Locals Reveal 25 Tourist Hot Spots That Are Overhyped

We love to daydream about future trips and compile bucket lists of destinations we’re desperate to visit. When planning itineraries and booking activities, people often have sky-high expectations that may need slight curtailing according to their destination of choice. While it’s true that travelling abroad can be fun, rewarding, and enriching, it’s important to remember that some places can feel surprisingly underwhelming in person.

Recently, someone posted in the ‘Ask The World’ Reddit community asking, “What’s the most pathetic tourist attraction that international tourists go to see in your country?” Locals flooded the comments, sharing useful tips and warnings to foreigners about the overrated tourist traps in their countries that are better off skipped. Scroll down to see the top suggestions for attractions that you, too, may want to consider crossing off your itinerary for your next trip.

#1

Image source: TheFace5, eebAMDG

Giulietta House in Verona.
And a lot of other things, famous for the wrong reason.

polarbearsloveme:

I’m a moron so I went super out of my way to get to Verona to see this, got there, realized Romeo and Juliet were never real people so this balcony has no meaning but to trap tourists, and was like why did I do all that.

#2

Image source: Happy-Capital6508, Mike Norton

Plymouth Rock without question.

HawocX:

As arguably the worst tourist attraction in the world, it’s now firmly on my list of must-sees.

stoinkb:

Absolutely underwhelming and so unlikely to have had anything to do with the Pilgrim’s arrival.

#3

Image source: NewspaperHelpful6500, William Murphy

The spire of Dublin, dumbest thing we got in my opinion.

Thought it was pretty sick when they turned it into a lightsaber for Star Wars Day.

#4

Image source: Purenotionslike, Svein-Magne Tunli

This [hellhole]. €10.45 for a pint.

m1kasa4ckerman:

One of my friends who had never been to Ireland before came to visit. They were very adamant “all my friends said I have to go to the temple bar”…. I kept trying to explain it was kind of like going to Olive Garden in Times Square NYC.

#5

Image source: Worried_Process_5648, Ted Drake

Teen and tween girls visit Forks, Washington hoping to see hunky, sparkly vampires and werewolves (because of Twilight) and end up seeing a depressed, gloomy logging town.

#6

Image source: DELAIZ, Brooke Laven

Poverty safari… er… guided tours through favelas. They exist not because anyone is interested in seeing the history and important places in a favela, but driven by tourists who want to see poverty and feel happier with their lives.

BAaaaaaaaaa22:

Ugh that’s as bad as the ‘Katrina tours’ here in New Orleans. 20 years later people still want to see the damage from the hurricane and levee failures.

#7

Image source: SprayInternational58, Domagoj Smoljanovic

Anything ghost or wizard/Harry Potter related in York, UK. Pathetic because ghosts don’t exist and York has zero connection to Harry Potter. There’s so much actual history to immerse yourself in, it boggles the mind why people spend their money on it.

#8

Image source: Easy-Cauliflower-429, Jennifer Boyer

The Blarney Stone- I get that it’s a pretty castle but millions of people have kissed this to get ‘the gift of the gab’ and all I can think is that now all these people have cold sores cause you know someone with a cold sore has kissed it at least a thousand times.

#9

Image source: Rackle69, rulenumberone2

I live in Washington state so I will have to say the Gum Wall. It’s a wall in an alley in Seattle that’s covered in people’s chewed gum.

#10

Image source: anon, Steve Parker

The red light district.

GrimyGrippers:

I accidentally walked through there when I visited. It was SO bizarre to see people in the windows, and yet businesspeople are just going about their day and not batting an eye. Meanwhile I just hurried my pace and tried to act natural haha

#11

Image source: pikay93, Darya Sannikova

Hollywood. LA itself has better to offer let alone the rest of the country.

pdx_foodie_raver:

Hollywood was one of the biggest disappointments of my life. I’m like “this is it?”

#12

Image source: Important-Prize3803, SoWhat

Les Champs Élysées.

No actual Parisian goes there it’s a clownery of a tourist trap with no authenticity and a ton of pickpockets.

#13

Image source: ImperatorDanorum, pleia2

The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen…

MarketingNew5370:

I agree, it is an underwhelming statue with a boring Industrial background which is often marketed as the highlight of any trip to Copenhagen. The literal fortress right next, Kastellet, is infinitely more interesting.

#14

Image source: Euphoric_Judge_8761, David Stanley

“Dracula’s castle”

Vlad Țepeș never even came near it in all his life. The castle is pretty, but cramped due to the sheer number of tourists.

#15

Image source: anon, Jon Hurd

Poverty stricken places. Just why?

Anonymous:

Came here to say ‘slums’. Yall, I promise India has better places than Dharavi.

narvuntien:

It was actually in Busan, South Korea they painted a bunch of Poor peoples houses bright colours and called it a tourist attaction and the poor try to hawk you trickets from thier front doors. It was so exploitative for both the poor and the tourists.

#16

Image source: Flowa-Powa, Scottish Banter

The Inverness “it’s nae a bonk machine”.

Fuzzy-Gear1965:

I genuinely think one of the funniest things to come out of Scotland is a railing that’s nae a bunk machine becoming a tourist destination.

#17

Image source: 7_11_Nation_Army, Greger Ravik

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.

It is a resort town that somehow marketed itself successfully throughout Europe for all the wrong reasons.

The [worst] tourists (violent alcoholics from Sweden, redneck Brits, russians) started flocking there to get drunk cheaply, and the local businessmen layer tons upon tons of concrete and plastic to create a ridiculous skyline.

The resort has been a chaos of luxury hotels and vomiting drunkards on the streets ever since, with none of the charm that a peaceful beach town should have.

#18

Image source: IcePrincess_Not_Sk8r, Cameron Rainey

I’m always shocked when in Vegas and I hear foreign accents. Like, you came from Europe for… this??

Gogyoo:

You couldn’t pay me money to go there, let alone spend money there.

greaper007:

This falls in the category of a place that used to be amazing and now isn’t worth it. I still remember doing maybe 5 days in Vegas for about 150 bucks in 03.

#19

Image source: Albert_O_Balsam

The Holy Stone of Clonrichert.

#20

Image source: Accomplished_Day9936, Roderick Eime

Moulin rouge.

skabben:

My experience is that all tourist spots in Paris is full of scammers and people trying to sell you [stuff]. Really ruins the experience.

#21

Image source: loskubster, Rich Bowen

The stupid bean in Chicago.

#22

Image source: ghostdeinithegreat

This door in the city of Québec, Québec Province, Canada.

Koreans travel to take picture of that door because it was featured in a popular K Drama show.

#23

Image source: sclerophylll

Blue boathouse, Perth Australia.

meandhimandthose2:

This was my pick as well, it’s not even famous for anything. It is just, a boathouse?? Yet people line up for ages just for a picture. Even on their wedding day!!

#24

Image source: Acrobatic-Active5353, Nils van der Burg

Neuschwanstein, honestly, the castle is great from the outside, but save yourself the entrance fee. What you only find out after entering is that inside there are basically only a few truly finished rooms.

#25

Image source: sarzarbarzar, alotor

The liberty bell in Philadelphia. Guys, it’s just a big bell that rang like, twice. Great symbol, underwhelming attraction.

#26

Image source: Terri23, irispupu1012

This bench. The Chinese will queue for hours for a chance to sit on this bench. It’s in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia.

The story behind it is a pop star called Jay Chou sat there once, posting a picture to social media. As a result, it’s now a huge Chinese tourist thing to do, and leaves everyone else more than slightly bemused.

#27

Image source: zennie4, Deror_avi

The book tower in municipal library in Prague.

Various guides mention it as a “hidden” or “secret” spot.

In reality there’s always a queue where tiktokkers and instagrammers waits for hours to take the same picture.

#28

Image source: Green_Mare6, Jim & Robin

Mount Rushmore.

bluechickenz:

Mount Rushmore is so strange… the scale is pretty amazing and the monument is quite cool, but it just looks so small and underwhelming in person.

#29

Image source: lth199, Mike

Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

An urban planning crime and a gathering place for poverty. A terrible place.

#30

Image source: PlutoniumBoss, Larry Koester

I’m going to say the American side of Niagara Falls. Technically the more aesthetic half is on the US side, but you can only see it well from the Canadian side. Even our tourist trap attractions in the area are [worse].

#31

Image source: Nino167, With Paul

A staircase in my neighborhood I used to go sledding down as a kid when New York City had heavier snowfalls in the 90s. It’s now referred to as the “Joker Stairs” because of Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in the Joker(2019) in which he dances down a part of the staircase and it attracts so many tourists daily. It’s just a staircase…