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My mum has a philosophy that when travelling you'll have more enjoyment by visiting the second or third best version of everything. You'll turn up at a tourist

My mum has a philosophy that when travelling you'll have more enjoyment by visiting the second or third best version of everything. You'll turn up at a tourist attraction and be trampled on by a biblical quantity of people, then turn a corner to the lesser-attraction and it'll be practically desserted. In Rome, don't go to the Colosseum, go to the Baths of Caracalla. In Cambodia, go to Angkor Wat for a little while, but spend more time exploring the other temples - because you'll find there are a fraction of the tourists and there are plenty of fabulous temples to explore! I think in a world of almost 8 billion people some compromise when travelling is necessary and healthy, for the preservation of these locations, but also your own enjoyment.

dominotw 4y ago
My philosophy is just stay home on public holidays. Luckily my employer lets me swap out public holidays for days of my choosing. So I end up working every public holiday. Ofcourse this doesn't work if you have family that gets public holidays. Works great for me.
fragmede 4y ago
Don’t go to Times Square in New York, either.
- walrus01 4y ago
  If you want to take the subway to/from Bryant Park, which is a pretty nice area, you're going to end up using one of the times square stations. Unless you're coming from the east/west direction. Don't hang out in times square, however... The unusual behaviors of the tourists in times square are themselves a tourist attraction, a few times for the novelty, if that makes any sense.
  - louky 4y ago
    It's amusing the tourists are seen that way in times square now, versus the different population that gained it notoriety a few decades ago.
- bitwize 4y ago
  I used to hang out in the Virgin Records store in Times Square. I first saw the video game Unreal there.
HollywoodZero 4y ago
I am 100% supportive and in agreement of this. Case in point was going to Athens for a work event. I felt like the Parthenon was disappointing experience. The crowds were terrible. You can't get anywhere near the actual building. And it's often under some type of renovation/construction, so there's scaffolding everywhere. There are no trees, so it's basically it's a bit of a hike, waiting in lines, and then without shade you're out in the blazing sun (if in Summer time). Afterwards I went to another site in Athens, the Ancient Agora of Athens. Wow, what a completely different experience. It was mostly empty. But there were several big buildings to actually walk up to and into. There were remnants of statues and other historical items that made it super interesting. There were also trees, for shade and the grounds were really well kept. https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A if anyone is interested in seeing some of the photos of the location. I had never heard of it, but had a few hours to explore and this location saved my Athens experience.
Hallucinaut 4y ago
Also try to go outside of regular hours, often meaning finding alternative transport. At least in Angkor Wat you don't have to take a bus and then outside of those core hours you have lots of alone time. Granted this experience was pre-iPhone so the specific example may not hold!
- dnissley 4y ago
  Also outside of peak seasons!
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    This! I visited Florence in February. Didn't have to wait in line anywhere.
prvit 4y ago
>In Rome, don't go to the Colosseum, go to the Baths of Caracalla. Or you could just pay less than $1k for an after-hours tour at the Colosseum or Vatican and see the place without crowds. Not an option for everyone, but I suspect one worth considering for lots of people here. You can almost always pay for various levels of VIP-treatment at places like this, even if they don't tend to advertise it well.
- likeabbas 4y ago
  Got a link for said night tours?
  - prvit 4y ago
    For Vatican this is excellent value https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/The-Key-Masters-Tour-Opening-the-Sistine-Chapel/d511-15693P215 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/The-Key-Masters-Tour... The fancier option would be this https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Private-Vatican-VIP-Experience-Vatican-Museums-and-Sistine-Chapel-Including-Hotel-Pickup/d511-20163P29 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Private-Vatican-VIP-... This Colosseum tour is very good too https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Exclusive-visit-of-the-Colosseum-Undergrounds-private-tour/d511-127433P122 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Exclusive-visit-of-t... Viator is not a terrible place to book, but there are many alternatives. A good travel agent or hotel concierge can deal with this for you, and also advise you about guides. Context Travel consistently offers a quite high level of guides, with a more in-depth educational focus https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/rome https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/rome You can go very deep into this, for places like the Colosseum or Vatican you can find hundreds of guides with very different focuses.

dominotw 4y ago

My philosophy is just stay home on public holidays. Luckily my employer lets me swap out public holidays for days of my choosing. So I end up working every public holiday. Ofcourse this doesn't work if you have family that gets public holidays. Works great for me.

fragmede 4y ago

Don’t go to Times Square in New York, either.

walrus01 4y ago
If you want to take the subway to/from Bryant Park, which is a pretty nice area, you're going to end up using one of the times square stations. Unless you're coming from the east/west direction. Don't hang out in times square, however... The unusual behaviors of the tourists in times square are themselves a tourist attraction, a few times for the novelty, if that makes any sense.
- louky 4y ago
  It's amusing the tourists are seen that way in times square now, versus the different population that gained it notoriety a few decades ago.
bitwize 4y ago
I used to hang out in the Virgin Records store in Times Square. I first saw the video game Unreal there.

HollywoodZero 4y ago

I am 100% supportive and in agreement of this. Case in point was going to Athens for a work event. I felt like the Parthenon was disappointing experience. The crowds were terrible. You can't get anywhere near the actual building. And it's often under some type of renovation/construction, so there's scaffolding everywhere. There are no trees, so it's basically it's a bit of a hike, waiting in lines, and then without shade you're out in the blazing sun (if in Summer time). Afterwards I went to another site in Athens, the Ancient Agora of Athens. Wow, what a completely different experience. It was mostly empty. But there were several big buildings to actually walk up to and into. There were remnants of statues and other historical items that made it super interesting. There were also trees, for shade and the grounds were really well kept. https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A if anyone is interested in seeing some of the photos of the location. I had never heard of it, but had a few hours to explore and this location saved my Athens experience.

Hallucinaut 4y ago

Also try to go outside of regular hours, often meaning finding alternative transport. At least in Angkor Wat you don't have to take a bus and then outside of those core hours you have lots of alone time. Granted this experience was pre-iPhone so the specific example may not hold!

dnissley 4y ago
Also outside of peak seasons!
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  This! I visited Florence in February. Didn't have to wait in line anywhere.

prvit 4y ago

>In Rome, don't go to the Colosseum, go to the Baths of Caracalla. Or you could just pay less than $1k for an after-hours tour at the Colosseum or Vatican and see the place without crowds. Not an option for everyone, but I suspect one worth considering for lots of people here. You can almost always pay for various levels of VIP-treatment at places like this, even if they don't tend to advertise it well.

likeabbas 4y ago
Got a link for said night tours?
- prvit 4y ago
  For Vatican this is excellent value https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/The-Key-Masters-Tour-Opening-the-Sistine-Chapel/d511-15693P215 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/The-Key-Masters-Tour... The fancier option would be this https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Private-Vatican-VIP-Experience-Vatican-Museums-and-Sistine-Chapel-Including-Hotel-Pickup/d511-20163P29 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Private-Vatican-VIP-... This Colosseum tour is very good too https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Exclusive-visit-of-the-Colosseum-Undergrounds-private-tour/d511-127433P122 https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Rome/Exclusive-visit-of-t... Viator is not a terrible place to book, but there are many alternatives. A good travel agent or hotel concierge can deal with this for you, and also advise you about guides. Context Travel consistently offers a quite high level of guides, with a more in-depth educational focus https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/rome https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/rome You can go very deep into this, for places like the Colosseum or Vatican you can find hundreds of guides with very different focuses.