Americans Are All Over Europe This Summer. Here’s How to Outsmart the Crowds.

Who’s headed to Europe this summer? You and everybody else.

This year is shaping up to be a record one for American tourism to the Continent. The first five months of this year saw nearly 7% more trips by U.S. citizens to Europe compared with 2023, according to air traffic data from the International Trade Administration.

The crowds have continued as summer has officially kicked off. The top destinations from the U.S. to Europe this season are London, Rome, Paris, Athens and Amsterdam, according to ticket-sale data from Airlines Reporting Corp.

The European leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and the Summer Olympics in Paris have given U.S. travellers extra reasons to visit. And airlines have added dozens of nonstop flights as travellers prioritise vacations abroad.

Travel executives and advisers gave the following tips to save money and headaches this summer:

Forget spontaneity

To combat the influx of visitors, major attractions like the Louvre museum have set daily visitor limits. Venice charges a five-euro fee for day-trippers on certain days through July 14, and the Acropolis in Athens now requires travellers to purchase tickets with predetermined entry times.

Travellers who don’t plan ahead can miss out on these sites, says Nora Blum, vice president at Travel Leaders in Maple Grove, Minn. “People love thinking they want to be free and to go with the flow,” but that’s inadvisable, she says.

While you’re purchasing ahead of time, Blum suggests looking into skip-the-line passes for popular attractions. They cost more but save time.

Don’t give up if the biggest draws are sold out. Instead, check for promotions from the city. In Spain, passes to the Alhambra fortress in Granada sell out quickly. But the city sells a tourist pass that guarantees entry to some of the most popular monuments, as well as trips on public transit.

Barcelona, Rome and the Greek island of Santorini are among the destinations with popular cruise ports. They list scheduled cruise arrivals and the number of passengers on board. Checking the schedule, even if you’re not on a cruise, can help you plan your day to avoid long waits and big crowds, says Margi Arnold, owner of Creative Travel Adventures in Denver.

She suggests getting up early to visit the most popular attractions or traveling to areas that are harder to reach during day trips.

Dinner reservations often make sense in crowded tourist cities, especially for families or larger groups. Some veteran travelers recommend downloading WhatsApp. Many restaurants will correspond over the free messaging app regarding reservations.

Prep for disruptions

It’s common for rail and airport workers to strike . These actions are announced in advance, so travel advisers suggest checking schedules ahead of time to see how you might be affected.

Regardless of strikes, delays can occur because of air-traffic control, weather or other scheduling issues. Before you depart, download relevant apps for flights and trains and sign up for alerts so schedule changes don’t catch you off-guard.

International airports are no place for cutting it close, since options for expedited security screening are limited. Travellers can reserve a time to go through security at six international airports through Clear Reserve , a free service. London Heathrow and Frankfurt Airport in Germany are some of the airports that take reservations.

And read up on rules for liquids. Heathrow requires travellers to remove liquids and put them in clear, resealable bags provided at the checkpoint.

When you return to the U.S., try using mobile passport control , a free app that lets you speed up entry into the country. Travel advisers also recommend taking photos of your passport in case it gets lost.

Keep the heat in mind

Europe is facing another scorching summer. Check whether your lodging has air conditioning—it isn’t a standard offering in many regions, says Arnold, the travel adviser.

Travellers should also bring water bottles and plan breaks indoors during the hottest parts of the day, she says.

Check your health insurance policy

Medicare and Medicaid don’t cover international medical bills. Some private insurances won’t cover all expenses, either.

Before you depart, check your policy and consider buying travel health insurance to avoid pricey charges in a medical emergency.

Bring the right credit card

Travel with a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Many cards can add charges of 3% or 4% per transaction.

Not every vendor accepts American Express , though it is becoming more available in Europe.

Consider the Olympics

It isn’t too late to attend the Paris Olympics, though it’s not necessarily a cheap ticket. About 30% of hotel rooms in Paris are still available, according to Hotels.com, with the average rate of $455 a night during the Olympics. In Paris, available nightly rates for short-term rentals are averaging $481 a night during that stretch, according to AirDNA, a market-research firm.

Each Thursday, new Olympics event tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. local time—yes, that’s 4 a.m. Eastern—as part of a promotion called Ticketing Thursday. There are also official resale tickets available .

As European hot spots become overcrowded , travellers are digging deeper to find those less-populated but still brag-worthy locations. Greenland, moving up the list, is bracing for its new popularity.

Aria Varasteh has been to 69 countries, including almost all of Europe. He now wants to visit more remote places and avoid spots swarmed by tourists—starting with Greenland.

“I want a taste of something different,” said the 34-year-old founder of a consulting firm serving clients in the Washington, D.C., area.

He originally planned to go to Nuuk, the island’s capital, this fall via out-of-the-way connections, given there wasn’t a nonstop flight from the U.S. But this month United Airlines announced a nonstop, four-hour flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to Nuuk. The route, beginning next summer, is a first for a U.S. airline, according to Greenland tourism officials.

It marks a significant milestone in the territory’s push for more international visitors. Airlines ran flights with a combined 55,000 seats to Greenland from April to August of this year, says Jens Lauridsen, chief executive officer of Greenland Airports. That figure will nearly double next year in the same period, he says, to about 105,000 seats.

The possible coming surge of travellers also presents a challenge for a vast island of 56,000 people as nearby destinations from Iceland to Spain grapple with the consequences of over tourism.

Greenlandic officials say they have watched closely and made deliberate efforts to slowly scale up their plans for visitors. An investment north of $700 million will yield three new airports, the first of which will open next month in Nuuk.

“It’s the rumbling before the herd is coming,” says Mads Mitchell, general manager of Hotel Nordbo, a 67-room property in Nuuk. The owner of his property is considering adding 50 more rooms to meet demand in the coming years.

Mitchell has recently met with travel agents from Brooklyn, N.Y., South Korea and China. He says he welcomes new tourists, but fears tourism will grow too quickly.

“Like in Barcelona, you get tired of tourists, because it’s too much and it pushes out the locals, that is my concern,” he says. “So it’s finding this balance of like showing the love for Greenland and showing the amazing possibilities, but not getting too much too fast.”

Greenland’s buildup

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark more than three times the size of Texas. Tourists travel by boat or small aircraft when venturing to different regions—virtually no roads connect towns or settlements.

Greenland decided to invest in airport infrastructure in 2018 as part of an effort to expand tourism and its role in the economy, which is largely dependent on fishing and subsidies from Denmark. In the coming years, airports in Ilulissat and Qaqortoq, areas known for their scenic fjords, will open.

One narrow-body flight, like what United plans, will generate $200,000 in spending, including hotels, tours and other purchases, Lauridsen says. He calls it a “very significant economic impact.”

In 2023, foreign tourism brought a total of over $270 million to Greenland’s economy, according to Visit Greenland, the tourism and marketing arm owned by the government. Expedition cruises visit the territory, as well as adventure tours.

United will fly twice weekly to Nuuk on its 737 MAX 8, which will seat 166 passengers, starting in June .

“We look for new destinations, we look for hot destinations and destinations, most importantly, we can make money in,” Andrew Nocella , United’s chief commercial officer, said in the company’s earnings call earlier in October.

On the runway

Greenland has looked to nearby Iceland to learn from its experiences with tourism, says Air Greenland Group CEO Jacob Nitter Sørensen. Tiny Iceland still has about seven times the population of its western neighbour.

Nuuk’s new airport will become the new trans-Atlantic hub for Air Greenland, the national carrier. It flies to 14 airports and 46 heliports across the territory.

“Of course, there are discussions about avoiding mass tourism. But right now, I think there is a natural limit in terms of the receiving capacity,” Nitter says.

Air Greenland doesn’t fly nonstop from the U.S. because there isn’t currently enough space to accommodate all travellers in hotels, Nitter says. Air Greenland is building a new hotel in Ilulissat to increase capacity when the airport opens.

Nuuk has just over 550 hotel rooms, according to government documents. A tourism analysis published by Visit Greenland predicts there could be a shortage in rooms beginning in 2027. Most U.S. visitors will stay four to 10 nights, according to traveler sentiment data from Visit Greenland.

As travel picks up, visitors should expect more changes. Officials expect to pass new legislation that would further regulate tourism in time for the 2025 season. Rules on zoning would give local communities the power to limit tourism when needed, says Naaja H. Nathanielsen, minister for business, trade, raw materials, justice and gender equality.

Areas in a so-called red zone would ban tour operators. In northern Greenland, traditional hunting takes place at certain times of year and requires silence, which doesn’t work with cruise ships coming in, Nathanielsen says.

Part of the proposal would require tour operators to be locally based to ensure they pay taxes in Greenland and so that tourists receive local knowledge of the culture. Nathanielsen also plans to introduce a proposal to govern cruise tourism to ensure more travelers stay and eat locally, rather than just walk around for a few hours and grab a cup of coffee, she says.

Public sentiment has remained in favour of tourism as visitor arrivals have increased, Nathanielsen says.

—Roshan Fernandez contributed to this article.