How to avoid huge tourist overcrowded destinations?

[Flashback]

How did you find the driver? ... as in how was the introduction

Car rental there is very cheap and also the drive up to Mostar is easy. The border crossing is very quick, too.

 

[latawiec]

I was very unimpressed with Venice and dont plan to return (but never say never). I feel you can see everything in a few hours, after that its just a grab for cash from over price restaurants or over priced glass/jewelery sellers and the food there is is not as good as elsewhere in Italy.

Noting that Winter is not always offseason, Winter is the recommended time to visit Iceland and northern Norway if you want clear skies to see the best of the Arora Borealis.

I dont enjoy being cold and having to pack so many layers, I do it if I feel there will be ample reward for the effort but generally much prefer to travel Autumn, Summer or Spring depending on the destination. Different strokes for different folks.

We were in Venice in May 2008 for 2 days. We have very beautiful memories of the Venice and Murano Island as there was not many tourists at this time.
See it on the attached pictures.

 

[latawiec]

I have a photo of me sitting at Trevi fountain in 1988 with one other tourist - and noone else

So I have a similar one with just me at the Navona Fountain
But now Piazza Navona is in renovation.

 

[Forg]

We were in Venice in May 2008 for 2 days. We have very beautiful memories of the Venice and Murano Island as there was not many tourists at this time.

Venice is surprisingly polarising!
So many seem to hate it, we enjoyed ourselves!

Admittedly over 20 years ago it might not have been as busy ... dunno how you can see it all in a couple of hours though, it takes that (or more?) just to walk from one end to the other without stopping to look at anything! I mean you wouldn't stay there for a few weeks given the limited amount of time most Australians will have in a European holiday ...

I guess your enjoyment depends upon expectation, upon crowds (we were there in late October), upon seasonal tide conditions (it wasn't smelly when we were there), upon who you fluke to interact with (we had to do a gondola tour - the gondolier was the same age as us & it was a fun relaxing chat comparing notes about the age countries etc etc), maybe even whether there's a cruise ship or 5 in town (can't recall from when we were there).
And if you have a bad experience, there's so much of the world to see why would you go back, I guess?

 

[Warks]

Also consider Vicenza - I had 5 nights there earlier this year and loved it. I did a day trip to Padua and very glad I chose to base myself in Vicenza and not Padua. I prefer to spend a bit more time in one place rather than just day trips but YMMV

Thanks, I will check it out. Bologna is favoured because it is central to a number of places with good rail connections. That's why we want to be based near the main station. Going to be a very different trip to my backpacking days when I was last in Italy 30 years ago. I'm not going to miss lining up at a youth hostel 20 minutes outside a town in order to secure a bed for the night!

 

[Lynda2475]

Each to their own, I had pretty much two full days there and felt there was nothing more to see on day 2, I would have preferred to have more time in Rome or Florence or go to another town.

Venice wasn't crowded when I was there just over 20 years ago. We caught an overnight ferry from Corfu and arrived just as the sun was rising (luggage transferred to hotel just out of town).

Walked the city as it was waking up, pretty had it to ourselves until about 9am. Had a crazy expensive coffee and Gelato (that wasnt as nice as the Gelato in Florence). I managed to see St Marks Square (unflooded and uncrowded but full of filthy pigeons and lots of hawkers selling tacky souvenirs), Bridge of Sighs, a glass blowing demo, take a Gondola ride and peruse artist markets in under 4 hours.

There are imo far more interesting places in Italy. But you have to make up your own mind.

 

[ellen10]

How did you find the driver? ... as in how was the introduction

We stayed in apartments 10 metres from one of the gates. Downstairs was a little travel agency. We looked at renting a car and driving ourselves, but it was very reasonable to hire a driver with a van. He knew the roads, the border crossing procedures and he was a really interesting guy who had lived all his life in the area. He told us many stories of life in Croatia and the the sad demise of the rural areas, where the young people moved away and the farms died.
We loved Mostar and had a delicious lunch which was so cheap. The food was excellent, and plentiful. We gave the owner a tip and she was so overwhelmed that she followed us out the door and gave us all a free beer. Which we drank down by the river watching the guys jumping off the bridge.
It was a great day.

 

[ellen10]

I have been to Venice 4 times over a 47 year period. First time was on a Sundowners camping trip. We stayed at Camping Fusina, (it is still there), which had the biggest mozzies I had ever seen.
Over the years I have seen the changes, but still love its uniqueness. Our last visit was 2019. We always manage to do different things and love getting off the main drag and into the back blocks, with hardly any tourists. And nothing beats St Marco Square late at night, with the tourist cruise ships gone and the magical orchestras playing in late evening.

 

[VPS]

I have been to Venice 4 times over a 47 year period. First time was on a Sundowners camping trip. We stayed at Camping Fusina, (it is still there), which had the biggest mozzies I had ever seen.
Over the years I have seen the changes, but still love its uniqueness. Our last visit was 2019. We always manage to do different things and love getting off the main drag and into the back blocks, with hardly any tourists. And nothing beats St Marco Square late at night, with the tourist cruise ships gone and the magical orchestras playing in late evening.

I did a Contiki tour in 1982 and we stayed at Camping Fusina as well. The T shirt factory next door burnt down and we couldn't get to our tents so had to sleep in the restaurant or something. I just remember someone snoring very loudly

 

[ellen10]

I did a Contiki tour in 1982 and we stayed at Camping Fusina as well. The T shirt factory next door burnt down and we couldn't get to our tents so had to sleep in the restaurant or something. I just remember someone snoring very loudly

Yes we also did another contiki tour in 1982 and stayed there again. We were there the end of July?
We got t-shirts from that place. Was it called Gooses?

 

[VPS]

Yes we also did another contiki tour in 1982 and stayed there again. We were there the end of July?
We got t-shirts from that place. Was it called Gooses?

I can’t remember what it was called. We got T-shirts there as well. I was there mid June 1982.

 

[SomeRando]

From the way people were going on I was expecting Tokyo to be absolutely overrun with foreign tourists. In reality there isn't really that many and at the major tourist sights they are vastly outnumbered by locals. The only place I noticed a lot more foreigners than locals was the Hachiko statue but even then the lineup for photos was only about 15-20 deep.

If you want less foreigners I'd recommend South Korea which is awesome and still not that popular. Taiwan had bugger all foreign tourists and while I did enjoy my time there I'd consider it fairly average. Nothing outstanding but worth visiting if you've done the more popular Asian destinations.

 

[Justinf]

I prefer to avoid overcrowded destinations by going out of my way to avoid tourist destinations.

Bali? Nah.

London? Never mind.

Singapore? Boring.

Join a group of incompetent tourists? My worst nightmare.

Stand in a queue for ages? Shoot me quick.

My favourite travel destinations have always been the further-flung places where I don't seem to know of others who have visited. Places like Barrow (AK):
View attachment 406584

Or Molokai (HI):
View attachment 406583

Or Papua New Guinea:
View attachment 406586

Or Palm Island (QLD):
View attachment 406580

Or the Azores islands:
View attachment 406593
That said, I'll admit that I do like Paris and Venice.

Barrow is on my bucketlist

 

[dajop]

My mother will be visiting me soon for 2.5 weeks whilst I'm on a four month assignment in Switzerland. Thinking about places to visit (aside from the Alps and other obvious ones within Switzerland). She's never been to Venice, and it is an iconic destinations, but the crowds have me worried. I went there in 1992 - December - and it was misty, beautiful and peaceful. Back in 2009 - September - busy but I wouldn't say overcrowded. So come 2024 and the overcrowding is infamous. I looked at cruise schedule - on some days the combined capacity of ships in port is around 8,000. Found some midweek days where there are no ships for two days in a row, so will do that. Thank god for WFH. And accommodation that is 500Euros on and either side of the weekend (Thu-Mon) is only about 200 Euros on Tue night. Plan hatched.

 

[Forg]

Barrow is on my bucketlist

I have one you can borrow … ?

 

[ayebee]

I have only been to Venice in winter, and enjoyed it each time.
One Feb we were there for Carnivale which was terrific.
Beautiful sunny day with plenty of people out and about, but mostly locals celebrating their city.
Peggy Guggenheim Museum is a great spot to watch the boat parade up the Grand Canal.

 

[VPS]

My mother will be visiting me soon for 2.5 weeks whilst I'm on a four month assignment in Switzerland. Thinking about places to visit (aside from the Alps and other obvious ones within Switzerland). She's never been to Venice, and it is an iconic destinations, but the crowds have me worried. I went there in 1992 - December - and it was misty, beautiful and peaceful. Back in 2009 - September - busy but I wouldn't say overcrowded. So come 2024 and the overcrowding is infamous. I looked at cruise schedule - on some days the combined capacity of ships in port is around 8,000. Found some midweek days where there are no ships for two days in a row, so will do that. Thank god for WFH. And accommodation that is 500Euros on and either side of the weekend (Thu-Mon) is only about 200 Euros on Tue night. Plan hatched.

and some beautiful train rides to get there

 

[dajop]

and some beautiful train rides to get there

I have unlimited train travel* at my disposal until 9 December, so yes will be taking advantage of these!

* plus booking fees where applicable.

 

[ayebee]

I have unlimited train travel* at my disposal until 9 December, so yes will be taking advantage of these!

* plus booking fees where applicable.

One of the "obvious places in Switzerland" that I wanted get to but missed is the Stanserhorn funicular and cable car near Lucerne. The cable car section has a cool outside top deck.
Might be getting chilly soon though.
If you just rock up it costs about $140, but is included in Swiss Travel Pass.

We went up Pilatus not far away many years back, which was glorious, but we assess weather before paying $$ for these rides.

 

[dajop]

Might be getting chilly soon though.

Chilly already. It was 28 on Saturday after a hot August, and winter arrived on Sunday. Today's top temperature in Zurich is forecast to be 11. On Stanserhorn, forecast to reach a top temperature of -2 today .

I haven't done a lot of cable cars, could spend a fortune on them if you wanted to, but I did do several hikes in August. A couple of these took me up to 2300m or so (starting down at 1200-1300m), absolutely spectacular. Will have to post some pictures in a trip review.