Popular tourist destinations are popular for a reason, but that often means that you are stuck battling hundreds, if not thousands of other travelers who all want to pose in front of the same statue, room or fountain.
Someone asked “Which trip/location was ruined for you because of crowds?” and netizens shared their best (and worst) examples. We also got in touch with veteran traveler Lauren Juliff to learn more. So get comfortable as you scroll through, prepare to take some notes, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
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As a Canadian, tourism in the Banff National Park is destroying the environment. Hard to enjoy when you're seeing such disrespect for it constantly around you.
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Bored Panda got in touch with blogger and veteran traveler Lauren Juliff and she was kind enough to answer some of our questions. Firstly, we wanted to hear what travel tips she would have given her younger self.
“I would tell myself that everybody has bad experiences when they travel. When I first set out to travel the world, it felt like I had walked straight into disaster. I got heatstroke, I got lost, and I got scammed — all within the first month of my trip! It’s something that not many travelers write about online — on Instagram, everybody shares their highlight reel, but there aren’t many people who are willing to share that nasty bout of food poisoning they just encountered.”
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“For a long time I thought that the problem was me. I believed that everybody else was successfully traveling the world and having an incredible time, so I had to be doing something wrong. Of course, I wasn’t doing anything wrong! Everybody has bad things happen to them when they travel, whether it’s lost luggage, being pickpocketed, or missing a flight. What’s important is to stay calm when something terrible happens. Breathe, collect yourself, and strategize a response: what can you learn from this experience?”
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We also wanted to hear her opinion on how to figure out budgeting and time versus cost. “If you have the funds to allow you to make the most of your travels, then it’s definitely worth doing so. Time is the only resource that cannot be replenished, so it’s important to make the most of what we do have. If you have limited vacation time each year and paying extra allows you to see more of the world, I can certainly understand why somebody would make that choice.”
“Paying more money allows you to avoid many of the stresses that travel brings: you can choose to skip long layovers, reduce your chances of lost luggage by flying direct, avoid crowded transportation, and stay in safer neighborhoods.”
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Lastly, we were curious about what general tips she might have. “Definitely make sure to read up about the destination you’ll be traveling to: learn a few words of the local language, research any common scams, and make sure you’ve packed the correct clothing if traveling to a conservative country.”
“Definitely get travel insurance before you leave: it’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to your health. As somebody who has been hospitalized in four different countries while traveling, knowing that I wasn’t going to end up with an enormous medical bill at the end made the whole experience a lot less stressful.”
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“Make sure you research the money situation in the country, too: do locals expect you to pay with cash or have they transitioned to cards-only? Will your foreign cards work while overseas? Have you notified your bank that you’ll be traveling? Do you know the current exchange rate? Having the answers to all of these will make your first few days in a new country a lot smoother.” You can find more of Lauren's work on her Instagram and her website.
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When you plan a weekend in Lucca Italy as the romantic end to your honeymoon, double check and make sure it doesn’t coincide with one of Europe’s largest comic conventions held there. Lol. It didn’t ruin the trip. But it definitely wasn’t what we planned. At least we got a great story out of it.
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Yosemite. Go there for peace and calm of a national park, to be greeted with filled parking lots, illegally parked cars blocking others, tik tokers going way off marked trails ruining the nature, bad human behavior everywhere.I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Barcelona yet. We first went in 2003 and loved it. Lots of tourists, but it was under control. Went again in 2009 and it was more crowded, but bearable. Went again in 2017 and it was kind of insane. It was wall-to-wall tourism. It was like a theme park.Most tourist attractions in China. People think they've seen crowds... they haven't seen crowds in China.Santorini. Went in October and it was still packed! Some tourists were super rude too
Edit: just in Oia I meant!I wouldn’t say ruined, but enjoying places in Rome like the Trevi fountain or the Spanish Steps was near impossible due to crowds.Angkor Wat. First time I went there in 2001 and monks were all over and locals genuinely friendly. Now you’re a number and it’s so crowded and full of rules that it’s hard to enjoy.Kyoto. Just left the other day. I imagined Kyoto was some peaceful provincial antithesis of Tokyo. That is how it is marketed,anyway. But the crowds are absolutely intense. I’m talking 10s of thousands of people amassing at the popular sites: Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama, Nishiki, Kiyomizu Dera, and Ninenzaka / Sanneizaka. No where to move. Nowhere to escape.
To me, Kyoto is the poster child of how Instagram (and the mass affluence of society) ruined nice things.The Vatican inside St Peter's Basilica. This was pre-covid so experience may be different now but there were sooooo many people. I wanted to stay inside the Sistine Chapel to admire the ceiling paintings but I was being pushed along and it was so noisy.
It was still a fun experience but totally spoiled my experience of looking at the relics and paintings.The worst for me has not been a specific city but a specific type of destination. Famous museums can be so full that admiring the art is difficult. And it’s so disappointing to see people walk to each piece, hold up their phone in front of others’ faces and snap a picture, then walk away. Don’t even take time to look at it with their eyes instead of their screens. Why even bother? Just look up the art online and lessen the crowds! Musée d'Orsay in Paris was the most frustrating.
Oh and the Natural History Museum in London was the most packed I ever saw a museum in my life. I can’t believe they did not limit capacity. It was so hot the day I was there and many exhibits are not air conditioned. The atmosphere was stifling and hard to enjoy the visit.Versailles. I knew it would be busy, it was summer, but it was a massive bucket list visit for me, and there were SO many people inside the palace that I could see way more people than the actual rooms and treasures (the Hall of Mirrors had no magic for me due to crowds) and we felt like cattle being herded. However, we absolutely loved the gardens and other buildings (Petit Trianon etc) so overall still really enjoyed the whole day.I'm shocked that no one has said Prague.
I've been to many of the places named in this thread, including Venice in summer and Kyoto in April, but nothing was as bad as Prague in September. Wall to wall tourist and all the shops sold cheap tourist c**p. The main square was full of bad street performers that had nothing to do with Prague. It felt more like medieval Disneyland than a real city. We didn't like it at all.Santa Monica in California. Used to be cool but now it’s just so packed it’s hard to even enjoy.Cinque Terre, Italy in August. Felt like sweaty sardines everywhere we went.Machu Picchu - don’t get me wrong it was definitely beautiful, but way to many people, and nearly all of them just there to take photos of themselves.The Great Wall of China.
It didn’t ruin it for me, still was amazing. But there was a point where is was so crowded you could hardly move.Most of Quintana Roo, Mexico. And most of Bali, Indonesia. (Thoroughly love both countries in general though)
It”s not just the crowds, but also the demographics of the crowds - mostly people there to party and be tourists.
I don’t mind crowds, and I don’t even mind a good party destination - I love Las Vegas for example.
But when the place feels overrun, and shady markets start popping up for tourists (d***s, prostitution, animal exploitation) I don’t like it and I’m very aware that I’m contributing to the problem by being there.Rome. Nice city, but too many people all overcrowd the same tourist attractions. Also, having so many people in close proximity doesn't help at all with the hot summer weather.Museums in Paris were crazy even with the timed entry tickets. Made it harder to enjoy some of the art and sights, especially in Versailles.Krakow, Poland. The drunk British chavs were a bit too much.Mt. Rushmore was packed with morons. Issues with parking, people just standing in everyone’s way, rudeness, kids screaming and running around.
Had I not already been in the area, I wouldn’t have bothered.Super specific because it just happened, but the Time Out Market in Lisbon. Thousands of people packed cattle-style into a food court. People walking aimlessly or stopping abruptly in front of you while you try to carry a tray with drinks on it around, looking for a free space at a table that doesn’t exist.Phi phi, Thailand.
Amazing scenery and waters completely destroyed by vast seas of floating tourists in orange life jackets. The island is tiny and completely packed with hotels, bars. In the town you can not see any thing except 3 story buildings. The streets are packed, the beaches are packed. It is about as far from “island paradise” as one can have nightmares about.Paris.
don't know if I would've liked it anyway but waaay too many people (yes, I was one of those people as well but I won't be going back there).
we waited outside for like an hour in the July heat to get in the Louvre with tickets bought in advance.Everywhere in LA is crowded everyday. During the middle of the week, early in the morning, late at night, always. There’s no parking anywhere, so you have to search forever to find a spot, so we’ve turned around and gone back home a couple of times. Hiring an Uber is expensive. Parking fees are expensive unless you get lucky. Traffic is the worst, sometimes it takes 30 minutes to go a mile. There’s trash and bad graffiti everywhere, people yelling at each other in the streets, and there are solicitors in front of every other store. The touristy spots are torture because of crowds. Those are just things from off the top of my head.Christmas in Singapore. It was the lines and waiting that killed my experience going to touristy things.
Summer: pretty much any water park I’ve ever been to. I avoid those now.For me, it was a US trip - the Grand Canyon. Soooooo many people, and all clamoring to get close to the edge to take a picture. It gave me major anxiety and I could not get away from the crowds fast enough. We eventually found a spot that wasn’t overrun with people but it wasn’t long before the crowds found it too.Dubrovnik Croatia, we went last August and the streets were sooo crowded you could hardly walk through. I was used to seeing the influencer photos and videos all of that was totally misleading. It was a very cool city and I’d love to go back in April or October. The same goes for Split.Plitvice.
I don't mind crowds in cities, but Plitvice is supposed to be nature and it felt like a theme park.
