drchris

I just tried to buy tickets to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower for May 19th and all but the last two time slots (after dark) were sold out so I plan to get up in the middle of the night to purchase them at 1:30 am CST (8:30 am Paris time) and want to make sure I get the process right.
Please let me know if this is correct.
1) Sign in at http://www.toureiffel.paris/en
2) Go to "purchase individual tickets"; enter date, 2nd level, number of tickets." Press confirm" appears at bottom of page. Press it and available times appear.
3) Select time when I want tickets.
4) Next page says add to cart.. If I click this
5) Next page shows details of purchase.

Is this the point at which I create an account by entering phone number, password, and country? I don't want to get to this point and find that an account should already have been opened in advance, though I haven't been able to find any information about how to do this.

Also, we would like to go before sunset so that we can see the various landmarks but be on the tower after dark. How long does it take from check-in to get up to the second level? Is there any sort of limit on how long we can stay on the second level (can't imagine how they would monitor that)?

Any ideas how long before sunset we would need to be on the tower to see the landmarks clearly, and how long it would take to pass through sunset until it's dark enough to see the lights of the city?

Or should we just go twice - once in the day and once after dark?

Thanks for information from those in the know!

drchris

Just thought I'd follow up and report that I did get tickets! But what an ordeal! I tried yesterday morning but tickets were gone for all but the two latest time slots, so I got up and bought them at 1:30 am this morning. (Sales begin at 8:30 am Paris time). As someone suggested in another post, I had my finger hovering over my desired time slot and hit it as the clock on the computer changed to 1:30. Then it took ages for the page to create an account and pay to come up. After I printed one ticket, my printer ran out of colored ink, so I had to change the cartridge before I could print the second one. I also sent them to my husband's cell phone. By this time it was almost 2:30 am and out of curiosity I decided to go back and see what time slots were still available but all of the tickets had been sold. So now we just have to pray for good weather!

VonVan

Glad you got your tickets, but what am I missing? Tickets were sold out for May 19th at your preferred time, and then you were able to purchase them in the wee hours? Thank You for any clarification!

justineparis

Perhaps able to purchase them for the next day?

It is a hassle... I had a heck of a time entering my phone number correctly too.. but I managed.. what a pain!

It was however really nice not being stuck in a line for hours..

drchris

VonVan - As justineparis suggested, I did buy them for the 20th. There was still one time slot (the latest one) available for the 19th but we didn't want to go up that late. I played around on the site while I was on and there were tickets available for 4pm tomorrow. In fact, I almost acidentally bought those but checked carefully before hitting "purchase" and realized the date was 20/02/15, not 20/05/2015. Thank goodness my OCD made up for my middle of the night haziness. Rick Steves mentions that sometimes additional tickets are released during the week before a given date so if you don't get them 90 days ahead, check the week before. On another post, someone said they had gone in May and the lines were very short when they arrived at 8:45 am before it opened. Having been up the tower before (albeit many years ago) I don't think I would stand in line for hours to go up as there are other places in Paris to get beautiful views over the city. The real pleasure of the Eiffel Tower is looking AT it from the ground. I look forward to seeing it lighted up at night.

For others who read this, I just entered my 10 digit area code and number with no dashes or spaces and had no problems. (I had read this on another post. Thanks Fodorites!)

annhig

well done, drchris. another case of persistence rewarded.

The alternative is to go up the Montparnasse tower - from there you get a great view as well, including the Eiffel Tower. [especially nice at night, I gather].