Places you’ve been which have been insanely busy

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Friends have just come back from Santorini and they said that in one town (I can’t remember the name), they were literally queuing to walk around. They couldn’t actually walk, but just shuffled along behind the people in front. It’s my idea of hell. My parents said similar about the old town in Barcelona and parts of Lake Garda. Where have you experienced this?

I really do my level best to avoid going anywhere popular in the summer months - I'd rather risk the weather off-season than deal with crowds.

Pistyll Rhaeadr in particular during COVID. The road is very narrow and single track. If you're going against the traffic it's hellish.

Amalfi coast. Packed everywhere and honestly overrated.

Borough Market, been going years, always busy sure, but last time you literally couldn't walk. Shuffle, shuffle. Horrific, never again.

Kotor in Montenegro - day trip as staying nearby and chose the day when three cruise ships had docked. Absolutely hellish.
any train station in China
any supermarket in China on the run up to Chinese new year
British museum
st Ives in July - won’t make that mistake again!

Florence was overwhelmingly busy. I felt so claustrophobic that we ended up finding a park to sit in for the afternoon away from everyone.

Istanbul was also rammed everywhere, but was manageable.

Central London and Oxford

The Shambles in York, especially outside the Ghost Shop. 2-3 hour queues first thing on a Monday morning… nah.

York Christmas Market. Horrendously busy.

Just reminded by another thread

Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Massive slow moving queue to get up. 2 minutes at the top to look at the view (much the same as from any other high building there) and then massive slow moving queue to get down. Insane.

Versailles Palace more than 20 years ago. Queued to get in, then shuffled in the middle of about 6 lanes of people through the whole palace. A kind of M25 for people but no exits.
I think places like that may have got better with timed entrances and buying tickets online.

The blue lagoon in Reykjavík Iceland. Packed with people. Hideous.

We had to be in London today and thought we might spend a couple of hours there before our appointment. Took one look at the ginormous queue to get in and changed our minds.

Venice is fabulous - just do the popular places early or late in the day. So many people are day trippers who only do St Mark's Square, a bit of planning and you can see it all comfortably. It's so much worse in the summer so I think autumn will be fine.

We’ve visited two places mentioned in this thread, Lake Garda and Dubrovnik over the last year, one late September and one early June and neither were majorly busy. I realise it’s a lot more difficult for those who are confined to school breaks but Easter (outside of the main weekend), May and October are generally still quieter as they don’t coincide with holidays in other countries.

New York at New Year, we made the most of the jet lag and got up the Empire State Building and all the other sights at the crack of dawn each day to have any chance of seeing them

Capri!

Dubrovnik. It’s a beautiful city, and well worth visiting but when we went it was just insanely busy. This was around 15 years ago, and in September so goodness knows what it must be like now. Cruise ships are a curse in such places.

Also, Notting Hill Carnival. I’m used to massive crowds because I go to a lot of big sporting events but this was a completely different level. It was the only time in my life I have been genuinely frightened for my safety in a crowd because I was just getting carried along in the crush of people. I was being accidentally groped from all angles, I couldn’t go forwards or backwards or escape. It is another Hillsborough waiting to happen. Never, ever again.

We were in the Louvre in April and parts of it were horribly crowded and really hot as a result. It made me wonder how hot it gets in summer.

Outside of the main tourist attractions, Barcelona at Easter this year wasn’t too bad. Probably helped that we stayed just outside the main area.

London, specifically Westminster Bridge, on the other hand, this February half term, was just awful. Complete crush.

Re Venice ... I'm not sure if I'll go again because I felt part of the "problem". But it is so beautiful that I'd never put anyone off from visiting. Stay in a proper hotel and not Airbnb (which doesn't benefit the city), seek out the nicer small restaurants away from the centre. Go out very early and late, when the day trippers have gone, and just walk and walk. I was genuinely moved by the beauty of it all.

Avoid central London in the summer.

There’s only one way to enjoy Santorini and that is to book a lovely sea facing, private pool with Greek breakfast included hotel. It’s the sunsets gorgeous sea that you want to stare at whilst relaxing well away from the crowds. We did occasional day trips but stayed relaxing during the day watched the sunset and then headed for dinner.

We used to travel two/three times a year before Covid. Post Covid it’s just a different and more crowded world.

The Vatican. So busy we couldn't stop to look.

Mont Mt Michel is comedy busy in the summer. Much better most of the rest of the year though.

@PinkPaulineis this on the north east coast by any chance? If you're talking about the town I'm thinking of I used to love having a little wander around the town to have a break from writing my dissertation and regularly when my children were little. Lots of lovely memories but I can't stand the place now