The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible place to be

Case in point was going to Athens for a work event. I felt like the Parthenon was disappointing experience. The crowds were terrible. You can't get anywhere near the actual building. And it's often under some type of renovation/construction, so there's scaffolding everywhere. There are no trees, so it's basically it's a bit of a hike, waiting in lines, and then without shade you're out in the blazing sun (if in Summer time).

Afterwards I went to another site in Athens, the Ancient Agora of Athens. Wow, what a completely different experience. It was mostly empty. But there were several big buildings to actually walk up to and into. There were remnants of statues and other historical items that made it super interesting. There were also trees, for shade and the grounds were really well kept.

https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A if anyone is interested in seeing some of the photos of the location. I had never heard of it, but had a few hours to explore and this location saved my Athens experience.

Ofcourse this doesn't work if you have family that gets public holidays. Works great for me.

Or you could just pay less than $1k for an after-hours tour at the Colosseum or Vatican and see the place without crowds.

Not an option for everyone, but I suspect one worth considering for lots of people here. You can almost always pay for various levels of VIP-treatment at places like this, even if they don't tend to advertise it well.

Granted this experience was pre-iPhone so the specific example may not hold!

A number or places are promoted because they are (one way or the other) "exclusive", but if they are open to the public and everyone goes there, the exclusivity soon ends.

Small places like Positano did actually change due to the mass of people visiting them, on a larger scale Venice and Florence share a similar "shift".

To give you a small example for Florence, once there were a number of small "trattorie" (cheap restaurants) where locals would go, eating simple, local dishes.

For many years foreigners (travelers, not tourists) found these places (by mere chance), ate there, among the locals, and came home telling how pleasant was that experience to their friends, let's say 50 people, of these, maybe 5 (10%) would go in the next 5 years to Florence and eat there, so, each "positive review" brought in 1 or 2 customers the next year (replacing the one of the year before), the situation was stable.

Now one "influencer" goes there and his/her experience is read by 100,000 people, of these a much smaller percentage (1%) 1000 people next year go to that place.

It is a good thing (more work) for the restaurant, but - besides the queue outside - after the cook has been asked multiple times for "spaghetti bolognese" and the manager understands that the foreign customers are willing to pay 10 Euro for them (instead of the 5 Euro a first course was priced before), the restaurant will change menu and raise prices, no locals would go there anymore, additionally since very few people among the new mass of customers can actually appreciate the food, quality will lower.

Soon after, the guy next door will understand that there are thousands of people looking for food (and that there is no need for the food to be good) and opens a new restaurant.

In a few years "trattorie" disappear, replaced by "tourist restaurants", where thousands of people go expecting to have the same experience the original "influencer" reported.

And - here is the interesting psychological aspect - either because they spent a lot of time and money to organize the trip or because they have no way (lack of culture/experience/taste) to appreciate the differences most people won't report honestly that their (unlike the original) experience was a shitty one and will as well publish photos of the place and tell everyone how nice it was, perpetuating the myth.

I’m French. My father is French. Decades ago as a kid we were in Paris on a short trip, and we were close to the Eiffel Tower. I asked my dad if we could go there, and he went on this weird rant about it being too touristy and not worth it.

So I didn’t get to visit the Eiffel Tower and I was sad. He wasn’t a great dad.

I still haven’t, to this day. Haven’t had the opportunity. I’m going to Paris in a month for my girlfriend’s birthday and I’m planning to go there. This notion that just because something is touristy you SHOULDNT do it is absurd. Pick what sounds pleasant, and don’t expect to be alone.

One of the reasons I enjoy this site in addition to all the tech stuff is the way a random comment can so perfectly capture my thoughts on an issue. Indeed, I like to like things, even if everyone else likes the same thing!