Making the Most of Your Eiffel Tower Visit

If you’re in Paris, France, for the first time, chances are you’re looking to tick “Climbed To The Top of the Eiffel Tower” off your traveling bucket list. This iron lattice tower is impossible to miss, a miraculous and iconic symbol of the city of Paris and French culture and visited by more than 7 million people each year. That’s a lot of other people clamoring to get to the top alongside you.

So how do you make the most of this highly trafficked tourist destination without spending the majority of your time in line? Good question. Here are some tips to help provide some answers.

Take your pictures on the ground looking up.

A photo from the top with itty-bitty Parisian rooftops behind you is intriguing and all, but hardly packs the visual punch you’re looking for with the grand Eiffel Tower as your backdrop. Plus, you’ll have to battle hordes of other people getting in your way, trying to do the same thing and simultaneously getting mad at you for holding up the queue. Set up in the gardens below, take your time and pose next to the tower like the jet-setting champ you are.

Visit during the day, rather than at night.

The views from the tower during the day give you a clear idea of the city proper, from the layout of the streets below to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica towering over Montmartre to the far-off La Defense business district. Views at night are little more than an expanse of bright dots in the darkness, and any romantic notions are overshadowed by how blatantly boring the scene actually is.

Skip going all the way up to the top, and stop at the first level.

While the view from the top is breathtaking, there’s not much up there aside from a mildly intriguing photo-op and overpriced glass of Champagne. The first floor is 10 times more exciting, and still offers the view of Paris you’re craving. Also, with a recent renovation, this part of the tower now has sections of transparent floor, an immersion show, cultural displays and touch screens, restaurants, shops, and places to sit back, relax and think, “Hey, I’m just chilling in the Eiffel Tower right now. Cool.”