A Redditor asked:
"What was the most disappointing, tourist infested place you’ve ever been?"
For the 'Gram
"I'm sure other cities have this problem, too, but there's an epidemic in New York City of pop-up 'museums' that are essentially just Instagram backgrounds."
"There are some great temporary exhibits in the city all the time that genuinely have cool artwork, or historical items, or just make for a neat experience. ...and then there's ones that just have a bunch of backdrops for people to pose in front of and maybe a placard."
"Special shoutout to the 'Museum of Candy' that was hosted in a random warehouse and where you didn't even get any candy with your ticket admission."
~ blueeyesredlipstick
GiphyThe Locals Are Over It
"Nassau, Bahamas. It was like being in a very expensive prison."
~ outerproduct
"My grandpa was born and raised in the Bahamas. We used to visit periodically to see a gang of old lady relatives who lived in Nassau, starting in the 1970s."
"There used to be a nice old fashioned island feel to the place, lovely old shops and awesome quiet beaches."
"Once they built Atlantis and all the cruise ships started dumping people in town everything started looking like a crappy strip mall and everything fell apart."
"Now it's dangerous and horrible and all the Bahamians hate all the tourists and can't be bothered."
~ watermama
GiphyNo Wonder She’s Not Smiling
"The room with the Mona Lisa in it, The Louvre, Paris, France."
"It's behind glass and I couldn’t get anywhere near it and it’s not that big of a painting to see from the back of the room when all the people in front of you had giant cameras."
"Maybe it’s better in the age of cell phone cameras—but I doubt it."
~ Appropriate_Panda467
Not Like In the Movies
"Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, California… literally a worse version of NY Times Square (which also sucks)."
~ Phader24
"I remember the smell most of all—a heady mixture of weed smoke, urine, and tour bus exhaust."
~ lost40s
GiphyTrying To Get THAT Shot
"The leaning tower of Pisa, Italy."
"A field of tourists trying to take a picture of the tower without other tourists in it and souvenir shops trying to sells those tourists stuff."
~ Korpikuusenalla
GiphyThe Locals Are Over It, Part 2
"Every cruise ship port in the Caribbean."
~ Lallner
"A coworker had a cruise re-routed from its original destination to the Bahamas because of a hurricane.
"He was pretty upset and called the Bahamas 'the McDonalds of the Caribbean'."
~ BGFalcon85
"I don't even get off the ship anymore."
"I just enjoy the opportunity to have a mostly empty ship and drink cocktail after cocktail on the pool deck and enjoy the scenery of the clear blue waters around the ship."
~ HottestGoblin
GiphyNot the Same
"My own city in the last 10 years. Amsterdam, Netherlands really took a nosedive. Lots of unique little shops disappeared in favor of approx. 10 million frozen yogurt/chocolate waffle stores."
"Tourists used to be a few chill, cheery groups interested in the city they were in—now they sometimes look like hordes of zombies hobbling from one tourist trap to the other. Painstakingly slowly, and of course taking up the whole sidewalk."
"I would like to see MORE tourists who actually visit Amsterdam FOR Amsterdam—its architecture, history, culture, etc... Instead of hopping from one chain store to the next, or acting crazy because one thinks one can do anything and everything in this 'free city'."
"Amsterdam can still offer a great time, but make sure to prepare properly so you can avoid the tourist traps that bloat the cityscape and have out-competed the independent shops that gave my city its unique character."
"Amsterdam now often feels disappointing to me, specifically, because I can compare it to the way it was 10-15 years ago. And it's unfortunately just not the same."
~ dreamy_25
GiphyNo Leisurely Strolls
"Venice, Italy in August, I felt bad being there. Luckily was only a day trip but it was like something from a horror film."
~ luckybeee
"I was in Venice in late September last year, so off peak season, and I was told they stopped letting cruise ships stop there, so it wasn't completely packed."
"I had a great time, but the sections of the city that were closer to St. Mark's were still quite crowded. That, and the shops went from local restaurants around our Airbnb to Chanel stores by St. Mark's."
"I could see if it were more overrun with tourists that it would be unmanageable. Those tiny alleys you have to walk through would get crowded fast."
~ Lambfudge
GiphyDo Not Pet the Fluffy Cows!
"Yellowstone National Park, USA is fantastic when it's just you or a few other people."
"However, most of the main sites are so full of people it really feels like Disney World at some points instead of nature."
"It's also infuriating when I see so many tourist disrespecting the nature by walking off of the paths/boardwalks and leaving trash around."
~ wyatt_sw
GiphyBuy a Postcard
"The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City."
"It was incredible to see in person, but it was literally shoulder-to-shoulder with people and they were trying to usher everyone through as fast as possible, so I felt like I was in the way and couldn’t stay long."
"I would have loved to just gaze quietly at the ceiling and take it all in for several minutes, but that wasn’t an option."
~ Atheist_Alex_C
"My main memory of the Sistine Chapel was the guard yelling SILENZIO! SILENZIO! the whole time."
~ ima_mandolin
"I don't even remember what it looked like when I went. We were rushed in, attendants yelled 'no photo' every second, then everyone snuck photos anyway, then got rushed out."
~ MxMstrMxyzptlk
"Ugh, I had the same experience. I was there at the end of June and not only was it crowded, it was 38°C (100°F), so it was f'king miserable inside and reeked of body odor."
~ pinkkittenfur
GiphyNot an Ariel View
"The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark was...underwhelming. To be fair though, I shouldn't really have expected to be whelmed by a little mermaid statue."
~ Apprehensive_Jaguar
"It was so tiny and just swarmed by people with selfie sticks knocking each other in the head! I ended up skipping that adventure and exploring the area instead."
~ BrookeStardust
GiphyIndonesia Has Many Islands
"Any tourist destination in Bali, Indonesia."
"Beautiful place, amazing food, stunning vistas, friendly people, but the pushy salespeople on the street outside every tourist destination trying to extract every rupiah I had for tourist knick-knacks ruined a lot of the good vibe."
~ PeterJoAl
GiphyIt Was Just a TV Show
"Dubrovnik, Croatia after Game of Thrones. So many Khaleesies."
~ ComfyHomonto
"I was in Dubrovnik before GoT and even then it was a bit of a tourist trap. It's probably a million times worse now."
~ f1manoz
"It's insane. We stayed there for 3 nights."
"The first day it felt real crowded, but was still a really cool thing to see if quite touristy. It's just a neat place to walk around and check things out."
"The second day 2 cruise ships came in and dear sweet God. I've literally been to festivals that felt less crowded, zero exaggeration."
~ Regular_Working_6342
GiphyBeware of Scammers
"Cairo, Egypt......all of Cairo."
~ RhinestoneHousewife
"I'll never forget that Reddit thread where people were asked which country they'd never go back to and almost all the top comments were Egypt. Such a shame considering that the country has a really rich history."
~ alicization
"I've seen 4 videos of people in egypt at the pyramids, all 4 were harassed basically the whole time by tourist traps. That's the sad part about going to poorer and touristy countries."
"Many people see a foreigner as a meal ticket to scam, of course there's good people but the bad usually outweighs the good in my experiences."
"My grandfather served in ciaro is WW2 as a prep cook for the military, he loved Egypt so much for most of his life and went many times over the years. Back in 2010 he went for his last time to Egypt with my grandma."
"He had health issues but he mainly didn't want to go back cause of all the tourist traps."
~ Turbulent_Pea_2568
GiphyNot a Jolly Holiday
"Oxford Street, Central London."
"The place for you if you enjoy:"
"Claustrophobic levels of crowding, overpriced/borderline fraudulent retail, traffic that barely moves, groups of roadmen/hood teens everywhere."
~ o1frmda4
"As a northerner I was always led to believe that Oxford Street was the place to be and had amazing shops."
"I was gutted when I got there when I was 21 to find that most of the shops were available in Newcastle, some resembled market stalls just indoors, and the rest sold tourist tat."
"Honestly gutted. Haven't been back and I'm now 38."
~ SparklePenguin24
GiphyI spent time in South Dakota as a kid. My paternal Grandparents lived there in the Paha Sapa (Black Hills).
My Sisters and I would tease my Mother because every time we visited, she'd take us to Mount Rushmore.
They're faces carved in a mountain—they don't change.
If you've seen it once, you really don't need to wade through tourists to see it again!
So, what's on your "not worth it" tourism list?
Curious to hear about the impression of strangers, Redditor PSpen88 asked:
"What famous landmark have you been to that was completely underwhelming?"
Four Corners
"The Four Corners in the US. It's just a concrete circle in the desert. Like, I don't know what else I expected, but I was disappointed."
– Grimfey
Plymouth Rock
"Plymouth Rock stinks. Just go to the Lobster Pot and get the fried plate and that will make your day a whole lot better."
– GodonX1r
Walk Of Fame
"Hollywood walk of fame. Such a dirty place full of homeless people, weirdos and rappers trying to sell you their CD. Really doesn't live up to the hype."
– brooke7366
Vegas
"The Las Vegas welcome sign. I thought it would be a lot taller."
– Redditor_2017
"Not saying you shouldn't go and make up your own mind, but Las Vegas is very trashy; an entire city devoted to gambling and strip clubs was never pretending to be anything else."
– PanamaNorth
Over-hyped Bakeries
"Essentially every famous bakery or restaurant I've been to in the US/Canada with a massive line out the door. The longer the line, the sh!ttier it is."
– thoawaydatrash
Copenhagen Mermaid
"The statue of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. Seriously, I had bigger action figures as a kid."
– WalkTheFleetRoad
Alamo
"I live in San Antonio and everytime I walk or drive by the Alamo its pretty wack."
– oftene
"Man! I thought the Alamo was going to be a beastly bastard. It's like the size of a middle class house."
– soxyboy71
Her
"Mona Lisa"
– samcon1999
"100 people crowded in front of a 6 x 12 INCH painting."
– EatSleepSmash
Mona Lisa Smile GIF by Witloof CollectiveGiphyWhat landmark makes you "meh" list?
Above & Beyond....
orange sky GIFGiphyCarrick-a-Rede It's a little coastal trail and rope bridge on the coast of Northern Ireland. It's often overlooked by tourists that go to the amazing Giant's Causeway. In my opinion, Carrick-a-Rede is just as much of a must see. Such beautiful scenery.
A Quiet Kingdom
Lesotho.
It's a small independent kingdom, bordered entirely by South Africa.
It's a gorgeous country. Mountainous, green. People travel on horseback, there are always shepherds in the valleys, their songs echoing across the mountains.
After the big crowds in Johannesburg and/or the big national parks, Lesotho is extremely tranquil. A great country.
When in Spain
Zaragoza in Spain, plenty to do and see without the crowds of bigger tourist cities.
Fun fact about Zaragoza: when the space shuttle was launching it had scrub landing sites scattered around the world. This required the runways could handle the weight and length along with telemetry. Zaragoza was the one set up for use for the last series of launches. When the shuttle would climb to too high an altitude they would announce "negative Zaragoza" meaning they could not scrub to there.
But if they had... 6 people would've crossed from Florida to Spain in about 20 minutes and for only a billion dollars.
The Hills
scotland dancing GIF by Hey DuggeeGiphyThe Scottish Highlands and the Flint Hills in Kansas They are both seriously, breath taking and beautiful.
As a KCMO guy I have to say I hate Kansas, but I think the Konza three loop trail outside Manhattan saved my life while going to K-State. A beautiful hilly place in a terribly flat world.
Off the Coast....
A little Island off the coast of Cambodia called Koh Rong. I would worry about people ruining it, but, last time I was there the Chinese were going to build a small airstrip, so it probably already is.
Sticking with the Cambodia theme, Battambang is a beautiful little city that I don't think most westerners consider visiting when seeing Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. Awesome sights and art. And obviously amazing food.
To the Tapirs....
Tapir Valley Nature Preserve, Bijagua, Costa Rica.
While Costa Rica has many areas that are "mainstream tourist destinations," this isn't one of them. Created to leave it as natural as possible, they have limited numbers of persons per day. It's easy to see elusive tapirs here, as previous visitors can testify. For birders, three are several hundred species living here, mostly due to the variety of habitats. It is adjacent to Tenorio National Park.
Looks like Hawaii.....
Lamu, Kenya: 14th century island city, Islamic stone architecture (no cars on the island because the streets are too narrow), bioluminescent algae, amazing beaches.
Diani beach, Kenya: looks like Hawaii.
Sipi Falls, Uganda: views of the plains, beautiful waterfalls.
Edit to add: white sand beaches of Malawi.
Cheap Russian
Dance Russia GIF by Jason ClarkeGiphyVladivostok is the last trans-siberian railway city in Russia and the borders are North Korea, China and Japan. If you want to rest in the beach in an european-style city in Asia and eat delicious asian and Russian food for a cheap price then come here.
Seeing Monkeys....
I went to the Osa Peninsula and stayed at Lapa Rios in 2017 and it was one of the most beautiful and magical places I've ever been!! Seeing monkeys and parrots in the SAME tree blew my mind and pretty much fulfilled all expectations of tropical paradises I imagined when I was younger. I mean, I saw a scarlet macaw fly by my bathroom window while I was on the toilet. Probably the most memorable poop I'll ever take.
Go Gothic
serious fred armisen GIF by IFCGiphyA city in the north of Poland called Gdansk. It's an old Hansa port full of Gothic churches, stone cobbled streets, beer gardens on the banks of canals and quirky artists. I don't know why it isn't more popular.
I'm here right now and it is absolutely jammed with Polish tourists. But from what I hear, it's only like this in summer. I know what you mean though. I went from never hearing about it to thinking it is one of the most beautiful European cities period.
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Sure it's dirty and crowded, but at least there's stuff to do. Having lived and worked in New York, I would say the most overrated tourist spot is Grand Central Terminal. The ceiling is pretty, but it's really just a building filled with angry people rushing to get somewhere.
Redditor u/EggsAndBeerKegs asked, "What's the most overrated tourist destination?" and people gave their opinions on the most overrated tourist spots they've been to.
20. Sounds like a movie
"Wigan, North of England. You get told it's like this magical place where you'll find success and love and never get poorly ever again. It's actually just a little English town with lots of gruff people eating pies."
19. You can do the same stuff back home
"amsterdam. Its a pretty cool place and pretty liberal about everything ( of course the sex and drugs are a bonus) but its not like u cant get the same thing back in your home country."
18. Unsanitary
Giphy"The Gum Wall in Seattle
It's just a gross alleyway with spit and gum and gum wrappers everywhere. I dont see the appeal"
17. It's never empty like in pictures
"The great Wall of China. It's so crowded and there's so many people trying to rip you off or scam you."
15. It's just giant rocks
"Stonehenge. Cool how they made it back then and all, but just a pair of dusty old rocks..."
14. Too much tourism...
"The Bahamas, Nassau specifically. I went there on a cruise in October. The best way to sum it up is a dirty Disneyworld. There's people everywhere, it's dirty and not that interesting tbh."
13. I don't like French food that much
"Paris, no doubt. The city is dirty af, people are mostly rude, food isn't as great as other European countries."
12. Spoiler alert: There's no monster
"Loch Ness in Scotland, it's pretty s*** tbh, I lived in Scotland for seven years and I've been there a few times. It's just really boring, other than a quick boat ride, it's also pricey and everywhere seems to be shut when I go"
11. I skipped it when I went to Chicago
"Willis Tower in Chicago. It's 23 bucks to look down."
10. Pee and crowds
"Hollywood boulevard. It's crowded, full of homeless people, and kind of smells like pee."
9. At least it's free
"Plymouth Rock.
It's just a rock. In a hole. with 1620 carved on it. At least you don't have to pay to see it."
8. This is disappointing to hear
"The alien museum in Roswell NM.
Once a year growing up me and my family on our way to Ruidoso we would drive through Roswell. Every year I would beg my mom to stop and take us. She never did.
Well finally when she had grandkids they convinced her to stop so they could see the aliens. I was 23 at the time and was absolutely stoked.
Ya'll that was the lamest bunch of s**** I had ever seen. I could have looked up X-File posters online."
7. Give it some time to kick in
"The Fountain of Youth in St Augustine, FL. Had a drink out of it when I was 12. I'm 28 now. Stupid fountain doesn't work. 0/5 stars"
6. Thanks for the tip
"Clearwater, FL. You can just drive an extra 10 minutes south of it and get the same quality beach but with no people."
5. I rather go to Universal Studios anyway
Giphy" PLATFORM 9 3/4 . IT'S A WALL. YOU PAY MONEY TO QUEUE IN FOR AN HOUR . THEN YOU GO TO THE GIFT SHOP.
- sincerely a kx commuter"
4. It's no Ariel's Grotto
"The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen."
"Came here to say this. In one of the most magnificent cities in the world, that little statue surely is not worth wasting any time going to see."
3. September is a good time too
"Disney world in the summer. It's over crowded, too hot, and expensive. Way better in January."
2. I agree...
"Myrtle Beach, SC
If you're on the SC coast, go somewhere else, like Charleston. It's so much nicer."
