Hi Stuart. Good article. It reminds me of the time my friend from Australia came to Canada and I took him to Niagra Falls. He actually thought it was going to be in the wilderness - haha! Once we got past the wax museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not and the other various trashy tourist traps the falls were quite beautiful. Also, went to the Vatican in Rome. The Sistine Chapel was crushed with people and someone shouted over the loudspeaker "Silence" in 5 languages every 5 minutes - kind of ruined the sacred atmosphere.
As always, very thoughtful analysis of a very complicated topic. Twenty years ago next month, my husband and I made our first visit to Rome. During our visit, one evening we were able to walk directly into the Colosseum and wander around. We practically had the place to ourselves and it was magical.
Flashforward to October 2019 and we returned to Rome and went to revisit the Colosseum. Even though you now had to buy tickets in advance (or queue in a long line), it was an insane crush of people inside.
Which isn't at all to say I don't agree with you about limiting the number of visitors. I quite do. But some places are so incredibly popular, it seems like there will always be a crush of people.
Our practice now is to either avoid these places entirely -- it's a huge world with TONS to see -- or go in the very off season so as to not go insane ourselves or to overburden already overburdened places.
Hi Stuart. Good article. It reminds me of the time my friend from Australia came to Canada and I took him to Niagra Falls. He actually thought it was going to be in the wilderness - haha! Once we got past the wax museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not and the other various trashy tourist traps the falls were quite beautiful. Also, went to the Vatican in Rome. The Sistine Chapel was crushed with people and someone shouted over the loudspeaker "Silence" in 5 languages every 5 minutes - kind of ruined the sacred atmosphere.
As always, very thoughtful analysis of a very complicated topic. Twenty years ago next month, my husband and I made our first visit to Rome. During our visit, one evening we were able to walk directly into the Colosseum and wander around. We practically had the place to ourselves and it was magical.
Flashforward to October 2019 and we returned to Rome and went to revisit the Colosseum. Even though you now had to buy tickets in advance (or queue in a long line), it was an insane crush of people inside.
Which isn't at all to say I don't agree with you about limiting the number of visitors. I quite do. But some places are so incredibly popular, it seems like there will always be a crush of people.
Our practice now is to either avoid these places entirely -- it's a huge world with TONS to see -- or go in the very off season so as to not go insane ourselves or to overburden already overburdened places.
very much enjoying your musings on over-tourism.