People Are Sharing The Most Disappointing Over-Hyped Tourist Traps Around The World, And These Are Downright Brutal

"Now don’t get me wrong — there's some great food to be found there. But the whole street itself is dirty, smells like sewage, and wildly loud."

Traveling is all about trial and error. Sometimes you have an amazing experience, and other times — well...you get sucked into a giant tourist trap, and you live and you learn.

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So redditor u/superlemondaze asked, "What’s a tourist attraction you’ve been to that was 100% not worth the hype?" Turns out, people had a lot of opinions. Here are some of the responses. Oh and fair warning, you're probably going to have some strong opinions. 

1. Romeo and Juliet's Balcony (Verona, Italy)

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"Most tourists believe that this balcony inspired Shakespeare's play. When you get there, there are about 10,000 people crammed into a tiny alleyway just to see a balcony that I later found out was actually built after the play was written."

—u/Jay_1327

2. The Grand Canyon Skywalk (Nevada)

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"This glass bridge over the Grand Canyon is a total rip-off and tourist trap. First of all, it takes hours to get there from Vegas. Then they charge you $20 to park in an empty desert, another $30 per person to take the bus from the parking lot to the bridge, and a final $30 per person if you actually want to walk on the bridge. You cannot take pictures or bring a camera onto the bridge, but they will sell them to you, of course."

—u/TommyHolefucker

3. Machu Picchu (Peru)

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"It's amazing that the Inca people built this place, but I have an issue with how it's currently managed. First of all, it’s flooded with people, it's very expensive to visit, you're required to have a tour guide, and you can only spend three minutes in certain areas. IMO, you're way better off seeing the Inca capital city, Cusco. See Sacsayhuamán and the Coricancha Sun Temple. Go on a backpacking trip, and you'll find Incan history everywhere with no tourists around."

—u/ccut

"The site itself is really incredible, but it's overcrowded with so many loud tourists to the point where you feel like you're walking through Disney World instead of a UNESCO heritage site."

—u/cfmcg

4. The Dead Sea (Israel)

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"You're in the desert, it's blazing hot, and you think you'll go take a dip in the Dead Sea to cool off, right? Wrong. First, you have to pay to use the towels, pools, etc. Then you have to take a shuttle that drives you from the spa down to the shore. You tentatively step into the water, which feels like a hot bath. Then you submerge, which is a mistake. Every pore on your body is burning from the salt, especially if you recently shaved. You find cuts on your body you didn't even know you had. When you're ready to go, you're now sticky from the salt, and every inch of your body burns."

—u/_Emerald_Eyes_

5. The Great Wall of China (Beijing)

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"If you go to the Great Wall of China, I'd suggest not going to the section right there in Beijing. It's newly rebuilt and touristy. For a much better experience, drive a ways out of the city to the Simatai section (120 kilometers northeast of Beijing). There, you'll find an original portion of the Great Wall that is uncrowded and more authentic."

—u/DownUpOverAndBack

6. Takeshita Street in Harajuku (Tokyo)

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"I couldn't move my elbows an inch without bumping into someone, and pretty much every shop had a 30-minute line. I went to see the Harajuku-style fashion associated Takeshita Street, but hardly saw any of that. So essentially I was packed like a sardine for hours while waiting in long lines to shop for overpriced clothes. I love Tokyo, but I definitely won't be going back to Harajuku anytime soon."

—u/danganranger

7. Bourbon Street (New Orleans)

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"Now don’t get me wrong — there's some great food to be found on Bourbon Street, so I’d recommend checking it out anyways, but the whole street itself is dirty, smells like sewage, and wildly loud."

—u/ProfessorSucc

"I hated Bourbon Street. It's cool if all you want to do is get drunk, but there was no New Orleans culture to it. It was pretty much a college party."

—u/NormanBorlaug69

8. Plymouth Rock (Massachusetts)

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"To put it bluntly, this attraction is massively lame. No one even knows for sure if this is the right rock...or if there even was a rock where the Pilgrims landed in the first place."

—u/Beobee1

9. UFO Crash Site in Roswell (New Mexico)

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"You’d think it would be a hot spot for conventions and space geeks, but it was an incredibly tiny town with dozens of alien shops and barely any people. It was also creepy as hell."

—u/properrocky

10. Hollywood Boulevard (California)

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"I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I would never ever bring a tourist to Hollywood Boulevard. Maybe I would drive through it quickly, but there are so many cooler things to do in LA than to see a crackhead Spiderman fight a drugged-out Batman."

—u/Prolificus1

11. Manneken Pis (Brussels)

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"Don't get me wrong, Brussels is beautiful, and I absolutely loved visiting, but you can skip Manneken Pis. There's so much interesting folklore around Manneken Pis, and you expect it to be an amazing statue...until you see it. It's located on a tiny street, and a crowd of hundreds of people are huddled around the corner where he sits."

—u/findvision

12. Waikiki Beach (Oahu)

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"It's a horrible, crowded concrete beach surrounded by traffic and overpriced chain stores. Go to literally any other beach in Oahu. Or for an even cooler experience, drive up to the island's North Shore, and pick a spot on any one of the many quiet beaches there to enjoy the gorgeous scenery."

—u/rachelgraychel

13. The Duomo (Florence)

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"The outside of the Duomo is magnificent, but the interior is bland and underwhelming and not worth waiting in line for. If you've seen the outside, that's all you need to see. If you're thinking of going inside the view, you can get a much better view of Florence from across the river."

—u/CaligulaAndHisHorse

14. Mount Rushmore (South Dakota)

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"It looks exactly like any picture you've ever seen, and it's not easy to get up close to it. If you're in the area, I recommend prioritizing Devil's Tower instead. That national monument is well worth it."

—u/JBleezy1979

15. Temple Bar (Dublin)

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"There are better pubs a block away, but all the tourists go to Temple Bar to pay twice the price for a Guinness."

—u/mcampo84

16. The Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)

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"This might be harsh, but the swarm of aggressive market vendors surrounding the pyramids makes visiting this site a bit of a nightmare. One woman on our tour group asked a guard to take her photo, and he refused to return her phone unless she paid him. The whole time, we were yelled at and haggled into buying headscarves and assorted souvenirs, which ruined my experience. I spent months looking forward to the trip and felt so disappointed."  

—u/TheTrustyCrumpet

17. Sydney Opera House (Sydney)

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"The tours are expensive, and the inside is kind of underwhelming. Viewing the outside is free, and that happens to be the best part of visiting. As an alternative, just walk around Sydney Harbour. It's free and it's gorgeous."

—u/CaligulaAndHisHorse

18. Disney World (Orlando)

"Want to eat? Be ready to shell out $50 a person per day. Oh, you came for the rides? Enjoy the two or three you can actually enjoy on a busy day." 

—u/flipamadiggermadoo

19. The Little Mermaid (Copenhagen)

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"It was absolutely disappointing. A city as nice as Copenhagen deserves a better attraction." 

—u/deleted

"Most tourists know that it's just a small statue on a rock, yet still they come here and swarm around it like a flock of seagulls. I don't understand why."

—u/maniaccheese·

20. Cinque Terre (Italy)

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"This one may be controversial, but I found this handful of villages in coastal Liguria to be very boring and overly touristy. All the hiking trails were closed. Either way, it's a day trip at best, and I would recommend visiting the Amalfi Coast over Cinque Terre."

—u/CaligulaAndHisHorse

21. Oktoberfest (Munich)

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"The big Oktoberfest held in Munich was way too crowded for my liking. I had a much better time at beer festivals in the smaller towns and villages outside of the city."

—u/aircraftwhisperer

22. Pier 39 (San Francisco)

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"I'm from the East Coast, and I'd never been to SF before. Everyone told me to skip Pier 39, but I figured I would go and see it for myself. Fast-forward and I'm here to tell you it's a tourist trap. There's nothing worth seeing there except the sea lions. Other than that, it's just chains and rip-offs."

—u/ElBomberoLoco

23. Versailles Palace (France)

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"The Palace of Versailles has become so crowded that you have to push your way around people to make it through the castle. It’s also developed a huge pickpocketing problem. A lot of people go just to take a photo in the hall of mirrors."

—u/firstghostsnstuff

24. Top of the Empire State Building (New York)

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"You spend all that time in line for the elevators for the change to take a few pictures through a caged roof and squint at what would otherwise be an excellent view of New York City. It's totally not worth it."

—u/dasoberirishman

25. Khao San Road (Bangkok)

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"I love Thailand, but I absolutely hated Khao San Road. It's totally fabricated for tourists to make travelers feel like they're doing something exotic and adventurous. There are signs that say things like, "Take a picture eating a scorpion for $5!" and, "Fake passports sold here!" It's all souvenir shops and bars, and compared to the rest of the wonderful country, it's gross and fake."

—u/BeastModePwn·

26. The Blue Lagoon (Iceland)

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"I was shocked by how pricey it was for the experience, especially considering most of the public hot baths are free and there are geothermic springs everywhere in Iceland. I felt like I had to check it out, but in the end it felt like a rip-off." 

—u/goldikova14

27. The Taj Mahal (Agra)

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"It's surrounded by 10-meter-high walls, and the entrance fee is ludicrously expensive compared to any other attraction in India. If you're in Agra and want to see the Taj Mahal, go across the river. There are some gardens almost directly across from it, and there's a great spot by the river with a brilliant view of the Taj Mahal, particularly at sunset. This experience is totally free, and you won't have to deal with crowds."

—u/Nevermind04

28. Atlantic City (New Jersey)

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"Atlantic City is a row of dingy casino hotels against a dirty beach with a strip of gross shops in between. At least Vegas is cleaner."

—u/jaycatt7

29. The Sistine Chapel (Vatican City)

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"The Sistine chapel left me feeling underwhelmed. The art is absolutely incredible, but it's let down by the room itself. It's just a big chapel that's absolutely crammed with tourists aiming their cameras at the ceiling. It's a shame because the rest of the Vatican is amazing. There are many beautiful rooms and corridors you walk through before you get to the chapel."

—u/amathysteightyseven

Do you want to add another place that wasn't mentioned? Tell us in the comments below!