Anon is a retard for going to the tourist fly traps, in greece you gotta travel a bit before you get to the real good stuff
Same is true pretty much everywhere.
I’m in the US, and everyone seems to flock to Yellowstone, NYC, DC, and maybe SF. We have a lot of other really cool places, and you’d probably have a much better experience if you avoid the top 10 tourist destinations. For example:
- 63 national parks, and only 2-3 are international destinations
- thousands of state parks, and they’re basically completely missed by international travelers
- tons of fantastic beaches all across the south, no need to go to Hawaii or Miami to get some good beach time
For anything you want to see, I could point to a half dozen places that are way less crowded and would likely get you closer to the type of thing you’re looking for. I assume the same is true for any popular destination, so I go out of my way to try to find nuggets of cool stuff (e.g. when I went to BC, CA, we went to Lynn Canyon instead of Capilano Bridge, which was super gorgeous and not crowded at all). Waiting in lines sucks, so I’d rather go to the next best option and spend more quality time there.
Ok, but Yellowstone is rad as hell. I just visit in the off season.
It absolutely is, and the off-season is the time to go. I just don’t have patience for the summer tourist season. It takes twice as long to get anywhere, I feel self-conscious about taking too much time somewhere, and the awesome views are polluted by people milling about, asking for photos, or kids whining (I get it, I have kids).
The same goes for most popular parks. I’m in Utah, and I avoid Zion and Arches in the peak season, but both parks rock in the off-season. During tourist season, I go to the less popular parks.
That’s why I avoid vacations abroad like the plague. I absolutely loathe being around people, and people on vacation abroad tend to be the worst version of themselves. I’d much rather stay at home than deal with that.
Eh, you can do vacations and largely avoid people, if you do some research ahead of time.
For example, my SO and I visited their home country, and we avoided most of the tourist traps, and hit the one or two we wanted to see during off peak hours. In fact, our whole trip was right after the busy season, so we were able to have good weather w/o all the nonsense from tourists. We visited a national park out of state nearby my family at the start of the season (when weather is the most iffy), and we lucked out and had fantastic weather and almost no crowds (backup plan was to hang out with my family, and they ended up joining us).
The trick isn’t to avoid vacations abroad, the trick is to do them on your terms instead of whatever others expect. If you want to see France and hate crowds, don’t visit the Eiffel Tower or Versailles, go somewhere in the countryside and get a nice B&B and maybe time it w/ a local festival to enjoy local culture.
That just sounds like Faliraki or some similar hellhole full of your own countrymen. Try going five minutes or so out of town.
I was in Faliraki a few years ago and it was really nice. I was there in late October though, so there were only like 20 other tourists in town and all the penny arcades and tourist shops were already closed.
I’ll never understand why people fly to the south in the middle of the summer, when the weather is nice here anyway.
Rented bikes in Mykonos in October, can confirm it’s nice and quiet, and the flights are dirt cheap.
Your own fault for going to major tourist hot spots.
Goes to shittiest parts of country
Complains country is shitty
Can’t explain that.
be tourist
go to spots that specifically cater to tourists
it sucks
If you come to America for your vacation and go to Detroit, that’s your own fault.
That comparison doesn’t really fly, Detroit isn’t really a tourist hotspot. Florida would fit the bill better
The user I was replying to said the shittiest part of the country. I debated between Florida and Detroit, but Florida at least has decent scenery.
Fair enough. At least Florida has some people that watched '80’s tv believing it’s a glamorous place.
So you mean greece is a tourist hotspot?
Huge part of their GDP yeah
it absolutely is.
Like all of it?
wha? no?
Hey I visited America on vacation and went to Detroit as part of it. Went to a nice little gritty strip joint off 8 mile. I got my picture taken with a porn actress. We even managed to leave with our tires still on and no bullets to extract. 10/10.
Vacations should be about the experience.
Exactly. Don’t just go hit the major tourist attractions, go find something cool.
Or people complaining that Yellowstone is too crowded or NYC is too expensive.
There are a ton of great places here, and if everyone goes to the same place at the same time, it’ll be crowded. There are tons of great places to see here that don’t get clogged up with people in the summer.
What are places similar to Yellowstone that aren’t as crowded? I was thinking of travelling to Yellowstone some day.
That depends on what you’re looking for. Nothing is exactly the same, but the US has 63 national parks and thousands of state parks.
If you want to see:
- a geyser - Soda Springs, ID is easier to get to, way less crowded, and really cheap (it’s in the middle of nowhere); there are others in Wyoming and Nevada as well
- Buffalo/American Bison - there’s a herd on Antelope island in the Great Salt Lake, and here are some others, but come in spring or fall to avoid the bugs
- wild animals in general - pretty much any park or BLM land, just go hiking; we saw some at Glacier, but now that’s getting over-crowded
- hot springs - plenty in Utah, Idaho, and other areas that you can actually go into
- mountains - Tetons to the south are better, plenty of great options on Colorado, Utah, Washington/Oregon, etc, all with a different feel; I love Bryce Canyon in Utah, for example
Nothing has the exact mix Yellowstone has, but I could say that about any park. I could show you something similar starting in SLC in about a day of driving (about as long as it takes to get into Yellowstone).
We took our kids to Yellowstone, and they hated it so we left early. We took them to Glacier and they loved it and want to go back.
I’m not saying Yellowstone is bad or anything, it’s just overcrowded.
thanks :) will research those, the main thing I would have wanted to see is wild animals
If you go to Yellowstone, you might have animals cross in front of you, but more likely they’ll cross like a mile ahead and you’ll just be stuck in traffic and not see it.
A lot of people pull off to the side of the road to look at animals a quarter mile away.
If you want to see wild animals, hiking anywhere in north eastern Montana is where I’d go. My brother lives near Glacier National Park and sees bears and moose quite a bit. If you don’t want to hike, I recommend Glacier’s Going to the Sun Road, just get there early (a little after sunrise) to beat traffic and you’ll probably see mountain goats, deer, and some gophers or something (and maybe a bear if your eyes are sharp). It gets packed around 9-10am, but it’s gorgeous regardless.
Yellowstone is super cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also incredibly packed with people and everything is far away. Most national parks will have plenty of wild animals, you may need to hike to see them (and go early, they hide more in the middle of the day).
Other kinda fun places
Yellowstone is good if you actually hike and do the physical things. If you only do the geyser paths and driving it is hard to be away from a crowd. And so many idiots trying to get close to wild animals (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Honestly, that’s the case for most of the more famous national parks but Yellowstone and Grand Canyon are the ones that get a surplus due to their worldwide fame.
That said I still count it as a place every American should visit and think it’s worth a visit. If you really want to reduce the other people, visit in winter but some things may not be available but some other things are.
In my opinion you should still go. There’s really not another part of the country like it and the park is humongous— just expect it to be somewhat crowded at the more popular sites like old faithful. Just talk to a park ranger and ask for rewarding hikes that are less traveled. Yosemite is the same way. Obviously try not visit during a popular vacation date if possible. Leave no trace and don’t approach a buffalo!
Also most likely goes at the most crowded time for some reason.
Idk if I’m just lucky but even what are supposed to be super busy touristy things I’ve mostly been able to see among fairly chill/ no crowds. And this includes Rome, Venice, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Berlin, Amsterdam among others, and in most of these visits to their respective cultural/ architectural/historical hotspots.
Like literally just go in April or early October I guess. Or like at night. Something like this.
waiter spits into plate and I thank him
Oh man, OP didn’t spit back. Water gonna get spilled
Fakery
