cheap to visit, great views of paris, one of the most popular attractions
Disadvantages:
lengthy queues
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
If you visit Paris its almost rude not to go up the Eiffel tower. Those of you who have read my other reviews on Paris will know I went there last summer for a few days……and yes I did venture up the Eiffel tower.
History: The Eiffel tower was built by the contractor Gustave Eiffel in 1889 and is 118 years old. It took only two years two months and five days to build, which is quite remarkable considering the height of the tower, the weight of the metalwork used and the fact that it was only 1889! There is an exhibition marking the building work of the tower on one of the levels and this is well worth a look, although I can't remember which level it is on.
My opinion: I thought it was great and really good value for money, however it has since been named top of the list in a poll of the worlds most disappointing tourist spots; a fact which I find hard to believe. I must admit the queues are ridiculously long, I mean massive, but there are two queues at each of the four legs of the tower, one for stairs and one for elevator and the stairs option has a far shorter queue and costs only 4 euros. We queued for about 50 minutes and took the stairs which weren't too busy.
The tower is 888ft high and the view from all levels is amazing, but the higher you go the better it gets. There are essentially three levels, a first floor, a second floor and the top floor; all of which can be accessed via elevator or stairs. You should realise that if you take the stairs you will need to climb 1665 steps to make the top - probably the reason why the stairs are only 4 euros and the elevator 12! There are also a few restaurants at the various levels serving food and drinks throughout the day.
We visited the tower at about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, which could have been why the queues were so big, but I was led to believe that they are always very lengthy. If you visit after sunset the tower will be lit up with thousands of lights and also has a lighthouse like light beam rotating 360 degrees from the top. Taking this into consideration it would be great to visit at night time, although the view wouldn't be as good.
In my opinion if you visit Paris you have to go up the Eiffel tower. Well worth visiting.
Prices: Elevator - Adults 12.00Euro Children 6.70Euro Stairs - Adults 4Euro Children 3.10Euro
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
off topic
