3 Amazing Places And their Most Crowded Times of the Year

There are the right time and the wrong time to visit any destination and sometimes, the “right” time is the wrong time. This may seem like a contradiction to many of you but it’s not. Think about it: if the “season” is the best time to go to a city, a beach, a theme park or a spa, it is the time when the largest number of tourists will go there. This usually translates into higher prices, fewer available lodging and dining options, “tourist traps”, crowded museums and events, and horror stories about standing in line for hours just to visit an exhibition, a monument or a ride.

Certainly, there are places that offer a unique experience to their visitors during the high season – there are, in turn, many others that, unless you go there for the Lent, you may want to visit at another time.

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is considered the biggest celebration in the world. Often called “O maior show da Terra” (the biggest show on Earth), it is a colourful event that brings more than 2 million people in the streets each year. Surprising as it may sound, the biggest show doesn’t attract the biggest number of tourists: statistics show that each year, about 1.1 million people visit Rio to attend the Carnival. Still, during the event, the population of the city grows by a sixth, making it one of the most crowded destinations in the world.

New Orleans, USA

When the Venetians show off their elaborate masks during the Carnival processions, half a world away the Lent is celebrated in a different way. At this time of the year, around 1.5 million people decide to party in New Orleans, a thriving tourist destination filled with landmarks and bars, pubs, and nightclubs. The already popular tourist destination is filled with party people singing, dancing, and drinking in the streets, throwing doubloons and beads, and generally, having a good time.

Venice, Italy

Venice is a wonderful city filled with some truly amazing landmarks, ranging from the St Mark’s Basilica to the Piazza San Marco, the Lido or even the Ca’ Vendramin Calergi, one of the oldest casinos in the world. Every year, between 25 and 30 million tourists visit the city (that’s more than 60,000 on an average day). This is not the case during the Carnival.

The Venice Carnival, held each year in the weeks preceding the Christian celebration of Lent (40 days before Easter) is the most crowded time of the city. Statistics show that during the Carnival, the number of tourists exceeds 3 million – this in a city that has fewer than 300,000 inhabitants in the rest of the year.