Sandra Weinacht doesn’t like showing up to the airport early, but she’s not taking any chances this summer. En route to a recent Lufthansa flight out of Athens, the travel planner and co-owner of Inside Europe Travel Experiences was greeted with a 200-person check-in line.
It’s a similar, familiar scene around the continent, Weinacht said. From Heathrow to Schiphol, the annual “high season” for summer travel is in full swing.
“It’s just been a kind of out-of-control high season like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Katie Parla, a cookbook author and tour guide in Italy. “Things that I never had to consider as a traveler are now things I have to take into consideration,” like sold-out train and museum tickets.
After Europe’s gangbusters 2022 summer tourist season, Meg Zimbeck, who runs the food tour company and review site Paris by Mouth, thought 2023 would be a calmer scene. Instead, business in June was up 30 percent.
“We anticipated last year was going to be our biggest year because of the pent-up demand post-pandemic, but it just continues to surge,” Zimbeck said. “We’re seeing a lot of people who still are excited to travel and they’re excited to go to Europe.”
In Italy, Parla is dealing with the same. “I just hired two more guides,” Parla said. “We’re getting all these last-minute requests and we’re trying our best to handle the volume.”
Even though most corners of the world are open to travelers, Americans are still hungry for the classic European summer vacation, Weinacht said.
That means Italy, France, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Spain and the U.K. are buzzing — and struggling to keep up with the throngs of visitors. If you’re one of the many heading to Europe this summer, here are the hurdles you may encounter.
Hot spots ‘inundated’ with crowds
Parla, who splits her time between Rome and Venice and leads tours in all the Italian hot spots, says they’re all “absolutely inundated.”
Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said travelers should expect long waits and large crowds at pretty much every stage of their European vacation.
“Be prepared for long lines at airports both in the U.S. and in Europe,” he said. “Be prepared for lines to clear border control, airport security, crowds at railroad stations, busy hotels, crowded museums, crowded restaurants, crowded points of interest.”
Europe’s second cities and off-the-beaten-path destinations, however, have largely been spared.
“They are not full and not charging the rates the big ones are,” Weinacht said.
“It’s just been a kind of out-of-control high season like nothing we’ve seen before.”— Katie Parla, a cookbook author and tour guide based in Italy
Travel writer Anne Roderique-Jones has been enjoying just that in the tiny Italian town of Ospedaletti, just east of Nice. She and her husband Nate planned their visit for the very beginning of its tourist season (which peaks in late July and August), finding cooler temperatures, zero crowds and plentiful dining with no reservations — a stark contrast to the what travelers are seeing in other marquee destinations.
In some big cities, like Paris and Milan, crowds aren’t as noticeable. Beyond standing at Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower, Paris feels pretty normal, Zimbeck said.
“A lot of what people do in Paris is walk around charming, cobblestone streets that are dispersed all over the city,” she added. “So you don’t really feel the crush in the way that I do, for example, in Rome.”
