Eiffel Tower 'disappointing'

2007-08-18 10:15

London - British visitors have put the boot into some of Britain and the world's best-known tourist attractions, branding the likes of Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower dismal let-downs in a survey released on Friday.

A top 10 list of the "most disappointing sights" in Britain was topped by Stonehenge, the mystical, 5 000-year-old standing stones in Wiltshire, south-west England.

The Houses of Parliament's clock tower, commonly called Big Ben after the bell inside, was included, as was the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London's Hyde Park.

On the international list of let-downs, the Eiffel Tower in Paris is ranked the worst, followed by the nearby Louvre museum and Times Square in New York.

'Frustratingly overcrowded and overpriced'

Britain's top 10 must-see sights was topped by Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, north-east England, with the Royal Crescent row of Georgian houses in Bath, south-west England and the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London in the top five.

Leading the world "must-see" table was The Treasury at Petra in Jordan, the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, the Masai Mara game park in Kenya and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Virgin Travel Insurance questioned 1 267 adults for the survey.

"It's easy to be swayed by brochures that opt for the mainstream and focus on clichéd tourist sights around the world, but many of them are overcrowded and disappointing," said travel expert Felice Hardy.

"Pick carefully and don't always go for the obvious. Natural phenomena are usually more exciting than the man-made, and can be wonderfully free of tourists."

She branded the Eiffel Tower "frustratingly overcrowded and overpriced" and said Stonehenge was "an isolated pile of rocks in a usually muddy field".

She dubbed the Diana fountain "a colourless wet skateboard park" and added of "Big Ben": "Once you've seen it, you'll know what time it is - time to go somewhere else."

- AFP