Tourist Traps to Avoid
May 1st, 2008 Posted in Destination reports, General, Travel industry 
You know the scene. You visit one of those “must see” places in every guidebook and travel article and…”Holy crap! Is this a rock festival or Trevi Fountain?This article, Tourist Traps to Avoid, hits some of the worst: the Great Pyramids of Giza, Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Picadilly Circus in London, and Times Square in New York. Bruce Northam, who has written a few stories for Perceptive Travel (including this desert survival article) sums it up with a nice quote. “Because when you find the real thing, it’s beautiful, genuine, unscripted and inexpensive. People get conned into thinking they need the package vacation, but that’s just limited imagination.”
I must disclose, however, that the link above sends you to ForbesTraveler.com, which gets my vote as the most annoying corporate travel website on the planet. It’s like the TV screens in the movie Idiocracy, bombarding you with ads from every direction. This is the best we can do with more bandwidth–irritate people to death to squeeze out more pennies per page view? Careful where you put that mouse boys and girls!
Add your vote for the worst tourist trap (or the most annoying ad bombardment vehicle) below.
[Flickr photo from roving gastronome Zora O'Neill, who shot this in Giza while researching a guidebook]
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5 Responses to “Tourist Traps to Avoid”
By Austin on May 2, 2008
My vote is for the space needle in Seattle. You pay $16 to go up, take a few pictures, look around, and go back down.
You can get a similar view from Kerry Park, for free.
By DML on May 6, 2008
I would not go to Egypt without visiting the pyramids….just like the article says re: the Taj Mahal. It would be like going to the Grand canyon and not looking over the edge.
Also like the article suggested…when I was in Egypt we went at an off time to see the pyramids (at the end of the day) and had the place practically to ourselves. Just avoid some of these places at peak times. I could give up seeing Fisherman’s Wharf and the Space Needle but something like the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj mahal in India or Petra in Jordan….If you are already there in the country or city, make the best of it, pick a less crowded time and go.
By tim on May 7, 2008
Good point. Timing is everything. Though unlike the truly great places worth visiting, some are true tourist traps. Yes, Fisherman’s Wharf for a start.
By Claudine on May 7, 2008
All I know is that I went searching for rocks shaped like a heart due to some tourist trap in North Carolina.
By Cherrye on May 8, 2008
I *heart* Paris, but going on top of the Eiffel Tower is disappointing. Sure, you have to see it, but spend your time “going up” on other sites, like La Samaritaine Department Store for example.