If you're planning to take a European vacation this summer, look online at the museums to see if you can pre-book admission tickets to the exhibitions to avoid waiting in lines. While some museums require you to sign up/prepay for a specific time, others allow you admission during a particular day or set period of days. Often these advance purchase tickets come with a surcharge of a few dollars, but as an experienced traveler (someone who has travelled in over 30 countries), I'm here to tell you that paying an extra fee sometimes is worth it! The average queue outside the Anne Frank Huis and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam can last hours - same goes for the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. And the Uffizi in Florence? Forget about it! The line is so long that a few patrons have turned into stone statues themselves for all the waiting! I once wasted an entire day waiting to go into a museum in Venice only to get to the front of the line and discover that the museum was closed and I not only wasted a day in line, but still didn't get to see what I came to see! When traveling overseas (or anywhere for that matter), you want to maximize your time - get the most bang for your buck - and in my book standing in line never provides any extra benefit! That said, book ahead, or if you don't, then at least be prepared to bring some reading material along to keep you company while the hours pass you by!
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