How to Beat the Crowds When Travelling in Europe

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Nine weeks in Europe in Summer

My husband and I just spent nine weeks travelling in Southern Europe from the beginning of June to the beginning of August. It was hot and it was crowded. Did we love it? 100%! Did we learn from it? 100%! Would we do it again? Yes, but read my tips and see what we might do differently next time.

Firstly, if you don’t handle the heat, then don’t go to Southern Europe in summer. Yes, you can travel early in the day and late in the day and choose air-conditioned accommodation and restaurants but you still can’t avoid the heat entirely.

The fact is that, if it’s scorching hot at home, you probably limit your time outdoors. Think about whether you want to be touring the Colosseum in Rome in 104 degree heat (40 degrees Celsius). And that’s the weather alone. I haven’t even mentioned the crowds yet!

Let me start with some of the places we visited on our recent trip that were particularly crowded: Verona, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Kotor and Dubrovnik.

Verona

We wandered around Verona before 10 a.m. with barely anyone else, but by lunchtime, the crowds were in full force. There were roped-off “lanes” to control the pedestrian traffic to see Juliet’s balcony. (Juliet’s “fake” balcony, but that is a whole other topic!)

Venice

As you would expect, peak crowds in Venice were in and around St Mark’s Square. I tried for a while to take a photo from the Bridge of Sighs without a pile of other tourists in the shot but I gave up. At the end of the day, I could not complain. I was one of the many tourists after all!

Florence

I walked into Florence late one afternoon after a big travel day and the swarming crowds immediately put me off. Maybe I was just hot and grumpy? I then had three full days in Florence and I loved every bit of each of them, crowds and all.

We opted to say somewhere rather lovely since my Husband and I were in Florence as a duo for the first time in many years. The hotel had a pool on a terrace overlooking the rooftops of Florence, including the magnificent Duomo, and we retreated there every afternoon, so that did have something to do with it, but that’s a tip in itself.

Stay somewhere fancy (ha ha)! No. What I mean is don’t feel that you have to “go” all day in the heat. Retreat somewhere cool in the afternoon and revive.

Back to Florence, we did a walking tour one day and the walking tour crowds assembling at 10am was a shock and a reminder of how many tourists there are in Florence, all milling about the same, small area.

Our tour guide, Riccardo, told us sadly about the demise of the leather-making industry in Florence and the exodus of young people. Like so many other “tourist hot spots” in Europe, Florence is no longer a desirable or affordable place for young people to live.

Pisa

We visited Pisa on a Sunday and had photos of the Leaning Tower with hundreds of our new besties! We considered buying a ticket to climb it, but it was too late. They were sold out.

That’s a tip—pre-book your accommodation, transport (flights, trains, buses, and rental cars), and activities to avoid missing out altogether and to save on paying last-minute, premium prices.

Cinque Terre

One place that was marred for us by the crowds and the price-gouging was Cinque Terre. We drove to Riomaggiore. We would never again do this—we had to wait for a car to leave the full car park, and it was not yet 10 a.m.

Then, the free space required a magician to park in. Credit here to my husband, who doesn’t freak out at hard-to-access parking spots despite driving a manual transmission on what, for an Australian, is the wrong side of the road.

Parking achieved, we walked around Riomaggiore, heading for Via dell’Amore (Lovers’ Lane) to walk to Manarola. As we moved closer into the town, the crowds increased to the point where we could only shuffle. To make matters worse, when we arrived at the Via dell’Amore, it was still closed – we missed the re-opening after 12 years by a week!

Unless we only wanted to see Riomaggiore, we had two options—the train or the ferry. We had been to Cinque Terre twice before and had accessed the beautiful seaside villages by train and ferry.

On this occasion, we only wanted to visit two or three so we decided to train to Manarola. The summer price for one person to travel one station was EUR10! For a 10-minute train journey (less than 1 mile or 1.5 kilometres).

We begrudgingly paid the EUR40 to take us to Manarola and back and waited on the train platform in the heat for about half an hour while trains whooshed past us. When one eventually stopped, it was crowded with sweaty people, and there was standing room only. Lucky, the journey was short.

When we arrived at Manarola, the walking path to Corniglia was closed, and it looked like it had not been touched since we last saw it in 2016. Again, we were surrounded by ever-swelling crowds. We found a restaurant for an average lunch and decided to call it quits. We won’t hurry back to claustrophobic Cinque Terre again in summer.

Read More: The Magical Town of Portovenere, the Perfect Retreat Near Cinque Terre

Crowds in Montenegro and Croatia

The crowds weren’t just in Italy. We found them in Kotor, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia, too. We had a half day in Kotor and shared the small Old Town with thousands of others. Three cruise ships were in port at once. We were in no position to complain, having docked on one of those ships – the Azamara Pursuit.

We did a walking tour and meandered for a bit afterward, but a combination of the crowds and the heat pushed us back to our ship early. My Husband went off for a swim, and I sat on our stateroom balcony, watching the hordes of colourful windsurfers jump the waves with the increasing winds. We both made a positive out of any negative there!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Finally and, for me, most thought-provokingly, there was Dubrovnik. We were in Dubrovnik for a day from our cruise ship and part of a throng of people. Crowd control measures included ropes with direction arrows for pedestrian traffic flow.

We did a walking tour in the morning, had a quick bite, and then went sea kayaking. The sea kayaking is a story for another day—it was an amazing experience and certainly a way to beat the crowds! I’m not sure there is a better way to admire the medieval fortifications of Dubrovnik than from the water below.

Back to being thought-provoking, though…our tour guide, Luka, was a Dubrovnik native. He was a fan of Croatia being part of the EU but had some interesting and concerning thoughts on tourism. Croatia, he told us, lost 500,000 residents since 2011. Some returned due to Covid, but there is now one retiree for every worker.

Luka told us that one-fifth of the Croatian economy is tourism and that, slowly, all industries other than tourism are shutting down. Even wineries and olive oil production have become tourism businesses. He himself admitted that being a tour guide for a few hours a day for part of the year is a much easier life than being a farmer.

Luka believes that tourism has brought Dubrovnik back to life and saved Croatia’s economy. On the other hand, Dubrovnik has a population of 42,000 but 45,000 tourist beds! Hardly any locals live in the Old Town any longer – 900, but there are 2,800 tourist beds. Even with a cap of two cruise ships per day during the cruising season (the cap was instituted in 2018), there can be 9,000 visitors during the day in Dubrovnik.

Luka’s parting comment was intensely personal. He knows inflation is crazy, yet he regards life as prosperous because previous generations were marked by occupation and conflict.

The Quandary of Overtourism

This summer, we have seen locals protesting in Barcelona and Majorca about the ever-growing number of tourists who drive up real estate prices and prices.

We have seen cities like Venice restrict cruise ships and introduce a daily visitor tax (in addition to the city tax applied widely across Europe for every night’s accommodation).

Cities even impose premium pricing to drive down numbers. For example, there is a penalty to climb the UNESCO-protected Dubrovnik City Walls between 1 March and 31 October where the cost rises to EUR35 per adult (from EUR15 per adult between 1 November and 29 February).

This high price is meant to be a deterrent, but the deterrent is managed against what is also a necessary contribution to the conservation of the Walls. Krka National Park, near Šibenik in Croatia, charged us EUR40 to access the breathtaking Skradinski BukWaterfall, yet in other months of the year, it only costs EUR7.

The quandary is that places like Dubrovnik are becoming increasingly dependent on tourism. If tourism numbers decline because the local authorities legislate about numbers or because tourists are dissatisfied with their experience, how will those places survive? This problem is being wrestled with and lived throughout Europe, particularly in summer.

There are interesting times ahead, when places like Dubrovnik and Florence will have to weigh up how many tourists they need and want against the exodus of the locals (especially the young people).

How to Beat Summer Crowds in Europe for an Authentic Experience

I’ve mentioned a few ideas already – sightsee early or late, rest and revive in the heat of the day and prebook your accommodation, transport and activities.

Another tip is to visit “destination dupes.” For example, go to Bologna rather than battle the queues in Florence; go to pretty but quiet Menton instead of pretty but bustling Nice. We had a wonderful few days between overcrowded (but still beautiful) Venice and Florence in Bologna.

Even in tourist meccas like Venice, go off the beaten tourist track. Often, a few streets back, let alone a few blocks back, will see a change from swarms of tourists to locals going about their daily business.

Do “non-touristy” things. For example, go to the local supermarket (fascinating), local markets (try and avoid weekends), use local public transport (although taxi and UBER drivers can also give you a fascinating slice of local life) and spend time in lesser-known towns or suburbs.

You will feel like you are experiencing a place rather than just having a sanitised, tourist experience.

Using the local train or buying your dinner from the local supermarket might seem mundane, but doing so gives you a real insight into the local culture and how residents actually live.       

If you are cruising, choose a smaller ship (eg Azamara Cruises) where a core principle is no queuing. Destination ports may still be crowded, but you can always retreat to the ship.    

Avoid beaches in summer. Beaches can be very crowded in summer (duh) and surge pricing can apply to beach clubs. The water is warmer, and the crowds are thinner in fall (we call it autumn in Australia).

Avoid the tourist mecca cities and spend time in the countryside. It is often cooler and less crowded than in the big cities.

Of course, you can avoid travelling in summer altogether (or during the peak period for the destination you intend to visit) and try a different season.

If all those tips fail, try and chill and enjoy!

Remember that you are privileged to be travelling.

Travelling is something that you spend money on but that actually makes you richer. Soak up the experience! The crowds will become part of the trip stories you reminisce about.

Read More:

• 15 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Italy
• Hiking the Cinque Terre
• Cinque Terre: 5 Towns and 10 Great Things to Do There
• The Magical Town of Portovenere, the Perfect Retreat Near Cinque Terre
• A Day in Florence, Italy Finding Food, Art & Love

Author Bio: Leonie Jarrett lives in Melbourne, Australia with her Husband of more than 3 decades, 2 of her 4 adult children and her 2 Golden Retrievers. Leonie is a lawyer who has owned several businesses. Now that she is semi-retired, avid traveller Leonie is loving writing about her travels and her experiences.