Rick's allotted time ?

Personally, once I hit the Colisseum I was in no hurry to leave.

In a travel guide book on a country or city, written by Rick Steves : in a description of a place for sight seeing (a palace, or castle, or museum, ...) if he says the amount of time to allow for being in that place, I would plan to be there for a longer amount of time, to allow for time for getting a ticket, putting my bag in a locker, visiting a restroom, waiting for a tour to begin, talking with other tourists who I meet there. At the beginning of a chapter on a city, under the heading "PLANNING YOUR TIME", Rick suggests a schedule for "Day 1", and "Day 2", ... I could not possibly go to all the places that Rick says to go to that day, for some cities, in some of his books. An example of that is : in the book "Rick Steves' SCANDINAVIA", in the Chapter STOCKHOLM : PLANNING YOUR TIME : Day 1. His recommended schedule for that day does not include enough time to walk through each of the places that he says to walk through. Other people mentioned that, about other books by Rick Steves.

I think it is a reasonable guideline. But it is still your personal preference. You might linger longer if you have greater interest and less if you don't.

Dan

As Frank said, I think it depends on your taste, and the taste of your fellow travelers. For example, my husband could stay in the Louve for hours (maybe days!), but my friend couldn't take more than 3 hours before she was ready to leave.

I would estimate based on how "interested" you think you are on the topic. If you think the Coliseum is something you don't mind going thru in an hour, guestimate that much time.

Of course if you have no clue (and how could we, if its our first time?) then use Rick's guide as a gauge with some fudge time.

In my experience using Rick's books for Rome, Florence and Venice, he's pretty acurate. However, I breezed through several museums in much less time when I returned in December - because there was absolutely no one else in the museum at the time (just as they opened). It was fantastic not to have to hassle with moving around a crowd to get close to a painting or read a plaque. Kind of spooky in the Accademia Museum in Venice when these huge murals gaze at you all alone.

To me, Rick's recommendations are meant as guidelines and nothing more. If something is interesting to me, I will spend twice or three times the amount of time he suggested.

As prior posters have mentioned, it does depend on your personal preferences. I love art, but know that more than about 2 hours in any art museum on my own is going to be my "max out" time frame (unless it's a guided tour, then longer is ok). So I'd never visit more than one art museum in a day if I can help it (alas, I will be doing this in Amsterdam in June, but it's the only option). But as for Rick's suggested time frames, I usually find them pretty accurate, and often he gives you some qualifiers (like, "Just hitting the highlights" or "a quick visit is all you need").

I've found that Rick's recommendations are pretty accurate. You need to look for the qualifiers and bear in mind your own interests. It also helps to know that Rick loves history and art. I don't always agree with Rick's picks, but his descriptions of what to expect are spot on.