is Rouen in Normandy. Monet's Gardens in Giverny in Normandy are also an easy day trip as is Chartres and the Cathedral there.

I love Amsterdam and a couple nights there would be nice but the Thalys round trip will be very pricey so late.

The Eiffel Tower books out very quickly especially in summer but you can walk up for less and those lines are usually shorter and then on the second floor buy your ticket to the top.

If this will be your one chance to see London, as you hint , then why not have the excitement of taking the Eurostar from London. Take the earliest train to London and the latest back to Paris. You and your friends will have fun no matter what you see and do if you plan well. It's the kind of zany thing to do that makes a trip memorable.