ncgrrl

Oh, yes, South of the Border lives on.

Maybe I shouldn't have put Cherokee on the list (shudder) because I went to the free parts. Just walking around town and cringing at all the stereotypes the Cherokees place upon themselves.

Tandoori Girl, I'm glad you liked the Coral Castle. My friend had seen it on "In Search Of" years prior and had wanted to visit. It was (over)presented on the show as super-spectacular. I didn't see the episode so I don't know how overblown it was. Also the location on a busy street didn't help getting in the mood of the place.

Madison

Graceland is a total ripoff. And to top it off Priscilla Presley, who by the way had been divorced from Elvis for 4 years before his death is all over the place. She is hawking her book about the 2 of them in which she bashed him, she is selling her perfume by the ticket counters, her wedding dress and pictures are there, there's a 2 foot by 3 foot head shot in which she's pouting her lips above a car that Elvis gave her. In other words Graceland is a tribute to Elvis and Priscilla who is so full of herself. Everyone was joking at what a farce it all was.

GoTravel

Madison, why the hostility towards Priscilla?

She was with Elvis for a very long time, the mother of his only child, and more importantly, was a very large part of the Elvis conglomerate.

She is the one that took a falling down dilapitated old building and turned it into the Elvis Shrine it is today.

She is also responsible for copyright infringement laws and for illegal use of the Elvis persona.

She is responsible for building the Elvis legacy and for keeping his image intact.

Syv

Ruby Falls, Chattanooga TN. Spent the majority of the "tour" in a "kindergarten line" along a narrow cave passageway with nothing spectacular to see enroute. Then the front of your line arrives at the falls which stops the line while you are backed up waiting for the first gawkers to finish. By the time the falls come into view for those not at the front of the line, the guide is "herding" everyone to start back on the trail out of the cave. After the whole walk in, you are given about 5 minutes tops to look at the falls. Too dark to even take a picture. I complained at the top & was given my money back!

4 Corners - We arrived after closing & just jumped the gate & walked up to take our picture on "the spot" and walked back out !!!

placeu2

LOL "Elvis image intact"

Which image is that? The fat, bloated, drugged, overindulgent 1970's Elvis or the 1960's chick cavorting, married (but ignored that) dude?

That being said, Elvis was a huge influence on music and society in his day IMHO but his image is nothing to be proud of.

Craig

The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah. I'm sure some lovers of southern cooking would disagree. However any restaurant that makes you wait in line outside for over an hour to get in and then charges up to $100 for two people deserves to be called a rip-off.

gracieb

How is 4 Corners a rip-off? Are they charging now? I enjoyed are pictures of us standing in 4 states at the same time...but then I treasure the pictures of the kids on Indian ponies I paid to have them sit on.

Love Meteor Crater too. Found it fascinating. Went back last year for the second visit 20 years after the first and enjoyed it twice.

Kudos to GoTravel. I too am glad that Graceland that has been retained in its 70's shaggy (tacky) "splendor" by Priscella.

Loved the High Tea at the Empress...and at the Plaza. Also enjoyed the very pricey lunch at Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower, while I'm sure others would complain.

Isn't this the best thing about travel - there's something for everyone!?!?!

snowrooster

Craig - That is good to hear. We spent a day in Savannah a few weeks ago. After Mrs Wilkes, trolley tour, Owens-Thomas house tour, river walk, and giant colorful sticky lolipops all over my kids; dh & I were ready to head back to Hilton Head. I was so sad we didn't have a chance to eat dinner at Lady&Sons as planned. Good to know we didn't miss too much (though I might still be tempted to check it out should we return)!

gracieb

Have to disagree strongly about Lady and Sons. But, we only had a (less than) 10 minute wait for lunch and our lunch for two was less than $30. The food WAS very, very, very good...and I've been eating good southern cookin' all my life!

Syv

To gracieb -- yep! They charge you to see the Four Corners. When I was there about 6 years ago, I think it was approx. $3.00 per person. Not sure though since we hopped the fence after hours!

rb_travelerxATyahoo

I"m concur with Meteor Crater as a rip-off too. I visited it, bicycling 12 miles r/t out of my way on a day where the planned bicycle route was already about 90 miles (Flagstaff to Holbrook) so when someone mentions TIME waste as well, this was a double-whammy-waste of time. It was cool to see "StarMan" on TV just a few days later, and see the diner that we'd stopped at near the interstate tho.

GoTravel

place2, when Elvis died, you could find his image, from young hot to old bloated Elvis, being pirated on everything from playing cards, to bumper stickers, to velvet paintings to board games.

Priscilla took over the Elvis image and if you notice, it is rather difficult to find any Elvis stuff with anything but a good looking Elvis.

She sued, and won, anyone who tried to use his image without licensing from the Elvis estate.

seetheworld

Xcaret...just awful!

tcreath

Luckily I haven't been ripped off too much, but my vote would be the cliff dwellings in (or around) Colorado Springs. I forgot how much it was now per person or car, but whatever it was, it was too much. The price was high and there was hardly anything there. And the "museum" was a complete joke, unless you counted many gift shops to be a museum!

Subway_Scoundrel

FOr Cherokee, I took my Hungarian girlfriend and was so facinated she acted like a giddy school girl. I thought it was OK and when it was over, I realized I actually agreed. For South of the Border, I took a female friend of mine from Paris a few years ago and lets say, it did not stand up against the Effiel tower or The left bank. I still have that picture of her standing under Pedro's leg. I dont think SOB counts as a rip-off since you drive through, take a pit stop, buy a water and a SOB bumper sticker and move on to Mrytle Beach, Charleston or Hilton Head. If you go, have you piture taken under Pedro's legs. You great grandchildren will love it.

ChiOH

Dunns River Falls in Jamaica. and everyone wanted a tip - the tour driver, the photographer, the guides, the friends of the guides.

Smokyboy

For years Cherokee has been known as "tacky", the stereotypes they place upon themselves is a direct result of the tourists who made it a tourist trap. The plight of the Cherokee through history and what happened to the ones that formed the Qualla Indian Boundry (Cherokee) was basically the only hope the Cherokee had of survival, that being tourism. Things are somewhat better today with proceeds from the casino, but with that comes alcoholism, I'm sorry I'm turning this into a political forum. The point I'm trying to make is that, I, we, should take the blame for a place becoming tacky or a "rip-off". There, I feel better, I've had a bad week, (two houses damaged heavily by Ivan), and I'm going through bouts, if you know what I mean. Personally, I'm looking forward to visiting the recently opened National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C..

marykc

Last year my husband and I went to Flordia to visit our daughter. We went to Epoct and were very pleased. We went when are children were little and had not been back since. It was in mid October and the weather was beautiful. We spent the entire day there and we saw almost everything. We did not have a fast pass. Whats that? Well at the time I had no idea what one was or how to buy one. I learned the hard way.

The next evening we had tickets for Universals Halloween Horror Nights. We wanted to go the year before but were unable to get tickets. This event sells out very quickly and you need to buy tickets in advance. We did do that last year. My daughter bought the tickets for us since she was a Flordia resident. (they were a bit cheaper,approx,200 for four or us).
I believe the park opened at approx 6:00, for this event. Well first off I can assure you that it is truly a spectacular sight. The costumes were awesome. All the restaurant people were dressed to kill, literally. It was great,,,,But, we went to one of the many haunted houses. The line wait was 2 to three hours. yikes. Did I mention fast passes? Well dont leave home without one or you too may be stuck in line for hours. For all of you who may not know what a fast pass is its an additional ticket that can be purchased for approx.25 I think). It lets you bypass the long lines. There is still a line but not nearly as long. The rides also had equally long lines. Even the people with fast passes had to wait. In summary I feel it is a really great place. I think they allow too many people through even though they limit ticket sales. We did not even see a fourth of what was there. Anyone else have a similar experience there.I dont feel it was worth the amount we were charged.

lenleigh

I can't believe someone said they felt ripped off after visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Hands down it's one of the best aquariums and was well worth the admission to us.

I guess the last time I felt ripped off was also the NBC tour. It was about $9 per person and for what we saw (rather what we didn't get to see) was a complete waste of that money. We saw the door to Jay Leno (which we had tickets for anyways) and a bunch of other doors. We saw a cheesy museum and movie and saw one teenage actress on Days of our Lives outside (which we could have seen for free). On the other hand we payed a lot more money to do the Warner Bros tour and it ended up being priceless. We saw stars standing outside on the property, walked on actual sets, walked around the fake town and neighborhood, saw a great museum and got to see a taping of Friends in it's last season just by chance.

On that same trip we almost went to Winchester Mystery house but scratched it from my list after people on here advised against it. Glad we skipped it and went to see Hearst instead.

snowrooster

seetheworld - we skipped XCaret and drove a little further to XelHa which I thought was great - XCaret looked so crowded & touristy. XelHa was the one plus of our entire trip to Mexico.

ChiOH - Dunns River was super crowded when we went, but the resort we stayed at gave us special privledges to go up the center of the falls w/our own guide which was awesome (and no tipping allowed!). I couldn't imagine standing in the other line of people packed together just waiting to take a step.

Lenleigh - I wouldn't call the Monterrey Aquarium a rip-off either, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I would have expected. I had heard it was the best but found it wasn't any better several others I had visited (Boston in particular) and was disapointed at the high ratio of gift shops to exhibits.