What are your city's tourist traps?

[SignalHillHiker]

I asked... oh, years ago... what some of the biggest misconceptions were about your city and the responses were fascinating because they were things I often believed.

So this is in a similar vein... what about your city are you embarrassed every time a visitor tells you they did, or asks how to get to/do? What would you recommend tourists avoid? And, if appropriate, what alternative would you suggest?

[esquire]

Winnipeg's Chinatown is old and pathetic. Most of Winnipeg's ethnic Chinese are in the south end of town by the U of Manitoba, all that's left in Chinatown are a couple of apartment blocks for seniors/recent immigrants and about six or seven restaurants and food stores located on the edge of skid row. It makes Edmonton's Chinatown look like full-on Hong Kong. Yet it still gets written up in the tourist guides as if it was something to see.

Yesterday I was walking down King Street when a man on a bike came up to me and asked whether "this is Chinatown"...yeah, buddy, all four square blocks (pockmarked by surface parking lots) of it. Turns out he was from Malaysia... I'm thinking he wasn't impressed.

[SignalHillHiker]

The Chinatown does have that one Chinese-looking building, though.

*****

For St. John's, the main one that would impact tourists is getting Screeched In at Trapper John's. Don't do it. Every tourist-related thing (brochures, posters, recommendations from hotel staff, etc. will point you to Trapper's). That's NOT the right place.The ceremony itself is alarmingly ridiculous, and the only part that makes it fun is a talented Screech Master and a fine crowd. You won't often get those at Trapper's. If you want to do it - go to Christian's. You'll leave there having laughed and had a wonderful time and met new people and feel... like it really was a welcome to the city. At Trapper's, you'll just feel you paid to go through the motions. It's like... Trapper's is taking tango lessons at a YMCA in Sudbury. Christian's is doing a tango for the first time with a sexy Argentinian man in a hole-in-the-wall bar where you're the only foreigner. It's a whole other thing.

Sunrise at Cape Spear. It's a 15-minute drive from St. John's only because the roads are so serpentine. You can see it from Signal Hill - even make out individual cars. The whole tourist attraction of seeing the "first sunrise in North America" (excluding any portions not in Canada and the U.S.) is not diminished at all by simply remaining in the city and seeing it from there, even from your hotel room bed.

Departing for iceberg/bird viewing tours from St. John's. It's wonderful to see the city from the water and sail out and back through the Narrows, it really is - but if you want to see the birds up close and on land, instead of just as distant specks flying across the water, take a tour from the suburban town of Bay Bulls to the South. Those ones are about the same price but actually go to the bird nesting areas. So, even if you don't see whales, there's still a cool sight worth the cost. All the major hotels have shuttles.

Cabs from the airport are ridiculously overpriced. This is probably common everywhere I imagine? Don't do it. Post on Kijiji, ask a friend, fuck, ask me... arrange a ride from the airport to your destination through any other means. It's SO CLOSE to the city, just up on the highlands above the suburbs. It's not worth the inflated cost.

[hipster duck]

It's not really a tourist trap story, but once I met an acquaintance from Mexico by accident in the Toronto airport. He had been there to attend a conference at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel, which is down on Toronto's Harbourfront. I asked him if had had a chance to see the city and what his impressions were. I learned that he had basically not left a square roughly bounded by the lake to the south, Front street to the north, Spadina avenue to the west and Yonge street to the east.

Now, I don't know what other Toronto forumers think but, to me, that is the most embarrassing slice of the city. It is totally devoid of character, having been built almost entirely in the past 35 years. Most of the buildings are banal condo projects from just over 10 years ago, when the city was still trying to find its architectural groove, and uninspiring office towers. It is cut up by elevated freeways and offramps and contains almost no decent restaurants. Every retail or dining establishment is basically a large format chain that's geared for tourists or Torontonians watching basketball/hockey games at the ACC. There are some good activities at the Harbourfront cultural centre and Power Plant art gallery, and occasionally bands will play at the amphitheatre for free, but these are programmed activities and not really indicative of the spontaneity of urban life.

Now, he wasn't the type of person who derives a lot of enjoyment in exploring urban neighbourhoods or eating at experimental restaurants, but I still tried to gently let him know that there was more to the city than what he saw.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The Chinatown does have that one Chinese-looking building, though.

*****

For St. John's, the main one that would impact tourists is getting Screeched In at Trapper John's. Don't do it. Every tourist-related thing (brochures, posters, recommendations from hotel staff, etc. will point you to Trapper's). That's NOT the right place.The ceremony itself is alarmingly ridiculous, and the only part that makes it fun is a talented Screech Master and a fine crowd. You won't often get those at Trapper's. If you want to do it - go to Christian's. You'll leave there having laughed and had a wonderful time and met new people and feel... like it really was a welcome to the city. At Trapper's, you'll just feel you paid to go through the motions.

Sunrise at Cape Spear. It's a 15-minute drive from St. John's only because the roads are so serpentine. You can see it from Signal Hill - even make out individual cars. The whole tourist attraction of seeing the "first sunrise in North America" (excluding any portions not in Canada and the U.S.) is not diminished at all by simply remaining in the city and seeing it from there, even from your hotel room bed.

Departing for iceberg/bird viewing tours from St. John's. It's wonderful to see the city from the water and sail out and back through the Narrows, it really is - but if you want to see the birds up close and on land, instead of just as distant specks flying across the water, take a tour from the suburban town of Bay Bulls to the South. Those ones are about the same price but actually go to the bird nesting areas. So, even if you don't see whales, there's still a cool sight worth the cost. All the major hotels have shuttles.

Cabs from the airport are ridiculously overpriced. This is probably common everywhere I imagine? Don't do it. Post on Kijiji, ask a friend, fuck, ask me... arrange a ride from the airport to your destination through any other means.

I suggest sunrise from Cora's downtown if it is nice out. You'll get better pictures if you do sunrise at Signal Hill as well. That said, by all means pack a picnic lunch and head to Cape Spear because it's a great place to lay out a picnic blanket and have a feast of Mary Brown's or maybe sandwiches from Coffee Matter. Ferryland might be a better picnic experience, but its a bit of a drive.

[hipster duck]

Vancouver is strange because it's a touristy city, but the tacky landmarks that tourists visit are good places to get a feel for the pulse of the actual city.

For example, tourists visit Granville Island to see the market, but that's where thousands of locals actually shop for groceries. The steam clock is an incredibly tacky tourist trap, but it's located in Gastown which actually is a cool neighbourhood with a lot of character that a lot of locals go out to. Tourists rent bikes and pedal around the Stanley Park seawall, but so do most Vancouverites (they don't rent their bikes, obviously). Tourists line up to pay $7 to eat a Japadog - a hot dog with tobiko sauce and other Japanese ingredients on top of it, instead of ketchup - but it is a good initiation into the Japanese fusion cuisine that is very indigenous to Vancouver and makes this city's food scene so exciting.

The real tourist trap in Vancouver that hardly any locals go to is Cailano Canyon, where they've taken a pedestrian standard suspension bridge over a river valley and made a theme park around it and charged visitors $30. You can see tourists board an aging coach bus at downtown hotels which shuttles them there. The regional parks system has an equally impressive suspension bridge nearby at Lynn Canyon which operates for free.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

It's not really a tourist trap story, but once I met an acquaintance from Mexico by accident in the Toronto airport. He had been there to attend a conference at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel, which is down on Toronto's Harbourfront. I asked him if had had a chance to see the city and what his impressions were. I learned that he had basically not left a square roughly bounded by the lake to the south, Front street to the north, Spadina avenue to the west and Yonge street to the east.

Now, I don't know what other Toronto forumers think but, to me, that is the most embarrassing slice of the city. It is totally devoid of character, having been built almost entirely in the past 35 years. Most of the buildings are banal condo projects from just over 10 years ago, when the city was still trying to find its architectural groove, and uninspiring office towers. It is cut up by elevated freeways and offramps and contains almost no decent restaurants. Every retail or dining establishment is basically a large format chain that's geared for tourists or Torontonians watching basketball/hockey games at the ACC. There are some good activities at the Harbourfront cultural centre and Power Plant art gallery, and occasionally bands will play at the amphitheatre for free, but these are programmed activities and not really indicative of the spontaneity of urban life.

Now, he wasn't the type of person who derives a lot of enjoyment in exploring urban neighbourhoods or eating at experimental restaurants, but I still tried to gently let him know that there was more to the city than what he saw.

My last couple of times in "TO" I didn't even get out of Markham.

[GernB]

Nikka Yuko Garden, our faux-Japanese centennial project is embarrassing. And Whoop Up Country, our bow to a wild west that never was, is just....unspeakable.

The new CASA arts centre is beautiful inside, not so inspiring exterior. In the summer the Dragon Boats and the jazz festival are not bad. The Air Show can be entertaining, but it's now only every other year. Heritage Day (August long weekend) was great at Circle in the Square in Galt Park downtown.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by esquire

Winnipeg's Chinatown is old and pathetic. Most of Winnipeg's ethnic Chinese are in the south end of town by the U of Manitoba, all that's left in Chinatown are a couple of apartment blocks for seniors/recent immigrants and about six or seven restaurants and food stores located on the edge of skid row. It makes Edmonton's Chinatown look like full-on Hong Kong. Yet it still gets written up in the tourist guides as if it was something to see.

Yesterday I was walking down King Street when a man on a bike came up to me and asked whether "this is Chinatown"...yeah, buddy, all four square blocks (pockmarked by surface parking lots) of it. Turns out he was from Malaysia... I'm thinking he wasn't impressed.

Not sure why this is such a bone of contention with you. So our Chinatown is not the best, no big thing to get worked up about.

Anyways, The Forks, Assiniboine Park, Osborne Village and Corydon Ave are some of Winnipeg's bigger tourist traps.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Pinus

Not sure why this is such a bone of contention with you. So our Chinatown is not the best, no big thing to get worked up about.

Calm down, what's left of Chinatown can withstand the barrage of my earlier comment.

[SignalHillHiker]

The Forks delivers, though. It's very good at what it claims to be.

Osborne Village is a bit... yeah. If you're expecting a street dense with pedestrians, it's not that most of the time. But the Toad, the cool shops, Unburger, and especially during festivals when it's closed to traffic, it's great. I would consider it more of a time-dependent attraction than a trap.

Assiniboine Park is a trap, yeah. It's just a park. But if you go when the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is putting on a show... you'll leave impressed. So it too is not ALWAYS a trap.

Corydon is probably always a trap. It's marketed as Little Italy but, at least when I last lived there (2012), it was Little Japan. So if you come searching for delicious, authentic pizza and hairy-chested, flirtatious men, you'll leave disappointed. But if you come wanting a residential-turned-vibrant-commercial strip, with an open mind to exploring all the different cuisines and bars... again, it can deliver on your expectations.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Now, I don't know what other Toronto forumers think but, to me, that is the most embarrassing slice of the city. It is totally devoid of character, having been built almost entirely in the past 35 years. Most of the buildings are banal condo projects from just over 10 years ago, when the city was still trying to find its architectural groove, and uninspiring office towers. It is cut up by elevated freeways and offramps and contains almost no decent restaurants. Every retail or dining establishment is basically a large format chain that's geared for tourists or Torontonians watching basketball/hockey games at the ACC. There are some good activities at the Harbourfront cultural centre and Power Plant art gallery, and occasionally bands will play at the amphitheatre for free, but these are programmed activities and not really indicative of the spontaneity of urban life.

To be fair area has become a lot better in the last 5 years or so as Southcore has developed, with at least some decent restaurants now. The streetscaping there is quite nice (if decidedly corporate) and Queens Quay legitimately looks gorgeous as of this summer. It's not longer quite the barren wasteland it used to be.

That being said there is NO way I would ever recommend anyone go down there unless they were in town for a bit and had some time to kill. I cringe when I hear of tourists making a beeline to the waterfront. It's also a bit ironic that the main thing down there geared to locals that has legitimately interesting material is one that isn't touristy at all- the Power Plant gallery.

The biggest tourist trap in TO is of course the CN Tower, but it's actually worth going to once so it probably doesn't count. Aside from the central waterfront I would probably say eating at any restaurant in the central core that isn't really high-end or they know is local. This would mainly apply to non-Canadian tourists who don't know of chains like Jack Astor's and Milestones. Downtown actually has some very attractive looking chains that one may assume are local at first glance.

I also see a TON of tourists on double decker tour busses on Yonge street. I'm not sure exactly what it shows them. I have always kind of wanted to find out.

Generally, if you don't go west of Spadina, or east of Parliament (for the more adventurous) then you're doing it wrong! So I guess staying downtown is the biggest tourist trap mistake you can make.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The Forks delivers, though. It's very good at what it claims to be.

And with the hundreds of millions of dollars in residential and commercial investments about to be pumped into the area, it's only going to get bigger and better.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Osborne Village is a bit... yeah. If you're expecting a street dense with pedestrians, it's not that most of the time. But the Toad, the cool shops, Unburger, and especially during festivals when it's closed to traffic, it's great. I would consider it more of a time-dependent attraction than a trap.

It's quite busy in the summer, especially in the evenings. More new restaurants and a few more residential developments also help pump more streetlife into the area. I particularly love Billabongs, but I wish they would server more Australian beers though.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Assiniboine Park is a trap, yeah. It's just a park. But if you go when the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is putting on a show... you'll leave impressed. So it too is not ALWAYS a trap.

It's more than just a regular park. The Assiniboine Zoo (including new Journey to Churchill exhibit), The Botanical Gardens, the Duck Pond, the Pavilion with various activities throughout the year (RWB) like you said; there is lots of fun things to do there and it's a huge attraction. Lots more additions to come yet, so that it will be even better.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Corydon is probably always a trap. It's marketed as Little Italy but, at least when I last lived there (2012), it was Little Japan. So if you come searching for delicious, authentic pizza and hairy-chested, flirtatious men, you'll leave disappointed. But if you come wanting a residential-turned-vibrant-commercial strip, with an open mind to exploring all the different cuisines and bars... again, it can deliver on your expectations.

Corydon Ave. was in decline for a bit, but now money is being pumped back into the area, including new residental and commercial developments including new restaurants and shops. Definately more Oriental influence is happening, but that is typical all over the city now.

[niwell]

Oh yeah - similar to what SHH said about Italian food, don't go to Toronto's College st Little Italy for Italian. I mean, there is some REALLY good food in the area (two of the best restaurants in Canada), and actually some excellent Italian food. However don't expect to walk down the street and walk into a random restaurant for great food. There are tons of them, and they're ok, but the city definitely has better. The area isn't so much a tourist trap as a suburban visitor trap. If you do go look up places beforehand!

The same goes for Greektown in the Danforth, except I'm not sure there is actually good Greek there anymore!

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Pinus

And with the hundreds of millions of dollars in residential and commercial investments about to be pumped into the area, it's only going to get bigger and better.

From my outsider perspective... the Forks was marketed as a place where two rivers combine, and a former First Nations trading post.

So you can imagine going there expecting that... the Market alone blows those expectations out of the water. And that tower above the bars with the view of the skyline? Totally unadvertised or expected but awesome.

RE: Assiniboine Park. I still think it's just a park. But a good one. One thing you forgot in your list, though: the Leo Mol (sp?) sculpture gallery. Which was cool.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

RE: Assiniboine Park. I still think it's just a park. But a good one. One thing you forgot in your list, though: the Leo Mol (sp?) sculpture gallery. Which was cool.

For me, it's like saying Stanley Park is just a park; which it's not. There is so much more to it.

And yes, the sculpture gallery is very cool.

[ue]

West Edmonton Mall, obviously.

[Martin Mtl]

Montreal: the underground "city".

[wg_flamip]

Originally Posted by niwell

To be fair area has become a lot better in the last 5 years or so as Southcore has developed, with at least some decent restaurants now. The streetscaping there is quite nice (if decidedly corporate) and Queens Quay legitimately looks gorgeous as of this summer. It's not longer quite the barren wasteland it used to be.

That being said there is NO way I would ever recommend anyone go down there unless they were in town for a bit and had some time to kill. I cringe when I hear of tourists making a beeline to the waterfront. It's also a bit ironic that the main thing down there geared to locals that has legitimately interesting material is one that isn't touristy at all- the Power Plant gallery.

The biggest tourist trap in TO is of course the CN Tower, but it's actually worth going to once so it probably doesn't count. Aside from the central waterfront I would probably say eating at any restaurant in the central core that isn't really high-end or they know is local. This would mainly apply to non-Canadian tourists who don't know of chains like Jack Astor's and Milestones. Downtown actually has some very attractive looking chains that one may assume are local at first glance.

I also see a TON of tourists on double decker tour busses on Yonge street. I'm not sure exactly what it shows them. I have always kind of wanted to find out.

Generally, if you don't go west of Spadina, or east of Parliament (for the more adventurous) then you're doing it wrong! So I guess staying downtown is the biggest tourist trap mistake you can make.

I had a friend who used to work as a guide on one of those buses as a summer job while she was in school. She told me people were generally just there to get a feel for the city - a healthy chunk didn't have enough English to really follow along with what she was saying. I do know that she incorporated a little spiel about the ROM renovation controversy into her tour (this would've been just after the Crystal opened). I assume that was her adding a bit of flavour and not part of the standard tour. Otherwise, it's a nice scenic shuttle ride from the Eaton Centre to the Mink Mile.

Toronto seems to have outsourced a lot of its tourist trap junk to Niagara Falls. I get a bit cringey when I meet a tourist who's heading to the Falls for a few days; it really only needs a few hours.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by ue

West Edmonton Mall, obviously.

We even have a song about it. In French.

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