The world is full of fascinating museums, but also of poor quality museums.
As disappointed tourists recently revealed in a Reddit discussion.
User ‘MarathonMarathon’ started the thread on the ‘Travel’ forum when he asked: ‘What are the worst museums you’ve ever been to?’
Descriptions of museums that left Redditors feeling disappointed came quickly, with the post having garnered nearly 800 comments at the time of writing.
A famous attraction in Berlin quickly became a topic of conversation, with Redditors revealing they weren’t at all impressed by the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
‘Disorganized’: The Checkpoint Charlie Museum (above) has left some redditors far from impressed
User ‘TLB-Q8’ described it as a ‘commercial tourist trap’ and said: ‘There are better ways to get a feel for what it was like to live in West Berlin.’
User ‘blergyblergy’, who had “high expectations” for the museum, was also disappointed. He said it was “disorganized” and “required little effort” while the information was in “zero chronological order.”
Karl Marx House Museum In Trier, Germany, tourists were also left disappointed. Reddit user ‘Hungry_Bet7216’ commented: “I’m not sure if it was a museum or a hustle and bustle.” He described the museum as “very dense” and said it was “not easy to take anything in.”
Moving north, user ‘scavenger7’ described the Icelandic Phallological Museum In Reykjavik, or as they call it, “the Penis Museum,” they called it “disappointing.” They wrote: “I was expecting it to be erotic, but it’s just a collection of animal penises torn from their owners and pickled. Possibly the least sexy thing I could imagine.”
Cereal MuseumA wax museum in Rome that displays figures ranging from popes to ancient Romans, also had bad luck. ‘RomeVacationTips’ criticised it as “shockingly incompetent”.
The Karl Marx House museum (above) in Trier, Germany, left one Redditor wondering whether it was a “museum or a hustle”
One Reddit user described Iceland’s Phallological Museum (above) as “possibly the least sexy thing I could imagine.”
Redditors claimed to have seen bugs on display inside Barcelona’s Museo de la Xocolata, or the Chocolate Museum.
User ‘Lanxy’ wrote: ‘We stumbled across it by chance and thought, ‘Hey, why not?’ It was the worst 20 minutes of my life. All the exhibits – well done, to be fair – were full of maggots.’
‘HoneyCakePonye’ added: ‘I didn’t see many bugs or worms in the chocolate museum, but it’s still one of the worst places I’ve ever paid to enter.’
Heineken Museum Amsterdam Moes23 didn’t fare much better, complaining that “it would be better to take a picture of the building and then go have a beer somewhere.” He added: “They explain everything very quickly and don’t know anything that a quick Wiki search doesn’t tell you.”
France also has a failure, according to redditors, with ‘notassigned2023’ referring to Salvador Dali Museum in Paris as a “tourist trap,” an attraction that “is more like a Dali gift shop that you pay to enter.”
‘CitizenDain’ added: ‘They have a small handful of Dali sculptures and they are mostly photographs of Dali, magazine covers featuring him and silly holograms.’
Does the UK have any museums to complain about? The London Dungeon It drew the ire of ‘BlueHorseDungeon’, who complained that it was ‘absolutely rubbish’ and a ‘depressing collection of torture equipment’. (Note: complaints about The London Dungeon The Tripadvisor page provides answers (you have been warned).
It doesn’t add up: A Reddit user who visited the Museum of Mathematics in New York said he felt like he had been “ripped off.” Image courtesy of Creative Commons License license
A Reddit user described Barcelona’s Chocolate Museum as “one of the worst places I’ve ever paid to enter.”
National War Museum Edinburgh Castle It also failed to live up to expectations. ‘MungoShoddy’ said the museum was “certainly wonderful if you have a penchant for dusty military uniforms and faded flags.”
Across the pond, the award-winning Manhattan restaurant Museum of Mathematics (or MoMath) also disappointed, with one user calling it one of the “most expensive and least rewarding museums in the world” and adding: “The place was $25 to get in and only had two rooms. Avoid.”
‘N0r5e’ has similar sentiments, complaining that they “felt ripped off after going in there to kill time.”
New York Skyscraper MuseumMeanwhile, according to ‘WaddlingLion’, it’s a ‘total waste of time’. They wrote: ‘It’s on the same level of execution as someone printing out Wikipedia pages and sticking them on a wall.’
He Salem Witch Trials Museum In Massachusetts it also failed to impress: user ‘climbing_headstones’ described it as ‘disappointing’ and user ‘sols_gatsby’ agreed: ‘Yeah, (it’s) just some tacky mannequins followed by a gift shop.’
