Must-see attraction or disappointing tourist trap? These sites are among the 'worst'

Hollywood's Walk of Fame has been ranked world's most disappointing tourist attraction. Image: Shutterstock

The Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles has been ranked the world's worst tourist attraction. According to a recent survey, the experience of walking along this star-studded walkway is the worst in the world, while the Great Wall of China and France's Palace of Versailles were also found to be disappointing.

They're regularly described as essential tourist sites, must-sees even. And when you're visiting a destination home to one of them, you just can't pass them up. While we all know that these places are overrun by hordes of tourists, not taking them in, even if it requires something of a detour, would make you feel like you had missed something. But the truth is that these ultra famous landmarks aren't everyone's cup of tea in reality -- far from it. Is everyone a fan of the Eiffel Tower in Paris? How about the Empire State Building in New York?

A unique study, conducted by Stasher, a network of luggage repositories, has sought to identify the world's most disappointing tourist spots. The methodology of the ranking not only takes into account reviews published on Google, but also the sites' popularity on TikTok. Spotted by the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, this analysis takes into account other parameters that help to explain the annoyances we may experience when traveling, such as the distance between the airport and the destination, which may mean a great deal of time and/or money to reach a site. The results also took into account scores relating to tourist safety in the country as well as quality of local accommodation, based on reviews left on Booking.com.

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When all these aspects are analyzed, the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, which features plaques devoted to the greatest film and music stars on a wide Los Angeles sidewalk, comes in first as the tourist spot that most disappoints visitors. The study's sponsors point out that it's no surprise that this must-see on any trip to the West Coast is the most disappointing tourist attraction. The Walk of Fame received the same position in a similar ranking released in 2019. In the USA, it's not the only disappointing site: there's also Disney's Magic Kingdom theme park in Florida, and San Francisco's Pier 39, where people flock to watch sea lions bask in the sun and see the Alcatraz prison in the distance.

Elsewhere in the world, even such iconic buildings as India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City and France's Château de Versailles make the list of the world's worst tourist attractions. There are some other surprising places on the list, such as London's Tate Modern, Spain's PortAventura theme park and Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle. Elsewhere in the world, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, and Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong also feature in the ranking.