Tag Archives: lines

Phnom Kulen Temple in Angkor Archaeological Park Cambodia

8 Golden Rules of Beating the Crowds Around the World

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Overtourism is afflicting destinations worldwide, and the situation is being lamented and wrestled with everywhere: The Louvre staff went on strike, Dubrovnik and Bruges instituted caps on cruise ships, Amsterdam implemented an overnight tax, and Venice added an entry fee.

That said, all of us travelers in the WendyPerrin.com community want to keep going to the places that interest us and have rewarding experiences—rewarding for both us and the local people—despite the crowds. So, at our 2020 WOW Global Travel Summit, we talked with Trusted Travel Experts from Wendy’s WOW List—the ones who specialize in destinations known for being particularly overloaded—to find out their smartest strategies for beating the crowds and avoiding lines.

1. Book museum and monument tickets in advance.

Online ticketing opportunities are now available in places that have been plagued for years with notorious lines. In Israel, for instance, national parks have launched online ticketing, and that includes Masada and Caesarea. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, museums have started offering timed ticket entrances. Keep in mind that, even with timed tickets and skip-the-line tickets, you’ll still need to arrive much earlier than your assigned slot because you’ll have to queue for security.

2. Know what your ticket includes and excludes.

Some sights are not only limiting the number of visitors, they’re also limiting what those visitors can see. For instance, at the Paris Catacombs, several rooms have been closed off in an effort to manage through-crowds better.

3. Phone ahead and ask questions.

Online ticketing and Internet research are a great boon, but we all know you can’t trust everything you read online. If you actually phone the landmark to doublecheck opening hours and rules, you may get different and useful intel. For instance, Israel specialist Joe Yudin recommends calling ahead—and asking the people on the phone when is the best time to avoid the lines. For example, if you were to call the office at Masada or the Dead Sea, they’d tell you not to visit on the weekend: Everyone goes to those sites on a Saturday because that’s when other places in Israel are closed for the Sabbath.

4. Scout out a different entrance.

If everyone else goes in one way, look for another. For example, while the hordes will pile up at the Eiffel Tower elevators, savvy visitors will climb the stairs; you’ll get an exciting new perspective on a familiar landmark and great views the whole way. Similarly, most tourists to the popular temples at Angkor Archaeological Park in Cambodia enter at the same main spots, but smart local guides know where the little-used side gates are. Not only will you have a better chance of avoiding the mob at the entrance this way, but your alternative route around the monuments once you’re inside will also keep you from feeling like you’re on an assembly line with the busloads who took the usual path.

5. Use a savvy private guide.

Hiring a clever local guide will allow you to cut through the crowds. “They are there every day, they know the people, they know the lines,” said Jennifer Virgilio, a WOW List specialist for tourist magnets including Paris, London, and Rome. Experienced guides also build relationships with the gatekeepers, getting to know them and getting to be known by them—which can come in handy when your group of three arrives just as a giant tour bus does and you need a little extra love to get waved in ahead of them.

6. Go early in the morning—or at night.

Get to the sights you want to see before the first tour bus pulls up. When Eastern Europe specialist Gwen Kozlowski arranges for travelers to see Auschwitz, she has them start the day at 7 or 8 a.m. “People will often say, oh my god, what time? But when you explain it, they understand and agree. You’ll circumvent the crowds, and you get to be alone with your thoughts and feelings in this very solemn place.” There’s an exception to this rule, though, and it will require research or the help of a trip designer with solid local knowledge: If the tour buses tend to go to a place at a certain time, buck that trend. “Everyone wants to go to Prague Castle,” Gwen says, “so we’ve modified the itinerary so that we don’t take them there until lunchtime—which is when everyone else is gone.” Finally, check if any sights have early or evening hours, because those can be blissfully uncrowded. Museums often have a late night each week, and sometimes those include special tours or talks.

7. Save your meandering for later each day.

We all know how fun and freeing it is to spend at least a day just strolling aimlessly and letting serendipity guide you. But, increasingly, this can mean getting shut out of the specific museums or landmarks you’ve traveled so far to see. If there are specific sites on your Must See List, go first thing in the day. Then wander afterward.

8. Embrace unusual ways to soak up popular sights.

Even with the possibility of advance reservations in some spots, you still might not be able to score tickets (unless you’re using a Trusted Travel Expert). When visiting a particular sight seems like just too much of an exhausting hassle, look into alternative ways to engage with it. WOW Listers have a lot of ideas for this kind of thing, and their insider access is one of the reasons they made it onto the List in the first place. The right trip designer will suggest experiences such as a special boat ride on the Seine, a private afternoon with the head of an important archaeological dig, or exclusive after-hours entrance to a popular museum. But when you’re not working with such a travel specialist, dream up your own ways to achieve this kind of perspective shift. Something as simple as a market visit followed by a picnic on the Champ de Mars looking onto the Eiffel Tower could leave you much more relaxed, and with better memories, than battling the masses.

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India

How to Never Wait in Line at a Tourist Attraction Again

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Why waste your precious vacation time battling crowds and waiting in lines? Popular tourist sites the world over grow more congested every year and, sadly, the typical fixes—reserving an entry time, booking a “skip-the-line tour”—are not always a good solution. So I thought I’d share the best fixes I’ve found.

Reserving a time slot might make sense at an indoor museum (I wouldn’t show up at Rome’s Borghese Gallery or Florence’s Uffizi without one), but not necessarily at an outdoor monument. When I go to Paris, for instance, I want to hit the Eiffel Tower on a sunny, clear day; what if my entry time, reserved weeks in advance, coincides with rain and fog? Furthermore, I want to take my kids to the Louvre on a rainy day; what if I book skip-the-line tickets for what turns out to be a gorgeous day that we’d rather spend in the Jardin du Luxembourg? As for “skip-the-line tours,” aside from the fact that you can end up herded around in a big group with an annoying guide, they’re often not what they claim to be. A skip-the-line tour of the Vatican might get you past the ticket-buying line but not the security line. I’d rather be one of the handful of travelers who gets to eat breakfast at the Vatican and see it before it opens to the public.

By far the best way I’ve found to avoid crowds and bypass lines is to book your trip through the right travel fixer—someone who knows every insider trick at your destination and can leverage his/her superlative relationships there on your behalf. Such destination specialists can get you into sites at off-hours when they are empty and even into places that are off-limits to the public. The right person can get you past the mobs at Angkor Wat or ensure a crowd-free sunset at the Taj Mahal. You can even have Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia all to yourself. These Trusted Travel Experts can, in fact, arrange an entire trip that spares you from every line. And all you need to do is show up.

But if you prefer to D.I.Y. your trip, here are strategies that have worked well for me:

Find out if there’s a side or back entrance.

Rose Center for Earth and Science at the American Museum of Natural History

To avoid long lines, try an alternative entrance, like through the Rose Center for Earth and Science at the American Museum of Natural History. Photo: ©AMNH/D

Sometimes there is an alternate entrance with a shorter line or none at all. In Paris, my family entered the Louvre via the Porte des Lions and saved ourselves from an hour-long line at the Pyramid entrance. At the Museum of Natural History in New York City, if there’s a line at the Central Park West entrance, you can enter via the Rose Center for Earth and Space or via the 81st Street subway station.

Go at sunrise.

A lot of people assume sunset is best, but at many outdoor iconic monuments—Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Mount Sinai in Egypt, Petra in Jordan—sunrise is better. You get equally great light for photos but fewer crowds to spoil them. Sunrise is better for seeing neighborhoods too. In popular destinations that are touristy from 9 am till midnight, it’s from 6 to 9 am that you can see the locals living their everyday lives—green grocers opening their stalls, kids going to school, fishermen delivering their catch to the fish market, etc.

crowd in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Paris France

Visit museums on a night they’re open late and you’ll likely avoid mobs like this one, in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Photo: Wendy Perrin

Go at night.

Not all landmarks are accessible at night, but those that are are usually worth seeing at that time. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for instance, is beautifully lit and especially poignant at night. Park rangers are actually there to answer your questions until 10 pm. Remember that world-class museums are usually open on at least one night of the week. London’s Tate Modern, as just one example, stays open till 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The Eiffel Tower admits visitors until midnight in summertime—and sparkles at night too.

night skyline of Washington DC with Lincoln Memorial Washington Monument and Capitol building

Some famous attractions, like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. are more beautiful at night—and less crowded. Photo: Pixabay

Take the stairs.

A two-hour line at the Eiffel Tower. Photo courtesy Tim Baker.

A two-hour line at the Eiffel Tower elevators—which we skipped by taking the stairs. Photo: Tim Baker.

I’m no athlete, but I’ve climbed to the tops of dozens of bell towers, fortresses, palaces, and cathedrals, and I am here to tell you that the effort has always been well worth it, not just because of the views but because the great majority of visitors don’t make it there. Sometimes the journey itself is a highlight. If you’ve ever followed the circuitous, increasingly narrow route into the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, you know what I mean. My family saved at least two hours at the Eiffel Tower by climbing the 670 steps to the second floor and taking the elevator from there to the top, rather than waiting in the scary elevator line at the base.

Buy the right pass.

aerial view of Venice Italy and surrounding water

Venice, Italy. Photo: Pixabay

Some cities sell city museum passes that let you bypass the line. For instance, the Paris Museum Pass and the Vienna Pass let you skip the line at dozens of museums and monuments in those cities. If you don’t need a multi-day museum pass because there’s really only one museum you want to see, sometimes you can buy a combination ticket for just three or four related museums (the world-famous one you want to see, plus other lesser museums you’re not interested in). Buy the combo ticket at one of the lesser museums with no line, then use it to skip the line at the museum you want. For example, in Venice, a ticket to the four Museums of St. Mark’s Square allowed me to skip the line at the Doge’s Palace.

Arrive at the visitor center before it opens.

World-famous sites with visitor centers tend to attract a lot of tour buses. You want to arrive long before they do. At Gettysburg, for instance, be the first inside the Museum and Visitor Center when it opens at 8:00 am (April 1 – Oct 31). If you have no reservation for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, get there before it opens at 7:00 am because that’s when tickets for that day are available on a first-come first-served basis.

 

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