What’s something about your country that you feel is overhyped/overrated?

41 comments

1. Tulip fields.

   Also Anne Frank’s house. She’s not even there.

2. Norwegian and the Vikings. It is always talked about Vikings like it is a great part of our culture, but we don’t care about Vikings or really identify ourselves with the Vikings (obviously lol). But yeah.

3. Sound of Music. It’s an American thing, not Austrian. The majority of Austrians never even watched the film.

4. How bad the food here is.

   Sure, it’s not as iconic or distinctive (or honestly, good) as say Italy or France, but there are plenty of places to eat decent food here and there’s a pretty big variety so there’s something for everyone.

   Apparently a lot of the reputation comes from American experiences of living in the UK during the war, and rationing, which obviously meant that the food was not great.

5. A Lundi/Puffin plushy.

   Every tourist that comes here just “Must” have one and then we sell you one for a small fortune. It’s just a plushy, i’m sure you can find a cheap one on Amazon or Ebay.

6. People always refer to The Netherlands and their biking culture whatever that is. Some people think Dutch don’t drive or are anti driving and cycle all day being cycle enthousiast. Actually most people own a car and people like to drive. They like to cycle as well but few people are cycle enthusiast. Cycling is for most people a convenient way to get from point A to B. Just like walking can be a convenient way and driving can be. It depends on where you go and what you gonna do.

   Another thing are the tulip fields. It’s nice and all but you get used to it. I never understand why people go to my country to visit those fields. You can also watch a picture on the internet. A warning for those who do visit those fields, don’t walk into the fields.

   And last thing, Amsterdam is overhyped as well. The canals are fine and all, but there are many cities with canals. I think Amsterdam is crowded, dirty and full of tourist traps. And boring as well. It doesn’t represent The Netherlands at all.

7. You are not going to enjoy Haggis.

   To be fair, the description isn’t even remotely appetising so that’s on you at that point.

8. Gulyás. I like it a lot, but I feel like it gets a disproportionate amount of attention from foreigners.

9. Paris… Mostly because people will only visit it and think they know France. Don’t get me wrong Paris is a beautiful place, but doesn’t represent the whole country and is quite overhyped because of tv (Emily in Paris…). It’s before all a big city with big city problems before being your fantasyland.

10. Most tourists come to Italy just to do Romeflorencevenice. In 6-7-8 days. Beautiful cities, but SO touristic that are like an amusement park adapted in decades for them.

    They see amazing art (running around it..), yes of course, but they see so few of real Italy and the only Italians they see are (perhaps) those paid to serve them. And they see exactly what other 1838576282 tourists have already seen, surrounded by other tourists, doing the same city center streets, making the exact same pics, waiting in the same lines etc. Than they return home and say to their friends they saw Italy (?).. and that it’s like this (??) and that (???) blabla.

    Please my friends, add some real cities, really inhabited by citizens, for example just on the way of the train/road line Rome-Florence-Venice (so zero effort) you can find Bologna, Ferrara, Padova, Orvieto. You’ll see beautiful art, but also some real italian life and culture, something the majority of tourists will not see. Add some days and do stop.

11. Leprechauns in Ireland – this is basically just an American obsession and as far as I’m aware doesn’t figure in Irish mythology either.

12. Ireland:

    The food. I hear so many people say how great it is but to me it’s not much better than any other European country. We’ve a strawberry obsession and think our strawberries are the best when they’re clearly not.

    The beer. Similar with the food when you travel all over Europe I find our beer very average and we have no range.

13. Probably an unpopular opinion but… beer? Don’t get me wrong, I love German beer. But you get good beer in other countries too. If you just go to a random German pub and order a beer, I don’t think it will taste any better than if you did the same thing in any of our neighboring countries. Of course, there are thousands and thousands of breweries and you will find a great selection of beers if you know what you’re looking for. But that seems to be the case in most places, at least in Europe and especially since “craft beer” has become a trend. As embarrassing as it is, I even think the American trend of “craft beer” has benefitted German brewing because before every town had a brewery that would mainly produce an unimpressive Pilsner lager that tastes as close as possible to the one brewn next doors. Probably, if you come from a place with no beer culture, German beer is amazing. But compared with other Central European countries it’s not that special. Now I’m thirsty. Prost!

14. Germany: Christmas Markets and big cathedrals. They’re cool at first, but once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

15. The cuisine, but I think it’s a case of being both overrated and underrated. I think people have slept on Portuguese cuisine for way too long and some people have some really ignorant takes on it (because they don’t know much about the cuisine). On the other hand, I wouldn’t put it in the top 5 cuisines of the world, and feel like a lot of people here put it on a pedestal. There are foods that I love and overall am fond of our cuisine, I just wouldn’t say it’s one of the best. But it definitely deserves recognition.

    Speaking of which, the pastel de nata. Great pastry, an all-time classic, but people need to chill tf on it. I feel like the marketing on that food has gone out of hand. And to a lesser degree the francesinha. It’s meant to be a regional dish, but became popular online that now a lot of touristy places have it on the menu. There’s a lot more to the cuisine than those two things, bacalhau, and piri-piri sauce.

    EDIT: Grammar

16. German engineering

    VW, the top employer of german engineers just made a fool out of himself by having to resort to cheating to meet international standards .

    Every large building project (Berlin Airport, Stuttgart 21 etc. ) lacks years behind schedule, is rigged with errors and ends up costing multiple times its original estimate.

    There is really nothing special about German engineering nowadays. It’s an old cliche stemming from the 60’s

17. Slovenia: Ljubljana, the capital city.

    It’s a small provincial town, the old city centre is minuscule and the quarters around it are littered with terrible socialist apartment buildings. It lies in a basin meaning the air is polluted half of a year and it’s foggy the rest of the year. It’s public transport is a joke and driving around with any other kind of vehicle means either terrible traffic jams on pothole ridden roads (car) or having a death wish on non-existent bike paths (bike). It’s poorly connected to the rest of Europe with slow trains and nonexistent flights. And to top it all off, there is no night life to speak of.

18. Parts of The Cotswolds feel overhyped. Going to Bourton or Bibury wont give an accurate depiction of the Cotswolds at all.

    Outside of those really popular areas (which seem to mostly fall on the A429) are some really underrated spots, like Nibley Monument (which offers great views over the South Gloucestershire area) or you can venture out a bit more into gloucestershire, which seems quite overshadowed by the Cotswolds and go to places like Nibley Monument (+ Nearby Wotton, which is a Cotswold town, which would offer a more normal experience of the cotswolds, even if Wotton hasnt got much there beyond walks in the forest up the local hill) or go out of the Cotswolds into towns like Tewkesbury, which has a old abbey as well as some nice river walks and a decently sized high street, and isnt too far off the lovely Malvern Hills as well, in neighbouring Worcestershire (which has places like Worcester, which are worth a visit as well)

19. Paris, I think most people know that by now.

    But Barcelona has left me quite underwhelmed. It’s definitely not as pretty as pictured online. I found the streets to be quite dirty, grey and unappealing.

    But the clubs were good and the people were nice.

20. Spain: Tapas… basically glorified finger food / bar appetizers that you can easily make at home or find in any EU country

21. As with most countries here, our capital. Don’t get me wrong, Prague isn’t a bad city at all and it does have its charm, but it’s so touristy and it’s definitely not the only thing our country offers. So many tourists just tick Prague off their list and never see any other part of Czechia, which is a pity. We have beautiful countryside, cute small towns and villages, mountains, castles, you name it – and tourists just let themselves get scammed at Charles Bridge and that’s their whole visit.

22. Tapas. They are mostly the equivalent of the peanuts you get with your beer. And some of the abominations you get a tourist places or Spanish restaurants abroad are a crime against humanity.

    (Unless you are from Leon, Lugo or a few other places)

23. We’re really not that big on waffles. You’ll find at least one fries shack in even the tiniest town, but you’d be hard pressed to find a waffle stall anywhere outside of the touristy centers.

24. The Mediterranean coast (most beaches suck, completely overcrowded and nature destroyed to build hotels) I’m also not a huge fan of beaches in general. The obsession with Barcelona tourist have, don’t get me wrong there are lots of things to see there but idk.

25. Imagine 90% of people in one country support their president. That’s literally impossible, but a lot of people think we do

26. All Finns spend their days in Arctic tundra, driving toboggans pulled by moose over the snowy mountains, eking a living from fighting polar bears for vodka, and also have an Arctic Circle crossing ceremony every night.

    Would you be surprised if I told you that nothing in the above exists in Finland? Except the Arctic Circle crossing ceremony, some enterprising showman came up with that because British tourists apparently were expecting it (no such tradition exists in Finland).

27. The folklore and the nature. Every country has some pretty nature sites. And the folklore traditions are largely nothing unique, but rather part of a continuum of the European, Mediterranean and even Middle Eastern cultural spaces. I hate how folklore has been reduced to a lacquered, commercialized version of itself.

28. The heat and beaches. There are a lot of great places and cities ( not only Barcelona, Málaga, Tenerife or Mallorca) to visit during all year.

29. Bullfighting, it only survives thanks to right wing idiots and tourists, most of us are against it.

    Siesta, today only small children and old people do it, most of us rarely do it or only do it during the weekend after a big meal.

30. Żabka. It’s not a good store, it’s stupidly expensive, dangerous to small businesses, exploitative and there’s barely anything there. It’s targeted for like 15 year olds, yet it has become synonymous with Poland because it’s everywhere and it’s convenient.

31. The watches. Everybody’s like omgyourewearingaswissfuckingwatch but, I mean, it was about CHF 50.- from an online retailer. It’s not only Rolex and Omega, we also make watches for the masses.

32. Flamenco, out of Andalusia and a few other spots, it’s basically non existent.

    Bullfighting, surveys show that half of the population want to ban them. In some places in the north it’s decaying or has never been a thing. It survives because it’s pushed by conservative governments.

    Paella, 90% of restaurants give shit as paella. Well, it’s edible, but it’s shamefully poor quality. Same with many “tapas”.

    Sangria, I haven’t drink that in maybe two decades, I haven’t seen a local drinking that in Barcelona, never.

    Our “lifestyle”, no, my friend, your holidays have nothing to do with our daily life.

33. Hallstatt in Austria — that tiny little town with the cute houses lined up along a lake that you definitely would have seen before if you’ve ever been in the “travel influencer” Instagram loop. It’s picturesque and all, but packed with tourists. Austria has tons of beautiful little towns like this, arguably much nicer ones. Highly recommend you just hire a car and drive around, and you’ll literally bump into cute towns and beautiful lakes left, right, and centre.

34. Hygge. It is touted as some secret Danish explanation to the meaning of life that let us be the happiest nation in the world for years in a row. The only special thing about “hygge” is that we have a single word for it, whereas most other languages have a few for different aspects of it. It isn’t the Jedi secret to becoming a force ghost or something, seriously!

    Imagine the reaction to the following (in Danish and English, respectively)

    – Sitting on a balcony with a cup of tea, enjoying a sunset (ej hvor hyggeligt | oh how cozy)
    – going to watch a movie with friends (det lyder hyggeligt | that sounds nice)
    – I’m spending Christmas with my old grandmother (det er da hyggeligt | my, how lovely)

    I could go on. Hygge is nice – not because *it* is a special concept with inherent goodness, but rather because it is a word that is used to describe situations, things, or actions that are already positive in themselves, and these are the things that are nice

35. If you’re visiting Belfast on a cruise ship or you’re just planning a short stay, there is so much more to Northern Ireland than just taking a bus tour to learn about the history of the Troubles.

    Yes, it is important and integral to the history of the island of Ireland as a whole, but it shouldn’t be your sole impression of here. Thankfully, our society has mostly changed for the better, and the vast majority of us never want to return to that dark, violent past.

    We’ve got:

    The Titanic Belfast visitor centre

    Antrim Coast & Glens

    Giant’s Causeway

    The Game of Thrones Studio Tour in Banbridge

    Several GOT filming locations:

    The Haunted Forest: Tollymore Forest Park, County Down.

    Dothraki Sea: Binevenagh, County Derry/ Antrim.

    Winterfell: Castle Ward, County Down.

    The Kingsroad: The Dark Hedges, County Antrim.

    Runestone in the Veil of Arryn: Glenariff, County Antrim.

    The Old Bushmills Distillery

    Cushendun Caves

    Marble Arch Caves

    St. Anne’s Cathedral

    Grand Opera House

    Cathedral Quarter

    SS Nomadic

    HMS Caroline

    Divis Ridge Trail

    Black Mountain

    Newcastle, Kilkeel, Warrenpoint & Slieve Donard

    Enniskillen & Lough Erne

    Portrush, Portstewart & The Causeway Coastal Route

    I might have missed some good places, but these are the ones I can think of.

36. Juliet’s House in Verona.

    I mean, they’re imaginary characters, the house is just a random medieval house with a balcony added in the 1920s.

37. In regards to the UK, the standard of living. The affluence and economic investment almost exclusively in London massively distorts not only the statistics of the UKs development but also the perceived standard of living.

38. Americans have turned us into a characture and everyone else is starting to buy into it

39. Edinburgh—>The Isle of Skye. Really breaking the mould by visiting those two.

40. Maltese history is summarised to 1565. It’s like it’s the only event that has ever occurred in Maltese history.

41. Kindness of strangers in the UK (particularly Scotland)

    Oh and despite what we, the Welsh and the Irish might try to squeal, there are very few cultural differences in us and the English. There, I said it.

    I’ve found help wherever I’ve been. Go to any big city and you’ll find plenty of people here who wouldn’t help or would tell you to f*ck off. Not saying we don’t have loads of kind and outgoing people here, but so do other places in Europe and no doubt other places on the planet.

    You go to some rural areas and they’ll have the phone in their hand ready to ring the police just on your arrival alone lol

    Australians aren’t that funny to me. And I doubt most of them really consider themselves that hysterical. The Irish don’t care for those stereotypes either.

    Source: half of my family are Irish. They don’t like people. End of story.