We’ll lose our minds if Telstra tells us there’s a 20 minute wait in the call queue; we’ll impatiently tap our feet if there’s a hold up at Woolworths check-out; and let’s not even talk about the suppressed frustration in extensive airport queues.
Us 21st century, digitally-spoiled humans don’t like waiting, so-much-so that we’ll aggressively switch off our Facebook app if it takes more than a minute to load on a moving train, BUT tell us there’s a 150 minute wait for a turn on the London Eye and apparently we’ll happily get in line.
According to new TripAdvisor research, during peak travel periods, the site-seeing Ferries wheel ride can experience lines of up to 2.5 hours, making it the tourist attraction with the longest queue in the world.
With 360-degree views of London and 4.5 consumer rating on TripAdvisor, it’s no wonder the attraction is pulling in such large crowds.
Image: Arkadiusz Radek/Unsplash
Meanwhile, only half an hour behind the London Eye is the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where tourists are willing to wait a good two hours to explore the historic corridors and admire 2,000 year-old masterpieces.
Also attracting queues of up to 120 minutes long are the Colosseum in Rome as well as the Catacombs and Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Unsurprisingly, nine out of 10 of the world’s longest tourist attraction queues are found in Europe, which is in the midst of one of its busiest tourism years. The only site outside of Europe is New York’s Empire State Building, which can have waits of up to 1.5 hours.
Matching the Empire State Building’s 1.5 hour wait are lines at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Tower of London and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, while travellers visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral will spend around one hour waiting.