Updated December 22, 2021 32.7k votes 5.4k voters 368.4k views
List Rules
Vote up the popular historical sights that are disappointing in person.
From the Pyramids of Giza to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, every history buff has a bucket list of historical sites (and sights) to see. But sometimes, all that fanfare and anticipation can lead to heightened expectations that the real deal just doesn't live up to. Sometimes it's the endless crowds of other tourists that ruin the experience, or perhaps the kitschy gift shops and surrounding restaurants disrupt the ambience.
Other times, these famous locales are just not as big, grand, or majestic as the drone footage and professional photography led you to believe. While some of these tourist traps might be fine as a pit stop, when treated as the destination, people found they were hardly worth the price of admission (or the parking, or the 10-hour road trip, or the plane ticket).Â
Whether it's a long-standing natural wonder or an emblematic landmark, vote up the historical sights that make you say, "Wait... that's it?"
...I live in the area, and went to downtown Plymouth a few years ago to drink with friends. Parking in the summer is a nightmare, so I parked near this weird colonnade thing. I wondered what it was and went to check it out... and it was Plymouth Rock. It's the saddest little rock, glued together and surrounded by trash and half in the tide...
The worst part is that there is no real "Plymouth Rock." It was a legend and eventually locals decided to pick a rock near the original Plymouth colony settlement to play the part. And THAT rock is the one they picked!
Plymouth Rock. It's just a rock. It's not even a very big rock, or a weird-looking rock. Just a big gray lump the size of a beanbag chair with "1620" carved on the side. I didn't pay anything to see it and I still felt ripped off. Nice pizza place nearby though.
I had a friend who lived in Brussels and reckons that if you stand in front of the [Manneken] Pis for long enough you'll hear every language in the world say "Is that it?"
...That peeing boy was on every souvenir you can think of. I asked around, "where is this grand attraction???" Then I found it and was thinking..."WTF? That's it?"
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Bunch of scammers... and random people trying to sell you their mixtapes and other random sh*t in the streets. And these mixtape/CD people literally shove the CD in your face as you’re walking. It’s so annoying.
Oh and it’s crowded as hell, so you’re getting jostled and yelled at for getting into other people’s pictures. And it’s impossible for you to take your own pictures without getting bumped around. Or pickpocketed (happened to my cousin when we were visiting).
The Romeo and [Juliet] balcony in Verona. It's in a crowded little courtyard through a little tunnel, filled with too many people and it's just a balcony. The kicker? It isn't even real. Someone built it after the play.
The Prince's Palace in Monaco, you pay silly money, see about 2 rooms and nearly get shot by humourless security guards if you take a photo. In fact apart from the Grand Prix, avoid Monaco.
The Blarney Stone in Ireland. Crowded. It’s a piece of stone at the top of a castle, that you’re supposed to lay on your back and stretch backwards and then KISS it! My family went, but I wandered the grounds, ate at the cafe, read a book, watched the crows steal food off tourists' plates for two hours while said family stood in line. And that line snakes up a tight, steep staircase that is a few hundred years old.
I discovered the day before at another castle that steep tight staircases trigger my latent claustrophobia... so I’m glad I skipped it.
I met an Irishman who grew up near the Blarney Stone and claimed he and his mates would piss on it. I've met many Irishmen subsequently who make the same claim. I figure there is a lot of bombast in these claims but I'm not going to go kiss a stone that at least one Irishman has pissed on and the whole world has then frenched.
