r/AskEurope • u/lskalt • 2d ago
Culture Does your country have tourist traps for locals?
In America, we have many cities that primarily focus on regional American tourism - Pigeon Forge, Branson, Wisconsin Dells - which primarily target people who can drive from a few hours away. Do these exist in European countries? Not necessarily the driving part, but targeting people who live in the country instead of international tourists.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 2d ago edited 2d ago
There's a place whose name translates as "Keskinen's Village Store", which is actually a humongous department store in the middle of some fields in Southern Ostrobothnia, that has 6 million visitors each year, which is twice the amount of visitors compared to Finnish national parks, and about 10% more than the population of the entire country. Ten restaurants/cafes, a hotel, amusement park, camping grounds for RV's and camping trailers etc.
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u/rytlejon Sweden 2d ago
We have that one, Gekås in Ullared. It even has its own tv show.
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u/SpudroTuskuTarsu 1d ago
Tuuri also had its own tv show (and some of it is apparently streaming on HBOMax, what.) Gekås seems to be almost identical lol
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u/lucapal1 Italy 2d ago
I don't know exactly how you are defining 'tourist trap' here, but there are plenty of places in Sicily and Italy where you will find more Italian than foreign tourists.
Most international tourists visit the big name places and the big name attractions.
Yes,a small percentage of international tourists will go more 'off the beaten path', but only to a certain extent.
There are still plenty of small towns and low scale attractions in Sicily where you will rarely/never meet a foreign tourist, but you will meet local tourists... lots of small town festivals, religious buildings, even things like ruined castles, small nature reserves etc etc.
Lots of off the beaten track beaches too, often not accessible by public transport and with no facilities.. these are not the kind of places international tourists tend to choose.
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u/SpiderGiaco in 23h ago
I'd say in Italy is also the other way around, there are places that foreigners think are a big deal that Italians don't. For instance lake Como and to a degree Cinque Terre.
Also, I feel that most mountain places in Italy are mostly attracting Italian tourists, with the possible exception of the Dolomites area
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u/IWillDevourYourToes Czechia 2d ago
Isolated places in touristic areas like mountain ski resort hotel restaurants often feel like tourist traps. The food is below average and prices are ridiculous.
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u/thisisredrocks 1d ago
I feel like there is an entire industry here. Štramperk… cute little town, no clue what it’s there for except for people to visit for a weekend, once.
Likewise the entire castle tourism industry.
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u/Thaslal Spain 2d ago edited 2d ago
In Spain I would say we have different spots for Spanish and international tourism along the coast.
First, there are internationally known destinations that receive more non-Spaniards than locals. These places include Costa del Sol in general (Marbella, Mijas, Benalmádena), Altea, Denia and the islands. Spanish is rarely spoken in such places.
Second, there are tourist traps for both locals and foreigners like Torrevieja, Salou or Benidorm.
And finally, there are destinations on the coast that are cuasi-exclusively visited by Spaniards. These include La Manga del Mar Menor, Gandía, Cullera or Aguadulce on the Mediterranean Coast and Suances, Laredo or Sanxenxo on the north coast. Most of them fit your description like working class massive tourist spots which are commonly overpriced.
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u/41942319 Netherlands 1d ago
I ended up staying the night in Cullera almost by accident and man that place is weird. Giant campsite full of semi-permanent caravans. Multiple giant apartment blocks by the sea. All completely empty in late April. The castle was lovely though, super cheap to visit, and we were indeed some of the only foreigners there.
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom 2d ago edited 1d ago
I'm not sure if you actually meant tourist traps or just wanted to ask about regular sightseeing locations for locals? But sure, we have plenty of the latter (and definitely some of the former too).
For a start there's a thriving trade in historical sites here, many of which foreign tourists will rarely see. We have hundreds of preserved country estates run by the National Trust and castles run by English Heritage and its equivalents in Scotland/Wales/NI which are generally way out in the countryside, making them inefficient for tourists to visit. You occasionally hear an American accent at them but very rarely will you come across a non-Yank there. It's mainly people visiting from other parts of the UK, and indeed a large part of the visitor base is people who pay a membership fee to be able to visit multiple sites every year.
On top of that pretty much every town will have its own local history museum. Again, many of these are in very quiet areas where foreign visitors are rare (and indeed visitors are rare in general - you may be going around with one or two other families or even occasionally have the place to yourself). They are often also the kind of place you can view in about 20 minutes too. Similarly it's quite common to have museums of an old local industry now no longer operating (coal mining, weaving, pre-modern farming, hat-making, etc) which are mainly of interest to people taking an interest in their local area or investigating family history.
Despite it being considered pretty unfashionable, there's still a thriving trade in going to the seaside on hot days, too, along with the customary buying of ice cream cones. Given how unreliable our weather is, and how cold the sea is here even in August, it's safe to assume most people on the beach are British, especially if it's a minor coastal town instead of a major location.
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u/LordGeni 2d ago
You could probably get away with including places like farm shops and even some nurseries (garden centres) to that list. Show/botanical gardens, nature reserves and bird sanctuaries etc. definitely fit the bill. As do the majority of theme parks. The only one I can think of that doesn't almost exclusively attract Brits is Harry Potter World.
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u/41942319 Netherlands 1d ago
Really? I'd thought that with Alton Towers being relatively well known internationally it would have its fair share of foreign theme parks fanatics visiting it
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u/LordGeni 1d ago
It's possible. I'm going mainly off my perception than hard facts.
However, there are a surprising number of theme parks in the UK, and while I can see Alton Towers or Thorpe Park attracting foreign tourists, I doubt Pleasurewood Hills or Flamingo Land have the same international allure.
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u/beenoc USA (North Carolina) 1d ago
Places like Pigeon Forge, Wisconsin Dells, and Myrtle Beach definitely are closer to tourist trap than they are to genuine destination locations. They're not on the same level as serious tourist traps like Wall Drug or South of the Border, but they're hard to describe. It's probably not really a concept that can exist in a country that's not really big and has a lot of long-distance domestic tourism.
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom 1d ago
Oh right. Hmm. Looking at those places, they look like basically the US version of Center Parcs or Butlins here - although with the typical caveat that your places have a lot more land and money, so our stuff will probably look like a cheap family-run place in comparison. Also, Center Parcs and Butlins are national brands, so they're kind of known quantities all across the UK.
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u/japps13 France 2d ago
I can’t think of one in France. Everywhere I’ve been, there has always been a lot of international tourists as well.
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u/Valuable-Yard-4154 Belgium 2d ago
Ha ! Christmas markets ! €8 minimum for two spoons of tartiflette. Candy ? Better sell your first born for that.
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u/VirtualMatter2 Germany 2d ago
That's true for Germany as well. The prices are silly.
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u/41942319 Netherlands 2d ago
Me going to German Christmas markets: ah yes lovely I'll be able to buy some tasty German treats there.
Checks prices at markets: well I guess not
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u/VirtualMatter2 Germany 1d ago
You look at the Christmas market and then go round the corner to the get a Döner and Ayran instead.
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u/secretpsychologist 2d ago
many locals go to christmas markets though
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u/VirtualMatter2 Germany 1d ago
Well, many people spend money on restaurants and Christmas markets, including Germans. Still, it's quite expensive for something you just stand around eating with no service other than cooking it for you.
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u/Draigdwi Latvia 2d ago
From the top of my head the Roman aqueduct over Moselle river by Metz, Rodemack fortified village, Malbrouck castle. I know of them and have been there because I lived in the area a long time. I'm sure there's plenty more.
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u/spicyfishtacos 1d ago
You'd call these places tourist traps? I think they are pretty legitimate sites. Plus, two of the three you mention are free. Rodemack is a cute little village for a Sunday stroll, nothing to buy there.
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u/icyDinosaur Switzerland 15h ago
Interesting. I went once and there were a lot of Brits around (and quite a few Dutch too, but we went camping, I think I have never been to a campsite that didn't have at least five Dutch families on it)
This was a bit outside Granville if I remember correctly. We went there primarily because the Tour de France was in that area, but most of the Brits I talked to weren't aware of it before they went there so it wasn't because of the Tour.
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u/Hattkake Norway 2d ago
I don't think so. Difference in price is quite big between tourist traps and "normal" outlets.
Take a shrimp baguette for example. You can go to the tourist trap at Fisketorget and buy one for almost 200 Norwegian kroner. Or you can cross the street, go into the most expensive grocery shop in town (Lerøy in the Galleriet mall) and buy a similar one for 76 Norwegian kroner.
As with everywhere else the whole AirBNB nonsense is ruining Bergen, Norway. We love tourists but if you are contributing to the AirBNB destruction of where you travel to then you can fuck right of.
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u/indistrait Ireland 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not sure "tourist trap for locals" makes sense.
A tourist from abroad may only have a week or two to see the country, and may know fairly little. So they will see famous sights. In Ireland, that's the Cliffs of Moher or Killarney. There's a good reason to go there, they're stunning.
If you're Irish you're living there all the time. You probably have seen the famous tourist places. You'll have a richer understanding of what there is, and what you like. Sure there are places that are popular with Irish, but that's still probably only a tiny percent of Irish tourists who go there.
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u/Chubba1984 Ireland 2d ago
I'd say places like Courtown, Brittas Bay etc. could be considered tourist spots for locals as it would generally be people from Dublin going there rather than foreigners who would focus on the Cliffs of Moher, Killarney etc. as you say. Maybe places like Carlingford might have more Irish than foreign tourists.
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u/MarmadukeTheGreat Ireland 1d ago
Carlingford is a good shout, any of the towns that market themselves as a stag destination really.
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u/Chubba1984 Ireland 1d ago
Ya, Westport is a place I've been to on about 5 or 6 stags and all you meet are other stags and hens rather than foreigners
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u/AtticWoodworker 2d ago
Tayto Park immediately sprang to mind.
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u/white1984 United Kingdom 1d ago
You mean Emerald Park, Tayto (Intersnack) withdrew its naming licence.
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u/AtticWoodworker 1h ago
My youngest is 28, so I'm out of the loop. It was still Tayto Park when we last visited. 🙂
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u/41942319 Netherlands 2d ago
I'd say tourist traps are exactly the places that locals don't consider to be very special but foreigners flock to in large numbers. I've been a few places with my foreign SIL for example that she considered must-visit places but to me weren't that special because you can see that kind of stuff in lots of places
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u/indistrait Ireland 2d ago
OP isn't asking about regular tourist traps, though. We all know those. They're asking about places locals flock to.
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u/MajorHubbub United Kingdom 1d ago
We have a name for UK tourists to the South West of England, Grockles
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u/Constant-Estate3065 England 2d ago edited 2d ago
Lands End. Not many overseas tourists make it to the tip of Cornwall, but Brits often do. And when you get there it’s a tacky overpriced amusement park with no amusements. Unless you want to pay about fifteen quid to have your picture taken next to a twig.
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u/solapelsin Sweden 2d ago
My family went there, just for the point of it. The needles out on the edge were alright, but then a village called Mousehole frightened my mother and upon seeing Penzance my stepdad made us turn around and speed back towards not-Cornwall. I quite liked the trip though, really
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
Hahahaha came here to post this!
Land's End and John O' Groats are known by most people in the UK as the southwesternmost and northeasternmost points of Britain respectively (poor Lizard Point doesn't get the same love and attention despite Goonhilly (stop laughing) being very close by...). John O' Groats is quite remote so not that many people actually want to drive all the way up there. By contrast, Cornwall is a massive staycation destination. So when people drive to Lands End they actually expect to see something and the local people, who are some of the poorest in Western Europe, expect them to be easy sources of money.
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u/Alexthegreatbelgian Belgium 2d ago
I mean there's tons of holiday parks like Center Parcs and Landal. Granted these also attract a foreign public, but almost exclusively the same nationalities (Belgian, Dutch, German and British)
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u/topkaas_connaisseur Belgium 2d ago
Especially the food in those holidays parks, expensive and bad.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
Didn't know Center Parcs was a Belgian thing too!
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u/Dry_Pick_304 United Kingdom 2h ago
A mate of mine took his family to Center Parcs in Belgium last year instead of a localish UK one. Including the travel and ferry etc to get there, he still saved £800.
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u/throwraislander Greece 2d ago edited 2d ago
3h driving from Athens there is a village 1h away from some ski slopes that gathers mostly the Athenian middle and upper class.
Its name is Arachova, and while it is beautiful it is not that different than maybe 100 other villages in mainland Greece. And its prices especially when the ski center is open can be extreme and even with these prices hotels and chalets are fully booked.
There are no international tourists because who comes to Greece for ski resorts and mountain toursm and while it is very expensive I wouldn't say it is tourist trap, it is just the fastest and easiest destinations for Greeks based around the capital to ski and experience chalet type of tourism. The demand is huge because it is one of the few destinations that Greeks have to ski.
PS: Closeby there is an important temple of Delphi where international tourists do travel with buses and they might stop by for a couple of hours in Arachova but usually they don't stay there.
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u/orthoxerox Russia 2d ago
I'd say Arbat Street in Moscow counts. It's been trying to reinvent itself and target Chinese tourists as well, but the main visitors are provincial Russians who get their information from 30-year-old guidebooks.
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u/comprehensive_bone Russia 1d ago edited 1d ago
Tbh, Arbat seems to have died after Covid. I don't really see crowds or as many tourusts there as before whenever I go. Nikolskaya, Zaryadye & some parts around Kuznetsky Most look much more touristy these days.
To answer OP, I'd say Sochi is a massive tourist trap if by "locals" you mean anyone visiting from the country. If you mean locals actually living in a city, in Moscow it's probably the overpriced new restaurants whose business model is based on flooding instagram feeds with influencer bullshit ;) They're mostly located in Garden Ring adjecent areas (doesn't mean the whole area is a trap of course).
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u/die_kuestenwache Germany 2d ago
Kinda sorta, things like the Weinstraße, Märchenstraße, most beaches on either coast get a lot of domestic tourism in general but also cater heavily to their immediate surrounding.
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u/Neurolinker Portugal 1d ago
In every major touristy city there’s now a shop called something like “the wonderful world of Portuguese sardines”, which sells overpriced sardine cans. If you get inside one and buy something you should get a medal for retard tourist.
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u/evelynsmee 1d ago
Yeah we love a castle.
Or a country estate to bankrupt yourself on a cream tea. They're always busy
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u/Hamish26 Scotland 1d ago
There’s definitely places in Scotland that are highly popular with international tourists and not nearly to the same extent with locals - eg Loch Ness. Places like Tiree would be the opposite - full of middle class families from Edinburgh or Glasgow, absolutely unknown outside scotland or uk
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u/Draigdwi Latvia 2d ago
As places that are not impressive enough to travel 1000s of km to see them but culturally important to people of the country, yes there's plenty. Mostly all kinds of sandstone cliffs and caves, waterfalls. Zvartes iezis, Sietiņiezis, Abavas rumba, Svētupes upuralas, no beach sea shore all green meadows into the water Randu meadows. A stork nest colony. A viking ship ride over artificial lake that now covers the iconic weeping cliff by the Daugava river. Just the ones that I have myself visited lately.
As tourist traps because overpriced, not too bad. Some of them are completely free to enjoy, some you pay for parking. A ship ride obviously is for money.
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u/Holiday_Bill9587 2d ago
Not really, our country is small so every tourist spot is close by. I do locals do holidays different compared to foreigners. Especially those from non neigboring countries. Most tourists stay in or around Amsterdam in a hotel. Lots of Dutchies go to holiday home parks. Often they take their bikes with them so they can cycle around and explore the surroundings.
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u/caffeinated-chaos 2d ago
I was on Schiermonnikoog a few weeks ago and I noticed there seemed to be only Dutch tourists. I haven't heard a word of German or English. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I'm used to a lot of German tourists on the other islands so it felt really odd.
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u/Holiday_Bill9587 1d ago
Schiermonnikoog isnt very popular among tourists. Besides nature there isnt much to do. However Germanen are often the few foreign tourists who are at the same spots as locals. Like smaller towns, staying at holiday homes in villages. I think they like to cycle as well.
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u/International-Sir177 1d ago
Canada - Ontatio Cottage Country (which is a few different places depending on what city you live in).
UK -- The Cotswolds in SW England. Although, there's also a local farming economy there.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
The Cotswolds is definitely a destination for Chinese bus tours and US vice presidents.
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u/International-Sir177 1d ago
True. That’s relatively new I think. Ten years ago it was less international unless you owned a helicopter
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u/Suzume_Chikahisa Portugal 1d ago
I suppose some of the early 90 mega-mall like Colombo and Cascais Shopping were designed a bit like that.
Maybe the old Feira Popular as well.
On a different tack, Portugal dos Pequeninos could also bee seen as this along with the colonial apologia
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u/b17b20 1d ago
Tourist traps as places that are unreasonable way more expensive and/or less interesting than other close by location?
Those are now full of foreigner tourists. Polish seaside was popular with German tourists for decades (now they sometimes pay more than they would holidaying in Germany). And recently our mountains, for some unknown to me reasons, are popular among rich Arabs.
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u/Witte-666 1h ago
Durbuy, the smallest "city" of Belgium, attracts a lot of Belgian tourists and is basically a tourist trap.
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u/MeltingChocolateAhh United Kingdom 1d ago
Many English people flock to the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales for their summer holidays in a caravan. Or, they go to Cornwall.
I was over in Wales for a year, and as an English person, they assumed this is what I was. A tourist (I weren't).
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u/crucible Wales 2d ago
Yes, most tours of North Wales include a stop at
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
There’s a bit of a tourist trap gift shop by the railway station. The name was sort of artificially created in the Victorian era to boost tourism.