Frequent Eiffel Tower Questions

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Questions about visiting the Eiffel Tower are frequent. They include how to buy a ticket to the top if you are already on the first or second floor; or how to reach the restaurants. Is the iPhone application for the Eiffel Tower available in English? What time are the light shows?

Here are some of the answers!
Can you travel between floors using the elevator?
Yes, your basic entrance ticket is valid for the first two levels, and allows unlimited use of the elevators for an unlimited amount of time. Consult the Eiffel Tower’s ticket prices. The supplemental ticket to the top would be about five euros (the basic first/second level price minus the price for all levels if you had purchased it on the ground). Note: Since the renovation, some rules for the entry ticket/elevator combination may have changed. Please contact the restaurant for details.

What time is the light show at the Eiffel Tower?
The Eiffel Tower lights up in three ways: from the inside with projectors, a beacon with two light beams and the sparkling lights. The sparkling lights show lasts five minutes, every hour on the hour. The tower lights are activated when sensors detect nightfall.

Activated by sensors at nightfall, the Eiffel Tower lights up in under ten minutes starting from the bottom. Pierre Bideau, an electrician and lighting engineer, invented a concept of projectors, which began in 1985, to illuminate the Eiffel Tower from the inside.

The beacon lights reach 80 kilometers and were first visible on December 31, 1990 at the stroke of midnight.

Five thousand light bulbs on each side of the tower sparkle for five minutes every hour on the hour until 1 a.m.

Read more about the Eiffel Tower and its lights.

Video Colleen’s Paris made celebrating the 120th birthday of the Eiffel Tower:

Do I have to pay to use the elevator if I am dining at 58 Tour Eiffel?
Procedures are now in place that change access to the restaurant 58Tour Eiffel.

Mr. Dominique Chanon in charge of restaurant services says that new policies for using the restaurant kiosk (next to the ATM machines), the “Restaurant” elevator queue and buying a ticket to the first floor are in place since November 2010.

For lunch: Groups of ten or more are eligible to buy a ticket at the restaurant kiosk at the reduced rate: under five euros. Then proceed to the specially marked entrance line: “Restaurant”.

For dinner: When you contact the restaurant for a dinner reservation at 58Tour Eiffel, your name will be registered at the restaurant kiosk. You may buy your reduced lift ticket at the kiosk. Then proceed to the specially marked entrance line: “Restaurant”.

If you arrive earlier than your reservation and want to visit the upper floors of the tower before or after your dinner, you may buy the additional ticket from the ticket machines located on each floor. Doing it this way, saves standing in line downstairs.

Buying tickets online in advance: Due to quotas set by the Eiffel Tower management company at half-hour intervals, your purchase may be blocked. In that case try the next half hour interval.

The best bet is to order your lift tickets online as early as possible. The online method is very popular with the rest of the world. Mr. Chanon advises that July and August are the busiest times.

Tickets can no longer be purchased for the first floor, exclusively. The ticket for the second floor includes the first floor (restaurant level).

Speak to the attendant who will answer all of your questions.  More on the 58Tour Eiffel.

The Jules Verne restaurant has its own elevator.

My ticket is only for the first two levels, but now I want to go to the top for some champagne. Where do I buy a ticket?
Once you are on either the first or second level of the Eiffel Tower, you can buy an additional elevator/lift ticket. A ticket office and a ticket machine are located on the second level. Only a ticket machine is located on the first level.
The basic ticket purchased on line or at the ground floor ticket office is valid for the first and second levels.
The price of the ticket to the top of the Eiffel tower is the same whether you purchase it on the first or the second level.

What does the iPhone application do? Is it available in English?
The Eiffel Tower App page says that the app contains:
“… essential information you need for planning your trip at your finger tips so that you can get to the Eiffel Tower easily along the route which is suggested to you by the application.

The application also has information on our rates and opening times, our useful tips, the weather… “

Are there guided visits to the Eiffel Tower?

• Along the walkways and in the stairwell are posted signs with Eiffel Tower facts, figures and anecdotes in French and English.

• The Eiffel Tower Planning page provides a multitude of information to be printed up ahead of time.

• There is also a section for Eiffel Tower themed visits that can be prepared ahead of time.

• Gus is the children’s guide for the Eiffel Tower. A children’s booklet can be downloaded ahead of time. This booklet with riddles, games, and history of the Tower is often available on the restaurant level (in French).

• For a private guided tour in English, contact “Cultival” . Google Translate will be helpful since their English site is in French. Click on “Read more” for a detailed explanation of their Eiffel Tower tour. I did speak with one of their English-speaking representatives. It is just the Web site that has not caught up yet.

• iPad as an alternative to the signs and the personal tour. Rent the iPad . Hold on to this link. It is not easy to find on the Eiffel Tower Web site. More information about the iPad tour and the deposits is in my Colleen’s Paris iPad article .

Baby carriages/buggies/poucettes in the Eiffel Tower?
Read more in Camille’s Baby’Tems article: “How Can I visit the Eiffel Tower with Toddlers?”

Colleensparis.com