The simple hack that will help you skip the queues at museums
We are at the peak of the city break season – a beautiful time of year to enjoy Europe’s great cultural centres. The only downside is the crowds. Queues will be long, and the most popular museums and sights heaving with visitors.
Or will they? Recently I’ve been sidestepping the problem by using Google’s new Popular Times charts. When you search for a sight, they show up in the panel on the right of the main results listings (or if you are on a smartphone, at the top of the results).
Using results generated by data collected from visitors’ phone signals, the chart indicates – hour by hour and for each day of the week – how busy the sight is likely to be. It displays the typical length of time spent at the sight and, during opening hours, shows live information on whether it is unusually quiet or busy at that moment.
The results aren’t always surprising, but there are some significant quirks, and knowing those can be very useful if you want to avoid queues and crowds. At almost all sights, the first hour of opening is by far the quietest. And overall most are much less busy during the middle of the week than at weekends. But there are no absolute rules, so if you are visiting at a peak period it’s worth checking Google to see how the land lies.
I’ve analysed the charts for five great museums where crowds can be a problem. Note that even at quiet times, there may still be queues at the ticket office – where possible, book online and with a timed entry to avoid this problem.
Londons most unusual museums: 50 of the best
Vatican Museums, Rome
Part of the problem here is the relatively short opening hours of 9am-4pm, which means that the museum is normally consistently busy all day, and the Sistine Chapel perpetually crowded. However, 9am on a Wednesday is relatively quiet – head straight to the chapel on arrival. (Closed most Sundays).
Uffizi, Florence
Long opening hours (8.15am-6.50pm) are a bonus. Arrive at 8.15am for the best experience, or just before 5pm for the last couple of hours of the day. Thursday is quietest. (Closed Monday).
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Strangely, the quietest hours of all are 9-10am on Saturday and Sunday. But later on both days it is very busy, as is Tuesday. Good options are Wednesday morning and the last two hours of late opening (until 9.45pm) on a Thursday. (Closed Monday).
The Prado, Madrid
Every day there is a dip in numbers during the siesta hours of 2-4pm. It stays open until 8pm but remains busy until then. Wednesday is quietest. (Open every day).
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
They get up late in Amsterdam. The museum is dead as a doornail from 9-11am, then consistently busy until closing at 5pm. (Open every day).
