Visiting respectfully: dress codes, etiquette and animal rides

Visiting respectfully is mostly common sense, but the rules differ from place to place, and they are enforced. Get them wrong and you may be turned away at the door after a long journey. Get them right and you are part of the reason these places can stay open.

Dress codes

Shoulders and knees

The most common rule at religious sites is covered shoulders and knees, for everyone.

• Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s and the Vatican Gardens: no sleeveless or low-cut tops, no shorts or skirts above the knee, no hats. The basilica asks men to wear long trousers.
• Sagrada Família: shorts and skirts must reach at least mid-thigh. No swimwear, see-through clothing, bare feet or party costumes. Bare shoulders are not allowed in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, and hats are not allowed in the nave or museum.
• Angkor Wat: shoulders covered and trousers or a skirt below the knee for the upper level, the Bakan. A scarf over bare shoulders is refused there, and visitors in vest tops are turned back.

The easy fix is a light scarf or shirt in your bag, and long trousers or a midi skirt, even in summer. At Angkor, vendors near the temple sell T-shirts if you get caught out.

Shoes off

At many temples, mosques and shrines in Asia and the Middle East, shoes come off at the door, usually at a marked line or a rack. Wear shoes you can slip on and off, and carry socks for hot stone. At the Taj Mahal, on the mausoleum platform you either wear the free shoe covers or leave your shoes at the free racks just below; the marble gets very hot by midday in summer.

Head coverings

Rules differ by faith. In Christian churches, men take hats off. In many mosques, women are asked to cover their hair, and at Sikh gurdwaras everyone covers their head; scarves are often lent at the entrance. If you are unsure, watch what local visitors do, or carry a scarf.

Behaviour inside

Silence

Places of worship are still in use. Keep your voice down, put your phone on silent and do not walk through services. At the Sagrada Família, 9:00–10:00 is an official quiet hour, when phones and audio guides must be used with earphones. At the Taj Mahal, phones must be off or on silent, and they are not allowed at all on full-moon night visits.

Photography and flash

Photo rules are strict in some famous rooms, and guards enforce them:

• No photos in the Sistine Chapel; guards can make you delete them.
• No photos inside the Taj Mahal’s main mausoleum.
• No photos or filming on the Neuschwanstein tour.
• No photos in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, or during the Ceremony of the Keys.
• No flash at the Alhambra or the Louvre.

Flash harms fragile paintings and textiles, and dazzles other visitors. Selfie sticks and tripods are banned at many of these sites too.

Drones

Drones are banned or need a permit at almost every famous sight. They are banned at the Eiffel Tower, at Machu Picchu, in and around the Taj Mahal and throughout the Vatican Museums. At Petra and the Colosseum they need special permission. In Egypt, drones need a Ministry of Defence permit, which in practice means they are banned at the Pyramids. At Neuschwanstein, drones may not take off or land on the palace grounds.

Touching and climbing

Millions of hands and feet wear away stone. At the Acropolis, centuries of visitors have polished the marble paths until they are slippery. Do not touch carvings, frescoes or paintings, do not sit on monuments, and stay off anything roped off. At Petra, climbing on monuments is not allowed, and you must leave before sunset. Never take a stone, a tile or a fragment as a souvenir, and do not buy “antiquities”: at Petra the authority asks visitors not to buy anything sold as one, because the trade harms the site.

Overtourism, and how to be a better visitor

The most visited sites now limit numbers to protect themselves. Machu Picchu caps visitors at 5,600 a day in its 2026 high season and 4,500 the rest of the year. The Louvre caps entry at around 30,000 a day. The Acropolis sells entry by the hour, with a quota of 3,000 for the first hour. Phnom Bakheng at Angkor allows 300 people at a time. These limits are why the timed tickets in our planning guide exist. Some things that help:

• Go off-peak. Visiting outside the busiest hours and months spreads the load and gives you a better visit. See beat the crowds.
• Stay a night. Day-trippers bring crowds and leave little money behind. At Petra, a night in Wadi Musa also gets you the cheaper ticket and the empty early morning.
• Spend locally. Hire licensed local guides, eat in local restaurants, buy from shops rather than roaming vendors.
• Do not give to children. Angkor’s own code of conduct asks visitors not to buy from children or give them money or sweets, because it keeps them out of school. Give to a recognised charity instead.
• Follow the paths and the one-way routes. Many sites, Machu Picchu among them, use fixed one-way routes to protect fragile areas.
• Take your rubbish with you, and respect bans on food: Machu Picchu bans it, the Taj Mahal confiscates it at security, and the Acropolis allows only water.

Animal rides and welfare

Camels at the Pyramids, horses and donkeys at Petra, elephant rides at some Asian sights: animal rides are part of many visits. Before you get on, consider what the animal’s day looks like.

At Petra, PETA’s 2018 investigation documented beatings, overloading and a lack of water and shade for working animals. Since then the authority has replaced the horse-drawn carriages in the Siq with electric vehicles (January 2022) and agreed vet clinics and water stations, but PETA reports that hundreds of donkeys still carry visitors up and down the Monastery’s roughly 800 steps. Walking, the golf carts or the jeep to the back trail avoid the issue.

At the Pyramids, licensed camel handlers now work only in set zones, and the price-switch scam described in tourist scams is common.

If you do ride, look for signs of a working animal in poor condition: visible wounds or sores, ribs showing, no water or shade nearby, a rider much too heavy for the animal, or a handler using a stick. If you see these, walk away, and choose a different handler or none. Elephant rides and close-contact wildlife photos are widely criticised by welfare groups; watching animals at a distance is the kinder choice.

A short checklist

• Pack a scarf and long trousers or a midi skirt for any day with a religious site.
• Read the photo and drone rules before you go; assume no flash and no drones.
• Keep your voice down in places of worship, and put your phone on silent.
• Do not touch, climb or take souvenirs from the monument.
• Visit off-peak, stay a night, spend locally.
• Think twice about animal rides, and walk away from animals in poor condition.