We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the most "overrated" tourist attractions they've been to. Here are the surprising results:
Note: Some responses were pulled from this Reddit thread by u/Tayirman.
1. "Definitely Mount Rushmore. I expected some huge, awe-inspiring sculpture, but it's so far away from the viewing area that it's tiny. You need a telephoto lens to get an impressive clear picture. So not worth it."
"Mount Rushmore — $20 to stare at a rock for five seconds. Plus, it really is not one of our nation's finest moments. It's prettier to see it as you're driving through the forest."
2. "The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. What a snooze fest. I love museums and historical sites, but there was nothing about the Alamo even remotely interesting."
3. "The CN Tower in Toronto. I have lived here for over 20 years, and I went up to the top once with a friend who was visiting. The view just isn't worth the price, to be honest, and the glass floor is way overhyped. However, IF you insist on going, I highly suggest going during sunset."
4. "Stonehenge is just a pain in the arse all around. The traffic bottlenecks because of the road structure, and it also gets slowed right down by people looking as they drive past or stopping to turn into the farm track instead of going to the roundabout and car park."
"It was one of the worst — if not the worst part — of the journey to visit my husband’s family."
—klmy
5. "While it will be an amazing monument once it’s finished, Crazy Horse in South Dakota cost, like, $50 in 2002 to see a small model of what it will eventually look like."
6. "The Santa Monica Pier in LA and Navy Pier in Chicago are horrible tourist traps. Just a lot of walking with no real payoff."
7. "Leaning Tower of Pisa. The tower is fine, but it's absolutely surrounded by tourists all putting their hands up pretending they are holding it up. It’s annoying. You can’t even take a picture of the tower without 20 people all doing the same pose in your shot."
"The cathedral next to it is very pretty, though, and the town of Pisa is cute."
8. "I was on a trip to Europe, and our first stop that day was the Louvre in Paris. I was so excited to see the "Mona Lisa"; my parents had seen it years before, and I thought it would be so amazing. My friend group made our way to the hall where it was, and there were SO many people. Everyone was holding their phones above their heads just to take a picture of it (granted, I did, too. I mean, it’s the "Mona Lisa"). We wanted to see it up close, but everyone was breathing down each other’s necks just to see it. It was so hot that we left after we all got a picture — which was taken with extreme zoom because of how far back we were."
—23, Ohio
"The "Mona Lisa." It’s a barely interesting painting that is so dull in comparison to the incredible art present in the Louvre."
9. "The Vatican. The buildings and the art are amazing, but not knowing much about art or architecture, the tour was mostly wasted on me. The tour took way too much time, was way too detailed, and seemed to be drawn out just for the purpose of making us feel like we got our money's worth. All we wanted to do was get to the Sistine Chapel at the end. It would have been much better if it were an hour shorter."
—52, Virginia
"The Sistine Chapel. I bought a ticket to visit the Vatican museums and the chapel on the same visit, and the museum itself was so much more beautiful! The gallery of maps especially impressed me. The chapel, on the other hand, is less beautiful than most people believe, but also smaller than I imagined. Plus, there was no natural sunlight coming in, and you were pushed around like cattle because it was so crowded (despite COVID restrictions!). I was really underwhelmed after all the beauty there is in the Vatican museums. The most beautiful fresco I had seen while I was in Rome was inside a very small and discrete church called Sant'Ignazio. The fresco itself really spoke to me (unlike the Sistine Chapel’s), and the history of the church itself is much more interesting."
—20, The Netherlands
10. "The pyramids in Belize and Mexico. They were overpriced, crowded tours in miserable heat with bloodthirsty mosquitos. There are aggressive vendors everywhere, and the pyramids are unimpressive and inaccessible. Be ready to walk for miles as the pyramids are all remote. It’s a long day and simply not worth it. They are both overpriced destinations with experiences that will disappoint, service that is slow and amateur, and resorts full of power-drinking buffet hounds from Europe and the USA."
—58, Nevada
11. "Yellowstone National Park — it's just a full day of driving and sitting in traffic. The tourists are the absolute worst there. They stop their cars in the middle of the one-lane road just to take a picture of a bison or to try and pet the bears. It's so annoying. It's such a sacred place, and people are trashing it. Makes me sad every time I have to work in the park."
—26, Illinois
12. "Park Güell in Barcelona. I've been to Europe a lot and just did a two-month trip throughout Europe, and this was the only place that really, really disappointed me. There are a lot of packed 'must-see' attractions that aren't really must-see or are not really worth the price, but Park Güell was a lot worse. It's extremely packed, with hoards of people coalescing around spots with views to take pictures, so you can't really enjoy the place itself because you have to constantly move to make way for people wanting to take a picture there. It's pretty small and nothing to write home about."
"It's just a small park with some interesting buildings (that some you can see for free from outside). In my opinion, the buildings aren't that pretty or interesting; people flock there just because of the name Güell. You can't compare it at all to the Sagrada Família or to the many casas he designed throughout the city. This place is just not interesting enough, not worth the time getting there (because it's far away from everything else), not worth the money, and not worth the time spent there."
—23, Israel
13. "The castle at Disneyland. Growing up on the East Coast and going to Disney World, seeing the huge Cinderella Castle, and then getting to go to Disneyland in California, I felt like I had to go searching for the castle; it was so small in comparison."
—25, New Jersey
14. "The Temple Bar in Dublin, Ireland, is the biggest tourist trap in the country. A Guinness costs nearly twice what it should, the place is always packed, and it has the soul of a McDonald's that sells alcohol. Other than that, I think Ireland is pretty good for tourist traps."
15. "The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. You can buy souvenirs bigger than the statue! But we have a lot of other nice places to see."
"The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen is disappointing, and it takes time to get there from the other main highlights of the city. Waste of time. The only thing funny about the Little Mermaid is that tourists get on the rocks in the water to get a closer picture of it."
16. "The Prague astronomical clock. Everyone gathers around it at the top of the hour because the figurines on the clock are supposed to do something special. They don't; I barely even remember what they do. It's very underwhelming and not worth the wait and the huddle in front of the clock."
—23, France
And finally...
17. "Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. It's just so crowded, getting into a place takes forever, and then it's just like every other bar in any other city. Austin as a whole is honestly super overrated."
—36, Texas
What are some tourist attractions you've visited that you think are overrated? Or, on the other hand, which tourist attractions are actually worth seeing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.