Tourists are packing European hotspots

Yep, prepare to wait and be in the midst of many, many people at the most visited tourist sights. We found that out in London, Rome, Florence and Athens last month.

Either go in the off season or just accept it.

We've been to most of the large European cities a number of times, and we're no longer willing to wait in ques. But there are still many off the beaten path places to visit that are not quite so busy. It's time we got back to nature anyway.

Yep. That's why when people ask if airfares will go down, I tell them probably not. People are still traveling and many people have waiting since 2019. Unless we enter a recession or depression, I don't see that changing.

Caveat-You can fly on discount airlines but I find when doing a cost/benefit analysis that you sometimes pay almost as much as a regular airline with all the charges.

Crowds? What crowds? I didn't see anyplace in Helsinki today that looked anywhere near as packed as the pictures in the article. Yesterday I went to the National Museum here and there was no line so I walked straight in, tapped my credit card (cash? what's that?), and enjoyed the museum with lots of room to move around. :D

We just came back from 2 weeks in Greece. Yes, it was very crowded in the places you'd expect. Santorini was stupid packed, Athens (Plaka area) was jammed.

But we did OK and still had a great vacation. We visited the Acropolis right when it opened and were off the hill at 10:00 when the crowds really started. We stayed in Santorini 2 nights, enough to enjoy the view from our hotel terrace (yes, we paid more to stay where there was a view, but we didn't have to go out into the crush; we had a lovely, leisurely day, lounging by the pool, with a couple of outings when things were quieter), then we ferried over to Naxos and stayed in one of the small villages away from the main town; again, it was lovely, peaceful, quiet.

So I think it's very possible to go and have a great time; just plan to find your own path.

I wonder how crowds are in secondary sites in popular places like Rome etc. I’ve found that even in popular places just getting a few blocks away from the main sites makes a huge difference. Prague outside of the Castle, Charles Bridge, old clock tower tourist industrial complex, Bamberg two blocks away from the old Rathaus, Thuringia outside of, well basically all of Thuringia. Opportunities to miss the crowds are out there.

Oh geez, those pictures in the article are making me cringe! Those are just insane crowds.

We head back to Iceland in a few days, which has been mobbed with visitors this summer, and especially now with the volcano erupting again. I am SO thankful that we will be in a camper and far away from the usual visitor spots along the south coast. We have been there, done that a number of times, thankfully, so no need to repeat it this summer. I actually prefer it in the winter anyway;)

From the article:

Even gelato will cost a premium 21% over last year, due to higher
sugar and milk prices.

We were hit with an unhappy surprise in Sorrento in April. After past trips and paying about €3 on average, we were seeing prices off the main tourist path at €8 which stopped my daily gelato fix in a hurry. And booze prices! My wife paid €16 for a rum and coke and I paid €12 for a beer in a couple of places. The food prices in restaurants were still reasonable, but anything other than water was not.

To avoid crowds, go to those out of the way rural places not on most tourists’ radar.

From the Article:

The pandemic should have taught us a lesson,” said Alessandra Priante, director of the regional department for Europe at the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

Instead, she said, the mindset “is about recuperating the cash. Everything is about revenue, about the here and now.”

We have to see what is going to happen in two or three years’ time because the prices at the moment are unsustainable,” she said.

Spoken like a true non-capitalist. Prices will sustain themselves when demand diminishes or prices drive away business. Also, why shouldn't it be about revenue and cash lost during the pandemic. Many businesses probably put themselves in debt keeping afloat.

These pictures look just like 2018 and 2019 in July.

A coworker of mine was at Trevi fountain on the day the photo of it was taken. I’ll ask her if it was real crowded when she was there.

A coworker of mine was at Trevi fountain on the day the photo of it was taken. I’ll ask her if it was real crowded when she was there.

Why? Do you think the photographer is lying? It's an AP photo - the Associated Press is one of the more reliable members of the fourth estate

So glad we went in 2021 and 2022 when there were few to no crowds.
Upcoming trip will be November or January, still deciding.

There were 2.7 billion people in the world in 1950. Now there are 9 billion.

I think that says it all about crowds, and pretty much any other negative impact you can think of in the world today.

I'm so thankful to have visited Iceland in 2021. I knew what was coming.

I'd guess most people are locked into summer travel because they have kids in school.

Similar article on CNN:
"Smart ways to save money in Europe this crazy, crowded summer"
https://www.cnn.com/travel/save-money-in-europe-summer-2023/index.html

The last section of the article has suggestions from Rick Steves.

Steves also suggests setting your sights on Europe’s less glamorous “second” cities for savings as well as a unique experience. These places he calls “the Chicagos of Europe” include Marseille in France, Hamburg in Germany and Liverpool in England.
“A lot of money and effort is being put into revitalizing these once-depressed, former Industrial Age powers, giving them a certain energy you don’t find in their more well-known siblings,” Steves said.

My wife and I decided in about 2017 to go to the smaller cities. Of course, if you have never been to France, you want to do the Eiffel and Louvre. The smaller cities (e.g. Rennes, Dijon, Siena, Ravenna, York, Leipzig) have attractions, and fewer crowds. You might actually have one of those Rick Steves "interact with the locals" experiences.

Steves also suggests setting your sights on Europe’s less glamorous “second” cities for savings as well as a unique experience. These places he calls “the Chicagos of Europe” include Marseille in France, Hamburg in Germany and Liverpool in England.

Seriously? Would RS advise a European to skip New York, Boston, DC, the national parks in the summer, etc. and head to Indianapolis, Springfield, IL, Charlotte, Columbus, OH and Minneapolis?

People go to Europe to see the major sights of Europe. It's crowded, always has been, always will be.

"How was your trip to Europe? Great, I saw Maseille, Hamburg and Liverpool. Did you go to London? No. How about Paris? Well no. You must have seen Munich! Uh, no. Were you near Switzerland to visit there? Oh yes, I went to Liechtenstein."

Geez Rick, not everyone gets to make multiple trips to Europe in a lifetime, let alone in a single year. Of course you can save money going anywhere else away from popular places. I think each trip you take you should assume you will never return. That makes you focus on what you really want to see. If you make more trips, you just focus on places further down your list.

more Steves through the back door -
Finding ‘Back Doors’ in Today’s Europe
Don’t skip Europe’s second cities

Threadware, good stuff. The vast majority of people want to see the sites they've read or heard about since childhood. For those fortunate enough to have visited the major sites once or more, then the backdoor Europe idea makes sense, but not for the Average Joe Blow.

We've never traveled with the mindset that we'll be back some day. Why? 1) We want to go somewhere new to us, and 2) We can't afford multiple trips to the same place.

One great thing about Scotland is we interacted with local on a daily basis as many of them were open and enjoyed a brief chat.

"Tourists are packing European Hot Spots" is exactly what is happening. Further down they explain that tourism is off 10% on the whole for Europe, but I think they miss the mark blaming it on the war as people not going to Finland at the old levels does not bring Europe as a whole down 10%.

The list of "hot spots" is also very narrow. "Rome, Florence, Venice and Capri above pre-pandemic levels" and "Then there is the rest of Italy that lives from Italian and European tourism, and at the moment, it is still under 2019 levels,"

Its just a year, if you want to travel, to be a bit more selective as to where you go; or "IF" to go if all that interests you are the European Top 10 Tourist Destinations. Here is list of places I suspect are doing better than pre-pandemic that you might want to either avoid or balance with some less crowded places: https://thesavvybackpacker.com/most-visited-cities-in-europe/
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And here is the competing thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/surprised-by-lack-of-crowds-june-2023

And why going to Europe in January, February is so wonderful.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/favorite-european-destinations-in-the-winter

Thank you Susan, I just added my two cents to the post.

I don't think it is Rick's or anyone else's intention to tell people not to go to the places that they have always dreamed of seeing, just to be prepared for what the experience will be like, and also to perhaps consider adding those places he mentions to your itinerary if you really want to try connecting with the culture that you are visiting, or if you really can't stand crowds.