Most touristy place you've been to?
 

Question : What is/are the most touristy places you have been to. Most cities have some tourist areas and therefore one would expect tourist paraphenalia (spelling?) to be seen in those areas; but which are the MOST overall touristy cities/ places you've been to? Did you like them anyway? Why or why not?

Also, been anywhere you loved/liked and then went back a few years later and it had turned into tourist central?

Cairo, and the Great Pyramids...what a drag...could hardly walk for the people, and in the museum, trying to see the 'treasures' of the tombs, couldn't even get near the glass case.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia-It was horrible-never again.

Hi

Rome comes high on my list. When we went there in the summer of 2005 it was pretty crowded. The Trevi fountain area was always crowded (day and night) and we could hardly see the Spanish steps due to all the people that were sitting around. But it was still a wonderful city :d Here is a trip report with pictures and links: http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

LOVED angkor wat!!!!!! can't say enuf great things about it. was not crowded when i went and met many locals including a family who ran a restaurant on the site - the daughter of the restaurant took us to her school where we met the teacher and her class mates.

sorry i disagree but was my own experience.

I know this is the Europe forum but, WDW and the I-Drive section of Orlando is just about the maximum "cheese" for touristy.

Not certain what was overly touristy in Europe or Asia. If I had to pick a place, it would be Venice.

That's not to say "I didn't like or enjoy Venice", just seems that it has nothing to offer except tourism.

MvK

Oh yeah, Myrtle Beach and Daytona Beach rank right up there with WDW.

Again, I offer USA choices, but it's all I have. Sorry.

MvK

Niagara Falls and Wisconson Dells. thereyet

If it is a European destination that you're looking for, I would have to say Volendam in Holland. Very little entertainment, multiple tourist shops selling nothing but trash.

American city - Orlando, Florida.

African city - Rabat, Morocco

Neuschwanstein. I was totally underwhelmed. I had a good experience there (stayed at Hotel Mueller and got to see the castles at night with a dusting of snow) but the whole place felt like a Disneyland set. I am a huge fan of castles, but I like my castles ancient and authentic. I'd take Burg Hohenzollern or Burg Eltz over Neuschwanstein any day.

On the other hand, Carcassonne is extremely touristy but I absolutely love the place because it has a fascinating history and has been remarkably well-preserved.

This is the Europe board so I won't get started on tacky touristy places in America!

Gard, I agree with you completely about the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. Fortunately I've now seen them twice and can happily explore the rest of Rome without ever seeing them again! (Well, I might have to take my mom to throw that coin in the Trevi Fountain...)

Can anyone define, 'touristy'? Is 'Big Ben' touristy? What about,Oświęcim? And, what is the perceived problem about something or somewhere being 'touristy'.

"Carcassonne is extremely touristy but I absolutely love the place because it has a fascinating history and has been remarkably well-preserved."

I liked Carcassonne too, but it's not so much well-preserved as heavily restored by Viollet-le-Duc, the French architect (beginning in 1853). It was a ruin before then. Some at least of the restoration was totally wrong -- the pointy cone roofs in particular.

I would define "tourist-y" as a place that has reached such a saturation of unattractive cheapness aimed at tourists that it overwhelms and defeats the pleasure of touring that location.

That said, there are far too many shops in Assisi selling cheesy horrible stuff, but I still love, love, love the city because it IS still possible to ignore it and enjoy the beauty it has to offer. The day they put one within my favorite view over the countryside from the wall above the staircase by the Upper basilica, it will descend to "touristy". Heaven forbid!

St. Simons Island (Georgia, USA) has changed so much in the past 30 years I can't go anymore...it makes me cry to see ugly condos without a hint of style or taste on miles of beaches formerly graced only by seagrass-covered dunes. You used to be able to watch the sun rise and feel like it was the beginning of the world. Now the famous Marshes of Glynn look like any subdivision. >sigh<

UK: Brighton, but it is UK tourists so it is utterly fascinating for Americans to observe, particularly on a Bank Holiday weekend. Nothing like it in the US.

France: Rocamadour. Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. But you can ignore it, as Cupid1 can ignore the tatty in Assisi.

Spain: La Rambla in Barcelona. Skip this. The rest of the city is one of the best in the world.

US: Fisherman's Wharf in SF and Times Sq in NYC. It is hard to know if the new Times Square or the old Times Square is worse. Myrtle Beach and Bourbon Street in NO are pretty grim, too.

And yet all these places have wonderful attractions only a few minutes away!

Right question, what is "touristy"?

- I found Sarlat-la-Caneda extremely touristy. 95% of the people on the streets were tourists, lots of souvenir shops and restaurants. Historical buildings all restored for good postcard-like pictures. But I liked it, and I liked it, because it offered a good infrastructure for the tourist without spoiling it. Touristy, yes, but in a good way.

- As a contrast, Quedlinburg in Germany at the North Rim of the Hartz. Also a jewel of historical architecture, but kind of deserted. I stayed in a beautiful historical inn and made the nightwatchman's tour, but we were the only people on the streets. Hardly any bar or restaurant to go in. Maybe a little too less touristy.

- Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Also VERY touristy, in a mixed way. Good infrastructure, many museums, many things to do. But restaurants and hotels mediocre. Feuchtwangen has an excellent hotel and restaurant and is also a nice historical town, but has much less to offer. The historical district is smaller and just one small museum. Where shall I go? Probably to Rothenburg, because it has more to offer (or you stay in Feuchtwangen overnight and visit Rothenburg during the day).

- Barcelona is loved by the Americans on this forum. But the Ramblas, the former main street, has been converted into one big tourist trap. In the streetside buildings nothing but McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Subway and souvenir and T-Shirt shops. Obviously, the tourists like them. Long lines of English-speaking tourists in front of each Gaudi building. (Why do the Americans love Gaudi who is despised in Europe as a master of kitsch? Maybe because it's so Disney-like?) - But you also find other areas in Barcelona: the trendy Born neighborhood with hip restaurants and bars, the stunning naval museum (somehow bypassed by most tourists) or the city's most important museum of modern art, the Miro Museum (also neglected by American tourists who seem to prefer Picasso, maybe because he is more digestible).

- Or take Sevilla and Cordoba. Cordoba's cathedral is much more magnificent than Sevilla's cathedral, and Cordoba's jewish quarter more authentical than Sevilla's, but somehow most posters on this forum seem to prefer Sevilla - probably because it is more touristy (that is, you can easily find a T-shirt shop and a restaurant that serves the same kind of food and drinks that you consume at home, just with a little exotic touch).

Most tourists want touristy areas. This forum is full of tourists who complain about things that are different from home. A couple of days ago a poster complained heavily about a restaurant that served him fondue - after he had ordered fondue. But since he didn't know what fondue is he expected something different and got frustrated and angry. He also ordered a cocktail in a restaurant that usually does not serve cocktails (but wine and beer) and complained about the price. The whole thread made me laugh. I imagined a German ordering Rocky Mountain Oysters in the USA and afterwards complaining that he did not get seafood.

There are people complaining that Spanish restaurants do not open before 9 p.m. Of course, they prefer touristy eateries which serve dinner already by 7 p.m.

Is "touristy" always bad?

Sarlat-la-Caneda and Carcassonne are touristy in a good way. They are tastefully restored, have atmosphere, style and quality. Other places have been corrupted by tourism. Avoid the latter and look for the first - this forum helps you to select.

Las Vegas. NEVER again! EVER.

I also had the impression that Rome was quite touristy but I am certainly willing to put up with it.

I agree with the Assisi statement. I went there on my first European vacation and liked it but not loved it. Way too many people and plastic St Francis.

Now that I am a bit more travel savvy, I have learned to spend the night in destinations like that. Once the day trippers are gone the magic returns. Santillana del Mar and Ronda in Spain are clear examples.

Rothenburg by far.

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. You have to see it to believe it. We're talking "Merle Haggard Tractor Pull and Gospel Jamboree Museum."

Well, not really. But you get the idea.

As far as Europe is concerned, I found much of York to be quite touristy. Felt like I was in Fantasyland at Disneyworld on some streets. "Ye Olde Such and Such..."

Not counting Leicester Square because I live here...

The answer has to be Lourdes - miles of stalls selling the most astonishing religious tat - glow in the Dark Marys, bottles of "Holy Water" Jesus clocks etc etc. Quite the most awful place. It made me ashamed to be a Catholic - my co-religionists have the most awful taste.

Pisa

I agree that Las Vegas is the place where tourists from all counties are totally free to roam in their day packs (or fanny packs plz excuse expression) It's also the city in which they had the biggest concentration tourists eating junk food while "sight-seeing".



Gibraltar was also very toursity.

Over the years, we have run across many overly-touristed places, both domestic and overseas.

One recent eye-popper was in -- of all places -- Bran Castle in Transylvania, Romania, purportedly the home of Dracula, known locally as Vlad Tepes, the Impaler. Stalls and stalls of masks, false fangs, capes, skeletons, etc. ad nauseum.

Perhaps the all-time winner, however, turned out to be Land's End in Cornwall. Just awful! It even exceeded the excesses of Brighton, on the Channel coast. Tacky, bad taste, crowds -- yet somehow we got into the mood and remember it with a smile.

Warwick Castle in England: After paying the 30+ American dollars to get in I was very disappointed to see they had cheesy carnival type game booths. The kids running them were wearing tabards over their t-shirts and tennis shoes.

Rothenburg in Germany: This city could be so much better if they just limited the cars driving through the historic down-town section during the day.

By my personal definition of touristy these place are disappointments, but that probably has a lot to do with my interest in seeing things that are historically accurate and not all done up and blown out of proportion. I do not need kids in bad medieval costumes to get into the mood of a historic site. By the same token I hate when movie directors change history to make an historical movie more palatable to the masses.

On the other hand Las Vegas does not bother me. I think the whole point of Las Vegas is to be over the top. I could do with a lot less people in Vegas, but it takes these crowds to fund all of the insanely overdone Casinos.

I think the only place I will never want to see again is Branson MO.

I always have a great time in Vegas, and my trips to Europe and Asia are usually not to the touristy destinations, so I have no complaints (other than, maybe our quick visit to Pisa).

Las Vegas was created for tourists (to lose their money), therefore, I guess I wouldn't necesssarily include it in this list.

I'm more interested in real places that have given way to tourism in a bad way - that it can overshadow it's content and the experience. Zakopane, Poland in the Tatras really surprised me in their incredibly touristy main street and the 100's of booths with sheepskin, and tchotchas for tourists. This is a place for skiing, so maybe it was created for tourists in the first place. However, I've been to other mountain areas that tourists go to and have never, ever seen anything like what we saw in Zakopane.

Sticking to Europe, the Place du Tertre in Montmartre (Paris). I loathe it--tacky, crowded, dirty--and every time I'm dragged up to Montmartre, I swear I'll never go there again, but then another friend on his/her first visit to Paris asks me to take them there, so...

Yes, theme parks like Disney, SeaWorld, and Las Vegas (a theme park city), are OTT touristy, but that is their whole point for existence, so anyone who goes there and doesn't expect to see hordes of tourists isn't thinking straight.

agree about Vegas and Disney World - I don't think you can count them since they were purely designed to be tourist traps.

Niagara Falls is pretty bad, and Cancun is a nightmare. I can't think of any European destinations that really struck me as overly touristy in a bad way.

I have a co-worker who just got back from Acapulco...and she kept talking about how "great it was to be back in the States"...I realized quickly that when you go to a place so touristy that one can't feel safe leaving the resort -- THAT to me is the ultimate definition of over-touristed...but then I never was chicken to mix with the locals like my co-worker obviously is.

For me, I'd say the most touristy places I've been are:

Europe: Venice
South America: Rio de Janeiro
North America: WDW and Vegas

I still liked them, but I didn't consider them to be much in the way of pure examples of the country I was in.

Jules
Still looking forward to finding Asia, Africa and Australia's most touristed areas. :)

Jules
Jules

I have a co-worker who just got back from Acapulco...and she kept talking about how "great it was to be back in the States"...I realized quickly that when you go to a place so touristy that one can't feel safe leaving the resort -- THAT to me is the ultimate definition of over-touristed...but then I never was chicken to mix with the locals like my co-worker obviously is.

For me, I'd say the most touristy places I've been are:

Europe: Venice
South America: Rio de Janeiro
North America: WDW and Vegas

I still liked them, but I didn't consider them to be much in the way of pure examples of the country I was in.

Still looking forward to finding Asia, Africa and Australia's most touristed areas. :)

Jules

Time of year often plays a big part of "touristy".(AND time of day!)
We stopped by Rothenberg on mid morning, in April and there was hardly anyone out and about. I can think of several other "touristy" places with similar situations.
We are lucky to be able to travel in March/April and Oct/ Nov so quite often do not find crowds. Some people like the crowded places like Octoberfest in Germany, others avoid them.
If a place in Europe is considered "touristy" then it is often worth seeing. Others like to be off the beaten path. There are some interesting posts here .

Champs-Elysses(sp?) in Paris. Not sure what I was expecting, but the proliferation of fast food and clothing chains mixed in with the exhaust fumes was pretty underwhelming.

The U.S. equivalent of Brighton has to be Ocean City, NJ. Miles and miles of tacky shops selling tacky Chinese souvenirs to tacky visitors.

Ocean City, MD used to be pretty nice, but I haven't been there in a coon's age.

I'd say Rome. We were there in early February and even then it was unbelievably crowded. But there was lots to like and we're planning to go back next February--but this time we'll steer clear of the bigger sites and 'must sees'--

I'd have to agree with Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

Mykonos in August.

I had to laugh when I read Cimbrone's comments about York: "Ye olde such and such." I felt the same about that, though it's worth seeing York Minster and taking a walk around the city's medieval wall.

I'll never go to Rome again unless some handsome man sweeps me off my feet and wants to take me to all the finest restaurants there. Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps are loaded with tourists in summer.

Vegas: Yuck, yuck, yuck. I hate the fake frescoes in the Venician and "high rollers" trying to impress with their high stakes and fat cigars. The whole scene is a turn-off.

Blue Grotto - we were in and in a minute, I don't remember anything and wanted my money back

Yosemite Valley in July - there were hordes of people and I liked Acadia and Mt.Rainier much better

Pisa - I still liked it

Venice - loved it, all you need to do is walk away from the square and there are plenty of little street where you're alone

Another vote for Place du Tertre, Montmartre. And Carnaby Street.

Unlike most of you, though, I LIKE cheesy tourist tat. Cheap junk and cheap people define countries in a really interesting way. On Place du Tertre I acquired my collection of fantastic Michael Thomas postcards, you know the ones, from the 60s and 70s, with the large-eyed urchins in famous Paris scenes. They are by far the finest artifacts I returned home with.

Where's the Blue Grotto?

Orlando, Florida...Seems like everyoe, from everywhere goes there.

Also, who goes to Las Vegas to sight-see?? Years ago it was trying to market itself as a family vacation hot-spot. They've stopped doing that. Now it's about "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".