The December holiday season is one of the busiest times to travel. And with good reason – besides those who are planning to visit friends and family for the holidays, there are plenty of people who visit places specifically to see their respective Christmas overlay.
I mean sure, places like Disney parks and NYC are totally different when they’re all decked out in their holiday splendor. Case in point, my husband and I have made it our business to visit the European Christmas markets and even Dollywood during the holidays, just to see what they’re like. We think it’s a nice way to see different areas, especially when it’s somewhere we’ve visited before – the overlay makes them “different.”
That being said, a location’s being “different,” or when it’s a Christmas-themed destination in general (the house from A Christmas Story, anyone?), makes those kinds of places VERY popular during the holidays. Sometimes TOO popular.
eSIM supplier Holafly decided to find out which Christmas attractions around the world are the most crowded. Their research team analyzed thousands of TripAdvisor reviews during the peak festive months – that’s how they identified the most overcrowded Christmas attractions in the world. To measure how crowded each attraction felt to visitors, the team tracked mentions of keywords such as “overcrowded,” “busy,” “packed,” “long wait,” and “chaotic” to reveal the percentage of reviews mentioning crowd-related issues.
Their methodology
Here’s how they did it:
Using data scraped from exportcomments.com, we filtered reviews based on the following criteria:
- Keywords: Reviews containing terms such as “overcrowded,” “crowded,” “busy,” “chaotic,” “waiting,” “packed,” “overrun,” “long wait,” “rammed,” and “hectic” were identified as crowd-related.
- Date Range: Only reviews from November, December, and January were included to reflect the peak festive season.
- Language: Only English-language reviews were analyzed for consistency.
- Review Volume: Attractions with fewer than 250 total reviews were excluded to ensure reliable results.
Each attraction’s “crowded score” was calculated as the percentage of total reviews that mentioned crowd-related keywords. The final ranking revealed the top destinations where visitors most frequently described their experience as overcrowded.
The top 4
1. The ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, NYC, USA (41.2%)
As we mentioned above, NYC is a big tourist attraction during the holidays. And the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center is probably one of the biggest attractions for tourists. That’s probably why it’s always super crowded – to the point where over 40% of visitors mentioned crowd-related problems.
Holafly mentioned that, “Reviews mention long queues, limited skating space, and a constant stream of spectators lining the rink’s edges making it difficult to access the rink.”
Now, I have to admit that, as a native New Yorker, the appeal of ice skating at Rockefeller Center was always questionable, especially when there were plenty of other, less crowded rinks throughout the 5 boroughs. But then again, like almost any other New Yorker, I never felt a need to go to Times Square for New Year’s Eve, either. 😉
2. Winter Wonderland, London, UK (36.7%)
Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is packed with all the festive fun you’d expect—rides, market stalls, ice skating, live entertainment, the whole holiday buffet. So it’s no surprise that it’s one of London’s most popular seasonal events. But, of course, with that popularity comes the crowds. And I mean crowds. More than a third of the event’s reviews mention how busy it gets, with long lines and that classic “shuffling between stalls” vibe, especially in the evenings and on weekends.
I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting – it sounds like fun. But crowded, CROWDED fun.
3. Nuremberg Christmas Market, Nuremberg, Germany (34.6%)
Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt is visited by about 2.5 million people every year (we were not among them when we went in 2019. We went to Salzburg, Munich and Frankfurt). And it’s no wonder, with its traditional handmade Christmas decorations and sweet treats such as the world-famous Nuremberg Lebkuchen (gingerbread). As one of the most famous Christkindlesmarkts in Germany, it makes for huge crowds, to the point where 34.6% of reviews mentioned it being a very busy or hectic atmosphere.
4. Rockefeller Center, NYC, USA (26.4%)
It’s not just the ice skating rink that keeps the Rockefeller Center area hopping with people during the holidays. There’s also the huge tree, the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall, and the beautifully decorated storefronts that people pack in to see.
It’s a lot of beauty. And a WHOLE lot of people. To the point that over a quarter of reviews mention that very fact.
The rest of the list
Holafly actually listed 10 places that are super crowded during the holidays – check out this page of their website for the rest.
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