Thinking about taking a vacation? You’ll want to avoid these destinations:
Everybody wants to be cultured and experience the world. But some destinations are better left unexplored. If you’re looking for culture, you can find it in any city and experience it in any number of ways. Don’t let your desire to do something typical influence you.
Some places are great vacation destinations while others will leave you feeling exhausted and stressed. Under the right circumstances some of the following places can be fantastic, however, there are some you’ll want to avoid on certain days of the year, and others you’ll want to avoid entirely…
1. Times Square on New Year’s Eve, New York
What’s better than standing around in New York for eight hours while you’re crushed by 8 million strangers? Doing it in the freezing cold to watch a sparkling ball “drop.” It doesn’t even drop, it moves and you can watch it move on television in your warm living room.
Avoid Times Square on New Years Eve at all costs. It’s very expensive, you can’t get out of the city after, and you’ll be standing for hours. You can’t even drink to numb the cold because then you’ll have to pee and you’ll lose your spot. And even if you’re okay with that, good luck finding a bathroom.
Opt for a party or dinner with friends instead. You can wear an attractive outfit (one that’s cuter than a parka) while you drink champagne and get a good view of Taylor Swift and friends singing on television.
2. Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
Yes, it is a building with a poor foundation that leans in a cool way, but does this really make it culture? Is it possible that maybe it’s just a cool place to take pictures. Sure, you can go and take some obligatory photos of yourself holding it in place (because nobody has ever thought of that before). You can even photobomb the other tourists photos.
However, once you’ve done your standard photo-taking, there’s little to do there. The tower does in fact lean up to its name, however, if you’re coming all the way from Rome, it’s a long way to go just to see a slanted building.
3. Mardi Gras, New Orleans
New Orleans and Mardi Gras go together like peanut butter and mint jelly. Sure, pb&j were made for each other, but not like this.
You can go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and deal with the 1.2 million people that flock there each year for the holiday, or you could go a few weeks earlier for Carnival and experience the culture in a much better light.
4. The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt
The Great Pyramids of Giza may be the most well-known pyramids in the world, but that doesn’t mean they’re the best. In fact, they can be so overrun with tourists and the views from them are so marred by modern Cairo that many travelers say they’re not even worth visiting.
5. Walt Disney World, Orlando (when you have young kids)
If you want to have a good time in Disney world, leave the kids at home or wait for them to grow up. Many will tell you Disney World is overrated to begin with. It’s hot, sticky, crowded, smelly, and Micky will have his hands deep in your pockets the whole trip.
Combine this with the fact that young kids will ether be scared of the rides or too cranky to appreciate them and you officially have a recipe for disaster. Wait until they reach at least age 7 before you bring them.
6. Mona Lisa at the Louvre, Paris
The Louvre holds some of the most famous paintings in the world, including its most famous, the Mona Lisa. Despite the wealth of art held in there, tourists routinely wait three hours just to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous work. It’s an incredible painting that’s worth the admiration, but can it really be properly appreciated in such a setting?
7. The Wax Museum, Literally Everywhere
Each city seems to have one. Why do these exist? So you can pay forty dollars to make your profile picture one of you sitting at the desk in the Oval Office with Obama behind you. Maybe all your friends will think you actually chilled with Obama or maybe they will just say, “oh, cool, he went to a wax museum. He must be so artsy and cultured.”
Don’t go to wax museums. Just don’t.
[Featured Image: Mental Floss]