Most Overrated Tourist Attractions
Attraction↕ | City↕ | Country↕ | Annual Visitors↕ | Main Complaint↕ | Better Alternative↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mona Lisa | Paris | France | 10 million | Tiny 30x21in painting behind glass, crowds blocking view, two-minute viewing limit | Rest of the Louvre, or Musee d'Orsay |
| Times Square | New York City | United States | 50 million | Crowds, costumed grifters, chain stores, sensory overload, no real character | The High Line, West Village, Lower East Side |
| Mount Rushmore | Keystone | United States | 2 million | Smaller than expected, viewed from distance only, long drive to nothing else | Crazy Horse Memorial, Badlands National Park |
| Stonehenge | Wiltshire | United Kingdom | 1.6 million | Can't get close, roped-off walking loop, busy A303 highway alongside | Avebury stone circle (larger, walk among stones, free) |
| The Little Mermaid | Copenhagen | Denmark | 1 million | Tiny statue, crowds, nothing nearby, awkward harbor location | Nyhavn, Tivoli Gardens, Christiania |
| Hollywood Walk of Fame | Los Angeles | United States | 10 million | Dirty sidewalks, aggressive costumed characters, seedy vibe, stars in bad shape | Griffith Observatory, Getty Center |
| Manneken Pis | Brussels | Belgium | 2 million | 60cm bronze peeing boy statue on a side street, crowded for a selfie | Grand Place, waffles, Magritte Museum |
| Plymouth Rock | Plymouth | United States | 1 million | Ordinary boulder in a pit behind railings, historical authenticity disputed | Mayflower II replica ship, Plimoth Patuxet museum |
| Spanish Steps | Rome | Italy | 4 million | Can't sit on them anymore (fine), just stairs, crowded, Keats association obscure | Gianicolo hill, Trastevere streets, Aventine keyhole |
| Leaning Tower of Pisa | Pisa | Italy | 5 million | One tower in a field, tourists taking identical push-selfies, nothing else in Pisa | Lucca (nearby walled town), Duomo interior rather than tower |
| Checkpoint Charlie | Berlin | Germany | 4 million | Replica hut, actors in costume charging for photos, commercial tourist trap | East Side Gallery, Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse |
| Four Corners Monument | Teec Nos Pos | United States | 250000 | Remote location, fee to touch a plaque, border of states surveyed inaccurately | Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly |
| Juliet's House (Balcony) | Verona | Italy | 1.6 million | Fictional character, balcony added in the 20th century, love-lock graffiti | Verona Arena, Piazza delle Erbe, Lake Garda |
| Piccadilly Circus | London | United Kingdom | 15 million | Small junction with digital billboards, not an actual circus, M&M world | Covent Garden, Soho, South Bank |
| Blarney Stone | Cork | Ireland | 300000 | Lie upside-down to kiss stone thousands of strangers kissed, questionable hygiene | Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry, Cork English Market |
| Bourbon Street | New Orleans | United States | 10 million | Sticky streets, tourist-trap daiquiri shops, chain-bar feel, trash and smell | Frenchmen Street (live jazz), Garden District, Marigny |
| The Pyramids of Giza | Giza | Egypt | 14 million | Aggressive touts, right next to Cairo suburbs and KFC, relentless hassling | Saqqara, Dahshur pyramids, Luxor temples |
| Loch Ness | Inverness | United Kingdom | 1 million | Just a lake, no monster, gift shops, long drive for disappointment | Isle of Skye, Glencoe, Cairngorms |
| Fisherman's Wharf | San Francisco | United States | 12 million | Tacky t-shirts, chain seafood, aggressive buskers, few actual fisherman anymore | Ferry Building, Mission District, Lands End trail |
| The Berlin Wall East Side Gallery (Crowded Section) | Berlin | Germany | 3 million | Graffitied over constantly, crowded, short stretch | Bernauer Strasse Memorial, Documentation Center, Stasi Museum |
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