When it comes to world travel, there’s a few places I believe are ‘must sees’ in one’s lifetime, such as going to Paris, New York, Las Vegas, and Hawaii. There’s a few other places that are nice to go see but I wouldn’t ever say are ‘must sees,’ such as visiting Switzerland, going to Hawaii for a second trip, or doing a general Europe trip to see places like Rome and Barcelona.
Then there are a few places I believe are highly overrated, yet travel writers often tout as amazing vacation spots. Most of these places are tropical getaways.
For example, Cancun is the most overrated place I have ever been to. It is fairly expensive, not as expensive as Hawaii but certainly not cheap, but is still fairly trashy. Unless you are an 18 year-old and are awed at the idea of drinking legally and finding a prostitute, Cancun just doesn’t have anything to offer that you can’t see at any other Mexican vacation spot. It is not nearly as nice as Hawaii. If you want to get drunk and throw up on the street, you can probably do that in your home town anyways.
Like Cancun, I believe the Cayman Islands are also pretty overrated. This place is even more expensive than Cancun and doesn’t offer much else. Grand Cayman is a very sleepy island; there simply isn’t anything to do. Yes, the weather is nice, but you can get that on any beach in California or Florida. Unless you are really into scuba diving or offshore banking, the Cayman Islands are a pass.
Finally, I think once you see one city in Spain, all of the other cities are overrated. I’ve spent well over a month in Spain during various trips, and all of the places just start to run together. Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, whatever. Once you see one, you get the point. It’s nice to spend about 4 nights or so in say Barcelona to see the Spanish culture, but after you do that, venture on over to France or Italy.