Stumbling through the web today, my eye caught a bit of click-bait I couldn’t resist. Headlined “Overrated Places That Aren’t Worth Visiting,” and located at YourDailyDish, it appealed to my love of lists, penchant for snark and discriminating view of world travel.
A pithy, withering litany of 21 so-called overrated spots, laced with a pinch of snide drollery, the dishonor roll is little more than a light-hearted provocation for easily distracted web surfers. There are surely a billion such lists out there, better, funnier, more substantive, more informative. But this one, despite some dubious grammar, boasts surprising off-the-beaten-track locales that may raise eyebrows.
The list is pure meringue that you can’t take too seriously, and you can make a sport of comparing your impressions of a place to the shamings here. I, for one, can attest that Miami, Las Vegas and contemporary art museums earn their slots. The Great Wall of China, not so much.
The list follows below. Each name is a hyperlink to its web page. (Caveat: the pages are larded with obnoxious yet easily dodged ads.)
- The Terraced Rice Fields in Vietnam
- Seasonal Waterfalls
- The Great Wall of China
- Manneken Pis in Brussels
- La Bocca Della Verità in Rome
- Four Corners Monument
- Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts
- Contemporary Art Museums
- The Confucian Temple of Shanghai
- Empire State Building, NYC
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Miami
- Niagara Falls
- Mount Rushmore
- Venice, Italy
- Las Vegas
- Statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen
- The Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Champs-Elysees, Paris
- Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
- Blarney Stone, Ireland
GNASHING. 