To get a larger view of the pain, click the photo. ©2015, David A. Porter

Thousands of uninformed tourists stand in line at the Palace of Versailles

I snagged this photograph as we walked out of the Palace of Versailles a few months back. My 28mm wide-angle lens couldn’t fit the whole sad group.  There were thousands weaving their way through long, long lines waiting many, many hours to get inside. Sadly, this is a scene we see played out at the world’s most popular tourist attractions all over the world.

And to make matters even worse, because of the massive size of the Palace of Versailles, a great many of these folks are going to meander through the palace and have absolutely no idea what they are seeing.  Sure, they’ll be able to tell their friends that they visited the Palace of Versailles, but the first thing out of their mouths will probably be the four-hour wait they endured to get inside.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m spending my hard-earned dollars to fly halfway around the world to see a major tourist attraction, I certainly don’t want to stand in a massive line for hours.  And, when I finally get inside, I surely don’t want to merely traipse through in complete ignorance.  Agree? :O

We’ve witnessed scenes like this as folks waited in long lines to see the Declaration of Independence in Washington D.C, the Louvre and Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Vatican in Rome, the Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, and seemingly countless other places.

Travel Tip:  if you’re planning to see a world-famous tourist site in high season, expect to find massive lines of uniformed tourists standing in very long lines.

How to Avoid Massive Lines at Popular Tourist Sites

Carol with our Kensington Tours guide inside the Palace of Versailles.

Now please understand, we made the grand mistake of the uniformed quite a few years ago and stood in line for hours to get inside the Vatican in Rome.  We vowed, never again!

Now, let me describe our experience visiting the Palace of Versailles on the same day that these uninformed folks stood in line:

1. We were picked up in the lobby of our hotel and transported in a nice sedan to the Palace of Versailles which was roughly 20-minutes away.
2. With us in the car was our private guide with over two-decades of experience teaching folks about the top tourist destinations of Paris.
3. We had a 10:30 entrance appointment at the Palace of Versailles.  At 10:30, we walked right in the palace through a special entrance and away from the crowds.
4. For the next four hours, our knowledgeable private guide ushered us through the highlights of the palace with her encyclopedic memory, detailing fascinating facts about the palace and the folks who lived there.
5. After our tour was over, we walked through the crowd and found our awaiting sedan which whisked us back to our hotel. Magnifique!

Now, certainly our experience was more of an investment than standing in the line.  But, our experience was truly about the Palace of Versailles, and not one overshadowed by standing in a long line.  Plus, if you want to save some money on a private experience, you could accomplish the very same thing with a private small group tour.

When we’re working on travel planning with our clients, we always include a private or small group tour in the world’s busiest tourist attractions.  That way, they can spend their time seeing the attraction instead of standing in long lines.

While our travel agency has professional relationships with many fine tour companies, for this experience we chose one of our favorites: Kensington Tours.

If you’re planning a trip overseas, let us help you with the travel planning and we’ll hook you up with a private or small group tour with Kensington Tours as well.  Call us at (480) 550-1235, our use our convenient online request form by clicking here.
 
Disclosure: our private Palace of Versailles tour was provided by the kind folks at Kensington Tours.  Thanks!
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.