Skip the line to Eiffel Tower?

yes .. its very busy.. either get there before it opens.. or wait an hour to three hours..
Another suggestion.. one I have done myself.. is to take the stairs.
Cheaper, and line is faster . Line for stairs is at base of the Sud Pilar( south tower)
Walk up is not horrible.

Otherwise check on the the Eiffel Tower website as they have a "Behind the Scenes " tour of the ET that also allows line skipping.

whatever you choose, get there before it opens. because our wait for tickets was only 15 min because it was pouring rain, but we still had 3 other 30 min waits. even if you walk up, you have a 30 min wait for the second elevator, then a 30 min wait for the first elevator down. so, the earlier the better because you don't have the buildup of people at each point along the way.

Viator is a big tour company. I haven't used them for the Eiffel Tower. Last time I was in Paris I made a reservation for the Eiffel Tower on their official website. They do book out but there was no additional charge to make the reservation. I then just showed up 1/2 hour before my reservation time and went to the reservation line. Super easy. I would try to make a reservation first. I'm sure its more affordable. Then if they are all booked you could try walking the stairs or using Viator.

It may be "super easy" to get Eiffel Tower tickets....but I sure had no luck. I waited up Sunday night until 11:30 for the web site to put the tickets up for September 7th. I tried a little early...still showing have to wait until 8:30 (Paris time, 11:30 my time). The minute my computer showed 11:30, I hit the button to get my tickets. It showed that they were completely sold out for the whole afternoon. I tried to buy one of the few morning times, but it said it did not have 4 tickets for that time. I returned to the calendar, it showed the whole day sold out...and my computer still showed the time at 11:30. I have done some research and I believe it is companies like Viator that have computer programs that buy up the tickets and then resell them to you (with a 40 euro profit of course). I refuse to be price gouged and will not do business with them. Particularly when there are other options. In 2012, my husband and I got there before it opened, walked up to the second floor, bought our ticket to the top, and were up there in no time. The line for the second elevator builds as the day goes on...but it was non existent at that time. (there were long lines to buy tickets to the second floor) The problem with Viator is that you ticket still does not get you to the top floor without waiting in line for that elevator.

By the way my attempt on Sunday was my second. I also tried Saturday night with the same results. It sounds so easy...and some people are successful....but I found the whole process a joke and not worth my time. I only did it because the other couple read their RS Paris book that said "smart people buy their tickets in advance" and thought we should. In 2012, my husband and I did not even mess with it...just showed up and had the time of our life.

I will say that if you can't walk up to the second floor..that does change things. While the line to walk up was short and took 5 minutes, the line to buy the tickets looked long.

I suspect you are right that it is middlemen grifters who snap up the tickets for resale; it would be fairly easy to reserve selling to private individuals if the Parisian tourist industry wanted to do that. I suspect it is like the disgusting 'love locks' that degrade the city and are placed by vandals on bridges, statues etc -- the city doesn't care.

@janettravels44 - I agree with you about the 'love locks', so disappointing that they aren't banned. The only ones benefiting from this practice are people who sell locks.

I don't know how July compares to September, but the September we visited the line to the stairway was nearly nonexistent in comparison to the lift line. Ticket line was relatively short. Avoid the long que by walking up to the second platform.

Just to clarify.

Viatour is NOT a "tour company".

They are an agency that resells tour company tickets.

If a problem arises you will have to deal with Viatour, however they will not be able to help you and will refer you to the company whoseticket you hold. However the tour company will not deal with you, since you bought ticket from Viatour.

Its usually best to buy directly from your company.

Just wondering... Planning on taking the stairs up the Eiffel Tower, but, if they are full on ticket sales on their site, will I still be able to buy a ticket (when I'm there) to take the stairs??

Fa... who wants to walk:
If I recall correctly there is a ticket line for just the stairs and like there stairs entry line, the que is shorter than the lift ticket line. Ticket office is across the entry lines.

Fa the website only presales a very tiny portion of tickets for time slots. About 20-25 ,so no worries 99% of the rest are walk up ticket sales.

And the line for stairs is at the "Sud Pilar" the south foot of the tower.

Thanks for the info regarding the stairs at the tower.

BTW, the new mayor of Paris has said she wants to ban the locks on all the bridges. They are looking for an alternative way for tourists to " seal their love forever".

@Bets - that's wonderful news! Hope they come up with something a little less destructive.

I wonder what the divorce rate us among those twits who "sealed their love forever" with those stupid, ugly locks.

Thank you all for your help. We may just wing it and do a walk up to get tickets and see how the line is. Otherwise I am seeing tickets available for the dates we will be there on the ET website.

We will be in Paris 1 July-3 July. I have been looking for tickets (both to the summit and to the 2nd level) on the Eiffel Tower website for the past 8 weeks or so, and until today, I had no luck. Randomly, 2 slots opened up at 10am for the 2nd floor access. My advice is to keep checking every few days!

I did get our tickets online but I had to keep trying because they showed as sold out for the first couple of tries. We were there late May, weather was cloudy that day and the lines didn't look awful. But we had our tickets already so we didn't have to wait. I would think in July it would be even busier. So keep trying the website & you might get lucky like we did. Have fun in Paris!