Museums or environment?

Ha ha, I'll have to remember that about Nukus, Lane. But I do agree. I go for the cities, and not for the museums. They're an added attraction, certainly, but not the main reason. That's why my favorite cities are the ones that have a certain vibe and/or history that you can't find elsewhere.

I think most places in the world that have great museums also have other reasons to visit, but I've planned trips around museums.

I first became interested in Turin to see the Egyptian Museum. Likewise my visit to Aarhus started with wanting to see Den Gamle By. I want to go to Berlin to see the institutions on Museum Island. I spent two days in Bonn, but entirely in museums so I can't tell you much about the city itself. I went to Amsterdam for the first time specifically to see the Vermeer exhibition a few years ago. I'm going to London soon to see a couple of exhibitions and then on to Brussels to revisit a favorite work of art and see a museum which was closed that last time I was there. I went to Vienna two years in a row largely motivated by the museums.

I wouldn't say I go to these cities for the museums over the environment, but the museum can and does motivate the trip.

Great museum cities are many, Rome, Florence, Paris, London, Madrid, Athens, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Cairo, Taipei, Stockholm and several in the USA.

Of course, Rome and Florence have great sites to visit outside of museum as do the other cities listed.

If you are looking for scenic places (not sure what you meant by environment) then key places to visit are normally not large cities.
Places like Alaska (Glacier Bay, Denali park); Grand Canyon, Yellowstone or Glacier Parks in the American West; the fjords of Norway; the Cliffs of Moher and Ring of Kerry in Ireland; Cornwall in England; Switzerland; and Machu Picchu in Peru.

Vienna and Edinborough are also great museum cities.

Modifying the question a bit, there are cities that I will wait for a great museum exhibit to plan a return visit: London among those.

And there are cities where I will wait for a great ballet to plan a visit or return visit: London and Budapest among those. But that's really modifying the question!

I , for one , don't think you can separate the two . Take , for example ( only one among myriad places ) Vienna , The museums , the city's history , the cultural ,social , political , and developmental aspects of the place are all intricately bound together and the more widespread the grasp of it all , allows a broader understanding of the total experience . I apply this concept to every place I visit , including my home , Greater Metropolitan New York City

Is it an either/or question, and why must it be so? Personally, I am firmly in the "get both" camp.

My work life is museums, so they are front and center, but a destination's environment is a pull as well. For me, the two are completely intertwined rather than competing forces.

We all have different travel interests. I have absolutely no interest in Paris. The only reason I’ve ever been in Paris or Berlin was simply to switch trains. On the flip side, I love London precisely because it is both. I go for London itself, its museums, and the deep layers of history that I can trace directly back home to Virginia.

I've been to Ironbridge twice just because of the iron industry history. But, dang it's beautiful. And Den Haag just to see the painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring. I traveled to Iceland purely for the natural beauty, but it was essentially a museum of nature. Conversely, I went to Prague simply to experience Prague as a place, to visit the location of the Defenestration of Prague and see what was left of the White Mountain Battlefield.

For me, it's not a choice between the two, it's a whole package.

PS - there is such a thing as museum fatigue and there should be other things that hold my interest. Dance clubs certainly ain't my thing, but kart racing in the Docklands sure was a blast.

I STAY in cities for "environment" (often adding museums to the mix). I do DAY trips to places - cities, towns, whatnot - for museums, both home and abroad.

To me, I'm staying somewhere for several days or more because of a bunch of different "attractions" - from museums, to restaurants, to parks, to friends/family, to an event/show/concert, etc, - so it becomes a much bigger (and easier) decision to choose a city to stay in that has a bunch of different attractions.

Using Paris as an easy example, though, I will visit it for all the different things to see and do - including museums - but will do (have done) things like a day trip to Versailles or Fontainebleu or similar for a museum/palace/gardens visit. I wouldn't choose to stay in either place but would train it to/from my home base.

A few years ago I used a museum visit as the MAIN reason to book a trip to the Netherlands, but at just half a day of that trip spent at the Rijksmuseum for the Vermeer exhibition, it was mostly a convenient way to justify the trip which included many other activities.

Lane, depends. When I said what I said, in my mind was a natural cultural experience. That is difficult to find in Rome or Paris or Barcrlona or Prague or .... when you are limited to 3 or 4 days and you want to see the main sights. Its still possible here as we are not fully saturated with tourists ... yet.

Here you can still get around town in the old Budapest as it exists one, maybe two blocks from the tourist sights. But if you dont know that ...

Good observations and comments.

There may have been some confusion a out my original port. I was ot soliciting advice about places that hat have great museums, nor suggesting that there's an either/or choice.

I am simply curious to know of any cities where you think the main draw is the museums (or a museum) and otherwise people wouldn't be as likely to go there.

Maybe, for example, Granada, which probably wouldn't be so popular except for the Alhambra. (Though it's still a very appealing place to visit.)

In cities like London, Paris, Rome, NYC, the museums are an essential part of the cultural environment that has lured me to return. The Prado was the high point of my visit to Madrid and the archaeological museum was the primary reason I visited Naples. I probably would have made other choices in my itineraries if those museums weren’t a factor in my decisions, As mentioned by others, for many locations they are intertwined and I’m unable to separate them.

In other cities like Lucerne or Strasbourg, I enjoyed museums but could have had a great time without them, and yes, the environment was the motivating factor.

And what about cities with sights like Granada’s Alhambra or Cordoba’s Mezquita? They aren't museums, nor are they part of the general environment.

So the overall environment, museums, and other major and secondary sights all make a difference in where I choose to go and what is most important in my enjoyment of a city.

Edit: I see you just mentioned Granada.

If you are looking for scenic places (not sure what you meant by environment) then key places to visit are normally not large cities.

geovagriffith, I can't speak for Lane or for anyone else here, but what I meant by "environment" is the atmosphere of a city, the vibe, that je ne sais quoi mood that you get when you're there.

It's nothing tangible; just a feeling. Scenery certainly plays a part, but so does history and art. Basically. everything you see all factors into one incredible travel buzz.

Good question. My trips usually begin because I want to see something in particular, for example, the only reason I wanted to go to Mexico City was to visit Teotihuacan, but I'd go back for the environment (and the Mole sauce). Same for Sorrento, the whole trip was built around Pompeii and the Archeological Museum in Naples. When I stay long enough, then the environment becomes memorable and a reason to return.

Modifying the question a bit, there are cities that I will wait for a
great museum exhibit to plan a return visit: London among those.

Me too. London is on the radar for next Spring if I can get tickets to the Bayeaux Tapestry exhibit at the British Museum. And in the Fall while we're in Barcelona we're specifically targeting Zaragoza because of a musem.

I second the assessment offered by Steven (White Plains ,NY) on Vienna pertaining to all those salient aspects, ie they're all tied in together.....how true !

When one looks at the tremendous power wielded by the dynasty in Vienna and their Spanish cousins from the Middle Ages to then end of WW1 in their quest for European hegemony, that ruling dynasty for ca. 150 years came the closest to realising that goal.

I go for the museums in certain cities, obviously those famous ones in Vienna, Paris, London, Berlin, Munich

Then for the environment and geography I focus in particular on Northern and Eastern Germany ; on France: in particular eastern France and North France. , ie Alsace-Lorraine, Champagne-Ardennes, Picardy, Nord Pas-de-Calais. Included are naturally the specialised, esoteric museums in Dresden, Leipzig, Jena, Frankfurt an der Oder, Potsdam, Greifswald, etc.

I've been thinking hard about this one. The only city I could come up with is Bilbao, as I think many people go there mainly for the Guggenheim. Of course it's a very nice place to visit on its own merits but I think the opening of the Gehry-designed building put it on the map for many people.

I don't want this to be misconstrued as me saying there is no other reason to visit Bilbao beyond the museum, as I don't mean that at all- just that the museum is probably the most famous part of it.

My primary reason for visiting Amsterdam was to see the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. And my first visit to Madrid was primarily to see the Prado. And assuming I get to Bilbao this summer, my primary purpose will be to visit the Guggenheim. And the Costco, of course. :o)

I'll return to both Amsterdam and Madrid, in neither case with their museums necessarily in the forefront, but I'll return to all those museums also. And the Reina Sofía, as well.

Perhaps we often don’t know about “the environment “ until we go for “the museum” or “the physical phenomena “. I went to Granada the first time for the Alhambra but I go back for the environment. I went to Kastraki for Meteora but I return for the environment.

So perhaps the question applies to second visits, rather than first visits. Edit: returning for the vibe would be different than CW’s example of returning for a second visit for “a place, exhibit, or event”.

An interesting concept to ponder with my coffee today.

I know what museums are.

Environment?

Architecture? Parks? River or lake? Churches? City walks?

What about dining? Neighborhoods? Shops? Bakeries? Markets? Music? Heritage or, as one says in France, Patrimoine.

As for museums … there are many greats. Louvre in Paris, Uffizi in Florence, Vatican Museums, Prado in Madrid, Kunthistoriches in Vienna, British Museum in London. (I’ve not been to Amsterdam, but I can hear some of your nominations)

What about Maison Balzac or the Jewish History and Art Museum or Petit Palais in Paris, church frescoes in Florence at Santa Trinita, Santa Maria Novella and Santa Maria del Carmine or statuary and architecture at San Lorenzo in Florence, the Thyssen in Madrid or Sir John Soane’s House in London?

Smaller (and not so small) gems elsewhere … Mucha Museum in Prague, Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona, Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Trier, Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb, Lecce’s Castromediano Museo, and the Oxford Museum of Natural History.

Sure, for me museums are definitely part of the mix - in Europe and also at home in the US or in neighboring Canada and elsewhere. But only part of the mix.

LATE NOTE. HK and CWsocial are absolutely right to mention special exhibitions. I don’t choose where to go because of them, but once I choose where to go, I look to see what special exhibitions are happening ,,, whether in Paris (Sarah Bernhardt, Monet’s brother and John Singer Sargent) or closer to home in San Francisco (Rivera & Kahlo and Manet & Morisot).

I've been through the majority of the world's most-heralded museums. Lest I say, dragged against my will. Endless halls of glassed-in or roped-off lifeless staged artefacts. Once we were in Paris with another couple and "everyone" (that is to say, myself excepted) decided to visit Orsay on free-admission day. Four of us passed through security. One of us turnt immediately round and went back outside. Whilst the others were stood in silence staring at exhibits that hadn't changed since the last time and probably haven't since, I got to experience the "little old Roma woman with the found gold ring" scam...and relish in her shock and sudden remarkable fleetness afoot when this "stupid tourist" told her in fluent unaccented French exactly where to deposit said ring.

At my age now with the preciousness of time always at the forefront of my mind I intend never again to step foot in another museum or art gallery simply to appease someone else. We're not conjoined.

All the times in Paris that ring scam happened to me only once about a decade or so ago.

I was waiting at a traffic signal across the street from the D'Orsay for the light to change as were others when this kid suddenly looking at me happens to find and picks up this gold ring off the street...a pity. He looks at me most likely seeing me plastered with the all tourist look, so he thought.

I looked back intentionally and reacted with a shrug of the shoulders , looking at him, so you found this gold ring, so what? What do you want me to do this ring. He wasn't expecting that . A couple more attempts looking at me, then he gave up .

I could see he was frustrated, saw him go off to another person to try this scam, after having had the frustrating and dead response from me.

For me, it's very simple. One museum, maybe two is a perfect balance with everything else done out and about, on my trips.

I intend never again to step foot in another museum or art gallery simply to appease someone else.

Good plan. Appeasing others isn't a sound tactic for living well IME.

I feel fortunate that no one has ever compelled or coerced me to enter a museum; I've always wanted to see the ones I've visited, and in a few cases I've been almost desperate to visit them. Coerced to attend a ballet? Sure, but happy wife, happy life. And I've actually enjoyed one or two.