The 20 Tourist Attractions With the Most Notorious Lines

The more famous the tourist attraction, the longer you can expect to wait in line for it. Iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, and the Colosseum are known for their glacial wait times.

By Michele Debczak |
If you want to make the London Eye part of your British vacation, be prepared to wait.
If you want to make the London Eye part of your British vacation, be prepared to wait. / Paul Gilham/GettyImages

When planning a trip to a popular destination, don’t forget to factor in time spent waiting in line. Whether you want to snag a table at a city’s hottest restaurant, visit its beloved theme park, or see the top of its most famous skyscraper, you can count on hundreds of tourists having the same idea on any given day. For a concept of which attractions will consume the most of your time, check out this list.

HawaiianIslands.com analyzed the top 100 tourist attractions in each country according to TripAdvisor to see which ones were most likely to inspire complaints. The landmarks below boast the most public TripAdvisor reviews containing the words “long queue.” 

Paris’s Eiffel Tower tops the list, with nearly 4800 reviews bemoaning long lines at the time of the report. The experience greatly depends on when you decide to go, with waits to see the top of the structure reaching 3 hours at peak times. Ranking second is the iconic London Eye in Britain’s capital city. Though the massive ferris wheel holds 800 passengers at a time [PDF], tourists may wait up to 45 minutes to board. The Colosseum in Rome; LEGOLAND in Windsor, UK; and Barcelona’s Basilica de la Sagrada Familia round out the top five. You can read the full list of tourist attractions with the most notorious lines below.

If you want to get the full tourist experience in a major city, spending a significant portion of your vacation waiting in line is unavoidable. One way to maximize your time is by prioritizing under-the-radar attractions and destinations. Here are the U.S. states with the most hidden gems for travelers.

20 Lines That Receive the Most Tourist Complaints

  1. Eiffel Tower // Paris, France
  2. London Eye // London, UK
  3. Colosseum // Rome, Italy
  4. LEGOLAND Windsor Resort // Windsor, UK
  5. Basilica de la Sagrada Familia // Barcelona, Spain
  6. Empire State Building // New York City, U.S.
  7. Alton Towers Resort // Alton, UK
  8. Siam Park // Adeje, Spain
  9. Disneyland Paris // Marne-La-Vallee, France
  10. Universal Studios Singapore // Sentosa Island, Singapore
  11. Tower of London // London, UK
  12. Victoria Peak // Hong Kong
  13. Louvre Museum // Paris, France
  14. Burj Khalifa // Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  15. Thorpe Park // Chertsey, UK
  16. Madame Tussauds London // London, UK
  17. Chessington World of Adventures Resort // Chessington, UK
  18. Van Gogh Museum // Amsterdam, Netherlands
  19. Top of the Rock // New York City, U.S.
  20. Warner Bros. Studio Tour London // Leavesden, UK

[h/t Thrillist]

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