How long is the wait to enter Paris tourist sites?

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Rillifane

That depends on what time of year you are going to be in Paris. During the heavily touristed months of the summer the lines to go up the Eiffel tower can be unbelievably long and waits of two hours or more are not uncommon. Its almost as bad at the Louvre although you can save a little time by purchasing a ticket in advance.

Those are probably the two worst sights in terms of waiitng periods and there is simply no escaping the wait. Going early before they open up will usually make things a little better but since its such an obvious thing to do you won't be alone and consequently will not save much time.

The best thing to do is to go in the off season when the tourist hordes have diminished (they never vanish entirely). If that's not possible the best thing to do is to realize that either you are going to spend a lot of time waiting in line or you need to forego certain classic tourist activities.

This isn't such a big thing tho. There really isn't that much point to going to the top of the Eiffel tower. The view of the city is at least as good and probably better from the steps of Montmartre (the area right in front of Sacre Coeur). Better still it doesn't cost anything.

The Louvre is a wonderful museum but there are a lot of museums in Paris and many of them get a lot less tourist traffic.

There is so much to see in Paris that you won't be at a loss for what to do if you just skip anyplace where the lines are too long and move on to something else.

As to Versailles, I would suggest tuesday or wednesday for a visit (it is closed on monday).

Maggie

Don't forget, at the Louvre and Versailles, under 18's go free. When I went to the Eiffel Tower, I went around 8:30 at night and the lines were very very short. Also, if you go at that time and climb up the stairs, you'll be on the tower when the lights twinkle.

lauren s

you can reserve your tickets to versaille online so no waiting... go to the front of the line!!! you can reserve far in advance or the day before. versailles sometimes has special events which require another ticket which can be combined in price w/ the main entry ticket.

get a museum pass so no waiting at the louvre or eiffel tower....also, the louve has several entrances so you don't need to enter at the pyramid if you see a long line & don't have your pass yet.

buy your pass when you visit a nice museum like victor hugo or carnavelet which does not have a long line normally. decide on the number of days you need & pass in hand --visit the others.

French Ingrid

every day, week or weekend, there are a lot of tourists, i'm parisian but i only visited eiffel tower one time and never the louvres museum ; i'm a shame........
but i visited a lot of times Versailles and it is magic, so beautiful, go there and don't take care about the time you'll wait, you only have one life and this castle is to visit !

Vegas Answer

We went for Spring Break this past spring (April) and spent 3 hours in que (line) for the Eiffel Tower, walked right into the Louvre and was told the que would be at least 2 hours fo Versailles (so we left).

Would do it again if given the chance!!

Bareasskmeagain

Just bypass Paris, they have this phobia about speaking English. . . .

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