Well theres "touristy", the theres "touristy". Last summer I went with a friend to visit southern Utah. We did a day in Zion National Park. It was cool and utte

Well theres "touristy", the theres "touristy". Last summer I went with a friend to visit southern Utah. We did a day in Zion National Park. It was cool and utterly beautiful. Then, because she knew the area and had friends there, we went off into the actual wilderness of the Grand Staircase. We hit some real back woods areas, explored canyons and hiked a lot of crazy places. We rarely saw evidence of other people, let alone actual people. I think in the 3 days we were out in the back country we only saw 2 other people and that was close to (what passes for) a road. When we went back through Zion on the way home, I actually experience civilization shock - there were like 20 people visible at once, and other cars! They were both great experiences but I value the latter far more for a couple reasons: * I would never have been able to find it, known how to do that exploration, and been too timid to do it without local knowledge. *It was an adventure rather than a curated experience. The park is great, but I never felt like I was seeing reality. Like going to Epcot vs going to actual places. It was still a totally touristy experience. The locals thought I was cute for wanting to go wander in the desert to see places I had to walk for a long way to get to, without knowing anything about the desert. I was still just there to see the sights. Yet different - they all were really eager to tell me about their favorite spots off the beaten path. I guess what I'm saying is that I tend to interpret, and mean, touristy as "not really worth the effort, it's too curated and sanitized and expensive. It's designed to Disneyify some approximation of local experience and does so poorly". Similarly when I talk to people visiting my hometown of Chicago, I always recommend the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Art institute. "touristy" yeah, but also the stuff I would do once or twice a year when I lived there, and I still try to do it every couple of years when I'm visiting the family.