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“Absolutely Horrible”: 29 Times People Wished They Could End Their Vacation Trip Early
Article created by: Gabija Palšytė
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.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
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.
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#2
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.
#3
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.
#4
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.
#5
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.
#6
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.
#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.
#8
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.
#9
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.
#10
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.
#11
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.
#12
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.
#13
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.
#14
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.
#15
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.
#16
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.
#17
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.
#18
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.
#19
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.
#20
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.
#21
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.
#22
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?".
#23
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.
#24
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.
#25
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.
#26
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.
#27
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.
#28
Beale Street in Memphis is a lot smaller than it looked online lol. Didn’t realize it was like two blocks.
#29
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.
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