Eiffel tower stairs...
 

We are going to Paris from 5-11th August 2016, and we are definitely wanting to climb the Eiffel Tower while we are there!

We arrive in Paris at 1:30pm on Friday 5th. I am hoping to check in to our hotel, have some dinner and then go up the tower in the evening. The only issue is that myself and my partner are a bit conflicted. I am all for booking tickets on the official website for a time slot, but he really wants to walk up to the 2nd level for more of an experience.

My question is: if we didn't book tickets, and just turned up on the Friday evening at around 6/7pm, would the lines be horrendously long for the stairs? I know that no one can predict exactly what the waits would be like, but i am just after an estimate of what it is usually like on a Friday evening in the summer :)

Thanks for your advice!

The lines are never long for the stairs. If you take them, you will soon understand why.

Few people walk up the stairs, and there's a good reason, so it's never much of a wait if any. Enjoy "the experience."

And once on first floor you have access to the lift for second floor.

First floor as in Europe. The floor above ground that is.

We are a young couple and are relatively fit so i don't see us having any issues with the actual climbing of the stairs, if that was what you were implying Kerouac and StCirq :)

The firs time I went to Paris I was 19 - and quite fit. But BF - who wanted to save money - said we should walk up to the first level. Well we did it - but it wasn't a lot of fun for me (I could walk for miles and a hill would have been fine - but all those stairs was irritting) And I was afraid he wouldn't make it - but he was 24. He had to stop at least 3 times on the way up = partly I think he was fearful because the stairs were so open.

Nytraveler - did he have a fear of heights? How open are the stairs on the way up?

kiwiabroad3000--My dad and uncle did the stairs a few years ago when they were in there late 60's and were fine, except it was raining and my dad slipped on the last stair coming down and fell. But that was due to the rain and a misstep, so nothing else. You will be fine:)

google "youtube walking up eiffel tower stairs" lots there, can show you what it is like to walk up - some better than others.