My biggest annoyance when I’m traveling: crowds. If I fly halfway around the world to see an amazing site, I want to experience it with as few other people around as possible. This is especially true if I’m with my kids. Long lines and crowded attractions aren’t family-friendly.
Success has been mine, one UNESCO World Heritage Site at a time. Here are my secrets.
Go Early
Wake up early! If you’re one of the first people at a site, then there’s no one in front of you. This makes it so much easier to have a real sense of place and to remember why you wanted to visit in the first place.
At the Taj Mahal, we arrived early and lined up before sunrise, but we also moved quickly as soon as the gates opened to get in front of everyone else. Once we took photos from the main vantage point we walked over to the Mosque well before anyone else arrived, save one caretaker. Beyond the people-free photos, it was special to have the site practically to ourselves as the sun came up.
The Taj Mahal
Another place where it’s worth waking up early is Florence. While the city has a popular spot for photographing the sunset, Piazzale Michelangelo, there’s not an equivalent sunrise spot. As a result, and because of the late night culture, there’s virtually no one out when the sun comes up. I wander around the city at daybreak as often as I can. I’ve taken a few photos over the years, but I usually put the camera down and simply enjoy the Renaissance city – it’s much easier to appreciate the magnificence of the Duomo and the city’s squares without thousands of tourists around.
Florence before the crowds arrive
The same goes for Chichen Itza, Mexico. Like the Taj Mahal it’s one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and like the Taj Mahal, it gets very crowded by mid-day. So go early! We arrived when the gates opened and had the site practically to ourselves until the first tour buses arrived.
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Go Late
Of course, the opposite can also apply. Late afternoon is an excellent time to visit any sites with closing times, since the buses have come and gone. Stay as long as you can before they close or before it gets dark.
The Great Wall is my favorite place to visit in the afternoon. I’ve been to the Mutianyu section three times now, always in the afternoon, and had it virtually to myself each time.
At the Great Wall. I asked my cousin’s wife to model since photos of the Great Wall aren’t as interesting with no one in them!
Likewise, my daughter and I went to Indonesia’s Borobudur temple late in the afternoon and there were only a few others there – nice compared to the next morning when there were over 100 people waiting for sunrise.
My daughter at an empty Borobudur temple
Another site where it pays to stay until closing? The church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia. It’s an amazing, spiritual site, and far easier to appreciate without others around. We stayed until a few minutes after sunset when the guards finally kicked us out.
The Church of Saint George, Lalibela, Ethiopia
Travel When Others Aren’t
If you’re traveling to popular sites during peak dates, it’s going to be hard to get away from crowds. So go during shoulder seasons or even off-season. This is true for popular UNESCO sites like the Great Wall, where it gets very busy during Chinese holidays, but it also applies to theme parks. My daughter and I went to Hong Kong Disneyland in February a few years ago, two weeks after the Chinese New Year celebrations, and there was hardly anyone else there. Not only were we able to avoid lines, we could go on rides over and over again without being asked to get off. It’s the only time I’ve experienced that anywhere, and it was all because of the timing of our visit.
An empty Hong Kong Disneyland
And if you want Venice to yourself, go in the spring. The weather is warm enough, the acqua alta (high water) has receded, and there aren’t many other visitors.
Venice in the spring
Be Patient
So let’s say that you can’t avoid the peak times to visit – that doesn’t mean that you have to be surrounded by crowds. Depending on the site, people may arrive in waves, in which case you can relax and wait for the crowd to pass by in order to have a less-touristy experience, or you can move around a little to find the quieter spots.
At some locations, timing is everything. I mentioned Borobudur above. Everyone arrives for the sunrise and then heads to breakfast. We found that 20 minutes after sunrise there was virtually no one there. And in Santorini, most people head for the famous sunset spot every night starting half an hour before sunset and they all crowd onto a small platform. That’s a great time to eat dinner! Get a table with a view, enjoy the sunset from there, and then walk to the sunset spot for a photo as soon as everyone leaves – it clears out quickly. That’s the best light anyway.
The sunset spot in Santorini, right after sunset
Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia is another spot where it pays to be patient. There’s a steady stream of people walking through, but if you want photos with no one in them, all you have to do is wait a minute and chances are it will be clear for a little while. This is one time when my photos are deceptive. There were people around; we were simply patient.
My son at Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
The same was the case at the Fushimi Inari Taisha torii gates in Kyoto, Japan. It’s not hard to get a photo without anyone in them – you just need to wait a while.
A people-free shot of the torii gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha
Book a Tour
We frequently visit Europe’s most popular cities – Paris, London, Florence and Venice during the most popular season: summer. To get away from the crowds, we book a lot of private tours. If you book with the right companies, the guides will know when to arrive at sites, how to avoid lines, and how to navigate away from the crowds.
In Athens for a day off a cruise ship, we booked a walking tour to get us away from the 2,400 others on our ship. By the time we got to the Parthenon, it was deserted. Perfect!
Athen’s Parthenon with no one else around
And in London this summer, we booked a tour of the Tower of London through Context Travel that started as soon as the Tower opened. Not only was there no line to see the Crown Jewels, the crowds around the site were minimal. That’s definitely not the case later in the day.
The Tower of London, early
The moral to all of this? Never be satisfied being in a crowd. No matter where you travel, you can almost always find a way to have an individualized experience, sometimes by timing it right and sometimes by being patient.
Eric Stoen
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This is great advice. One issue with traveling with kids is that you’re stuck with mostly traveling in the high season. Especially as they get older and missing school is a bigger issue.
Before I had kids, I visited Venice twice in winter, when it was empty. It was great. I went with my kids over Christmas break, for New Year’s Eve, which was crowded but fantastic. We’ve only encountered the acqua alta once, and believe it or not, it was actually quite fun. An alarm sounds, and lets you know it is coming, and you can watch the water rise. We had waterproof boots, they set up tables to walk on, and everyone goes about their business. It was kind of exciting. I was glad I experienced it. But I would like to see Venice in another season too. Next time.
We got up at the crack of dawn to see Fushimi Inari before the hordes arrived. We were able to get similar photos to yours. There were other people there as early as we were, but everyone cooperated so that everyone could get the money shot. But my husband and I left our teenagers sleeping in our airbnb. Try getting teenagers up at the crack of dawn. It is not pretty. Especially my teenagers. They’ll do it to make a flight, or for something they are specifically interested in. But not so they can see a sight without crowds. We would never have made it out so early, and they definitely preferred sleep. I felt a little guilty because they didn’t get to see it, but we were all happier in the end. And one advantage of teenagers is you can leave them alone!