Eiffel Tower vs. Montparnasse Tower: Which Is Better?

During my most recent visit to Paris, I formed a hypothesis: visiting the top of Montparnasse Tower would be more enjoyable than visiting the top of the Eiffel Tower.

According to my theory, Montparnasse would be less expensive and less crowded — and would have great views of the Eiffel Tower itself. All together, I thought this would make for a better experience than visiting the Eiffel Tower alongside swarms of fellow tourists.

So, like any good scientist (…I am not a scientist), I tested my hypothesis by visiting both the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower. And, well, spoiler alert: my hypothesis was disproven! Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.

In this post, learn all about what it’s like to visit both the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower. Plus, if you only have the time or budget to visit one of them, which is better? I’ll tell you which one I recommend for you and why.

What to Know About Visiting the Eiffel Tower

Entering the Eiffel Tower

If you plan to visit the Eiffel Tower, be ready to go through several security screens — starting before you ever walk under the tower.

There are two entrances to the Eiffel Tower — one near the south corner of the tower, and one near the east corner of the tower. At each entrance, security officers will scan you and any bags you plan to take into the tower area. If you’d like to walk under the tower, you will need to go through this security area whether or not you actually plan to go up into the tower!

After you get through this first security screen, you will be able to enter the esplanade — the area under the Eiffel Tower. Here, in addition to great views of the underside and legs of the tower, you’ll find restrooms, ticket booths, an information booth, souvenirs for sale, a bust of Gustave Eiffel, some dining options, and the elevators and stairways that will take you up the tower.

Eiffel Tower Tickets

If you know when you’ll be visiting the Eiffel Tower, you can purchase your ticket in advance beginning 60 days before your visit. The official ticket website for the Eiffel Tower is here: https://ticket.toureiffel.paris/en.

Should you book your Eiffel Tower ticket in advance? Well, if you’re visiting Paris during a particularly busy time for tourism (such as June and July), it may be a very good idea to book your ticket in advance, as tickets CAN sell out. However, keep in mind that if the weather turns out to be bad on the day you’ve booked, you’ll be out of luck.

As a result, my general recommendation is not to book in advance, but to arrive at the tower first thing in the morning (it opens at either 9 am or 9:30 am, depending on the time of year) to be sure you can access tickets before they sell out for the day.

If you choose to purchase your ticket upon arrival (which is what I did!), you’ll likely need to wait in line at one of the ticket offices. Personally, on an afternoon in May, I waited in line for about 45 minutes.

Regardless of whether you purchase your ticket in advance or on the spot, you’ll need to decide whether to visit only the second floor (which is not quite halfway up the tower) or go the whole way to the summit (more on whether the summit is worth the extra cost in a minute!). Note that if you choose a ticket for the summit, you’ll still be able to stop on the second floor and see the view from that height as well. In fact, you’ll have to stop there — there are separate elevators from the ground level to the second floor and from the second floor to the summit.

You’ll also need to decide whether to take the stairs or the elevator. The stairs to the second floor — there are 674 of them! — may take a bit longer (though maybe not, depending how long you have to wait in line for the elevator), but cost less than taking the elevator.

Note that the stairs vs. elevator decision only applies for the journey from the ground to the second floor, as the only way to get from the second floor to the summit is to take an elevator. If you opt to go the whole way to the summit, you can either take the elevator for the whole journey or do a combination — climb the stairs to the second floor and then take an elevator to the summit.

Here’s a table of the pricing options for an adult:

Exploring the Eiffel Tower

Once you have your ticket in hand, follow the signs toward the entrance — either the stairs or the elevator, depending which ticket you bought.

If you chose the elevator, you’ll likely be waiting in line again (given that the elevator, of course, can only hold so many people at once). Either way, you’ll also be going through another security screening before you’re permitted to start ascending the tower.

When you reach the second floor, disembark the elevator or exit the stairs and explore at your leisure.

From the second floor, you will have wonderful views over Paris, including some of the best available views of sights like Sacre Coeur and Hôtel des Invalides.

If you’ve purchased a summit ticket, when you’re done soaking up the views on the second floor, return to the elevators and get in line for the elevator to the summit. Be sure to keep your ticket handy, as you’ll need to show it again!

NOTE: If you have a ticket for the summit, you can opt to go straight up to the top first and stop at the second floor on your way down — it’s totally up to you, and doesn’t matter which order you choose.

When you exit the elevators on the summit, you’ll enter an area that’s enclosed by windows, but you can climb up a short flight of stairs to reach an open-air section. (There is fencing to protect you from falling, but hang on to your stuff up there — it would be easy to drop a phone or other small objects.)

Unless you have a problem with heights and can’t handle the open-air section, or the weather is bad, I recommend ignoring the window area and going straight to the upper floor — don’t waste time taking photos through the crappy, blurry windows, like I did.

On the top of the Eiffel Tower, you’ll find views of the same sights you saw from the second floor, but from higher up — so the views are different. For example, from the second floor, you’re closer to level with Sacre Coeur and its place on top of Montmartre, so you’ll see the sky behind it. In contrast, from the top floor, you’re way above Sacre Coeur, so you can see the outskirts of Paris stretching out into the distance behind it.

Views of Sacre Coeur from the second floor (left) and the summit (right)

Finally…yes, the Eiffel Tower does have a first floor! Not all visitors to the tower stop at the first floor, so it’s less crowded than the second floor or the summit, which can be nice.

On the first floor, you’ll find a large glass floor (where you can look down on the esplanade), some seating areas, educational exhibits about the tower, a restaurant (Madame Brasserie), a virtual reality experience, and more.

I recommend visiting the first floor on your way back down to the ground. On that note: you can choose to take the elevator or the stairs back down to ground level, regardless of which ticket you purchased. (You’ll need to take the elevator from the summit to the second floor no matter what, as the stairs between these upper levels are not open to the public.)

I opted to take the stairs from the second floor to the ground, and it was easy to stop off at the first floor on the way.

Is the Eiffel Tower Summit Worth Visiting?

So you might be wondering: is it worth getting a ticket to visit the Eiffel Tower’s summit?

My answer…eh, maybe. Personally, I enjoyed getting different views than I could experience from the second floor (particularly better views of the layout of city streets), but in some cases I actually preferred the views from lower down. (A major exception is the Arc de Triomphe — I thought the views of the Arc from the summit were much better than the views from the second floor.)

If you have a telephoto lens, plenty of time, and room in your budget, then sure — go the whole way up to the summit. But if you have a tight budget or don’t especially care about experiencing more views of the same sights, I think the summit is skippable.

What to Know About Visiting Montparnasse Tower

Entering Montparnasse Tower

Montparnasse Tower is, first and foremost, an office building. As such, there are several entrances — but to get where you want to go (the top!), you’ll need to enter on the northwestern side of the building (approximately here). Just follow the signs!

When you enter the building, look for the elevators to the top (there should be signage, or you can ask the attendants). You do not need to have a ticket to entrance the viewing area at this point — you can buy that after you get off the elevator at the top.

Montparnasse Tower Tickets

You can purchase your Montparnasse Tower ticket in advance online, if you like. You will save a few euros (a ticket costs €23 in person or €21 online), but you must book your ticket for a specific timeslot.

I did not buy my ticket in advance, and had no trouble getting one on the spot when I arrived.

Note that day & night tickets are available for Montparnasse Tower. With this type of ticket, you are entitled to two visits within 48 hours — so you can experience the views during the day AND after dark.

Exploring Montparnasse Tower

After you buy your ticket for Montparnasse Tower, you will first be able to enjoy the views from the 56th floor — the last floor before the rooftop viewing platform.

Actually, you will see the views from about half the floor (you’ll come around to the other half later in your visit!). On this floor, you will be looking through windows, many of which are unfortunately tinted with color.

When you are done admiring the views from the first part of the 56th floor, follow the signs up to the rooftop. You will climb a few stairs and then you can freely explore the rooftop terrace.

Unfortunately, I thought the terrace was sort of a letdown. While it was hugely spacious and uncrowded (a nice contrast from the Eiffel Tower!), I wasn’t impressed by the views.

A lot of this was because of the glass partitions around the terrace. Obviously, safety is paramount, but the glass is much more obstructive for views (and especially photos) than solutions that a lot of other towers use (like fencing). Naturally, taking photos through glass is not quite the same as taking photos without obstructions! In certain spots, there is a gap between glass panels — which I think is intended for photos — but I’m short and the gap was above my eye level, even when I was on my tiptoes. The only way I could get any photos that weren’t through glass was my lifting my camera up into the gap, rather than holding it up to my eye. (If you are an average height and are taking photos with a phone, this all may be totally fine for you!)

The terrace is also set back maybe 20 feet from the edge of the building on all sides (you can see what I mean in the photo at the top of the page here). This is totally fine for viewing sights off in the distance (which, to be fair, is true of all the major sights most people want to see from Montparnasse Tower), but it really restricts what you can see at the street level (which is something I love to look at and photograph when I’m at the top of a tower).

Despite those flaws, there are some good views to be found from Montparnasse Tower. In particular, the tower has one of the best and most unobstructed views of the Eiffel Tower, which is sitting in front of the La Défense business district from this angle.

When you are done on the rooftop terrace, follow the signs to head back downstairs (you’ll go down a different staircase than the one you previously walked up). There, you will see the views on the other side of the 56th floor.

Eiffel Tower vs. Montparnasse Tower

While the Eiffel Tower is the most famous building in Paris, Montparnasse Tower is the most infamous building in Paris — because of how ugly it is. In fact, it’s so ugly and misplaced that people often quip that Montparnasse Tower has the best views of Paris, because it’s one of the few places where you won’t have to look at Montparnasse Tower.

And while that saying is a joke, it’s right about one thing: Montparnasse Tower is horribly placed within Paris, unpleasantly interrupting the otherwise lovely views from many of Paris’s sights.

So — joke or not — is it also true that Montparnasse Tower has the best views of Paris?

If you ask me: no. Resoundingly so, in fact. I thought it might be a closer call, or that I might prefer the views from Montparnasse Tower to the views from the Eiffel Tower, but the opposite was true. Here’s why:

Montparnasse Tower makes it too hard to actually see (and photograph) the views. This is for a litany of reasons: the glass partitions and their insufficient gaps, the tinted windows in the lower floor, the massive space between the viewing platform and the edge of the building, etc. If you don’t care about photography, and only want to admire the views through your eyes, this may not bother you too much — but it’s all pretty awful for photography.

Montparnasse Tower is too far away from most of Paris’s best sights. Montparnasse Tower is really all by its lonesome in the 15th arrondissement, with many of Paris’s most famous sights just a little too far way (if you ask me!) for great views. (The Eiffel Tower is an exception!) If you have a telephoto lens, you can still get some good photos of distant sights like Sacre Coeur, but otherwise…good luck.

Now, Montparnasse Tower certainly isn’t all bad. Aside from my complaints about the various viewing obstacles, the tower does have a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower (especially if you don’t mind looking at La Défense), and I loved how uncrowded it was. I also enjoyed the street-level views and some of the interesting sights around the tower (like a nearby cemetery). For most people, it’s also less expensive than the Eiffel Tower (the exception is if you buy a stairs-only, second-floor-only ticket for the Eiffel Tower).

But when it comes to making a choice between visiting the Eiffel Tower or Montparnasse Tower? Easy. The Eiffel Tower is better than Montparnasse Tower.

Trust me, I’m not thrilled about this either. I wish I could tell you that Montparnasse Tower is better: it’s a million times easier to visit, it’s (usually) less expensive, and it’s far less crowded. If that’s enough for you to choose Montparnasse Tower, then go for it! But if you ask me, the views are worse, and I’d recommend the Eiffel Tower over Montparnasse Tower to most visitors for that reason.

Final Thoughts

Here’s a potentially hot take: the best views of Paris aren’t found from either the Eiffel Tower or Montparnasse Tower — they’re on the top of Arc de Triomphe.

But that’s a matter for a different post. For the question we’re facing today — whether the Eiffel Tower or Montparnasse Tower is better to visit, I regretfully report that the Eiffel Tower, with its superior views, is better than Montparnasse Tower.

Hypothesis: disproven!

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