Travel Tips for People Who Don’t Like Museums
My Husband and I are not museum people. We appreciate old things and the role they play in history, but we would rather google information about them than spend all day reading signs in a museum. We prefer spend our time walking around, seeing major sights, and experiencing new things. If you are the type of person who could spend an entire day in each exhibit at the Louvre, this blog post is not for you. We get board pretty quickly, no matter how cool it might be.
For our honeymoon, we spent a week in France. We were in Paris for two days before we took a train to Strasbourg for two days. We returned to Paris and spent the majority of our time left there, aside from the one morning we took a train to Versailles. Here are some things/tips we learned about and for ourselves while traveling in France together.
Find a fast-paced travel buddy
Prior to marriage, my husband and I had never traveled together. I was nervous that we would have different priorities or enjoy different things about traveling. We quickly realized, that is not the case because we are very similar.
We enjoy seeing something once, perhaps taking a few photos, but moving on to the next thing pretty quickly. We grow impatient & frustrated in large crowds, and we don’t like feeling like tourists so we find it best to do/see whatever it is quickly. We take longer on the things we enjoy and where there are less people.
For example, the base of Sacré-Cœur was very crowded on the day we were there so we did not want to spend very long navigating through people. But, for seven Euros, hidden beneath the cathedral was an entrance to climb the 293 stairs to the dome atop Sacré-Cœur. There was no one in line and we knew it would provide a fantastic view of Paris. So we made the climb and spent about thirty minutes at the top with only a few other people.
In contrast, we did not think it was worth it to fight the crowd on top of the Arc de Triumph and were satisfied with walking around its base once and moved on to a new sight. Having someone with a similar mindset makes traveling more enjoyable for all parties involved.
Plan ahead for the must see museums
One cannot go to Paris and not visit the Louvre, but the Louvre is one of the largest museums in the world (Definitely not ideal for a couple like us, who aren’t keen on spending a ton of time there). We are also not great at planning ahead, but we took an new approach to the Louvre. We got a map at the welcome desk, sat on a bench, and took a moment to circle the things we knew we wanted to see. While walking to find the items we circled, we still ended up seeing a lot of what the Louvre has to offer without stopping for a few minutes at each artifact.
We took a long distance selfie with the Mona Lisa, said “Hi” to Venus, admired the Wedding at Cana, Waved to Lady Liberty, marveled at the crown jewels and so much more in just 2 hours.
Lose the guilt
We were tempted to take longer at each monument than we wanted simply because we felt guilty for not admiring it more. We eventually realized that the amount of time you look at something does not increase or decrease its value or beauty. We just have very short attention spans.
We also have a limited budget and could not afford to spend more than a week in Paris. that definitely does not allow us to spend a day in each exhibit at the Louvre.
Prioritize YOUR way
Because we were in Paris for our Honeymoon, our number one priority was spending time together. This meant that we sat in cafes to talk longer than we spent at the Eiffel Tower. Some nights we ordered take-out food to eat in our Air BNB so that we could be alone instead of eating in a crowded restaurant.
If our only goal was to experience France, we probably would have tried to take advantage of every single experience the culture had to offer. But, our priorities were elsewhere, and that is okay.
Make it your own
We were happy to get advice and suggestions from people who have visited France before us, but there is only so much advice you can follow when it comes to traveling. Weather changes and priorities differ.
We were told to walk everywhere but after the first day, we were to exhausted to enjoy ourselves, so we figured out the metro. We were told Versailles was a must-see, but we were satisfied with only seeing the outdoor gardens. We didn’t eat at a single restaurant that was suggested to us and chose to just eat what was close to us.
We were given plenty of good advice for visiting France that we chose to follow and were happy we did, but ultimately you have to make every trip your own.
The Mona Lisa
We did not want to wait in line to get close, so we got as close as we could for a selfie.
