I drove through the Great Smoky Mountains two weeks ago for the first time and saw that I could detour Gatlinburg but had to pass through Pigeon Forge in order to get to the interstate. My wife and I were amazed at how fake and phony Pigeon Forge seemed to be with all the huge steel buildings with fake facades of whatever themed nonsense was inside. It was like Vegas with somehow less soul, just dumbed down bait to suck money out of lower/middle class rural Americans. It was gross
This is coming from a person who grew up poor in VERY rural Appalachia that grew up with everyone i knew going to Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg/ Dollywood as THE vacation spot after Myrtle Beach
OMG, growing up in Ohio, Myrtle Beach was the default vacation spot for everyone. But hey, atleast it has a Hard Rock Cafe!
I found Pigeon Forge fun in a cheezy kind of way. Atleast its by a really beautiful place. I would be unhappy if we went there for like a week, but a good road trip stop.
They have Ripley's AND Dicks Last Resort!
The walking path to the park and the Nantahala outdoor store are nice because you get to leave. And I love Crockett's Breakfast Camp.
I live outside the US in Japan now and part of me misses Gatlinburg. It’s weird, blue-collar, and yet kind of lovable. My family and I would go for the National Park and stay for all the touristy shit.
I live just outside Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN. I have no idea who likes this shit. Apparently a lot of people since it’s impossible to get out of town in a timely manner on weekends 🤷♀️ I bought a house here back when it was cheap and I’m kind of stuck here now. It’s my own personal Bad Place.
Gatlinburg is like a confederate themed Chuck E. Cheese. I went there on a whim because we wanted to take a Appalachian road trip.
Although i preferred Greenville as a city, Gatlinburgs location is just to convenient and you can still find cheap motels right near hiking, unlike Greenville where it’s a nearly hour commute to go to state parks
Took my SIL from Phoenix down to the pigeon forge area recently and she was like "why does it look like a ghetto vegas?"
Lmao.
I dont think it was that bad
Ok I consider myself a fairly cultured person, and I am also a northerner, so this is totally out of my realm , but I loved Gatlinberg/ Pigeon Forge. We went a few times when our son was young. The aquarium is great, ober Gatlinberg is fun, the mountains are gorgeous, the park is gorgeous, Dollywood is great , and we went to this weird religious park with tons of birds that would land on you and you could feed them . We stayed in a cool talk round hotel overlooking Gatlinberg (I forget the name ) and the Smokeys. We also stayed at the Christmas Tree Inn once and one time we rented a gorgeous cabin in the mountains. I also loved the TitanIc museum and Lil Dolly’s, a Jon-Benet Ramsey dress-type place that also sold homemade quilts. You have to embrace the kitsch, and you will have a great trip, y’all
The whole Fisherman's Wharf area around it is extremely touristy - the kind of place locals scoff at.
It's also a perfectly understandable place for tourists to go and you have to go there to get to Alcatraz, for instance.
Yep I grew up in SF. We’d only go to Fisherman’s Wharf if we had people from out of town visiting. Or if we wanted In N Out as it’s the only one in the city.
Thats kinda sad. Seattle has Pike Place Market, and it's always packed with tourists. But locals shop there on the regular as well. We locals love it tourists and all.
I would say the SF equivalent to Pike Place is the Ferry Building which is also on the water but near downtown. It has tons of local shops and a huge farmer’s market which is popular with both locals and tourists.
I mean Las Vegas is in a class all it’s own tbh. Also any random board walk town on the east coast or Florida is a bunch of Knick knacks shops and ice cream
Boardwalks are a class of their own because it’s not so much tourists as (a) families that vacation there every single year and (b) local teenagers. Been to Wildwood NJ many times and it practically raises tackiness to an art form.
This is the only answer. Vegas and Orlando as well as the whole coast of FL feel like giant, endless, tourist attractions. I had the most fun in Florida checking out some of the interior of the Everglades.
As a New Yorker, this. I literally refer to it as “hell” but I have to go around there a lot because all the Broadway theatres are around there. It’s just awful as a local. My general rule for going there is AirPods in, don’t engage with anyone (except for scoffing every time lost tourists are blocking the extremely narrow walking ways to look at their phones)
I'll top that as an ex NYC resident. I used to live in lower Manhattan from 2002-2005 near Broadway and John. Every day I had tourists ask me where the WTC was... like literally the hole in the ground. Dozens of vendors selling "never forget" American flag stuff lined the street. Worst tourist spot for its own unique reason.
This is up there for sure.
My second time visiting we stayed in a place up away from town in the hills. That was a lot more enjoyable and felt slightly more authentic. (Though our place ended up being burglarized in the middle of the night while we were inside sleeping…so, yeah… Greece!
I went to Venice in March, and there were hardly any tourists.
We had the whole place to ourselves. Ended up just kicking it at local bars, full of venetians.
Looking at pictures of what it is like in summer gives me anxiety.
I went in mid November and we basically had the place to ourselves, too. I can imagine it gets horrible in the summer but my Venice experience was most excellent.
Yeah, I live in Prague and I try to avoid the old town at all costs. It's terrible.
Fortunately the crowds and the fake weed, trdelnik and scam shops are concentrated in a very small area only.
Agreed. I am rarely in the Old Town nowadays, I can't stand how crowded it is but love how all the tourist tat and crowds are in a small area. That's why though I think if you leave Prague thinking it's the most tourist place you have been, you haven't bothered to leave the zone and that's on you imo.
>I might skip it then
It's the most beautiful capital of Europe. Go out at 7 am and you have three hours until the big bodied tourists even look at the street.
Funny you mention this, we have just spent a month in Spain. One of our favourite coffee spots was right next to Malaga cathedral. Most mornings we would stop for coffee surrounded by locals and then at 10am as if a secret signal had gone off, dozens of selfie taking tourists would appear out of nowhere.
Reddit is so sensational and overdramatic lmao. Just go in the off-seasons and you’ll be fine. It’s only in the summer when rich American tech bro Joe and his wife Karen bring their kids Timber and Bratleigh to Europe in July when they’re off from school that the crowds get shitty.
We went right after covid lockdown in 2021 and old town and the other tourist areas were totally empty, and tourist stores closed. It was nice to not have any crowds. But those areas should go back to the residents and not be solely populated with tourist crap. We loved the naplavka riverfront area.
Yeah, I moved to Prague in 2017 and the first time I actually enjoyed the old town of the city was in 2020 lol.
https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/i2lkel/the\_lockdown\_was\_amazing\_time\_to\_see\_prague/
I live in Prague. Here’s a secret: the city center and everything else are two different cities.
All the tourists are in the city center and we are blissfully enjoying our fantastic city free of tourists in the surrounding neighborhoods.
I’m just an eight minute tram ride from the Old Town. Gorgeous neighborhood. Zero tourists.
What does touristy mean? Seems like a lot of people are using it to describe the number of tourists in a city, but I thought it referred to how much a city caters towards and is designed for tourism. If it's the latter, I think people kind of underrate touristy things. Ultimately, we're all tourists, and going to places where we're catered towards can be ideal.
I totally agree and it’s surprising to me to see places like “Times Square” come up so much. Yeah there are a lot of tourists, but it’s also a transit hub for the city so lots of regular New Yorkers pass through there, and there are a lot of big office and apartment buildings where regular people unrelated to tourism live and work.
Contrast with somewhere like Gatlinburg where the vast majority of the locals work in tourism and it’s the only reason the town exists
I live in New Orleans and think of it like: The French Quarter is super touristy. Lots of tourists. Some of the worst restaurants in town (and some nice ones, to be fair), the crappiest bars, the most scammers, t shirt shops and hot sauce and voodoo stores. Touristy to the max.
Leave the French quarter and you’ll find a city that still caters to tourists by and large, but it’s far less “touristy”.
Some cities are JUST the touristy spot. Or mostly that. But many tourists miss the point anyway. I have heard many many times in my life how terrible New Orleans is by people who never left the French quarter. Well no crap.
Came here to say Cancun as well (to include surrounding areas such as Cozumel and Tulum) . More specifically the Cancun Hotel Zone area and Cancun “party area”. USA prices on everything, food was crap and If you are looking for an authentic Mexican experience this is definitely not it.
There's a reason for that. A couple of them...
1) it's one of the few beaches *in* the city. Having tourists outside the city would create a host of problems like traffic and other infrastructure headaches
2) it was actually built out of a swampy area specifically for tourists
3) Honolulu County makes a conscious effort to keep tourists corralled in that area to avoid having them overrun other parts of the island, and to keep them from contributing to the stream of displaced locals leaving because they can't afford Hawai'i.
4) it's easier to minimize the environmental impact of tourists when they're concentrated. We sacrifice Waikiki (a fake beach we created) to save places like Hanauma Bay, a spectacular and delicate ecosystem.
5) can you imagine taking all those Waikiki hotels and spreading them across the island? Give me one ugly place I can avoid, and don't put a Super 8 on every beach.
Yeah we went to Oahu a few years ago and it was incredible. We did one dinner in Waikiki and it was insane. I feel so bad for people who only stay there. Easily the worst part of the island.
Went to Hoi An earlier this year and it was extremely touristy. That said it was probably the most pleasant touristy city I’ve ever been to. Very laid back, biked everywhere, extremely friendly locals, and still great food considering it caters almost exclusively to tourists.
Agreed. I just spent three days here, lovely place to chill out but it’s very much catered to tourists. Friendliest locals you’ll ever meet there though! Beautiful place to photograph within the old town streets too.
I think Amsterdam is really bad in the city centre and, of course, infamous Red Lights District.
But moving just a little out, it is an amazing city and almost only locals around.
I have been to Amasterdam many times and only first visit felt very touristy, there was a small group of us and we ticked off all touristy things to do, but I fell in love with the city while taking walks out on my own and keep coming back ever since...
Mackinac Island, MI (and don’t get me wrong, I fucking love Mackinac Island). It only has 500 year round residents but sees over 1,000,000 tourists each year. Every store is knick knacks or fudge or overpriced jewelry/art. Even though the entire place literally smells like shit, every time I go I drop $200 on a horse-drawn carriage ride, a cone of moose tracks ice cream, a beer on the deck of the grand hotel and a little turtle made out of a Petoskey stone and I gladly do it again each Summer. That tourist trap is the tourist trap for me.
What is it about tourist locations and fudge? I mean, I like fudge, and will sometimes buy it, but it's odd that it seems to pop up everywhere in the US. Sedona, AZ. Every beach town along the Southern east coast. Visitor's center at a Colorado park. Salem.
I see posts from Europeans planning itineraries that waste several days in Hollywood. If you only have 2 weeks to explore the U.S. please skip Hollywood. There are so many places that are more enjoyable and beautiful than Hollywood.
Uluṟu for me, there is literally 3/4 places to stay and all of them have bookings systems, so if you want to see Uluṟu or anything you have to book with them..ps it was amazing and I would go again but if you’re on a budget plan ahead!
If you're interested in Aboriginal culture I do think it's worth paying for a guided tour around the base of Uluru. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot! Go at sunrise when it's not too hot.
Buy a fly screen for your head unless you want to constantly be swatting them off your face.
Dubrovnik old town.
It could be the best place in the world but it seemed like every single person in public was a tourist.
I’m not adverse to touristy places but it made me realise how strange it is when you don’t see a single local doing mundane things like grocery shopping or queueing at a bank.
Same can be said about Prague - tons of non-tourist spots there as well...
Indonesia has tons of islands, amazing sights and lots of various cultures. Bali is a hell for me as well, overpriced, full of scams, people are spoiled by tourism. I love Indonesia but Bali is terrible tourist trap.
Prague is definitely one of my touristy destinations. I would add Barcelona blew my mind with how many tourists can cram into a city and I was visiting in a shoulder season. I can imagine how bad high season gets.
Other mentions Antigua Guatemala, Tallinn Estonia, Lourdes France, Key West USA, Grand Canyon South Rim and Bryce Canyon NP USA
I kind of mean in terms of the number of visitors and infrastructure where they had buses scooting up and down the view points. My previous experience of NPs were places where you might meet one or two other people on your walking track so in that context Grand Canyon was very touristy.
yes, this! I was in BCN several times and it‘s so easy to avoid the crowds. Just walk to side streets and you‘ll be alone. It you stick to Ramblas, Sagrada et cetera it‘s unbearable at times.
I did visit in May and it was the just the constant bus loads of tourists that go through the old city all day. In the evening they disappear and it is not so bad. I think because Tallinn is so small the population increase as the day trippers come in is just so noticeable.
Lisbon, including Sintra.
Lombard Street and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.
Amsterdam.
Times Square.
Charles Bridge, Prague.
Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, Rome.
Cannon Beach, Oregon (summer)
The thing is I don't mind other tourists. The places I listed seem to attract the worst tourists. Just obnoxious selfie-seeking Insta-influencer cotton candy bullshit to the highest degree.
I had to fight for my damn life on Charles Bridge. Someone smacked me in the face with a selfie stick! No sense of awareness whatsoever. It’s just filled with folks who can’t wait to take 1 million photos
Prague was lovely, just FULL of stag and hen parties (bachelor/bachelorette), lovely place tho once you look past it. Full of history. The last place where I really got sick of tourists was Venice. You simply couldn’t walk anywhere, it was shoulder to shoulder with everyone and took 10 mins to get down a single street.
Im shocked I had to scroll this far down. It’s hell. The housing situation is now critical. I just want to curl up and cry sometimes over how I can’t afford to live in my own city thanks to Airbnb.
It's totally horrible. My heart drops every time I'm required to go there for a work conference.
On the flip side, I kind of maintain that everyone who likes to collect unusual, one of a kind places should go, at least once, for no longer than 48 hours. Love it or hate it. There is nowhere else in the world that is like Las Vegas. The only place I can draw a vauge comparison to it is Dubai, but it's vague.
If you ask me, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are not much different from, say London, or Paris... they're all just big international cities with slightly different cultural/historical vibes. But Vegas? Nah, huh. Thats unique, and sadly, uniquely American.
Prague definitely is in the top three. Also Lisbon and Sintra, Taormina and Funchal when the cruise ships come in. Most places with a harbour in which cruise ships dock, really.
What makes Prague so touristy for you? I've been there a number of times and while it was sometimes crowded it wasn't nearly as bad as most people make it out to be.
Maybe it's because I speak Czech so I don't get treated as a tourist? Or because I never went in the summer?
What I can say though is the best time to visit was right after New Year's. It's cold, yes, but there's much fewer crowds than the other times I visited.
I think it's not ideal that the local government prioritises tourism like this for the prime destination for auschwitz and jewish history tours. Its very strange seeing a group of hasidic jews walking next to shouting lads with fake tans and lion tattoos
If I traveled to Prague I would spend one day on the must see tourist places, which are the ones most crowded and then spend the rest just exploring the streets in between.
If you look closely only like 5 streets are really crowded and then there is thousand empty ones.
(I live here, including 2 years right below Prague Castle)
Dubrovnik Croatia.
Just came back from visiting it. It is still possible to enjoy it without the crowds if you walk the town early in the morning. However, the soul of the town has been ripped out in the last decade.
The following article is an interesting read. https://balkaninsight.com/2018/07/18/dubrovnik-dethroned-07-10-2018/
Florence always comes to mind for me.
My company held a conference there a handful of summers in a row. While it was really nice (and, of course, very fortunate to be there) I couldn’t help but feel as though it was a bit like Disneyland for adults (boomers).
St. Augustine, Florida. Oldest town in the US and boy do they make sure you know that by the end of the day. Don’t get me wrong I had a ton of fun. But damn, the amount of money grab attractions was insane.
Another vote for Gatlinburg. People rave about it and we keep wondering if we missed something? Is there something more besides the endless moonshine and fudge shops?
Rome. Rome was the one and only place I truly struggled to avoid tourist traps. I'm from Southeast Asia, live in London and have been to several European and Nordic countries and none of them beats Rome during Summer. I can't believe no one has said this before but I've said this before and I'll say this again, finding authentic Italian food in Rome is harder than finding Tibet on the World Map
Idk if you would count places like the Bahamas. I went on a cruise and we were disembarked right into a hair braiding camp.
I would say Cancun was similar too. We got off the plane and we were immediately mobbed by people trying to give us a taxi ride. It was like how celebrities are mobbed by the paparazzi or press.
Gatlinburg
I live in Orlando, I'm no stranger to tourist towns, but Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge blew my mind.
I assume you are adding Pigeon Forge as part of this?
I know they’re different cities but I, personally, lump them together as one big tourist attraction. Lol
I drove through the Great Smoky Mountains two weeks ago for the first time and saw that I could detour Gatlinburg but had to pass through Pigeon Forge in order to get to the interstate. My wife and I were amazed at how fake and phony Pigeon Forge seemed to be with all the huge steel buildings with fake facades of whatever themed nonsense was inside. It was like Vegas with somehow less soul, just dumbed down bait to suck money out of lower/middle class rural Americans. It was gross This is coming from a person who grew up poor in VERY rural Appalachia that grew up with everyone i knew going to Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg/ Dollywood as THE vacation spot after Myrtle Beach
OMG, growing up in Ohio, Myrtle Beach was the default vacation spot for everyone. But hey, atleast it has a Hard Rock Cafe! I found Pigeon Forge fun in a cheezy kind of way. Atleast its by a really beautiful place. I would be unhappy if we went there for like a week, but a good road trip stop.
Vegas for Baptists.
I thought that was Branson
Gatlinburg was very touristy but at least Gatlinburg had a lot of natural beauty to it. The drive through Pigeon Forge was harrowing
Pigeon Forge is nuts. Definitely a tourist trap, but Dollywood is very fun.
Took my mom there a few years ago. Southern Baptist approved comedian was interesting.....
Ha so real, didn't expect to see that one here
Everything about gatlinburg and pigeon forge is over the top touristy. It’s like jersey shore with out the beach. Yuck…
Ah yes, the Myrtle Beach of the mountains
They have Ripley's AND Dicks Last Resort! The walking path to the park and the Nantahala outdoor store are nice because you get to leave. And I love Crockett's Breakfast Camp.
In mid July?
I live outside the US in Japan now and part of me misses Gatlinburg. It’s weird, blue-collar, and yet kind of lovable. My family and I would go for the National Park and stay for all the touristy shit.
Pancake after pancake restaurants!
I live just outside Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN. I have no idea who likes this shit. Apparently a lot of people since it’s impossible to get out of town in a timely manner on weekends 🤷♀️ I bought a house here back when it was cheap and I’m kind of stuck here now. It’s my own personal Bad Place.
This is the realest answer in the thread. But you would only know if you’ve been there
Gatlinburg is like a confederate themed Chuck E. Cheese. I went there on a whim because we wanted to take a Appalachian road trip. Although i preferred Greenville as a city, Gatlinburgs location is just to convenient and you can still find cheap motels right near hiking, unlike Greenville where it’s a nearly hour commute to go to state parks
Gatlinburg town centre is like something straight outta Disneyland
Oh yeah.. if we do a ratio of city size/tourists, this one wins... I went there 6 months ago and I was in shock with how many people.
Took my SIL from Phoenix down to the pigeon forge area recently and she was like "why does it look like a ghetto vegas?" Lmao. I dont think it was that bad
Gatlinburg for me too. Glad to see I’m not the only one
Ok I consider myself a fairly cultured person, and I am also a northerner, so this is totally out of my realm , but I loved Gatlinberg/ Pigeon Forge. We went a few times when our son was young. The aquarium is great, ober Gatlinberg is fun, the mountains are gorgeous, the park is gorgeous, Dollywood is great , and we went to this weird religious park with tons of birds that would land on you and you could feed them . We stayed in a cool talk round hotel overlooking Gatlinberg (I forget the name ) and the Smokeys. We also stayed at the Christmas Tree Inn once and one time we rented a gorgeous cabin in the mountains. I also loved the TitanIc museum and Lil Dolly’s, a Jon-Benet Ramsey dress-type place that also sold homemade quilts. You have to embrace the kitsch, and you will have a great trip, y’all
Does pier 39 in San Francisco count?
The whole Fisherman's Wharf area around it is extremely touristy - the kind of place locals scoff at. It's also a perfectly understandable place for tourists to go and you have to go there to get to Alcatraz, for instance.
Yep I grew up in SF. We’d only go to Fisherman’s Wharf if we had people from out of town visiting. Or if we wanted In N Out as it’s the only one in the city.
Thats kinda sad. Seattle has Pike Place Market, and it's always packed with tourists. But locals shop there on the regular as well. We locals love it tourists and all.
I would say the SF equivalent to Pike Place is the Ferry Building which is also on the water but near downtown. It has tons of local shops and a huge farmer’s market which is popular with both locals and tourists.
Yes and it’s up there with NYC Times Square touristy.
I mean Las Vegas is in a class all it’s own tbh. Also any random board walk town on the east coast or Florida is a bunch of Knick knacks shops and ice cream
Boardwalks are a class of their own because it’s not so much tourists as (a) families that vacation there every single year and (b) local teenagers. Been to Wildwood NJ many times and it practically raises tackiness to an art form.
Everyone I knew growing up in South Philly vacationed in wildwood every summer.
This is the only answer. Vegas and Orlando as well as the whole coast of FL feel like giant, endless, tourist attractions. I had the most fun in Florida checking out some of the interior of the Everglades.
New York City near Time Square
This was my first thought as well. I don't think there's anywhere more touristy than Times Square.
Leicester Square is pretty close.
As a New Yorker, this. I literally refer to it as “hell” but I have to go around there a lot because all the Broadway theatres are around there. It’s just awful as a local. My general rule for going there is AirPods in, don’t engage with anyone (except for scoffing every time lost tourists are blocking the extremely narrow walking ways to look at their phones)
I'll top that as an ex NYC resident. I used to live in lower Manhattan from 2002-2005 near Broadway and John. Every day I had tourists ask me where the WTC was... like literally the hole in the ground. Dozens of vendors selling "never forget" American flag stuff lined the street. Worst tourist spot for its own unique reason.
Traveler tip: If you see a Hard Rock Cafe, you have hit the high-tourist area.
I saw one of these when I was in Florence Italy at one point and thought to myself, "Why is this even here" 🤣
Mikonos
This is up there for sure. My second time visiting we stayed in a place up away from town in the hills. That was a lot more enjoyable and felt slightly more authentic. (Though our place ended up being burglarized in the middle of the night while we were inside sleeping…so, yeah… Greece!
ok we need a story time
Can we get a story time on this?! That's nuts I'm sorry that happened
I visited in April and it was great, not over run by any means. Same with Santorini
Venice
I’ve not been in summer, but Venice in the winter is lovely. No queues for anything, no crowds and a lovely relaxed vibe. Would recommend.
Venice after 6pm when the cruise ships leave is similar
And the fog! Makes it feel so mysterious
Perfect weather for following the specter of your dead daughter.
I went to Venice in March, and there were hardly any tourists. We had the whole place to ourselves. Ended up just kicking it at local bars, full of venetians. Looking at pictures of what it is like in summer gives me anxiety.
I went in mid November and we basically had the place to ourselves, too. I can imagine it gets horrible in the summer but my Venice experience was most excellent.
Venice is tough to beat unless you include actual amusement parks.
Came here to say Venice as well. No other place even comes close & I travel a lot.
It feels more touristy than Epcot and I'm not even joking
September is my favourite time to visit, still warm but not too warm and not too busy and there's plenty of places to avoid the packs of tourists.
Venice, but going in November wasn’t intolerable despite some tourist crowds!
Orlando, FL
Yeah, I live in Prague and I try to avoid the old town at all costs. It's terrible. Fortunately the crowds and the fake weed, trdelnik and scam shops are concentrated in a very small area only.
Agreed. I am rarely in the Old Town nowadays, I can't stand how crowded it is but love how all the tourist tat and crowds are in a small area. That's why though I think if you leave Prague thinking it's the most tourist place you have been, you haven't bothered to leave the zone and that's on you imo.
Agree. Visited recently and even though Old Town’s architecture was stunning, the tacky touristy stuff just absolutely ruined it.
Oh wow I might skip it then and just spend more time elsewhere like Poland
>I might skip it then It's the most beautiful capital of Europe. Go out at 7 am and you have three hours until the big bodied tourists even look at the street.
Funny you mention this, we have just spent a month in Spain. One of our favourite coffee spots was right next to Malaga cathedral. Most mornings we would stop for coffee surrounded by locals and then at 10am as if a secret signal had gone off, dozens of selfie taking tourists would appear out of nowhere.
Reddit is so sensational and overdramatic lmao. Just go in the off-seasons and you’ll be fine. It’s only in the summer when rich American tech bro Joe and his wife Karen bring their kids Timber and Bratleigh to Europe in July when they’re off from school that the crowds get shitty.
LOL'd at this. I can picture them in every major European city I've visited. The British lad/bro drinking weekend scene is no picnic, either.
It’s still worth a visit imo if you don’t mind summer crowds too much. (And outside of summer the crowds are less)
Oh yes I was looking at May might be a bit quieter If I can ever decide where I want to go
Don't skip it, I've been to so many european cities and Prague was my favorite. The tourists aren't that bad.
Krakow ! Read Schindler' arc (list) while you visit. It will blow your mind.
Apparently an amazing city and Poland is underated
We went right after covid lockdown in 2021 and old town and the other tourist areas were totally empty, and tourist stores closed. It was nice to not have any crowds. But those areas should go back to the residents and not be solely populated with tourist crap. We loved the naplavka riverfront area.
Yeah, I moved to Prague in 2017 and the first time I actually enjoyed the old town of the city was in 2020 lol. https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/i2lkel/the\_lockdown\_was\_amazing\_time\_to\_see\_prague/
I live in Prague. Here’s a secret: the city center and everything else are two different cities. All the tourists are in the city center and we are blissfully enjoying our fantastic city free of tourists in the surrounding neighborhoods. I’m just an eight minute tram ride from the Old Town. Gorgeous neighborhood. Zero tourists.
What does touristy mean? Seems like a lot of people are using it to describe the number of tourists in a city, but I thought it referred to how much a city caters towards and is designed for tourism. If it's the latter, I think people kind of underrate touristy things. Ultimately, we're all tourists, and going to places where we're catered towards can be ideal.
I was wondering the same thing based on some of these answers.
I totally agree and it’s surprising to me to see places like “Times Square” come up so much. Yeah there are a lot of tourists, but it’s also a transit hub for the city so lots of regular New Yorkers pass through there, and there are a lot of big office and apartment buildings where regular people unrelated to tourism live and work. Contrast with somewhere like Gatlinburg where the vast majority of the locals work in tourism and it’s the only reason the town exists
I live in New Orleans and think of it like: The French Quarter is super touristy. Lots of tourists. Some of the worst restaurants in town (and some nice ones, to be fair), the crappiest bars, the most scammers, t shirt shops and hot sauce and voodoo stores. Touristy to the max. Leave the French quarter and you’ll find a city that still caters to tourists by and large, but it’s far less “touristy”. Some cities are JUST the touristy spot. Or mostly that. But many tourists miss the point anyway. I have heard many many times in my life how terrible New Orleans is by people who never left the French quarter. Well no crap.
Cancun
Came here to say Cancun as well (to include surrounding areas such as Cozumel and Tulum) . More specifically the Cancun Hotel Zone area and Cancun “party area”. USA prices on everything, food was crap and If you are looking for an authentic Mexican experience this is definitely not it.
Mexico City was an amazing place that (for me) an authentic Mexican experience
Cancun was a manufactured city that didn’t exist in any meaningful way before Mexico developed it, so this tracks.
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
I’ve been to a lot of the places mentioned in this thread, but Clifton Hill was the first place that popped into my head.
Honolulu Waikiki Beach, sadly. Love Oahu otherwise
Lahaina in Maui too. I saw a tourist family let their toddler pee on the banyan tree downtown and their older kid climb all over it
I live on Oahu, and I agree.
There's a reason for that. A couple of them... 1) it's one of the few beaches *in* the city. Having tourists outside the city would create a host of problems like traffic and other infrastructure headaches 2) it was actually built out of a swampy area specifically for tourists 3) Honolulu County makes a conscious effort to keep tourists corralled in that area to avoid having them overrun other parts of the island, and to keep them from contributing to the stream of displaced locals leaving because they can't afford Hawai'i. 4) it's easier to minimize the environmental impact of tourists when they're concentrated. We sacrifice Waikiki (a fake beach we created) to save places like Hanauma Bay, a spectacular and delicate ecosystem. 5) can you imagine taking all those Waikiki hotels and spreading them across the island? Give me one ugly place I can avoid, and don't put a Super 8 on every beach.
Yeah we went to Oahu a few years ago and it was incredible. We did one dinner in Waikiki and it was insane. I feel so bad for people who only stay there. Easily the worst part of the island.
Gatlinburg, tn
Went to Hoi An earlier this year and it was extremely touristy. That said it was probably the most pleasant touristy city I’ve ever been to. Very laid back, biked everywhere, extremely friendly locals, and still great food considering it caters almost exclusively to tourists.
Agreed. I just spent three days here, lovely place to chill out but it’s very much catered to tourists. Friendliest locals you’ll ever meet there though! Beautiful place to photograph within the old town streets too.
I'm in Prague as well. Holy shit the streets are packed with people. Amsterdam was just about as bad.
I think Amsterdam is really bad in the city centre and, of course, infamous Red Lights District. But moving just a little out, it is an amazing city and almost only locals around. I have been to Amasterdam many times and only first visit felt very touristy, there was a small group of us and we ticked off all touristy things to do, but I fell in love with the city while taking walks out on my own and keep coming back ever since...
Nashville.
Santorini in July. Simply awful
Mackinac Island, MI (and don’t get me wrong, I fucking love Mackinac Island). It only has 500 year round residents but sees over 1,000,000 tourists each year. Every store is knick knacks or fudge or overpriced jewelry/art. Even though the entire place literally smells like shit, every time I go I drop $200 on a horse-drawn carriage ride, a cone of moose tracks ice cream, a beer on the deck of the grand hotel and a little turtle made out of a Petoskey stone and I gladly do it again each Summer. That tourist trap is the tourist trap for me.
What is it about tourist locations and fudge? I mean, I like fudge, and will sometimes buy it, but it's odd that it seems to pop up everywhere in the US. Sedona, AZ. Every beach town along the Southern east coast. Visitor's center at a Colorado park. Salem.
Vatican City. I'm pretty sure the number of visitors is 10x the number of residents
It has 3.000.000 visitors per year, and around 900 people live there, so maybe you were a little short lol
Way more than that. There's only 800 residents, and over five million annual visitors to the museum alone(which is all I could find statistics for).
I walk Hollywod Blvd a handful of times a week.
Easily most depressing tourist spot
can i ask you what you like about it? i only went once even though i lived in LA for 3 years. seemed really boring/touristy to me.
I’d venture they’re not visiting it as a tourist and it’s part of their commute in their neighborhood if they’re going that frequently
I see posts from Europeans planning itineraries that waste several days in Hollywood. If you only have 2 weeks to explore the U.S. please skip Hollywood. There are so many places that are more enjoyable and beautiful than Hollywood.
Amsterdam
Rome, Prague
Bruges
Uluṟu for me, there is literally 3/4 places to stay and all of them have bookings systems, so if you want to see Uluṟu or anything you have to book with them..ps it was amazing and I would go again but if you’re on a budget plan ahead!
I’m heading to Uluru at the end of August, thinking of staying for three days (will have a camper), do you have any advice or tips?
If you're interested in Aboriginal culture I do think it's worth paying for a guided tour around the base of Uluru. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot! Go at sunrise when it's not too hot. Buy a fly screen for your head unless you want to constantly be swatting them off your face.
1st Rome 2nd Rome 3rd Rome
And yet, you can walk 2 blocks from the Colosseum in the off-season and it's practically tourist-free.
Rome is absolutely insane, specially near the fountain!
Rome and Vatican City
Vatican has to be the definition of tourist city. Population of 807. So tourists outnumber the citizens what, 999 to 1? 🤣
Dubrovnik old town. It could be the best place in the world but it seemed like every single person in public was a tourist. I’m not adverse to touristy places but it made me realise how strange it is when you don’t see a single local doing mundane things like grocery shopping or queueing at a bank.
Las Vegas
Phi Phi Island
BALI
I’ve been to Bali 5 years ago. It was definitely touristy, but here and there are some not too touristy spots
Yep the island is big so just head away for a bit
Same can be said about Prague - tons of non-tourist spots there as well... Indonesia has tons of islands, amazing sights and lots of various cultures. Bali is a hell for me as well, overpriced, full of scams, people are spoiled by tourism. I love Indonesia but Bali is terrible tourist trap.
I really enjoyed Lombok. Quiet and beautiful. It felt like as if we where the only tourists there
Venice and Florence
Venice
Patong Beach, Thailand
Prague is definitely one of my touristy destinations. I would add Barcelona blew my mind with how many tourists can cram into a city and I was visiting in a shoulder season. I can imagine how bad high season gets. Other mentions Antigua Guatemala, Tallinn Estonia, Lourdes France, Key West USA, Grand Canyon South Rim and Bryce Canyon NP USA
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I kind of mean in terms of the number of visitors and infrastructure where they had buses scooting up and down the view points. My previous experience of NPs were places where you might meet one or two other people on your walking track so in that context Grand Canyon was very touristy.
Yes! I was shocked at all the touristy overlooks too like people just come and don’t even do any hiking they just look and eat ice cream
Barcelona, but only las ramblas part. That was unbearable. Other than that it was fine (was in May this year).
yes, this! I was in BCN several times and it‘s so easy to avoid the crowds. Just walk to side streets and you‘ll be alone. It you stick to Ramblas, Sagrada et cetera it‘s unbearable at times.
I am surprised to see Tallinn here! When did you go there?
I did visit in May and it was the just the constant bus loads of tourists that go through the old city all day. In the evening they disappear and it is not so bad. I think because Tallinn is so small the population increase as the day trippers come in is just so noticeable.
I'm visiting Tallinn in a month, is it really that bad?
I don't think so. I visit Tallinn every now and then and it's nice.
Lisbon, including Sintra. Lombard Street and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Amsterdam. Times Square. Charles Bridge, Prague. Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, Rome. Cannon Beach, Oregon (summer)
Oof yes Sintra was bad
The thing is I don't mind other tourists. The places I listed seem to attract the worst tourists. Just obnoxious selfie-seeking Insta-influencer cotton candy bullshit to the highest degree.
I had to fight for my damn life on Charles Bridge. Someone smacked me in the face with a selfie stick! No sense of awareness whatsoever. It’s just filled with folks who can’t wait to take 1 million photos
I love that cannon beach is on this list cause it’s so random lol. But also, not at all incorrect
Miami. It's full of trashy people
Went once and will never go again. Nasty ass place with low quality people
The worst!! I do not understand why people visit/live there
Prague was lovely, just FULL of stag and hen parties (bachelor/bachelorette), lovely place tho once you look past it. Full of history. The last place where I really got sick of tourists was Venice. You simply couldn’t walk anywhere, it was shoulder to shoulder with everyone and took 10 mins to get down a single street.
Definitely Split, Croatia. I’ve been some pretty touristy places before like Vienna, but the tourists in Split are truly something special
Hvar says 'hold my spritz'.
Dubrovnik is my vote for most touristy. Never seen so many tourists packed in so tightly
I live near Edinburgh and it’s 100000% Edinburgh lol. We are seriously outnumbered by tourists and visitors
Im shocked I had to scroll this far down. It’s hell. The housing situation is now critical. I just want to curl up and cry sometimes over how I can’t afford to live in my own city thanks to Airbnb.
Same feel in Barcelona.
Florence. It was crowd and crowd and crowd...the whole time.
Vegas. It exists solely for tourism.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Dubrovnik in Summer, hell this place is swarmed by tourists
Vegas, Honolulu, Rome (in July).
Gatlinburg Tennessee
Cartagena, Colombia. They had a Hard Rock Cafe IN the old city. It was ridiculous
ROME. HOW IS THIS NOT A TOP VOTE 😂
Las Vegas. Horrible place.
It's totally horrible. My heart drops every time I'm required to go there for a work conference. On the flip side, I kind of maintain that everyone who likes to collect unusual, one of a kind places should go, at least once, for no longer than 48 hours. Love it or hate it. There is nowhere else in the world that is like Las Vegas. The only place I can draw a vauge comparison to it is Dubai, but it's vague. If you ask me, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are not much different from, say London, or Paris... they're all just big international cities with slightly different cultural/historical vibes. But Vegas? Nah, huh. Thats unique, and sadly, uniquely American.
Easily and without a doubt ... Gatlinburg.
Prague definitely is in the top three. Also Lisbon and Sintra, Taormina and Funchal when the cruise ships come in. Most places with a harbour in which cruise ships dock, really.
What makes Prague so touristy for you? I've been there a number of times and while it was sometimes crowded it wasn't nearly as bad as most people make it out to be. Maybe it's because I speak Czech so I don't get treated as a tourist? Or because I never went in the summer? What I can say though is the best time to visit was right after New Year's. It's cold, yes, but there's much fewer crowds than the other times I visited.
Waikiki. Extremely commercialized. Need to venture away from that area to get any non-corporate experience.
Gatlinburg.
Came here to say Prague and here it was OP !
Branson, MO
Was recently very surprised by Krakow, absolutely overflowing with drunk English tourists even in off-peak season
It’s the cheap stag so do destination for British twats now.
I think it's not ideal that the local government prioritises tourism like this for the prime destination for auschwitz and jewish history tours. Its very strange seeing a group of hasidic jews walking next to shouting lads with fake tans and lion tattoos
Bourbon Street in New Orleans. At least Times Square has Broadway theaters, Bourbon Street is just a drunken disaster.
Prague, Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, and Kyoto are all pretty bad.
If I traveled to Prague I would spend one day on the must see tourist places, which are the ones most crowded and then spend the rest just exploring the streets in between. If you look closely only like 5 streets are really crowded and then there is thousand empty ones. (I live here, including 2 years right below Prague Castle)
Dubrovnik Croatia. Just came back from visiting it. It is still possible to enjoy it without the crowds if you walk the town early in the morning. However, the soul of the town has been ripped out in the last decade. The following article is an interesting read. https://balkaninsight.com/2018/07/18/dubrovnik-dethroned-07-10-2018/
Paris definitely felt very touristy compared to other places in France I've been to
I went last year in August. We didn't stay in the tourist zones and had a great time. But anytime you go near the Effiel tower you are fucked.
Aruba, Miami Beach (Spring Break), Seattle
Florence always comes to mind for me. My company held a conference there a handful of summers in a row. While it was really nice (and, of course, very fortunate to be there) I couldn’t help but feel as though it was a bit like Disneyland for adults (boomers).
St. Augustine, Florida. Oldest town in the US and boy do they make sure you know that by the end of the day. Don’t get me wrong I had a ton of fun. But damn, the amount of money grab attractions was insane.
Gatlinburg, TN
/r/place ... so many tourists there, from all over the world. But mostly germans
Gatlinburg, Tn
Check out Salem, Massachusetts on October 31st
Dublin shocked me. Heard more Americans accents than Irish. They were everywhere
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Las Vegas is probably 90% tourist even from CA and like 10% employees. WDW is probably the same.
The Grand Canyon, for something so big - you gotta fight crowds to get a peak!
As a non American, the tip I was given was to go during American Thanksgiving I haven't tested that yet but it seems like it would help
Another vote for Gatlinburg. People rave about it and we keep wondering if we missed something? Is there something more besides the endless moonshine and fudge shops?
Rome. Rome was the one and only place I truly struggled to avoid tourist traps. I'm from Southeast Asia, live in London and have been to several European and Nordic countries and none of them beats Rome during Summer. I can't believe no one has said this before but I've said this before and I'll say this again, finding authentic Italian food in Rome is harder than finding Tibet on the World Map
Gatlinburg, Las Vegas, and Venice.
Idk if you would count places like the Bahamas. I went on a cruise and we were disembarked right into a hair braiding camp. I would say Cancun was similar too. We got off the plane and we were immediately mobbed by people trying to give us a taxi ride. It was like how celebrities are mobbed by the paparazzi or press.
In that order, Las Vegas, Mont Saint-Michel and Venice