Eleven favourite sights you shouldn’t visit

Every year, millions of travellers flock to tourist attractions in search of a magnificent view, a cultural experience or simply a beautiful photo opportunity.

While some attractions deliver what they promise, others may leave tourists feeling frustrated or stressed – either because the supposed attraction is less spectacular than expected or because a long queue spoils the good mood.

Reviews from travellers on the internet can help to avoid tourist traps – and thus avoid annoyance and stress on holiday. Analysts from the language learning platform Preply looked at the reviews of over 80 popular tourist attractions on two relevant review portals.

They explicitly searched for words such as ‘overrated’, ‘disappointing’ and ‘tourist trap’. The result is a ranking of the most disappointing sights in the world. These are the top 11:

1. Times Square, New York

For many travellers, Times Square is one of the first places that comes to mind when they think of New York. With its brightly lit billboards, it is undoubtedly an eye-catcher. Its legendary status attracts around 330,000 people every day. This makes it an uncomfortable place for many tourists. In almost 1,800 reviews, Times Square is described as ‘overrated’, ‘disappointing’ or a ‘tourist trap’. Many comments say it is overcrowded, dirty and simply boring.

2. Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

The second place ‘shines’ with 1425 rather unpleasant ratings – and is located in the German capital Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie, one of the border crossings through the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1990, comes off badly in many comments. Visitors often describe it as ‘disappointing’ and ‘small’. And indeed, there is not much more to be seen of this former border crossing than a replica guardhouse on a crowded road junction.

3. Eiffel Tower, Paris

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is undoubtedly unique. Nevertheless, many commentators are unimpressed by their visit to the Parisian landmark. Almost 1300 reviews are negative to very negative. The long queues are criticised in particular. One tourist stated on Google Reviews that he had waited over an hour to get to the top of the tower. He described it as ‘one of the most overrated tourist attractions’.

4. The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen

The Little Mermaid in the Danish capital of Copenhagen has almost as many negative reviews as the Eiffel Tower. Since its unveiling in 1913, it has been one of the biggest tourist attractions in Europe. However, not all visitors are enthusiastic about her. The terms ‘overrated’, ‘disappointing’ and ‘tourist trap’ appear in over 1200 comments. Numerous commentators are disappointed by the size of the statue or complain that the backdrop is not as picturesque as they would have liked.

5.  Las Ramblas, Barcelona

The Las Ramblas pedestrian zone in Barcelona rounds off the top 5 most disappointing sights. While some visitors describe the atmosphere on the 1.2 kilometre-long stretch as lively and exciting, others find it unpleasant. In just over 1200 of the reviews analysed, Barcelona’s most famous street comes off badly. Many commentators find it too crowded and overwhelming.

The following places in the list of the most disappointing tourist attractions also mainly feature European sights. In 6th place is the Belgian capital Brussels with the Manneken Pis, a little naked boy peeing in a fountain. In 7th place is the Blue Lagoon near the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.

For once, 8th place was taken by an attraction outside Europe: the Hollywood Walk of Fame also left many disappointed, frustrated or stressed tourists behind. The London Eye, the Guinness Storehouse in the Irish capital Dublin and another attraction in Barcelona, Park Güell, follow in 9th to 11th place.

The analysts not only scrutinised the most stressful sights, but also the most stress-free destinations in the world. Here, Lake Cauma in the canton of Graubünden comes out on top. Of all the ratings analysed, only one contained the keywords ‘disappointing’, ‘overrated’ and ‘tourist trap’.