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These destinations have been named the most overrated in the world

A new study has judged reactions to famous destinations based on the sentiments of TripAdvisor reviews

Ed Cunningham
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Ed Cunningham
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Categorising destinations as ‘overrated’ or ‘underrated’ is tricky business. After all, everyone’s got their own opinion – there’s nothing to say people can’t love or hate exactly the same thing. Each to their own, y’know.   

But that hasn’t stopped baggage storage company Radical Storage from publishing a report on the world’s most overrated and underrated destinations. The study analysed over 820,000 TripAdvisor reviews of tourist attractions in 100 cities around the world, scanning for certain key words that signified if a place was ‘overrated’ or ‘underrated’.

The most overrated destination in Radical Storage’s study was Orlando in the US state of Florida. Thanks to its swarming crowds and high prices, nearly 20 percent of Orlando visitors had something negative to say in their TripAdvisor reviews.

Second most overrated was Jakarta in Indonesia, while third came Thai beach destination Pattaya. Quite a few destinations in the top ten are those that are usually known for their aesthetic beauty, like Da Nang and Ha Long in Vietnam and Guilin in China. People just love to grumble, eh?

Down the other end of the table, the most underrated destination in Radical Storage’s list was Budapest. A whopping 96 percent of reviews of the Hungarian capital included positive terms related to surprise. Second most underrated was Belgian (and EU) capital Brussels, while third was Zurich in Switzerland.

Here was the full top ten most overrated destinations in the world, according to the study.

  1. Orlando, USA
  2. Jakarta, Indonesia
  3. Pattaya, Thailand
  4. Denpasar, Indonesia
  5. Guilin, China
  6. Johannesburg, South Africa
  7. Da Nang, Vietnam
  8. Ha Long, Vietnam
  9. Shenzhen, China
  10. Beijing, China

And here were the most underrated destinations in the report.

  1. Budapest, Hungary
  2. Brussels, Belgium
  3. Zurich, Switzerland
  4. Dublin, Ireland
  5. Lima, Peru
  6. Lisbon, Portugal
  7. Mexico City, Mexico
  8. Nice, France
  9. Auckland, New Zealand
  10. Sydney, Australia

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can read Radical Storage’s full report for yourself here, then take a look at a similar study which looked at the most overrated city breaks – with slightly different results.

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