My husband went off to college sight unseen (and he only lived 30 minutes away, so a visit would have been easy). It was also the only school he applied to. No internet back then to fuel anxieties that lead to 20 applications. I applied to mostly out of state colleges. My family NEVER would have entertained the possibility of flying all over the country to visit colleges. We did, however, visit the 2 in-state colleges I applied to, and I ended up at one of those. Funny that the one I ended up at, which I toured on a gorgeous spring day, ended up being one of the coldest, snowiest, blizzardy places in the winter - I almost didn’t come back after Christmas break freshman year (no internet, no idea about the harsh winters. I didn’t even have boots!) I’m glad I stayed because I met my husband later that year!
With my D, we were able to take official tours at all but 2. She actually hated the official tours (according to her, they talk about the same scripted, generic topics on every tour). The college she chose didn’t send out decisions until the end of Feb. It was one of the ones we hadn’t visited and then we had a hard time finding free time to get up there (3 hours from home but spring is her busy season with her sport). She was ready to commit, having just done some virtual visits & admissions sessions, but thankfully we found a day during the week to run up, with literally less than 2 weeks to decision day. A high school alum met us and gave us an amazing unofficial tour that sealed the deal.
I do ultimately think that visits are important to get an overall campus vibe but just being there for several hours on any given day doesn’t really give a true sense of what real life will be like once they are a student.