I also nominate South of the Border. I've actually stayed there a couple of times as an overnight stopover while driving to Florida, and the rooms are pretty decent for a budget motel - they even have a covered carport next to each room, which was certainly useful the time we arrived in the midst of a torrential downpour (which was the reason we stopped there in the first place - we didn't want to keep driving in that weather!). The kids really liked the place - there's a nice indoor swimming pool, and an indoor miniature golf course ("The Golf of Mexico"!) in a faux jungle inside a greenhouse- something to entertain the kids after a long day cooped up in the car. <BR><BR>They are very big on awful puns there - for at least a hundred miles before you arrive, there are huge billboards every few miles advertising the place with such pithy sayings as "chile today, hot tamale!", and that sort of thing. The myriad shops there sell every possible tacky plastic novelty item known to humankind. You can go to the top of the tower with the giant sombrero on top for the "scenic view" - the view is of miles and miles of flat farmland growing tobacco plants. There are some carnival rides there, as well. The whole place is ablaze with neon at night. What really got me were the brochures in the room advertising their special honeymoon package - could anyone actually think that this is a good honeymoon destination? (I apologize if any of you did spend your honeymoon there, no offense intended!).

cheesiest place? try tillamook, oregon.

Well, RLeone?

Hello everyone,<BR>I am overwhelmed by your cheesy responses. The trip's in August and I'm still weighing options. I definitely am picking one of the locations from this thread and right now I'm thinking either Valley Forge/Dollywood or South of the Border. The cool thing about Dollywood is that one of the guys in the group went to Vanderbilt for college and we could hit some of his old stompin' grounds. <BR>Keep 'em comin because if the group thinks my destination is the cheesiest, I go down in the Limburger Hall of Fame and get my choice of any 5 star restaurant in December. You bet I'll be asking you all what restaurant they should take me to. Thanks for all your help.

By far the cheesiest vacation destination is the Amish country in Pennsylvania. Hershey park in Hershey PA is a distant second. Both of which can be done in the same trip!!!

You must visit the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ. It is in the middle of the desert. Tourist Shops and hotels catering to tourists. Just don't go on a holiday weekend, because it is so packed you can't move. Those desert people will flock to a puddle of water like ducks! You can even take a boat ride up the Colorado River to Laughlin, NV to gamble.

For total trashy cheese, try Newtown, PA or Bensalem, PA.<BR><BR>Low classorama to the max.<BR>Then when you get bored there, you can go to Atlantic City or the Pocanos, more cheese.

Interesting how people define "cheese."<BR><BR>Now, why in the world would someone nominate Bensalem, PA? Is that some tourist spot that anyone would think about visiting? Not.<BR><BR>And how 'bout the person who thinks all of Florida is cheesy (I don't live there) EXCEPT DisneyWorld, which is the epitome of cheese.<BR><BR>Anyway, Myrtle Beach, SC, is cheesy. A lot of bourgeois people pretending to have money by golfing (badly) on courses ringed by trailer parks. <BR><BR>Bensalem, PA?

I was on the way to voting for Hot Springs NP Arkansas, but I gotta agree with Missouri, start at Lake of the Ozarks, Bagnell Dam area, Osage Beach, then travel south, to Camdenton, home of the afore mentioned Ozarkland, a three story gift shop, where you actually buy a coon skin cap, complete with tail. Visit the Bridal Cave, where hundreds of people get married below ground in a cavern, yearly, how's that for cheese? Then you can go further south and stop at Springfield and see Bass Pro Shop, the largest sporting goods store in the US, oooohhh, now we're cooking with grease (that is a local expression in this area) then on to Branson, where every burned out entertainer from the past has a theatre of some sort and dare charge $30-60 for admission. Also the traffic is awful in the summer, it is fun to visit with the people towing the camper in front of you, while your stuck for a couple of hours at a time. My parents retired to this area 20 years ago, I'm still trying to figure out WHY.

Leone - I LOVE IT! If you would, please email me your past 'cheese' destinations, as I am a fellow cheesy vacation lover and am interesting in starting this tradition. <BR><BR>My votes...HANDS DOWN Niagara Falls (Canadian side) A positively ridiculious place that we OFTEN visited for a weekend away from college in Rochester, NY. Great nightlife for your age group and the Canadian exchange rate makes it very favorable! <BR><BR>2nd place... South of the Border, a great marketing scheme, it got me to stop and spend a few hours there (nice antique shops is it's only real worth)<BR><BR>3rd... Not yet mentioned, Lake George NY. Tons of leftover 70's and 80's motels, plenty of nightlife, and it's real draw - wonderful outdoors activities.

Several people have mentioned Niagara Falls, which certainly does have an intensely cheesy tourist area. However, one can avoid that part of town altogether, and merely enjoy and be awed by the amazing power and splendor of the Falls, and the beautiful park that runs along the river. It's a very worthwhile destination despite the tacky tourist stuff (and, fortunately, that's not right at the area of the Falls; you actually have to go looking for it).<BR><BR>Pigeon Forge (not Valley Forge!) and Gatlinburg are also full of tourist traps, but they also have the beautiful Smokey Mountains surrounding them. South of the Border, however, has no redeeming features other than it's very cheesiness, so I think that puts it in a different class altogether.

New Jersey hands down.

This post had me laughing out loud. How horrible that my business has led me to all this cheese! For BUSINESS, I have been to the Wisconsin Dells (a state that revels in cheese), Niagara Falls, Graceland, Lake of the Ozarks, Disneyworld, Atlantic City, Milwaukee Brewery tour, Hershey PA, Las Vegas. I think all these years, they probably were in cahoots with RLeone to find wacky places for me to have to go to. I had no idea I had accomplished such great cheesiness.<BR><BR>But many of the above places have some historical/natural value. This South of the Border sounds like something else! My vote goes to the South of the Border, and I haven't even ever been there. (But I will buy a plane ticket soon so I can say that I am a complete connoisseur of cheese).<BR><BR>Let us know where you end up picking...and take a group picture. Of course, don't forget to say (ahem) "Cheese!"

What about Fisherman's Wharf in SF? Or the Liberace Museum... Come on guys think cheezzzzziiiieeeee.....

South Carolina has the distinction of having the 2 cheesiest places- Take South of the Border, move it to the ocean, and you have Myrtle Beach- Yuk, what a cheesy dump!!

Hold on a minute with the Niagara Falls bashing. The falls are cool.It`s the Clifton Hill area that is major league tacky.

RLeone.... go to www.roadsideamerica.com<BR><BR>It's my Road Cheese Bible! You'll find info on hundreds of cheesy attractions!<BR><BR>For your trip, I would recommend the South Dakota/Black Hills Tour: Interstate 90 Westbound, stopping in Mitchell (Corn Palace), Murdo (Pioneer Auto Show), Wall (Wall Drug), and the Black Hills (many MANY cheesy attractions, but balanced by wonderful scenery and activities). I guarantee you will win!<BR><BR>The best vacations always include some cheesy attractions! I love finding tourist traps along the way, and I'm lucky I have a husband that does too! Going to these types of places brings back memories of my trips with my Grandmom and the places she would take me. Very fond memories!<BR><BR>Good luck with your trip planning!

You guys have all missed the cheesiest tourist trap of the them all, Whites City, New Mexico, the only town on the road to Carlsbad Caverns. It has it all, side show museam complete with two head snake, siamese twins, etc all the cheesy stuff of years past! Not to mention the world class resturant The Velvet Rope, which is so full of cheese you would have thought they are making Velvetta in there. It is a great destination, especially if combined with a long road trip seeing such things as Roswell, the Cadillac Ranch in Texas, The Little House on the Praire in Kansas, all the Missouri sites listed above, etc.

Paris, Texas. Complete with a replica Effiel Tower with a Cowboy hat on top!

Da Yoopers Tourist Trap in the UP of Michigan is cheesy but Halarious, It is a must stop if you like funny/stupid road trips. Plus there are alot of other stupid things there too.Like the first 2 seater outhouse, ect... You wont forget it!