The most disappointing tourist attractions. Among them, Paris, the pyramids and Hollywood

After visiting 40 countries – and counting – I've learned that some places, no matter how iconic, are better left as dreams. Here are five majors that disappointed me.

Cairo's pyramids overshadowed by chaos

In 2010, a three-day layover in Cairo on an EgyptAir flight from London to Johannesburg seemed like a sign of fate. I have always been fascinated by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, its myths and architecture. However, as soon as I got off the plane, Egypt almost immediately disappeared from my imagination.

In its place was a vast, brown city, full of heat, destruction, and overwhelming noise. From the moment I left the airport I felt like a walking target. Every interaction—from a forced stop at a perfumery to squeezing through aggressive marketplaces—felt like a potential scam.

And then I saw them: the Giza pyramids. They are, without a doubt, breathtaking. More powerful, more majestic and more incredible than any photo can convey. Standing in front of them, I felt a real sense of wonder that I will never forget. But the magic quickly faded.

When I turned around, the view was dominated by the fast food restaurants just across from the Sphinx. The air was thick not with an ancient secret, but with the screams of hundreds of vendors and the exhaust of countless tour buses. Even the famous Nile turned out to be a polluted sewage, with a smell so repulsive that little Moses would have rotted in his basket.

There is nothing romantic in Paris

Paris has always been the epitome of romance and beauty in my mind. Ever since I was a student learning French, I dreamed of walking along the Seine, admiring the Eiffel Tower and experiencing the city of love for myself. It was my number one in Europe and I imagined it as a fairy tale. The reality turned out to be brutal.

Paris has a certain roughness to it. I have never felt as safe there as in other large European capitals. And while Parisian rudeness is legendary, seeing it in person was still shocking. I was astounded by how blatantly badly the locals treated foreign tourists.

Of course, there is the Eiffel Tower, which is really impressive from a distance. But up close, there are endless lines, security checks and crowds. The climb to the top gave me a dizziness I didn't know I had – the iconic view was little consolation to my grip on the railing.

Hollywood is better at movies

If traveling was my first love, then show business was my second. Like millions of others, I grew up on American films and TV series that painted Hollywood as a glittering, otherworldly paradise of palm trees and eternal glitz. Walking along the Walk of Fame was my biggest dream.

But Hollywood is not all glitz and glamour. The reality was a stark contrast to the movies I loved. Luxury is present there, but alongside it there is poverty, dirt and a stuffy mass of tourists. It broke my heart to see homeless people sleeping on the stars I wanted to admire.

And the famous Hollywood sign, although it looks impressive in the hills, is almost impossible to photograph. Despite many attempts over the years, my last one in 2019 ended with me getting lost in the hills again, with no signal on my phone, dehydrated and surrounded by rattlesnakes.

Bali is overrun by an almost sectarian hippie scene

Bali sells itself as an island paradise straight out of “Eat, Pray, Love” – ​​a place of spiritual awakening and rustic, tropical bliss. What I found resembled a well-promoted spiritual-industrial complex.

In fact, it is an island overloaded with mass tourism: narrow roads famous for traffic jams, drunk and noisy Australians and hordes of inexperienced tourists staggering on scooters.

The worst thing for me, however, was the “acted enlightenment”. The hippie vibe seemed less like an authentic search for peace and more like an exaggerated tourist trend.

During a visit last year, I attended a meditation session in which the man sitting next to me — with a bare chest and long, wavy hair — turned around and introduced himself as Tarzan. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. In that moment, it perfectly summed up my experience of Bali: a beautiful island where authenticity is often sacrificed in favor of an almost iconic, spiritual aesthetic.

Chiang Mai is the most boring city in Thailand

Criticizing anything in Thailand seems like a betrayal. In fact, I love this country so much that I moved there last year. For years, I wandered the backstreets of Bangkok and bounced between southern islands like Phuket and Koh Samui. It's no wonder that the cultural, quiet north of Chiang Mai was the next point on my list.

See also: Burnout drove me to Thailand. Life here surprised me

However, when I finally visited the city in 2023, I was completely disappointed. Chiang Mai is undoubtedly pleasant. Peaceful. It is famous for its beautiful temples. But after the fifth or sixth “wat” you quickly realize that there is not much else to do there.

I remember it as a dusty, charming town, one lazy river and lots of temples. In a kingdom full of energetic cities and idyllic islands, Chiang Mai is the sleepiest – if not downright boring – destination in Thailand.

The above text is a translation from American edition of Business Insider