How can I persuade you not to go to the Eiffel Tower?
And do I even have a right to try?
I have a little rant to share today. It’s a topic that I’ve been quietly ranting about for years now but it’s becoming more pressing as the places suffering from overtourism start to mount up.
It’s not a very popular opinion, but bear with me, please. You are still allowed to go to the Eiffel Tower if you want, but I am trying to encourage people to think differently about their travel plans. As in, maybe don’t go to the Eiffel Tower. Unless you really, really, really want to.
(Disclaimer: I have nothing against the Eiffel Tower, and I’ve been there several times, it just seems like a good example of a tourist icon. Did you know that it was meant to be temporary and most Parisians hated it?)
The case against Top 10 lists and must do sights …
I’m sure most of you have at some stage travelled to popular tourist destinations, places that many of us around the world have a kind of collective imagination about, formed perhaps through film and TV, sometimes through excellent tourism board marketing, or are simply iconic sights that everyone has heard about. And when you are planning future trips, I bet many of you have googled some variation of “best things to do in City X” and taken note. Even the way most people implement the concept of bucket lists seems to encourage box-ticking, list-led travelling.
I have done this myself, of course, over the years. But when I look back, I can think of countless examples of places I went to “just because”, when if I’d stopped to think about what I was really interested in, I would have used that time to visit somewhere entirely different.
Countless forces make very compelling arguments that we “must” go to these most well-known places - you must see the most famous temples in Kyoto, you have to brave the queues to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, of course you will see the Colosseum when in Rome. The marketing hype is enormous! The peer pressure, as such, from other travellers who’ve “been there, done that” and don’t want any buyers’ remorse, is also strong.
Intentionality as the antidote to overtourism
Overtourism is no fun for anyone. As a traveller visiting an overtouristed place, you may spend a lot of time in queues, you may have obscured views, you might face cranky locals annoyed at having their home overrun. If you live in a place that gets more tourists than it can reasonably handle, it must be so frustrating to have the hordes descend, plus you may find cost of living rising with impacts like accommodation turning into tourist rentals instead of places locals can live.
Let me repeat: it’s fine to want to go to the Eiffel Tower. It’s fine to want to go to the Louvre. But the key thing here is the phrase “want to go”. You loved “Emily in Paris” and want an Emily-style Eiffel Tower moment - that’s okay, that’s a reason. You’re a true art lover and geniunely keen to see the Mona Lisa - then go!
As the headline says, it’s all about being intentional. My challenge is, before you next take a trip, have a look at your plans or the lists of places you want to go, and just check in with yourself. Are you going here because it’s “what people do”, or out of some sense of missing out if you don’t, or are you going because you have a real interest?
There are literally millions of travel choices out there for us: galleries almost nobody’s heard of, restaurants that haven’t been reviewed outside of their native language, landscapes that are just as beautiful as others that for random reasons have become famous or Instagrammable. In my experience, it is often the choices that take us away from the well-known spots into lesser-known parts of the world that lead to better memories and stories. I honestly can’t tell you anything about the first time I went to the Eiffel Tower, as a nine-year-old, and in fact I only know I went because I have that photo; but I remember in vivid detail our morning visiting a French school a couple of days earlier in Biarritz, and insanely I still have a small eraser a child there gave me as a spontaneous gift.
One of my new favourite podcast episodes is this one on overtourism from a couple of weeks ago, as I was lucky enough to have three incredibly articulate guests who really know their overtourism!
You can listen to the episode on Overtourism by clicking play right above here, or check it out in your favourite podcast app:
Have you been extra-intentional with your recent travel planning? Have you made decisions not to go somewhere and regretted it, or been happy about you alternative plans? Please tell me! I’d love to gather more evidence either way.
I think part of the key is to give yourself a few "bucket list" items you have always dreamt of doing -- and then pretty much chucking the rest of the "must see" list. I'm not saying you never see those things, but only if the stars align and you can do it without crowds or hassle. Because as you note, the world is FILLED with all kinds of not-so-famous things that are wonderful.
I loved how you have articulated the intentionality aspect while travelling. I had very similar experience with bucket list places - like I wanted to go to positano for many years but when we did go there it was not so great because of the flood of tourists and videographers. And just beside it there was Praiano which we hadn't heard of, but ended up enjoying so much more because of its charm and intimate setting.
My substack also has a similar theme, so I related with this article a lot!