We analysed 13,078 text reviews from Google Maps for 33 selected landmarks across seven European destinations. The Trevi Fountain had the highest share of reviews mentioning crowds or queues in this sample. This measures what reviewers wrote, not visitor numbers or crowd levels at a particular time of day.
Key takeaways
- The Trevi Fountain leads this sample for crowd mentions. Crowd- or queue-related wording appears in 42.4% of its text reviews, compared with 5.7% for the Eiffel Tower: about 7.4 times the share.
- Three Rome landmarks top the list. The Spanish Steps (25.5%) and the Pantheon (20.7%) follow the Trevi Fountain. Across the sampled landmarks, the reported share is 18.8% for Rome and 6.9% for Amsterdam.
- Reviews mentioning crowds have lower average ratings. They average 4.24 stars, compared with 4.60 for reviews without those terms: a difference of 0.36 stars. This association does not show that crowds caused the lower ratings.
- Photo-related wording appears more often in reviews mentioning crowds. It appears in 15.4% of those reviews, compared with 7.1% of all text reviews in the sample. This does not establish whether the photos or the visit were spoiled.
- Some landmarks have a much lower share of crowd mentions. Pont Alexandre III in Paris (1.0%), the Skinny Bridge in Amsterdam (1.9%) and St Paul’s Cathedral in London (2.5%) sit near the bottom of this sample. That does not mean they are empty or quieter at every hour.
Trevi Fountain has the highest share of crowd mentions in this sample
Source: Tripotographer analysis of 13,078 Google Maps text reviews, collected on 29 October 2026. Download the landmark data (CSV).
Planning a quieter photoshoot
Our photographers usually start a landmark photoshoot about ten minutes after sunrise, when the light has come up and the tour groups have not. That timing comes from their experience on location, not from the review analysis, and it is not a guaranteed quiet window. Your photographer adjusts the start time for access, season, local events and the route.
“The famous places are never empty at noon, whatever the season. About ten minutes after sunrise, the light has come up and the tour groups have not. We start almost every landmark session at that time,” says Anatolii Motoryha, co-founder of Tripotographer.
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris | 08:49 | 08:10 | 07:16 | 07:11 | 06:20 | 05:56 | 06:12 | 06:52 | 07:35 | 08:19 | 08:08 | 08:47 |
| Rome | 07:45 | 07:17 | 06:33 | 06:41 | 06:00 | 05:43 | 05:57 | 06:27 | 06:58 | 07:30 | 07:09 | 07:40 |
| London | 08:09 | 07:26 | 06:27 | 06:16 | 05:19 | 04:52 | 05:09 | 05:54 | 06:43 | 07:32 | 07:27 | 08:09 |
| Milan | 08:09 | 07:36 | 06:48 | 06:49 | 06:03 | 05:43 | 05:58 | 06:32 | 07:10 | 07:47 | 07:31 | 08:06 |
| Lisbon | 08:03 | 07:38 | 06:59 | 07:11 | 06:35 | 06:20 | 06:33 | 06:59 | 07:26 | 07:54 | 07:28 | 07:57 |
| Amsterdam | 08:53 | 08:08 | 07:07 | 06:54 | 05:56 | 05:27 | 05:45 | 06:32 | 07:22 | 08:13 | 08:10 | 08:53 |
Illustrative start times: sunrise plus 10 minutes, in local time, on the 15th of each month in 2027. These are reference times for that date, not fixed monthly booking slots. Clock changes affect local times in late March and late October. Check the exact date and location before booking.
Individual reviewers describe early visits
- Trevi Fountain: “We went at 5AM. Very quiet great pics. Only 40 to 50 people there… Day time… Mad house.”
- Place du Trocadéro: “I went early in the morning and had a fantastic day, with no crowds, which is great for taking all the photos you want.”
- Pont Alexandre III: “It’s better to go early in the morning. At this time it’s almost deserted.”
- Westminster Bridge: “It can get extremely busy… Would recommend coming early in the morning, when it is very quiet.”
Crowd mentions across the sampled destinations
| Destination | Reviews analysed | Reviews mentioning crowds |
|---|---|---|
| Rome | 2,510 | 18.8% |
| Lake Como (Villa del Balbianello) | 588 | 13.8% |
| Lisbon | 2,215 | 12.6% |
| London | 2,799 | 10.8% |
| Paris | 2,650 | 10.8% |
| Milan | 739 | 9.9% |
| Amsterdam | 1,577 | 6.9% |
Method
We selected 33 landmarks and matched them to Google Maps listings using the DataForSEO Business Data API. On 29 October 2026, we requested the 1,000 most recent reviews for each listing and retained 13,078 reviews containing text, using Google’s English translation where needed. Reviews were flagged when they contained crowd- or queue-related wording such as “crowded”, “busy”, “packed”, “queue” or “too many people”. These flags identify mentions, not verified complaints. The sunrise table uses the NOAA solar algorithm with a ten-minute offset; the offset reflects our photographers’ experience on location, not a finding from the review data.
Limitations. This is a snapshot of selected landmarks, not a representative ranking of all European attractions. The latest reviews cover different periods for different sites and may reflect seasonal differences. Keyword matching can flag positive or negated statements, including reviews saying there were no crowds. Translation can also affect matching. The percentages describe this sample and do not establish actual crowd levels, quiet hours or a causal effect on ratings. The Lake Como sample covers only Villa del Balbianello. St Peter’s Square, Covent Garden, Dam Square, Praça do Comércio, Naviglio Grande and Bellagio were excluded because their listings could not be matched reliably.
You may reuse Tripotographer’s aggregate findings and charts with attribution and a link to this study. Download the full table of 33 landmarks as a CSV. Individual review excerpts remain attributed to their original sources.
