Almost every visitor to the Eiffel Tower reaches for an elevator ticket without a second thought, and almost every one of them ends up waiting far longer than they expected. The lift queue is consistently the tower's biggest bottleneck, with wait times that can stretch past three hours during peak season. The stairs, by contrast, have their own dedicated queue that moves noticeably faster — because most people never consider using them.
The stair route climbs to the second floor, which is widely considered the tower's best all-round viewing level. From there you're high enough for the genuine "I'm on the Eiffel Tower" feeling, but still close enough to pick out the Seine, the Louvre, and Sacré-Cœur as recognizable landmarks rather than distant shapes on a map. As of 2026, stair tickets only go to the second floor — reaching the summit above that requires switching to a lift regardless of how you got up, since the top is lift-only.
It's 674 steps in total, done in stages across each level rather than one continuous climb, which makes it manageable for most reasonably fit adults. Each landing opens a new angle over the rooftops of western Paris, and the sense of physically arriving — rather than being delivered — is part of what visitors who take this route tend to remember most.
There's also a real price difference: stair tickets to the second floor cost meaningfully less than the elevator ticket to the same level. If summit access matters to you, note that stairs tickets now require advance booking, opening 30 days ahead online, while elevator tickets open 60 days ahead — so this isn't purely a same-day, walk-up decision anymore.
If you have mobility limits, are travelling with young children, or are short on time, the elevator remains the right call, and it's the only way to reach the summit. But if you're a reasonably fit traveller mainly chasing the view and hoping to skip the worst of the queue, the stairs are the option most people don't think to take — and probably should.
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