This summer we visited dozens of tourist attractions from the Parthenon in Athens to Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. Some could have taken weeks to explore (Louvre) but others were done in about ten minutes (Gallerus Oratory, Ireland).
Over a mere three months, I probably doubled the number of sights I’ve seen in my entire life. Indeed, some days I felt like a professional tourist. Now at the end of the trip, I can’t help reflecting on the ones that stood out most and why they did.
1. Emotional impact. The most memorable attractions became indelible because of a strong emotional connection to the story they unfolded. Tragedy was one trigger for this connection. I was brought nearly to tears hearing audio of survivor stories towards the end of the Titanic museum in Belfast. At the Culloden Battlefield outside Inverness, the dramatic account of the defeat of the Jacobites (Scottish clans) had us walking back to the car in thoughtful silence. Other attractions moved us to awe – chants echoing off the stone walls at the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos or the inimitable light of San Chapelle in Paris. The same way we never forget how a person makes us feel, the way a place makes us feel lodges deep in our memories.
2. Beauty. We visit attractions because they are unexpectedly beautiful. Some of the sights we visited had unfathomable natural beauty – a crystal clear beach on Samos Island in Greece or toothy mountains on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Others possessed rare artistic genius: the pulsing vibrance of a Van Gogh at the Musée d’Orsay, or the symbolic architecture and storytelling at the Great Blasket Centre in Ireland. Relatedly, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was also one of the most stunning theatre productions I’ve ever seen. The surprising beauty of these places and performances made them automatic favourites.
3. Fun for the whole family. A lovely attraction can be completely sabotaged if kids are not able to enter into it. Some museums, like the Titanic in Belfast, do this well, adding a kids treasure hunt in parallel to the adult experience. Others were intentionally hands on and kid-friendly, such as a workshop to mix our own bottle of perfume at Musée du Parfum Fragonard in Paris. We also found that hyping up an exhibit usually had the opposite of the intended effect with kids. Better to come in with low or unspoken expectations and be happily surprised.
4. Intellectual appeal. Maybe Anna and I are outliers in this regard, but we especially liked museums where we learned something. This often works at odds with point number 3. Some family-focused attractions are intentional candy floss (e.g., Museum of Illusions in Athens and Edinburgh) but others celebrate a unique culture or a story in a way that enlarges your own life. Museums, at their best, let us learn with our five senses.
5. Affordable. Profit motive is a visitor buzzkill. Legoland Windsor was tremendous fun for Eve and I, but somewhat diminished by the eye-watering $11 hot dogs for lunch. By contrast, many of the best museums in London and Dublin were completely free.
6. Elbow room. In the height of summer, many attractions in the UK were completely overrun. A summer Saturday visit to Snowdonia National Park in Wales became a slow crawl through a crammed parking lot instead of an expansive mountain hike. Giants Causeway and The Book of Kells have timed entry but allow so many visitors at each time slot that it was nearly impossible photograph the sights without heaps of other tourists in view. Out of the way attractions with less visitors were sometimes better than blockbuster sights.
7. Friends are the real attraction. Tourist attractions are what we gravitated towards when we didn’t have friends in town. In every case on our trip, when we had old or new friends to see, they were the real highlight of that location.
