“The most fascinating part of the whole vacation was realizing that many people live for this place.
The crowds…the prices…the lines.
Never again for us.”
When you travel to a new place, you probably leave home with high expectations.
After all, you never know you could be embarking upon your new favorite destination.
But chances are, you haven’t been head over heels for every locale you’ve visited.
Its also near a military base, so having the constant military planes overhead was just unnerving."
I remember coming up the escalator from Penn Station and immediately smelling pee.
I recall walking streets that were lined with huge piles of stinky trash bags.
It was so dirty everywhere, I was afraid to touch anything.
That was 20 years ago, and Im sure it’s even worse now."
“Cabo San Lucas.
There were beach chairs packed like sardines.
I love other parts of Mexico, but Cabo was generally an underwhelming experience.”
5.“Venice.
6.“DisneyWorld.
My whole family was so excited about this Florida vacation, and we could not wait to get there.
The most fascinating part of the whole vacation was realizing that many people live for this place.
The crowds…the prices…the lines.
Never again for us.”
“Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
Yes, its so beautiful, but theres really nothing to do beyond the beach.
And you have to stay at one of the super-expensive resorts to actually make a trip there worthwhile.
The other destinations in the Society Islands were more fun and still just as gorgeous.”
8.“Egypt.
I was so excited to go, but it was the worst place Ive ever traveled to.
It was absolutely exhausting.”
“Tulum, Mexico.
It has beautiful beaches but is otherwise completely devoid of character.
It’s expensive and boring (unless your only goal is to party with other tourists).”
10.“Sydney.
I found it to be a very boring city.
I hate that I wasted so much of my time in Australia there.
After that, I wasn’t sure how to spend my time.
The city has no personality.
As soon as I hopped on a train west, I saw incredible landscapes and met truly genuine folks.
you could do Sydney in a day or two.
I wish Id headed into the bush the minute my plane landed.”
11.“Bali.
12.“Amsterdam.
13.“Paris.
What a colossally overrated city.
And this is all coming from a San Francisco native!”
“Portland, Oregon.
The hotel itself was awesome, but outside those doors, the downtown area was awful.
It was too much.
“Santorini was pretty disappointing, in my opinion.
I feel like the photos I’ve seen online must have been photoshopped.
It was also so expensive.
The cheapest lunch option I found was a small wrap for 11 euros.
It really felt like a tourist trap.
Rhodes, on the other hand, was gorgeous and affordable.
This island was home to beautiful beaches and old medieval buildings.
“The Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
It was so crowded, especially considering how small it actually is.
In reality, though, it was beyond packed with tour groups.
Perhaps this is a good instance of how inaccurately social media can represent popular tourist destinations.”
“Atlantis in the Bahamas.
Anytime there was an issue with service, they would blame it on ‘island time.’
If one more person said the phrase ‘island time,’ I was going to lose it.
We had thousand-dollar excursions, private cabanas, and dinner reservations all cut short due to island time.
Paradise Island was beautiful, but we’re never going back to Atlantis.”
18.“Naples.
I did a big European trip after college and spent about a month in Italy.
Naples was EASILY the worst place we visited.
Seedy, run-down, trashy, unsafe, you name it.
Would never go back.”
“Barcelona was disappointing to me.
Spend a day on the beach and another day touring, and you’ve pretty much done it all.
That being said, going to La Sagrada Familia was incredible.
It made the rest of the boring trip totally worthwhile.”
20.“Nashville.
Traffic is a nightmare, and you cannot enjoy the downtown area because it is so loud.
Not to mention, there are people who are homeless passed out in the middle of the sidewalks.
“Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
It’s very artificial feeling, and the whole city has a crowded amusement park feel.
There’s nothing eye-catching.
It feels like a lesser clone of Singapore.”
“Las Vegas, for me.
The streets can be really dirty, and traffic is terrible.
It is really dry, and I personally can’t stand not being near a body of water.”
“The Big Island of Hawaii.
I recently went on a trip to the island.
So many people rave about the views and the hiking trails past beautiful waterfalls.
I was there for two weeks and spent roughly half of my time driving.
This country felt like a tourist trap.
There isn’t much opportunity to deviate from these packages, and it’s also very expensive.
I felt that it was hard to learn anything about the local or Indigenous culture.”
Note: Some entries have been edited for length and/or clarity.
