While it may seem tempting to visit Britain for the May 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, there are some reasons you why you won’t want to visit London for the royal wedding — and why you should just stay home and watch it on TV.
According to VisitBritain, the UK tourism industry got a big boost with the news of the upcoming nuptials. And although the news is good for the economy of the UK, that spotlight could mean a big headache for both locals and tourists.
The wedding will be in Windsor, but most people will likely be staying in London and making a vacation of it.
Here are some reasons you will not want to visit London this May:
Everyone else will be there
Tourists are now looking at visiting not only Britain, but the rest of Europe as well.
How to see London in 3 days
When Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011, “Bookings were up from across Europe, including France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands,” a VisitLondon spokesperson told The Independent. Eurostar also carried 21 per cent more American tourists.
But what could that mean for your trip?
Hotels will be sold out — and expensive
Weeks before the 2011 royal wedding, most of the 90,000 hotel rooms in London were sold out. Of those that were still available, they were either the highest-priced suites, or were far out of city center.
For the 2018 wedding, expect hotels and even Airbnbs to be booked far in advance, and will likely come at a steep price.
Lines will be longer
If you think tourist locations in London are busy now, it will be a lot busier during the weeks before, and the day of, the wedding.
“Across the UK it’s estimated that tourism linked to Royal residences such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle generates more than £500 million a year and attracts more than 2.7 million visitors,” VisitBritain said.
After the 2011 wedding, more than 600,000 people went through Buckingham Palace to see Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, according to VisitBritain, which saw a 50 percent increase in visitors from 2010.
You won’t be able to see anything anyways
If you are planning to visit London for a large event like a royal wedding, just remember plenty of people have the same idea as you, and there will be thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of people there with you.
How to visit all the Star Wars: The Last Jedi filming locations
In a 2014 interview with Racked Magazine, royals reporter Chavie Lieber talked about her experience with the 2011 royal wedding.
“It was nuts! This is going to sound strange but on the actual day, it was almost a little anti-climactic. We had three months of insane build up and suddenly the day was there and you couldn’t see anything,” she explained.
The complaint about not being able to see anything has been around for royal events for centuries, including Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles and Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.