Lucerne at Central Switzerland is overcrowded, manly by Chinese people. Also Mount Rigi near by. The reason is a Korean Band. They made Video Clips there. If you what to go up a mountain at Lake Lucerne got to Stanserhorn. Mount Pilatus can also by crowded, at some days.
oh the cities were RUINED by Islamic migrants, not tourists. but I understand why you cannot admit this. they'd put you in jail for saying such an obviously true statement.
Not untrue, but cruise passengers don’t burden local housing. Cruisers exit the ship and take an excursion (through the cruise company or not) or enjoy the port. Either way they put some money into the local economy and then show themselves out.
Mainly North Americans actually and instagrammers. Code word for instagrammers and RUclipsrs. Fortunately I’m pretty good at seeking out places before hoards of instagrammers discover it.
Went to Crete in April, and stayed away from Chersonysos. Beautiful big island. Lots of beautiful historic towns, villages and nature. Very friendly people. But even they told us that after May, it can get a bit much with tourists.
I have done three trips to Europe in the past 18 months. I go alone, as an elderly widowed man. My way: I ignore the famous sites, except art museums. Instead--if there is an empty street, I walk down it. If it begins to fill up with people, I duck down another empty, ancient street. Plenty of places to walk in Paris, Rome, Florence--if you simply duck into empty alleys, streets, lanes, rues, tiny piazzas. They are easy to find and you see what you'd never see otherwise.
As a hospitality worker in Prague, I feel like tourists are scared to step out of the historical city centre or they think there is nothing else to see beyond the bridge, the castle and the old town square (while locals avoid the centre at all costs). It’s two different worlds.
No jo. I live close to Hostomice and if I go to Prague, Andel is my limit. If I go anywhere beyond Ujezd., my mood deteriorates way faster than I can walk 😂
Well, we were scared a bit one time... a friend and I took the hotel reservation of his younger brother which could not go, not knowing what part of Prague he booked in. Was quite some years ago and smartphones were not a thing yet, so we tried to find the hotel and walked and walked, at some point we met a nice lady that could not speak English but German which we as German speakers found pretty nice, she helped us out a bit, but after a while we got lost again between some commie blocks (was really not the best area) and since we saw no one else we asked the most clichee slav dude you could imagine (Adidas track suite, white socks, bottle of beer in one hand, cigarette in the other... just perfect) for the way. He did not understand much, but when we showed him the adress of the hotel we thought he wanted to show us the way (we did not understand a word, he understood that we did not understand and just started walking and gesticulating) and we just followed him for quite some time, always ready to get robbed in some dodgy street, but no, he actually walked us all the way to our hotel. We were so happy... handed him the last beer we still had on us, he was happy, we were happy, overall a great trip, even so we nearly died some times when trying to get home at night because a 10 lane highway, no bridge and a drunken mind do not produce the best ideas.
I live in Prague and I gave up on trying to walk in city center. In summer / spring it is so overcrowded with tourists, that it is not possible just to walk even. I stay away from this area. But if you are coming to Prague and you want to enjoy it, my advise: explore Prague outside of Old Town. Trust me, there are so many beautiful spots here. All good restaurants, pubs, galleries, gardens, parks are outside. Vinohrady and Holesovice are the main spots for good food and bars if you are looking to try local cuisine or just to have some nice dinner / lunch. City center is unfortunately full of tourists traps, like overpriced food and drinks. And they are also not very nice to tourists.
We, usually stay in Vinohrady. Nice part of Prague indeed. In the touristic places it really has become not only overcrowded and too noisy, but also unfriendly (Czechs as well as tourists, dunno what was there first).
Karlin neighborhood is worth exploring, lots of cool places to eat/drink and the new pedestrian bridge across the river makes it easy to get to Prague Market.
For Toledo, Spain, I highly recommend staying overnight there. day trippers usually pack the town 10am - 4pm, but you will really enjoy it if you arrive in the afternoon and leave the next day around noon time as you will have plenty of time to wonder around with much smaller crowd. It is such a gorgeous place after most of the loud day trippers have left and before they arrive!
Indeed. I had a friend who lived in Toledo at one point and the difference in the evening was noticeable. Places which had been pack at noon were almost deserted at 8pm.
In Spain and Portugal they have converted castles and monasteries into hotels called paradores and posadas. Most are located in remote areas in between the major tourist destinations. We found them less crowded, full amenities including swimming pools and a restaurant serving regional dishes. We opted a package deal staying at several paradores on our road trip in Spain.
We loved staying at the Parador hotels in San Estevo in Galicia & in Cuenco. Both former monasteries & both hotels were gorgeous! Neither was overly touristy.
There is overtourism in many great cities. But if you want to go to Edinburgh, or Florence, or any other great city, you don't want to go elsewhere. Just don't go during the peak season.
no ways man, come to Edinburgh in August during the Fringe. The vibe in town is amazing :) Busses are a wee bit slow because of tourists that have apparently never taken public transport before in their entire life. Besides that no complaints. More people that come to Edinburgh the better xD
Not a city but the Cinque Terre villages - I visited in mid may and thought I was going to avoid the worst, boy was I wrong. I wish I had spent more time in Genova which has tourists too but still feels like a real city for real people
I love that you mentioned other places in Bavaria to go to besides the castles. For the list of little towns overrrun with tourists, Schwangau is packed all year round with tourists wanting to see Neuschwanstein castle. They even rush you through the castle to get as many tourists in, and I didn’t like the lack of time to absorb the vibes. Going to Ettal to see Linderhof palace was far less crowded . Plus I thought the inside was more cool than Neuschwanstein, the grotto was beautiful!
Oxford and Cambridge are sometimes just completely packed with tourists! I used to live in the UK (I'm from Canada) and I lived in a small city just south of Liverpool called Chester. It's an absolutely beautiful historic town, built by the Romans (the Roman wall still stands and circles the inner city). If you're travelling to the UK and want to go to a smaller city packed with history, but not packed with tourists, go to Chester.
I went to Newfoundland and it was genuinely by far the coolest place I’ve ever been. People have a sort of Irish accent, with a Maine culture, with Icelandic/Norwegian geography. It was literally incredible and I have no idea why people don’t go there.
It's simple math. A flight ticket from Montreal to St John's would be more expensive than flying to Europe, let alone Florida, Mexico, or any other sunny destination. If flying within Canada is expensive, one has to be very dedicated to pay the price for a ticket to St John's coming from abroad.
San Gimignano, Italy is a small town that seemed overwhelmed with tourists when I visited last summer. It's a beautiful place, but the crowds everywhere kind of ruined it for me. I think there are probably less people on weekdays in the off-season, but I won't be returning any time soon.
That's so sad to hear. - About 15 years back our history AP went to Italy (Florence mainly and somewhat off-season-ish) and our teacher took us to that funny little town and it was so nice ... mostly because it was *not* as overcrowded as Florence.
So it must have changed a lot since I was there (ok, many years ago). I had the impression that there were mainly day tourists and after 5pm it was a quiet, charming little town.
Was there about 8 years ago for a week and stayed at the campground on the other side of the lake, enjoyed the town in the early morning and evenings once the Chinese day trippers cleared. Insanely peaceful and gorgeous.
We went to Mykonos in October and it was amazing. Basically no crowds, super pleasant weather and sunshine, and we got to stay in a place with a sea view for 200 a night that charges 700 a night in the summer! Also we had a lot of casual interactions with the locals and shopkeepers of the island and even though Greeks tell you not to go there the charming white lanes and the day trip to Delos made the whole experience super worth it.
@@susanaescriba977it's cheap cos the hotels are not filling up in October! This year they are cutting their prices substantially in the hotels and villas as they're not filling up, and this is now in July 2024. People that had spending money, now don't due to the rise in interest rates and their mortgage payments increasing alot, so places that are expensive are not on as many people's lists. Mykonos has also gained a bad reputation as overpriced.
I was just in Lisbon last week and it wasn’t that crowded. If you go to places like Sintra and Belem, go in the morning and you will beat most of the crowds. There were way too many Tuk Tuks. We mostly walked around. It was good exercise.
The longest I ever waited in line for anything was the Jeronimos monastery in Belem. I was there 20 min. before opening time, but they let the guided groups in first, then a few individuals in between groups. There were a LOT of groups. It was an hour before I got in. Then, after the monastery, I had to stand in another line and wait a long time to get into the church! (When I got out, there was only a short line.) So unless you're first in line in the morning, getting there early isn't necessarily the best option.
I'm having second thoughts about naming these places but last summer we went to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. OK, the three capital cities, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are great and not that crowded. I lot of the usual Russian tourists don't feel welcome anymore 🤔 but they're gorgeous and there are plenty of good accommodations. The jewels though are the smaller places; Tartu, Jurmala, Leipaja, Sigulda, Kaunus. I'd even recommend Klaipeda. The town itself is an OK seaport town but the jewel is that it's the gateway to the Curonian Spit which is another gorgeous nature, beach area. Also note that the Baltic beaches are great in summer. One of the few upsides of global warming is that the Baltic coasts are getting more comfortable even as the Mediterranean beaches are getting less comfortable. Hopefully not too many people will read this, but for the lucky few, lūdzu.
BTW, Almost everyone we met there spoke English. Not for our benefit. Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian are difficult languages even for their closest neighbors, so English is everybody's new second language. (I do love listening to Latvian music)
Oh yes! My wife and I went on a road trip round the Baltic states about 10 years ago. It was great; I had had some experience of these countries for my work and it was fun to introduce my wife to the area. People were very friendly and in the countryside you could then get away with English or Russian. I think that it was rare then for any tourists to venture very far outside the capitals. Jurmala in Latvia and Tartu in Estonia hold special memories.
Thank you for the post. I am Australian who travels to Europe every October. This year I am travelling to the 3 Baltic countries, so excited about these under the radar destinations. Then I go to Poland. My first time in these countries!
For a great day trip from Riga without crowds, I highly recommend the boardwalk in the marshes of the Kemeri National Park, an easy train ride away. I was really struck by the almost other-worldly beauty and it seemed to be undiscovered by foreign tourists, it was a big area and there weren't many people around. I saw a family taking their cat for a walk (yes, you read that right!) on a long lead in the forest.
We visited Greece in Sept 2021. It was so nice to see all those islands before everyone started traveling again after the pandemic. It was a wonderful vacation.
My biggest travel tip is to always go during the off-season, term time or close to but not during peak travel times. It’s calmer, cheaper and an all around better experience.
People saying Bruges is overcrowded are only half-right. You need to stay the night or 2 instead of just a day trip from 10 to 5. It’s literally empty in the mornings and nights, very authentic Belgium with no tourists. You MUST stay the night!
In Poland, I recommend, for example, Toruń as a beautiful medieval city, very famous for its gingerbread (you can even take a short baking course there); Nicolaus Copernicus was also born there. Very atmospheric, they even have a leaning house there, somewhat reminiscent of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa :) There are tourists, because it is a famous place in the country, but there are no crowds. Even in summer, when Krakow, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Warsaw are flooded with tourists.
You're right, I went there a few years ago and enjoyed it just as much as Kraków. The Copernicus museum was really interesting and the exhibits were very well translated into English. Beautiful views across the river and no crowds.
I"m in Wroclaw now (Sept 10) and it's beautiful and not too crowded, though I understand it's worse in the summer. Just arrived from Krakow which was much more touristed. Hope to get back to PL to try some of the other smaller cities mentioned . . .
@@johnpeene7849 Ok I see. If that's your opinion, no problem. Just note that since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we have accepted about 2 million refugees and there were no camps for them because Polish families welcomed them in private apartments or hotel owners provided them with rooms for free. Somehow this appeals to me more than all the comments about not smiling at strangers on the street or about not wanting to make friends right away. Enjoy Spain:)
For Spain, if you're exhausted by the crowds in Seville/Cordoba/Granada, go to Jaen with an amazing cathedral, charming old town, and amazing castle with great views. If you're tired with the tourist crowds in Madrid/Barcelona, go to Zaragoza. There you'll see incredible architecture but far fewer crowds. If you want a whole trip but without over tourism, head to the Castilla y Leon region, where you'll find amazing cathedrals, ancient towns and a unique culture.
I’ll add Extremadura to the list of places that tourists overlook. Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo were all really nice places that didn’t feel overcrowded at all.
I don't know why anyone goes to central Spain in the summer - I've seen people literally pass out from the heat! Go in March, April or September/October. There's also lovely places to go in Western Spain (Ourense, for example) that are under-touristed. Wine is cheap and delicious, people are delightful, and there are accommodations that are reasonable.
Medellín, Colombia is getting very overrun with tourists, digital nomads, and expats from all over the world because it’s surrounded by beautiful Andes mountains and it has almost perfect spring like weather year round. Manizales and Ibagué are smaller cities in Colombia where you will find mountains, nearly perfect weather year round, low crime, and much less traffic. There isn’t as much night life in the smaller cities, but there is still a lot to do especially if you love nature, waterfalls and hiking. I’ve heard that Cundinamarca is really nice too.
I agree with you completely!! everywhere is overcrowded and even the food scene has changed terribly in the big cities! We now go to the smaller cities in Europe and explore them and we travel during the later shoulder seasons. ie...March April in Budapest, Croatia, Montenegro. Saw what we wanted to see and still were shocked by the crowds. We wondered what the heck is it like in peak season.... definitely not for us.. Your videos and advice is always spot on! Thank you!!!
Really loved your t-shirt! I am Brazilian and I have lived in Minas Gerais for 10 years and this phrase in your t-shirt is so typical in MG: Whose son are you??? You really got the Minas´spirit!!!
Brugge has the same problem. Last time I visit it was to busy to see anything. As Dutch saying: Je kon over de hoofden lopen: It was that busy you could on their head to go some where.
Over thirty years ago my wife and I were staying in a small hotel just outside Brugge. The proprietor was of the opinion even then that the town was getting too many visitors. I’m lucky in that having worked in the Netherlands I still speak reasonable Dutch and Flemish which is a help.
What i found is doing a driving holiday around Europe is the best way to find places that you wouldnt normally go to and often you find the hidden gems of the countries. As we are based in the UK, taking the motorbike on the euro tunnel or ferry and then go explore.
i always like to tellpeople to do the traditional grand tour. Dover-Ostend-Calais-Le Havre-Paris or Basle-Geneva-Lausane-Turin-Milan-Florence-Padua-Bolognia-Venice-Rome-Neaples-Pompeii- and then going back trough- Insbruck-Vienna-Dresden-Berlin-Potsdam-(or ingolstadt and heidelberg)-back to Calais-London-Oxford-Edinburgh.
Absolutely. Driving around Austria opened me and my pals eyes to how we should go about holidays, instead of Hallstatt we found another mountain lake but hardly anyone there - I never felt such peace staring at the peaks across the lake in utter silence. Adds more spontaneity to the trip as well which makes the best moments
Wolter, great video as usual! I think you hit the nail on the head with many of these cities when you encouraged people to venture away from the main areas a few blocks to get out of the crowds and find cheaper restaurants. I feel like Prague is a great example of this. Many of the "authentic" Czech restaurants right on the old town square are overpriced and the food is not great. But there are many amazing restaurants all over the city with better food at better prices. Some of these are only a few blocks from the square. Over the past couple of years we have explored Prague and gotten to know the city better and it really is one of our favorite cities in the world. Even when crowded, we know where to stay and which restaurants to go to so that we are not overwhelmed. Keep up the good work!
Been wanting to visit Prague & hopefully I can go next year in Sept. I'm retired and will be a solo traveller. Can you give me tips on places to stay & where to dine? I read the other comments that Prague tends to be unfriendly to tourist which make me wary about visiting Prague. What do you think?
I was gobsmacked by a small town in Bavaria - Landsberg am Lech. We were there during Oktoberfest in Munich - zero tourists, everyone was in Munich or on a day trip to Neuschwanstein.
Tadoussac, Québec, 800 inhabitants, we get swarmed in summer and more than half the houses sit empty 6-7 months/year while locals can't find rental or homes
I'd love to visit there. We have been as close as St Simeon and then took the ferry across the St Lawrence to head up to Rimouski.. We love Canada and tell people all the time that there is so much more to Canada than the Rockies and the Maritime provinces. I was born across the river from Kingston, Ontario and feel like I'm coming home when I get to Canada. Mr grandfather was Canadian.
@@davkatjenn When you do, come visit us in Winter, early May or mid-October. We love to share the beauty of the land, but the swarms are difficult to deal with sometimes :)
Sounds like so many villages in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, as in England. Locals can barely afford to live there as the rich buy up all their houses for summer holiday homes.
Places I've been to, months, tourist level... Athens/Milos, September, Empty Reykjavik, Sept/April, Empty Madrid, April, Empty I've learned, April/May and September/October are the best times to travel to avoid crowds
Luckily I can't stand the heat, and our kids are grown up, so we always holiday in the shoulder seasons, and always out of the school/college holidays. Another tip is that many of those cities are beautiful very early in the morning before the tourists appear. Sometimes we've had streets almost to ourselves with just the early morning traders around. Then we find a place off the main tourist drag, such as little local parks, to chill out for the peak of the day. I live in the Cotswolds, and it's hilarious to find the popular streets chock-a-block, then step one street away, on to a country walk and find literally no-one.
On the point of Scotland, go to Glasgow, it's an excellent base for Loch Lomond, Argyll & Bute, and the Scottish Borders. It is consistently less crowded than Edinburgh and the hotels are generally more affordable as well (plus the people are friendlier 😌)
I've been to several of the places you've mentioned in Europe. My favorite place to go here in California is Yosemite National Oark, but it has gotten so bad during the Summer that the park has finally started to impose a reservation system, unless you have accomdations in Yosemite itself. You have to book a room a year ahead. I'd recommend the following. Go in early to mid May when the water falls are at their peak and everything is in bloom Book a year ahead to get a room inside the park and ONLY go during the weekdays. NEVER go near a holiday and if you are from outisde the U.S. you must plan this trip. Booking a year out. This is no longer a park to just daytrip into, unless you are doing so in late Fall or Winter. The other option is to go to Kings Canyon Sequoia National park 30 miles south which is rarely visited by the gig crowds and has the giant trees and a great canyon that rivals Yosemite.
06:04 last summer I was driving for 1 hour back and forth central street connecting Hallstatt and neighboring villages to get a place to park car. Accidentally I got place in that iconic tunnel with a panoramic view. Took view pictures with friends, ate icecream and got back quick as possible to free parking spot for other people to enjoy it. My recommendation - go there with a train!
Pisa in the summer is nuts with tourists. Parking issues alone are maddening. Instead of fighting that mess, go north to Lucca, easily one of the most amazing Medieval and Renaissance cities in the world; friendly, music everywhere; the best place to relax and take everything in. The key in Florence is to not do the tours. Get some of your tickets for places in advance and go at your leisure. Have meals before the peak times. That is especially the case in Rome.
That iconic touristic attraction keeps getting crowded of tourists over the years. Well, any Historical Landmarks as well around Italy. I've all of those places Lovely country that has a rich history I remember 10-12 years ago. It wasn't that much packed. Totally agree with you. Get your tickets in advance
When I went to Florence, not a single person would speak English to me and my Italian consist of only a few words. Still, I did enjoy it. I did one tour and the rest of the time, I just wondered around on my own.
I just recently went to Pisa a few weeks ago - not worth it in my opinion. Not much seems to remain from the Republic of Pisa (which, as a history nerd, I am much more interested in compared to the eponymous tower), but you’ll see plenty of tourists doing the cringy ‘attempting to hold up the tower’ pose.
@@Yoghurtmale8 at first I thought, what does being a Chiefs fan have to do with Taylor Swift? And then I woke up and realized how much the franchise is tied to her now. We visited Lisbon in late March. Amazing city.
I've been to Venice twice for Carnival, 2019 and 2023, during weekends. Early mornings (mostly before 10 AM) and evenings are quite nice then, but from like 10 AM to, I don't know, 5 PM? there are cruisers coming to Venice and the overcrowding is plain madness. But I still love Venice Carnival and I plan to go there again sooner or later.
As an Italian a i'll say Venice is overcrowded in the main streets. As soon as you turn out of the main paths you are completely alone. It's kind of crazy. Then again I avoid the city in peak periods
@@camillatondelli9263 The closer to Piazza San Marco and cruiser marina, the worse. Also train station area can be quite crowded, just like main bridges (Rialto... nightmare; although early morning it's usualy not so bad) and streets at both sides of Canale Grande.
Outside of the Christmas Market season and Oktoberfest, Munich isn't generally overtouristed. It is a busy city, and the central pedestrianised shopping street and Marienplatz do get quite crowded at the weekend, but you don't normally get problems. It is really easy to avoid the crowded areas (same goes for Vienna actually), and have a great time, even in the summer season. I don't agree that Edinburgh is generally overtouristed either, except in the Festival season.
I’m on my last day of a 5 day stay in London, after a 3 week tour of England. I feel very bad for you locals. Altho I’m a tourist and so am contributing to the problem, I wish I’d known how bad it really is here now, mid June. The demographic of my fellow tourists, very different from my own, makes the experience so much worse. This doesn’t even feel/look like what I’d expected… basically mostly other white Americans and native English. I’ve hated London, the Airbnb we’re staying in, and the recommended restaurants which have fallen fall short of expectations. Grazing Goat much overpriced full English breakfast, Dickens Inn for Sunday Roast only they were out of it when we arrived for our reservation, Darwin set menu at Sky Garden pork chop so tough it was inedible. I don’t know how you locals can stand it, way way too many tourists many quite rude and I’m not talking about just us Americans, which honestly I don’t think I’ve even seen many of. You can’t tell really since we’re vastly overshadowed by so many “others”.
I was born in London, but moved when I was about 2. I'd hate to live in that city. It's just too big, rude and expensive. Dealing with the tube in summer is something I'm so glad I don't have to worry about. I'm glad I'm in the West Midlands.
London’s economy isn’t tourist based though so that’s a big difference from the ones mentioned on this list. I went there last week and I feel like I saw a good mix of locals and tourists
I was in London this february and I made sure to avoid any touristy spots....then I somehow forgot to check the map, got lost in my thoughts while I was looking at the architecture of some buildings....and after I I turned the corner...out of nowhere...I was right next to Big Ben....it took my like 20 minutes to pass the crowds. It was fucking depressing and it was in february lol.
I am so glad I got to see various parts of Europe in 1958 and then several visits to Italy through the 60's. I was actually able to enjoy Venice and Florence more than once. I've noticed that the pricing for B&B's even in Southern Italy is comparable to a modest hotel. I can understand a family opting for a holiday flat but for me, as a single, there's no real advantage, although I love to cook and shop in the local markets. I'm not sure what I'll do the next time I go. Probably a hotel. I actually like the anonimity.
I think Bruges should be on your list. Absolutely stunning but completely over-run with tourists from about 11h00 every day as bus loads of day trippers arrive. St. Malo in Brittany is also stunning but not so bad as some of the other places you mentioned.
My father's side of the family is from the Saint Malo area. It's definitely too crowded during the summer months, from mid july to mid september. It seems like half of the UK ends up there. The worst is that british people buy houses in the area, therefore making the housing prices increase. When my grandpa passed, one thing our family agreed on is that the house would only be sold to someone from the area. It was a matter of doing what was right by my grandpa but also to his village. Thankfully a village's kid bought it and now has his own family there. He's taking great care of it, he went to the trouble of finding one of the best stone worker of the area to make changes to the windowsills.
@@julie6328 Yes your correct, the Intra Muros area does get pretty busy during the summer. No wonder, of course, it's very impressive. I really love that part of Brittany and it's too long since I've been there. Best wishes, Sam (Scottish not British).
For travelers to America who want to visit Alaska, rather than face the gauntlet of overcrowded gift and diamond stores in the major overtouristed cruise ship ports (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka). My suggestion is this. Fly up to Juneau, yeah you can spend a day or two, but you'll see what I mean very quickly. And docking in Skagway is even worse, they have a population that gets down to around 600 in the depths of winter. They can get four massive 2,000 to 3,000 passenger cruise ships at one time (over 10,000 people!!!) during the season. I lived in Alaska for 22 years. Trust me this is NOT the Alaskan experience. You won't be meeting many Alaskans. All the shore tours will be choked with people. So if that's what you want my next suggestion is not for you. So fly into Juneau. Then take the ferry to Haines. Haines is across the fjord from Skagway. It's 13 miles by water, 365 miles and two border crossings by car. They only get one or two cruise ships a week in the height of summer. But unless you have NO imagination don't take one. Do this instead: Get off in Haines and spend a week. Does this sound boring? Trust me it's not. This is the real Alaska. (Don't worry. There are a few gift stores.) I lived here for 22 years. This is what's in Haines. Mountains, two rivers, lakes, glaciers, the Lynn Canal fjord, a state fair near the end of July, a friendly community, Tlingit wood carving, totem poles all over the town, hiking trails, with spectacular views ranging from fairly flat to 4,000 ft. up from sea level. The first military fort in Alaska. River rafting through the bald eagle preserve. Other local tours. Two kinds of bears, and bear viewing tours in late summer. Moose! Whales in the fjord, sea lions, seals. Hundreds, and in November thousands, of bald eagles. Five kinds of salmon in the rivers. Grocery stores for every need. Excellent pizza and other restaurants. Fresh salmon, crabs, fish and chips. Three museums. Basically the area is a mini-version of the whole state, without the insane crowds. And if you get bored after all that, you can get a ferry to Skagway for a day trip, don't spend the night. Or an unforgettable flightseeing tour over Glacier Bay National Park. Or rent a car and drive into the Yukon Territory to Whitehorse, the capital, on one of the most mind blowing drives in North America. Or just rest! Truthfully the cruise ship experience does Southeast Alaska very little justice. But if you do this? Bingo! Life changed.
As a former Alaskan, completely agree about Haines. I LOVE that town. But I do have to defend my "home" town of Juneau...there's plenty to do in Juneau, but you HAVE to strike out on your own. Avoid the cruise excursions!
Your suggestion sounds fantastic. We took a cruise to Alaska. My 1st and only cruise. I was so disappointed when we got off and the dock was lined with Carribean Jewels, gift shops selling Alaskan products that were made in China, etc. Cruises are so phony it is like going to Disney.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. When I went to Alaska many years ago, I did a land tour. I landed in Anchorage and took a bus tour. We explored Anchorage, Fairbanks, Valdez, Wasilla, and I actually crossed the Arctic Circle and spent a day in an Eskimo Village. We went to Denali National Park, took the Alaskan railroad, two separate small boat trips in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet to see the glaciers. The sound of ice breaking off was incredible. I got to meet one of the winners of the Iditarod and see and pet the dogs he used and I even took a helicopter ride and landed on a glacier. I got to see and touch the Alaskan pipeline and feel the tundra beneath my feet as we drove north and made a stop at an Alaskan resident's cabin. It was then that I was introduced to an Alaskan "refrigerator". Digging into the tundra to one depth was his refrigerator, deeper down, was his freezer. A system of pulleys gave him acess to his food. I got to see a mama bear and her cubs in Denali, caribou, moose, puffins, orca whales, a beautiful eagle flying above my head and Dall sheep as they climbed steep cliffs. We even managed a small boat ride down the Yukon river. The beauty of Alaska remains with me to this day. I never regret not taking a cruise and I always say to people who ask to consider a land tour. If you truly enjoy cruising, than that may be the way for you to go. But if you to see more of this gorgeous state, I recommend booking a land tour.
In NA it’s often wildlife that pays the price. I’d say all of Florida, Banff National Park, Arches National Park, Zion and Yellowstone fall into that category. Also some beaches in Hawaii.
I work on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh weirdly there’s a window in late July which is a bit more manageable, more as folk who will visit are saving it for the Festivals in August, and there’s a small chunk of the city on their own holidays themselves. It’s insane most of the year now though (in the old town) tour groups especially
We have a big problem in the English Lake District, too many properties turned into Airbnb style accommodation. Nowhere for locals to live. Result is property prices and rents have shot up so no one can afford to live and work here. Hospitality businesses are closing, if not permenatly for part of the week. Visitors complain about high prices and bad service. Solution is for visitors to stay more and stay in hotels, guesthouses and established camp sites. Another problem is visitors coming by cars and then refusing to pay car parking charges and ruining the local countryside. Solution use public transport when possible
As I had said on your last video, in Edinburgh, Airbnb has caused a lot of problems for locals wanting a place to live. I also hate seeing tourists get ripped off in the 'tartan tat' shops. There's so much to do in the city that is free and lots of good local shops stocking better souvenirs that will last. (BTW your Berlin guide was great for my visit in March. Lots of good info & I saw so much.)
Any of the shops on The Royal Mile are blatant purveyors of ‘tartan tat’. The same Pakistani family own nearly all the shops there. I was forced out of my flat in Leith Walk just over 10 years ago because all the others in my tenement had become Airbnbs. The noise from partying groups became impossible to put up with. Nobody apart from us would clean the communal stairwell.
Another small town that's been rammed with overtourism is Windermere in the Lake District here in England. Personally, I prefer Keswick or Ambleside (both easily reachable by bus from Windermere train station) if I'm visiting the Lakes.
I recommend Costa Rica in shoulder season. We traveled for approximately2 weeks from April 26-May 6, 2023. We had a personalized tour for 6 of us, low numbers of tourists and an overall great experience.
I did my European touring 30 - 35 years ago. I did river cruises on small ships, some as small as 45 passengers, and I saw places as they really were, not the Disneyesque facade for tourists. I got to meet genuine residents, not the performers for thousands of visitors. Tour groups were small enough to go everywhere. I even experienced a place that no longer exists, Russia immediately after the fall of the Soviet government. I'm not fond of crowds, and I really didn't see any. When a city has to cope with the thousands that are disgorged by cruise ships every day, they cease to be real. My advice would be to seek out the smallest, locally operated tours and to go to places no one has ever heard of. You may still be able to find hidden gems and come home with unique memories.
Good point. Besides the quantifiable problems like over crowding and high prices, the worst part of over tourism is that it destroys the places that people came to see in the first place. They just end up becoming fake theme park caricatures of what they used to be.
I was told prague was overwhelmed with people so in my trip I went there from monday to thursday so it wasn't too bad in term of crowd, if I go there again one day I'll try to stick to these days again as well
We went there in mid June, spent 2 nights at a ski resort cross the lake, beautiful and quiet. It wasn’t crowded when we visited during the day or night, esp evening.
One of the worst affected places... i was embarressed to also visit but....i did take the gondola and walk the ice caves and see the best bits outside what seems like asian disneyland filled with three hour bus travellers spending nothing.
@@frednich9603 My wife and daughter just left Hallstatt, they went in early from Gosau, they enjoyed the salt mine tour a lot and swimming in the lake. They did mention a lot of rude tourists and the town is kind of overridden with wasps, maybe that’s the plan to get tourists out :)
I recently returned from a 2 and a half week visit to the Netherlands. We never set foot in Amsterdam. Instead, we used a few different bases (Hoorn, Utrecht, Zwolle, Leiden) and explored nearby towns by train/bus. We rarely felt surrounded by tourists and had great interactions with locals. It was an amazing trip, but it did require more planning than just hitting the big cities and sites. In August, we're going to Munich/Bavaria, which was mentioned in the video. Do you have more tips for crowd avoidance in this region?
Munich and Prague are both cities I'd love to explore in depth sometime but probably won't in the near future. On my trip to Krakow and Silesia, I might visit Ostrava, Czechia since it's close enough for a day trip and Moravia sounds like an interesting and less visited region. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more videos on lesser visited parts of Poland from you.
If in Krakow you must visit the amazing Wieliczka salt mine!! It's fantastic like Krakow. Forget all about Ostrava. It's the armpit of the Czech Republic. There is nothing interesting there. Trust me! I've been there many times. It's my ex-wife's hometown. Thankfully, I don't need to go there anymore. 😄
Mark, I just can’t believe the changes in some of the cities I visited in the 80s and 90s. There were so many places where there were hardly any tourists. I walked over Lucerne’s covered bridge in June 0:15 and didn’t see another person. We were alone walking in Venice on May evening. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London? No one there in early summer. I think it was before the cruise ships etc. began flooding these places.
Instead of going only to Copenhagen, go to Malmö and visit the place where the Öresund bridge meets land, and the old decomissioned bridge view, utsikt Öresundsbron. Go swim in the ocean and you can almost be alone. But do be careful, it's not for inexperienced swimmers or small children. But it's an amazing place. When in Malmö stay out of the most busy places (except the café in Holmgången) and go to Folkets park and café Flax right outside. And do visit Naturum Öresund too! If you want something slightly rural go to Torup castle, you can go there by bike if you are a slightly above average cyclist with decent stamina.
we're spending two weeks in Tuscany end of September. An hour south of Florence....we will endeavor to visit during the week. Hopefully that will help. Siena, Assisi, Voterra, etc. we will try to get there early and be gone by early afternoon to hopefully beat the busloads...
Just got back from a trip to Tuscany in May. My experience was that there were fewer tourists in the hilltop towns that are located further south from Florence. The landscape is more dramatic and beautiful in the Val d’Orcia area. Although there were plenty of tourists and finding a table for lunch can be a challenge, the streets were generally less crowded in towns like Montepulciano, Pienza, and Montalcino. Siena is ridiculously crowded but the cathedral there is a must-see. Note that many scenic and quaint little towns off the beaten tourist path (some even close to Florence) can be found in Tuscany with a little research.
I have been to Florence in 2019. While it was really crowded at the Duomo, it was really quiet at the Santa Maria Novalla, the church one of the main train stations is named after.
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland is about to start a parking tax (as one needs to leave one's car there if you're headed up to the car-free villages of Wengen & Murren) because they're having trouble with the crowds for this small village/town. Bellagio, Italy. It's beautiful, fortunately I first visited it in 2021 as a post Covid "pioneer" and it was not too full, but September of 2023? Forget about it! We stayed half an hour and then headed to Varenna and Mennaggio. Varenna was gorgeous (but I hate to give that secret away).
Best food in Brazil. No joke. Overtourism is just nuts now. Rome, Venice in Oct 2023 were absolutely crazy compared to already busy visits in October of 2010. Athens was chaos in September, Dubrovnik was nuts. Split was pretty bad only around the palace. This was made even worse by the fact we'd spent the prior month traveling through what I dubbed "The Goulash Belt" which had a tourist presence, but not at obscene levels. Finishing up an long trip, the King of Overtourism was Kyoto. It's just bonkers. Tokyo had a lot, but is so huge and spread out, the crowds are fairly spread. Kyoto they all gather at the exact same 3-4 spots. We wanted to visit one of those, the bamboo forest, a 30 min trip by bus from our location at the time. We missed the first bus, waited 10 minutes for the next one. Made our way through the city at a pace you would expect. Until we got near 2 stops away and close to a tourist zone. Traffic ground to a glacial pace. 15 minutes and we moved meters. We got off two stops early, walked the rest. Ended up passing the bus we had missed. Yeah, it still hadn't made it to our stop. City buses, tourist tour buses, rickshaws... Police were discharged to try and clear up the congestion. I feel so bad for locals trying to go about their business. Meanwhile we visited some other cities in Japan that are not Tokyo-->Kyoto->Osaka and there were days we might only see a couple other gringos. Despite the language barrier, the locals were friendlier, was even "Giftu'd"some sake on more than one occasion just for being there, eating their food and stumbling around in by horrible DuoJapanese.
Tokyo and Osaka have the infrastructure to hold that amount of tourists. Nara day trips and Kyoto not so much especially since main public transportation in both places are by bus
Living in Prague and our neighbours told us that they havent been to the city center in 10 years. It is impossible to walk, garbage everywhere, public transport packed, tourists screaming in public places, drunk idiots everywhere… locals complain that everything is in English and not in Czech. Customer service is extremely rude bc they dont need to hold customers - most of them come one time and go back to their home country again. Prices are so expensive… it is terrible. please just stay away OR behave respectfully! I am not interested in listening to screaming drunk tourists coming back to the hotel after heavy partying when I am on my way to a long workday 😡
The thing about accomodations in Scotland is that Edinbourgh is still thecl more affordable place to visit as at least it has hostels. Accomodations in Scotland outside Edinburgh is very expensive even for a short visit
Prague center is literally empty on October-November and on the 2nd half of January to April, you can visit the city during these months. I know that a lot of people come specifically on Christmas to see the markets, but markets are not that different from any other in European cities.
Fun fact: The phrase on his shirt translates as: "Whose son are you ?", written in Minas Gerais countryside accent, and that's because when, in Minas Gerais rural cities, when the people see someone they don't know they usually will make this question in order to get some information about that person.
Ouro Preto is amazingly beautiful and what makes it even less tourists is simply how isolated it is - it seems like it takes 5 or more hours to get there no matter where you start from in Brazil. We went from Rio by plane to Belo Horizonte and then took a bus to Ouro Preto. I felt like I'd never been so far from the USA before. Its already a 17 hour flight from the America to either SP or Rio with a connection
That's a core's Portuguese heritage (among so many others): on the Portuguese countryside, that's one of the main questions you get when people doesn't know you but they think you are from the surrounding area.
This happens in Spanish villages too. I've been asked the question "¿Tú de quién eres?" ("Who do you belong to?", refering to a house or a family) quite a few times by elderly people.
Hey buddy, thank you for your video, but I think you forgot Amsterdam. Another point, accentually it is more a request. Would you make a video about how airbnb has ruined the housing market in so many plances. Maybe it's a stretch as subject, but it's a great part of the problem.
Good alternative Northern Italian places to go to are: Bergamo's Citta Alta, Parma, Bolzano, Merano. We always go in the spring or fall and aren't overwhelmed by crowds like in Milan or Venice. I wish that I'd seen Venice forty years ago. Went once in 2016; never again.
I just love Prague and it’s a familial city as my husband’s ancestors are from the Czech Republic. We visited last May with our adult kids and yikes, the crowds!! I don’t mind some as it can feel festive. I look for history, the arts,architecture and natural beauty and Prague has loads. The party vibe was so overwhelming and the bachelor groups were obnoxious- especially at 2, 3, 4 AM yelling, totally drunk in the streets. The weather was already warm and we had the hotel windows open. Sadly, we didn’t get much sleep there.
A few years ago I was in Lisbon in November. Beautiful weather, still a lot of tourists, but not overcrowded. 2 years ago I was in Venice in March. Just beautiful! Burano on a Monday in March is empty. I spoke to locals who told me that on weekends it is too overcrowded. And if you go on off-season: everything is much cheaper, especially accomondation.
yes! So true. We lived about 1.5 years in Lisbon. Amazing city, but a challenge in the summer. But October and November? Easily the best time to visit. Weather still mostly nice, far less crowded, too. We spent 3 days in Venice in February, and it was great. Got lucky with the weather, it was a bit chilly but sunny. I shudder to imagine Venice in August.
Thank you for this video. I found it very useful as I don't like crowds. Thankfully I did my travelling years ago but good to know for future trips. The best thing about Edinburgh is the last train out (old Glaswegian banter)🥰🥰🥰
i went to edinburgh in mid march and it was pretty empty. then again, it was chilly and rainy but it was pretty quiet and peaceful compared to what i'm hearing now. i've seen pics of edinburgh in the summer overrun with the crowds and people having to make reservations for dinner and that is so not my idea of fun!
I appreciate the irony is not lost on you with you being a popular travel influencer with over 1M subscribers and playing a role in the overpopulation. I also grew up in Niagara Falls, ON, so I totally feel for the locals on this list. As for the list, in the past 6 months, I've been to Edinburgh (stayed in Glasgow) and travelled in December; Lisbon but visited in January; Hallstaat in May and stayed in Obertraun; and finally Prague having travelled in May. The best advice I hear you preach, and fully support, is trying to travel in the shoulder seasons, or off seasons. It makes for a better overall experience, but financially, and as a whole.
Amsterdam 100% deserves to be on this list, same for Venice, but at the same time they are already known for cities ruined by overtourism, so they're not really a shock. edit: sorry did not realize this was a part 2!
I definitely agree with Prague. The main square can be overwhelming. I used to live in Munich. Weekends in the summertime near Marienplatz and on the U-Bahn can be quite crowded. Obviously, Oktoberfest is insanely crowded around the Theresienwiese.
I agree with your pick of Prague. I studied there for a semester (August to December) and noticed that most of the time (especially the weekdays) the city wasn’t exceptionally busy - but then the huge numbers of tourists would come on weekends and holidays. And they’d only stick to one route, and miss out on some severely underrated parts of the city!!
@@markshrimpton3138 I went in 2011 few years before the place went totally crazy because of Game of Thrones. After Dubrovnik I went to Sarajevo, this is the opposite maybe the most underrated city I have seen.
My village has 50000 tourists per inhabitant. I´m the only one living in my village during winter and we´ve got 50000 tourists during summer. We can handle it.
@@rj-jl5nv Yes, they were Russians. I might have been just 15, but as I was learning Russian at school I was able to talk to some of them. They were citizens of the then Soviet Union (mostly Russian). Dubrovnik was in what was then Yugoslavia, a fellow communist country. The Russians were there on holiday in large groups comprised of workers from the same factory, mine, collective etc. Their holidays were paid for by reciprocal trade deals between the two states and they stayed in large hotels built to accommodate them. Consequently they had no money to spend while there because ironically Tito’s Yugoslavia wouldn’t accept the Rouble.
Edinburgh mostly gets really mental around the Fringe, but I have experienced far worse in other places - although I live in Glasgow so it's not like I'm there all the time. It is pretty expensive, though.
I was at Edinburg in an weekend in 2019 during Fringe festival and in Munchen 2 weeks ago during Euro 2024, so peak season for both, and they didn't felt as overcrowded as Barcelona at the end of October
If you want to skip to the list go to 2:05. I just needed to address some of the issues in our original video in the 1st part.
Lucerne at Central Switzerland is overcrowded, manly by Chinese people. Also Mount Rigi near by. The reason is a Korean Band. They made Video Clips there. If you what to go up a mountain at Lake Lucerne got to Stanserhorn. Mount Pilatus can also by crowded, at some days.
@@fserra5479 but he also said Lisbon Portugal at around 2:11 in the vidoe
oh the cities were RUINED by Islamic migrants, not tourists. but I understand why you cannot admit this. they'd put you in jail for saying such an obviously true statement.
You should check out Trento, Trieste and Aosta, walter if you have not already.
When have you been to Bamberg last time? Please do not go it is over touristic for more than 20 years!
Short list of over-touristed places. Anywhere a cruise ship goes.
Anywhere mentioned by Lonely Planet and/or some Tik-Tok influencers.
Norwegians are using planes when they are overpopulating other countries every summer.
Not untrue, but cruise passengers don’t burden local housing. Cruisers exit the ship and take an excursion (through the cruise company or not) or enjoy the port. Either way they put some money into the local economy and then show themselves out.
As a Greek there are thousands of beautiful towns to visit, but I am scared to comment any place we enjoy out of fear these will turn into Mykonos
Lol
Totally understand and I don’t like Mykonos but glad I went many years ago before overtourism arrived.
Mainly North Americans actually and instagrammers. Code word for instagrammers and RUclipsrs.
Fortunately I’m pretty good at seeking out places before hoards of instagrammers discover it.
Went to Crete in April, and stayed away from Chersonysos. Beautiful big island. Lots of beautiful historic towns, villages and nature. Very friendly people. But even they told us that after May, it can get a bit much with tourists.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 You know not 🤣🤣
I have done three trips to Europe in the past 18 months. I go alone, as an elderly widowed man. My way: I ignore the famous sites, except art museums. Instead--if there is an empty street, I walk down it. If it begins to fill up with people, I duck down another empty, ancient street. Plenty of places to walk in Paris, Rome, Florence--if you simply duck into empty alleys, streets, lanes, rues, tiny piazzas. They are easy to find and you see what you'd never see otherwise.
Wow
As a hospitality worker in Prague, I feel like tourists are scared to step out of the historical city centre or they think there is nothing else to see beyond the bridge, the castle and the old town square (while locals avoid the centre at all costs). It’s two different worlds.
Prague is such a beautiful city!!!👍👏🏻😍😍😍💖💖💞 I went there last Winter!!!👍💖❤️💞
@@fansizhe9997… agree. But unfortunately, we try to avoid going there 😂.
I’m glad you liked it though. 🙂
No jo. I live close to Hostomice and if I go to Prague, Andel is my limit. If I go anywhere beyond Ujezd., my mood deteriorates way faster than I can walk 😂
We like Vysehrad, Letna, we've been out to Bela Hora-and not just because we forgot to get off the tram. 😀
Well, we were scared a bit one time... a friend and I took the hotel reservation of his younger brother which could not go, not knowing what part of Prague he booked in. Was quite some years ago and smartphones were not a thing yet, so we tried to find the hotel and walked and walked, at some point we met a nice lady that could not speak English but German which we as German speakers found pretty nice, she helped us out a bit, but after a while we got lost again between some commie blocks (was really not the best area) and since we saw no one else we asked the most clichee slav dude you could imagine (Adidas track suite, white socks, bottle of beer in one hand, cigarette in the other... just perfect) for the way. He did not understand much, but when we showed him the adress of the hotel we thought he wanted to show us the way (we did not understand a word, he understood that we did not understand and just started walking and gesticulating) and we just followed him for quite some time, always ready to get robbed in some dodgy street, but no, he actually walked us all the way to our hotel. We were so happy... handed him the last beer we still had on us, he was happy, we were happy, overall a great trip, even so we nearly died some times when trying to get home at night because a 10 lane highway, no bridge and a drunken mind do not produce the best ideas.
Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona! OMG, they are simply everywhere even in October!
Where do a lot of tourists in Barcelona come from?
Barcelona == den of thieves.
Migrants also
I went January 2023 and it was still so crowded then.
I went on a spatial planning degree course. I'll never return. Horrid, uncharismatic hole of a place.
I live in Prague and I gave up on trying to walk in city center. In summer / spring it is so overcrowded with tourists, that it is not possible just to walk even. I stay away from this area. But if you are coming to Prague and you want to enjoy it, my advise: explore Prague outside of Old Town. Trust me, there are so many beautiful spots here. All good restaurants, pubs, galleries, gardens, parks are outside. Vinohrady and Holesovice are the main spots for good food and bars if you are looking to try local cuisine or just to have some nice dinner / lunch. City center is unfortunately full of tourists traps, like overpriced food and drinks. And they are also not very nice to tourists.
I rather go to Krknose, Prague is very unfriendly
or just dont come to Prague at all :)
We, usually stay in Vinohrady. Nice part of Prague indeed. In the touristic places it really has become not only overcrowded and too noisy, but also unfriendly (Czechs as well as tourists, dunno what was there first).
Karlin neighborhood is worth exploring, lots of cool places to eat/drink and the new pedestrian bridge across the river makes it easy to get to Prague Market.
dang that's unfortunate
Recommended alternatives: Bari and Trani in Itali, Riga in Latvia, and the Nordic cities.
For Toledo, Spain, I highly recommend staying overnight there. day trippers usually pack the town 10am - 4pm, but you will really enjoy it if you arrive in the afternoon and leave the next day around noon time as you will have plenty of time to wonder around with much smaller crowd. It is such a gorgeous place after most of the loud day trippers have left and before they arrive!
This! We were just there about a week ago. We stayed overnight and had the city to ourselves for hours in the morning.
Indeed. I had a friend who lived in Toledo at one point and the difference in the evening was noticeable. Places which had been pack at noon were almost deserted at 8pm.
True. Most tourists to Toledo go on single-day trips from Madrid and rarely stay the night, so in the evening it should get much quieter
I did so some years ago and Toledo is magic at night. Why not stay there and day trip into Madrid?!
In Spain and Portugal they have converted castles and monasteries into hotels called paradores and posadas. Most are located in remote areas in between the major tourist destinations. We found them less crowded, full amenities including swimming pools and a restaurant serving regional dishes. We opted a package deal staying at several paradores on our road trip in Spain.
In Ireland big houses are popular as hotel options.
The parador experience is definitely something worth trying out. I did. It was amazing. I wish I had spent longer.
We loved staying at the Parador hotels in San Estevo in Galicia & in Cuenco. Both former monasteries & both hotels were gorgeous! Neither was overly touristy.
There is overtourism in many great cities. But if you want to go to Edinburgh, or Florence, or any other great city, you don't want to go elsewhere. Just don't go during the peak season.
no ways man, come to Edinburgh in August during the Fringe. The vibe in town is amazing :) Busses are a wee bit slow because of tourists that have apparently never taken public transport before in their entire life. Besides that no complaints. More people that come to Edinburgh the better xD
Yep
Or if you do go during peak season, manage your expectations. Also plan well, but be flexible.
Love Edinburgh and always wanted to go to the Frindge. Can’t wait.
Of course, not everybody has a choice, but yeah, it is what it is.
Not a city but the Cinque Terre villages - I visited in mid may and thought I was going to avoid the worst, boy was I wrong. I wish I had spent more time in Genova which has tourists too but still feels like a real city for real people
Can you imagine how crowded they’d be if there were roads into the Cinque Terre?
Oh don't tell people about Genova - the level of tourism is just about right, now. It would be spoilt with a significant increase in tourists
So beautiful but at some points, just crazy crowded
Went to Liguria this May(Genova, Portofino, Rapallo), almost no turists...
All the tourist hordes need to come to Luton England, a massively underrated gem of the UK
I love that you mentioned other places in Bavaria to go to besides the castles. For the list of little towns overrrun with tourists, Schwangau is packed all year round with tourists wanting to see Neuschwanstein castle. They even rush you through the castle to get as many tourists in, and I didn’t like the lack of time to absorb the vibes. Going to Ettal to see Linderhof palace was far less crowded . Plus I thought the inside was more cool than Neuschwanstein, the grotto was beautiful!
Oxford and Cambridge are sometimes just completely packed with tourists! I used to live in the UK (I'm from Canada) and I lived in a small city just south of Liverpool called Chester. It's an absolutely beautiful historic town, built by the Romans (the Roman wall still stands and circles the inner city). If you're travelling to the UK and want to go to a smaller city packed with history, but not packed with tourists, go to Chester.
or Colchester , has a Norman castle and a roman wall 1 hour from London on the train
I went to Newfoundland and it was genuinely by far the coolest place I’ve ever been. People have a sort of Irish accent, with a Maine culture, with Icelandic/Norwegian geography. It was literally incredible and I have no idea why people don’t go there.
I’m going next summer to Newfoundland for at least two weeks! I agree!
Newfoundland is great! I loved it. I was there in July and the sun barely set at 11pm and was rising at 4am.
It's simple math. A flight ticket from Montreal to St John's would be more expensive than flying to Europe, let alone Florida, Mexico, or any other sunny destination.
If flying within Canada is expensive, one has to be very dedicated to pay the price for a ticket to St John's coming from abroad.
Newfoundland awesome people, you’ve never lived until you’ve been on George Street in Saint Johns on a Saturday night baby
Harder for Americans to get there. I'd love to go, but yes, flight connections to that whole portion of Canada are awful and it's a really long drive.
San Gimignano, Italy is a small town that seemed overwhelmed with tourists when I visited last summer. It's a beautiful place, but the crowds everywhere kind of ruined it for me. I think there are probably less people on weekdays in the off-season, but I won't be returning any time soon.
That's so sad. It's one of my favorite places in Tuscany.
Couldn't agree more. It's like visitor centre for its former self.
That's so sad to hear. - About 15 years back our history AP went to Italy (Florence mainly and somewhat off-season-ish) and our teacher took us to that funny little town and it was so nice ... mostly because it was *not* as overcrowded as Florence.
So it must have changed a lot since I was there (ok, many years ago). I had the impression that there were mainly day tourists and after 5pm it was a quiet, charming little town.
Was there about 8 years ago for a week and stayed at the campground on the other side of the lake, enjoyed the town in the early morning and evenings once the Chinese day trippers cleared. Insanely peaceful and gorgeous.
We went to Mykonos in October and it was amazing. Basically no crowds, super pleasant weather and sunshine, and we got to stay in a place with a sea view for 200 a night that charges 700 a night in the summer! Also we had a lot of casual interactions with the locals and shopkeepers of the island and even though Greeks tell you not to go there the charming white lanes and the day trip to Delos made the whole experience super worth it.
Where you able to swim?
If you find it so cheap, you can pay more, we have to raise prices.
@@TNexpert Adventure is adventure.
@@susanaescriba977it's cheap cos the hotels are not filling up in October! This year they are cutting their prices substantially in the hotels and villas as they're not filling up, and this is now in July 2024. People that had spending money, now don't due to the rise in interest rates and their mortgage payments increasing alot, so places that are expensive are not on as many people's lists. Mykonos has also gained a bad reputation as overpriced.
@@christsangaris Everything tourist raises prices, that is caused by the same tourist pressure. More demand, more expensive. It's called business.
I was just in Lisbon last week and it wasn’t that crowded. If you go to places like Sintra and Belem, go in the morning and you will beat most of the crowds. There were way too many Tuk Tuks. We mostly walked around. It was good exercise.
The longest I ever waited in line for anything was the Jeronimos monastery in Belem. I was there 20 min. before opening time, but they let the guided groups in first, then a few individuals in between groups. There were a LOT of groups. It was an hour before I got in. Then, after the monastery, I had to stand in another line and wait a long time to get into the church! (When I got out, there was only a short line.) So unless you're first in line in the morning, getting there early isn't necessarily the best option.
I'm having second thoughts about naming these places but last summer we went to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. OK, the three capital cities, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are great and not that crowded. I lot of the usual Russian tourists don't feel welcome anymore 🤔 but they're gorgeous and there are plenty of good accommodations. The jewels though are the smaller places; Tartu, Jurmala, Leipaja, Sigulda, Kaunus. I'd even recommend Klaipeda. The town itself is an OK seaport town but the jewel is that it's the gateway to the Curonian Spit which is another gorgeous nature, beach area. Also note that the Baltic beaches are great in summer. One of the few upsides of global warming is that the Baltic coasts are getting more comfortable even as the Mediterranean beaches are getting less comfortable. Hopefully not too many people will read this, but for the lucky few, lūdzu.
BTW, Almost everyone we met there spoke English. Not for our benefit. Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian are difficult languages even for their closest neighbors, so English is everybody's new second language. (I do love listening to Latvian music)
Oh yes! My wife and I went on a road trip round the Baltic states about 10 years ago. It was great; I had had some experience of these countries for my work and it was fun to introduce my wife to the area. People were very friendly and in the countryside you could then get away with English or Russian. I think that it was rare then for any tourists to venture very far outside the capitals. Jurmala in Latvia and Tartu in Estonia hold special memories.
I second that. For us Finns the Baltics are well known and traveled but surprisingly few from other parts of Europe have found these places.
Thank you for the post. I am Australian who travels to Europe every October. This year I am travelling to the 3 Baltic countries, so excited about these under the radar destinations. Then I go to Poland. My first time in these countries!
For a great day trip from Riga without crowds, I highly recommend the boardwalk in the marshes of the Kemeri National Park, an easy train ride away. I was really struck by the almost other-worldly beauty and it seemed to be undiscovered by foreign tourists, it was a big area and there weren't many people around. I saw a family taking their cat for a walk (yes, you read that right!) on a long lead in the forest.
We visited Greece in Sept 2021. It was so nice to see all those islands before everyone started traveling again after the pandemic. It was a wonderful vacation.
My biggest travel tip is to always go during the off-season, term time or close to but not during peak travel times. It’s calmer, cheaper and an all around better experience.
True!
True don't you in summer. Or june of September or october. Even november for South of europe.
Indeed, I visited both Lisbon and Madrid in February and Rome in November
Yeah but not everyone can do that. Peak seasons are peak for a reason - it’s when everyone has the time.
It's so true but all my friends either work and have only leave by dec, or have kids with school holidays
People saying Bruges is overcrowded are only half-right. You need to stay the night or 2 instead of just a day trip from 10 to 5. It’s literally empty in the mornings and nights, very authentic Belgium with no tourists. You MUST stay the night!
Went to Mechelen on my last Belgian trip. Under visited and very beautiful
I went in 2017 in April and we saw almost no tourists lol
@@youngian Take a guided tour, (information bureau, 2or 3 hours) you might be surprised.
In Poland, I recommend, for example, Toruń as a beautiful medieval city, very famous for its gingerbread (you can even take a short baking course there); Nicolaus Copernicus was also born there. Very atmospheric, they even have a leaning house there, somewhat reminiscent of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa :) There are tourists, because it is a famous place in the country, but there are no crowds. Even in summer, when Krakow, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Warsaw are flooded with tourists.
You're right, I went there a few years ago and enjoyed it just as much as Kraków. The Copernicus museum was really interesting and the exhibits were very well translated into English. Beautiful views across the river and no crowds.
❤ I am a ...........ski
I"m in Wroclaw now (Sept 10) and it's beautiful and not too crowded, though I understand it's worse in the summer. Just arrived from Krakow which was much more touristed. Hope to get back to PL to try some of the other smaller cities mentioned . . .
@@johnpeene7849 Trudno, jakoś to w Polsce przeżyjemy:) Powodzenia w poszukiwaniu życzliwych krajów (cokolwiek to znaczy i co przez to rozumiesz).
@@johnpeene7849 Ok I see. If that's your opinion, no problem. Just note that since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we have accepted about 2 million refugees and there were no camps for them because Polish families welcomed them in private apartments or hotel owners provided them with rooms for free. Somehow this appeals to me more than all the comments about not smiling at strangers on the street or about not wanting to make friends right away. Enjoy Spain:)
Florence is gorgeous, but I was so glad to get away and see San Gimigiano and explore some of the Tuscan countryside and seeing the vineyards.
For Spain, if you're exhausted by the crowds in Seville/Cordoba/Granada, go to Jaen with an amazing cathedral, charming old town, and amazing castle with great views. If you're tired with the tourist crowds in Madrid/Barcelona, go to Zaragoza. There you'll see incredible architecture but far fewer crowds. If you want a whole trip but without over tourism, head to the Castilla y Leon region, where you'll find amazing cathedrals, ancient towns and a unique culture.
Thanks for sharing. I wanted to visit Seville Cordoba Granada but I get overwhelmed by over tourism.
Thank you! I'm taking a screenshot of your post!
I’ll add Extremadura to the list of places that tourists overlook. Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo were all really nice places that didn’t feel overcrowded at all.
I want to go to Spain to see the Bernabeu but nice to know.
I don't know why anyone goes to central Spain in the summer - I've seen people literally pass out from the heat! Go in March, April or September/October. There's also lovely places to go in Western Spain (Ourense, for example) that are under-touristed. Wine is cheap and delicious, people are delightful, and there are accommodations that are reasonable.
Medellín, Colombia is getting very overrun with tourists, digital nomads, and expats from all over the world because it’s surrounded by beautiful Andes mountains and it has almost perfect spring like weather year round. Manizales and Ibagué are smaller cities in Colombia where you will find mountains, nearly perfect weather year round, low crime, and much less traffic. There isn’t as much night life in the smaller cities, but there is still a lot to do especially if you love nature, waterfalls and hiking. I’ve heard that Cundinamarca is really nice too.
I agree with you completely!! everywhere is overcrowded and even the food scene has changed terribly in the big cities! We now go to the smaller cities in Europe and explore them and we travel during the later shoulder seasons. ie...March April in Budapest, Croatia, Montenegro. Saw what we wanted to see and still were shocked by the crowds. We wondered what the heck is it like in peak season.... definitely not for us..
Your videos and advice is always spot on!
Thank you!!!
Really loved your t-shirt! I am Brazilian and I have lived in Minas Gerais for 10 years and this phrase in your t-shirt is so typical in MG: Whose son are you??? You really got the Minas´spirit!!!
His Brasilian mom was from MG. And we love it there!💚
Brugge has the same problem. Last time I visit it was to busy to see anything. As Dutch saying: Je kon over de hoofden lopen: It was that busy you could on their head to go some where.
Absolutely - Antwerp, Gent, Leuven are all preferable, and no-one ever visits the south of Belgium.
Yes it's a shame - go to Ghent instead!
I went to Brugge in February last year and it was SO quiet, no waiting or fuss anywhere. Highly recommend!
Over thirty years ago my wife and I were staying in a small hotel just outside Brugge. The proprietor was of the opinion even then that the town was getting too many visitors. I’m lucky in that having worked in the Netherlands I still speak reasonable Dutch and Flemish which is a help.
It's insane! It used to be such an easy and peaceful day trip from London (25 years ago).
What i found is doing a driving holiday around Europe is the best way to find places that you wouldnt normally go to and often you find the hidden gems of the countries. As we are based in the UK, taking the motorbike on the euro tunnel or ferry and then go explore.
i always like to tellpeople to do the traditional grand tour. Dover-Ostend-Calais-Le Havre-Paris or Basle-Geneva-Lausane-Turin-Milan-Florence-Padua-Bolognia-Venice-Rome-Neaples-Pompeii- and then going back trough- Insbruck-Vienna-Dresden-Berlin-Potsdam-(or ingolstadt and heidelberg)-back to Calais-London-Oxford-Edinburgh.
Absolutely. Driving around Austria opened me and my pals eyes to how we should go about holidays, instead of Hallstatt we found another mountain lake but hardly anyone there - I never felt such peace staring at the peaks across the lake in utter silence. Adds more spontaneity to the trip as well which makes the best moments
Wolter, great video as usual! I think you hit the nail on the head with many of these cities when you encouraged people to venture away from the main areas a few blocks to get out of the crowds and find cheaper restaurants. I feel like Prague is a great example of this. Many of the "authentic" Czech restaurants right on the old town square are overpriced and the food is not great. But there are many amazing restaurants all over the city with better food at better prices. Some of these are only a few blocks from the square. Over the past couple of years we have explored Prague and gotten to know the city better and it really is one of our favorite cities in the world. Even when crowded, we know where to stay and which restaurants to go to so that we are not overwhelmed. Keep up the good work!
Been wanting to visit Prague & hopefully I can go next year in Sept. I'm retired and will be a solo traveller. Can you give me tips on places to stay & where to dine? I read the other comments that Prague tends to be unfriendly to tourist which make me wary about visiting Prague. What do you think?
I was gobsmacked by a small town in Bavaria - Landsberg am Lech. We were there during Oktoberfest in Munich - zero tourists, everyone was in Munich or on a day trip to Neuschwanstein.
Tadoussac, Québec, 800 inhabitants, we get swarmed in summer and more than half the houses sit empty 6-7 months/year while locals can't find rental or homes
I'd love to visit there. We have been as close as St Simeon and then took the ferry across the St Lawrence to head up to Rimouski.. We love Canada and tell people all the time that there is so much more to Canada than the Rockies and the Maritime provinces. I was born across the river from Kingston, Ontario and feel like I'm coming home when I get to Canada. Mr grandfather was Canadian.
@@davkatjenn When you do, come visit us in Winter, early May or mid-October. We love to share the beauty of the land, but the swarms are difficult to deal with sometimes :)
Sounds like so many villages in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, as in England. Locals can barely afford to live there as the rich buy up all their houses for summer holiday homes.
Places I've been to, months, tourist level...
Athens/Milos, September, Empty
Reykjavik, Sept/April, Empty
Madrid, April, Empty
I've learned, April/May and September/October are the best times to travel to avoid crowds
Luckily I can't stand the heat, and our kids are grown up, so we always holiday in the shoulder seasons, and always out of the school/college holidays. Another tip is that many of those cities are beautiful very early in the morning before the tourists appear. Sometimes we've had streets almost to ourselves with just the early morning traders around. Then we find a place off the main tourist drag, such as little local parks, to chill out for the peak of the day. I live in the Cotswolds, and it's hilarious to find the popular streets chock-a-block, then step one street away, on to a country walk and find literally no-one.
On the point of Scotland, go to Glasgow, it's an excellent base for Loch Lomond, Argyll & Bute, and the Scottish Borders. It is consistently less crowded than Edinburgh and the hotels are generally more affordable as well (plus the people are friendlier 😌)
I travelled to Edinburgh in May, 2019. It wasn’t crowded at all.
I've been to several of the places you've mentioned in Europe. My favorite place to go here in California is Yosemite National Oark, but it has gotten so bad during the Summer that the park has finally started to impose a reservation system, unless you have accomdations in Yosemite itself. You have to book a room a year ahead. I'd recommend the following. Go in early to mid May when the water falls are at their peak and everything is in bloom Book a year ahead to get a room inside the park and ONLY go during the weekdays. NEVER go near a holiday and if you are from outisde the U.S. you must plan this trip. Booking a year out. This is no longer a park to just daytrip into, unless you are doing so in late Fall or Winter. The other option is to go to Kings Canyon Sequoia National park 30 miles south which is rarely visited by the gig crowds and has the giant trees and a great canyon that rivals Yosemite.
06:04 last summer I was driving for 1 hour back and forth central street connecting Hallstatt and neighboring villages to get a place to park car. Accidentally I got place in that iconic tunnel with a panoramic view. Took view pictures with friends, ate icecream and got back quick as possible to free parking spot for other people to enjoy it. My recommendation - go there with a train!
Pisa in the summer is nuts with tourists. Parking issues alone are maddening. Instead of fighting that mess, go north to Lucca, easily one of the most amazing Medieval and Renaissance cities in the world; friendly, music everywhere; the best place to relax and take everything in. The key in Florence is to not do the tours. Get some of your tickets for places in advance and go at your leisure. Have meals before the peak times. That is especially the case in Rome.
That iconic touristic attraction keeps getting crowded of tourists over the years.
Well, any Historical Landmarks as well around Italy.
I've all of those places
Lovely country that has a rich history
I remember 10-12 years ago. It wasn't that much packed.
Totally agree with you. Get your tickets in advance
When I went to Florence, not a single person would speak English to me and my Italian consist of only a few words. Still, I did enjoy it. I did one tour and the rest of the time, I just wondered around on my own.
Parking problems, not :issues."
I just recently went to Pisa a few weeks ago - not worth it in my opinion. Not much seems to remain from the Republic of Pisa (which, as a history nerd, I am much more interested in compared to the eponymous tower), but you’ll see plenty of tourists doing the cringy ‘attempting to hold up the tower’ pose.
We LOVE Lucca!! Florence - definately book your tickets in advance.
Went to Lisbon this past Spring and it was so packed. I can't even imagine how it gets in the summer.
Lemme guess, Taylor Swift?
@@Yoghurtmale8 haha no
@@kc2dc444 I could’ve been fooled with the Chiefs profile pic 😂
@@Yoghurtmale8 at first I thought, what does being a Chiefs fan have to do with Taylor Swift? And then I woke up and realized how much the franchise is tied to her now.
We visited Lisbon in late March. Amazing city.
@@kc2dc444 I think it’s an incredible city too. Lisboa e uma cidade muita maravilhosa
Nice, I live here and it's just madness trying to get the train to work in Monaco.
Here means where? Nice? Marseille? Genoa?
@@gizmo9290 I live in Nice, work in Monaco
Informative and interesting
Venice ... I was there last month on a rainy workday. So many tourists in this little streets 😱
I was surprised he didn't mention Venice.
I thought it was in the first video.
I've been to Venice twice for Carnival, 2019 and 2023, during weekends. Early mornings (mostly before 10 AM) and evenings are quite nice then, but from like 10 AM to, I don't know, 5 PM? there are cruisers coming to Venice and the overcrowding is plain madness. But I still love Venice Carnival and I plan to go there again sooner or later.
As an Italian a i'll say Venice is overcrowded in the main streets. As soon as you turn out of the main paths you are completely alone. It's kind of crazy. Then again I avoid the city in peak periods
@@camillatondelli9263 The closer to Piazza San Marco and cruiser marina, the worse. Also train station area can be quite crowded, just like main bridges (Rialto... nightmare; although early morning it's usualy not so bad) and streets at both sides of Canale Grande.
Outside of the Christmas Market season and Oktoberfest, Munich isn't generally overtouristed. It is a busy city, and the central pedestrianised shopping street and Marienplatz do get quite crowded at the weekend, but you don't normally get problems.
It is really easy to avoid the crowded areas (same goes for Vienna actually), and have a great time, even in the summer season.
I don't agree that Edinburgh is generally overtouristed either, except in the Festival season.
I'm going to Munich in December
As a londoner, my city should definitely be on the list.
I’m on my last day of a 5 day stay in London, after a 3 week tour of England. I feel very bad for you locals. Altho I’m a tourist and so am contributing to the problem, I wish I’d known how bad it really is here now, mid June. The demographic of my fellow tourists, very different from my own, makes the experience so much worse. This doesn’t even feel/look like what I’d expected… basically mostly other white Americans and native English. I’ve hated London, the Airbnb we’re staying in, and the recommended restaurants which have fallen fall short of expectations. Grazing Goat much overpriced full English breakfast, Dickens Inn for Sunday Roast only they were out of it when we arrived for our reservation, Darwin set menu at Sky Garden pork chop so tough it was inedible. I don’t know how you locals can stand it, way way too many tourists many quite rude and I’m not talking about just us Americans, which honestly I don’t think I’ve even seen many of. You can’t tell really since we’re vastly overshadowed by so many “others”.
I was born in London, but moved when I was about 2. I'd hate to live in that city. It's just too big, rude and expensive. Dealing with the tube in summer is something I'm so glad I don't have to worry about. I'm glad I'm in the West Midlands.
London’s economy isn’t tourist based though so that’s a big difference from the ones mentioned on this list. I went there last week and I feel like I saw a good mix of locals and tourists
I was in London this february and I made sure to avoid any touristy spots....then I somehow forgot to check the map, got lost in my thoughts while I was looking at the architecture of some buildings....and after I I turned the corner...out of nowhere...I was right next to Big Ben....it took my like 20
minutes to pass the crowds. It was fucking depressing and it was in february lol.
I am so glad I got to see various parts of Europe in 1958 and then several visits to Italy through the 60's. I was actually able to enjoy Venice and Florence more than once. I've noticed that the pricing for B&B's even in Southern Italy is comparable to a modest hotel. I can understand a family opting for a holiday flat but for me, as a single, there's no real advantage, although I love to cook and shop in the local markets. I'm not sure what I'll do the next time I go. Probably a hotel. I actually like the anonimity.
I think Bruges should be on your list. Absolutely stunning but completely over-run with tourists from about 11h00 every day as bus loads of day trippers arrive. St. Malo in Brittany is also stunning but not so bad as some of the other places you mentioned.
My father's side of the family is from the Saint Malo area. It's definitely too crowded during the summer months, from mid july to mid september. It seems like half of the UK ends up there.
The worst is that british people buy houses in the area, therefore making the housing prices increase. When my grandpa passed, one thing our family agreed on is that the house would only be sold to someone from the area. It was a matter of doing what was right by my grandpa but also to his village. Thankfully a village's kid bought it and now has his own family there. He's taking great care of it, he went to the trouble of finding one of the best stone worker of the area to make changes to the windowsills.
@@julie6328 Yes your correct, the Intra Muros area does get pretty busy during the summer. No wonder, of course, it's very impressive. I really love that part of Brittany and it's too long since I've been there. Best wishes, Sam (Scottish not British).
For travelers to America who want to visit Alaska, rather than face the gauntlet of overcrowded gift and diamond stores in the major overtouristed cruise ship ports (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka). My suggestion is this. Fly up to Juneau, yeah you can spend a day or two, but you'll see what I mean very quickly. And docking in Skagway is even worse, they have a population that gets down to around 600 in the depths of winter. They can get four massive 2,000 to 3,000 passenger cruise ships at one time (over 10,000 people!!!) during the season. I lived in Alaska for 22 years. Trust me this is NOT the Alaskan experience. You won't be meeting many Alaskans. All the shore tours will be choked with people. So if that's what you want my next suggestion is not for you.
So fly into Juneau. Then take the ferry to Haines. Haines is across the fjord from Skagway. It's 13 miles by water, 365 miles and two border crossings by car. They only get one or two cruise ships a week in the height of summer. But unless you have NO imagination don't take one. Do this instead: Get off in Haines and spend a week. Does this sound boring? Trust me it's not. This is the real Alaska. (Don't worry. There are a few gift stores.) I lived here for 22 years.
This is what's in Haines. Mountains, two rivers, lakes, glaciers, the Lynn Canal fjord, a state fair near the end of July, a friendly community, Tlingit wood carving, totem poles all over the town, hiking trails, with spectacular views ranging from fairly flat to 4,000 ft. up from sea level. The first military fort in Alaska. River rafting through the bald eagle preserve. Other local tours. Two kinds of bears, and bear viewing tours in late summer. Moose! Whales in the fjord, sea lions, seals. Hundreds, and in November thousands, of bald eagles. Five kinds of salmon in the rivers. Grocery stores for every need. Excellent pizza and other restaurants. Fresh salmon, crabs, fish and chips. Three museums. Basically the area is a mini-version of the whole state, without the insane crowds.
And if you get bored after all that, you can get a ferry to Skagway for a day trip, don't spend the night. Or an unforgettable flightseeing tour over Glacier Bay National Park. Or rent a car and drive into the Yukon Territory to Whitehorse, the capital, on one of the most mind blowing drives in North America. Or just rest!
Truthfully the cruise ship experience does Southeast Alaska very little justice. But if you do this? Bingo! Life changed.
As a former Alaskan, completely agree about Haines. I LOVE that town. But I do have to defend my "home" town of Juneau...there's plenty to do in Juneau, but you HAVE to strike out on your own. Avoid the cruise excursions!
Your suggestion sounds fantastic. We took a cruise to Alaska. My 1st and only cruise. I was so disappointed when we got off and the dock was lined with Carribean Jewels, gift shops selling Alaskan products that were made in China, etc. Cruises are so phony it is like going to Disney.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. When I went to Alaska many years ago, I did a land tour. I landed in Anchorage and took a bus tour. We explored Anchorage, Fairbanks, Valdez, Wasilla, and I actually crossed the Arctic Circle and spent a day in an Eskimo Village. We went to Denali National Park, took the Alaskan railroad, two separate small boat trips in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet to see the glaciers. The sound of ice breaking off was incredible. I got to meet one of the winners of the Iditarod and see and pet the dogs he used and I even took a helicopter ride and landed on a glacier. I got to see and touch the Alaskan pipeline and feel the tundra beneath my feet as we drove north and made a stop at an Alaskan resident's cabin. It was then that I was introduced to an Alaskan "refrigerator". Digging into the tundra to one depth was his refrigerator, deeper down, was his freezer. A system of pulleys gave him acess to his food. I got to see a mama bear and her cubs in Denali, caribou, moose, puffins, orca whales, a beautiful eagle flying above my head and Dall sheep as they climbed steep cliffs. We even managed a small boat ride down the Yukon river. The beauty of Alaska remains with me to this day. I never regret not taking a cruise and I always say to people who ask to consider a land tour. If you truly enjoy cruising, than that may be the way for you to go. But if you to see more of this gorgeous state, I recommend booking a land tour.
In NA it’s often wildlife that pays the price. I’d say all of Florida, Banff National Park, Arches National Park, Zion and Yellowstone fall into that category. Also some beaches in Hawaii.
I work on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh weirdly there’s a window in late July which is a bit more manageable, more as folk who will visit are saving it for the Festivals in August, and there’s a small chunk of the city on their own holidays themselves. It’s insane most of the year now though (in the old town) tour groups especially
Trying to walk up and down the royal mile is a pain in the arse with all the people.
We have a big problem in the English Lake District, too many properties turned into Airbnb style accommodation. Nowhere for locals to live. Result is property prices and rents have shot up so no one can afford to live and work here. Hospitality businesses are closing, if not permenatly for part of the week. Visitors complain about high prices and bad service. Solution is for visitors to stay more and stay in hotels, guesthouses and established camp sites.
Another problem is visitors coming by cars and then refusing to pay car parking charges and ruining the local countryside. Solution use public transport when possible
As I had said on your last video, in Edinburgh, Airbnb has caused a lot of problems for locals wanting a place to live. I also hate seeing tourists get ripped off in the 'tartan tat' shops. There's so much to do in the city that is free and lots of good local shops stocking better souvenirs that will last. (BTW your Berlin guide was great for my visit in March. Lots of good info & I saw so much.)
Any of the shops on The Royal Mile are blatant purveyors of ‘tartan tat’. The same Pakistani family own nearly all the shops there. I was forced out of my flat in Leith Walk just over 10 years ago because all the others in my tenement had become Airbnbs. The noise from partying groups became impossible to put up with. Nobody apart from us would clean the communal stairwell.
Airbnb has caused a lot of problems in most places. I live in Spain and they've caused many problems for the locals here too.
Another small town that's been rammed with overtourism is Windermere in the Lake District here in England. Personally, I prefer Keswick or Ambleside (both easily reachable by bus from Windermere train station) if I'm visiting the Lakes.
As soon as you said "bachelor party" I knew you were going to say Prague.
Great advice and alternatives. As an older traveler, I saw this coming decades ago.
Are you in Brazil ? Very Nice! I live in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais and Ouro Preto isn't far from here )) I love this old town! ❤
I recommend Costa Rica in shoulder season. We traveled for approximately2 weeks from April 26-May 6, 2023. We had a personalized tour for 6 of us, low numbers of tourists and an overall great experience.
I did my European touring 30 - 35 years ago. I did river cruises on small ships, some as small as 45 passengers, and I saw places as they really were, not the Disneyesque facade for tourists. I got to meet genuine residents, not the performers for thousands of visitors. Tour groups were small enough to go everywhere. I even experienced a place that no longer exists, Russia immediately after the fall of the Soviet government. I'm not fond of crowds, and I really didn't see any. When a city has to cope with the thousands that are disgorged by cruise ships every day, they cease to be real. My advice would be to seek out the smallest, locally operated tours and to go to places no one has ever heard of. You may still be able to find hidden gems and come home with unique memories.
Good point. Besides the quantifiable problems like over crowding and high prices, the worst part of over tourism is that it destroys the places that people came to see in the first place. They just end up becoming fake theme park caricatures of what they used to be.
I was told prague was overwhelmed with people so in my trip I went there from monday to thursday so it wasn't too bad in term of crowd, if I go there again one day I'll try to stick to these days again as well
We went to Hallstatt. Arrived early in the morning, got out before lunch. Wasn't even that busy,and we had a good time
Awesome
We went there in mid June, spent 2 nights at a ski resort cross the lake, beautiful and quiet. It wasn’t crowded when we visited during the day or night, esp evening.
@@woltersworld I would say York should have been on this list as well with that having too many people
One of the worst affected places... i was embarressed to also visit but....i did take the gondola and walk the ice caves and see the best bits outside what seems like asian disneyland filled with three hour bus travellers spending nothing.
@@frednich9603 My wife and daughter just left Hallstatt, they went in early from Gosau, they enjoyed the salt mine tour a lot and swimming in the lake. They did mention a lot of rude tourists and the town is kind of overridden with wasps, maybe that’s the plan to get tourists out :)
I recently returned from a 2 and a half week visit to the Netherlands. We never set foot in Amsterdam. Instead, we used a few different bases (Hoorn, Utrecht, Zwolle, Leiden) and explored nearby towns by train/bus. We rarely felt surrounded by tourists and had great interactions with locals. It was an amazing trip, but it did require more planning than just hitting the big cities and sites. In August, we're going to Munich/Bavaria, which was mentioned in the video. Do you have more tips for crowd avoidance in this region?
Munich and Prague are both cities I'd love to explore in depth sometime but probably won't in the near future. On my trip to Krakow and Silesia, I might visit Ostrava, Czechia since it's close enough for a day trip and Moravia sounds like an interesting and less visited region. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more videos on lesser visited parts of Poland from you.
If in Krakow you must visit the amazing Wieliczka salt mine!! It's fantastic like Krakow. Forget all about Ostrava. It's the armpit of the Czech Republic. There is nothing interesting there. Trust me! I've been there many times. It's my ex-wife's hometown. Thankfully, I don't need to go there anymore. 😄
Mark, I just can’t believe the changes in some of the cities I visited in the 80s and 90s. There were so many places where there were hardly any tourists. I walked over Lucerne’s covered bridge in June 0:15 and didn’t see another person. We were alone walking in Venice on May evening. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London? No one there in early summer. I think it was before the cruise ships etc. began flooding these places.
Florida summer is low season for most part. Hurricanes, humidity and thunderstorms
Instead of going only to Copenhagen, go to Malmö and visit the place where the Öresund bridge meets land, and the old decomissioned bridge view, utsikt Öresundsbron. Go swim in the ocean and you can almost be alone. But do be careful, it's not for inexperienced swimmers or small children. But it's an amazing place. When in Malmö stay out of the most busy places (except the café in Holmgången) and go to Folkets park and café Flax right outside.
And do visit Naturum Öresund too!
If you want something slightly rural go to Torup castle, you can go there by bike if you are a slightly above average cyclist with decent stamina.
we're spending two weeks in Tuscany end of September. An hour south of Florence....we will endeavor to visit during the week. Hopefully that will help. Siena, Assisi, Voterra, etc. we will try to get there early and be gone by early afternoon to hopefully beat the busloads...
Siena early or late in the day was just fantastic.
Just got back from a trip to Tuscany in May. My experience was that there were fewer tourists in the hilltop towns that are located further south from Florence. The landscape is more dramatic and beautiful in the Val d’Orcia area. Although there were plenty of tourists and finding a table for lunch can be a challenge, the streets were generally less crowded in towns like Montepulciano, Pienza, and Montalcino. Siena is ridiculously crowded but the cathedral there is a must-see. Note that many scenic and quaint little towns off the beaten tourist path (some even close to Florence) can be found in Tuscany with a little research.
I have been to Florence in 2019. While it was really crowded at the Duomo, it was really quiet at the Santa Maria Novalla, the church one of the main train stations is named after.
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland is about to start a parking tax (as one needs to leave one's car there if you're headed up to the car-free villages of Wengen & Murren) because they're having trouble with the crowds for this small village/town. Bellagio, Italy. It's beautiful, fortunately I first visited it in 2021 as a post Covid "pioneer" and it was not too full, but September of 2023? Forget about it! We stayed half an hour and then headed to Varenna and Mennaggio. Varenna was gorgeous (but I hate to give that secret away).
I completely agree. No cars unless you stay and tax them Eur60 a day plus parking. Transport is easy...not cheap but easy.
Was in lauterbrunnen four days ago. It was full of tourists, but even more crowded was Grindelwald.
Thank you for your time and posting. Nuremberg Germany (Bavaria), I lived there for 3 1/3 years (US Army).
Best food in Brazil. No joke.
Overtourism is just nuts now. Rome, Venice in Oct 2023 were absolutely crazy compared to already busy visits in October of 2010. Athens was chaos in September, Dubrovnik was nuts. Split was pretty bad only around the palace. This was made even worse by the fact we'd spent the prior month traveling through what I dubbed "The Goulash Belt" which had a tourist presence, but not at obscene levels.
Finishing up an long trip, the King of Overtourism was Kyoto. It's just bonkers. Tokyo had a lot, but is so huge and spread out, the crowds are fairly spread. Kyoto they all gather at the exact same 3-4 spots. We wanted to visit one of those, the bamboo forest, a 30 min trip by bus from our location at the time. We missed the first bus, waited 10 minutes for the next one. Made our way through the city at a pace you would expect. Until we got near 2 stops away and close to a tourist zone. Traffic ground to a glacial pace. 15 minutes and we moved meters. We got off two stops early, walked the rest. Ended up passing the bus we had missed. Yeah, it still hadn't made it to our stop. City buses, tourist tour buses, rickshaws... Police were discharged to try and clear up the congestion.
I feel so bad for locals trying to go about their business.
Meanwhile we visited some other cities in Japan that are not Tokyo-->Kyoto->Osaka and there were days we might only see a couple other gringos. Despite the language barrier, the locals were friendlier, was even "Giftu'd"some sake on more than one occasion just for being there, eating their food and stumbling around in by horrible DuoJapanese.
Tokyo and Osaka have the infrastructure to hold that amount of tourists. Nara day trips and Kyoto not so much especially since main public transportation in both places are by bus
Informative ❤
Living in Prague and our neighbours told us that they havent been to the city center in 10 years. It is impossible to walk, garbage everywhere, public transport packed, tourists screaming in public places, drunk idiots everywhere… locals complain that everything is in English and not in Czech. Customer service is extremely rude bc they dont need to hold customers - most of them come one time and go back to their home country again. Prices are so expensive… it is terrible. please just stay away OR behave respectfully! I am not interested in listening to screaming drunk tourists coming back to the hotel after heavy partying when I am on my way to a long workday 😡
The thing about accomodations in Scotland is that Edinbourgh is still thecl more affordable place to visit as at least it has hostels. Accomodations in Scotland outside Edinburgh is very expensive even for a short visit
Naperville, IL is getting overrun!😂
@@josephusanthonybumaat9690 wow
Prague center is literally empty on October-November and on the 2nd half of January to April, you can visit the city during these months. I know that a lot of people come specifically on Christmas to see the markets, but markets are not that different from any other in European cities.
You forgot the main one: Barcelona. The city is completelly ruined by the tourists.
Also Amsterdam.
I always visit in the off season. More peaceful and quiet.
Fun fact: The phrase on his shirt translates as: "Whose son are you ?", written in Minas Gerais countryside accent, and that's because when, in Minas Gerais rural cities, when the people see someone they don't know they usually will make this question in order to get some information about that person.
Mark's Brasilian mom was from MG. ❤
Ouro Preto is amazingly beautiful and what makes it even less tourists is simply how isolated it is - it seems like it takes 5 or more hours to get there no matter where you start from in Brazil. We went from Rio by plane to Belo Horizonte and then took a bus to Ouro Preto. I felt like I'd never been so far from the USA before. Its already a 17 hour flight from the America to either SP or Rio with a connection
@falkc11 but it worth it, wasn't it?! It's about 2h from Belo airport without traffic, by driver...the bus is def longer.
That's a core's Portuguese heritage (among so many others): on the Portuguese countryside, that's one of the main questions you get when people doesn't know you but they think you are from the surrounding area.
This happens in Spanish villages too. I've been asked the question "¿Tú de quién eres?" ("Who do you belong to?", refering to a house or a family) quite a few times by elderly people.
Hey buddy, thank you for your video, but I think you forgot Amsterdam. Another point, accentually it is more a request. Would you make a video about how airbnb has ruined the housing market in so many plances. Maybe it's a stretch as subject, but it's a great part of the problem.
Good alternative Northern Italian places to go to are: Bergamo's Citta Alta, Parma, Bolzano, Merano. We always go in the spring or fall and aren't overwhelmed by crowds like in Milan or Venice. I wish that I'd seen Venice forty years ago. Went once in 2016; never again.
Don't give people ideas
Bergamo is pretty nice
Torino then?
I just love Prague and it’s a familial city as my husband’s ancestors are from the Czech Republic. We visited last May with our adult kids and yikes, the crowds!! I don’t mind some as it can feel festive. I look for history, the arts,architecture and natural beauty and Prague has loads. The party vibe was so overwhelming and the bachelor groups were obnoxious- especially at 2, 3, 4 AM yelling, totally drunk in the streets. The weather was already warm and we had the hotel
windows open. Sadly, we didn’t get much sleep there.
I blame you, Rick Steves, cruise ships and Airbnb 😅
I love Rick Steves as a human being, but going forward, I will avoid the places he recommends just because he has so many followers.
@@mattball2700 I was kinda joking 🙃, he’s a bit nerdy for my taste but he’s great at what he does.
And TikTok and IG 😁
A few years ago I was in Lisbon in November. Beautiful weather, still a lot of tourists, but not overcrowded. 2 years ago I was in Venice in March. Just beautiful! Burano on a Monday in March is empty. I spoke to locals who told me that on weekends it is too overcrowded. And if you go on off-season: everything is much cheaper, especially accomondation.
yes! So true. We lived about 1.5 years in Lisbon. Amazing city, but a challenge in the summer. But October and November? Easily the best time to visit. Weather still mostly nice, far less crowded, too. We spent 3 days in Venice in February, and it was great. Got lucky with the weather, it was a bit chilly but sunny. I shudder to imagine Venice in August.
Thank you for this video. I found it very useful as I don't like crowds. Thankfully I did my travelling years ago but good to know for future trips. The best thing about Edinburgh is the last train out (old Glaswegian banter)🥰🥰🥰
I love your passion and been watching your videos for years. Thank you for everything you've done!!!
i went to edinburgh in mid march and it was pretty empty. then again, it was chilly and rainy but it was pretty quiet and peaceful compared to what i'm hearing now. i've seen pics of edinburgh in the summer overrun with the crowds and people having to make reservations for dinner and that is so not my idea of fun!
Very Beautiful view 😊😊
Loved Bratislava, Slovakia in May.! Was perfect and very few tourists.
Bratislava itself, is so underrated and it’s a great base from which to visit Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
I appreciate the irony is not lost on you with you being a popular travel influencer with over 1M subscribers and playing a role in the overpopulation. I also grew up in Niagara Falls, ON, so I totally feel for the locals on this list. As for the list, in the past 6 months, I've been to Edinburgh (stayed in Glasgow) and travelled in December; Lisbon but visited in January; Hallstaat in May and stayed in Obertraun; and finally Prague having travelled in May. The best advice I hear you preach, and fully support, is trying to travel in the shoulder seasons, or off seasons. It makes for a better overall experience, but financially, and as a whole.
Amsterdam 100% deserves to be on this list, same for Venice, but at the same time they are already known for cities ruined by overtourism, so they're not really a shock.
edit: sorry did not realize this was a part 2!
I hated living there De Negen Straatjes area was always a nightmare with tourists.
A couple of cities I like in Netherlands are enkhuizen and Dordrecht.
I definitely agree with Prague. The main square can be overwhelming. I used to live in Munich. Weekends in the summertime near Marienplatz and on the U-Bahn can be quite crowded. Obviously, Oktoberfest is insanely crowded around the Theresienwiese.
"I did my PhD in Brazil, in Lisbon"
so, Dr Wolters doesn't know where Lisbon is?
I agree with your pick of Prague. I studied there for a semester (August to December) and noticed that most of the time (especially the weekdays) the city wasn’t exceptionally busy - but then the huge numbers of tourists would come on weekends and holidays. And they’d only stick to one route, and miss out on some severely underrated parts of the city!!
According to the tourist data, the most overcrowded city in Europe is Dubrovnik, they have 36 tourists per inhabitant.
I went there in the 1970s as a 15-year-old. It was so lovely then. It actually had ordinary people living there and few tourists apart from Russians.
@@markshrimpton3138 I went in 2011 few years before the place went totally crazy because of Game of Thrones. After Dubrovnik I went to Sarajevo, this is the opposite maybe the most underrated city I have seen.
My village has 50000 tourists per inhabitant. I´m the only one living in my village during winter and we´ve got 50000 tourists during summer. We can handle it.
@@markshrimpton3138Russians? Travelling in the 70s?? 😮😮 when you couldnt leave the USSR? I doubt they were Russians.
@@rj-jl5nv Yes, they were Russians. I might have been just 15, but as I was learning Russian at school I was able to talk to some of them. They were citizens of the then Soviet Union (mostly Russian). Dubrovnik was in what was then Yugoslavia, a fellow communist country. The Russians were there on holiday in large groups comprised of workers from the same factory, mine, collective etc. Their holidays were paid for by reciprocal trade deals between the two states and they stayed in large hotels built to accommodate them. Consequently they had no money to spend while there because ironically Tito’s Yugoslavia wouldn’t accept the Rouble.
Loved your shout out for Rick Steves! His series is great!
I'm always thankfully that only the die-hard traveller come to Australia, as an old bushie when travelling OS I head for the rural areas.
We're all either too poor or too afraid of your wild life 😂
Welcome to Brazil. Adorei a camiseta 💚💛
Edinburgh mostly gets really mental around the Fringe, but I have experienced far worse in other places - although I live in Glasgow so it's not like I'm there all the time. It is pretty expensive, though.
I'd much rather go to Glasgow than Edinburgh. It's livelier, less up itself, friendlier and there's still loads of culture and stuff to see.
Edinburgh around fringe is mental but it is a bucket list thing for a lot of people and for good reason, moreso if you a chance to perform.
I was at Edinburg in an weekend in 2019 during Fringe festival and in Munchen 2 weeks ago during Euro 2024, so peak season for both, and they didn't felt as overcrowded as Barcelona at the end of October
Over touristed...Positano! And sadly enough in my own backyard-Orlando!
Positano was beautiful in the late 1960s & 1970s 🤣
Orlando was built for tourists unlike these old European towns.