Must read article, if you are visiting major sites in Europe this summer

Recently, our neighbors showed us pictures of their trip to France during March. Included in the slide show was a photo taken in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum. My immediate reaction was a massive rugby scrum was underway. Saw it....tick that box.

Bruce, looks pretty much like the situation shown in the article's photo. I mean really, can seeing the Mona Lisa in the flesh, under these circumstances, give anyone a fresh perspective on a painting they've probably already seen reproductions of hundreds of times before?

Having lived in Europe, though, I can tell you that the entire continent is not inundated all summer long. If you can't stomach waiting in long lines all the time, just look beyond the obvious sites and do a little more homework (hint, if it's in the Blue Book, you won't be alone...).

The Mona Lisa had a crowd when I went four years ago. The drawing in the article of the David is amusing but not accurate since they limit the visitors allowed in.
We just returned from our trip last week and the major sights are crowded and it was a determining factor in what we did and when. Venice during the day was a mob scene and we hit unseasonably warm weather. We hated it during the day but after the dreaded cruise ship people left we realized why people love Venice. I don't understand why anyone would step foot on one of those gargantuan floating Petri dishes, but that's just me.
Having been herded like cattle through the Vatican Museum (only to land in yet another book/ souvenir shop thinking it was an exit) on our last trip, we never had an urge to visit again. The Catholic church doesn't need the Medieval paintings to show people what Hell will be like, just let people visit the museum to see what sinners are in for.
This trip I booked ahead for the Borghese and because of the reservation system it is not packed and one of the best museum experiences you can have. The Pantheon in the early morning is wonderfully empty and cool but midday is crowded to the point of wanting to beat people with their selfy stick.
I had no desire to go up in the Eifel Tower and enjoyed a picnic lunch with wine sitting on the grass where you have a better view.

So my advice for those traveling now is to make reservations for the places that require them. Go early or late or not at all. Visit less traveled areas like Tuscany with a car so you are not packed in public transportation. Stay in small towns at night to enjoy them without day tripper crowds. Avoid anything that requires you to wait in line for more than 30 minutes.

Just don't be a lemming and don't follow the horde. Large parts of Europe aren't affected by international mass tourism. Instead of Tuscany visit Umbria. See Quedlinburg instead of Rothenburg. The Wachau is as beautiful as the Rhine valley. Schwerin or Hluboka are nice fantasy castles too, it doesn't have to be Neuschwanstein. The Swiss Alps are great, but why not see the Vinschgau instead?

Martin and Richard, excellent advice.

I didn't go to the Vatican Museums for over ten years because of the crowds in th Sistine Chapel, then booked an early morning tour last year with a friend who had never been, it was great.

Southern Italy and Sicily, in addition to Umbria and Le Marche, are far less visited.

And about the Mona Lisa: yes, it is worth it to see her in the original.

Easy solution: visit ultra popular sites right as they open or right before they close and you will have them almost to yourself. Problem solved.

Michael is pretty much correct, you now have to do additional research into your sites to determine the best (or only) time it can be visited. Sometimes first thing, sometimes last thing. And sometimes you take a tour so the guide can "ease" your way past the line.

And while it seems the answer is to head off the beaten path, sometimes that path is unbeaten for a good reason:

“We have too many tourists in Rome, Florence and Venice…we need to spread them out across the peninsula,” said Culture and Sports Minister Dario Franceschini.

But towns like Reggio Calabria may not be ready for hordes of tourists. “The problem with the less-known artistic locations is the poor infrastructure” including a lack of efficient public transportation, said Filippo Donati, president of the Italian hotel association Assohotel."

And here's a statistic that causes the blood to run cold:

"Viator, a tour-booking company, reports that ticket purchases for the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre leading into the summer travel season are up 60% over the same March to mid-May period last year. The Eiffel Tower is up 170% from those same weeks in 2014. "

I'm glad that I had the chance to see the Mona Lisa up close many years ago, before the camera-phones and selfie sticks and crowds of newly emancipated travelers from the East, which is what I encountered when I went to see it again 3 years ago. The first time was a wonderful experience and I know that the hordes of other travelers want that experience too. It's a dilemma and it's a shame that it is what it is. The most encouraging things I read in that article were that places were starting to ban the selfie sticks (one of the worst fads ever) and that the most popular places are lengthening their hours, some even open 7 days a week (unusual for a museum but welcome).

I also agree that there are so many wonderful places and things to see and do in Europe besides the most popular attractions but they appeal mostly to frequent travelers who have already seen the 'must sees', they are not that appealing to first time visitors and that's understandable. One of my most memorable moments from my trip last summer was visiting Wawel castel in Krakow and seeing The Lady With an Ermine, a better experience in my mind than seeing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, not many other people around and the painting itself appealed to me much more than the Mona Lisa.

Unless kids' schedules are involved, why go in the summer at all? Fares are higher and crowds are larger (I have to admit though, there are many more fun festivals going on then which I'd love to see, but not enough to make a summer trip). I think most of the RS crowd here is beyond child-rearing age so it's possible to arrange off-peak travel.

Margaret,

Thanks for posting that. It was an interesting article and perhaps a warning about what travellers can expect at the more popular sites in Europe this year. This is one of the main reasons I prefer to travel in the shoulder seasons (mainly Sept. / Oct.) as things are usually a bit less crowded (although it can still be busy at that time of year too).

I've been at the Louvre on a Monday and Versailles on a Tuesday in July, so I can absolutely relate to the comments in the article. The term that Bruce used in the first reply, comparing the mob in front of the Mona Lisa to a "scrum", is exactly the term that occurred to me at the time. It wasn't a pleasant travel experience, nor was waiting in a queue for 90 minutes in the hot sun at Versailles to enter the Chateau (that was the wait even for those with a Museum Pass). When I saw the mass of large tour buses in the Versailles car park, I knew it was going to be an ordeal and that was certainly the case. Unfortunately, those were the only two days I had to visit those sites.

Hopefully conditions won't be too crowded in September, but not much I can do about it once the flights are purchased and hotel reservations made.

I have just come back from Europe and one of the most crowded spots I found was Cinque Terre. The town of Vernazza has the residents actually trying to regulate the number of tour groups coming in. Of course, they are fighting government who wants the tourist money. When the train arrives it is massive people trying to get down the stairs and walking through the main street is like going to a crowded festival or concert.

It just takes a little bit of planning and strategy.

My grandson and I are spending our last night in Rome tonight after 3-1/2 very busy days. We had three mornings to work with, so we used those for the biggies. We were at the Colosseum at 0830, Roma Pass in hand, and shared the monument with just a handful of people. The next day, we were at the Pantheon's door when it opened at 0830. There are no people in my interior photos. This morning we got to St. Peter's at 0800. The security line took about half an hour, but that's nothing compared to what it was when we left.

The rest of the days were spent just wandering back streets and visiting sites not on the usual 'A' list -- Ostia Antica, St Peter in Chains, Ara Pacis, Baths of Caracalla, Circus Maximus, etc., are all comfortably uncrowded even at mid-day.

Well... I thought visiting with 250 high schoolers in June was going to be tricky - I wasn't thinking about the other 2.5 million folks who will also be there LOL!! I wonder if we will get to see much of anything other than our own sweaty group??? Yikes!!

I'm glad we aren't returning to France until the very end of Sept/first few weeks of Oct. We will be on our 3rd visit to Paris, so we can stay away from the overly crowded spots since we've seen them (well, most of them)...and I'm hoping with a car in the South that we can hit some off the beaten path villages away from the crowds.

With our children grown it has not been necessary to travel during the vacation season or the last 10 years. We try to travel sometime between the 2nd week in October ending the 3rd week in November. It has never been much colder than the 50's during our trips. Still, we plan ahead, buy tickets on line, make reservations and have, so far, only encountered a huge line at the D'orsay (which we had already been to on 2 previous trips). It was raining and a special impressionist exhibit had just opened....we thought it was worth it...it was. We also try and travel in the spring during April or May. Even a small amount of planning will prove fruitful - check what days places are open, opening/closing times, extended hours and holidays. Many sites can be booked several days ahead rather than months, though I would not try that with the Eiffel Tower or the Borghese. As my Ann Arbor High School Drivers Education instructor told me back in the 60's - anticipate, anticipate, anticipate. One of the most valuable and useful things I was taught.

I'll be one of the hordes this summer for two months in Barcelona, Madrid, London, Paris and Amsterdam. Every time I've been to Europe it's been crowded. Especially at the major tourist sights. Does that mean I don't go? No. Do I have a good time anyway? Definitely. Anything that is good is going to be popular and anything that is popular is going to be crowded. If RS or other people online have good suggestions for how to avoid the crowds, then I'm all for taking their advice. Otherwise, I just put a smile on my face and have a good time regardless. It's Europe for Christ's sake!!!

If crowds worry you go in winter. The big cities are so much more pleasant and the attractions much quieter. I would take Rome in January over July any day.

Will be in Rome and Switzerland for 10 days at Thanksgiving time. A bit cool? Perhaps. But a GREAT tradeoff vs. the hoardes

There are a few things to be noted there.

First, the number of people "discovering" that they might or need to buy reservations in advance is increasing, but it doesn't mean the number of visitors to those sites has risen in the same proportion. It is just a general change in the way people travel, the same way trains 40 years ago were mostly not subject to reservation and relying on fixed prices published on a written annual catalog, and now they are sold like airline seats. Gosh, even air fares used to have "banded pricing" and in some routes actually "seasonally fixed pricing" defined by bi-lateral agreements between authorities in both countries, before we got the blessings of a more free market.

What I foresee is more and more sites adopting compulsory pre-booking. I actually long and wish for this development: that all major museums and other confined spaces adopt advanced ticket purchase as a condition of visit, so I can enjoy them with greater peace and less crowds.

Some people, of course, will claim this will further kill "spontaneity of choosing your daily schedule as you wake up and take a look at the window".

As for alternative destinations... good luck on that. I agree with the idea, but even here on this forum, where people are supposedly open-minded about looking beyond the obvious, it is extremely common to read seasoned members shut down people who are going first time to Italy and are considering some cities beyond the famous ones. Only the "anointed" back-doors are legit, the rest is "messing up with the right priorities". As in "Bologna might be nice, but on a first trip to Italy you shouldn't skip Venezia for it".

Even at the city level this happens. I've been in Venezia couple times, even on the busiest days, barring flood, you can easily find quieter spots that are just some 5 min walking out of the 3 or 4 major walking routes. It is really not difficult at all if you have a smartphone/tablet with an offline map to wander around most tourist crowds, even in the first Sunday in August. It is also fairly easy to beat crowds in Amsterdam - it doesn't take much to have pleasant walking routes that are not a concern for crowd control safety officers. It is just that the insecurities of missing "something" on these major constrained routes in major cities is too much to bear for many people, I think.

One of the greatest benefits of summer traveling are very long days, I don't understand why many people don't take full advantage of that, especially regarding open places with free access that will be under sunlight well past 8PM.

Finally, cruise ship crowds are a separate issue on their own. Ports in places like Venezia and Dubrovnik should ramp up mooring charges so that this money can be used to expand infrastructure for "peak cruise tourism" (starts at 11AM, ends at 4PM, leaves little to no money on the shops in town or hotels).

Or we can all pray for a very weak dollar and a very strong euro to discourage all those tourists . . .

P.S. that was tongue-in-cheek. I'm quite happy with the stronger dollar.

Ha ha Chani! We expats living on dollars are happy with the exchange rate, too.