What is a prominent tourist location you think is overrated?

[Kuumo]

Yosemite for national parks, and Paris for major cities. The former is overcrowded to the point where it feels like walking and driving through downtown San Francisco except on the longer and more strenuous trails, which is a real bummer when you're trying to get out in the wild away from other people. The latter is also overcrowded with tourists and has serious crime issues that are noticeably worse than in similar cities such as London and NYC where I did not have an electronic device pickpocketed or get pepper sprayed on the subway.

[Fight for Trump]

Dubai is the stand out obvious answer - soulless, ugly, and the faint taste of sick in your mouth when you think about what is going on behind the scenes.

Is Dubai even a tourist destination in and of itself? At least for Australians, it's just the place you have to stop in on the way to Europe

Yes, it's Singapore without the food.

[parochial boy]

⁶
Dubai is the stand out obvious answer - soulless, ugly, and the faint taste of sick in your mouth when you think about what is going on behind the scenes.

I would exile there some of my country's rightwingers, so poor King Juan Carlos is less alone.  Did you visit that modern Dystopia?

Twice - once on a family holiday as a kid, where I was just in awe at my first ever experience at luxury hotels and totally unaware of everything else. then a couple of years ago on a 24 hour stopover on the way home from Australia where I realised it what just a crappy wasteland with a handful of kitsch attractions designed to try and give it some sort of artificial appeal.

As you note, it's also hillariously full of appaling right-wingers and b-list celebrities who have decided that real "freedom" means getting their lifestyles subsidised by slave labour.

[dead0man]

Las Vegas

[Battista Minola 1616]

Portofino. It is basically a tinier, less interesting, version of the Cinque Terre and Portovenere marketed for Very Rich People (and with grotesque politics to boot).

[Torie]

I endorse the nominations of Vegas and Phuket.

[Sir Mohamed]

Singapore. Didn't impress me that much.

For obvious reasons I disagree about CA and Dubai.

[Nutmeg]

I endorse the nominations of Vegas and Phuket.

The best answer so far in calling out 2 awful places at once.

[Crumpets]

Venice - WAY too many people and basically a racket just to get around. There was some sort of strike the second day I was there, and just getting from the city to the mainland ended up costing 80 euros. although if you get up very early, you can see some of the sights at sunrise with only modest crowds.

Amsterdam - very difficult to get around unless you have a bike and know the geography of the city off the top of your head. I had fun when I was hanging out with a friend living in the Netherlands who could show me around, but when I was on my own, I really felt I just didn't have that much to do beyond getting food, avoiding getting hit while crossing the street, and trying in vain to find somewhere with people who weren't just other tourists, unless I wanted to pay a fortune and wait in an hour-long line to get into a museum.

National Museum of American History in DC - You will get exactly as much out of this place by doing a Google image search of "National Museum of American History exhibits" as you will in person. It feels like a museum designed 60 years ago with no sense of interactivity or ambiance. Stuff in cases with labels. But hey, at least it's free.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Venice - WAY too many people and basically a racket just to get around. There was some sort of strike the second day I was there, and just getting from the city to the mainland ended up costing 80 euros. although if you get up very early, you can see some of the sights at sunrise with only modest crowds.

Amsterdam - very difficult to get around unless you have a bike and know the geography of the city off the top of your head. I had fun when I was hanging out with a friend living in the Netherlands who could show me around, but when I was on my own, I really felt I just didn't have that much to do beyond getting food, avoiding getting hit while crossing the street, and trying in vain to find somewhere with people who weren't just other tourists, unless I wanted to pay a fortune and wait in an hour-long line to get into a museum.

Something tells me you don't like canals...

[TDAS04]

Florida.

[If my soul was made of stone]

As far as my home state is concerned, the Inner Harbor and Harbor East in the supposed heart of Baltimore are entirely corporate, sanitized, and lacking in local charm as can be found very close by in, say, Mount Vernon or Fells Point. Ocean City is a dump, but you knew that already.

I echo the points raised elsewhere in this thread about the objectionable nature of mass tourism as a whole, and it's something that I try to avoid in my travels.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Daytona Beach.

[Mr. Smith]

As far as my home state is concerned, the Inner Harbor and Harbor East in the supposed heart of Baltimore are entirely corporate, sanitized, and lacking in local charm as can be found very close by in, say, Mount Vernon or Fells Point. Ocean City is a dump, but you knew that already.

I echo the points raised elsewhere in this thread about the objectionable nature of mass tourism as a whole, and it's something that I try to avoid in my travels.

I dunno, Ocean City was quite nice when I was there 22 years ago. Felt like an Easterners Santa Cruz.

Also, I quite like the  Harbor Area...certainly more interesting than other sorts of cities [especially Fisherman's Wharf, SF...which would be useless if it didn't have good crab sandwiches and Ghiaradelli]

[DINGO Joe]

The "Mystery Hole" in West Virginia wasn't really that mysterious

[Pedocon Theory is not a theory]

Hollywood. F**k Hollywood.

If you ever ask anyone in LA to take you around Hollywood, know that they're cursing you with every breath. Everyone wants to go there, and for what? To get fleeced by people in costumes pawning off their trashy CDs?

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

Hollywood. F**k Hollywood.

If you ever ask anyone in LA to take you around Hollywood, know that they're cursing you with every breath. Everyone wants to go there, and for what? To get fleeced by people in costumes pawning off their trashy CDs?

Dammit, was just about to say this.

Go to the Grauman's Chinese Theater for a half-hour, but even that may be too overcrowded to actually enjoy. Besides that, it's nothing but the usual Ripley's/Guinness tacky museums & overpriced shopping plazas with the aforementioned hucksters & costumed characters abound. I had more fun at the Museum of Failure pop-up on the corner. Oh, and be sure to find a parking lot with a cheap 1-hour window.

For a more "Hollywood" entertainment experience, take em to Universal Studios, either the NBC or WB tour & a half-day at Amoeba Records.

Times Square is also like that, but it's neat to walk through on your way to Broadway.

Venice Beach is similarly grimy. Another place that hucksters have taken over. And Santa Monica Pier is getting too crowded for its own good.

[Pedocon Theory is not a theory]

Hollywood. F**k Hollywood.

If you ever ask anyone in LA to take you around Hollywood, know that they're cursing you with every breath. Everyone wants to go there, and for what? To get fleeced by people in costumes pawning off their trashy CDs?

Dammit, was just about to say this.

Go to the Grauman's Chinese Theater for a half-hour, but even that may be too overcrowded to actually enjoy. Besides that, it's nothing but the usual Ripley's/Guinness tacky museums & overpriced shopping plazas with the aforementioned hucksters & costumed characters abound. I had more fun at the Museum of Failure pop-up on the corner. Oh, and be sure to find a parking lot with a cheap 1-hour window.

For a more "Hollywood" entertainment experience, take em to Universal Studios, either the NBC or WB tour & a half-day at Amoeba Records.

Times Square is also like that, but it's neat to walk through on your way to Broadway.

Venice Beach is similarly grimy. Another place that hucksters have taken over. And Santa Monica Pier is getting too crowded for its own good.

God, all the tourists at Santa Monica who don't understand how to NOT WALK ACROSS THE BIKE PATH. It's like they all have a death wish. Venice used to be more fun back before Prop 64 shut down the sources of the famous pervasive aroma of weed. Though C&O is still a good reason to go there.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

Hollywood. F**k Hollywood.

If you ever ask anyone in LA to take you around Hollywood, know that they're cursing you with every breath. Everyone wants to go there, and for what? To get fleeced by people in costumes pawning off their trashy CDs?

Dammit, was just about to say this.

Go to the Grauman's Chinese Theater for a half-hour, but even that may be too overcrowded to actually enjoy. Besides that, it's nothing but the usual Ripley's/Guinness tacky museums & overpriced shopping plazas with the aforementioned hucksters & costumed characters abound. I had more fun at the Museum of Failure pop-up on the corner. Oh, and be sure to find a parking lot with a cheap 1-hour window.

For a more "Hollywood" entertainment experience, take em to Universal Studios, either the NBC or WB tour & a half-day at Amoeba Records.

Times Square is also like that, but it's neat to walk through on your way to Broadway.

Venice Beach is similarly grimy. Another place that hucksters have taken over. And Santa Monica Pier is getting too crowded for its own good.

God, all the tourists at Santa Monica who don't understand how to NOT WALK ACROSS THE BIKE PATH. It's like they all have a death wish. Venice used to be more fun back before Prop 64 shut down the sources of the famous pervasive aroma of weed. Though C&O is still a good reason to go there.

I remember back like 2012-ish, there was a building in Venice where you could get a rec, buy & smoke it all in like 10 minutes. Also had a hash bar for a quick hit. I think they got raided a year or so later, but I'll never forget the fun I had there in the pre-64 times.