Stonehenge – how can something so ancient and mysterious be a drive by???? Explain.

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I admit to being completely underwhelmed by the Giant’s Causeway, in County Antrim. The fact that it was raining, the tide was in, and I hadn’t had breakfast may have contributed to my disappointment.

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I would agree with the White House and the Statue of Liberty. I was completely in awe of the Eiffel Tower (but my sister didn’t think much of it) and the Louvre (though I think many people do not realise how small the Mona Lisa is… I walked past it twice without seeing it the first time I was in the Louvre! Was wondering what the big crowd was staring at when I finally spotted it!). I would add Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid to the most disappointing list.

Cheers,
Keith

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Well … it depends from each point of view. Personally, I’ve seen the Pyramids and I can’t tell that I was very impressed.

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Boboli gardens in Florence. I love Florence – but the Boboli is now over grown, under maintained, over priced and dominated by packs of wild feral cats (not big ones, but domestics gone mad).

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It really depends on HOW you look at things and what your expectations are. If you are a really jaded type ANY place can disappoint and be picked apart. If you are really in an open-hearted enthusiastic frame of mine, one can find beauty in decay ( did you see the recent pictures of decay in Detroit that were spectacular?).

We met the school kids that follow us virtually in places like Harlem and South Bronx and found beauty there! ( Places few tourists see or care to see and yet we took the subways and mass transit with our young child into these places and schools).

We have been to 4 continents, 29 countries and over 76,000 miles ( mostly overland) on our open ended family world tour so far and we are actually often more pleased than not. I have seen all of those mentioned on your list and can’t say I have been disappointed by any of them.

Weather can impact too, on a glorious perfect, sunny day every place looks much better than on a cold, drizzly day or sweltering one.

Not to mention crowds that over run so many tourist icons today ( thanks much to cruises that bring small city sized hoards to tiny ancient cities like Mykonos, Ephesus, Capri and Dubrovnik.)

For instance, we got up early to enjoy Mykonos town, but when the hoards came suddenly at once ( at least 30,000 people at once into a small space via several cruise ships) it changed a charming town into an absolute zoo. We escaped with out lives to find a hidden beach far away from the crowds, but had I stayed there, I would have hated the place.

We LOVED Santorini in May & June, but hated it when we returned in late July because of the endless crowds.

We loved the Mona Lisa, because we went when no one was there and my daughter had lots of time to look at it very closely and draw and write about it. Something she will never forget, BECAUSE we skipped the crowds ( and we also already knew it was small as we parents had seen it before, so prepared her for that).

We did not like Carcassone, because of the crowds and we were there off season! Nevertheless, it was a spectacular sight to see upon arrival in the dark as a castle ahead all lit up out your vehicle window, is not a sight regularly seen by Americans.

We also did not care for Marrakesh because of the crowds and over tourism, yet we LOVED the Sahara, Fez medina and Ait Ben Haddou area of Morocco.

Capri was a disappointment in some ways as it is kind of shabby which was not what I expected, but the natural beauty is sweet.

Tim above didn’t care for Boboli gardens ,but they were a delight for us and perfect for a family as it allows a little one to run about which is an important thing in family travel.

So, of course, it is always in the eye of the beholder. Time, deep immersion and repeat visits in travel can make a difference too. I was actually a little disappointed in Spain when we first arrived as I had a set expectation on what it should be like based on pictures and things I had read.

Soon it won me over as I let go of expectations and accepted it for what it is. In fact, we have grown so fond of Spain now, we feel we could live here.I adore it now!

I did not care for Paris on my first visit in my twenties and also thought you never had sun in the UK because every time I visited it was dark, rainy, gray etc. But visiting Paris with people who lived there, knew it well and of course, spoke perfect French open my eyes to a whole new Paris that I loved from my second visit on. Seeing much of the UK during a very sunny Sept once gave me a whole different impression, than my first few visits to London and staying with friends there also impacted.

Disappointment in a place, often has more to do with the person, than the place.

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Venice & The Gondola Ride

The architecture is amazing, but the rest of Venice has succumb to the knowledge that tourists will visit regardless of quality. The whole place is overpriced, restaurants & cafes charge a fortune for absolute rubbish and the people were rude (maybe it’s because they are sick of tourists?) .

The Gondola ride was short and the price was also ridiculously high.

Of course, you have to go and do it, but they won’t be getting any repeat business and probably don’t expect to.

Funny how the most visited country in the world (France) has a couple of disappointments in the list.

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I agree its all in the expectations. I love the eiffel tower – lived up to its billing.
Spanish steps – i didnt have any expectations so i wasnt disappointed, but I can see why you might be.
Leaning Tower – I loved it even though is so touristy – again I can see some people would expect it to be bigger.
Times Sq – wouldnt bother with – Picadilly circus on steroids.

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Has to be the Roman experience in Chester. A foisty Victorian cellar with a few bits of old wall and scaffolding. We were expecting something along the lines of the Jorvik centre in York. Entrance fee was dayllight robbery.

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It has to do with expectations. I imagine people assumed that the Brandenburg gate is a lot bigger than it is. They also don’t envision the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa Disneyland like rides for which they have stand in line for hours.

I had no idea how spectacular the great cathedral of Cologne is. In fact, I had no idea it existed. I never cease to be amazed by it. Same deal with Venice. To the contrary, Paris has always been a disappointment. Always wonderful, but never quite up to the billing.

Media sensationalism is most responsible for this stuff. They make everything out to be a life-altering experience.

The other half of it, of course, is also people’s lack of imagination. If you can’t imagine all the things that have happened at the Brandenburg gate in the last 70 years, then there is something seriously wrong with either your education or your imagination. (My parents weren’t impressed, but old Iranians suffer from both maladies.)

All of this may very well explain Rick Steves’ remarkable success: no hype.

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Have to agree with Las Ramblas. Pretty dull, just another avenue in a big city. There’s great stuff just off the Ramblas though, and the market halfway down is great, especially as you can get tasters of £200/kg Iberico ham

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Dublin!

Found it to be a giant Irish theme park. Overpriced and grubby.

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I have another one: that HOLLYWOOD sign up on the hill. It’s a lot smaller than in the movies.

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I have to say that Sydney opera house and Statue of Liberty were so much smaller than I imagined

Niagara Falls was more spectacular (but Niagara town itself – appalling)
Pyramids wonderful but surrounding area appalling!
Vegas more spectacular that imagined!

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Think lumping the whole Louvre in there is a bit harsh, I thought it was pretty spectacular. The Mona Lisa itself though is massively disappointing though, yes. The painting opposite is far more impressive…

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Having seen both Statue’s of Liberty, I can say I was impressed, the only thing I have not seen on your list is the white house. What I found a disappointment was Versailles after queuing for 4 hours to see an empty place. Also mega cites, they just feel like a mega city (New York/London etc), until you go to a certain site I feel sometimes I could be in any of them.

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Wow, Soultravevellers3, that’s very much how I feel.
The list though is of material things. I very much enjoy meeting people from different cultures (even within the UK the different accents / dialects make visiting somewhere interesting).
I think Bill Bryson wrote in one of his books, that he loved travel to countries where he couldn’t understand the language or culture very well. He said it gave him the feeling of being eight years old again. I love that feeling of being awestruck / little boy lost.
Of course another point is that most people first view of these attractions is on TV. There they fill the screen and are shot against a sky without lots of visitors in the frame. I remember being very surprised by how small Arthur Scargill was when he visited my coal mine in 1981. I had only seen him filling a TV screen. It probably also explains why the Grand Canyon isn’t on the list. Although I have not seen it, I believe that is so huge that a camera lens could never capture and convey its size.

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I disagree with the White House and the Eiffel Tower as I enjoyed visiting each. Not sure what it is about the White House but I always enjoy making a stroll around it when in Washington. In France I was a bit disappointed with the Arc de Triomphe itself though enjoyed walking the Champs Elysees leading up to it. I was also underwhelmed by Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires but many of the other wonderful sites of BA made up for that.

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Bucks Palace.

Sorry London…

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I agree with Nathan above – Buckingham Palace disappointed me, sorry to say. It looked like a lesser government building one would see in D.C.

Las Ramblas was disappointing in that it could be amazing, but instead it’s cheap and tacky.

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Hmm… as someone who has seen nine out of the ten (only the Leaning Tower of Pisa unseen from the list), I have to say that it’s all really in the eye of the beholder. It’s an utterly bizarre list.

Take the Brandenberg Gate for example – it’s an iconic structure, but it is, after all, just a gate. The clue’s right there in the name. If you went expecting to see more than a gate, then of course you’ll find it disappointing. But, I find it incredible to imagine that anyone will have travelled to Berlin just to see it, and therefore it seems odd that it’s on the list. Similarly, Las Ramblas. Have any tourists gone to Barcelona just to see a street? Why would you do that and not visit the Sagrada Familia, or the other incredible Gaudi constructions, which are truly astonishing?

On the other hand, tourists by the million flock to Cairo to visit the Pyramids. That’s genuinely a driver for tourism – and therefore I think, if people have genuinely found them to be disappointing, that’s more of a cause for concern. Not just because there’s clearly a singular lack of appreciation for the monumental achievement of their construction – but also because it means that Egypt has failed to inspire visitors.

Obviously, the list is presented without any kind of context – we don’t know why people found these sights disappointing. We can guess – for the Pyramids, it’s probably the continual hassle from people selling trinkets and camel rides around them, for the Eiffel Tower, it’s probably the tremendous queues and discomfort of the lifts. But in all of the cases, these things failed to distract from the awesomeness of actual structure.

To me, this seems like the worst sort of silly season story. If we’re talking disappointment, make the trip out of the vibrant city centre of Copenhagen to see the Little Mermaid, then tell me that the Pyramids aren’t worth writing home about!

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I think the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen deserves a place on this list indeed. It is so small and disappointing.

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The Dead Sea in Ein Bokek, Israel.

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The USA . I mean, any country that can put Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly in a jar, in stripes, must have a serious problem. Venice – either a) Foggy or b) Smelly – always horribly overpriced and some of the most arrogant people I have ever come across.

On the plus side, the most impressive place I have ever been and a place everyone has to go at least once, is Jerusalem. (irrespective of your persuasion)

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Just about everything about Egypt disappointed me–and I don’t know that it was Egypt’s fault. Perhaps I’d built up unreal expectations after all those years of making Lego pyramids in elementary school, but the endless piles of rubble, hectoring camel-ride operators, insistent beggars and aggressive street merchants really took the sparkle off the place for me.

On the other hand, I think the best piece I ever wrote was about a chance encounter with a teenage Egyptian “tour guide” who wanted to introduce me to his family. I didn’t love Egypt, but it made a strong impression on me for all kinds of reasons that had nothing to do with straight-up tourist experiences.

I have to agree with Soutravelers3: travel disappointments say more about the mindset and expectations of the person who was disappointed than the disappointing thing itself.

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[...] recent article “The world’s most disappointing tourist spots and attractions” by my Twitter pal, TravelRants, provided some great insights and resulted in a lively discussion. [...]

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A few that aren’t disappointing (for me):

* Taj Mahal
* Angkor Wat (off season)
* Bagan, Burma
* Walking around Midtown Manhattan’s skyscrapers, even after 11 years in NYC
* San Francisco’s bay — lived there five years and never tired of seeing it
* London’s Thames — couldn’t get enough of the ugly snaky little thing that fostered an empire capital
* Great Wall of China
* Trans-Siberian Railway
* Tikal, Guatemala

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I have to say The leaning tower of Pisa and Pisa in general. I was not having big expectation, but still the reality was still worse. We call our agriturismo in the Chianti to check if we could arrive one day early to skip staying for the night in Pisa (the original plan). As for the others that I saw, I think it really depends on your expectation (Eiffel tower, White House, Times Square and the Louvre even if you restrict it just to the Mona Lisa).

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have been to your entire list apart from the pyramids and in general I agree, especially Pisa and the Statue of Liberty. Times Square too, I guess, since there are just tacky lights and nothing really to “do” except take a photo. Pisa is particularly annoying and I usually recommend on Italian itineraries that people actually stop in and spend time in the fabulous Basilica next to the tower.

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I second the Spanish Steps!

But I would have to add St. Mark’s in Venice (and Venice in general). I spent 4 days there a year ago, and while it was great at first, by the second day I was itching to get out of the spooky, Munchkin land that is Venice.

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I was surprised by the list. I struggle to see how people could be disappointed by sights such as the Pyramids – an extraordinary construction for its time and made more interesting by the history etc. Similarly with the Eiffel Tower, Mona Lisa/Louvre and the Miracle Square in Pisa (incl the Leaning Tower). I’m not sure what people are expecting at times. Some of it will have to do with the experience and crowds, bad weather, pesky hawkers etc can bring bad memories of what are good sights.

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Wow – great comments! I actually loved the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Disappointing Tourist Attractions for me:
Waikiki – too busy and not very Hawaii
Empire State Building – NYC
I agree with Stonehenge – wasn’t so exciting – glad I saw it though

Overall I try to find the best in every experience

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What I found to be the most diappointing, was the Sistine Chapel, although it was beautiful, it wasn’t nearly as serene as I thought it would be, not to mention the 1Km long line, I suppose I should have expected that, I don’t know if it would be any better in the off season, I do have to say the rest of Italy I loved.

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@Paul – a local Roman taught me a trick for enjoying the Sistine Chapel. The trick is to get to the Vatican museum early and ignore all other exhibits. Going straight to the chapel. Here is how it works. Queue up at around 7am for the vatican museum (it opens at 9). As soon as it opens head of the chapel. It is the last room on the tour so it will be wil be quite a hike and you will go past many tempting exhibits (ie the hall of maps and the Raphael rooms). Should take about 15 mins of fast paced walking. But when you get their you will get about 15 minutes of silence and near solitude before the first tour groups arrive. This will allow you to see the walls as well as the ceiling. To stand at one end and look at the whole of Judgement day uninterrupted. Sounds terrible to say that the only way to enjoy it is to queue up for two hours then sprint for 15 minutes. But in the end it will be worth it to have 15 minutes of clear and quiet view of that magical room.

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I’ve only been to a few of the places on the list and for the most part i found them all somewhat enjoyable. I try to find the best inevery experience. However, even though it’s not really a “major” sight, seeing the Plymouth Rock was a waste of my time.

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I once overheard some American tourists saying “Why did they build so many ruins?” (over here in Germany).

The enjoyment of a tourist attraction can only begin with the knowledge of its history. Many historical spots are just buildings that could nowadays be built with a bit of effort, so why all the fuzz about it?

In Rome, you can see two low, long hills running parallel to each other, which is not very impressive. If you have the historical knowledge and a bit of imagination, you can “see” the Circus Maximus before your inner Eye. Suddenly, you’re in the largest arena ever built (it held up to 350.000 people), and on the spot where you are now great victories were celebrated.

This just as an example.

Most tourists seem to expect to be entertained by superlatives that speak for themselves. This is wrong, and those folks can’t be helped. It’s just like that Gary Larson (?) Cartoon, where a tourist asks the Louvre guard: “Excuse me, where is the big Mona Lisa?”

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