When Is The Best Time Of Day To Show Up To Tourist Hot Spots?

If you're a seasoned traveler, you probably put a lot of time into researching the best time of year to visit must-see countries, whether that means avoiding peak season or timing your trip to experience the most interesting festivals. But have you considered the optimal time of day to visit the most exciting spots in your itinerary? Believe it or not, early risers may have the best experience at these iconic places.

If you've spent years dreaming of visiting the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Tower of London, or the Great Wall of China, the last thing you want when you finally get to your destination is to find so many other tourists clamoring to experience the same sights as you that you don't actually get to enjoy it. To find out the best time to check these famous spots off your bucket list without being trampled by thousands of other visitors, Islands spoke exclusively with an expert: Victoria Fricke, owner of Vic's Vacations, a luxury travel agency that puts together customized vacation itineraries for their clients. Fricke's emphatic answer for the best time to go was simple: "EARLY!"

You can always choose hidden gems instead of hot tourist attractions to avoid crowds, but there are some famous historical and cultural spots you just can't miss when you're traveling. Arriving early can help you beat the traffic. Just like peak season is the busiest time of the year to travel, many destinations also have different peak times of day when most visitors swarm to them. While places like the Colosseum in Rome have a cap on the maximum number of tourists that can enter at one time, when that capacity is 3,000 people, you probably don't want to be number 2,999 in line.

While it might seem unbelievable, some of these spots can appear almost deserted first thing in the morning, as Fricke showed us in a video of the Colosseum above taken before 9:30 a.m. and shared by Vic's Vacations. Fricke assured us that even the most popular spots can be quieter in the morning. "Let's take the Colosseum in Rome and the Acropolis in Greece," she said. "These are both locations many travelers have on bucket lists when in those European destinations. A tour at 9 a.m. when the gates open will feel significantly different than one at noon."

If you're willing to set your alarm for early in the morning while you're on vacation, you might be rewarded with an almost private experience of some of the most-visited places on Earth. Victoria Fricke actually advises booking your most popular tours and activities in the very first available time slot. Most other travelers aren't willing to get up before dawn to arrive at tourist attractions as soon as they open their doors, but according to Fricke, that's what makes it the perfect time to go. "Often it's hard to fathom starting your day at 7 a.m. to go on a tour, but when you think about ... the ease of the experience, it's worth it entirely ... These experiences truly are made or broken by the arrival time."

Even if you've scheduled all of your biggest events for before 9:30 a.m., there's still plenty to do on your trip. Once you've gotten these famous sights out of the way, you can use the rest of your day to explore the less-visited parts of your destination and get a better idea of what it's really like to live there, away from the chaos of the crowds. As Fricke suggests, "Use your afternoon for casual strolls, shopping, and a relaxing coffee shop or afternoon cocktail."