Do you live near a tourist trap?

[Beware the Beast Man]

Easter's around the bend, and there's a guy about 2 miles from my house who runs his annual "Eggshelland" exhitbit. Basically, he does displays using painted eggshells, and I have to admit, they're pretty amazing. I'm looking forward to it again this year.
http://eggshelland.tripod.com/

So, do you live near a tourist trap?

I admit, I geek out over roadside attractions and the like.


ON EDIT- bonus points if it's something tacky like a diner shaped like a big hat, or a snake farm, or something.

[demnan]

1. Yes, several

one called Washington D.C. and one called Mt. Vernon.

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. You win.

:D

[KamaAina]

3. We prefer the term "visitor attraction"

:-)

Actually within walking distance of Waikiki, just across the Ala Wai Canal (so filthy the outrigger canoe paddlers are terrified to tip over lest they touch it).

Nothing down there quite as cheesy as "Eggshelland", but there is a guy with a parrot on his shoulder who follows you around begging for a picture, any number of gun clubs, very popular with Japanese ("eastbound") visitors who don't get much of a chance to fire deadly weapons at home, and two Denny's (alas, the waterfront one is gone, replaced by another upscale joint).

[Jokerman]

4. Yes - Speedway, Indiana

Three times a year several hundred thousand tourists descend on our town.

[Dookus]

5. yes

I live in Santa Cruz, California. It's quite the tourist town. I can hear the roller coaster on the Boardwalk from my house.

[demosincebirth]

14. Tourist town, also a college town, but not a tourist trap.

I go there often.

[Dookus]

16. true...

not a trap. Most of us here love the tourists - it keeps the town going.

[Left Is Write]

6. No, not really. Boise's not a big tourist town.

I imagine most "tourists" to Idaho are going to Sun Valley.

[Beware the Beast Man]

Oh there has to be a giant ball of twine out there somewhere!

Or at least a 2-headed cow...

[Left Is Write]

13. Nope. There isn't.

Craters Of The Moon isn't too far a drive, though.

http://www.nps.gov/crmo/



Edited to add that I used to live seven minutes away from a very big tourist trap - MOA. I've logged many an hour there.

[ohiosmith]

7. I live in the world's largest tourist trap!

[Lavender Brown]

8. Maybe not true tourist traps, because they are really worth seeing once

But Times Square and the Empire State Building are so crowded... it's the New Yorkers who get trapped by all the tourists! :D

[KurtNYC]

10. Here is a tourist trap

(the "naked cowboy")

right down the street from me

[MuseRider]

9. Yes, Colorado.

HA, I live in Kansas so the answer would be a resounding NO! Not a large tourist trap anyway. However 1/2 block from my house is the annual Tulip Festival that goes on for 2 weeks and sometimes longer every April. I have come home to find up to 10 cars parked in my front yard. They turn our roads into one way streets and since I live on the dead end there is only one way to get through and that is the place where they stop the busses to let out all the nursing home traffic. Now I am already pissed! AArgh.

[underpants]

11. I grew up 10 miles from Williamsburg Va

Busch Gardens
Colonial Williamsburg
Water Country
-I worked in several jobs in "the 'burg"
and an hour from Va. Beach.

[WMliberal]

45. hey, I went to school there.

I can't tell you how many accidents I saw at Confusion Corner. Stupid tourists...

[underpants]

47. I worked in several hotels there

I've never seen anyone as uptight as a Pennsylvanian or New Jersey-ite on vacation.

Best job (not a real job though) was being a breakfast waiter in the 'burg. It was an early rise but by 10:00 I had $40-50 in my pocket and the rest of the day off.

[WMliberal]

50. sounds nice, if you can deal with the picky senior citizens.

When they've got their dander up, their as bad as Jersey trash tourists. Evidence: the Ukrops parking lot.

I liked working at the Cheese Shop. A nice family owns it. Decent pay. EXCELLENT fringe benefits, especially with the Fat Canary adjacent to it.

[Kellanved]

12. one? Hundreds!

Russian, East German, and pre war (most of them fake, mind you) Uniforms and decorations. The "Checkpoint Charlie" exhibition, which has no scientific value whatsoever (and no public funding).
The cold-war nuke-safe public shelter, which is nowadays used for another worthless exhibit.
Tons of tourist-oriented Restaurants.
...
Of course there are a few enjoyable tourist traps as well: rent-a-Trabbi, the TV tower, ...

[TheMightyFavog]

36. Rent-a-Trabi?

Are you saying that people are actually paying good money for the privlege of driving around in an ugly ass blue-smoke-belching-from-its-two-stroke-engine, body-made-of-waterproofed-cardboard East German shitbox?

People are wierd.

[Kellanved]

38. indeed

http://www.trabi-safari.de/?lang=eng

[TheMightyFavog]

39. I thought that the German Government was trying to get rid of those things

Diese Autos sind nicht so umweltfreundlich, nicht war?

[Kellanved]

41. That's pretty hard to do

Especially as many models are already eligible for "vintage-car"-plates.
They aren't common anymore - a few years ago there were dozens of them parked in my street, today: maybe one.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. nyc!

[Kali]

17. Oh yes! - The Thing? Mystery of the Desert - anybody know it?

Also the town of Tombstone is about 40 minutes away, talk about a tourist trap.

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Not too far from Frankenmuth. and just North of "The Henry Ford", which

used to be called "Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village" until some idiot came up with this new name. I loved and still do love the Wisconsin Dells, which is a monument to 50's tacky tourism. It's great. :hi:

[MotorCityMan]

46. Don't forget Irish Hills!

Prehistoric Forest, Stage Coach Stop, Mystery Hill, the two towers

Nothing BUT a tourist trap!!

[On the Road]

19. The Tackiest One of All

[Nailzberg]

20. Hollywood Walk of Fame

Can't get down a sidewalk without sidestepping 200 tourists lying on the ground to take thier picture with the Star for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Come on people, if you are going to lay on the ground in a place like Hollywood, at least go for a Marilyn Monroe calibre star.

[yewberry]

21. Yes, yes I do.

Just a little south of here on lovely route 1 is the famous Hilltop Steak House, home of a herd of plastic cattle grazing on the lawn and a 70-foot neon cactus. The owner even has his own generator to keep it lit up in case the power goes out. A little farther south is a large orange plastic dinosaur; I think it lives at a mini-golf place.

Do I win a prize?

[Beware the Beast Man]

22. That. Is. Awesome.

Yes, you definitely take the lead!

[OnionPatch]

23. Yes! Giant dinosaurs!

I don't live far from two giant dinosaurs that are just off the I-10, west of Palm Springs, CA. They are about 65 feet high. There is some sort of brontosaurus and a T-Rex. (I'm not up on dino species so forgive me if I'm wrong.)

Some of the scenes in Pee Wee's Big Adventure were filmed there. I think it's where he got out of the semi that was driven by Large Marge and went in the diner. I've eaten there several times.

[Speck Tater]

24. I was going to dig a tourist trap in the back yard

But it would take a lot of work to make it deep enough so they couldn't just climb out. And then a pit full of shouting tourists would probably keep the neighbors awake all night, so I figured it just wasn't worth the trouble.

[Donkeyboy75]

25. Yep.

Blarney Castle.

[Butterflies]

27. I was there once to kiss the Blarney stone, and people told us

that locals sometimes pee on that stone (just to be jerky.) Please tell me that's not true . . . .

[Donkeyboy75]

28. I believe it is true.

I wouldn't kiss it. x(

[Maine-ah]

26. ay' a

this state is a tourist trap. I live in the lobster capital. First week of august every year thousands flock here for the lobster festival.

[jonnyblitz]

29. two streets over from Mohegan Sun casino in CT.

I guess that is considered one.

[Wat_Tyler]

30. Yeah. I work in a building attached to the Calgary Tower.

A big phallus screwing the sky - pointless really.

[midnight armadillo]

31. Yes, I live in Mass.

Cape Cod has morphed over the years into one massive tourist trap. The outer Cape is not quite so bad (I still like Marconi Beach), but for the most part it's just a massive sandy tourist trap.

[GalleryGod]

49. P-Town! Best Drag Shows Around

:smoke: :evilgrin: :smoke:

[asthmaticeog]

32. I grew up near Eggshelland!

Pilgrimage traffic in a residential neighborhood, every god damn year...

I currently live in brick throwin' distance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but since that "institution" has failed at trapping many tourists, I'm not sure if it counts.

Slightly more germaine, I suspect, is that my neighborhood has turned, over the past few years, into a foo-foo restaurant district, which attracts "tourists" from the rich suburbs who drive drunk on our streets, blow off the stop signs, and prevent those of us who get home a little late on Friday from parking anywhere near our own godamn houses.

[RUDUing2]

33. about 45 mins from Bagnell Dam/Lake of the Ozarks...

[Butterflies]

34. Has anyone ever heard of Miniature Graceland?

It has fallen into disrepair, but it's still there.

[nickgutierrez]

35. I lived in Florida.

'Nuff said.

Practically that whole state is a giant tourist trap, and it's shaped like a penis.

[RagingInMiami]

43. Also shaped like a gun

Both shapes fit the state's image perfectly

[Fifth of Five]

37. Yep -

Within 20 miles of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge (Tennessee). Come get your Confederate flag beach towels and rubber tomahawks!

Actually, most of the places selling those particular items have closed, only to be replaced by stores selling bad art, "crafts" made in China, "home-made" candy, and knives.

Lots of gaudy miniature golf courses, go-cart tracks and outlet malls. You won't starve - there's a restaurant on every corner, and for real fun, Dollywood's just down the street!

[maveric]

40. Several here in San Diego.

The whole community of La Jolla for one.

[RagingInMiami]

42. I live in Florida, the world's biggest tourist trap

[WMliberal]

44. I just graduated from William & Mary. I had a job in Colonial Williamsburg

We called tourists "torons."

[demily]

48. Congress Avenue Bridge

I live a block from the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas. It's famous for the colony of bats that live underneath in the summer, plus the great view of the capitol building. I don't mind the tourists, except for when they step out into the middle of the busy street to take pictures of the capitol. What a good way to get hit by a car on your vacation! :eyes:

[Love Bug]

51. Yep. I live near the Mall of America