If you're putting together your first Paris trip, the Eiffel Tower is probably already on your list, and for good reason. Across nearly 50,000 recent Google reviews, the average rating is 4.8 out of 5, and 86% of visitors give it the full 5 stars.

To put this article together, I went through 22,265 written reviews posted over the past year and classified each one along two lines: the 3 tips that came back the most, and the 4 warnings worth knowing about before you book.

In short: a great Eiffel Tower visit is mostly decided before you arrive. Book your tickets early, ideally for the very first slot of the day, especially if you want the summit. Come back in the evening to see it sparkle, from the Tower or from a spot around it, it's free and it might end up being the best part of the whole visit. Ignore anyone who approaches you near the Tower. And if you'd rather skip the queue, the price, and the closure risk, the stairs to the second floor make for a very good visit on their own.

Top 3 Tips Recommended by Eiffel Tower Visitors

1. Book Ahead, and Book Early

"Unmissable!! We bought the tickets in advance because otherwise it's impossible to get on!!!"

About 1 in 3 tip-sharers (32%) insist on this one, and honestly, there's no way around it. Book online, and book early. During the busiest periods, showing up without a ticket doesn't just mean a longer wait, it can mean not getting up at all.

This goes double if you want the top floor. Demand for the summit is enormous, and slots sell out fast, sometimes so fast that even visitors who thought they'd booked early already find nothing left. If that happens to you, the Eiffel Tower does sell a few pricier "plan B" packages that still get you to the summit, often with a glass of Champagne included. It's not cheap, but it's an experience of its own, and it keeps the summit within reach when the regular tickets are gone.

My own tip on top of the tip: when you book, go for the very first slot of the day if it's available. It sets you up for the shortest queues once you arrive.

2. See the Tower From Outside, Especially After Dark

"Great to see it, looks fab lit up at night. The twinkling lights go on when its dark and on the hour."

Just over half of tip-sharers (55%) say some version of the same thing: some of the best Eiffel Tower moments happen outside the tower, and the evening is prime time for it. Come back after your visit, the same day or another one, no ticket needed this time. The tower turns properly magical after dark, it sparkles for 5 minutes on the hour once the sky is dark, and there's no shortage of free spots to watch it from, Trocadero, Champ de Mars, or just along the Seine.

A boat tour on the Seine is the one I'd personally vouch for, at any time of day actually. At night it's very romantic, and beautiful for the ones who love a city lit up. During the day it's just as lovely, you get to see so much more than the Tower, the whole river and the city unfold in front of you.

3. Go Budget: the Stairs, and the Second Floor Is Plenty

"A must-see in Paris! I recommend walking up to the second floor! There are 650 steps, but it's quite manageable!"

About 1 in 6 tip-sharers (18%) make the budget case. Skip the elevator and take the stairs (680 steps) instead, 330 steps from the ground to the first floor and 350 more to the second. It's cheaper than the lift ticket, and you'll rarely wait in line for it. The second floor already has a spectacular view, a café, and plenty to see, at a much lower price and with none of the queue or closure risk that comes with the summit. Just budget the time and the legs for it. It's a proper climb, plan on 30 to 45 minutes, and dress for it if it's hot out.

The stairs are also a good option if you're the type who books with less notice. A stair ticket to the first or second floor is often easier to find last minute than an elevator ticket, so it's a real workaround if you didn't plan months ahead. One thing to know though: a stair ticket can't be combined with a summit-only ticket.

Top 4 Warnings from Eiffel Tower Visitors

1. Crowds and Queues Are The #1 Complaint

"Queues for everything. 45 minutes to get in (with a purchased ticket), 30 minutes for the bathroom, 45 minutes for the elevator down."

Half of the reviewers who flagged a problem (50%) point to the same experience: too many people, everywhere, all the time. A pre-booked ticket helps, but it doesn't mean walking straight in. Security checks apply to everyone, and once you're through, the elevators queue on their own.

My tip here is simple: take the very first slot of the day. That's when the queues are shortest across the board, for the ticket line, for security, and especially for the elevators, whether you're headed to the second floor or the top.

Another one of mine, for the way down this time: take the stairs from the second floor back to the first, then to the ground, instead of queuing for the elevator again. The view on the way down is really pretty, and it's usually a lot faster than waiting for the lift. Just skip it if you have vertigo, mobility issues, or any health concerns, it's a real set of stairs (680 steps), not a stroll.

2. A quick reality check on the summit

"It was disappointing that we were not allowed to go up due to the heat for safety reasons. Due to the formation of hot metal. The ticket was refunded."

Out of the reviews that mention going up, 1 in 3 say something negative about the sumit experience, yet 3 out of 4 of those unhappy reviewers still gave the tower 5 stars overall.

What goes wrong, roughly in order of how often it comes up:

The queue to go up
The price, close to €100 for a family of 4 to reach the top
Being turned away because the summit has closed, for wind, heat, strikes, or simply too many people, often after you've already queued

I understand why the summit matters to people, reaching the very top is a bit of a bragging-rights moment, and I get the appeal. Just don't build it up too much in your head. Between the queue, the price, and the real risk it gets closed for weather right when it's your turn, plenty of the reviewers quoted below can tell you it doesn't always go smoothly. Whichever floor you end up on, the real win is going up the Eiffel Tower at all and taking in that view, and that part rarely disappoints.

3. A Heads-Up about the Crowd Around the Tower

"The vendors of cheap Eiffel Tower souvenirs in front of it, every few meters, are a bit annoying, but out of respect, the Tower gets 5 stars."

About 1 in 5 complainers (20%) mention some kind of hassle around the Tower: souvenir sellers, petition scams, shell games, pickpockets working the crowd…

My advice is blunt but it works: ignore absolutely everyone who approaches you around the Eiffel Tower. No eye contact, no stopping, no signing anything. The area isn't dangerous, it's just full of people trying to get a reaction out of you, and the ones who get ignored move on fast!

4. The Tower is Fenced In Now

“A truly iconic spot, with the Trocadero opposite. I just find it a shame about those glass panels that prevent us, even though we can still access them, from walking peacefully under the tower."

About 1 in 9 complainers (11%), often repeat visitors, mourn the fences and glass walls now surrounding the base. It's a fair point of nostalgia: for years you could walk freely underneath the tower. The barriers went up a few years ago for security reasons, and they're not going anywhere.

Access under the Tower, and to the small gardens on either side, is still free, though. You do have to go through a security queue to get there, and it can get genuinely huge. So if all you want is to stand underneath the tower and walk through the gardens without paying for a ticket up, the same rule as everywhere else applies: get there at the very first hour of the day.

The data and the method behind this article

For this article I went through 49,995 Google Maps reviews of the Eiffel Tower, all posted between August 2025 and July 2026. 22,265 of them contained written text. Each text review was classified on 2 dimensions, independent of the star rating:

Did the visitor share a specific planning tip?
Did they articulate a specific complaint?

3,714 reviewers shared at least one tip, 3,269 articulated at least one complaint, and 1,059 did both. Reviews of pure praise without actionable content, and reviews of generic disappointment without a specific cause, were excluded from both bases.

The classification was done with rule-based pattern matching (regex). The full dataset is available on request.