travel

15 travellers shared the most disappointing tourist destination they'd ever been to.

 

Any traveller who says they’ve never experienced a disappointing or downright boring tourist destination is lying.

Why? Because it’s inevitable.

Thanks to the internet and social media, gone are the days of rocking up to a place knowing nothing about it or what it looks like.

Many places, especially tourist hotspots, look incredible on Instagram. Then, you get there and realise it’s a bit crap.

Sometimes, an experience colours your feelings towards a place. Like losing your luggage, getting food poisoning or being mugged.

Other times, rude locals or thousands of tourists get on your nerves.

In a now-viral Quora thread, travellers were asked: What is the most disappointing tourist destination you’ve ever visited?

The thread is quite long but makes for interesting reading. Because they didn’t hold back.

Here are 15 of the most disappointing tourist destinations, and why they made the list.

Venice, Italy.

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“Venice is nothing but a tourist trap. Once you’ve seen one canal, you’ve seen them all. There’s nothing else to Venice.”

Italy.

“Venice, Florence, and Rome – these three destinations had more tourists than Italians… Venice was the most dreadful.”

Kerala, India.

“In particular, Tekkedy is a place where animal torture is galore.”

Brazil.

“The weather was unbearably hot, the people were unfriendly, the airport was utter chaos, taxi drivers cheated us every chance they got, the sidewalks were lined with people sleeping as far as the eye could see, the cities were filthy, and the Amazon was shockingly boring.”

Stonehenge in England, UK.

“You trudge unceremoniously around a field and stare blankly at a bunch of big stones. In a circle. It’s also cold and pissing down with rain. Can we go now?”

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

“If you google Pnom Penh… you’ll most likely see beautiful photos. It is a very sad and depressing place.”

Khao Phing Kan in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand.

“Khao Phing Kan, otherwise known as James Bond Island – it’s tiny, there’s no place for a good photo, it’s full of hawkers trying to flog something, and the toilets are among the most disgusting I’d ever experienced.”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“The concrete jungle, smack in the middle of the desert. Everything about this place is/feels manufactured.”

The Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

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“To date, the single most disappointing tourist destination I have ever had the misfortune to visit is the Louvre Museum in Paris. 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.”

New Orleans, US.

“Filthy. Unfriendly people. Food not as good as advertised. I would not even give it another chance. It just sucked.”

Hollywood Walk of Fame, California, US.

“It was a filthy street full of homeless people living in absolutely filthy conditions.”

Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, US.

“When I was a child, I read about Plymouth Rock and how the Pilgrims “landed” on Plymouth Rock… This must be a gigantic rock, right? Not. There’s this little rock… it’s tiny.”

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece.

“You slog up to the top of the hill in the early morning to beat the queues and find the Parthenon is just a crumbling ruin surrounded by a few smaller ruins. Scaffolding is everywhere.”

Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia.

“Yes, I know it’s a natural rock formation, but it was so hard to get a photo of and it was a steep road to get there. Sorry, Australia.”

Well, at least Australia was only mentioned once.

What’s the most disappointing place you’ve ever traveled to? Or was one of the above your favourite place?