Rick Steves' Protégé Shares Smart Ways To Skip Long Lines In Europe

Through his travel industry empire, Rick Steves imparts his decades of European travel knowledge onto everyone from his staff to his legions of fans. Among the things Steves and his collaborators often discuss is the value of visiting places off the beaten path, but they know that popular European destinations are popular for good reasons. To make these busier destinations more enjoyable, trusted "Rick Steves' Europe" co-author Cameron Hewitt has a few tips on avoiding long lines at these popular places.

The smart way to visit attractions in Europe is to plan ahead. Hewitt explains that you should not expect to be able to "just show up" at places like Versailles and the Sistine Chapel. To make crowds move more smoothly and to prevent too many people from crowding into centuries-old spaces at once, major attractions want visitors to buy tickets online ahead of time either for the day of their visit or even for a specific window of time. "Find out which sights require (or effectively require) reservations," says Hewitt in a blog post. "Then, once you're confident of your dates, book your visit as far ahead as possible." This way, you can arrive ticket in hand instead of queuing at the reception desks.

Although it is always good practice to buy tickets ahead of time, crowds definitely ebb and flow. Take Pompeii for example. This iconic destination restricts its number of daily visitors, but will likely not hit its capacity limit each day during the off-season. This relates to Hewitt's next tip: "Know exactly when sights are the most (and least) crowded."

Aside from many popular European places seeing less visitors in colder months, time of day matters too. You might want to be an early bird to avoid crowds because by mid-morning, tourists are already out and about — and forming those frustrating lines. Sometimes it even helps to get to an attraction closer to its closing time, as most people are gone for the day. But maybe save this tactic for places that won't require too much time to visit. Watch out for free admission days too, such as the first Sunday of every month at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. Free admission might sound good for your budget, but these free days see lines way out the door and big crowds inside.

Even more research can go a long way. In major European cities, look for combo tickets and city-wide passes that get you admission to more than one landmark. On a trip to France, Hewitt specifically took advantage of the Paris Museum Pass. This pass saves you from visiting multiple websites to book tickets and gets you to the front of lines. Be sure to read the fine print, as not all passes include a skip the line perk.

While they both know how to navigate busy European hotspots, Hewitt and Steves are both also proponents of going off the beaten path, as hidden gems can be impactful too. "Remember, ninety percent of Europe has no crowd problems," Steves states on his website. "Realize for every Anne Frank House, there's usually a Dutch Resistance Museum a few blocks away — less trendy, never crowded, and often actually offering a richer travel experience." Hewitt echoes this sentiment, telling travelers not to visit a city's most famous sites just because they are deemed as such.

Hewitt's last tip is to manage your expectations. Big cities means big crowds and sometimes there won't be ways around them. All these other tourists are trying to do exactly what you're doing, which is explore a new place and hopefully return home with new perspectives on life and history.