Amsterdam is getting even more serious about its continuing over-tourism problem.

The city had previously enacted some measures to curb some of the issues but they have just decided that in addition to the visitor fees and such no new hotels can be built UNLESS another closes. They had 20.7 MILLION overnight tourist stays in 2023. That is a lot of visitors. No wonder the locals are complaining. But, it is anticipated by 2030 they will see 42 million tourists – 50 times the resident population.

Think about that for a minute. If you live in a small town of 1,000 people, you would have 50,000 tourists in your small town. Or, let’s say you lived in an area of 10,000 people. You would have half a million visitors. All those people clogging the streets & sidewalks. Yeah, it’s good for business but not trying to carry on with everyday life.

Yeah…you’d be pissed off too.

I have been there a few times and I do see the attraction. It’s a beautiful, wonderful city with progressive ideals and open-mindedness about everything. Their attitude is people will do things like smoke weed, eat magic truffles, buy sex and whatever else so instead of legislating the morality of the few onto the majority, people are free & able to make their own choices and are responsible for those choices. It’s truly a free and tolerating society, something which other countries brag about but don’t really have.

I was not there to smoke weed or see the Red Light District. I can smoke weed here in the U.S., and if I ever felt the urge to pay for sex (which I wouldn’t) I can go to Nevada. I was in Europe for the incredible history, architecture, foods and people.

The citizens of Amsterdam are raising hell about the influx of people, and rightfully so, but it is a problem everywhere. I have lived in many tourist areas (but with nowhere near the crush of visitors Amsterdam has) and it really sucks after a while. You cannot go anywhere or do anything because you are trapped in your own city. And, of course, people these days don’t know respect for others or how to act so it just compounds the problems.

I have posted about European overtourism previously and I really anticipate many other cities and areas with over-tourism further tightening down on visitors the same way Amsterdam has in order to reclaim their way of life. I totally understand it. Living in Colorado I remember wishing westbound I-70 would shut down before the foothills on weekends so it didn’t take me three damn hours to make a 45 minute drive home.

Since I have lived in these types of places overrun with outsiders I am always respectful of the locals and try to minimize my influence on the problem. It sucks when you cannot enjoy the place you call home when you are trapped where you live. Granted, just my presence there still affects others and I do keep that in mind for my travels.

You know, the planet is full of wonderful places, people and things to see and do. It’s past time to quit focusing on the usual destinations and find other, much-less-crowded places to visit, whether here or abroad.

I remember all of the places we went to in Europe that weren’t on everyone’s Top Ten lists. I thought Luxembourg was a really beautiful city/country. Antwerp, Belgium was an interesting place. Taking the trains we saw lots of villages & towns and driving the very narrow backroads of Ireland we saw castles around every corner. We did not need to see a Top Ten list.

I certainly understand wanting to see certain cities, places and sites and I think it’s reasonable given they have been portrayed through the years as idyllic, romantic places. Yes, Amsterdam is certainly very crowded, and we were there in the low season. London was also very crowded and extremely busy – again, low season. Britain and Western Europe, being English-friendly, are both understandably a major destination. You can see the changes in that as you go farther east so many stay in the comfortable western part, unfortunately forgoing the fun of being challenged by language and culture. We noticed that as we traveled into Belgium and Germany.

Having done extensive travel here in the U.S. since I was a little kid, I have been to many places inundated with crowds of people when I was there. Problem is, it is now so much worse. Places like Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Rocky Mountain National Parks are seeing lines to get in, and now many are doing timed admissions due to the crush of visitors. Luckily, I saw many of those busier places before they got so busy so the past several years I have visited other less-busy places like Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks.

We can be part of the solution or the problem. Visit places off-season – you will not have to tolerate the crowds, and things like lodging and airfare are cheaper. There can be a trade-off with some things being closed so research and plan for those things.

Try visiting smaller, out-of-the-way sites and you just may find a very special place. I remember visiting Carhenge in Nebraska. It’s not the Eiffel Tower, but it was still cool to see and I learned about the history of how it happened. Things don’t have to be the biggest, most beautiful, or trendy. My trip to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP in 2012 was cool, but the second trip there a couple of years ago was miserably overcrowded and not a good time. However, the North Unit was not crowded at all and was beautiful. I made friends with a longhorn cow that walked up to me for a nose-scratching and got in some nice hiking.

Not everything in your life needs to be a social media moment or a “like”…sometimes you need to do things just for you.

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That all for now.

Shawn