Travelers Are Sharing The Cities That Disappointed Them The Most When They Finally Visited, And I’m Never Trusting Instagram Travel Photos Again
“Miami. It started at the airport and went downhill from there. Rudest city I’ve ever been to by far.”
Travel can be magical, but not every destination lives up to the hype. Sometimes the photos look better than reality, sometimes the vibes are off, and sometimes you just find yourself wondering, “Wait…this is it?” Recently, u/Playful_War4281 asked people to share the cities that disappointed them the most once they finally visited, and the responses were brutally honest. From tourist traps and overrated hotspots to places that just felt plain depressing, here are the cities that left travelers underwhelmed:
NORTH AMERICA:
1. “Anyone who visits Daytona Beach leaves thinking ‘what a shithole’ — and they are correct.”
2. “Miami. It started at the airport and went downhill from there. Rudest city I’ve ever been to by far.”
3. “‘Hollywood.’ It felt dirty, crowded, and way smaller than expected.”
4. “As an LA resident, LA really isn’t a great tourist city. Everything is spread out, and we have terrible public transportation. If you plan it right, you can have a good trip. People want to come here because of Hollywood, the industry, but should NOT stay in Hollywood, the neighborhood. Stop by and see the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre, but then go to the Academy Museum in Miracle Mile. Do a day at Universal Studios or a beach day in Santa Monica and the pier. Rent a car and drive up to Malibu (though the drive right now is pretty depressing). Go down to Manhattan Beach. Maybe watch a Dodgers or Lakers game. See a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. There is A LOT to do here, but the distance and time it takes to get around is what will be hardest for tourists.”
5. “I have stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. It wasn’t such a fine sight to see.”
6. “I went to Myrtle Beach for a family vacation, but it was more like a teenager’s hangout spot. Restaurants and seafood were OK. The boardwalk was full of plenty of questionable characters. After coming home, I saw a comedian called Myrtle Beach the White Trash Riviera. That was spot on in my experience.”
7. “New Orleans was a disappointment at first. Once I got away from Canal St. and branched out, things improved immediately.”
8. “I was not expected to be impressed. However, Phoenix is the absolute worst place I have visited in my life. It sucks.”
9. “Cawker City, Kansas. That largest ball of twine was more like the largest ball of crap.”
10. “Las Vegas. I had imagined it to be more glamorous.”
11. “Nashville! I’m not into guitars, country music, or watching drunks fall out of bars at 10 a.m., so there was literally nothing for me.”
12. “St. Louis. To be honest, I didn’t have any grand expectations and was there for a wedding downtown. But I was blown away by how empty it was for a city.”
13. “Memphis, Tennessee. I thought it would be kind of cool, but it seemed really rundown. Beale St. just seemed depressing. There were some neat things at certain hotels, like the Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid and the Peabody Duck Walk. Graceland, however, was way too expensive. Stax Records was kind of neat. I might fly in just to continue my trip, but otherwise, it was disappointing.”
14. “Roswell, New Mexico. The ‘museum’ had stuff everyone can find online or in mass-produced UFO books. It was, however, funny seeing two 50-something guys debating which image was or wasn’t real. The McDonald’s was cool, though.”
15. “Denver. All of the nice stuff you might be thinking of is hours away from the city. Denver itself felt small and didn’t seem like it had much to do. It felt more like a glorified Midwest city located in the mountains.”
16. “Austin. I didn’t get the hype. I didn’t feel the need to stay in any one neighborhood for more than 30 minutes, and it wasn’t particularly easy to get around. Also, it was too hot.”
17. “Cancun. It’s overrated and filled with drunk tourists and kids. It’s also full of scammers and workers who will try to scam you into a tip for the smallest thing. A photographer wanted to take photos of me and my boyfriend, and charged us $200 for 10 photos. On top of that, she asked us for a tip. Not to mention, it has Florida-level humidity without the strong AC in a lot of places.”
18. “Havana. I knew it wasn’t going to be amazing as it’s a ‘third-world country,’ but I was shocked. Before I got there, I saw these amazing photos of classic buildings, amazing architecture, cool old cars, men sitting around drinking coffee and smoking Cohibas, and stuff like that. When I got there, though, there were holes in the sidewalks that were easily 10 feet deep and 4 feet wide. There was trash in every nook and cranny. The buildings were falling apart. Most of the people were nice and friendly, but some were extremely pushy, trying to sell cigars and drugs. There were also a lot of sick cats and animals around with lesions and weeping eyes. It was clear that what I saw online was not reality at all.”
EUROPE:
19. “Pisa is pretty much just the patch with the tower. The rest is pretty boring. Lucca, San Gimignano, or Siena have so much more soul.”
20. “Andorra la Vella, the capital city of Andorra. I went to check another country off my list, but the city is basically a downtown version of a duty-free shop: sunglass huts, huge perfume stores, big Toblerones…”
21. “Stockholm. It was small, and nobody even spoke Swedish. I’m not going back to Wisconsin again anytime soon.”
22. “Milano. Yes, it’s big and has a lot to see — but it caters to the rich, it feels like. Rome was nicer.”
23. “Paris! Can I suggest a level of heartbreak? I had dreamt about it forever, and I speak fluent French. Still, I allowed the other adults to speak down to me in terrible English instead. (Seriously, it would have been easier for everyone to speak French.) I even took care to be nondescript and deferential, but I was treated like a complete parasite. Plus, the city smells like urine absolutely everywhere.”
24. “Dublin. It was cold and commercial. I don’t know what I was expecting. Bizarrely, Belfast felt cozy and homey — also unexpected.”
25. “Barcelona. I felt unsafe the entire time, and the city felt trashy. Every souvenir shop had shirts that said things like ‘I ❤️ Blowjobs’ or ‘I ❤️ Pussy.’ Every other city we visited in Spain was a significantly better experience.”
26. “Monaco — not a huge amount to do, and overrun with influencers trying to look rich for social media.”
AFRICA:
27. “Casablanca. I had just been all over the country — to Rabat, Marrakesh, and Fez — and stopped in small towns. Once you get to Casablanca, it’s just a business center with tons of traffic. I wasn’t looking for anything magical or expecting a moment that changed my life, but it was just very disappointing as a whole.”
28. “Marrakech. It’s not the place — the desert was beautiful and some of the architecture was nice, too — it was the people. I hated the people because they were following us and trying to scam, rob, or catcall us. Staring, harassing — every step. I was more scared there than in other places with much, much higher murder rates that we’ve been to.”
ASIA:
29. “Dubai. Concrete jungle. No soul. There are materialistic people all over the place, flashing their bling.”
30. “Beijing — smoggy, uninspiring architecture, unfriendly people. The Great Wall and Forbidden City were incredible, though. I much prefer Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
OCEANIA:
31. “Canberra — and then I had to live there. It’s a bunch of shithouse, sprawling car-suburbs stapled together in search of a soul.”
At the end of the day, travel is always a gamble — what’s dreamy for one person can be a total letdown for someone else. But that’s part of what makes swapping stories so interesting. What about you? Was there a city you visited that didn’t live up to the hype, or one you’d never go back to? Drop your experiences in the comments below!
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.