How long is the wait to enter Paris tourist sites?
March 24, 2010 by Paris Vacations
Filed under Paris Attractions
How long do you have to wait in lines before you can enter a Parisian tourist site like the Louvre and Eiffel tower?
Which days of the week are least busy and which times?
Also for the Chateau de Versailles. What is the best day and time for tours?
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).