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Standing up for Budapest

17th April 202517th April 2025 funtime65

Maybe they couldn’t solve their Rubik’s Cube or got fined by Vlad the Validator but I’m standing up for Budapest against the naysayers.

Those reviewers who marked the Hungarian capital and its famous baths down in a luggage company survey.

Why the experts on the Radical Storage luggage storage firm should pick on the magnificent Magyar city on the Danube you’d have to ask them.

Perhaps they too had been fined £60 when someone forgot to validate their ticket before boarding the train and were collared by the huffy Hungarian guard.

Or were kept waiting by your other half in the steamier of the two outdoor pools at the Szechenyi Baths.

Neither challenges should, of course, detract from your enjoyment of what is truly a unique experience.

A lot of bull about Istanbul

The 95,352 rambunctious reviewers seem to have it in for the Hungarian capital as a whole.

And placing the Baths at fifth most overpriced attraction, and at £12 or £14 on weekends for a multi-thalasso treat they’re tough to please.

Now we can’t count here for Alton Towers in Staffordshire in England, considered the worst for price and value or Snowland in Brazil, fourth on the list.

But we’re digging our heels in here too for Topkapi Palace (£15) in Istanbul and the Dubrovnik City Walls, the same price although it does shoot up to £30 in high season.

The madness continues when it comes to the world’s most disappointing list.

Water mistake about Trevi Fountain

With inexplicably the Trevi Fountain fifth biggest letdown, shared by a former colleague who described it as just a fountain. Mamma Mia!

The best pint in Dublin, alongside we’re contractually obliged to big up cousins’ The Workshop bistro, is at the Guinness Storehouse.

But some curmudgeons put it down in seventh for most disappointing attraction.

And those wet fishes place our Hungarian baths at No.10 alongside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC which is actually out of this world.

Hit and list

And just to spell that out in hard facts for you here…

Most Overpriced Tourist Attractions
Rank	Attraction	Country	Negative Mentions about Costs and Value
1	Alton Towers Resort	United Kingdom	18.0%
2	Topkapı Palace	Turkey	14.7%
3	Dubrovnik City Walls	Croatia	14.4%
4	Snowland	Brazil	13.0%
5	Széchenyi Baths and Pool	Hungary	11.2%

The World’s Top 10 Most Disappointing Tourist Attractions
Rank	Attraction	Location	Country	Percentage of Reviews with Negative Mentions
1st	Alton Towers Resort	Staffordshire	United Kingdom	49.4%
2nd	Széchenyi Baths and Pool	Budapest	Hungary	37.2%
3rd	Siam Park	Tenerife	Spain	31.2%
4th	Time Out Market Lisboa	Lisbon	Portugal	28.4%
5th	Fontana di Trevi	Rome	Italy	24.6%
6th	Horseshoe Casino	Las Vegas	United States	24.0%
=7th	Guinness Storehouse	Dublin	Ireland	23.2%
=7th	Gardaland Park	Lake Garda	Italy	23.2%
=10th	Topkapı Palace	Istanbul	Turkey	23.0%
=10th	National Air and Space Museum	Washington D.C.	United States	23.0%

Turk that

Digging deeper, we don’t know if it’s an Orban or an Erdogan thing but the raspish reviewers vent their spleens at Istanbul and Budapest again and Bangkok in the following scroll of dishonour.

The Cities with the Most Disappointing Tourist Attractions

1. Istanbul (16%)

Considering the cities with three or more tourist attractions in the study, the data finds that when taking an average of all local attractions, Istanbul’s offering is the most likely to disappoint with a 16% negative mention rate. The most disappointing Istanbul attraction in the study is the aforementioned Topkapı Palace.

2. Bangkok (15.9%)

But not far behind is Bangkok with a score of 15.9%. The Grand Palace’s poor score of 12.6% (the joint 7th worst in the study) dragged the Thai capital down. Visitors might want to prioritise visiting Wat Arun instead – the Temple of Dawn – which has a much more favourable score of 9.4%.

3. Budapest (13.9%)

Budapest comes third (13.9% overall), with Széchenyi Baths and Pool (the most disappointing attraction) dampening the vibe. In fact, four attractions here came in under the study average of 10.9%: Fisherman’s Bastion (10.2%), Hungarian Parliament Building (8.6%), Shoes on the Danube Bank (7.8%) and St. Stephen’s Basilica (5.8%).

You can see the full list of the cities with the most disappointing tourist attractions on the main study page.

We’ll tease you here with the world’s least disappointing as reviewed in this survey by saying Leith, Scotland’s Royal Yacht Britannia is on it.

But today is for standing up for Budapest and our other maligned favourite places.

America, Countries

175 years in Smithsonian

11th April 202311th April 2023 funtime65

It just felt like 175 years in Smithsonian in the labyrinthian Museum of African American History but I wasn’t complaining.

The 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo make up what is affectionately known as ‘America’s Attic.’

James Smithson was a strange cove, a confirmed British bachelor scientist, but it was America’s fortune that he amounted his.

And bequeathed it to the amassment of a collection of museums in America.

A country he had never visited but clearly held in awe.

Washington fixture

Smithson is a fixture now mostly in Washington DC where they’re on every block.

And Maryland, New York and Virginia.

In fact for someone who never actually set foot in the US capital his name is up there in mentions with The Great Man.

I am, of course, looking forward to hearing which of the Smithsonians The Son and Heir takes in this week on his first visit there.

I’ve pointed him in the direction of the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall which was reserved for our American Travel Fair (IPW).

Alas the Newseum, a testimony to the Third Amendment, was a casualty of Donald Trump,

A strong Constitution

First Nation: The American Indian Museum

There are some holy scrolls that are untouchable, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

And you’ll know the Constitution’s authenticity with the misspelling of Pennsylvania.

One of the great Smithlothian gems is near the Capitol, the American-Indian Museum.

Where Robert Redford, no less, will narrate you through the history of the First Nation.

And you can browse through indigenous crafts and clothes.

And so with these treasures and much more you could easily spend 175 years in Smithsonians.

Aerican dream

The 47th President of America: In Washington DC

With The Son and Heir and me before him flying out of Dublin with Aer Lingus there’s never been a better time to visit DC.

We can only think the absence of Aer Lingus and pre-clearance back in Smithson’s day is the main reason he didn’t visit.

America, Countries, Culture

Inauguration and US Precedence

20th January 202120th January 2021 funtime65

Or when they sealed off the National Mall for me.

You know you’ve arrived when they do that for you, believe me.

And that is exactly what they did when I visited DC as a guest of the American Travel Fair, IPW.

The 47th President of America: In Washington DC

The National Mall, for those of you watching the inauguration of President Joe Biden today, is the grassy stretch of land from the Washington Monument to the domed US Capitol.

The White House is to the north.

And flanked by all of this are the magnificent Smithsonian museums.

King for a day

US Capitol and Reflecting Pool, Washington DC

Out on that balmy May evening in Washington we were given the run of the place.

And we were treated to Aloe Blacc singing for us on stage, we were given a reception in the National Air and Space Museum.

Honest Jim and Honest Abe in Washington

The Reflecting Pool which many of you will know from Forrest Gump is the artery from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

And, of course, it was the backdrop for Dr Martin Luther King.

I have a dream: The unfinished Martin Luther King statue in Washington DC

And the climax to the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963 when he delivered his I Have A Dream speech.

Today Joe Biden spoke of unity from a platform in front of the heavily fortified US Capitol.

It is the very same seat of government that was besieged two weeks before.

Civil War memories

Ne-Yo in Washington

Only this year was different.

With Covid and the security threat since the Storming of the Capitol meaning it was a completely different audience.

Only dignitaries, soldiers and the symbolic flags of the 400,000 casualties of the virus in the eye line.

Much has been said about America and the times we are living through.

And President Biden is an eloquent man in his own right and has a team of speech writers to finesse his sentiments.

American hero: In Washington DC

The circumstances of this inauguration and the militarised zone have been likened to the Civil War.

And that naturally conjures up the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.

With malice toward none

View of Washington from Arlington

Lincoln has been channeled regularly by his successors who wish to establish their line to the Great Man.

Few have done him credit.

Only time will tell if President Biden will be able to fulfil the lasting mission of Lincoln.

But the challenge for him and any President is to honour the pledge given on Saturday, March 4, 1865…

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds,

America, Countries, Ireland, Music, UK

Rainy days and Songdays – Aloe Washington

24th August 202024th August 2020 funtime65

And if you share with me your dollar I will share my story with you – Aloe Blacc

Cheap at the price too.

Aloe Black has been omnipresent across my American Travel fares.

The cool dude in the pork pie hat was there to greet us on the National Mall in Washington DC on our evening and sing us his standard I Need A Dollar.

We’re down there somewhere… on the National Mall

Only the best for us as they closed it off for the IPW international delegation to parteeee.

And how we did inside the Smithsonian National Space and Air Museum.

So much so, and I blame my old friend Michael from Irish Travel Trade Network for leading me astray, that we all but missed the act.

I’m flyin’ high: The National Space and Air Museum

Thankfully Aloe was back to wow us with another set at one of the lunches between our hall meetings with the states.

And busy boy that he is he had also managed to compose a video and the power of music.

Which he had put together on a whistlestop tour of the US and which the IPW fare in Washington showed us on the big screen.

Aloe there

Great idea and great memories and they all came flooding back as I listened to BBC Radio 2 last week.

Who were featuring him as their artist of the week.

An uplifting message in these times and as Aloe would say and indeed sang to us in Washington… Wake Me Up When It’s All Over.