BOE 21 doesn't include Eiffel Tower

Pam, I am sorry you are disappointed, but glad that you are coming up with plan "B". I think that one reason why the Eiffel Tower might not be included in the tours is that advance tickets are very difficult to come across. You have probably seen some of the posts where they have been selling out within 1-3 minutes when they come on sale. You may not have been able to snag one even if you had known earlier.

There are some Paris tour companies that will provide a guaranteed entry time ticket for a premium. These are the tour companies that snatch up the tickets quickly when they come on sale each day. If going up the Eiffel Tower at a particular time is important to you, you may want to consider one of these. Some combine this with lunch at the tower or a boat ride as well.

Hi Pam!

We are on the same tour as you! We are also in the same boat..(so to speak) because we wanted to tour the Eiffel Tower and did not snag advanced tickets. Although I had realized that the Tower wasn't included, what I didn't know is how early they would sell out online. We tried at least a couple of weeks ago and there were no more tickets available. We will be following the advice from the forums about either early or very late arrival and will be willing to take the stairs. Out of our group of four, I am the only one who has already been in Paris and been up the Eiffel Tower; I hope to be able to share this with the others. Since we didn't get online tickets, they are mentally prepared to "miss" this experience.

I think your advice about booking as soon as you book your tour is sound. In our case, we booked the tour so early that advance tickets to the Tower weren't even available yet. (Is it only 6 months in advance you can order? I don't remember now). It might be that advance tickets at other times of year are not as hard to come by...but apparently any tour that will be in Paris in summer should snag tickets as early as possible.

Unless I am feeling flush with cash toward the end of the tour (HA!) I agree that the resellers prices are hard to fathom. We will take our chances. All part of the adventure.

Cathy

If you show up in the evening (maybe have early dinner), the lines should be much shorter. I have done this in June and have had to wait at most 5 minutes.

not everyone can do stairs, but if its an option then you can walk up the stairs to the 2nd level and then buy a ticket there for the elevator to the top. When we were there last summer they had a separate line for tickets to the stairs and we chose that. Its 704 steps up 377 feet (about a 35 story building). But its not a race, and you get to see the interior as well as some nice views along the way up. Going back down, of course, is easy.

Here is a link: http://www.toureiffel.paris/en/exploring-the-eiffel-tower/going-up.html

Cathy, looking forward to meeting you and your group. I thought I had scored 4 tickets through Viator for about $30 each including a bunker tour, but they emailed me 5 days later saying sorry they couldn't fulfill the order and they were crediting my credit card.
Mary, thanks for the advice about early evening. I thought it would be busy then, as seeing Paris lit up would be nice.
Somehow 704 steps didn't sound as bad as 35 stories. I think I will hope for an elevator and maybe walk down instead. :)

Not sure how much free time you will have in Paris, but my wife and I experienced no (well, nothing memorable, maybe 10 minutes) lines at the Eiffel Tower when randomly walking around the area during a mid-morning weekday. This was during May of 2014. If I remember, the RS BOE 21 days tour ends in Paris, so if you are staying after the tour, this might be a good option.

Somehow 704 steps didn't sound as bad as 35 stories. I think I will hope for an elevator and maybe walk down instead. :)

Sure, stairs aren't the right choice for everyone. 35 stories is a calculation based on 10 feet per story, height of 377 feet. As point of comparison the Notre Dame tower (no elevator available, just stairs) is about 225 feet high. So going to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel tower is like walking up the Notre Dame tower 1.5 times

The lines for the Eiffel Tower also thin out quickly if it is raining. The tower is grounded for lightening and the show can be pretty spectacular from the top in a storm.

Having done the stairs.. walking UP is easier on you.. I promise.. walking down kills.. since you have to brace/tense your knees each step down.. and its a lot of stairs and you tend to go faster on way down.. which is harder then you think on joints.

I did enjoy the walk up .. you get an interesting vantage point.

Also.. seeing the tower lit up is best when not on the Tower! its beautiful when it twinkles on the hour, in june it won't be till 10 at least.

I second the comment on being up on the Tower during an eletrical storm. The view was spectacular. We only waited 30 minutes at around 6:00 pm in August for the second level. The electrical storm started around 9:00 pm and turned the skies very dark. Lightening lit up all of the famous sites. I have heard that if it was a major storm, they would close the Tower.

They close the top of the tower for high winds more than for a rain/electrical storm.

It is simple to just buy a tour of the Eiffel Tower. They always buy enough tickets for their maximum number of tour members and it isn't horribly expensive. If tickets are sold out, you still get in with the tour.

I know I'm probably in the minority but I had no interest at all in ascending the tower. Besides not wanting to deal with the crowds, you can't see it when you're ON it. It makes a nice grace point in photos taken at various places around the city, and the Trocadero is a great spot for seeing it all lit up at night.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Lots of good ideas.

I did the Paris & the Heart of France tour in 2012, which also doesn't include the Eiffel Tower, and purposely didn't book the Tower ahead of time because I'd be there in early October and didn't know what the weather would be like. I checked the weather when I got there (the day before the tour) and saw that that day would have the best weather. Although I was jetlagged like you read about, I took a little nap and then scurried over there and was the last person who got a ticket for the stairs, which at the time was about 5 Euro. What a fantastic way to cap off my first day in Paris! The view was terrific and few people were on the stairs, so it was like having a corner of it to myself. The stairs are steeper from the 1st to 2nd levels, but it was a little adventure.

You are able to take the elevators to descend the tower, which was a good thing because it was dark when I left and I also don't care for descending so many stairs. So, if you're OK with climbing, I absolutely recommend it because it was a fun experience. Another little tip: there's a little cocktail lounge on the first level with a transparent ceiling; if you can find out when they turn the lights on, sit in there and lean your head back just before that time and enjoy the view!

One of the tips I got from either an RS TV show or a book was to skip the going up the Eiffel tower and instead visit the roof top cafeteria of the Printemps department store. There you can get a nice lunch and a view of Paris that includes the Eiffel tower. Very nice.

We just returned from the 21 day tour and did, indeed go up to the summit. We purchased tickets at least a month before going but don't dismay....keep checking. Our tickets were not available when I first looked....then some opened up a while later. I can cross that one off the bucket list, though......I think going to the first level was just as enjoyable as the top and with far fewer obnoxious people around! We spent less than 10 minutes at the top because of all the pushing and crowding (and we were there at approx 5pm last sunday).

If you can't go up definitely consider crossing the Seine to the Trocadero (sp?).......the view is spectacular. Time it so that you are there at the top of the hour for the lights to twinkle.