Work the crowd on tour
Avoiding the hordes is a challenge for even the most seasoned traveller, writes Josh Martin.
Ilike a raucous crowd in the following scenarios: concerts, comedy gigs, and sporting events. But last time I checked, Pope Francis wasn’t delivering zingers at the Sistine Chapel, Christ the Redeemer wasn’t belting out a ballad, and the Louvre wasn’t the setting of a Golden Point rugby league showdown – but for all the shoulder-barging and wayward limbs, all that separates the two are a few selfie sticks.
It’s coming into peak season in the Northern Hemisphere so the chorus about overcrowding in tourist hotspots is as shrill as it is predictable.
I get it: you shell out for the trip of a lifetime to feel renewed and invigorated, not to feel the coughs and splutters of fellow sightseers on your back.
You’ve travelled thousands of kilometres only to swap one rat race and slow commute for something strangely familiar . . . just in Italian.
In these times it’s the earlybird who gets to tweet an unobstructed pic of the Colosseum to their followers – but only if they beat the tour buses.
Travel experts have been recommending off-peak travel to these tourist hotspots for yonks, but instead, despite all prior warning of bumper-to-bumper traveller traffic in the Vatican (or Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona) still the hordes come! It’s sweaty, icky, a safety hazard . . . and totally avoidable.
Yes, I’m caught out in suffocating conditions occasionally, but I have little sympathy for the peas-in-a-papal-pod.
Combine record traveller numbers globally, tourism businesses hungry for your cash, and sunshine, and what did you think you’d get?
This is nothing new – worldrenowned landmarks, pieces, and places are popular for a reason – although suddenly even traditional shoulder-season months of May, September, and October are feeling more like the peak.
Don’t even get me started about travel plans colliding with the school holiday onslaught. The mad rush to the tourist traps also explains the move towards hipster, off-the-beaten path travel holidays.
But are there any solutions, or at least a counterbalance to the big city claustrophobia?
Well, yes. There may not be time and space to appreciate the (overrated and undersized) Mona Lisa in Paris, but if you want quiet reflection check out Musee Picasso or Musee Marmottan (the city’s museum pass is not accepted so the package tours shun it).
Balancing enclosed tourist traps with gardens, open spaces, and hideaway haunts can stop the feeling of being one of the tourist herd marching dutifully to your death. City tourist agencies and travellers alike should use technology for crowd management, information, and ‘‘hacks’’ more than we do.
My own visit to the Vatican was greatly improved with a few clicks on the official website to buy tickets in advance, nothing revolutionary, but boy did I feel smug striding past the neighbourhood-long line – just to get into the tiny city within a city!
This is why New Zealand is so great for tourists. It’s not that the hordes of people unloading at Auckland International Airport can’t see fjords, mountains, and beaches in their homeland, they can and, guess what – they are often far superior.
The real success for little old NZ is not having to compete with every sweaty tour bus rider with a bum-bag in order to just enjoy the serenity.