The Best Resources for Planning an Arts-Focused Trip
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I love planning trips that prioritize arts and cultural experiences such as museum visits and concerts. To be honest, it’s my guilty pleasure.
Over the years, I’ve developed a system for discovering which museums will be worth my time, which may (or may not) be over-crowded, what performances I should book in advance, what new exhibitions are being featured, and what small group day tours I should book.
In this post, I present the resources I use to plan my arts-focused trips. A few of these are run by people I know personally, and all of them have earned a permanent place in my planning toolkit.
Table of Contents
A Tool I Built to Help You Plan
Before I get to the resources, check out the tool I built to help artsy travelers plan their trips. It’s called Your Artsy Traveler Companion and it combines the entire Artsy Traveler archive with the Art In Fiction database of 2,500+ novels.
Ask a question of Your Artsy Traveler Companion about where you’re headed in Europe and what kind of cultural experience interests you, and you’ll get a list of relevant Artsy Traveler posts and recommended novels set in that destination. For example you could enter I’m visiting Paris and I love Impressionist art, or I’m going to Amsterdam and want to visit the best museums.
Try it now!
Blogs Worth Bookmarking
Artsy Traveler
I focus on arts-inspired travel in Europe, with forays into North America, Thailand, and beyond. If you want museum itineraries, cultural travel guides, and plenty of Travel Smart posts gleaned from many decades of travel, start here.
Culture Tourist
Run by Tea Gudek Šnajdar, an Amsterdam-based art historian with over a decade of experience as a museum educator, Culture Tourist is one of the most authoritative arts travel blogs in Europe. I had the pleasure of hosting Tea on The Art In Fiction Podcast and have written a guest post on the Borghese Museum in Rome for her site, so I can vouch for both the quality of her work and her deep knowledge of European cultural tourism. Her blog is particularly strong on Dutch and Flemish art and heritage travel.
Artful Jaunts
Artful Jaunts is a solid resource for art-focused itineraries, especially if you are combining museum visits with gallery culture and contemporary art scenes.
The Historic Traveler
Run by Jackie Lapin, a travel writer whose focus on history-meets-destination storytelling overlaps neatly with the arts-focused approach you’ll find on Artsy Traveler, The Historic Traveler is worth bookmarking if you want to go deeper into the historical context behind the places you’re visiting.
Art Visit Guide
Run by Adrià, a Barcelona-based writer who got tired of museum guides that were either Wikipedia summaries or sponsored listicles, Art Visit Guide takes a marvelously practical approach: room-by-room routes, real ticket prices, free admission windows, and honest advice on what to skip. It covers 19 cities and 255 guides, all free, and is particularly useful if you want to know not just what to see but in what order, and whether the queue is actually worth it.
Culture Trip
Culture Trip started as an editorial site covering arts, culture, food, and travel destinations worldwide, and has grown into a substantial resource for culturally curious travelers. It covers an enormous range of destinations and is particularly useful for getting a quick cultural overview of a place before you visit. They also now offer small-group tours led by local guides if you prefer a curated experience.
Museum Discovery Tools
Google Arts & Culture
Underused and impressive, Google Arts & Culture lets you take virtual tours, explore museum collections by artist or period, and use it as a pre-trip research tool to decide which rooms are worth your time. I use it to preview collections before I arrive so I’m not wandering aimlessly.
Atlas Obscura
Atlas Obscura is essential for finding the weird and wonderful. If you want to go beyond the major institutions to find smaller, stranger, more specific collections, this is where you go. It is highly searchable by location.
Museum Membership Programs
If you are a North American traveler doing a serious European museum circuit, look into the reciprocal benefits offered through memberships like the American Alliance of Museums network. Some major European museums offer reciprocal free or discounted entry.
Individual Museum Websites
Go directly to the museum’s own site for timed-entry booking, special exhibition tickets, and audio guide downloads. Third-party booking sites sometimes have limited availability or charge unnecessary fees.
Finding Major Exhibitions
Check what major exhibitions are on in the locations you’re traveling to and adjust your itinerary as needed. There’s nothing worse for an artsy traveler than to arrive at the Musee d’Orsay the day after a major exhibition featuring some of your favorite artists has closed.
Plan ahead!
Museum Websites Directly
Most major institutions publish their exhibition calendars 6 to 12 months in advance. If you are planning a trip around a specific show (and this is a great way to structure a trip), bookmark the exhibition pages of your target museums and check back regularly.
The Art Newspaper
The Art Newspaper is the best single source for tracking major international exhibitions, blockbuster shows, and museum news. Their annual exhibition preview issues are particularly useful for planning a year ahead.
Third-Party Ticketing Platforms
For sold-out or high-demand exhibitions, check whether the museum uses a third-party ticketing partner and book through them directly. The Rijksmuseum, the Louvre, and the Uffizi all manage timed entry differently; knowing their systems in advance saves a lot of frustration.
My rule of thumb: if a show is getting serious press coverage six months before it opens, assume you will need advance tickets. Book as far ahead as possible.
A cautionary tale: A few months ago, I learned that the major exhibition of Queen Elizabeth II’s wardrobe would be featured at Buckingham Palace while I was in London. Spots were available when I checked. Unfortunately, I dithered for several weeks thinking I had plenty of time only to discover when I checked back that every day was sold out three months in advance of my trip.
I learned my lesson, so when I found one ticket left at the time I wanted to see a special exhibition of Whistler’s paintings at the Tate Britain, you can bet your bottom euro that I bought it immediately.
Concerts and Performances
This section exists because I spend a lot of my planning time figuring out how to hear live classical music in beautiful European venues without paying more than I need to with resellers or being disappointed by less-than-wonderful performances.
Classictic
Classictic is my first stop for classical concerts across Europe. They work directly with concert organizers in more than 50 cities worldwide, so you are getting legitimate tickets at real prices. Classictic is particularly good for Venice (where the Vivaldi concerts are wonderful and Classictic helps you find the reputable ones), Paris, Vienna, and London.
London Theatre and Official London Theatre
If you are planning any time in London and theatre is on the agenda, these are the sites to trust. Official London Theatre is the industry body’s own platform; London Theatre has comprehensive listings and reviews. Between the two you will find everything from West End blockbusters to smaller fringe productions worth seeking out.
Note that you can also just show up at a theatre on the day you want to see a performance and take your chances getting a ticket. For long-running shows, you may get lucky. I once scored excellent tickets to Mamma Mia the afternoon of the performance.
Venue Websites Directly
For opera houses and major concert halls, check the venue’s own site first. The Royal Opera House, Vienna Staatsoper, and Paris Opera all sell directly and often release returns and last-minute tickets through their own channels that never appear on aggregators.
I always check the websites of major orchestras well in advance of my trip and buy tickets directly when I can. The prices are often surprisingly affordable compared to what I pay at home for classical concerts.
Local Tourist Office Listings
Many European cities’ official tourism sites maintain current concert and performance listings that include free and low-cost events, church concerts, and festival programming that never makes it onto the major booking platforms.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are a great source of information and advice posted by people who are actually traveling. Look for groups of people that share your interests. My favorite groups are:
Rick Steves’ Europe Group
With 200,000+ members, you’ll find a ton of advice and recommendations based on real traveler experience. The comments are extensive, practical, and sometimes very entertaining.
Solo Female Traveler Network
This large, well-moderated group is particularly good for safety and destination tips
Museum Lovers – Photos, Tips, and Questions about the World’s Museums
This small group is for people to ask questions, share insights, and learn how to make the most of their next museum visit.
Small Group and Specialty Tours
I book most of my guided experiences through one of the following platforms, all of which I use regularly.
GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide is my go-to platform for small group tours and day trips across Europe. The search filters are good, the cancellation policies are flexible, and the reviews are reliable enough to distinguish excellent tours from the merely adequate ones. I look for small group tours that take me to destinations I can’t easily get to on my own. For example, on a recent trip to Bangkok, I found a wonderful small group tour to explore Ayutthaya.
GuruWalk
GuruWalk is my first stop for walking tours. It operates on a pay-what-you-want model with guides who are generally passionate about their subjects. I’ve had some of my best city introductions through GuruWalk, from neighborhood history walks to themed tours focused on street art or architecture. And remember, tip generously!
Chef’s Tours
Chef’s Tours focuses primarily on food tours in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I enjoyed an amazing Back Streets Tour of Bangkok with Chef’s Tours and highly recommend them.
Winedering
If wine is part of how you experience a destination, Winedering is worth bookmarking. It’s a searchable platform for wine tastings, winery visits, and wine tours across Europe, with over 6,700 handpicked experiences and traveler reviews. Particularly strong in Italy (Tuscany, Veneto, Piedmont, Sicily) and France (Bordeaux, Alsace, Provence), with coverage also in Portugal and Spain. Good for finding experiences that go beyond a standard cellar tour and into vineyard picnics, food pairings, and small-producer visits you’d never find on your own.
Online Searching
I also frequently search for specialty tours directly because not every tour uses tour aggregators. For example, a recent search for “literary tours in London” brought up London Literary Tours which had the perfect afternoon tour of Oscar Wilde’s London haunts I was hoping to find.
For Your Reading List
Art In Fiction
Art In Fiction is a searchable database of 2,500+ novels organized by art form in one of 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Photography, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts and Other. Many of these novels also feature destinations such as Paris, Vienna, and Rome. If you want to read your way into a destination before you arrive, or find fiction set in the museums and cities on your itinerary, this is where to start.
Newsletters Worth Subscribing To
Artsy Traveler Newsletter
Published bi-monthly, the Artsy Traveler Newsletter focuses on arts-inspired travel planning, new posts, and resources I find useful. Subscribe at artsy-traveler.com.
Art Herstory Newsletter
Run by Erika Gaffney, a humanities editor with a deep focus on women’s history, Art Herstory is dedicated to celebrating women artists of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries whose names deserve to be far better known than they are. Erika’s newsletter is one of my favorites: beautifully written and a reliable source of discovery for anyone who loves art history. I had the pleasure of hosting Erika on The Art In Fiction Podcast. If Artemisia Gentileschi, Sofonisba Anguissola, or Judith Leyster are on your radar, this is where you go to learn more.
Rick Steves Newsletter
Rick Steves has been helping travelers get the most out of Europe for decades, and his newsletter delivers the same practical, culturally engaged advice you’d expect from his guidebooks and TV show. Particularly useful for trip planning tips, destination deep-dives, and keeping up with what’s new across Europe.
Nomadic Matt Newsletter
Nomadic Matt is aimed at budget-conscious travelers, but don’t let that put you off if you’re past the hostel stage of your life. Matt Kepnes writes with genuine enthusiasm about stretching a travel budget without sacrificing quality experiences, and his destination guides and money-saving tips are useful regardless of how much you’re spending. His newsletter is particularly good for anyone who wants to travel more frequently without breaking the bank.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most useful starting points are Google Arts & Culture for previewing museum collections before you arrive, The Art Newspaper for tracking major exhibitions, Classictic for classical concerts across Europe, and GetYourGuide for small group tours and day trips. For blogs, Culture Tourist, The Historic Traveler, and Artsy Traveler are all strong on European arts travel.
Most major museums publish their exhibition calendars 6 to 12 months ahead. The Art Newspaper is the best single source for tracking international blockbuster shows. If a major exhibition is getting significant press coverage six months before it opens, assume you will need to book tickets well in advance.
Classictic works directly with concert organizers in more than 50 cities and is the most reliable starting point. For opera houses and major concert halls, always check the venue’s own website first for returns and last-minute availability.
GuruWalk operates on a pay-what-you-want model and is a good first stop for city walking tours. For specialty tours not listed on aggregators, a direct web search often turns up excellent independent operators.
Art In Fiction is a searchable database of 2,500+ novels organized by destination and art form, making it easy to find fiction set in the museums and cities on your itinerary.
A Final Note
The resources above reflect what I use myself. If you have a resource you would swear by for arts-focused travel planning, drop it in the comments. I am always looking to add to the list.
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