Seine river cruise

look for night tours on Viator.com
we took a one during the day with them, it was great!
Have a great trip!

Viator is a ticket consolidator that sells other companies' tours. It's always best to buy directly with the tour company. Less layers to go wrong that way.

To give advice about a nighttime ride, we need more info. The lights at night are beautiful. If it's four hours, does that include the visit up the tower? If so, sounds good.

Four hours sounds like a long time at night -- I would opt for the regular (cheaper) boat ride . The buildings are lit up no matter what boat is passing ...

The four hours probably includes transportation by bus and might include dinner on the boat. If anyone has mobility issues, or if you're travelling in a large group, this might be a good idea, rather than trying to climb the Metro stairs, and worrying about getting lost. I would just compare prices of the different tour companies, if you don't want to do this on your own.

It's much less expensive to buy tickets directly at the dock and board one of the "bateaux mouches" near Pont d'Alma - price is around 13 EU per person for a 1 hour tour which passes most of the major monuments and returns to the same dock. The dock doesn't require climbing any stairs, it's easily accessible and flat.

You will be very near the foot of the Eiffel Tower when you board, and the cruise does go past the ET. If you want to see the ET illuminated, you'll have to check what time the sun sets in Paris while you'll be visiting. Get in line to buy your tickets about 30 minutes before then. No guarantee that you'll get to see it "sparkle", since that only lasts for 5 minutes at the top of each hour.

Here are links to two cruise companies, you can see what all they offer. The majority of reviews I've read on RS site seems to favor the Vedettes du Pont Neuf over Bateaux Parisiens.

Vedettes du Pont Neuf http://vedettesdupontneuf.com/home/

Barteaux Parisiens http://www.bateauxparisiens.com/cruise-tours-paris/sightseeing-cruise-paris.html

Enjoy your trip.

Last week, on our first night in Paris, we greatly enjoyed the RS recommended Vedettes du Pont Neuf, 9:00 pm departure: easy to find from the namesake bridge, 1 hour cruise, comfortable outside seating on top with narration (French and English), and they time the return to coincide with the 10:00 pm lights on the ET.

I like the Vedettes, but access next to the Pont Neuf involves a lot of stairs. If that's an issue, the company that uses the dock near Pont d'Alma would be a better choice.

My two cents would be not to spring for a dinner cruise, where the food may not be worth the price and will distract you from the views you came to see. I've never met anyone who could eat dinner without looking down at the plate at least some of the time!

We just visited Paris in April, and purchased BotaBus tickets. On our first evening, we took the boat as the sun was setting (starting at the Eiffel Tower stop), and rode it for the entirety watching the illumination of all of the monuments from the back of the boat as we went. We disembarked at the Eiffel Tower stop, just before it started flickering. It was wonderful! Would thoroughly recommend it! We had my (very healthy) 80 year old mom with us, and she loved it!!

davkathr - I think you meant "Batobus" - this is a water taxi with designated stops, many of which involve lots of stairs to climb up to street level. There is a long wait between pickup times, and it's not the fastest way to get around town, but some people enjoy it. The Eiffel Tower is illuminated after dusk, so depending on the time of year, you might not see it from the Batobus.

Here's the Batobus timetable and schedule for 2016 - if the river level becomes too high, all cruises will stop during a certain period. There will be a notice on this website as well as the bateaux mouches sites.
http://www.batobus.com/en/timetables.html