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Old 01-06-2018, 04:43 PM
 
9,576 posts, read 7,282,845 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Randal Walker View Post
For a smaller national park-get up very early, head out in the darkness. Arrive at the park, and drive to the far end of the park. Gradually work your way back to the entrance.

Did this with a group at Mt. St. Helens in June, 2001. Worked well for avoiding crowds.

In the long run, I suspect that entrance to national parks will become very tightly regulated.
Technically the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is not under the National Park Service (NPS)(not a part of the 417 units they currently oversee), it's run by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).
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Old 01-06-2018, 05:22 PM
 
Location: Richmond VA
6,874 posts, read 7,851,412 times
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Lord have mercy, We went to NYC Dec 28-31 (we didn't stay for NYEve). It was awful.

I get the crowds....but what were they there for? Everything is so homogenized. Nothing but big box stores and chain restaurants. We really wanted to see things that were off the beaten path but I'm not sure there is such a thing any more. If there are, we couldn't get to them.

I have no intention of ever going back.

I can see a national road tour of a Broadway show right here in my home city for a fraction of a cost. There are just too many other things in the world to see!!!

I really wish we'd gone to the beach instead, but I'm no longer confident I can find the off the beaten path path anymore.
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Old 01-06-2018, 05:39 PM
 
1,584 posts, read 975,620 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stagemomma View Post
Lord have mercy, We went to NYC Dec 28-31 (we didn't stay for NYEve). It was awful.

I get the crowds....but what were they there for? Everything is so homogenized. Nothing but big box stores and chain restaurants. We really wanted to see things that were off the beaten path but I'm not sure there is such a thing any more. If there are, we couldn't get to them.

I have no intention of ever going back.

I can see a national road tour of a Broadway show right here in my home city for a fraction of a cost. There are just too many other things in the world to see!!!

I really wish we'd gone to the beach instead, but I'm no longer confident I can find the off the beaten path path anymore.
Did you spend your NYC time just in Times Square? The chain restaurant/big box chain description surely fits there but not in a lot of other areas of the city, at least in my experience. New York is loaded with excellent non-chain eateries and neighborhoods without mall type chain stores. In fact, it’s one of the few serious foodie destinations in the US.
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Old 01-06-2018, 11:57 PM
 
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I actually kind of like having tourists/ people around where I go. It makes the atmosphere more vibrant/ less desolate.
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Old 01-07-2018, 01:40 AM
 
Location: Cebu, Philippines
5,869 posts, read 4,187,380 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nn2036 View Post
I actually kind of like having tourists/ people around where I go. It makes the atmosphere more vibrant/ less desolate.
The only place that would apply would be Finland. Why would you go to a place that is so desolate, it needs tourist to give it vibrancy?

Actually, I do enjoy running into the occasional tourist, for the travel information exchange value of the encounter. If I meet the tourist coming in the opposite direction, I can learn a lot about where Im going.
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Old 01-07-2018, 05:31 AM
 
Location: Spain
12,722 posts, read 7,533,782 times
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Running into other tourists isn't by itself a bad thing, we've had plenty of good times over beers or in trains/buses chatting with other tourists from all over the world. It does detract from enjoyment if it becomes a mosh pit or impacts the area so much that all you have is shops selling the exact same tourist trinkets.

In fact some tourism in an area is good just to ensure the availability of services to do what you want to do. I love getting off the beaten path as much as the next person, but some things just wouldn't be possible (or reasonably convenient) without some tourist infrastructure to get you where you want to go. We also don't have all the equipment (or know-how) necessary to do some things safely, so steady tourism that ensures availability of local guides is a plus.
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Old 01-07-2018, 07:04 AM
 
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The tourist areas I’ve been to that are crowded are frequently that way for good reason. They’re interesting and offer things worth seeing, food worth eating, etc. These days, the proverbial secret’s out on most places.

It’s nice to want to go only to places “off the beaten path,” but there aren’t as many such spots these days. And you’ll miss some worthwhile experiences. Off season is a good approach to take, if possible.
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Old 01-07-2018, 09:12 AM
 
Location: Niceville, FL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarisaAnna View Post
Thanks for all the advice on the parks. If you drive at dawn and dusk are you likely to hit animals? It is pretty dangerous here in the bush at those times as the kangaroos are hard to spot until they jump right into you.
As the more popular US National parks, you're typically going slow enough that you can just hit brakes safely when you encounter the traffic jam caused by the sighting of a bear or buffalo 50 feet from the road. You actually need to be more careful outside the parks- lots of open range land where cattle, sheep, etc. graze in unfenced areas. I can remember being about half an hour outside of Bryce Canyon NP late at night, and having to go down to about 20 mph to avoid cows that seemed to want to wander onto the pavement.
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Old 01-07-2018, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Bellmawr, New Jersey
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My times in FLL, Miami and NYC I liked just seeing the amount of people around. Brings a light and life to it for me. But my time in Salt Lake City in the mountains and such, to many people! I wanna overlook the city without crowds of people -_-
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Old 01-08-2018, 11:26 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia/South Jersey area
3,677 posts, read 2,550,461 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EastFlatbush View Post
It's terrible--and I'm speaking not as a tourist but from someone who lives in a tourist city, NYC.

Mass Tourism has definitely spun out of control to the point where it's had a detrimental impact on the quality of life here for locals. Because tourists are looking for cheap thrills and familiarity, NYC locations like Times Square has basically become an open air mall filled with the same national and international chains as anywhere else, and the entire city has developed a cheesy, artificial Las Vegas/Mall of America vibe. Nothing feels like the real NYC anymore.

And some of our better, off-the-beaten path locations have become so choked with tourists that they've been ruined. We have two riverside parks that used to be wonderful places for people to just chill out and enjoy peace and quiet. Now they're crazy packed. And I don't mean in the way that you'd expect for any popular tourist attraction. I mean insanely packed like you see in some really densely populated Third World cities, a human swarm. Yes, it's wonderful to have people around but there's a difference between bustling crowds and grotesque.

Having so many tourists also resulted in problems we never had before, like people putting locks on the Brooklyn Bridge, streets becoming clogged with traffic or groups of tourists wandering in droves into residential areas looking for locations they've seen on TV shows.

This type of situation is getting so bad here in NYC and around the world that some cities are losing their native populations. Venetians have been fleeing in droves because they can no longer handle the mass tourism there.



I have no doubt that many New Yorkers have decided to flee NYC for the same reason. It's not NYC anymore.
aah Eastflatbush, I have to disagree. I was born and raised in Harlem. Time square has always been a tourist trap. I'm darn near 60 and no one I knew who was a NY'er went down there except for a show. Even when it was filled with X rated spots before getting cleaned up, it was touristy. the same with Rockefeller center.
Now I agree, I hate those "location" tours, but come 'on, we've got 2 million people living on an island that is about 9 square miles, not to mention about another 1 mil who come in from surrounding areas. It's always been packed. lol

Grand central station is the number two tourist destination in the US, behind Vegas but Vegas is a much bigger area.
lol I would argue the insane rent is driving folks out before the tourist. we've always been able to handle them.

lol personally I want them to stay in the tourist areas, easy to avoid those.
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