It’s never been easier to travel and see the places of your dreams than it is in this day and age. So many people travel nowadays that The World Travel & Tourism Council predicted 2024 to be a record-breaking year for travel and tourism. The top three most visited countries in 2024 were apparently France, Spain, and the United States.
However, some people who visited these and some other countries didn’t like them that much. Some people learned the hard way that The Eiffel Tower, whether the one in Paris or the one in Las Vegas, perhaps isn’t as picture-perfect as it might seem online.
When people on Quora asked what destinations disappointed folks the most, there were mentions of countries from almost every continent. They shared the holiday destinations that left them wanting more, and, well… would you agree?
#1
Dubai. The concrete jungle, smack in the middle of the desert. Everything about this place is/feels manufactured. Everything! Well… besides the sand and the sweltering heat. It’s like a giant theme park where they’ve borrowed bits and pieces from just about every developed country in the world, and replicated it out there in the desert on a grand, and obscenely extravagant scale. The place has always felt inauthentic and contrived, to me. Like a giant stage where performers are doing their damnedest best to put on a show, but every now and then you catch a glimpse of what’s going on backstage and it leaves you aghast. After my first few visits, I resigned to staying put in my hotel, away from the theatrics of it all and out of the baking heat. I cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuss is about this place. There is little to be seen in terms of indigenous culture, as the place has been westernised to within an inch of its life. Most of the Emiratis hardly interact with foreigners. Aside from the desert safari and the Frying Pan food tours, that let you explore the less glitzy parts of the city in the Souks (markets), there’s really not much else to hold your interest.
Image credits: C. Nthenya
#2
Can you recognize this place? Many of you will find it familiar, as photos of this idyllic ancient town can be frequently seen all over travel blogs and wanderlust pages. This is Sveti Stefan , the most photographed place in Montenegro, a small European country not too far off Italy’s Adriatic coast with a steadily growing tourism sector. While organizing my road trip through Montenegro a year and a half ago, I made sure I’d stop in Sveti Stefan on my way from the airport to Kotor, the historical town where I would’ve spent my first night. What’s so disappointing about Sveti Stefan? It cannot be visited . The entire island, built some 600 years ago and a fishing village until the 1950s, is now a luxury hotel that’s only accessible to its guests who are willing to spend a minimum €773 per night, according to the current price listings. You can also visit the island by reserving a meal at its (overpriced) restaurant or by attending Sunday service in its church, but in both occasions you’ll be swiftly escorted in and out by the hotel’s personnel, without the remote chance of exploring it. The streets on the island seem to be a stunning must-see from the pictures posted online, but unfortunately, us mere mortals need to settle for a panoramic view from the beach situated across from it—where you can rent two sunbeds and an umbrella for no less than €80 per day. To me, it’s rather disappointing—if not infuriating—that a place that represents a relevant piece of cultural heritage is almost completely off limits to visitors. Worry not, though: even though the coast of Montenegro is now mostly littered with modern buildings due to the recent construction boom, you can still find ancient villages just as beautiful as Sveti Stefan that you’re free to explore and where you can enjoy an appropriately-priced meal. Perast, pictured below, barely had any visitors when I went there, and it managed to remove all the bitterness Sveti Stefan had left in me!
Image credits: Giorgio Taietti
#3
Honestly I have never been disappointed in anywhere I have been. I just love to travel and experience different cultures and places- warts and all. I always go with a realistic view of where I’m going and what the experience is probably going to be like. I’m not going to go to Bangkok expect it to be like Singapore for example. My outlook is such that I’m not trying to travel to places that are exactly like my home countries, so I go with an open mind and heart. Thanks for the A2A.
Image credits: Sarah Lee
#4
Los Angeles. It was full of homeless people who had no shelter to go. Some of them were crazy. One threatened my father with a knife. The streets were dirty. And it looked like the last time the municipality took care of their deteriorating tourist attractions were years ago. Streets like these are pretty common in Los Angeles. Even on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was packed with homeless people. And many streets were also very dirty. Compared to San Francisco and San Diego, it was a huge disappointment. Most of the good stuff isn’t free (unlike San Francisco or San Diego). For example, Universal Studios is nice, but you have to pay for it. We ate at a Chick-fil-A near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And it felt like we were in a ghetto. There was no indoor place to eat. There were no lights, the tables were dirty, and the average customer looked like a punk/thug. If I revisit California in the future I plan to skip Los Angeles. Only Beverly Hills was nice. Generally speaking, San Francisco and San Diego also felt safer. For example, only in LA there were people who tried to jam a CD in my hand so they could scam money of me. There were also cosplayers who wanted to take a picture and ask money for it, but they didn’t bother me to be honest. But I’m sure that some locals will complain about how I missed that one building/street that was hidden between the rest of ugly buildings. Like I’ve read in some other reviews where people were complaining about LA being a dump. The US has apparently 550,000 homeless people. And Germany apparently has 650,000 homeless people. But the last time I visited Germany, I don’t remember seeing a single homeless person on the streets.
Image credits: Jacques de Ville
#5
Definitely “Kerala” We (wife and I) arrive at Cochin airport and got seated in a car, which eventually became our abode and transportation for the coming 10 days. I hate such kind of travel where you are chauffered around in a car. I prefer convenient and comfortable public transport, which ofcourse, is not existent in India. Cochin is just like any other big Indian city – crowded and polluted. No point staying there, so we immediately traveled to our first destination – Munnar. Ok I wouldn’t lie, Munnar was good. It’s a hill station with scenic views and idyllic foggy mornings, but it all went downhill from there, literally! For our next destination we traveled to allepey. Passing by the over rated spice markets, I realized that we get all of that stuff in a super market 200m from my home. Unimpressed, we headed for the backwaters. My first impression – OMG! How does one breathe here. The stinky waters, 100% humidity and constant sweat on your face makes you gasp for fresh air. Thankfully it was an overnight stay. Next morning we packed our stuff and got the hell out of there and headed for tekkedy. Tekkedy is a place where animal torture is galore. My wife, being fond of elephants, decided to queue up for one those elephant rides. We got seated and the ride of torture began, for the elephant that is. At every step the elephant got a whack on it’s back. I wasnt sure what wrong had it even done. It was walking fine, following instructions and dragging atleast 500 people on it’s back from 6 am to 8 pm everyday. We asked to cut short the ride and let us down. I do not accept to be part of this brutality. Shocked and disappointed we gathered the courage to continue to our next destination – Varkala beach. After arriving at Varkala, the first things we decided to get was an ayurvedic massage. As the massage started he poured like a litre of oil on me and did his usual strokes. Wasn’t sure what was ayurvedic in it. It took me longer to shower and remove all that bloody oil than the massage itself. Hungry after the massage, and tired of the super spicy and Curry based cuisines we were eating since the last one week, we decided to eat something that wouldn’t burn our mouth. So we had our lunch at one of the beach shacks in Varkala. I remember eating sphagetti and my wife had some soup. What followed can only be described as an evening from hell. We had a very bad bout of food poisoning, I was puking my guts out. Good that it wasnt so bad for my wife. What followed was perhaps the longest night of my life. Fortunately we had carried medication for such situations and I was much better in the morning. Eventually, we went down to the beach and my first impression was, “thats it?” Coming from Goa, the varkala beach, with it’s one kilometer stretch of brackish water and heaps of rubbish on the sides was a sheer disappointment. By this time we were exhausted and bemused. We just wanted to go back home. Anyways somehow we gathered the courage to continue to Thiruvanantapuram. Trust me, that 40 km ride felt much longer than the name. We visited kovalam beach and it was close to new years Eve. What I witnessed can only be described as the largest sausage fest on the planet. My wife wondered if there was an apocalypse on the way which wiped out every female from the face of the Earth and she stood strong as the last surviving member. To calm her nerves I ordered for some drinks and the bartender went like sir, “after 10pm no alcohol”. That’s it, that very moment I snapped, I discussed with my wife and we were in unision that we needed to cut short of our trip, we had seen and endured enough! Next morning itself we changed the flights, asked the driver to drop us at the airport and got the hell out of there.
Image credits: Xion
#6
Bali, Indonesia. Given all the hype surrounding it, I felt I got cheated by lot of marketing. I spent a week there. There are some really nice things there: Excellent people, Great food, very good nature(dont mean beaches per se), some volcanoes. But, overall, I left thinking there was a tremendous amount of marketing done on this place. My disappointments: Beaches are not the best. YES.If you really travel away here and there and do lot of research you might find some. But, if you instead go to Phuket in Thailand, you will get better beaches, almost anywhere. Water I felt was better in Phuket. Australian tourists: No offense meant. But, there are a LOT of them there. A bit on the heavy side when it came to drinking, enough to intrude into my vacation. Russian tourists: in Ubud: Same issue as above Hinduism: Is not a strain I know(I am a Hindu). The temples are nothing like in India and so no big art there. PLUS, they dont let you go inside the temples. Nature: is OK. Lot of other countries with better nature for sure. You spend a lot of time driving around(or being driven).
Image credits: Badari Panuganti
#7
Barring the weather, Los Angeles was a huge let-down. I was not only disappointed; I actively hated it right down to the core of my being. I knew before I went there that the traffic and car culture was horrendous. Little did I know …
There was nothing, and I do mean no-thing, that was worth battling this harrowing clusterf*ck. No trendy restaurant, no tourist destination, no beach, nada. The pollution was off the hook on some days, so dense you couldn’t read the street sign a block away.
I saw all of the popular spots in the city. But even while I was ‘enjoying’ myself, my thoughts were on the long haul back—that egregious two-hour drive, during which time I really hoped I wouldn’t have to use the ladies’ room.
I have traveled to L.A. more times than I should have had to and do not plan a repeat trip, as in, ever. Once was enough.
Image credits: Melissa Myer
#8
Actually, most of them. But, as I see it, there are reasons why that is the case: We overhype our tourist destinations far too much. I thought I was going to have an out-of-body experience when I see Mona Lisa. No such thing. It was a very good painting, that’s all. All touristy places these days are overrun by hordes of tourists. Thirty years ago, during my first visit to Venice, it was totally awesome. Not anymore. And now we have drunken louts on every beach. Since there are lots of tourists, tourist traps have sprung up everywhere. Thanks to the internet, these days we can read and see videos about pretty much every place on earth. If you have already seen ten videos about the Taj Mahal and know everything about its every nook and cranny as well as any tour guide ever did, you won’t be as awestruck when you actually visit it.
Image credits: Vivek
#9
For me it was hands down – This is Plymouth Rock. From what I read and heard when I visited it back in 1999, was that the ‘pilgrims first touched this rock’. This could very well be hearsay that the locals may have spread, as there is really no proof to support that claim. Even the date was carved more than a century after the pilgrims arrived. This is the enclosure for this singular rock … I saw nothing note worthy of it being a major tourist attraction by itself. It seems to be more like a marketing gimmick than a historical tribute! Now, it would have been an entirely different case if the rock was an exhibit in a museum. But to dedicate an entire monument to this single rock was just mind blowing to me! Now compare that to another rock! This famous rock is the Hope Diamond! Even this is in the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. A third ‘rock’ that is not held, and cannot be held, in a museum … This is the Kailashnath Mandir, Ellora in Maharashtra, India – ‘ A megalith carved out of one single rock ’! This temple was painstakingly carved top to bottom from a single ‘rock’!
Image credits: Kshitij Vichare
#10
I wouldn’t say “disappointed” but maybe wasn’t as expected. Brussels. It felt like a soulless city. I like to spend the first two days without a solid plan or an activity when traveling, just to walk around and discover places naturally and connect to the city and its people. I just couldn’t connect with Brussels and people seemed so distant. However, I enjoyed the royal museum of fine art of Belgium very much. I visited Bruges afterwards and fell in love with it. Marseille. Although the city itself is unique and charming in a way, but there was this vibe I didn’t feel safe during my 5 days trip, it kind of ruined it (I was stressed trying to stick into touristic areas for my own safety) I visited the city with my sister, stayed at Airbnb apartment with our host at the Boulevard Chava. One of the things I noticed is that the city lacks feminine vibe or energy, I didn’t see many women working in restaurants, cafes and bars like other cities around France, or walking by a group of local youthful women enjoying their time after sunset in places other than Marseille’s old port/touristic places. The city gave us a strange vibe. Many danger alerts, on the second day during daytime we walked into a street randomly, some men were spitting on a police car from their windows/balconies and seemed like they were cursing them in French. Obviously the city is divided and controlled by gangs (we’ve noticed that more than once) however someone told us that it’s dangerous to gang members mostly, they don’t harm tourists or locals (as I understood) we were never threatened or felt threatened in a direct way. Another incident I witnessed with my sister: we went to a coffee shop around 9–10am, we were drinking our coffee outside, then out of a sudden a man walking by the cafe was attacked by another man, they started fighting violently, the attacker took a chair from the same cafe and started to hit the other guy with it until he fell on the floor, then the attacker walked to his motorcycle and took out an expandable baton, the other guy ran off and he ran after him, police seemed to be close. (The attacker figured that out while running by others giving him signals) then a random man (they must know each other) got out of a shop and took the baton, I think to hide it in case the owner got arrested. My sister ran inside the coffee shop thinking he took out his gun while I froze on my seat. I couldn’t move. Afterwards we decided to get back to the apartment right after sunset until we leave the city just to stay on the safe side. It was in October 2018, maybe the crime rate was higher than usual or maybe the areas we stayed at were not very safe. We went to Calanque de Sugiton in Marseille and it was astonishing. (Two reasons why we decided to visit Marseille: The Count of Monte Criso film has a special place in our hearts, it’s one of those films we rewatch together on a plan-less weekend. And of course, the Calanques: I don’t regret visiting Brussels and Marseille, but maybe we should have stayed for less than 3 days.
Image credits: Maha
#11
Hawaii Waikiki – like a shopping Mall with cars driving thru Tourist rip-offs. The levels they will go to are extreme. Our hotel offered $800 (family of 4) day trip to Pearl Harbour – we only said “No” because the only leave time they could offer was 5.45am (Heck – We are on Holiday). So instead we rented a car (V8 Camaro – $100 for the day) to drive around the island – we thought we could drive past Pearl Harbour to see what we could see. When we arrived at Pearl Harbour – the entry tickets were free (1000 tickets a day are free – but they are only $10 each anyway). It is an amazing trip – absolute world highlight. However, we almost missed out on doing it because of the incredible rip-off approach Food. In Hawaii we experience some of the WORST food ANYWHERE in the world (I have experience here – I have traveled all over the world including some third world places where access to good food produce is quite limited & maybe a bit suspect)
Image credits: Dean Riddell
#12
Having been to 121 countries on all 7 continents, over 250 UNESCO world heritage sites, and all 50 states, I’ve had the occasional disappointment.
One that comes to mind immediately is Dubai.
The whole city seemed to focus on excess; high-end shopping, outlandish cars, and amusement parks, and ATMs that dispense gold, but virtually no cultural attractions. The beaches were not swimmable due to the poisonous sea snakes. The immigrant workers were horribly treated and often died on the job due to the heat.
On the other hand, I loved Abu Dhabi, which was full of cultural attractions.
Image credits: David M Joseph
#13
Pamukkale, Turkey in 2003. Generally speaking, tourist destinations ought not to be on the travel schedule as they almost always are disappointments.
Image credits: Leena Tamminen
#14
Fiji. Not the place I ímagined and the food is dreadful. Marseilles, France. Dirty and noisy but at least the food is good. Kuta, Bali. Just don’t … Lagos, Nigeria. Not really a tourist town but certainly a place to avoid. Mumbai, India. Same as Lagos but at least here there is cricket.
Image credits: Phil de Wolfe
#15
My first visit to the US was in ’99. I stayed in Miami for a few days, a conference, but with lots of free time. I went to South beach, and immediately fell in big time love with the place. In as much as the art deco buildings were in such bad shape.,it was a wonderful felling to soak up the atmosphere, I felt like I was back in the 40’s or 50’s, time travel. There were no tourist traps, I found many locals just willing to have a nice conversation with a foreigner, I guess they were not used to visitors anymore. There was almost no traffic, the beach wasn’t crowded, and I found some nice places to eat. I recall a Jewish Deli, Wolfies, so 50’s. Also, a place with the best lemonade I had in my life, on Lincoln Road. Also, a store selling those Duralex glasses in any shape you can imagine. Fast forward to 2010, I’m back in Miami. Oh my, I didn’t recognize anything. I had to fight my way in the crowded streets, only to find the restaurants were no more, replaced by trending fashion shops catering to the tourists. Lots of traps, like shops showing “antiques” surely made in China. I never saw so many people doing nothing, because there was nothing to see or do. I guess they were there only because they were told it was “the place to be seen”. As for the art deco buildings, I’m not sure, but it seemed they got a coat of paint on the outside, nothing more.
Image credits: José Finkel
#16
It’s an interesting question, and I suppose most people have been to places that they were primed by tourist propaganda to really swoon over and found them to be OK, but not exactly life-altering. I think that is just the nature of travel. In my experience the Taj Mahal and the pyramids probably fell shortest from my expectations, but the list of places and things I have seen that were nice but fairly forgettable is much, much longer. It’s a lot easier to recall the places and things that made you say spontaneously “ohmygod!” when you first saw them, because the reality was greater than your expectation. I can come up with those easily: the Grand Canyon, Cologne Cathedral, and the swinging of the botafumeiro in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. These are the things I walked away from feeling that I had been changed somehow…and isn’t that the reason for travel in the first place?
Image credits: Michael Betcher
#17
I have a few. 1. Los Angeles, California, USA:
The number 1 most disappointing city that I have seen was Los Angeles. I have lived in the US all my life and mostly grew up on the east coast. It was so many years since I was a child that I was able to see Los Angeles. I knew that the city was large, older and I knew not to have high expectations, so I felt prepared. My family and I embarked on a long road trip from the east to west starting in Atlanta, GA, USA to Los Angeles. We stopped in many cities, large and smaller, and was generally surprised by the growth of the United States. We were having so much fun and enjoying everything. When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were very excited, expected a lot and wanted to have lots of fun. When we arrived in the early midnight hours, which was too many hours early to be booked in a hotel without paying for an extra day, we decided to sleep in our car (Almost new Mercedes Benz), bad mistake. We tried the hotel lot, then was warned for our safety, drove to another, then another, then another. This felt oppressive and we felt displaced and understood what it was like, even though we had a hotel for the next day. We drove back to the hotel in a really nice suburb of Los Angeles. In the afternoon after we rested, we drove around the city and noticed that once we left Irvine a wealthy suburb south of Los Angeles, and drove towards Los Angeles, we noticed that the standard of living was low. The homes looked older and run down, there were barely any restaurants or stores, people were rude and impatient, in Beverly Hills and other parts of California people treated me like a movie star and some even asked if I was one. There was so much homelessness and people acted like it was nothing. Every shopping center had a minimum of two homeless people there, and because of this, you rarely find a mirror in any bathrooms and some restaurants even have theirs locked. D***s were so available at a grand opening party that it was scary, it was a grand opening party, imagine if it was a regular party. No other city had parties that d***s were everywhere like that. There were nice exotic cars once in a while, but not as much as you would expect, the average citizen had more older cars than the other cities unless you were in the beach towns, Malibu, BevHills/HolmbyHills/BelAir or Orange County. There was lots of graffiti and ugly old houses among one of the nicest geographies in the USA. Traffic is 21 hours a day on the weekdays. Hollywood Blvd is so unpleasant and the streets like many others, smelled like urine. The city’s parks are not maintained, and the highways are probably the most beautiful construction project. The mansion neighborhoods were not that desirable even if the prices are $100 million usd, to get to them, you drive through windy, hilly and narrow roads that are broken and have houses that look like prefab homes with stucco siding as neighbors probably priced at $5 million. If you are an aspiring actor, model or entertainer, don’t bother coming unless you already got the job, because people go for movies, modeling or entertainment, but those agencies don’t accept walk ins or visits, and a lot of the homeless people I saw were young people. The weather is always mild, foggy in the morning, dry in the day, warm, but other than summer, most of the year kind of annoyingly type of temperature where it is not warm enough, but not cold enough either. 2. Miami, Florida, USA: Miami, or the parts that people think of (Miami Beach, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Aventura) is very beautiful! The problem is that this part of Miami is very small compared to the whole Miami area. Even in Miami beach, a short drive quickly takes you from luxurious areas, to areas like Little Havana or other run down areas. Hialeah is so run down and that’s a lower income community. Places that are supposed to be wealthy like Coconut Grove looked below average for USA standards. CG looks like a rich city of a developing country, with jungle plants covering everything and nice houses and some not so nice peaking out the jungle plants. The roads are bad and you actually see the roots of the older Grove trees uprooting the roads. The roads in most of Miami are bad except the Florida Turnpike and the far far northern suburbs that have more in common with Fort Lauderdale than Miami. In Miami, the water views are amazing, but if you are not a visitor or beach goer, you will miss that experience and it will be mostly a South American country. Panama seems more like a USA city than Miami, this isn’t bad, but then you notice what people go there for. 3. Lagos, Nigeria: I’ll give the country a break, it’s not a tourist country, but it doesn’t take advantage of the natural geography enough. This city is the fastest growing city on earth, and there are not enough buildings to house the people. The city is very dirty, crowded, not planned out well and even the richest parts of the city, where travelers go are not even pretty aesthe…
Image credits: Okey Isima
#18
As a native New Yorker I would say most of the tourist traps of NYC are a let down aside from Broadway. Now being a native to the state, you tend to skip the tourist stuff most of your life because you already know the pros and cons of them. So up until being a freshman in college, I had never been to the top of the Empire State Building. One of my best friends who left NY to go to college in NC had one of his friends from school visiting over the summer. He had never been to NYC and wanted to do a bunch of tourist stuff. Totally understood and we went down to the city and had an overall great day except for the Empire State Building. Basically you pay way too much to wait online for up to 2 hours to go to the top of a building and come back down. The view is good, but not worth the wait. Definitely a let down.
Image credits: Steven Piteo
#19
Oslo, Norway. I am a solo female traveler who has been to over 24 countries and lived in two. Of all the places I have been, Oslo in Norway was the most disappointing. Instead of experiencing Viking and Norwegian culture, I was harassed and followed by several Pakistani males. Somalian males openly urinated on the trees in parks and dealt d***s on the sidewalks. There were pickpocket warning signs all over the area I was staying in — and I found out later that I was staying in a hotspot for rape. 100% of the suspects were non-Norwegian and 100% of the victims were Norwegian. You couldn’t pay me to visit again.
Image credits: Kelly Marie
#20
Well for me it was the Walk of fame in Los Angeles,CA. It was a filthy street full of homeless d**g addicts lurking around in absolutely filthy conditions. However, something I would distinctly remember is a homeless woman who could have been someone significant but seems to have lost everything. Her placard said that she was just in “need of some hugs.” That screamed out that “All that glitters is not gold.” Then there were run down shops on both the sides with hideous wigs and costumes which also doubled up as stores as guys who were selling tour tickets to go and see “George Clooney’s house”. The traffic was terrible, which is of course a very renowned fact. We went there to celebrate a decade of our wedding, and after all the heat and dust and the grueling drives, I think I should have just stuck to the solitaire that was offered in the first place. I would like to quote here from Tilly bagshaw, “America is not all about wealth, but the perception of wealth”. PS: We loved the Disney and Universal studios and that did leave us with some beautiful memories.
Image credits: Anusha Harish
#21
Bogota, Colombia. That is a very miserable place. There are things that they do that you don’t think about asking. For example: The beds don’t have box springs and it is almost like sleeping on the floor. They don’t have heat or air conditioning in their hotels. I should have stayed at an American hotel but, this place had very good reviews on tripadvisor…
Image credits: Ashleigh Taylor
#22
Delhi, India. It was my first time visiting India and Delhi, and I prepared myself for some extraordinary experiences, but one can not prepare himself for the cultural shock he will get as soon as he steps into the city. ? I was disappointed by the low standard for the hotels available in Delhi. The only normal hotels were in the Airport city, which is practically out of Delhi. If you want to be in the city, lower your standards. I mean it is better to have no standards at all ? Also, the prices were like you are staying in some pretty expensive hotels in Europe, but the service you will get is like you are staying in a dorm room that last time was cleaned during the summer break. I tried 6 different hotels until I found some decent home-stay place.
Image credits: Herkus Doe
#23
Here I am in Johannesburg for a second time, staying in a hotel in Sandton, the nicest area of the city. Yesterday I wanted to go to a place near Gandhi Square. So I took the Gautrain (pronounced “how-train” by the locals) to Park Station and experienced disappointments one after another. First, street names are often inexistent at street intersections. I didn’t have a local SIM card to use GPS. I had to ask the locals for direction all the time. Some storekeepers told me to watch out for dangers. On Harrison Street homeless people sleep. Sidewalks are full of ditches and litters. Apparently unemployment rate is very high. The most common job is probably security guard. Of course there are some nice people who give me direction but most seem to be hostile to foreigners. Street markets and street vendors are everywhere. Most people around Park Station are desperately poor. Trash service is non-existent. Many shops are no longer in business, put out of business by street vendors. There are few industrial jobs so people have to try to sell something as little as candies or fruits on a small tray. Bus drivers are generally fat because they take cheap cash fares and put them in their pocket. So besides Sandton that lives off wealthier tourists and business owners. Johannesburg has many ghetto areas which are worse than Phnom-Penh or Ho Chi Minh City. My diagnostic is since Mandela took over, things have gone downhill. An amazing observation is many locals use iPhones, the local prices of which are usually twice those in USA.
Image credits: Tranh Nguyen
#24
Italy One of the pictures I printed and made into a cover for my notebook at work to motivate me to work harder and save money for 2 years I’ve fantasized about Italy for the longest of time. I fell in love with the country when I was 12 after I watched the movie “Only You” Italy felt magical out of this world and that was confirmed to me by every movie set in Italy I’ve seen since. Not only the country but how Italian people seemed in those movies so friendly, warm, somewhat carefree, and in many ways like my Mediterranean country’s people. Just Google Italy and look at those dreamy wonderful pictures. How I’d loved to visit it that when I decided to major in languages I wanted to study Italian. Though unfortunately then I couldn’t meet the requirements for the Italian department, I consider myself very lucky now. I was 24 and on my way to Italy after exactly 12 years of dreaming and falling head over heels with this country and I have been saving for 2 years for this trip. I went to Italy in August and visited 3 cities Venice, Florence, and Rome. These 3 destinations had more tourists than Italians even more most shop owners were immigrants from other countries. Venice was the most dreadful, I visited it on a weekend and waking up early and starting to explore and enjoy the city to find it roaming with tourist all carrying a map it felt like a maze theme park dead of authenticity and abandoned by Venetians to be a make-believe city for tourist to enjoy and be a source of profit for the country. Would I give Italy another chance? Yes, I definitely would. Still it was for a very long time the love of my life but this time I’d learn from my mistakes and get off the beaten track, go to small towns and choose a better time to visit than the peak season.
Image credits: Amena Nadeem
#25
The Mona Lisa: small picture behind a lot of glass behind a railing behind lots of people craning to look at the famous picture they can’t actually look at. Since I love art, I have to add The Last Supper, which is a wreck you wait in line to see. And I labeled the Brera, Milan’s major art museum, the Dreara because all the great paintings were filthy (though I hope that has changed). The Leaning Tower, by contrast, was super cool when I was a kid wandering up and feeling like I was going to fall off one of the open edges. And the Eiffel Tower: first time I walked up to it was at night and, by accident, we walked backstage into the national Christmas celebration as it was televised and stood next to the camera guys.
Image credits: Jonathan Kurtzman
#26
St Petersburg, Russia. I visited as part of a two-week Baltic Sea cruise. It was an overnight port. Americans can’t just hop off the ship in Russia and go exploring. You need to get a tourist visa to do that, and that’s nearly impossible to obtain since Russia invaded Crimea (three months prior to my visit). Otherwise, you’re only allowed ashore if you are with a registered tour group. And the tour groups, we learned the hard way, are herded through the city’s tourist attractions like cattle. And because of the Siege of Leningrad in World War 2, most of the attractions you’re shuffling through were totally destroyed; you’re just looking at approximate reconstructions of them from the past seventy years or so. Our second day was supposed to include multiple points of interest, followed by a lunch and an afternoon tour of the Hermitage art museum. But traffic around that city forced us to sit starving on that bus for hours, and consequently made us come very close to the nightmare of the ship leaving without us. I have no positive memories from my two days in St Petersburg.
Image credits: Robert Amaden
#27
Ho Chi Minh – Its because of the people. Firstly was when my friend and I arrived there from Cambodia we just took a cab immediately and the driver informed us that he will use the meter. So we trusted him. I chose not to activate my data roaming at that time so we don’t have our own internet. We do not know how far our hotel was and the money conversion from my country. Then its just less than 1.5km and we paid almost 800,000 dong(S$48) . He dropped us two streets away from our hotel for some lame reasons and we bought it. (I know we’re both stupid at that time). We’ve realised that our money left was so little. Then We told the receptionist about what happened and she said that usually we only have to pay for atleast 90,000 Dong and some drivers don’t want to drop in the hotel because the passengers are complaining to them. Secondly was the shopping thing I don’t like to haggle because for I’m shy but you don’t want to end up paying double compared to the other store and such a waste of time specially when you have a limited time you just wanna buy the thing that you want and go to your next destination. And since I’m from Manila I didn’t really feel much difference , its almost the same. But to summarise that trip I can tell that we’re the one to blame coz we didn’t do our homework. We didn’t plan well and made any research. Knowing the currency is very important so you can tell if its too expensive or just right.
Image credits: Bella Joy
#28
I mean…it was pretty…
…but the Riverwalk in San Antonio did not live up to the hype. First off, it was kinda crowded in the central area where all the restaurants were.
And many of the eateries were just big chains that you can find in any shopping strip in America
Good luck getting on the water taxis.
I’m an old guy, so perhaps that colors my judgement. (that’s not me in the pic!)
But I think that even as a young man, I would have said: Meh. It ain’t all dat.
Image credits: Harlan Williams
#29
Dublin, Ireland. I worked there for over a year (some stories are elsewhere, fans!) but the town… The first weekend I was there there was a riot in the main street after some football game had one side win and another lose. Nope, no idea. Wandering around on other days I saw bouncers/security guards on corner stores (what we’d call dairies in NZ). One kindly suggested that I keep my camera out of sight in town. I thanked him for the comment. And seriously, is the town that rough? And “Temple Bar”… is it a great place for a drink? Yes, probably. But unless you enjoy the company of loud, smelly people in great numbers near you all determined to drink as much as possible, avoid. And the drunks…. pointless arguments, urine, vomit…. Come to think of it the whole town seemed to be full of heavy drinkers. The station I’ve described elsewhere too – the tracks were littered with human… well, excrement. I think someone commented that this was no longer the case. I’m glad to hear it. (I did get to see the Book of Kells – so Dublin had that, at least)
Image credits: Jon Bryce
#30
It has to be Jaisalmer. Throughout the city you would find trash lying around. And, the whole city looks like a construction site. Ignoring all the trash around, you would wish to see the fort. But, you would have to struggle just to reach there as the roads surrounding the fort would be choked with buses and taxis. Ignoring all the traffic and trash around, you would wish to see the famous sand dunes. But, you would again have to struggle just to reach there as the taxis would charge a ridiculously large fare. Ignoring all the exorbiant cab fares, traffic and trash around, you would wish to stay in the tent hotels between the desert. But, here again, you would have to pay an extraordinary amount just to have basic necessities. Also, the hosts would flaunt their …
Image credits: Kshitij Vishnoi
#31
I think Santorini, Greece is the most disappointing place I’ve ever been. It’s not much different than the thousands of other islands in Greece except that it’s more expensive and crowded. This goes for many big destinations – especially islands. A few examples are: The Bahamas (avoid Freeport) Italy (avoid Capri) Croatia (avoid Brac/Bol) Usually, there’s a nicer, cheaper, quieter, prettier, less stressful destination right around the corner from the tourist trap. It pays to get off the beaten path! It’s hard to get a photo in Santorini without hundreds of people in it (this was in low season!) Photo: TravelingWithKristin, Travel Blogger
Image credits: Kristin M Wilson
#32
That National Zoo in Washington DC. It’s over priced and under funded. Most exhibits are closed and those that aren’t, should be.
Image credits: Syd Zenger
#33
Do you remember Angelina Jolie starrer “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”? The sequence where she escapes with an ancient artefact and jumps into a waterfall. It was filmed at Phnom Kulen in Cambodia. The location turned a travel hotspot among American and European tourists overnight. This is the actual movie scene (image credit: Amazon) I have traveled extensively to Cambodia and also lived there briefly. I have been to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) few times and it’s worth the visit. A couple of years ago I took my family to Siem Reap on holidays as I know the entire place like a local. We did an Airbnb and stayed in a beautiful independent bungalow. The local host himself was a Japanese speaking guide for Angkor Wat. I had requested for his expertise to make my family visit of Angkor Wat a memorable one, which he did. Usually, it takes 2 days to finish the entire Angkor Wat complex. We had kept a spare day to explore offbeat destinations surrounding Siem Reap. The host recommended us to pay a visit to Phnom Kulen that is about 50 kilometers from Siem Reap with 1.5 hour car drive. It is not advisable to go by Tuk-tuk and also it’s too hot out there. He narrated the story of popular Hollywood movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider being shot there at a stunning waterfall. We had already been to all the temples (inside Angkor Wat complex) where many of the movie sequences were filmed. There was no need to add anything more to that. Obviously, I wasn’t too interested, but my family was excited. I admit, the host didn’t try to oversell the location to us. These are Photoshopped image of the waterfall to lure tourists. (image credit: Google) Did you see the pictures above? They look stunning…right? The host called up a local friend of his to drive us in his A/C car. Since, I was more like a local over there, we were offered the roundtrip for $100. Usually it costs no less than $150 for other tourists. You would wonder…$150 for just about 100 kms? Cambodia has become quite expensive now. It was not like this when I used to live there. Siem Reap receives more than 2 million tourists each year. He also arranged the entry tickets that was a whooping $20 per person, so $60 in total for three of us. Locals have free entry. The depressing drive to Phnom Kulen was through barren landscape. As we were nearing the place, paved road turned into a dirt road and we were asked to produce entry tickets. I asked the car owner that why do we need to pay $20 for such bad roads. He explained to me that there was no connectivity to this place earlier and the government was not too keen either. A private company made this road by cutting a small portion of Kulen mountain. The fees are collected by them and not by the government. “Phonm” in Khmer means mountain. I could figure out that this is a tourist trap. We had already spent $160 so far and we still had to pay for our food. I had already prepared myself for an unpleasant surprise. We reached the place and there was a pagoda (buddhist temple) with sleeping Buddha on a hillock. We first climbed there and I was totally unimpressed. This was the beginning of DISAPPOINTMENT. Then we walked about a kilometer to the waterfall. There is a small waterfall and then a larger one where Angelina Jolie had jumped in the movie. There were about 100 odd steps to go down to see the larger waterfall. The steps were quite steep and covered with Algae, which makes them slippery and dangerous. The locals recommended us to go down with extreme caution as the steps terminate directly at the river and it was gushing with heavy current. My family decided to skip as it was not worth the risk in a foreign land. However, I chose the opposite as I didn’t want other travelers to fall into this trap. I slowly and cautiously went down to have a glimpse of the waterfall that lures travelers and hyped up as “The Tomb Raider Waterfall” . I spent $200 and wasted my entire day to see this waterfall. This remains in my travel diary as the costliest waterfall I have ever seen. The water was very dirty and smelly. The river is sacred for the local so they were taking bath in muddy and dirty water. It was too risky to get into the water as the current was too heavy to flush you out. I met another tourist there who was equally disappointed. He informed me that he paid $15 for the entry ticket. He also informed me that he met other tourists who have paid only $10 each. There is no way a tourist can buy the entry ticket on his own. I later on discovered that the local agents only pay $5 to the company against the printed price of $20, the balance is their profit. I could not stand there for more than a few minutes. My family asked me “how was it?”. I just said you missed the $200 waterfall. The gentleman who drove us to this place was a nice person and he too was disappointed seeing our faces. He was helpless as he too had a family to feed. The best he could do was to offer us a complimentary ride to the airport later in the evening. This was the only dark spot in otherwise our memorable holiday in beautiful Cambodia.
Image credits: Rahuldev Rajguru
#34
Thankfully, we’ve been overwhelmed with awe and fascination during most of our world travels throughout this gorgeous planet. But every once in awhile, there’s a disappointment.
The remote sections of the Great Wall of China far from tourists, as well as the scenery it penetrates, surpass all expectations! And we obviously appreciate its staggering length and rich history.
But the touristy parts of the wall are pretty disappointing.
Switzerland is our favorite country to visit. And the town of Lauterbrunnen is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. During the summer, the stunning valley features a contrast of greenery and snow-capped mountains, with a lengthy waterfall.
But this town certainly changed since our first visit in 1985, overrun with tourists now.
In fact, it’s the train ride down into the valley that’s far more appealing than the town itself. These days, the nearby village of Wengen is much more picturesque from ground level than Lauterbrunnen, and far less touristy.
We love sitting in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan right at sunset, with the Statue of Liberty and the Colgate Clock in the distance.
But the base of Lady Liberty was underwhelming.
The Las Vegas Strip is one of the most visited places in the world. But we’ve never been overly impressed by it, and we don’t find flushing our money down the toilet (gambling) to be a worthwhile pastime.
Disney World combines the humidity of Florida with large crowds most of the year. Compared to the places we’ve been around the world, this manmade facility 250 times the size of Vatican City isn’t a destination we’ll ever go back to again.
Portland, Maine, is a popular tourist destination for Bostonians but many Americans are unimpressed with its high prices, overrated points of interest, and often abysmal weather.
Brazil has some incredibly mesmerizing scenery but the famed Copacabana (and most of Brazil) was surprisingly disappointing for us.
After traveling the entire Pacific Coast of the United States many times, beholding its stunning beauty every visit to Florida is a letdown for us.
And England’s Stonehenge is a complete bust in our opinion, ranked by many travel experts as the most disappointing tourist attraction in the world.
Image credits: Peter Wade
#35
I was incredibly disappointed after visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China. The whole experience was so fake to me, they pretend that a massive museum was built upon an excavation site and that they are still excavating and restoring the statues, but its all so fake. I recall foreign archaeological experts offered to help unearth the secrets when the discovery was first made but China barred them from visiting … the result is unfortunate. Everything is restored “too perfectly” … and the broken pieces even look fake.
In Xian you will find “Terracotta” warriors every where in front of stores etc .. these look exactly like the ones in the so-called “Tomb”.
If you are in China, I would much rather recommend “Longmen Grottos” near Luoyang where you will find an equally amazing site, but much less “molestered”. The Buddha statues are damaged, weathered, and many smashed and stolen … this is much more realistic and a much more awe inspiring site! (it’s a lot less expensive than Terracotta Warriors too!)
Image credits: Skywalker
#36
This may pose a shock but Tokyo, Japan The entire city felt like Plastic To me I was visiting Tokyo with a friend of mine just as a typical Tourist. Inner City Tokyo is like some form of dystopian fairy tail. Everything seem’s rushed, lacking any beauty that catches the eye and everything ultimately cost a Tourist a Fortune. Even for the Local Japanese citizen visiting and living in Tokyo is like living in Manhattan. It cost an arm and a leg simply to purchase a Can of Pop (Soda) I have to admit, I was disappointed with my own Country’s capital of Tehran because like Tokyo i felt it was unappealing, lacking in natural and historic tourist attractions and to rushed. Looking Back I actually preferred Tehran over Tokyo. I’m A Historian which can make my opinion a little more tricky maybe. When i travel to various countries I’m more interested in studying the History and Historic sites then shopping and going to amusement parks In addition Maybe it was different for me and my friend because we went to Tokyo with little knowledge of the city so we didn’t really know how to find the ‘hidden gems’ of the city. We mostly just traveled to whatever seemed of little interest to our eyes and we occasionally followed behind Tour groups Literally Everything is automated from the Eateries to the Hotels. What ever happened to good Human interaction and Hospitality. We figured taking the City Bus to get a moving on the ground view of the city might appeal to us. That Bus ride felt like the longest 1hr ride of my life. There’s also little options in terms of eating if you are not A fan Of Sushi or if you can not consume Pork or Beef. There’s nothing wrong with that because that’s the main diet of Japan but if your Someone who doesn’t eat Pork or Beef, a Vegetarian or a hater of Sushi you will assuredly have a somewhat tough timing finding suitable eateries for your taste By the 3rd Day I was begging my friend to see if we could schedule an earlier flight to go back to Iran. My hopes of what I thought Tokyo would be were practically ruined. I’ve done some research on the more natural and historic landmarks of Japan so maybe I will return. But Tokyo was not my cup of tea
Image credits: Nadhiya Athaide
#37
Three Sisters (Australia) It’s located in Australia. When I visted it I just took a picture and photo the scenery around it (not the Three Sisters) . Taking a photo of it is just difficult because you need a camera with a pretty big zoom. And going to the location is hard as it was a pretty steep road but I took the bus back then. Yes I know that it’s a natural rock formation well I mean it’s kinda cool that nature made this by herself but I find this Stone Forest in China more awesome sorry Australia.
Image credits: Haryo Hafizh
#38
I have to say it depends on who you visit it with. I run tours and one place we visit is the famous “Snow Monkeys” of Japan. Monkeys that sit in a hotspring. When I first saw it I was utterly underwhelmed, but when I take customers with children there, it is fun because of their enthusiasm. The same is true with several “tourist traps” that I now enjoy. If the people I am with are having fun, or making it fun for me I feel fun. I used to hate Mt. Fuji because of the crowds, but this year I climbed Mt. Fuji with a very fun group and it was less about the lack of anything spectacular about the mountain (really not worth going unless you have good friends with you), and more about the people I was with. All that said, the most disappointing was that big museum in Paris (forget how to spell it, but the one with Mona Lisa). I would never take customers to someplace like that. Tokyo Disney was only good because our trip was paid for, but even still my young daughter liked everything about the trip better than Tokyo Disney itself. For me it was stupid, I was just running around getting “fast-passes” while my daughter and her mom are trying to see the parade with the snow princess, but can’t even get past the crowds to see it. Light parade we got lucky because we snuck past some security ropes, but people come and camp out from 10 am to get a front seat view. Same as some shopping center in Orlando run by Disney. It was the worst way to spend a rare evening with my parents and daughter, but it was “highly recommended” Now for the best. Deep sea fishing with the kids on a boat that takes us a couple miles offshore and we are guaranteed to catch something. (My daughter caught a shark). And not meant to be an advert, but the places I take people that are off the tourist areas. The reason I take them there is that I enjoy it myself and no crowds. Making soba noodles with a master soba noodle maker, making sushi with a sushi chef, planting rice, etc. I loved riding a motor scooter around rural Thailand where there were no crowds and backpackers. I did not like the famous temples of Thailand (or Japan).
Image credits: Kevin Cameron
#39
The Eiffel tower in Paris. Lots of people told me to not bother with it, that there are better things to do in Paris. I should have listened to them. We spent more time waiting in line to see the Eiffel tower than actually being on top of it. The top is full of people, and the view is not that great – Arc de Triomphe has a much better view from the top. Having a croissant with tea on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower was lovely though.
Image credits: Dinara Bekmagambetova
#40
America. Some years ago I crossed the Canadian/USA border at Niagara and proceeded to drive to Buffalo. I naively imagined that any place called Buffalo would carry some of the old West legacy. Not to be. Instead I found a rusting, depressed, poverty-stricken, working class city with nothing to endear it to anyone. I promptly went back to Canada.
Image credits: Stephen Whitehead
#41
Yes, I took my wife and three daughters to Europe, we are from the western US so we were flying a good distance around the globe. We planned the vacation in the summer of 2018, but were not traveling until June 2019. One of the highlights in my mind was visiting Notre Dame. When I was 17 I had the pleasure of being an exchange student in Paris, I celebrated my 18th birthday there. I have a great picture of me standing next to one of the gargoyles on one of the towers of this incredibly beautiful cathedral.
Then two months before our trip the fire happened; hugely disappointing, and devastatingly sad. I felt so sorrowful for the people of Paris, and France in general. My family and I still spent a few hours walking around outside the fences around the cathedral. I very much wanted to get a picture of each one of my three daughters and my wife near that same gargoyle while my girls are still teens, and now I do not think that will be possible. I am 56, and I sincerely hope that I will be able to walk inside of Notre Dame restored in my life time.
Image credits: Brett Sampson
#42
We have just made a tour of Italy two months ago (from mid-September 2018) from Rome northwards to Venice and Milan, stopping at Siena, Parma, Florence, Pisa, Modena, Bologna, Cinque Terre, Como . . . Lovely country for sure, but . . . Italian stores are expensive, especially fruits, fruit juices and soft drinks. Typically they sell at €2.50 – €3.00 per 350cc of soft drink and that is outrageous in my native Hongkong, where we could buy a 350cc Coca-Cola at the equivalent of €0.60 – €0.70. Pickpockets are everywhere in just all of the tourist attractions. Laws are so lenient to those thieves that they roam around like scavengers as if stealing is legal in their country. They have almost become a part of Italian culture. One other thing that could also prevent me from visiting Italy again is that it’s not free to answer Nature’s Call. None of their public conveniences offer you any ‘convenience’ at all . They charge you €0.50 – €1.50 per visit per person. Most typically €1.00. What , toilet fee . . . Seriously ? The most bizarre fee I’ve ever heard of, and I gathered that it was Italy who first came up with this most absurd idea. Unfortunately it spread like a pandemic in Europe. I fear it’s now already spreading into Asia.
Image credits: Peter Chan
#43
Many years ago, when I was just getting started with traveling, and hadn’t been many places yet, I was given the opportunity to visit Provincetown, a small artist community on the tip of Cape Cod. I was a seventeen year old gay boy from a relatively small town, and was excited because “P-Town” has a reputation for being a real destination for the gay community, welcoming and inclusive. Imagine my surprise when upon arriving, I found a gritty, unfriendly, unwelcoming, town playing out nearly every tired stereotype in the books. I was told (twice) to go home and kill myself because I was too ugly to ever have a life as a gay man. Told that I must be filled with self-hatred because I was authentic, athletic, masculine, and honest rather than contorted into a lacquered caricature. I stayed three hours and left, shaken to the core, honestly doubting my sexual identity and wondering what sort of life I might have if this were the only future ahead of me. The rest of the town was vaguely interesting, I guess. Over-priced, over-crowded restaurants. Shops selling $35 tee shirts. I’ve since gone back, nearly thirty years later, and found very little about the town or the population has changed. Treated like garbage and told to go home (again) when trying to order a drink at one of the gay bars there. Didn’t bother me at all, I take it stride now.
Image credits: Frederick Wright
#44
Prague. I’m not saying that Prague is a bad place. It’s not. I am definitely not saying that you (or anyone) should not visit Prague. You should. But if “disappointing” means the biggest gap between expectations and reality, Prague qualifies as my biggest disappointment. The problem is that I had sky-high expectations that I would love Prague. The city is gorgeous, very photogenic. The sights are magnificent. But I never felt like I got out into a real city. Everybody was friendly, but I felt that it that “it’s their job to friendly to the tourists” kind of friendly (which, still, is so much better than going somewhere where everyone is rude). Basically, I felt like I was visiting the Prague Pavilion at Disney EPCOT and not the real Prague. Again, the problem is that my expectations were way too high. I think I was expecting it to be the best, most interesting place I had ever been. If you go there merely expecting to visit one of the more interesting European capitals and to drink quality beer, you’ll probably have a great time. Runner-up: Yosemite National Park. But I know the problem with my trip to Yosemite. I went in the fall. That’s the wrong time of the year. There’s no water in the water falls. They’re more of a misting system that time of the year. Water spray, not water fall. Late spring in Yosemite would have been much better.
Image credits: Robert Spretnak
#45
Stonehenge. You read about it in textbooks all those years. You long for the day when you can clap eyes on it, in living Neolithic colour. Then, one day, not long after moving to the UK, you and your new hubby are driving along a non-descript A road, when he suddenly points to a field and says ‘There’s Stonehenge.’ ‘Whaaaat?’ ‘Stonehenge.’ ‘As in the Stonehenge? As in mystical, prehistoric monument?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘Well, Hell! Let’s stop and check it out.’ You trudge unceremoniously around a field and stare blankly at a bunch of big stones. In a circle. ‘What do you think?’ asks hubby. ‘They’re big stones. In a circle.’ ‘Yes, but it’s the most architecturally sophisticated lintelled stone in the world. Each stone weighs about 25 tons and stands 13 feet high! And they were transported from 150 miles away! Back when there was no possible way things that heavy could be transported so far. We’re talking 3000 BC. And…and…it’s so mysterious. Was it a Druid Temple? Or a tool for predicting eclipses? Or a cult centre for healing?’ It’s a bunch of big stones, arranged in a circle. It’s also cold and pissing down with rain. Can we go now?
Image credits: Feef
#46
I lived in London for a couple of years, so I’m no stranger to many of the capital’s most famous sights.
So, when my girlfriend visited for the first time, I took her to see Big Ben.
Well, it was her idea more than mine, but I was at least looking forward to saying “well actually, Big Ben is the name of the bell inside the tower, not the clock itself” and feeling really smug.*
*We’d already been through the whole Tower Bridge/London Bridge mixup debacle and I could see she was regretting some life choices.
Only I couldn’t see Big Ben. It’d been a while since I’d been back, but I was fairly sure I hadn’t forgotten the location of everyone’s favourite clock.*
*Actually, Big Ben is the bell.
Then I had a closer look at that ugly ass tower covered in scaffolding and realised that this eyesore was the horological horror itself.
“Actually it’s the bell inside the tow”—”I’M LEAVING YOU”
So yeah… we looked at it for a couple of minutes, concluded it was indeed a bit shit, and walked home to the sound of ambulance and police sirens serenading us to sleep in our poky little hotel.
Don’t miss London too much, to be honest.
Image credits: Alex Cooper
#47
Without a doubt The Giants Causeway, and I only live 30 miles from it. Dr Johnson got it right, worth seeing , but not worth going to see. Over hyped, over priced and over here. The second photo is what the crowds would be like on a slow day, looks a bit different from the photo above doesn’t it. I have been here twice and on both occasions I was disappointed. I think I went the second time to give it a chance (maybe the tide was in). No, still the same big disappointment.
Image credits: Grahame Cossum
#48
To be honest, Paris wasn’t overly impressive to me. I visited there in 2007 and we saw all the sights (Notre Dame, went up the Eiffel Tower, etc.), but the downtown area had a distinct odor of urine.
Also, I remember visiting the Eiffel Tower and there were a huge amount of Romanian Gypsies accosting tourists and asking them for money. They would all have a letter and they would give it to an unsuspecting tourist to read (including us). The letter would explain their problems (hungry, homeless, etc.) and ask for money. There were scores of them waiting on the greens near the Eiffel Tower, just waiting to pounce.
I’ll probably go back one day and my opinion may change, but I wasn’t overly impressed at all with Paris.
#49
Florence, Italy. This is the most overrated tourist spot that I have ever visited. When we were given the choice to visit anywhere we wanted with a pretty large budget, we narrowed it down to Italy. It seemed like a staple, everybody has been there, right? When we arrived, however, we were immediately filled with regret (At least where we stayed in Florence). Really, the only thing to do is walk around miles and miles in squares (the way the city is designed, you are constantly turning back to where you just came from) or buy tours. We did both of these things and were disappointed with the results. Since the area is so tourist developed, you can’t really see what life is like for residents, which is what we really wanted to discover on our trip. The walkways of Italy are rather dull and are filled with tourists, to the point where it’s actually bothersome to be surrounded by people. In addition, the roads and walkways are the same things and they are often one lane, so it might not be best to take your young children along with you. We booked a tour to Siena, Pisa, and Cinque Terre (the only place I would recommend – the sea is beautiful from that area), and it was clear that it was not worth the money. It was very, very expensive- 80 euros per person. We were cramped in a tour bus with little capacity and the drive was long (which I don’t blame them for). The tour company was clearly a small, family-owned business (like most in the area) and the workers were not very professional. The idea was that we were supposed to receive historical talks about places that we passed along our drive by the tour guides, who gave translations in both English for the majority of us and Portuguese for some others. However, our guide was not able to explain anything and was very confused about the area, even though she grew up there. Maybe it was just because English was not her first language and she couldn’t find the right words, but I still don’t find this an excuse as when we took a tour in Amsterdam, everybody spoke English fluently despite their accents and Dutch tongues. Enough said about the company, Siena and Pisa weren’t interesting either. Siena had a lot of history and I liked that you could actually see how people of Siena lived- but it was ruined by the tourists and the hundreds of tours that would visit day to day. It seemed that our tour group couldn’t walk for 5 seconds without bumping into another from a different company! Pisa was much worse. The only thing you can see there is the tower, which really isn’t all that interesting at all. A bunch of random tourists are trying to take a picture where they “hold up,” the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and somehow you always end up bumping into one of them. We also booked a tour in Florence itself to explore the inside of the Cathedral, but it was done by a very sketchy company and we were almost sure we had been scammed until we actually took the tour. The outside was tourist-and-seller full, so you couldn’t really stop and think at the moment when you’re being questioned by a pushy Italian businesswoman. You see, there were these random people walking around with flyers, and they would come up to you and talk to you about taking a tour, mentioning “exclusive deals.” Since tickets had been sold out, we decided to go with it and just give it a shot. A couple minutes later, we were walking inside. It was really nothing spectacular. If you want some real history in a church, go to England or Ireland or Spain or Portugal or France, not Florence. Now, what to take away from this? If you go to Italy, go somewhere authentic, don’t fall for the big names! The whole time in Florence and Siena and Pisa, we were thinking where are the Italians? I recommend a spot called Cinque Terre that I wish we could have initially booked our trip from. The beautiful Mediterranean, the authentic food, the Italians themselves, of course, and just the overall joy! Loved it there, very reminiscent of Portugal or Spain’s coast/islands. Edit: I see some people thinking that I’m complaining about having to walk- which is completely crazy! I’m sorry if it came across that way, but after years of visiting European cities walking was absolutely no problem to me. What I was saying is that there was really nothing interesting during the walk, as it was congested and filled simply just circles and circles of the same thing. A lovely long stroll in London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Madrid, or Porto would not have been a problem for me. Oh, and yes, David Wright, I really was! lol, we don’t typically go for tours but this time we didn’t really have methods of transport to some of the major hotspots expect for those tour buses themselves. But there were a lot at that one time 😛
Image credits: Annalise Cameron
#50
Cancun truly sucks. All-inclusive high-rises where American racists can avoid all contact with Mexicans, and go to an Italian, French, Chinese, Thai, Barbecue, or Argentine Grill restaurant in the high-rise, or else venture out to the exotic wonders of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Applebee’s, or TGIF’s. It was also illegally built through bribery on a reef that is now eroding, so you have to retreat to your hotel pool by mid-tide, because the beach disappears. The high-rises are ugly as sin. There are hardly any Mexicans or Europeans, only fat racist gringos paddling their whale-sized blubber up to a poolside bar to order their 15th really weak fake rum drink. Just…..awful! Go to Playa or Tulum or Isla Mujeres —Cancun is the tackiest resort on the planet.
Image credits: Albert Cornelius Doyle
#51
The Alhambra in Granada, Spain. It was only disappointing because the hype about it is so great. Granada is an incredibly beautiful city but the Palace, IMO, doesn’t live up to what people say. There seems to be dozens of similar palaces in Spain , albeit not as large. It’s basically empty room after empty room with nice tiles and a few nice fountains. The view is great, especially at sunset, though there are equal beautiful views throughout the city. In general, philistine that I am, I found the Alhambra quite boring. I know I’m in the minority on this one, but maybe I’ve succeeded in lowering your expectations so when you visit you won’t be as disappointed.
Image credits: Stan Collins
#52
To date, the single most disappointing tourist destination I have ever had the misfortune to visit is the Louvre Museum in Paris. First of all, it is ridiculously overcrowded, but then against, most tourist attractions are. But the real thing that ensures I will never re-enter the Louvre again is the sheer ridiculousness of it. Yes, it has a collection of antiquities that is unparalleled, but it is completely lost in the number of items on display. Here is a hall of marble statutes from greece. Oh, Look, here is another hall of marble statutes from greece. Wait, before you give up, here is yet another hall of statutes from greece. And more statutes from greece, etc… etc… etc… and there is nothing to indicate there are significant in any way. Oh, and forget announcing anything at all. If you are not fluent in French, do not bother attempting to figure out why any particular piece in displayed there. Would it kill them to have signage in French, English, and one of the Asian languages to make sure that as many people across the world could benefit? Nope. It is all in French. Don’t know French, you have no idea what you are looking at. Then there is the Mona Lisa. Seriously, why is this a “masterpiece” worth fighting a crowd to get in front of? It isn’t. The “smile” (which really is not that interesting of a smile if you ask me) is the catch. Aside from that, this could be any of a thousand other portraits in the museum. Total waste of time searching for it. I wasted a full day trying to find a redeeming item in that entire building, and the closest I got was the Code of Hammurabi. That was something to observe, and a lot of history there. However, there are copies/casting of that in other museums, and to be honest, I am not 100% sure the Louvre version is not a duplicate. My advice. Stay the F away from the Louvre. Waste of time, waste of money. I would have been better off spending this rainy afternoon in a cafe sipping a coffee, reading the paper, and watching people walk by.
Image credits: Charles Tango