How to plan a visit to a famous sight

Planning a visit to a famous sight used to mean turning up and queuing. Today almost every big name sells timed tickets, many of them in your name, and the best slots go weeks ahead. The good news is that the rules are similar everywhere. Get five things right and the visit itself is easy.

1. Find out when tickets go on sale

Every sight has its own booking window, and it is published on the official ticket site, usually in the FAQ or the ticket conditions. Look for phrases like “tickets available up to” or “sales open”. As of October 2026:

Sight	Sales open	When it sells out
The Alhambra	Up to 3 months ahead	Spring and autumn go first
The Eiffel Tower	90 days (lift), 60 days (stairs)	Summer summit slots soon after release
The Colosseum	Up to 30 days ahead	Underground slots often the day they are released
The Sagrada Família	About 2 months ahead	3–4 weeks ahead April–September
Mutianyu, Great Wall	30 days ahead	Chinese holidays only
Angkor Wat and Petra	No timed slots	Never

Two patterns are worth knowing. First, some sights release slots in batches. At the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower, a date that looks sold out often gets new tickets later, with a bigger batch about a week before. Check at different times of day rather than giving up. Second, the booking window can be shorter than you think: on 6 October 2026 the Vatican Museums were not yet selling January 2027, so “as early as possible” sometimes means “the day sales open”.

If a sight has a limited extra, book that first and build the rest around it. At Machu Picchu the entry ticket for your route and hour is the hard part; trains and hotels are easy to change. At the Tower of London the Ceremony of the Keys sells out within minutes of release, at 13:00 UK time on the first working day of the month.

2. Buy on the official site

Search results for famous sights are crowded with resellers that copy the name, the photos and the word “official”. Before you pay, check the address bar against the domain the operator itself publishes. Our guide to official tickets and resellers lists the official domains for every sight on Sightsale and the tell-tale signs of a look-alike.

The official ticket is almost always the cheapest. The exceptions are rare and specific: a reseller can make sense when the official slots are gone, when you want free cancellation, or when the price includes a guide or transport you actually want.

3. Understand your time slot

A time slot tells you when you may enter, and the rules around it differ:

• Fixed to the half hour. At the Alhambra, the Nasrid Palaces let you in only during the half hour printed on the ticket. The rest of the site is open all day.
• Within the hour. At the Acropolis you must arrive within your hour slot. Everyone with that slot arrives on the hour, so coming 20–30 minutes in usually means a shorter queue.
• The time at the door, not the gate. At Pena Palace the palace slot is the time you must be at the palace door, a steep 30-minute walk above the park gate. At Neuschwanstein the Ticket Center advises arriving in the village 1.5 to 2 hours before your tour.
• The time you join security. At the Statue of Liberty the printed time is when you may join the security queue for the ferry, not a departure time.

Lateness is rarely forgiven. Neuschwanstein and the Sagrada Família turn late arrivals away with no refund, the Sydney Opera House forfeits your tour after 5 minutes, and the Colosseum’s underground tickets require you at the entrance 30 minutes before the slot.

The first and last slot

Book the first slot of the day if you can. Coach groups, cruise passengers and day trips arrive mid-morning, so the opening hour is calmer almost everywhere: 8:30 at the Colosseum, 8:00 at the Acropolis, 6:00 at Petra, 30 minutes before sunrise at the Taj Mahal. The last hour is the other quiet window, with one catch: the very last slot can be too short. At the Sagrada Família it leaves about 45 minutes before staff clear the basilica, and at the Acropolis guards start clearing the hill soon after last entry. More on timing in beat the crowds.

4. Name and ID rules

More and more tickets are nominative: your name, sometimes your passport number, is on the ticket and checked at the gate.

• The Alhambra checks the original ID you booked with, at the first entrance and again at the Nasrid Palaces.
• The Colosseum checks every name against an original passport or ID card. A photo of it does not count, and a name can be changed only once, up to the seventh day before.
• Machu Picchu links the ticket to your passport number, and since September 2026 the name and date cannot be changed at all.
• At Mutianyu, each passport can hold one ticket per day, and the gate scans the original.
• Free and reduced tickets need proof: at the Acropolis, children’s ages and nationality are checked on a passport or national ID.

Copy names exactly as they appear in the passport, and carry the same document on the day. Dual nationals should book and travel on the same passport.

5. What to bring, and what to leave behind

Bag rules catch out more visitors than anything else, and many sights have no left luggage at all.

• Small bags only. The Colosseum allows 30 x 40 x 15 cm and has no cloakroom. Machu Picchu bans bags over 40 x 35 x 20 cm. The Louvre takes nothing larger than 55 x 35 x 20 cm, with free lockers for smaller bags.
• No suitcases. The Tower of London and the Eiffel Tower refuse large luggage and have no left-luggage office.
• Commonly banned: tripods, selfie sticks, drones, glass bottles, food. The Taj Mahal also bans phone chargers, power banks and headphones; Machu Picchu bans walking sticks and umbrellas.
• Lockers that trap you. The Vatican Museums’ cloakroom is at the entrance, but if you exit into St Peter’s you cannot collect your bag.
• Cash or card. The Pyramids’ counters take Visa and Mastercard, not cash. The Neuschwanstein shuttle bus takes cash only. Around the Great Wall, many vendors take only Alipay or WeChat Pay.
• Printed or on screen. The Eiffel Tower accepts PDF tickets but not Wallet apps. The Jordan Pass team say the QR code may not scan from a phone, so print it.

Dress codes

Religious sites and some historic ones enforce dress rules at the door. The Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s refuse sleeveless tops, shorts and skirts above the knee, and hats. The Sagrada Família wants shorts and skirts to reach mid-thigh. The upper level of Angkor Wat turns back bare shoulders. A light scarf and long trousers or a midi skirt solve most of it; see visiting respectfully.

The week before: a checklist

• Check every booking confirmation: name spelling, date, time, the entrance named on the ticket.
• Download tickets and save them as PDFs; print anything that has to scan (Jordan Pass, reseller vouchers).
• Download the official app or audio guide on hotel wifi (the Sagrada Família’s guide is in its app; the Colosseum’s MyColosseum app is free).
• Read the sight’s news or closures page. In the weeks before this guide was written, the Colosseum closed at short notice after an accident (23–25 September 2026), the Sagrada Família stayed shut until 14:00 for a storm warning (4 October 2026), and the Acropolis has closed at midday in heatwaves.
• Check the weather where the sight is, not in the nearest city: Pena is often in fog when Lisbon is sunny.
• Work out how you get there and how long it takes to reach the right door, then add 30 minutes.
• Pack the passport or ID you booked with, a small bag, water, a layer, shoes with grip, and a card that works abroad.
• Check that reseller tickets have arrived: at the Great Wall, the real-name ticket comes separately from the platform voucher.