40 reviews of Eiffel Tower, Seine River Cruise and Paris Illuminations Night Tour

We were never told where to meet after the Eiffel Tower to go on the river cruise, so we missed it completely and finally had to go with another tour to get the tour of lights around Paris. Guide not very well organized and did not communicate information well.

There were three parts to this tour, with a different guide for the Eiffel Tower to the other two components, thank heavens. The Eiffel Tower tour really was only a ride to the tower, after which we were left for two hours. The guide was only intent on escorting part of our group to the restaurant option and virtually dumped us at the first level with no further explanation. We would have appreciated being given options when he purchased the elevator tickets and being told how to get up to the very top. He appeared stressed throughout and spoke very quickly and incoherently. He left us all shaking our heads. The Seine River Cruise was a joy. After standing in line for around thirty minutes, we boarded the vessel and were free to sit where we liked so that we could enjoy the magnificent view. The Paris Illuminations tour was ably guided aboard our coach. Unfortunately, both my husband and I nodded off due to our twenty hour flight earlier that day and the lateness of the hour, it was close to midnight when the tour ended. It would have been improved if they had organized taxis for those not wanting to walk back to their accommodation so late at night.

What an absolute nightmare! Our last night in Paris was ruined. Our guide left us at the Eiffel Tower and told us to be beside a particular statue at a certain time for her to transfer us onto the river cruise. The whole bus load of us did as requested, but she did not show up! Another one of the guides with another group told us our guide was stuck in traffic and we must wait. We waited in extremely hot conditions with children, one of whom became ill. I tried to call the office 5 times but they did not answer. Our bus for the final part of the tour arrived at the expected time of 9:30pm with another guide who was staggered to hear that we had not yet been on the cruise! She called the office and miraculously got through immediately and we were offered a refund for the cruise. The guide stated that the first guide should not have told us to wait for her but that we should have got on the boat by ourselves. Some of us did get on the bus for the final part, others were so angry they refused. We were a group of 9, including 5 children, and needed the air conditioning to restore sanity to the proceedings. We then had to go to the office to get our refund before we flew out the next morning.

The Eiffel Tower trip was poorly organized. They just dumped everyone at the base near the line and the crowd control employees wouldn't let us in at our ticket time. An employee just shrugged when we asked him why they wouldn't honor our tickets. Many of the people in our group were angry. We only had a short time to explore the observation deck once we finally got through security. Some guests even had to take the stairs down so they wouldn't miss the cruise. Others just dropped out of the group at that point. The river cruise had fantastic audio and there were lovely views and people watching at sunset. This was the highlight! The Illuminations Night Tour was horrible. The audio quality was poor and it went to static halfway through the trip. The guide didn't even make an announcement or appologize, just ignored it. The driver continued the monument path though. We just got off the bus because it was a waste of time. We went to the office and asked for a voucher to retake the bus tour because we truly wanted to hear the history, etc. They refused, saying, 'Nobody else on a bus of 50 people complained. It's just your problem.' We also talked to a supervisor and they were equally rude. Don't waste your time and money. All three of these things are easy to do on your own.

Shame about the weather, it rained so nothing we could do about that but overall we felt it was too long at the Eiffel Tower and most certainly too long waiting for the cruise. We didn't expect it to be on such a huge cruise boat with hundreds of people, it would have been much nicer with a smaller party. The best part of the evening was the coach trip seeing the illuminations.