These Notorious So-called 'Tourist Traps' Are Worth Visiting, According to Travelers

Ah, the traveler’s debacle: To follow the crowd to major, must-see sights knowing they’ll be met with overpriced services, entertainment, food, and souvenirs — or to avoid these sites completely and search out hidden gems void of other tourists. To some, visiting Paris without going up the Eiffel Tower isn’t seeing Paris, while to others, the complete opposite is true. 

It’s a question — or way of traveling — that isn’t always black-and-white. Most of us want to see the major sites — preferably without giant tour groups and overpriced crêpe stands — and stumble upon authentic places that few others will get to experience. So when is it worth following the crowd to a site you really want to see, even though it’s probably a tourist trap?

One user on Reddit, u/MarathonMarathon, posed that question, noting that for them, the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai was a tourist trap they ended up genuinely liking. “It's basically this short 5-minute tourist trap light show tram thing that takes you across the Huangpu River from the Bund to Pudong, with bizarre voice-overs. Sort of like some Disney attraction, but sadder, the very epitome of a kitsch tourist trap.”

The Reddit community responded, sharing the tourist-trap-inclined sites and tours that they genuinely liked and would recommend to others. Below are the “best” responses in order:

Maid of the Mist Boat Tour — Niagara Falls, U.S.

The 20-minute Maid of the Mist boat tour, which claims to be “the original Niagara Falls boat tour” — takes travelers to the foot of Niagara Falls where they can feel the power of 600,000 gallons of water crashing down and enjoy the resulting mist.

“You wait in line forever, the boat is packed, it seems cheesy ... and then you get up to the Falls and feel their power, you realize that the boat has the engine running at full power yet it struggles against the current and you realize that yeah, this is awesome,” said u/twoeightnine.

Original Sound of Music bus tour — Salzburg, Austria

The Original Sound of Music bus tour takes travelers through Salzburg, where "The Sound of Music" movie was filmed. The bus visits Mirabell Garden and Pegasus Fountain, where Maria and the children danced in the movie; Schloss Leopoldskron, the house, where the Trapp Family lived; and Church Mondsee, where Maria and Baron von Trapp got married, along with other sites.

User u/opuntialantana said the four-hour journey included, “Glorious views, drinks, snacks, and a Maria von Trapp lookalike leading us in singalongs as we drove from one filming location to the next. It was cheesy and it was perfect.”

Hobbiton Movie Set Tours — Matamata, New Zealand

At Hobbiton, visitors can walk through the lush pastures of the Shire and through the movie set used in "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" film trilogies. The part-bus, part-walking tour includes visits to the series’ most famous locations, including the Hobbit Hole where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins lived. 

The 2.5-hour tour ends with a visit to the Green Dragon Inn, where a free drink concludes the tour of Middle-earth.

Guinness Storehouse — Dublin

The home of Ireland’s most iconic beer offers daily self-guided tours that include entry to the Guinness tasting rooms and a pint of Guinness. If you’re a true beer or Guinness connoisseur, you can opt for a “premium experience,” like a guided tasting with storytelling or a tour through the brewery’s historic sites — including their famous underground tunnels.

“When anyone came to visit [sic] me I always took them there; it never got old! It’s a well-curated museum and of course, the tap room is always fun to go to. Also, all my Irish friends were happy to go with me when I first moved there so it seems to be well-liked among people that live there too,” said u/tcpower2.

Hofbräuhaus München — Munich

Reddit user u/Triple10X said they initially went to Hofbräuhaus München “just to say that we've been there.” But after visiting several smaller German beer halls they felt that Hofbräuhaus was the best. 

The three-floor beer hall has a Bavarian restaurant and ongoing shows that take place in a historic, 16th-century building. According to u/Triple10X, “The food we got was phenomenal, the beer was obviously good and the atmosphere was eclectic with multiple couples around us all talking to each other in different languages.”