“It’s just been a kind of out-of-control high season like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Katie Parla, a cookbook author and tour guide in Italy. “Things that I never had to consider as a traveler are now things I have to take into consideration,” like sold-out train and museum tickets.
After Europe’s gangbusters 2022 summer tourist season, Meg Zimbeck, who runs the food tour company and review site Paris by Mouth, thought 2023 would be a calmer scene. Instead, business in June was up 30 percent.
“We anticipated last year was going to be our biggest year because of the pent-up demand post-pandemic, but it just continues to surge,” Zimbeck said. “We’re seeing a lot of people who still are excited to travel and they’re excited to go to Europe.”
In Italy, Parla is dealing with the same. “I just hired two more guides,” Parla said. “We’re getting all these last-minute requests and we’re trying our best to handle the volume.”
Even though most corners of the world are open to travelers, Americans are still hungry for the classic European summer vacation, Weinacht said.
That means Italy, France, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Spain and the U.K. are buzzing — and struggling to keep up with the throngs of visitors. If you’re one of the many heading to Europe this summer, here are the hurdles you may encounter.
Hot spots ‘inundated’ with crowds
Parla, who splits her time between Rome and Venice and leads tours in all the Italian hot spots, says they’re all “absolutely inundated.”
Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said travelers should expect long waits and large crowds at pretty much every stage of their European vacation.
“Be prepared for long lines at airports both in the U.S. and in Europe,” he said. “Be prepared for lines to clear border control, airport security, crowds at railroad stations, busy hotels, crowded museums, crowded restaurants, crowded points of interest.”
Europe’s second cities and off-the-beaten-path destinations, however, have largely been spared.
“They are not full and not charging the rates the big ones are,” Weinacht said.
“It’s just been a kind of out-of-control high season like nothing we’ve seen before.”— Katie Parla, a cookbook author and tour guide based in Italy
Travel writer Anne Roderique-Jones has been enjoying just that in the tiny Italian town of Ospedaletti, just east of Nice. She and her husband Nate planned their visit for the very beginning of its tourist season (which peaks in late July and August), finding cooler temperatures, zero crowds and plentiful dining with no reservations — a stark contrast to the what travelers are seeing in other marquee destinations.
In some big cities, like Paris and Milan, crowds aren’t as noticeable. Beyond standing at Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower, Paris feels pretty normal, Zimbeck said.
“A lot of what people do in Paris is walk around charming, cobblestone streets that are dispersed all over the city,” she added. “So you don’t really feel the crush in the way that I do, for example, in Rome.”
Travel disruptions loom
Europe’s air traffic management body, Eurocontrol, is warning of a “challenging” summer due to increased flights and restricted airspace resulting from the war in Ukraine, British media reported Monday.
“Flight delays are a huge, huge issue,” Weinacht said.
To reduce your risks of disruption, Weinacht encourages travelers to take trains or rental cars versus flying between destinations in Europe, particularly on budget airlines. “Those flights are notoriously delayed as well,” she said.
Anticipate long lines at airport check-in and security and arrive earlier than you’d normally budget. On the day she ran into her 200-person line in Athens, “thankfully, my husband had a co-branded United card,” she said. Check to see if any of your travel credit cards come with airport priority lane perks.
You can also streamline your airport experience further by avoiding checking a bag.
“Luggage delivery times can be up to two hours right now,” Weinacht said. If you’ll need to pick up luggage, don’t book close train or flight connections.
Prices are way up for flights and hotels
Just getting to Europe is putting a dent in American budgets, and that’s before lodging, food and activities. According to travel booking app Hopper, round-trip flights to Europe are averaging $1,370 a ticket, 33 percent higher than 2019.
Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, said she recently returned from the U.K. Even though she booked tickets eight months ago, she still “couldn’t believe” the prices.
“The economy tickets that were $700 to $800 pre-pandemic were averaging $1,200 to $1,500,” she said.
Harteveldt said there isn’t as much low-fare service between the U.S. and Europe as there was before the pandemic, which is one reason for the higher prices. And he said overall capacity between the destinations is still down.
“The fundamental law of economics applies here,” he said. “When there’s more demand than capacity, the price is going to go up.”
With the surge in demand has come a surge in prices at hotels as well.
“It’s so bananas how expensive it is to stay in just absolutely mediocre accommodations because things are so booked up,” Parla said.
She said to keep food costs in line, travelers in Rome can consider affordable options like stalls in the Testaccio market, slices of pizza or supplì — a deep-fried rice ball in ragù with melted mozzarella in the middle — at Supplizio. “So if you’re spending 500 bucks on a room that’s not very cool, it feels so much better when your lunch is 10 euros for a slice of pizza, a suppli and a beer,” she added.
Most strikes and protests are cooling off
Labor strikes were common throughout Europe in the spring, but Harteveldt said they aren’t typically as frequent in the summer. Still, he said, that “doesn’t mean there won’t be a wildcat strike or some kind of labor action.”
Security officers at London Heathrow Airport had announced planned strikes on several days in July and August; but some last month were canceled. On June 23, the Unite union and the airport reached a deal for pay raises to prevent work stoppages for two years.
Janna Hyland, a transportation intelligence analyst at risk management firm Crisis24, said further action in Europe is possible.
“Like a lot of travel disruption, it’s hard for travelers to predict,” she said. “The best thing they can do is stay informed.”
Unions will typically give notice of a strike, and airlines will notify passengers of potential impacts. Hyland said travelers should pay attention to their airlines, arrive at the airport early, fly direct when possible and avoid checking bags.
Protests that erupted late last month in France are unrelated to travel — they followed the police killing of a teenager in the suburb of Nanterre — but hundreds of people have been arrested and thousands of officers have been deployed in Paris and areas around the city.
The U.S. Embassy in Paris issued a security alert on June 29 warning about potentially violent protests throughout France, with reports of damage.
“U. S. citizens should avoid mass gatherings and areas of significant police activity as they can turn violent and result in clashes,” the alert says. “Some cities are imposing curfews. As always, it is a good practice to notify friends or family of your whereabouts. Note that public transportation is being affected.”
Canada’s travel advice for France warns of protests being planned in such popular tourist destinations as Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. “They have caused disruptions to services and transportation and have led to acts of vandalism, arson, and violent clashes between demonstrators and police,” Canada’s warning states. “In certain cases, security forces have used tear gas to disperse crowds.”
Zimbeck says protests and strikes in France seem to be calming down. Even at their height, “at the time of day that we’re doing tours in the morning, in the afternoon, we haven’t seen any disruptions at all,” she said.
Passports are tough to come by
Of course, Americans can’t run into disruptions if they can’t get to Europe in the first place. That’s what many potential travelers are experiencing as they wait — and wait and wait — for passports.
The State Department has been deluged with applications. The current processing time is 10 to 13 weeks for routine service and 7 to 9 weeks for expedited service. The clock starts when the agency receives the application, not when you drop the envelope in the mailbox.
“The department is experiencing a surge in passport demand, and during some weeks we are seeing twice as many applications pending compared to the same point in [Fiscal Year] 2022,” the department said in an emailed statement.
Last month, the agency received about 400,000 applications per week, down slightly from its January-through-May high of more than half a million a week.
An Associated Press report describes the State Department as mired in a system of crisis management, where the priority goes to “life or death” scenarios and travelers getting anxiously close to their departures. The department told The Post in an email that, as of June 22, the agency has been issuing more than 97 percent of passports within its stated processing times or earlier.
“We do not anticipate needing to increase our processing times again in 2023 and are focused on returning to pre-pandemic processing times — two to three weeks for expedited service, six to eight weeks for routine service — by the end of the calendar year,” the email said.
The agency recommends a six-month lead time for first-time applications and renewals. For urgent cases, you can try to book an appointment at the National Passport Information Center if you are scheduled to depart within two weeks and need a passport or 28 days for a foreign visa. Appointments are limited and not guaranteed.
Unruly tourists
Amid the crowds, tourists aren’t always on their best behavior.
A man was filmed carving names into a wall of the Colosseum in Rome last month, leading to fury from Italian officials and threats of a prison sentence or fine. Rome and Venice have both struggled to deal with disruptive visitors in recent years.
City leaders in Amsterdam unveiled a campaign this spring, ahead of peak tourist season, urging potentially unruly visitors to “stay away.” That effort is backed by some new rules, including earlier closing times for brothels and a ban on smoking pot in the streets of the Red Light District.
In one nightmare scenario, an American tourist was arrested following a fatal attack on two fellow Americans near Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle. Police said the man lured the two women, in their early 20s, to a trail and tried to sexually assault one of them. He allegedly pushed both down a 150-foot drop near a bridge that serves as castle viewing area; only one survived.
A previous version of this story neglected to mention a labor deal for Heathrow Airport security officers that prevents work stoppages for two years. This article has been updated.