The most under and overrated tourist destinations

a reply to: TonyS

Dear god ats... This person must be a marketer for Detroit cuz aint no self respecting traveler gonna go to Detroit for anything exept to get shot. There is a yuppyville in central town but there aint NO character there. I drove through once.....did 120 mph as id rather get a speeding ticket than a disease from that cesspool. In fact, the entire m state should be avoided...with extreme predjudice.

a reply to: TonyS

Ummm I grew up in Detroit and live near now. It's tons better than 5 or 10 years ago but I wouldn't put it on my list of a 100 places to see before you die. There isn't much to see that is really unique other than the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village and that's not even in Detroit.

I wouldn't go out of my way to see Detroit. Just being honest.

a reply to: Edumakated

Hands down some of the best food ever, and the tours are usually a good time. Can say the same about Savannah and New Orleans actually, anywhere with a lot of history is usually up there for me.

Otherwise the wife and I end up in small towns in the mountains here in western NC, good camping spots, some damn fine country cooking, interesting sights to see, and some of the best driving roads in the country.

Edit: NYC can be fun in small doses and staying out of Times Square. Currently on a quest to eat at all of the ramen joints in the city, I have yet to find anything even close to what I found in Japan, but it's been a good time overall. My colleagues when we're in the city always laugh because when they ask what I want to do for the dinner the answer is always the same. So I usually end up heading out of my own lol.

I can say if you ever get chance, visit Alaska. You will not be disappointed.

We chartered a fishing boat and caught several hundred lbs of cod and halibut. Had whales swimming next to our boat. Saw a glacier calve into the water. Hiked to the the top of a glacier. Saw Denali. It was an epic trip.

Paris: Eiffel tower, de Louvre museum and Champs Elysses
GB: Buckingham palace, Windsor castle, stonehenge
Japan: Akihabara, Kabuki theatre, Odaiba island, Mount Fuji, Edo wonderland, Golden pavillion, Gion district, Toei movie studios
and when in New York at least a couple of Broadway shows!

I think Yellowstone deserves the hype. That place is amazing.

a reply to: Bluntone22

it is, the buildings are amazing, but the place is overrun with homeless and beggars. you can't go 10 yards without someone begging or trying to hawk stuff on you.

Camain

a reply to: Bluntone22

Any amusement park is overpriced, and sucks on the weekend. Go during the week.

NYC I have down to a science, go the North Bergen, NY. There's a holiday inn there, stay and park your car there, then walk up to the motel 8 and pay 3 dollars a person to go to the NYC bus terminal, subway is there, take subway wherever you want. NY is best during mid fall, winter its cold, wet and stinky, and the summer its hot and stinky. spring and fall is just stinky.

I hate DC, i got a 300 parking ticket 1 minute after my meter expired, total bs, I was waving the meter made down, but was on the other side of the cross walk, complete bs. That said, yes lots to see.

Bryce Canyon is nice, but if your going there, there are a ton of things to see, Fly into vegas, cheap tickets from almost everywhere, Death valley is 2hrs west, amazing things in there, then you can keep driving west to see the giant sequoias, or you can head back to vegas then north to St George, hit Zion while there, hit the northern rim, hit antelope canyon, horseshoe bend, around the corner to the southern rim of the grand canyon, then to hoover dam, before hitting vegas again. Side note- if you don't party and drink, get your hotels in henderson, DO NOT GET ANYTHING IN VEGAS. Vegas is nice to see once, with all the lights and the bilagio fountains, etc, but unless you plan to be up till 5am, the music doesn't stop till 2, and the drunks down shut up till around 4-5am. Henderson is much quieter.

LA is nice, but traffic sucks, and its better in the spring i think. beaches are nice, water is cold though. lots of skin to see though, and food is pretty good in china town.

New Orleans was over-rated, check out Biloxi instead, nice beach, nice weather, none of the hassle similar food.

Texas is OK, tex-mex is great, there are some really cool stuff down there, go in spring or fall.

Niagara falls Canada is better than USA falls.

Most of my visits corresponded with Thanksgiving to be honest, if you go a couple days before, you can spend thanksgiving day resting in the hotel from driving all over gods creation, then the following day keep doing stuff. Most places are dead up to thanksgiving day, black friday is good cause all the women folk that would take there kids places are shopping, which means you dont deal with people till sat-sunday.

You can get cheap airfare out west from Cleveland, or cheap airfare to Europe from NYC.

Best places I visited in Europe was Denmark, Latvia actually, Denmark everyone spoke english and were very friendly, place was clean too, and not alot of hassle, prices comparable to NYC. Latvia there is a language barrier, HOWEVER, your Euro goes a LONG, LONG way there. also you can take an overnight cruise or a one way cruise to Stockholm, spend a couple days there exploring the city, (Watch your conversion of Euros to Krons though, and how much it is in dollars.) don't eat anything fancy, you'll get SCREWED. I wasn't paying attention to exchange rates and wound up paying $300 for burgers and beers. Still there is alot to see and its a cool place.

Poland is really cool too, your dollar goes a long way, but again, language barrier.

My next euro trip i and flying from nyc to paris, then getting a 5 day euro rail pass and heading south. You can go from paris to barcelona, to bern, to milan, to venice, then to rome, then fly from Rome back to paris for about 100 each, before heading back. you can spend a couple days at each city too.

My take,

Camain

originally posted by: Metallicus
I think Yellowstone deserves the hype. That place is amazing.

The park is beautiful.
The tourists ruin the experience.

a reply to: camain

Very nice summery, thank you...

a reply to: Hypntick

Never done new Orleans but I know people that have..
Hit and miss is the consensus

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: Bluntone22

Detroit is my favorite destination get-away. Its exciting and you never know what your're going to get there. A fun time and on the cheap; you can get a Greyhound Bus ticket for pretty cheap and stay at a Downtown Metro hotel; there's tours of the abandoned neighborhoods and buildings.

Cool beans!

Detroit? Been to Detroit, hated it!

Chicago, hated it!

Hollywood was a huge disappointment; I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. LA is just gross!

AZ to me looks like one big kitty litter box; Phoenix mainly.

Disneyland and world were disappointing; World is the Best.


Hershey Park in PA was fun.

NYC, loved it! I was able to stay in a penthouse apt overlooking Central Park once, relative was staying there.

I Love NH, Beautiful Scenery, fresh air.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Niagara falls was overrated but that little town across the bridge in Canada was lovely.

I really enjoyed shenandoa national park and the blue ridge parkway...

Peace

Ocho Rios, Jamaica, is a tourist trap. don't bother.

Puerto Rico is crowded, expensive and a mess.


the Smithsonian in DC is great, at least the Natural History and the Air/Space. go early Saturday morning and park on a side street.

originally posted by: ElGoobero


the Smithsonian in DC is great, at least the Natural History and the Air/Space. go early Saturday morning and park on a side street.

I forget it's name but the off the Mall part of the Air and Space is a MUST see for anyone who is a flight buff.

a reply to: pavil

Yes! I forgot they moved a good chunk out to the air force base while they constructed a new area. no idea if the new space is open yet or not, but yeah, they have a lot of cool planes you can check out.

I absolutely love Dublin, Paris, London, Vegas and Venice, and no one can ever convince me that they are overrated. I think that Barcelona is a little overrated, but I still enjoyed our two visits and I would return. I must be easily pleased, perhaps because I simply love travelling and it takes a lot for me to be disappointed by a place.That said, I didn't care much for Florence on my first visit there, and thought it was very overrated, but I'd still go back and give it a second chance. Maybe it was more down to me and my mood the first time. It's the same with Milan, where my only visit coincided with a spell of very poor weather including several torrential downpours, which literally put a dampener on things!

I think sometimes people can have very high expectations, and, after reading some very gushing books, articles or reports, may get the wrong idea about a destination. Then there are those who don;t do any research at all, and just have some vague idea that a city is supposed to be wonderful, and then get very disappointed when they arrive there.

Yellowstone may be a little over-rated, but just a few hours north there is another park with many of the same attractions. They finished most of the road construction in Glacier National Park this year. If avalanches don't tear it all out over the winter, it might be a nice visit next summer. There are lots of tourists passing through (nearly 3 mill this year), but since they are almost always passing through it isn't too hard to get away from them. Unless you have lots of money to spend, it is probably best to fly into a regional airport and drive in. The local airports charge a premium.

Check ahead to see if the Going to the Sun Road is open before you come. It usually doesn't open till nearly July, and it closes again in October.