A New Annoying Phenomenon About Traveling In Europe

I love traveling, and as a European, it's easy to travel across the continent. There's so much to see and to do. Even the cities below the top tier of destinations often have plenty to offer and lots of beautiful architecture to adore. But there is something that is starting to annoy me more and more about traveling in Europe. It's harder and harder to be spontaneous while exploring European cities. Every sight nowadays has to be pre-booked, and they are often sold out days, or sometimes weeks in advance.

It's not a rant that there are too many people traveling. It's good that travel is up to speed again after the Pandemic. It's more an issue about how the sights organize themselves. I haven't seen this type of problem so much elsewhere, outside of Europe. It wasn't an issue ten years ago either at least not on this scale.

The reason why this is mostly a problem in Europe and not so much elsewhere is probably because it's much more common to see huge tour groups in Europe. I don't see the same type of group travel on other continents. A lot of the time slots for a specific time will always be locked for these groups, making it much harder for other tourists to be spontaneous about their travel.

I was in Barcelona, in March so it's not an issue of avoiding the high season, and going to Sagrada Familia was impossible. The next available time to enter was two weeks later, and they had no option to buy a ticket on the spot. Same thing in Florence in April/May. It's not the high season, but the prospect of entering the Cathedral or Galleria dell'Accademia to see the Statue of David was slim for someone who does not want to pre-book my whole trip in advance.

The reason I find this business of having to buy a ticket in advance to be so annoying is that I have to pre-pay and if I don't show up at that specific time I will lose the money. If it was possible to pre-pay for a date and then come at any time that day it would be much better. Or if I could move my time spot as I see fit, even after it had expired. I was not in the vicinity of this sight at the time I thought I would be. No problem, I'll reschedule for tomorrow.

From a business perspective, it's of course much better the way things are today, I realize that. But the sights that have this issue with huge queues and fully booked weeks in advance will always be able to fill up the spots with walk-ins. For me, it would be much less annoying if it was possible to make a booking that was valid for any time during that day. This way they can limit the number of people, as I understand that sometimes it's not possible to allow an unlimited number of visitors, while still giving tourists the ability to be spontaneous.

Something else that bothers me is that opening times can be very limited. It's not uncommon to see sights open from 10-15 for example. Sights that are indoors can easily be open until 1900 or 2000, which they rarely are. That way more people can get inside and crowds spread out.

A few times I've been able to get around the issue of not wanting to pre-book, while sometimes I've missed a sight. The good thing is that I personally am usually fine with seeing the architecture from the outside, but it's always nice to go inside and experience something famous too. I'm a little bit sad that I was not able to see Edinburgh Castle or the David Statue in Florence due to that I had to pre-book days in advance. In both Edinburgh and Barcelona, I looked into the alternative to book a time, even though I'm not interested in locking my days like that, and in both cases, I found that the next available time was long after I had already left the city.

In Madrid, I went to the Prado Museum in the morning and saw huge lines and was told that the next available time to enter would be in a few days. Since I stayed near the museum I was nearby about an hour before closing and thought I could walk by. The queues were gone, and the place was almost empty. So I walked up to the ticket booth and asked. I could buy a ticket and enter straight away!

A similar thing happened with the British Museum in London. The queue was huge, and while it was free to enter and no ticket was required, I was not feeling for spending half of my day in London waiting in a queue. But once again I tried the trick of going there towards closing time. No queues! One hour before closing, plenty of time to explore the museum, and I could just walk in. I tried the same thing with Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. It did not work.

In Dublin, I experienced the reason why many of the sights require you to book online. Even though it was rather empty, I was told that I had to buy a ticket online. I could get a time in the next five minutes and enter right away, but I had to buy it online since they had no ticket booths. By not having any ticket booths they can reduce staffing and save a lot of money (while still keeping the same entrance fees).