Anyone else not a museum person?

[Anonymous]

I just don't like visiting museums. It can be kind of frustrating when you google "Things to do in X" and the list is mainly museums, especially in European cities, so I typically run out of things to do and it's time to move on to somewhere else. I don't know what it is, maybe it's b/c I grew up in DC and had access to the amazing (and free) museums here that I became museum'd out. I visited Paris earlier this year and didn't bother with the Louvre and I had friends/family act shocked when I told them I didn't see the Mona Lisa. It doesn't interest me and I would rather wander around a new city on foot instead of being bored in a stuffy museum, with stuff I'm ultimately not all that interested in.

I feel like I'm in the minority of this. That said, I still love our Smithsonians and to me, it's just hard to top them -- like other cities have "Air and Space musuems" and "Natural History" museums and I don't bother.

[Anonymous]

Sort of. I’ll normally plan to do a very short museum visit like 1.5 hours to do highlights. After that my family gets museumed-out.

[Anonymous]

im not into them, only reason is that i get LH when standing in one place

[Anonymous]

I am not a huge fan of museums but they're okay as long as you don't drag me on a tour. I cannot stand tours. I find them insufferable.

[Anonymous]

I have found I prefer the more out of the ordinary museums than anything. In Paris we did the Liberation of Paris Museum which was interesting. The Mona Lisa is completely over rated. I enjoy art so do like walking around other art museums over the Louvre.

We are much more "walk around and explore and see what interests us" type people vs museum and tour type people. If we are in a city that has museums dedicated to our interests (like world war 2 for DH and DS) then we or they will go. But just going to museums because it's a famous museum and has stuff we "should" see? Not for us.

[Anonymous]

Your friends and family don't actually care if you saw the Mona Lisa or not. Really. It's your vacation; spend it as you please.

[Anonymous]

I agree. I take my kid to world class museums on rainy Sundays, so I don't like to spend vacations in them. However, the Louvre gets a pass! And if I go to Italy, I may have to go to a few.

[Anonymous]

We all have our preferences and museums often serve as a reference point for people. I have always loved museums (and am the OP of the recent museum thread.) While we obviously have great museums in our area there are others that I have enjoyed more for various reasons, sometimes donors choose smaller institutions over larger ones. I also like ones that aren't packed to the gills with school and tour groups.
There are so many types of museums and I find them to be a great way to talk to people about other things to do in a city, whether it be other visitors or docents.

[Anonymous]

I agree OP. Every time I google “things to do with kids in X European city” it’s always 4 museums an aquarium and a zoo. I don’t for the life to me know why I’d travel to Spain to spend the day in an aquarium.

[Anonymous]

I like museums but only if I can walk through them by myself. I want to see what I'm interested in, take as long/short as I want, skip things, and just generally move at my own pace. Now when I go with my family, we agree to split up and meet up at the exit at a certain time.

[Anonymous]

I like some museums-but can’t do a whole day or multiple days in museums in a trip. I have low tolerance for art museums in particular-unless it’s a particular exhibit or a smaller museum. I did go to the Louvre, but just saw highlights. But I can spend a few happy hours at the Rodin Museum.

I like a good science museum-but it has to be something notable, not just a run of the mill kind of place.

[Anonymous]

Sure, lots of people. You could just rephrase question as “anyone else low IQ?”. The answer, of course, would be yes!

[Anonymous]

I was dragged through a million museums as a child, and I've dragged my family through their fair share as well. I felt obligated to expose my kids to art, and I still do, to an extent, but more recently I've come to terms with the fact that the giant museums are just too much for our collective attention span, which is about 90 minutes.

On a recent trip to Madrid, we skipped the Prado and went instead to the Sorolla museum, which is in the artist's former home. We enjoyed seeing how he worked and lived, all in like an hour. That was enough. In Florence, we checked out various cultural and historic sites where we saw tons of art, but we skipped trudging around the Uffizi. It's ok, really!

[Anonymous]

Cluny in Paris in not duplicated by Smithsonians.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the museum. I also don’t want to spend the entire day there, or multiple days in a row. But 3 hours at a well done museum I enjoy.