One of the worst things that can happen to you as a tourist is to get to where you want to go, only to realize that the experience isn’t what you thought it would be. Mount Rushmore is a perfect example of this phenomenon. The pictures that they use to lure you into going there look amazing. But when you get there, you realize it’s a bit of a typical highway rest stop, and the presidents’ faces are very far away. In other cases, the view may be nicer, but the fact that you have to deal with a massive crowd just to take a simple picture may not be worth it! Here are a few tourists attractions where people have experienced these types of situations.
Mona Lisa At the Louvre
This is a must-see when in Paris, for sure. However, when you get there, you’ll realize the frame of the painting isn’t that big. People crowd to see it all day, every day. If you don’t get to the museum early, you may only be able to catch a glimpse of the painting. To be fair to La Gioconda, this is an issue with the most popular paintings in virtually every well-known museum. People crowd around “Las Meninas” in El Prado in a similar way. What makes the Mona Lisa experience unique is that more people visit the Louvre than any other museum in the world. Naturally, the crowd is usually overwhelming. On top of all this, the Olympics are taking place in Paris this summer, so expect crowds to be even bigger!
The Greek Isles
Again, we have to put up a disclaimer here: the most overcrowded Greek Islands are Mykonos and Santorini. An Instagram user recently went on a rant, saying, “Mykonos and Santorini are like Disneyland and Las Vegas.” Tourists have reportedly had issues with not only the crowds but also the prices of food on the islands. But if you were planning a trip here, there’s still some hope. The talk on the web is that other islands have a better vibe, fewer people, and more affordable prices. If that sounds like a better alternative than searching for ferries to these “other islands,” this could be your lifeline here.
Dubrovnik in Croatia
Croatia hasn’t necessarily been a “popular” tourist destination for a long time – at least not to people in the West. However, it’s plagued by an issue that also makes the Greek Isles overcrowded. The natural space is small, and there’s not a ton of infrastructure to accommodate the number of tourists that arrive in the region. That makes food, travel, and everything in between more expensive. Technically, a smaller number of people can still make the place feel overly crowded.
The Gardens Around the Eiffel Tower
Having a baguette in the gardens that overlook the Eiffel Tower as the sun goes down is on many people’s bucket lists. Here’s to hoping that they’re not disappointed when they get there! Like many of these places, you want to get there early to set up shop. Make sure to bring plenty of food and drinks so that you can endure your stay until the sun goes down. In general, don’t expect this romantic moment to feature a ton of privacy. If you can work with that, it’s a great experience.
Venice, or Italy in General
Have you ever been stuck in gondola traffic? A couple of things about Venice: the narrow streets were not made to fit as many people as the city takes in on a yearly basis, and the water doesn’t always smell particularly nice. This doesn’t mean that people should skip out on Venice as a destination. There are plenty of things to do around the city, particularly related to the arts and history. It’s just better to arrive knowing that you’ll deal with plenty of foot traffic and some odors from time to time.
Times Square
Leaving Europe and heading to familiar territory, people who’ve been here know that the streets of NYC are not necessarily a place where someone can stop and stretch whenever they want. In fact, one of the issues tourists face is that New Yorkers may yell at them for walking too slowly! It comes with the territory; you have to move at the city’s pace if you want to enjoy it here. As with some of the other places on the list, it just isn’t for everyone.
Cancun, Mexico
Another destination that has exploded in popularity over the last few years. The thing about Cancun is that the infrastructure was not as bad, to begin with, compared to other places that we’ve talked about. It’s just that the number of people arriving here is too much for the city to handle. Neighboring towns like Tulum and Playa del Carmen don’t offer relief from the crowd; if anything, things get worse in these places because there’s less infrastructure to accommodate so many people. Staying at a private All-Inclusive hotel and not leaving the complex much is a great way to solve the crowd issues here.
New Orleans’ French Quarter
This one we can call “what did you expect?” That’s especially true if you come here for Mardi Gras. Even on any given weekend, though, you can still experience the rivers of people who are trying to move up and down Bourbon Street. This is not a family-friendly attraction at all for a variety of reasons that we don’t necessarily have the time to explain here. If you’re not into crowds, you may be better off exploring other parts of the city.
Phuket, Thailand
When you look at the pictures from this place, you’ll think you’re on a virgin beach with turquoise waters that only a few fishermen know about. But that was probably the case only about a few decades ago. Today, however, it’s a very popular destination for travelers from all over the world who all get fooled by the pictures and expect a chill, lonely vacation. There’s a theme throughout this list that cannot be ignored. The problem with many of these places is that they aren’t built to handle the amount of tourists that they receive. Even if the amount of hotel rooms indicates that there’s enough “space” to accommodate everyone, that is still not a statistic that helps you measure how crowded a place is going to feel. In fact, there’s probably a formula out there that takes into account the number of hotel rooms and the entire area of a place, which can tell you how big the crowds could feel when you get there.
Miami Beach, Florida
Local authorities are desperately trying to ensure that people stay away from Miami Beach. That should tell you everything you need to know about the crowds here. They are charging more for parking this spring while looking to be more active with bag searches, and they’ve increased police presence. That’s how bad things can get in Miami. There’s still no word on if these measures that are in place for spring will make a return during the summer, but it wouldn’t be odd to see that. Therefore, it’s safe to say South Beach is going to be crowded.
