19 Popular Tourist Spots That People Were Really, Really Disappointed After Visiting Them
As someone who drove around for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot at Zion National Park this past summer, I totally relate.
Whenever you’re traveling to some place you’ve never been to before, you usually want to visit a lot of the “cliché” tourist spots that the place is known for. For example, the Trevi Fountain is probably on every tourist’s list of must-see spots when they’re visiting Rome.
However, sometimes, just because it’s a must-see attraction for tourists it doesn’t mean it’s good, interesting, or particularly special. And recently Reddit user midnightsonofabitch asked: “What was the most disappointing, tourist infested place you’ve ever been?”
The thread had over 8,000 responses from people sharing the famous places they visited that they thought were not great. Below are some of the top and best responses:
1. “The room with the Mona Lisa in it at the Louvre Museum. 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.”
2. “I’m sure other cities have this problem too, but there’s an epidemic in NYC 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 are 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.”
3. “The Palace of Versailles tour was like one long shuffling queue.”
4. “Bourbon Street, New Orleans. I don’t want to sell my shoes to you, and I don’t want to give everyone on the street a cigarette. Lovely city tho.”
5. “Every cruise ship port in the Caribbean.”
6. “Hollywood Blvd…literally a worse version of NYC’s Times Square (which also sucks).”
7. “Never go to one of those Van Gogh ‘immersive experience’ — it’s the biggest bit of malarkey I’ve ever paid $50 for. You’re just trapped inside a blurry, underwhelming PowerPoint presentation where the art is not even presented in logical sequence and the music is arse.”
8. “My own city, Amsterdam, really took a nosedive in the last 10 years. Lots of unique little shops disappeared in favor of approximately 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.”
9. “Venice in August, I felt bad being there. Luckily was only a day trip but it was like something from a horror film.”
10. “Mount Rushmore, the land around it is 1,000 times more spectacular to look at then the f’ing rock, lol.”
11. “The big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in NYC around Christmas. So packed I got just close enough to barely squeeze myself out. Didn’t even really see the tree. That area always looks so nice in movies 🤷.”
12. “Yellowstone National Park 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 tourists disrespecting nature by walking off of the paths/boardwalks and leaving trash around.”
13. “The Leaning Tower of Pisa. A field of tourists trying to take a picture of the tower without other tourists in it and souvenir shops trying to sell those tourists stuff.”
14. “I live in a tourist city, Bath, England, and it’s an absolute nightmare in summer and around Christmas.”
15. “Zion National Park in the middle of summer. Winter, however, was incredible.”
16. “The Sistine Chapel. 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.”
17. “Oxford Street, Central London. The place for you if you enjoy: claustrophobic levels of crowding, overpriced/borderline fraudulent retail, traffic that barely moves, and groups of teens everywhere.”
18. “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.”
19. And lastly: “Times Square, NYC. It’s just a bunch of screens. I’m not joking, that’s it. New York City is an amazing place, but please avoid this giant tourist distraction that offers nothing.”
You can read the full thread of responses on r/AskReddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
