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?

@HotCrossPuns yes last 2 years they have spread the market out which I think was an improvement too , I can avoid it as live here

The British museum at Easter was just miserable,
you couldn’t stop and look at anything and more recently Paris. Not all of it but round the Mona Lisa (by the time everyone has taken 1000 selfies), the Eiffel Tower and notre dame.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot in the 90s when I was young and pretty much everywhere now is so crowded in comparison.

I can remember being a SAHM ~15 years ago and everywhere was empty during the weekdays. I went to Costco on a Wednesday morning recently and it was packed. It just seems everywhere it’s like that now. I live near York and I don’t go into the city at all the entire time the Christmas market is on. I don’t even think it’s that good because there are just so many people you can’t move or see anything.

@hennybeans as someone in Bath I feel your pain . I think one of the problems within the UK is that as many other places have deteriorated in terms of the retail/ leisure experience and villages have lost their few shops, pubs, cafe etc - everyone gravitates to the same few still pleasant places where they can have an enjoyable day out, rather than often stick to their local area,

Balos and Elefonissi beaches in Crete. Recommended by my parents who had visited 30 years previously.

When they were there, there were only four other people there, including them. So busy now that you could barely see the sand for people.

The Amalfi was like this and we did not enjoy it at all!

Could this be down to the locals getting out of the city to the countryside / coast for their holidays, or is it a bit early for that? I remember many years back visiting Milan in August on two occasions as a day trip from Maggiore / Garda and both times it was like a ghost town in places with many things closed. I guess that may not happen now, this was late 90s.

Ambleside? Afraid you were just lucky! That has been somewhere where you shuffle along trying not to fall off the pavement since we first visited in the 1990s. Unless it has had quiet periods since of course!

You need to visit in September! Several of the resort towns along the Costa Smeralda were pretty much deserted. In the day time anyway, very few places open for lunch.

Hallstatt in Austria

St Ives on a rainy day in May half term. Every single tourist in Cornwall having a wet day out, trying to walk along Fore St.

Lincoln is now cancelled due to the huge crowds becoming dangerous.

Any rush hour train in the UK.

It can be really unpleasant yes, found Christmas the worst time.

Whitby

That's sounds hideous. I've been to Santorini and it was spectacular, nothing like that. Mine was Delhi, India on Christmas Day when everyone was on holiday. I went back to the hotel and told DH I thought I could handle anything but it was too much, I had no idea it was a public holiday and basically everyone was out! Suffice to say the rest of the trip was amazing and I've been back twice since.

Also did not experience this on the Amalfi Coast! Has something changed?

The trick is to find other places that are nearly as nice but not discovered by mass tourism. We’ve house swapped for years which has led us to some lovely places in Europe that are gorgeous and basically empty of tourists. Everyone flocks to the same few places.

York - in summer, at Christmas, on race days…

Hawkshead - now very much removed from quiet little lakeland village where we’d visit dad’s godmother in the 1970s.

Anywhere in the Peak District on a sunny bank holiday

Disney Sea, Tokyo

Quite possibly. Many places had signs saying closed until the end of August.

Can I now add Lisbon to the list? We have just got back and although it was lovely, some places were rammed. The Alfama district was packed with Tuk-tuks and strange small cars that looked like they were from the Whacky Races. The queue for the Jeronimos Monastery was 2 hours at 9.30 am (we didn’t wait) and were also massive for the trams. We ended up going out late afternoon and evening in an attempt to get some peace.