See more, wait less: TUI Musement reveals how travellers can save time in Europe’s most visited cities

October 29, 2026

Tours & Activities

The study analyses maximum ticket-office waiting times at 100 attractions across 20 of Europe’s most popular city-break destinations
Rome tops the ranking, followed by Paris, Budapest, Venice and Seville
Travellers can explore an interactive map featuring practical tips to help them plan their visits

On a two or three-day city break, a few extra hours can make a real difference to how travellers discover and enjoy a destination.

TUI Musement, a leader in tours and activities, has identified how travellers can win back time in destination. An analysis of waiting times during the busiest periods at 100 attractions across 20 popular European city-break destinations, shows where travellers could save up to eight hours to better enjoy a city. An interactive map presents the full results and key time-saving tips from TUI Musement’s local experts.

Win back eight hours in Rome, or seven hours in Paris, Budapest, Venice and Seville

Rome tops the ranking, with more than eight hours of potential waiting time across five of the city’s most popular attractions. That is the equivalent of a full working day. Much of this time is concentrated at must-see landmarks such as the Vatican Museums, where queues can reach three and a half hours during the busiest periods.

Paris, Budapest, Venice and Seville complete the leading group, each with around seven hours of potential time savings. With some of the highest cumulative waiting times in the ranking, these are also among the cities where planning ahead can have the greatest impact:

Paris: At the Louvre, entering through the Carrousel entrance is often quicker than using the iconic Pyramid entrance.
Budapest: With the temporary closure of the Gellért Baths increasing demand at the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, booking in advance or considering alternatives such as the Rudas Baths can help visitors avoid long waits.
Venice: Visiting the Doge’s Palace before 10:00 or later in the afternoon is recommended.
Seville: Arriving at the Royal Alcázar first thing in the morning or after 14:30, and starting the visit in the gardens, can make for a more relaxed experience.

Even the cities with the lowest cumulative waits, including Edinburgh, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, record totals of around three hours across the five attractions analysed.

“Good planning is not about fitting more into the day. It is about making better use of the time available. Knowing the best times to visit, which entrances to use and what alternatives are available means travellers can spend less time waiting and more time discovering the places, flavours and details that bring a city to life” says Mirco Fiumene, Managing Director Experiences & CMO TUI Musement.

The attractions where planning ahead makes the biggest difference

The study also identifies the attractions where booking or planning a visit in advance can be particularly useful. The Vatican Museums top the list, with waits of up to three and a half hours during the busiest periods. They are followed by the Royal Alcázar of Seville, with waits of up to three hours, and Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, with waits of up to two hours and 45 minutes.

These are not isolated cases. Of the 100 attractions analysed, 15 can involve waits of more than two hours during periods of peak demand, while 33 can record queues of between 60 and 90 minutes.

Practical tips for making the most of every city

As part of the study, TUI Musement has compiled specific recommendations for each of the 100 attractions. These include the best days and times to visit, less crowded entrances, ways to make the most of the route once inside, suggestions for combining nearby attractions and reducing travel time, and alternatives offering a different perspective on familiar landmarks.

Visiting La Pedrera in the evening to avoid daytime queues, noting when tickets are released for Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in Milan, which go on sale every three months, or avoiding the period around sunset at the London Eye are just some of the recommendations featured on the interactive map.

Following these suggestions can do more than reduce waiting times. It can also free up time to experience the city in a different way: taking an evening walk along Canal Saint-Martin in Paris; exploring Madrid’s Conde Duque neighbourhood or lingering over tapas; or pausing to enjoy the tradition of afternoon tea in London.

It is not necessarily about doing more, but about travelling with enough time and flexibility to experience more of the destination’s everyday life.

A TUI portfolio connected to the cities in the study

The study focuses on destinations where TUI already supports travellers both before and during their city break. TUI Musement offers more than 5,000 experiences, tours and activities across the 20 cities included in the study. The portfolio ranges from visits to major landmarks to experiences that reveal different neighbourhoods, perspectives and sides of each destination.

In ten of the cities analysed, the portfolio also includes experiences developed directly by local TUI teams. In selected destinations, the activities portfolio is complemented by TUI hotels in cities including Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, London and Dublin, with new openings also planned in Seville and Lisbon.

Notes to editors:

Methodology: to produce the study, TUI Musement analysed 20 of Europe’s most popular city-break destinations and selected five of the most popular visitor attractions in each, creating a sample of 100 places of interest.Maximum ticket-office waiting times during periods of peak demand were estimated using publicly available information from sources including official websites, review platforms and traveller forums.The “hours you could save” figure for each city represents the combined estimated waiting time during the busiest periods at the five selected attractions. It indicates how much time travellers could potentially save by planning their visits in advance. The study also includes recommendations from TUI Musement’s local experts on the best times to visit each attraction and other practical ways to avoid unnecessary queues.
The interactive map featuring the complete results and recommendations for all 100 attractions is available on the https://www.tuimusement.com/uk/insights/city-break-time-saving-tips/

About TUI Musement

TUI Musement is a global Tours & Activities business that combines a highly curated product portfolio, scalable digital platforms and in-destination service by local teams, to source, develop, distribute and deliver products in three categories:

Experiences: Excursions, activities & attraction tickets
Transfers: Between airports, hotels and ports
Tours: Multi-day itineraries encompassing hotels, experiences, guides and transportation

Available in all major beach and city destinations, products are sourced from leading travel businesses or developed in-house by TUI teams, including the TUI Collection, the flagship experiences portfolio of TUI Group.

Products are distributed to customers, including the +34,7 million TUI customers, through TUI websites and apps – such as the Tours & Activities dedicated TUI Musement app, as well as in-destination local teams and B2B partners, including some of the world's leading OTAs, tour operators, airlines, hotels, travel agencies and cruise lines. TUI Musement is one of the major growth areas of the TUI Group and employs approximately 7,000 people worldwide.

Maria Sierra

maria.sierra@tui.com

October 29, 2026