Originally Posted by
ajax
My overrated tourist destination has got to be Temple Bar in Dublin. What a horrible place. Sweaty, loud, dark, dingy, crowded and overpriced bars that all serve Guinness to drunk tourists. I just don't get it.
On that sort of score, I could cite the Hard Rock Café phenomenon of (I guess) the 1990s. I used to look in bewilderment at the enormous queues of people outside the one in London, often waiting for what must have been a couple of hours in all weathers.
Through some friend of a friend who "knew someone" (I can't now recall the details), I went there once and we were whisked in past the waiting hordes. It was quite fun, and a moderately enjoyable evening, but there's no way I would have thought it worth waiting outside for a couple of hours on a drizzly, nearly icy London winter evening...
Not that I was personally disappointed, since I had no particular expectations, but I suppose it suggests that some places (restaurants, night clubs, general tourist attractions, even sometimes long-running plays) just become famous for being famous.