How to Survive a Summer Vacation in Big Cities

Matt and I try to take one big trip each year that doesn’t involve our hometowns. Since we dole out holidays between our families, and find ourselves pretty burnt out travel-wise through springtime, this usually means a summer vacation somewhere in July or August. (My one condition is that we’re home before college football starts!)

Last year, we did a tour of some National Parks down in California, Nevada, and Arizona. So this year, we decided to do something more metropolitan. It turned into a three-city tour of the East Coast: Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. Neither of us had been to the first two cities, and it had been a good ten years since I was in NYC, so it was a really fun trip for us. They are amazingly interesting, historical, and all around cool cities, I highly recommend visiting, and I’ll be posting about them more specifically at a later date.

But.

There were moments in this trip where I struggled to keep my adventurous spirit up. Two straight weeks of sightseeing and exploring is hard enough on one’s stamina, and we were doing it all during a) an extreme heat warning for two out of the three cities we were in, b) a major month for vacationers from all across the globe, and c) a period of construction on so many of the historical places we were visiting that I lost count. This can be seriously hard to surmount if you don’t find ways of accepting, moving on, and even embracing the slightly different plans you’re forced into with these conditions.

Just a note, since I do not have kids, was traveling with a supportive travel partner, and we’re both fairly young (though I had my birthday during the trip, and 28 feels old! Don’t hate me.), these tips don’t address the further complications of traveling with children, or large groups, etc. But these are some of the things that I did to get over my frustrations and really truly have an enjoyable vacation!

CROWDS

Massive crowds can be frustrating, especially in this day and age when crowds basically mean selfie sticks, noses buried in phones, slow moving sidewalks, and not enough staff to make sure everyone gets a fair shot at seeing things. I personally can sometimes have very little patience for people who are cluelessly and selfishly ambling about, getting in the way and not paying any attention to the world around them. But in big cities, especially ones with huge tourist draws, that’s kind of what you’ve signed up for! So I’ve found that, depending on the situation, a few mindset adjustments can help to turn that impatience on its head.

Sightseeing Outdoors

Reality at the Lincoln Memorial. No Capra-esque ghost town here.

Look, unless you’re willing to get up at the crack of dawn, or stay out really late (and use expensive equipment in both of those scenarios), get that pristine picture of the Lincoln Memorial, vacant steps and all, out of your head. Landmarks will be swarming with people, and that’s okay! That’s what it is supposed to look like. People want to celebrate the history of places, and experience those places firsthand. (Some of them just want to take selfies and ignore the history. Please don’t throw things at these people, it seems satisfying but you could get in trouble.)

Take pictures that include the crowds, and enjoy being a part of the onlookers. If the selfie generation is driving you nuts, take pictures of them taking pictures of themselves! It’s entertaining, and kind of social commentary at the same time. Then put down your camera and read any signs or information listed around you, so you can learn about your location in the moment. If you’re desperate for a shot that doesn’t include so many people, get creative - try a different side, or angle, where people aren’t as big of a factor. And be patient! You’re on vacation, you shouldn’t be sticking to a strict timetable.

Wonder when they’re going to notice the view…

Sightseeing Indoors

Crowds at outdoor landmarks and monuments are one thing. A single person usually can’t block your entire view, and there’s plenty of room to move around. In museums and other indoor attractions… that’s a totally different story. Case in point: We went to MoMA in NYC and got there forty minutes before they started handing out free admission tickets for their extended hours. Which is a totally great idea, and you should definitely check out those types of offers if you’re working on a budget during your travels. But we chose to pay full price to get in immediately, because I had a hunch we’d want to enjoy what we could before those extended hours started.

Wow, I was so right. Unfortunately, it felt like they just flung open the doors, and without timed entries or directed pathways through the museum for people to follow, once the free time started, the museum filled up like crazy. It became slightly claustrophobic, and definitely felt more party-like than a museum atmosphere. The super-famous pieces (like Starry Night by Van Gogh) were ten people deep, at least. And people weren’t moving! They were standing there, raising their phones in the air, trying to take picture after picture of a single famous piece of art. It was madness.

My only suggestion for this situation is take deep breaths, and look at everything else that is around you. Trust me, if you can’t reach the “famous” Van Gogh, there’s probably three or four more Van Goghs in the same room that no one is looking at. I was able to closely study his Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape, made as a companion to Starry Night, and no one else even came close to it. Additionally, if you have joined a guided tour for a building, really listen to what they are telling you; they’ve got really interesting tidbits and facts that you might not otherwise read about. (Our guide for the House wing of the Capitol was full of fun facts, which was great.)

Walking

Whoo boy, this is a tough one for me. I walk fast, so does Matt, and we usually get between locations quickly and efficiently. (Unless I’m playing PokemonGo, then he gets annoyed with me too!) Crowds on sidewalks, weaving side to side because they’re texting, people standing on corners with no intention to cross, or stopping abruptly in the middle of the walkway… it maddens me.

However, I’ve learned to turn crowd navigation into a game! For this game, you are unlikely to be able to walk hand-in-hand with your partner, and usually someone needs to take the lead. Otherwise, the game works largely like a combination of Frogger, and hot lava, and just generally dashing through little gaps before they close. If I’m feeling really energetic, I’ll do it on tiptoe, giving you a better pivoting ability to speed past people in new directions. Remember, you lose points if you run into people, so you have to be super aware of your surroundings!

(No joke, this is pretty much how I deal with crowded sidewalks in any major thoroughfare, including Seattle.)

HEAT

Yes, I knew we were traveling to East Coast cities in the peak of summer. Yes, I knew it would be hot and humid. And yes, I was cocky enough to think I would be fine. “I’ve done Death Valley in the summer, how bad can it be?” Answer: so bad. So very, very bad. Humidity is now officially my least favorite weather condition. Going outside and ten minutes later feeling like you’re soaking wet is weird, and really unpleasant. (FYI: Death Valley was 125 degrees, but it was a dry heat. DRY.) On top of that, we were dealing with extreme heat advisories in Philadelphia (110 degrees, fun). There are no real “tricks” to handling that heat, just finding ways to survive it.

It was already hot by this point. And people were still being active. Why.

First, if we wanted to go somewhere that offered little shade or indoor options, we tried to get an early start to the day. (Walking the waterfront in Philadelphia was one of those locations.) We also didn’t try and pack activities into our day - taking the day slower is better, and giving yourself the freedom to find a bench and some shade or some A/C is way better than going top speed and getting heat stroke.

All the normal heat survival skills should be taken into account (lots of water, sun screen, stay out of direct sun), but also, I ended up being way more comfortable in long breezy pants, rather than skirts or shorts, because with a bunch of walking around, the moisture tends to make your legs stick together. (Totally gross.) I’m sure this is something people who live in humidity already knew, but Seattle’s weather doesn’t do that to you so I was unprepared. (Well, not in the summer. We get plenty wet in the winter.)

Overall, when I relaxed and let go of my ‘see everything’ and ‘take tons of pictures outside’ philosophy, we were able to have an amazing time, despite the heat. Also, hiding from the heat in the nearest air-conditioned building means you spend extra time in small museums that you might not have otherwise gone into.

The Rodin Museum was small and awesome. And included with entry into the Museum of Art.

CONSTRUCTION

Okay, so being a photographer, even if there are giant crowds, I still dream of major landmarks being photogenic when I visit, especially if it’s a place I might not get back to in the near future. In nature, you’re usually battling nature itself - things can be inaccessible due to slides or rains, but the thing you want to see is still there, somewhere - it’s not like they’re restoring El Capitan when you’re at Yosemite. But in cities, you’re battling construction and restoration.

Now, all cities have construction going on somewhere at any given point in time. (Seattle, for instance, has what feels like more cranes than skyscrapers some days.) But on this trip I was feeling the construction limitations pretty keenly, because it felt like everywhere was under construction. This meant closed exhibits, closed rooms, closed sidewalks. Bright orange cones and scaffolding marring the landscape. Giant lawn areas being torn up and relaid, surrounded by chainlink fence. I felt disappointed, and also felt like it was my fault for not properly researching the cities we were visiting.

Scaffolding was all around the dome, and the other half of the building, which I artfully excluded.

After mentioning the construction one too many times, I realized that I needed a change of attitude. Being sad about it wasn’t going to magically make these locations reopen, or take down the scaffolding. Instead, I again looked around to discover the sights that were available to me. The Capitol Rotunda wasn’t open? We went on an additional tour of the House wing of the Capitol building, filled with really cool statues and art. The Mall was being torn up and was pretty much dirt rather than grass? Turn all those photos into black and white shots - they look pretty cool, and admittedly show a moment in time that is pretty singular. Plus in some areas, I had to admit that the construction didn’t terribly detract from the experience. Times Square had tons of sidewalks torn up and fenced off, but it was still bustling, bright, and crowded Times Square.

Finally, what helped in my most frustrated moments was having a traveling companion who knew how to bring me out of my funk. One place that I felt really devastated about was the huge reading room in the New York Public Library: It was undergoing restoration, and was completely closed off. I was really excited to see it again, and share it with Matt, who had never seen it. So I fell into a grouchy mood, enhanced by the sudden rainstorm that soaked us then trapped us in the library without much to do. For a little bit, I was childishly mad at NYC. But the rain cleared, Matt suggested we go to TKTS and we scored tickets to Les Mis, and then discovered a giant street fair down the middle of 6th Ave that was really cool. So NYC and I made up, and the rest of the day was a delightful adventure. That’s really the most important tip: no matter how big the frustration is in the moment, do whatever you can to move on and enjoy the rest of your trip!

Crowded, busy, stifling… and amazing.