Have you ever experienced the Paris syndrome?

[Anonymous]

The Paris syndrome is a sense of disappointment when visiting a country/city, as the reality of experiencing the city is very different from expectations.

If yes, what city was disappointing to you?

[MTC29]

Many times. One that stands out was my visit to Komodo Island National Park to see the famous Komodo Dragon, the largest living lizards.

Ships dock at Loh Liang bay (or if too large to dock, tenders ferry passengers ashore). As soon as the park opened its gates at 07:00, thousands of tourists begin to pour out onto the island’s shore. There is a small town adjacent to the park and tourist dollars spend on typical junk like hats and T-shirts bring in badly needed $$$.

Fees are collected and tourists are divided into groups. Once inside the park, crowd management is the theme. The jungle is impressive, but with so many trapesing along people it felt more like the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.

Dragons spotted! My group is given about five minutes to marvel at six Komodo dragons sunning near a stream. Once the time elapsed, we were moved out in order to make way for the next group.

The dragons wear next collar tracking devices, which makes them look like they are wearing life vests. I was told that the dragons are feed before the tourists arrive, but I cannot verify that. In any case, they do not appear to be "wild".

I was a once in a lifetime/bucket list visit, which was not nearly as exciting as I had imagined.

[BeMuse]

Nope. I traveled to 22 states when I was 5 years old. It was pretty obvious to see cities are just a bunch of buildings regardless of where you go. They generally have similar stuff.

[Anonymous]

I drive through Paris on the way back from Limoges, it was amazing. We were on the main ring round before going through the Diana tunnel and a guy have stollen a car and was weaving through the traffic, knocked parts the the car off.

every city is a dump, just because it has a monument don’t expect an out of earth experience. We are all human

[purplepoppy]

Paris syndrome most effects Chinese tourists who expect to find a highly cultured sophisticated city but find a dirty shithole full of rude people. I could see that being a thing in the past but surely with the Internet it should have died out by now

[KostasKouvalis]

They're disappointed? They fit right in

[KostasKouvalis]

Cities:

Valparaiso. I had heard great things about this city and it was on my South American bucketlist. I was expecting a safe, colorful city, instead I basically got a giant shanty town.

Barcelona. Too modern and too many immigrants, and the locals don't care about you. They only care about your money and about their own needs.

St. Augustine. It has some nice sites, but it also has a lot tourist traps, and the city is too pricey and commercialized and has too many Democrats and Hispanics, so it doesn't feel Southern at all.

As for countries, I've never really been disappointed by a country. If anything will ruin a place for me, it's the people. In which case, Grenada, Barbados and Turkey had the top 3 shittiest people.

Oh actually, there IS one country I really disliked and that's Slovakia. I visited in 2011, and let's just say it was very obvious that the government did not want tourism

[love_conquers_lust]

Grass is greener

[In_Trance]

never