The world is full of fascinating museums. But also plenty of duds.
As disappointed tourists recently revealed in a discussion on Reddit.
User ‘MarathonMarathon’ kicked off the thread on the ‘Travel’ forum when they asked: ‘What are the worst museums you’ve been to?’
Descriptions of museums that have left Redditors feeling shortchanged came thick and fast, with the post having gained nearly 800 comments at the time of writing.
A famous attraction in Berlin quickly became a talking point, with Redditors revealing they were far from impressed by the Checkpoint Charlie museum.
‘Disorganised’: The Checkpoint Charlie Museum (above) has left some Redditors far from impressed
User ‘TLB-Q8’ described it as a ‘commercial tourist trap’ and claimed: ‘There are better ways to get a sense of what living in West Berlin was like.’
User ‘blergyblergy’, who had ‘high expectations’ for the museum, was let down too. They claimed it was ‘disorganised’ and ‘low effort’, while the information was in ‘zero chronological order’.
Karl Marx House museum in Trier, Germany, also left tourists underwhelmed, with Redditor ‘Hungry_Bet7216’ commenting: ‘Not sure if it was a museum or a hustle.’ They described the museum as ‘very dense’ and said it was ‘not easy to absorb anything’.
Moving north, user ‘scavenger7’ described the Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik, or as they referred to it ‘The Penis Museum’, as ‘disappointing’. They wrote: ‘I expected it to be erotic but it is just a collection of animal penises ripped from their owner and pickled. Possibly the least sexy thing I could imagine.’
Museo delle Cere, a waxwork museum in Rome featuring figures from popes to ancient Romans, also fared badly. ‘RomeVacationTips’ slammed it as ‘breathtakingly incompetent’.
Karl Marx House museum (above) in Trier, Germany, left a Redditor unsure if it was a ‘museum or a hustle’
A Redditor described the Icelandic Phallological Museum (above) as ‘possibly the least sexy thing I could imagine’
Redditors claimed they saw bugs on display inside Barcelona’s Museu de la Xocolata, or the Museum of Chocolate.
User ‘Lanxy’ wrote: ‘We kinda stumbled upon it and thought, “Hey, why not.” [It was the] worst 20 minutes of my life. Every single exhibit, nicely done, to be fair, was alive with maggots.’
‘HoneyCakePonye’ added: ‘I did not catch sight of many bugs/maggots in the chocolate museum, but it’s still one of the worst places I’ve paid an entrance fee for.’
Amsterdam’s Heineken Museum didn’t fare any better, with ‘moes23’ complaining that ‘you would be better off just taking a picture of the building and then going and getting a pint somewhere’. They added: ‘They just rush you through it very quickly and nothing learned a quick Wiki search wouldn’t tell you.’
France has a flop, too, according to Redditors, with ‘notassigned2023’ referring to the Salvador Dali Museum in Paris as a ‘tourist trap’, an attraction that’s ‘more like a Dali gift shop you pay to get into’.
‘CitizenDain’ added: ‘They have a small handful of Dali sculptures and then it is mostly photographs of Dali, magazine covers featuring him and dumb holograms.’
Does the UK have any museums to moan about? The London Dungeon drew the ire of ‘BlueHorseDungeon’, who complained that it was ‘utterly trashy’ and a ‘depressing collection of torture equipment’. (Note, complaints on The London Dungeon Tripadvisor page draw ripostes – you have been warned.)
Doesn’t add up: One Redditor who visited the Museum of Mathematics in New York said they felt like they had been ‘scammed’. Picture courtesy of Creative Commons licensing
One Reddit user described Barcelona’s Museum of Chocolate as ‘one of the worst places I’ve decided to pay entrance to’
Does the UK have any museums to moan about? The London Dungeon drew the ire of Reddit user ‘BlueHorseDungeon’, who complained that it was ‘utterly trashy’
Edinburgh Castle’s National War Museum didn’t live up to the hype either. ‘MungoShoddy’ said the museum is ‘doubtlessly wonderful if you have a kink for dusty military uniforms and faded flags’.
Across the pond, Manhattan’s award-winning Museum of Mathematics (or MoMath) also disappointed, with one user labelling it as one of the most ‘expensive, least rewarding museums in the world’, adding: ‘The place cost $25 to get in and there were only two rooms. Avoid.’
‘N0r5e’ holds similar sentiments, complaining that they ‘felt scammed after wandering in there to kill time’.
New York’s Skyscraper Museum, meanwhile, is a ‘total waste of time’, according to ‘WaddlingLion’. They wrote: ‘[It] has the same level of execution as someone printing out Wikipedia pages and taping them to a wall.’
The Salem Witch Trials Museum in Massachusetts also failed to impress, with user ‘climbing_headstones’ describing it as ‘underwhelming’ and user ‘sols_gatsby’ agreeing: ‘Yeah, [it’s] just some tacky mannequins followed by a gift shop.’