Top 20 tourist traps | Research reveals disappointing destinations

TRAVEL NEWS – March 26, 2024: Want to take a trip to iconic destinations like the Eiffel Tower, Keukenhof or Buckingham Palace? Think again. Although these places are on many tourists' lists, some attractions turn out to be quite disappointing. But which ones should you avoid? A recent study published on Metro.co.uk reveals the biggest disappointments among tourist attractions, based on the experiences of more than 5000 travelers in 106 locations worldwide.

Disappointing reviews for tourist attractions

Each destination was scrutinized using 'terrible', 'poor' and 'average' ratings. Similar Instagram and TikTok hashtags were also examined. The higher the score, the more disappointing the experience turned out to be. What was the biggest disappointment?

First place goes to the TV tower in Berlin (Fernsehturm). Visitors described it as a “complete disaster”, a “fairly soulless” and “absolutely despicable” experience, according to Metro UK. Despite its iconic status since 1969, the Fernsehturm scored 94,2 percent on the survey.

'waste of money'

In France, surprisingly, it is not the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe that claims second place, but the Moulin Rouge. With a score of 92 percent, it was considered “too expensive,” “low quality” and “a waste of money.”

In third place among the disappointing tourist attractions are the Tegalalang rice fields in Bali, Indonesia, with an 89 percent chance of disappointing visitors.

'Fake world for Social Media'

Several reviews described it as a “fake world for social media”, while another described it as “a perfect example of what mass tourism can do to beautiful places”. Today, the rice fields are mainly labeled as 'disappointing', 'commercialized', 'overexploited' and even 'cheesy'.

Remark: Wereldreizigers.nl also recognizes this problem. We are often confronted with tourist traps that are mainly promoted as perfect on Instagram and TikTok. We recently posted a message about this on our Instagram channel, see below.

Top 20 disappointing attractions

Curious about which other disappointing tourist spots to avoid? The top 20 list of 'tourist traps' of the biggest disappointments among tourist attractions can be found below:

1. TV Tower, Berlin, Germany (94,2 percent score)
2. Moulin Rouge, Paris, France (92,1 percent score)
3. Tegalalang rice fields, Bali, Indonesia (score of 89,4 percent)
4. The Royal Palace, Bangkok, Thailand (score of 87,3 percent)
5. Atomium, Brussels, Belgium (score of 78,9 percent)
6. Tokyo Tower, Japan (score of 76,9 percent)
7. Seoul Tower, South Korea (75,7 percent score)
8. The White House, Washington DC, USA (70,6 percent score)
9. The Great Buddha of Thailand, Phuket (score of 67,6 percent)
10. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (score of 65,5 percent)
11. Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain (64,1 percent score)
12. Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, Turkey (score of 63,9 percent)
13. Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland (score of 63,4 percent)
14. Tian Tan Buddha, Lantau, Hong Kong (63,3 percent score)
15. Hollywood sign, Los Angeles, USA (63 percent score)
16. Taipei 101, Taiwan (62 percent score)
17. Cerro Santa Lucia, Santiago, Chile (62 percent score)
18. Eden Project, Cornwall, UK (61,8 percent score)
19. Chateau de Versailles, France (59 percent score)
20. Seattle Space Needle, USA (score of 58,6 percent)