[haria]

Originally Posted by Alvord12

From my recent trip to Bangalore, Mysore and Coorg I'd say Brindavan Gardens.

Yep. I agree. Visiting brindavan Gardens during weekends/holidays - NIGHTMARE. Best time to see this during some week days, when there is less crowd. Had to stay in mysore for about 2 weeks few years back. Didn't have much to do in the evening and myself and some of my friends decided to take a bus to brindavan. The place is awesome when there is less crowd. I remember we had a whale of a time sitting on the parapet walls of the dam, enjoying the almost full KRS dam, sipping hot chai and eating Bajjis... amazing time.

Bottom line - I feel it is NOT the problem of the place, but rather the crowd/people which makes it a mess.

my mantra - stay at home, catch up on chores during holidays/long weekends. Take a few days off (WEEKDAYS) to escape from the crowd.

Had similar experience in Kodaikanal also. Visit kodaikanal during March/April/May - You will NEVER want to come here EVER. Go during the rainy season - in july/august - hardly any people, Restaurants near empty and you get good discounts on the tariff!

Great thread! :-)

[swathyd]

Originally Posted by TheDesertRat

My contribution to this thread would be Bekkal Fort, Kerala. Although the location is good, it isn't a fort per say. I only saw ancient boundary walls overlooking the ocean. On top of that, it wasn't a wise decision to visit this place smack bang in the middle of summer. There is/was (back in 2010) no shade or any other place to get away from the scorching heat.
I have been to other parts of Kerala and they are much nicer and truly reflect the "God's own country" vibe.

You are right . Visited the place on september 2014 . There is one thing you forgot to mention , i e the condition of the road. It should be avoided just for the poor condition of road alone.

[swathyd]

Another place worth mentioning is Kanyakumari. Though the place is beautiful the road from nagercoil to kanyakumari is in bad shape(as on june 2013). There are some unauthorised collection from cars to enter certain areas. They will do anything including 'caning' your car to get money.

[wantarangerover]

I think by the time we are done with this thread, there wont be any 'unavoidable' sightseeing places left! I suppose we should just take this as a pointer for places to avoid if you are on a time crunch. Otherwise, I would say visit all the places you can, ultimately it is your perspective that matters. I had friends who used to ridicule me for suggesting visiting forts, saying "why would anyone want to see some old buildings?". So guys, don't skip places just because someone else said so, but take it as a guide if in case you have very less time on hand.

Coming to the intention of this thread, as many have pointed out,

1. Daman
2. Diu
3. Mount Abu

You can skip these is you are on a tour of gujarat or rajasthan and dont have a lot of time. They are basically watering holes for Gujarati residents. (I am guilty of that). So in Gujarat, go to kutch, gir forest, ahmedabad, somnath (for the religious),etc.

[CarJunki]

This is quite an interesting thread, and will help people make informed choices for their visits.
From my experience a few are (no offence meant)
1. All beaches of Thiruvanantpuram shall be avoided - absolutely no facilities
2. Brindavan garden Mysore.
3. Nandi Hills near bangalore.

[vinodvayyat]

I think the title of the thread is wrong. At least that I can't digest when someone says Munnar is not a place worth going to!!! Well you might be coming from one of the hill stations in India or would've been visiting such a place a lot - that doesn't make a place like Munnar less interesting for others. For eg, I go to Wayanad quite frequently and stay in the same place whenever I go. Once I did not get accommodation for the last day of my visit here and was forced to go find out a new one - when I went there, I felt it like backyard of my home in Kerala (at Palakkad) - it was not that interesting to me. But this doesn't mean that the place is not beautiful - I know a lot of people who have stayed in similar places and later gave very positive feedbacks. The fact here is that the places you've stayed at in Munnar or been around might have been crowded or of less interest to you - this thread somehow should just convey that. There are a number of things that you would have not known about these places - in that case one can say that he/she had been to so and so places and you felt them boring due to so and so reasons.

[ak916]

Originally Posted by CarJunki

3. Nandi Hills near bangalore.

Nandi hills is horrible during the day. You should book a room at the KTDC hotel and stay over one night to see how the place transforms during the night. The cost is about 1k to 3k per room. The 1k room has a better view of the city/airport. The tourists are asked to leave at about sunset except for those who have taken rooms. We have great memories of that place. We stayed there for 3 consecutive weekends in 2013, thats how much we liked that place.

As a bonus, we saw the summer milkyway each time we were there. Its a great place for a couple to spend some time actually. And safe too, since there is a police station right there with a couple of cops showing up now n then.

The 3k room is better furnished and is known to have hosted Gandhi once. It is called the Gandhi house. Food is served till about 7.30 in the restaurant. You can book online through the govt tourism website. Each time we stayed there, we were the only ones on the hill other than the people who work at the hotel and a few who stay there in some huts nearby.

[Memphis0202]

I think this is highly subjective. Its mostly to do with what one expects while choosing to go on a vacation.

Somebody mentioned Pondicherry on this list. So let me elaborate on that. Most people end up going to Pondicherry imagining an alternative to Goa in their heads. It is not that.

Its more along the lines of a small french colony and has the Aurobindo Ashram, which has always had great peace of mind to offer to me everytime I have visited. Then there's auroville, which again people go imagining a setup of foreigners doing rave. But its just a community with people contributiong in different ways and its only fun if you go there to contribute too. Other plus points being great food and inexpensive liquor.

So, I think instead of bashing places we as a community should highlight these little and small things in these places which gives the traveler the correct notion of the place. Just my two cents.

Also this is my first post on the forum. So, hi everyone

[venuvedam]

Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz, CA. What a boring place! You don't know whether it is the steep incline that is playing games with your mind or the "weird gravity" at work there.

Avoid completely. Also, please don't use that Mystery Spot bumper sticker on your car. If you want bumper stickers, there are good ones available right on this site. "Live to Drive"

[Aragorn]

In and around Mumbai, some spots definitely worth avoiding:

1) Lonavala: I know its repeated many times - but apart from the ones who enjoy the drive to the place (via old highway) and extreme rain, nothing really to see there

2) Matheran: Such a bore - people advised me to stay there for 2 days. I got so bored at the end of day 1 that I just drove back

[DRIVE_ADDICT]

A real apt thread (on first look) for this year (2015) as we have lots of long weekend holidays.

First of all no tourist spot/places is perfect when crowd is high. Many middle/upper middle class family were pushed to go to these spots only on Holidays. so we can't blame the crowd and also we can't blame the facility to serve the over crowd, it will turn a mess.

One ex, I went for Pondichery this weekend, as this is the long weekend where all the members in the family can sync-up with our holidays.
We went to the famous Chunnambar boat house, where you can take a boat ride and reach Paradise beach, It was around 2 O clock and the crowd was maddening, The guy on the boat house ticket counter give away tickets only if you point your group standing in the queue which is on his vicinity, cos the queue is too long till the entrance and his logic is simple, if he gave tickets to everyone and if you stand last, it is not sure whether you will get a chance to get into the boat before the closure time.

Some people are thrashing him with words (actually he is doing favor to them), others are bashing the facility. A group of Girls came in and said "What the ####? why can't they run more boats?". To tackle 10-15 days of maddening crowd in the whole year do they need to stack up more boats and make'em sit idle for the whole year??

The logic is simple, Demand and Supply, basically in peak season, the demand will be high and sometime it will reach so high that the supply chain itself will break and make things chaos. ala the example i quote above.

So it is advisable to choose off-season and avoid long weekends. Take off in a normal week and enjoy the serene of the places.

We, with our extended family went to Kodai on an Off-season, stayed there for 4 days, doing nothing just wandering around the Lake and Coaker's walk, enjoying our time with family, chat on the Kodai club lawn watching the Lake. Couldn't enjoy Kodai like this on a summer vacation with crowds bashing every corner.

Regarding temples, unless people who go there for historic reasons nobody goes there as a tour or for enjoyment, they go there for worshiping (Putting demands in the name of worship). So it is up to the individual, whether to shout and pray along with maddening crowd on a special day or worship Him on a normal day with very few people around. With the amount of demand we have, i wonder whether we have any off season with respect to temples :-).

[megazoid]

Most places that are well known in our land are going to the dogs. Crowds are just one reason, its the culture that is shocking. This quest for getting to unique and not so abused places will eventually kill every place. What we need is a behavioral overhaul. Maybe we are a dirty, filthy land at the end of the day.

Would like views on whether other very popular crowded places in other parts of the world also suffer the same state (Niagara falls/Eiffel towers and other examples)?

[balavj27]

Recently visited TopSlip, Pollachi. Even though it was thrilling to night stay in the forest and experience beautiful morning with the herd of deer and wildlife sound. Not suited for outing with friends.
Suited only for photographers and wildlife enthusiasts.

[Rabbit80]

Really nice thread. Here is one from one of my recent trips.
Aurobindo Beach, Pondicherry - when I first went there I probably had great expectations but only to get disappointed. The beach is completely filthy and crowded. But the worst part is local gawkers and if you are in company with female friends or couples, you will always feel uncomfortable. Second, the place does not have a singe shed where you can rest in case you need to get away from sun, especially if you have small kids. We learnt it the hard way. So for me this place is definitely to avoid in Pondicherry.

[maddy42]

I totally get the point about perspective while visiting. I had listed temples on my list and let me just justify my reason.

I dont mind the crowds. We are a populated country and its expected to occur.

I have a problem with filth. I blame the temple management for not doing enough. Some of these spots gets donations in the millions and its funny they cant invest in dustbins, couple of cleaning folks to get stuff done. Once you see people regularly cleaning the public will learn to not dirty the spot! You cant expect god himself to come clean it for you.

In one temple the priests actually grabbed the cash which we were carrying in our hand for the hundi and pocketed it. It was right in front of the statue and i was pretty disappointed by this experience.

Overall i feel the spirituality in the temples exist after the darshan. No lines no queues. Just sit, pray and have the prasad its all peaceful.

Maddy