Planning multiple museums with timed entry?

Yes. I go early as I can to a museum. Then meander.

We have booked a walking tour in the morning then a museum in the afternoon. The walking tour is a set time so it is easy to figure out when we’ll be free later on. It could also be a late afternoon cooking class or an evening concert or show. There are also many smaller sights where timed entries are not needed.

I like to do one big site a day. I figure that I will see what I see and if I miss a landmark, it just gives me a reason to come back

It depends on the museum or sight for me.

In Rome in October I was able to get in to the Domus Aurea in the AM with a 930 timed admission and guided tour (the only way you can enter) then scheduled the Borghese for 2PM. I gave myself plenty of time to walk between the 2 and pick up some lunch which worked fine. I knew the Domus tour was about 1.5 hours and that I would be out by 11 so I figured 3 hours would be good and it was.

In general I do 2 smaller museums in a day. On days that I am doing the Louvre (and yes, I still go at least twice each visit!!) I don't do a timed entry for anything else because I'm never sure how long I'll stay in there. I usually limit myself to 2-3 hours before I need to go outside again, lol.

I've got tickets to the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam for 9A next spring and am trying to decide if I want to book Van Gogh for the afternoon. IF so, I've been there before and will book for 3PM or so to give myself a longer break.

Definitely I allow some flex time in between sights, especially for a city that I don't know as well as Paris.

For the sites I care most about, I watch availability of their tickets. Some may require timed tickets but have plenty of same day availability, so I can purchase during the day. Those that require more advanced purchase, I pre-book for a morning timeslot.

In Paris I do the following Combo:

Musee d'Orsay a.m. / L'Orangerie after lunch
Rodin a.m. / Invalides - Napoleon Tomb & or Military Museum after lunch
The Louvre a.m. / Palais Garnier Opera after lunch

I find a place between the two sites for lunch and walk to & from them.

Loving all the replies this helps. So a few styles include:

• only one timed entry/day

• one morning, one after significant lunch/wander break

  • book hardest ones, play by ear the ones that usually have availability and add in as time allows

The main thing to me is to schedule one of the tough (timed-entry required) sights first thing each morning. That's the one time a day you can be absolutely certain you won't be struggling to finish seeing a prior sight in order to be at the tough sight at your entry time.

It depends how many days I have in each location plus many museums have scrapped their timed entry tickets and offer more flexibility.

In September in Belgium, there were no timed entry restrictions other than a couple of museums and I organised to hit these at opening time. I covered three museums in a day in Bruges, but they were close together.

The Louvre in Paris suggest you book a slot to ensure that you can get into the busier rooms, but looking just now, you can book online now for entry in 26 minutes or throughout the day. That’s easier than booking days in advance and running out of time in one museum.

We love museums, but I have found that after one museum (usually spending between 3-4) that I am museumed out and can't do another in the same day.

Another strategy to consider - book the “must do” museums for early afternoon. We were in Madrid and booked tickets for the Prado museum for December 8 at 10:30. Mistake. Even with tickets, we stood in line in the rain and didn’t enter the museum until 11:30. There was no line to get in when we left around 1:30 or 2:00. Lesson learned. The upside was that we had a nice conversation with two women from Budapest who were in front of us in the line.

We are a one BIG thing a day travelers, but I also look on google maps to see what is around there that we may want to hit up if we have time/energy. So when we visited the Louvre (4-6 hours between traveling there, having lunch there) we wanted to take advantage of the location and strolled through Tuileries Garden, which we explored, grabbed a coffee at the cafe in the park, sat on a bench and just took in the vibe, people watched, talked and it became a memorable experience in itself and we landed up spending another hour there. We love to let the day take us where it may after our planned event.

Each day I have an "A" list which is my planned must see and a "B" list which are events I can add to that day if I have time (Researched that they are open that day with closing/open times) . I will say my "B" list have never been touched due to always finding interesting things to do and turns into my "A" list for the next trip.