The most overrated and underrated attractions in the US

When you only have a few days in a city, choosing what to see means leaving something else out. A famous landmark might be the reason you booked the trip. Other stops make the itinerary because you keep seeing them online. Before giving either your afternoon, it helps to see what visitors think.

Stasher compared online popularity with Tripadvisor ratings for 665 attractions across the US, including Washington, DC and US territories. We looked for places that attract plenty of online attention but receive lower visitor ratings, alongside highly rated attractions with less attention across the channels we measured.

Hollywood Walk of Fame and Missouri’s National WWI Museum and Memorial lead the two rankings. Below, you’ll find the results and some places to consider when planning your next trip.

Key findings

• Hollywood Walk of Fame ranks first for overrated attractions, ahead of Six Flags Great Adventure and Plymouth Rock – Pilgrim Memorial State Park.
• The National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and EAA Aviation Museum lead the underrated ranking. All three have Tripadvisor ratings of 4.8/5.
• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens earns 4.9/5, the highest visitor rating in the underrated top ten.
• The study identifies 10 overrated attractions across eight states and 223 underrated attractions nationally. Every state except Michigan has an underrated qualifier.

The most overrated attractions in the US

Hollywood Walk of Fame has the highest online popularity score among the overrated qualifiers. Six Flags attractions also feature heavily, appearing in New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, Texas and Massachusetts.

Every entry below sits in the top quarter of the study for online popularity and has a Tripadvisor rating below 4.0/5.

Online popularity is an index out of 100. It measures the selected online signals, rather than the percentage of visitors who know or like an attraction.

Hollywood Walk of Fame leads the list

At 94.4, Hollywood Walk of Fame’s online popularity index is the highest in this table. Its Tripadvisor rating of 3.4/5 is tied with Alamodome for the lowest among the ten qualifiers. That pairing puts the California landmark first overall.

Six Flags appears throughout the top ten

The ratings range from 3.5/5 for Six Flags New England to 3.8/5 for Great Adventure, Great America and Fiesta Texas.

Plymouth Rock takes third place

Plymouth Rock – Pilgrim Memorial State Park ranks third, with a Tripadvisor rating of 3.6/5 and an online popularity index of 83.1. It joins Hollywood Walk of Fame among the landmarks in a list otherwise dominated by theme parks.

The most underrated attractions in the US

The underrated top ten includes war museums, botanical gardens and national monuments. Each attraction earns at least 4.5/5 on Tripadvisor while sitting below the study’s midpoint for online popularity.

Some names may already be familiar. “Underrated” here refers to their position on our combined online measure, so the list can include established attractions as well as places you have yet to discover.

Missouri’s National WWI Museum and Memorial ranks first

The National WWI Museum and Memorial earns 4.8/5 on Tripadvisor and takes first place in the underrated ranking. Its online popularity index is 21.8. The museum is one of several history-focused attractions in the top ten, alongside the National WWII Museum, San Juan National Historic Site and Hagley Museum and Library.

The National WWII Museum in Louisiana also makes the top ten, in seventh place. It earns the same 4.8/5 rating, with a higher online popularity index of 33.5.

Tent Rocks and EAA Aviation Museum complete the top three

New Mexico’s Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument takes second place, followed by Wisconsin’s EAA Aviation Museum. Both earn 4.8/5 on Tripadvisor. Their online popularity scores are 14.4 and 8.6 respectively.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has the top visitor rating

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens earns 4.9/5, the strongest Tripadvisor rating in the underrated top ten. It places fourth overall with an online popularity index of 30.9.

Which US attractions are most popular online?

Walt Disney World leads the online popularity ranking, followed by the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. None of the ten attractions below qualifies as overrated in this study: each has a Tripadvisor rating of at least 4.0/5.

This table ranks online attention across the sampled attractions, not visitor numbers. Equal underlying scores share a rank. The full popularity list is available in the study workbook.

Where the state results land

Eight states have overrated qualifiers: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Massachusetts and Texas each have two, while the others have one.

Underrated qualifiers appear in 49 states. Michigan is the exception because all six of its sampled attractions sit above the national low-popularity cutoff. That leaves none eligible for the underrated list, even though several have high visitor ratings.

These state counts exclude Washington, DC and US territories. An empty result means no sampled attraction qualified; it does not mean the state has no overlooked places to visit.

Using the rankings to plan a trip

Start with the attractions that interest you, then read recent reviews before committing your time or money. Look for details relevant to your own visit, such as accessibility or suitability for young children.

Leave room for a less familiar stop. A specialist museum or garden could suit your interests as well as a famous landmark. Use the underrated list to find options, then check official opening hours, reservations and access arrangements.

If you are exploring between hotel check-out and a train or flight, check attraction bag policies before setting off. Stasher luggage storage can help you make use of that time without carrying your bags from stop to stop. Choose a location with opening hours that fit your route: https://stasher.com/

Methodology

What we studied

Stasher compared 665 preselected US attractions, including Washington, DC and US territories. Each had at least 200 Tripadvisor reviews and the data needed for the study. The sample covers selected attractions, rather than every attraction in the country.

How we measured online popularity

We used three measures: English-language Wikipedia views, TikTok post totals and Instagram post totals. Social figures cover one selected attraction-specific hashtag on each platform.

We scored each attraction by its position within the national sample on each measure, then averaged those positions with equal weight. The result is shown as an online popularity index out of 100. A higher score means more attention across those measures.

What qualified for each list

• Overrated: online popularity in the national top quarter AND a Tripadvisor rating below 4.0/5.
• Underrated: online popularity below the national midpoint AND a Tripadvisor rating of at least 4.5/5.

Attractions that met neither definition remained in the calculation base but outside both lists.

How we ordered the results

We first adjusted visitor ratings for review volume. Ratings supported by fewer reviews were drawn more toward the sample’s average rating; ratings supported by more reviews changed less.

We then compared each adjusted rating’s position in the national sample with its online popularity score. The largest gaps toward popularity led the overrated ranking. The largest gaps toward visitor ratings led the underrated ranking. The tables show the original Tripadvisor ratings so readers can see the scores visitors gave.

State lists keep the national rules and scores. Multi-state attractions appear in each recorded state but only once nationally. Equal underlying scores share a rank.

Dates and limitations

Wikipedia views cover September 2025 to August 2026. The data was collected in September 2026. TikTok and Instagram totals are accumulated snapshots, rather than posts made only during that year.

Selected hashtags may miss discussion under other names. Online popularity does not measure attendance, visitor expectations or regret. Data availability and source-selection requirements also affect the sample, so results should be read as comparisons among the attractions studied. Individual review text was not analyzed to establish the reasons behind visitor ratings.

Sources

• Wikimedia Pageviews API: https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/
• TikTok and Instagram: recorded totals for selected attraction hashtags, collected September 2026.
• Tripadvisor: recorded ratings and review counts, collected September 2026.