Today, it’s hard to imagine making travel plans without the internet. Discussions on Tripadvisor, ratings and reviews on Google, and blogger-suggested itineraries have become integral to our decision-making. But how much can we trust all of them?
A few days ago, Reddit user TheFilthiestMuggle asked tourists on the platform to name the destinations that seem amazing online but actually fall flat in reality, and they received thousands of answers. So before you print out your bucket list, we invite you to take a look at the most popular entries.
#1
Giza, Egypt.
Absolutely horrible. Every single person there is corrupt, every customs officer, tour guide, police, hotel clerk, etc.
The pyramids are crowded with tourists, and are extremely underwhelming— you can literally see a McDonald’s just a mile away.
I’m so glad we were only there for two days, and breathed a sigh of relief once we left.
Oh, and if you’re a woman, it’s 10x bad. You will be groped, hit on, propositioned, all the time.
Image credits: Not-original
#2
Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, especially the Walk of Fame. It seems so glamorous in movies and photos, but up close it’s crowded, gritty and full of pushy vendors and costumed characters. Interesting to see once, but definitely not like the postcard version.
Image credits: Substantial-Cost-429
The 2025 Global Travel Trends Report surveyed 8,137 people from seven countries (the US, Australia, India, Canada, the UK, Japan, and Mexico) and found that 74% of them plan on taking 1 to 3 domestic trips in 2025, while 59% of respondents plan on taking 1 to 3 international trips.
Six in ten plan to focus their trip on entertainment events or plan to take at least one trip for a sporting event in 2025, reinforcing the idea that the main driving force for travel is experience.
#3
The Mona Lisa at the Louvre, you have to wait in a long a*s line full of tourists only to get a few seconds to look at a (IMO) underwhelming portrait with people doing obnoxious selfies around you. There are way better paintings in that museum.
Image credits: incunabula001
#4
I wouldn’t say it looked amazing, but Las Vegas is an incredibly depressing place if you aren’t looking for a mall on steroids experience. Couldn’t wait to leave.
Image credits: jbcatl
#5
Pisa, Italy. Don’t get me wrong, the area around the leaning tower is beautiful and worth the visit, but the town itself is very disappointing and a dump. We travelled from Florence by train to Piza, left our luggage at the station and walked through the town to the leaning tower. The walk was through the town and through a dodgy area near the station and the town was so out of context with the area where the tower is. Tried to find a decent restaurant and failed. Quickly got a train to the airport. Sad.
Image credits: whu1895
Beyond anecdotal accounts, we also have some quantifiable data on disappointing destinations.
An analysis of more than 97,000 Google visitor reviews from 100 of the most visited cities in the world showed that the following had the most negative reactions:
- Cancun, Mexico (14.2%);
- Antalya, Turkey (12.2%);
- Punta Cana Dominican Republic (11.9%);
- Beijing, China (11.2%);
- Orlando, United States (10.6%);
- Mumbai, India (10.0%);
- Honolulu, Hawaii (9.9%);
- Johor Bahru, Malaysia (9.4%);
- Kyoto, Japan (9.1%);
- Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (9.0%).
#6
Mount Rushmore. It is underwhelming. Way smaller than you would think when you look at all the pictures of it. You can see what the mountain would have looked like without the carvings and I just wish they would have left it alone. The rest of the area was great. Devil’s tower isn’t that far away and again way smaller than what the movies make it out to be but still crazy how those volcanic pillars just rise out of the ground and make the tower.
Image credits: theColonelsc2
#7
Aruba. A nice little sunny Island that is ruined, and I do mean ruined, by the ridiculous amount of people trying to hawk you a timeshare.
When we checked into our hotel, the receptionist invited us to a timeshare presentation.
Once we got to our bedroom our phone rang again it was an invitation to a time share presentation.
We went into town, there’s people on street corners stopping you and trying to sell you a timeshare.
Got back to our hotel room at about 9 p.m, oh look someone at the door trying to sell us a timeshare.
Going to a local restaurant for lunch, and the waiter pitches us a timeshare
The thing I found really nasty and quite intimidating to be honest was that a lot of the people on street corners would try and force you into a waiting vehicle so you could be whisked off somewhere to spend several hours having a time share presentation directed at you.
Oh yes and when we returned home a week or two later we got an information pack in the post from the hotel trying to sell us a timeshare.
It’s a lovely place, but we found the constant pitching of timeshares completely ruined our experience.
Image credits: TheSameButBetter
#8
Monaco is way too expensive for what it offers Tourists (heavily priced drinks and empty streets), feels more like a theme park than an actual country/city in the French Riviera.
Image credits: Plane-Trip1323
#9
Kissing the Blarney Stone is wildly overhyped. not only do you wait in long lines and dangle awkwardly over a castle ledge, but you also press your lips to a filthy, bacteria covered slab that’s been kissed by thousands of strangers every day.
Image credits: RareGur3157
#10
Dubai.
Some of it wasn’t bad but that was further away from the city. In the city people could be so horrible to workers and animals, the outskirts were depressing and dirty, and it just felt unglamorous/touristy. I’ve been more than once and it seems to get worse each time.
Image credits: IMarriedAGoose
#11
Zanzibar. It’s beautiful, but horrendous and bitterly disappointing. The whole island has been ravaged by conglomerates making all inclusive resorts and utterly destroying the fabric of the society by making everyone so painfully dependent on tourism and catering to this imagined idea of what Zanzibar is.
Image credits: elbowpatchhistorian
#12
Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are Vegas for evangelicals, but the Smokies are gorgeous and worth a visit. You’re better off staying in or near Townsend if you just want to visit the national park.
Image credits: SylVegas
#13
Oktoberfest. More specifically Munich 🍻
Now I’m not saying you won’t have a good time, it’s just if you want to go to a place like your state fairgrounds if you will, dressed in 200€ dirndls with a million other Americans singing Sweet Caroline with 30€ chicken or schnitzel getting s*******d with 15€ beers under a large tent with an oompa band ,and spending 20€ and an hour long wait to ride the Ferris wheel, go right ahead!!
However…
You’ll get a more authentic experience going to a small town Volksfest where ( it’s less crowded) you can meet local Germans, and spend half as much for a chicken, beer, and all the Ein Prosit 🎶 Sweet Caroline , “ Country Roads” and that Robbie Williams song “Angels” they all love to sing when they’re drunk. At half the price and less crowded. And way more fun.
Image credits: Critical-Wolverine29
#14
Wave Rock, Western Australia
Basically the promo photo is it lol. A cool rock that is like 7 hours drive from the nearest city, in a tiny town with nothing much.
Image credits: sp1ffm1ff
#15
Bali, Indonesia. Absolutely garbage-riddled beaches, scammers and louts at every corner trying to rip you off, endless traffic, and exorbitant prices compared to the rest of Indonesia.
Image credits: CopingAdult
#16
Sanya, China. “China’s Hawaii” yeah ok. The city itself is dirty even by developing country standards. But it’s also very expensive, even much moreso than Shanghai or Beijing (kinda like Hawaii?). Most beaches are not very clean either. The ones at the resorts are nice and clean, but you aren’t allowed to swim at those beaches. Mostly just for pictures I guess. Not only would it be cheaper to go to any southeast Asian country, but the beaches would be much better as well, saying this as someone living in China.
Image credits: lolfamy
#17
Bora Bora. It was very pretty and the water was amazing but going out on the island and seeing how the locals live is very depressing considering the amount of money the resorts bring in.
Image credits: Medium-Ordinary-622
#18
Istanbul. I’d always wanted to go and see the historical buildings and take in the culture.
History has been completed erased from a large number of buildings, including the Hagia Sophia which was incredibly disappointing.
People were at best dismissive and mostly really f*****g rude – which is at odds to all the Turks I know in England who are mega friendly.
Image credits: Quack_Candle
#19
Egypt. Sharm, to be exact.
Ymirs-Bones:
I went to Sharm for scuba diving. Underwater it’s one of the best places in the world. Everything is so colorful and vibrant. One of my best diving experiences if not the best.
But Sharm itself is a tourist trap in the middle of a desert. Everything has that cheap “we want to scam you” air about it
If I ever go back I will leave the hotel only for diving.
Image credits: ThrowawayYAYAY2002
#20
Phu Quoc, Vietnam.
This is part of my heritage and a family hometown; it has been – what feels like – completely commodified for tourism’s sake. Not what I remember from even 20 years ago – I get bringing in business is a thing, but the way folks have gone about it have just made it completely gaudy beach resorts…and not exactly worth what they’re charging.
Image credits: re3dbks
#21
The Alamo. You know how you always picture it in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sand, well it’s not it’s one block downtown San Antonio surrounded by high-rise buildings. But the Riverwalk in San Antonio is amazing.
Image credits: False_Ad_555
#22
Many of the places listed here were awesome 20 years ago. Mass tourism, esp cruise ships, ruined them.
My unpopular answer- Yellowstone. We went in September, and it was still a mass of people. Which I could deal with, except they exhibited the WORST behavior…chasing wildlife, driving erratically, standing on the edge of the boiling water pits (can’t remember what they’re called). I found myself hoping some of these people would fall in.
Image credits: traveler45246
#23
Marrakesh, Morocco
We stayed in the medina and that was probably our first mistake. As soon as we opened the door of our riad, we were constantly ambushed by people aggressively trying to sell you things or scam you. People would follow you around for ages trying to sell you things you didn’t want and they weren’t shy about grabbing you and trying to pull you in whatever direction.
Add to that the people that would “give you directions” but expecting you to pay them for their “help” that you never asked for.
We were there as four girls and I guess we kinda expected the men to be inappropriate and touchy, we really weren’t prepared for how grabby and pushy they were. The son of the riad owner had to start coming out with us every single time we wanted to leave because it was getting bad and this one guy tried to fight his way into the riad to get to my friend.
To be fair, when the police were around and saw things they would chase the men away regardless of what they were doing. But of course they can’t be everywhere all the time.
Add to that the locals would call us the n word a fair bit and we all ended up with food poisoning despite being super careful and all of us having African and Asian backgrounds.
Probably wouldn’t return.
Image credits: NoLove_NoHope
#24
Goa, India.
The streets are covered in cow dung, taxis massively overcharge and they’ve got deals with the local hotels and restaurants so they’re basically your only option unless you rent a scooter. Locals weren’t very welcoming either, market vendors were super aggressive and kept following me around for 10 to 15 minutes even after I kept saying no. The scams don’t stop with taxis either. At one point a guy trailed me trying to “clean” my ears with sharp metal tools. Even though we stayed at a 5 star hotel and only ate there, I still ended up horribly sick and lost 15 pounds in three days. When the doctors and nurses finally showed up, they came barefoot in flip flops and didn’t even wear gloves.
Image credits: josephjogonzalezjg
#25
Tulum, Mexico. The water is clear but covered in seaweed, as are the beaches. The restaurants are expensive and most are reservation only. Influencers, everywhere! It used to be special but it’s been ruined by the LA crowd.
Image credits: Actual-Comedian-4679
#26
Key West, no doubt.
Ugly, crowded, d**g-and-crime-filled city on an island.
Worse than that, inescapable third-rate acoustic-guitar-playing-Jimmy-Buffet-wannabes in every crappy bar serving the crappiest drinks that were ever crapped out anywhere ever.
Image credits: CunningRunt
#27
Gatlinburg. Beautiful mountains, but entirely too crowded, horrible parking, the shops are mostly old, outdated and boring. Even taking a drive through the park usually sucks because you constantly are tailgated by people in a rush for whatever reason, or you end up behind a pack of geezers on Harleys that scare off any wildlife from the engine noise. Won’t be back.
Image credits: 1forthebirds
#28
Beale Street in Memphis is a lot smaller than it looked online lol. Didn’t realize it was like two blocks.
#29
The French Quarter of New Orleans.
The city itself is interesting and very pretty in places, but the FQ itself is very tatty and Disneyfied. Worth a visit, but only once.
#30
Forks, Washington, and I say this with total respect since I was born and raised in Washington. However, people going there expecting to see vampires and werewolves will be bitterly disappointed. It’s just a very small isolated town in a very cold and wet location whose economy is tied to a dying forest products industry with the remaining population eeking out a living from a short-lived teen horror movie series.
#31
I know I’m going to be an outliner in this but I will say it. New Zealand. Don’t get me wrong the country is stunning and the nature is beautiful. But it’s expensive (which explains why so many Kiwis are moving to Australia), and the amount of racism I’ve experienced/witnessed there is something I never experienced before in my life. I’m not the only Black person who mentioned this but usually when someone does bring it up they’re met with hostility and accused of lying. I made a video about my experience on tik tok a year ago and to this day I still get occasional DMs from angry Kiwis saying all kinds of racist things to me. It is a beautiful country with one of the most breathtaking nature and I did run into kind souls there but I would never step foot in that country again.
#32
The Statue of Liberty, New York.
It looks iconic and impressive in print, in films, in everything.
In person – it was a smallish metal statue on a great big plinth. “Well that was nice. What’s next?”.
#33
Not what people traditionally think as a destination, but that’s part of the shame as it really IS the destination.
Cruise ships.
They real you in with bait & switch prices and a promise to visit so many ports of call. But the price is listed as per person per day, and lacking in all the nickel and diming they will do. The time in port is so ridiculously short that you can’t REALLY enjoy the location before it’s time to race back to the ship so they don’t leave you.
If you’re not going on a cruise with the idea that the boat itself is the destination, your making a mistake.
I could go on & on, including the horrific labor practices & such, but that’s enough. My wife has dragged me on two now, I’m not a big fan.
#34
This is gonna be a hot take, but is very time specific. The Swiss Alps (editing to specify Lauterbrunnen Valley and the surrounding towns), specifically in July and August. Absolutely mobbed with people. You will not be alone in nature at any time. Constantly being shoved and packed into cable cars like sardines. It feels like some of the most beautiful scenery in the world has been turned into a Disney World type tourist attraction. I can’t imagine how difficult summer must be for the locals.
We would love to return in the fall and try again, but it was a difficult experience in July.
#35
Angus Steakhouse in London is nowhere near as good as the locals would have you believe.
#36
The Arashiyama Bamboo Forest outside of Kyoto. Tiny. Crowded. Overrated.
#37
Mackinac Island. Very touristy and overcrowded when I went, though I imagine it’s not always like that. Also insanely expensive.
#38
Arashiyama, Japan – the landscape was stunningly beautiful but it was horribly overcrowded. We knew it was going to be touristy, so went really early, and even then it was a fight for our lives.
#39
Broadway, Nashville. Incredibly tacky and touristy. AWFUL music in almost every bar. Bouncers trying to convince to come into their boring bar instead of others. No good food. It’s like the French quarter with bad cover bands no culture.
#40
The Taj Mahal. The whole area is rundown. The river next to it is disgusting. After our visit we made sure to have dinner at a restaurant with a great view so that we could see the Taj at night – until we realized they don’t even illuminate it.
#41
Honolulu, Hawaii. The people were rude and pushy. I tripped and fell on pavement and everyone just ignored me. The only places people were nice were tourist sites–because the other tourists were nice.
We were on a tour bus and the bus driver explained the difference between being a Native and an Islander. Then we got to listen to him complain about being an Islander.
#42
Santorini-it looks lovely from afar but it is crowded and too expensive. The wait to go down the cable car is often over an hour. The steps are covered in donkey dung and smell like that. Just take a photo from the ship.
#43
Niagara Falls. It’s a beautiful natural wonder ruined by hotels and casinos. The US side is nicer but they turned a beautiful waterfall into a theme park, complete with light shows. It’s the example of what they need to not do to the grand canyon.
#44
Banff, Lake Moraine. Almost impossible to get to without paying a small fortune for a shuttle, over crowded is an understatement. We went just because that’s the photo you see every time you google Banff National Park. Skip it and pick a lesser popular lake. Banff has tons of beautiful lakes.
#45
Pueblo, Colorado. I was excited to spend the weekend there with my husband as he had business. The city website showed a lovely area with tons of art and a nice zoo. I quickly learned why the locals call this armpit of Colorado Pube-lo.
#46
Roswell New Mexico. Whole place reeked of garbage (they dont allow lids on their dumpsters). Outside of that, there was really only tacky alien themed gift shops and museums.
#47
Jerome, AZ near Sedona.
Marketed as a quirky town. Literally just a tourist trap. Not much to see. Not much to do. The mine is the biggest disappointment, cant even go underground. They get so many people to make the drive for no reason.
#48
Mackinaw City Michigan, out of the 30 hotels in the city, around 28 are owned by the same family. They’re all s****y hotels, it’s a tourist trap.
#49
Lake Havasu. I was expecting a fun day on and/or near the water. I didn’t expect the extreme racism found in the local stores, like minstrel dolls on display type of racism. .
#50
Times Square. Online it looks like the heartbeat of New York… in reality it’s just overpriced food, shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, and people trying to sell you knockoff selfies with Elmo.
#51
Tunisia, Mahdia. We came here with our two young boys. On route to the hotel on our coach it was close to midnight and had the window seat. Men stood on the roadside, swearing at us through the window and rude gestures the entire 3 hour journey. That was not our best start. Scared me.
Inside the hotel we were treated with respect and couldn’t have wished for a better hotel. As soon as we left the hotel to enter the aquapark everything changed. The aquapark is attached to the hotel but also open to the public.
We were regularly shoved out of the way when queuing for rides, pointed at and we could make out the words “tourists”.
Whilst in the wave pool a grown woman pushed herself up against my son multiple times whilst looking towards her group. My partner moved him out of her way and she made advances towards him again and this time grabbed his face. Really strange and concerning behaviour. So we got out.
My partner took his son on the slides, whilst I took my boy in the lazy river. Teenage boys started touching me and stroking my inner thighs. At first I thought, it’s crowded maybe this was done by mistake, but then I clocked they were communicating with each other and dropping back behind me and my son and they’d touch me again. Then I stood up and explained to my son, we’re getting out. When I tried to get out, the boy was in front of me, grabbed me and began fondling my breasts. I screamed. The lifeguards slapped him and they contacted the police.
However, this experience was enough to put us off going back to the aquapark.
Outside the hotel there was litter everywhere. It smelt quite bad too. We decided to stay at our beach and hotel.
#52
Marrakech for me.. it honestly looked like a place worth visiting, but it was just a horrible experience all around for us. Now YMMV and i’m sure some people have a great time, and truth be told, there were some nice moments. However;
The online description is: “The Marrakech Medina is *a vibrant and fascinating maze full of colors, scents, and history*.”. Well, i don’t know. I found it fairly bland in colors, incredibly dirty, it stinked and people were catcalling and scamming constantly.
That said, it wasn’t all bad! The YSL house was nice, and visiting Comptoir Darna was a pretty cool experience. Best part of the trip however was the flight ride home.
#53
Belize. Away from the Cayes it is a very impoverished country. Tons of pushy vendors trying to sell their products at any attraction. Felt sketchy the whole time, never truly relaxed. At the Cayes it feels like a Mexican resort with no personality. Go for the scuba, and keep to the Cayes.
#54
The Blue Lagoon in Iceland. It’s a completely man-made tourist trap, and the water was anything but pure. Off in a corner of the lagoon I reached down to grab what I expected to be a handful of pristine sand and instead pulled up a mushy putrid handful of accumulated human hair. Another person in our party had the skin around their eyes suddenly become highly inflamed, and apparently it was a common-enough occurrence that the staff had some first-aid remedy on hand to reduce the inflammation. Never again.
#55
Phuket in Thailand feels like Disneyland and is basically Little Russia at this point, didn’t feel like any authentic culture left as it’s been bought out and overrun by tourists. Rest of Thailand rocks tho.
#56
Rio. Mostly for crime and trash. Been there a few times, only robbed once, walking from Copacabana to Ipanema. But my friend got robbed on a bus by a guy working with the driver & fare taker. Another got robbed by a gang at Christ the Redeemer and they took his money and shoes when they found out he didn’t have a phone.
But also, if you’re not at Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra, or Leblon, there is trash on the beaches or polluted water. Also, if you go in the middle of their Summer, that humidity is a BEAST.
#57
Guam. My now wife and I travelled there from Japan about 10 years ago. I wouldn’t have ever said it looked amazing, but I am not a beach going person (we did beaches of course, but they were underwhelming). It was fine, but the overall feeling was American suburbia plopped down on a tropical island. We should have just gone to Okinawa.
Nicest, most organized, US immigration officials I have ever encountered though.
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