Times Square in New York, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Amsterdam’s red-light district – tourist attractions their cities’ residents never visit
- New Yorkers can’t understand the attraction of Times Square, people in Barcelona give Las Ramblas a miss and Filipinos will urge you to avoid ‘haunted’ Siquijor
- Indians would rather take the bus than the ‘toy train’ up the Himalayas to Shimla, and the House of Terror in Budapest is a place of dread for most Hungarians
Plenty of sightseeing attractions and beauty spots are loved as much by locals as tourists. In pre-Covid-19 times, the inhabitants of Agra joined millions of fellow Indians and foreigners at the Taj Mahal, and Machu Picchu swarms with Peruvians every Sunday, when residents of the nearby city of Cusco get in free.
Sydneysiders attend concerts at their beloved Opera House, Cariocas outnumber overseas visitors at Copacabana Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, and who hasn’t been to the Big Buddha and The Peak in Hong Kong?
There are, however, countless crowded, expensive, overrated and downright disturbing destinations that locals avoid like the plague. Residents of Venice don’t eat in restaurants overlooking St Mark’s Square, for example, and few Londoners join the hordes outside Buckingham Palace hoping to catch a glimpse of the queen.
Here are some other popular tourist spots that, in non-Covid-19 times, natives turn up their noses at.
New Yorkers are bemused that Times Square is such a holiday honeypot. The seedy space (it isn’t actually a square) is a hang-out for oddballs and exhibitionists including dozens of costumed performers, from Buzz Lightyear to Batman, who pose for photos with visitors for a dollar or so.
