The problem with world-renowned tourist attractions is that sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between the hype and reality. Often, you think and dream of visiting that place for so long, that you’re left in disappointment when you finally achieve your dream and visit the attraction. I’m an avid traveler, in fact, there are few things in my life that I enjoy more so than experiencing new locations, new cultures, new people, though I personally have encountered disappointment along my many voyages. However, as with the case of the world-class Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, an attraction known for its romantic allure and a place most people dream about one day visiting, my vision and perspective of the Eiffel Tower wasn’t hindered at all once I visited it. The Eiffel Tower came through for me and soon I realized that in its case, the hype wasn’t false. The Eiffel Tower simply is magnificent, and in my opinion, it’s a sight that every person must experience at least once during the course of their life.
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 and as such, has a rustic look and feel to the architecture. When it was built, it was the tallest structure in the world, and was actually victim of ridicule and fear by the Parisians of the time period. Only over the years, did they finally begin to accept the architectural wonder and gradually fall in love with it. Today, the Eiffel Tower is not only the most worldly-recognized symbol for Paris, but the entirety of France as well. The Eiffel Tower is also one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions with over six million visitors annually.
As soon as you arrive in Paris, whether it be by airplane, car, train, or any other mode of transportation, you can see the Eiffel Tower for miles. The structure towers (pun intended) over its neighboring buildings, and at least for me and my family, it seemed as if it welcomed us into their humble city. I have since been back to the Eiffel Tower three different times in the last 2 years, and have observed some unusual things. As so many tourists do indeed visit the tower, the tower, the square in which it sits on, and the park adjacent to it are always filled with visitors, making the entire area very crowded. One thing that I had never personally observed while traveling domestically and that kind of stuck out at me, was when my family and I walked into the square, we were witnessed numerous French soldiers walking around with machine guns in their hands securing the area. Though I do realize that security is necessary at such a highly-visited place, it was shocking to witness machine-guns being used in patrolling the area. However, after some time, you get used to seeing them and it isn’t as shocking.
The most important thing to take into consideration when visiting the Eiffel Tower, is to carefully plan out in your itinerary, the opportunity to visit the Tower during its off-peak hours. Though the lines are typically long during any time of the day, there are especially long during the afternoon hours. Thus, I advise you to visit the Tower at night (which is particularly more romantic and allows a beautiful view of the city) or early in the morning when they first begin to admit visitors. The Eiffel Tower has four “entrances”/ticket booths in each of the four corners of the Tower, but the lines are usually equally long. There are two options for going up the Tower: by elevator and by the stairs. Most people tend to elect to go up the Tower via elevator, as otherwise it is quite the walk up. In my four visits to the Tower, I have used the elevator three times, and make the climb once. Each offers an equally good view and they go to the same look-out decks. However, the lines are usually somewhat shorter for the stair-climb. There are three levels/decks on the Tower and on two of the decks there are top-notch (though extremely expensive) restaurants. Another important thing to take into consideration is that with the large number of visitors, the top deck is often filled to capacity, in which they won’t allow you to go to the top deck until people begin to leave it, thus making you wait even longer. I’ve gone to the top deck three out of the four times that I’ve visited, but with one of my visits, I was unfortunate enough to not make the “cut-off” for the top deck. In fact, I had such bad luck, that the couple directly in front of me were allowed to go to the top, while I was the first one not allowed to go. If you’re not able to go to the top deck though, don’t worry, because the second deck offers a magnificent view as well.
The ticket offices begin admitting people into the Tower at 9:30 AM and they close at 11:00 PM. The ticket prices are unexpectedly, relatively reasonable, with costs varying from $5.60 to $14.70 for adults and $3.15 to $8.08 for children. The prices are relative to the deck in which you elect to go to with the top deck being the most expensive. If you choose to do the stair-climb, another perk is that it’s less expensive and only costs $4.80 to go to the top deck. All in all, the Eiffel Tower is something everyone must visit during their lifetime.
