Every traveler has been there. You’re starving, jet-lagged, standing in a famous square with your suitcase still on your back, and suddenly a cheerful host is waving a glossy menu in your face. It looks fun. It feels convenient. So you sit down. Twenty minutes later, the bill arrives, and your jaw hits the table. Not in a good way.
According to a study by online passport photo service provider PhotoAiD, the top three criteria that make a place a tourist trap are above-average pricing, amenities tailored for tourists, and a lack of cultural authenticity. Sounds familiar, right? Honestly, it should, because these places are everywhere, and they’ve mastered the art of looking irresistible while delivering very little. Let’s dive in.
1. DK Oyster, Mykonos, Greece – The Bill That Will Haunt Your Dreams
Let’s be real, no other restaurant on this list generates quite the same level of outrage as DK Oyster in Mykonos. Tourist outrage has repeatedly put the spotlight on this luxury restaurant, which has charged visitors around €1,000 for three dishes, including €350 for a single fish, while visitors warn of hidden costs and deceptive pricing. The numbers are genuinely jaw-dropping.
Additional complaints at DK Oyster have included a €51 surcharge for two bottles of water and a Diet Coke, a €5 fee for ketchup, and €18 for a small portion of fries. Think about that. Ketchup costs five euros. The controversy surrounding DK Oyster has even prompted TripAdvisor to issue a “safety warning” on the restaurant’s page, advising potential customers to conduct thorough research before making a reservation.
The restaurant lures guests in, fails to present a menu, and then hits them with a massive bill. Multiple tourist reviews indicate that staff might not adequately inform customers about specific pricing nuances, such as minimum order quantities or prices by kilogram, and EU regulations require that the total cost of goods be advertised clearly before payment. Consider yourself warned.
2. Hard Rock Cafe (Global Chain) – The Souvenir That Comes With a Side of Mediocre Food
Hard Rock Cafe is basically a museum with a kitchen attached. The problem is that museums don’t typically charge you forty dollars for a burger. The rock-and-roll memorabilia makes for a great background, but the food is mediocre, the menu consists of typical American cuisine that needs more creativity or punch, and high prices are more indicative of the tourist draw than the quality of ingredients or preparation.
The service can be impersonal, as crowds stretch the staff thin. There is something almost painfully predictable about a Hard Rock Cafe in, say, Rome or Bangkok – you could be absolutely anywhere in the world and the experience would be identical. That’s kind of the point, I suppose, but it’s also exactly why it belongs on this list.
Think of it like this: walking into a Hard Rock Cafe on vacation is like flying to Paris and eating a croissant from a vending machine. It technically counts, but you know you could do so much better. According to the World Tourism Organization, tourists spend an average of roughly a quarter more at tourist trap restaurants than at local eateries.
3. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Times Square, New York – Forrest Was Smarter Than This
Times Square is packed with chain restaurants, and Bubba Gump stands out for all the wrong reasons. Overpriced seafood and aggressive merchandise sales dominate the experience, and countless reviews warn there is better food just a short walk away. You’re paying for the Forrest Gump trivia game, not for the shrimp.
Food at Bubba Gump is often described as mediocre, a lot of it fried and quite bland in taste, leaving much to be desired considering the price. Oversized billboards, overpriced chain restaurants, and aggressive crowds make Times Square itself the ultimate tourist trap, and Bubba Gump fits right in like it was born there.
Here’s the thing, the Forrest Gump theme is genuinely charming for about fifteen minutes. After that, you’re just eating average seafood at premium prices while someone in a Bubba Gump t-shirt asks you who played Lieutenant Dan. Multiple reviewer comments describe it bluntly as “the definition of a tourist trap” with high prices, average food, and long wait times.
4. Rainforest Cafe (Multiple Locations) – Jungle Ambiance, Frozen Food Reality
Walking into a Rainforest Cafe feels like entering a fever dream. Animatronic gorillas. Fake thunderstorms. A menu the size of a small novel. It sounds amazing, especially if you’re bringing kids. The problem, as anyone who’s actually eaten there knows, is that the food is an afterthought. Rainforest Cafe lures families with animatronics and a jungle theme, but reviewers repeatedly call it overpriced, and the menu consists of overpriced, generic dishes with nothing to boast about regarding flavors.
The nonstop sound effects and animatronic displays, while entertaining for kids, can easily create a very overwhelming and chaotic dining experience, and due to the large volume, the service usually suffers, leaving diners to long waits. I think there’s something almost philosophical about how a place this loud manages to be this forgettable.
One documented dining experience at a similar tourist-themed restaurant noted that a standard burger and fries, presented in basic diner baskets, still resulted in a bill of over $68 before beverages, taxes, and gratuity. The spectacle costs money, and you’re the one funding it.
5. Caffè Florian, Venice, Italy – The World’s Most Expensive Coffee Break
Caffè Florian opened in 1720, making it one of the oldest cafés in the world. That history is real and genuinely impressive. However, history comes with a hefty price tag when you’re sitting on the Piazza San Marco. Historic charm doesn’t hide the steep costs at Caffè Florian, where triple-priced coffee and music surcharges on Piazza San Marco feature in countless complaints, with some visitors leaving convinced they’ve paid far more for the atmosphere than for the actual food or drink.
Venice as a whole is grappling with something bigger. Take Venice, for example: this year, it launched a €5-a-day fee for day-trippers, which will extend into 2025. Add a Caffè Florian espresso on top of that, and your Venetian morning coffee ritual starts looking like a very expensive hobby.
Restaurants close to attractions like the Colosseum, Duomo di Firenze, or Piazza San Marco are often overpriced and serve mediocre food. Florian is famous, and it’s undeniably atmospheric. It’s worth strolling past for a photo. Whether it’s worth sitting down and ordering is a different question altogether.
6. Katz’s Delicatessen, New York – More Myth Than Meal
You’ve seen the scene from “When Harry Met Sally.” Every tourist visiting New York has. That’s precisely the problem. Katz’s Delicatessen has built a rich history yet is often more myth than reality, with long lines of tourists filling the space, making dining less of an experience, and locals mostly avoiding Katz’s for smaller, less popular restaurants that serve superior food without the mayhem.
The pastrami sandwich is genuinely good. Nobody is denying that. The experience around it, however, is basically a theme park. You queue, you get jostled, you pay a premium, and you eat while surrounded by dozens of people doing exactly the same thing, all taking the same photo of their sandwich.
Nearly 70% of travelers surveyed by PhotoAiD said a visit to a tourist trap diminished their overall enjoyment of a trip. That number makes you think. Sometimes a legend is best kept as a legend rather than experienced firsthand at double the price.
7. Restaurants Near the Eiffel Tower, Paris – Paying for the View, Not the Veal
Restaurants near iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris became known for their exorbitant prices, poor quality meals, and lackluster service – venues that capitalized on their prime locations, knowing that many tourists were willing to pay a premium for the convenience and the experience of dining near a famous site. It’s a formula as old as tourism itself.
Walk within two blocks of the Eiffel Tower and you’ll find yourself paying at least double what you’d pay just a ten-minute walk away. The food is often pre-made, microwaved, and dressed up on a plate that faces the Tower. Think of it like airport food, but with a more impressive backdrop.
Taking thirty seconds to compare menu prices with restaurants on less prominent streets often reveals a significant premium for similar food, since tourist traps exploit information asymmetry, charging what they can get away with from visitors who haven’t done research. Even a block away, prices often drop dramatically. That’s the most useful travel tip you’ll read today.
8. Restaurants Along Bourbon Street, New Orleans – NOLA Deserves Better
Bourbon Street is one of America’s most iconic strips. It’s loud, it’s lively, and it’s genuinely fun for an hour or so. The restaurants lining it, though, are a different story. Bourbon Street’s 60-some-odd bars and restaurants cater heavily to foot traffic, and to avoid overpriced drinks, expensive meals, and tacky gift shops, visitors should venture outside this 13-block stretch to discover the real New Orleans.
New Orleans has some of the most extraordinary food culture in the entire United States. Gumbo, étouffée, po’boys, beignets made by people who actually care. The tragedy is that many tourists never taste any of it because they fill up on bland, overpriced variations along the tourist corridor instead.
Tourist-trap restaurants are built for turnover, not taste. They exist to make a profit off unfamiliar faces, and food is often bland, overpriced, and disconnected from any real cultural experience. New Orleans, of all cities, deserves to have its food culture experienced properly. Don’t let Bourbon Street be your only culinary memory of it.
9. Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurants, San Francisco – Clam Chowder With a Side of Regret
Situated on the northern waterfront of San Francisco, the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood receives around 12 million visitors annually, but not only do locals steer clear, with SFGate calling it “the most universally derided neighborhood in all of San Francisco,” it also attracts the ire of tourists online.
Reviews mentioning the phrase “tourist trap” highlight the district’s “overpriced restaurants” and “tacky touristy tat.” The clam chowder bread bowl is the unofficial mascot of Fisherman’s Wharf, and it is perfectly decent. Getting you to pay twice what it’s worth is how the whole neighborhood operates, though.
Fisherman’s Wharf is a tourist trap through and through, with tons of people and overly expensive food. San Francisco is a world-class food city with incredible Mission District taquerias, Chinatown dim sum, and Michelin-starred restaurants around every corner. It’s a genuine shame when visitors only eat at the Wharf.
10. Planet Hollywood (Las Vegas and Beyond) – Hollywood Memorabilia Can’t Save a Bad Menu
Planet Hollywood operates on the same logic as the Hard Rock Cafe, essentially convincing you that eating near movie props makes the chicken strips taste better. It doesn’t. Inside Planet Hollywood, Hollywood memorabilia and themed dining overshadow the menu, gift shops push merchandise before and after meals, and food quality often disappoints.
Las Vegas in particular is a city where you can eat genuinely spectacular food – real celebrity chef restaurants with outstanding craft. Sitting in Planet Hollywood when Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant is a short walk away feels like a minor tragedy. The spectacle of Planet Hollywood is designed to distract you from asking whether the food itself is worth it.
Despite improvements at many tourist-oriented restaurants, the underlying business model often remains the same: capitalizing on tourists’ willingness to pay extra for convenience and the allure of a trendy or iconic location. That, in two sentences, is Planet Hollywood’s entire business plan.
11. Restaurants on Aguas Calientes (near Machu Picchu), Peru – Gateway Town, Getaway Prices
Machu Picchu is one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth. The town at its base, Aguas Calientes, exists for one reason and one reason only. Machu Picchu requires advance permits, costs $50 to $70 for entrance, and suffers from Disney-level crowds despite visitor caps, while the town of Aguas Calientes exists almost solely to extract money from tourists with inflated hotel and restaurant prices.
You arrive after a train journey through the Sacred Valley, exhausted and hungry, with nowhere else to go. The restaurants know this. They know you’re captive, and they price accordingly. Think of it like a gas station in the middle of a desert – technically there are options, but the power dynamic heavily favors the seller.
The experience at Machu Picchu and its surrounding area feels rushed and commercialized. The ruins remain spectacular, make no mistake. However, eating in Aguas Calientes is rarely the highlight anyone hoped for, especially when the bill arrives and rivals the entrance fee to the site itself.
12. Sirocco Restaurant, Bangkok – Million-Dollar Views, Questionable Value
Sirocco sits atop the State Tower in Bangkok and became internationally famous as a filming location for “The Hangover Part II.” It is, by any measure, a visually breathtaking place. The problem is that stunning views and camera recognition don’t necessarily translate into dining value. Steep minimum spends, a strict dress code, and relentless upselling have made Sirocco one of Bangkok’s costliest dining spots, with many saying the view easily outshines the food, and its feature in The Hangover II continues to drive up the premiums.
Bangkok is arguably the greatest street food city in the world. For what you spend on a single cocktail at Sirocco, you could eat an extraordinary multi-course meal from some of the most talented street vendors on Earth. It’s hard not to feel that the pricing here is entirely divorced from culinary reality.
According to the PhotoAiD study, the top three criteria that make a place a tourist trap are above-average pricing, amenities tailored for tourists, and a lack of cultural authenticity. Sirocco checks at least two of those boxes comfortably. The irony is that Bangkok’s real food culture is unbeatable, if you’re willing to step away from the sky bar and onto the street below. What would you have ordered instead?
