101 Places Not to See Before You Die

by Catherine Price

From the Grover Cleveland Service Area to the Beijing Museum of Tap Water to, of course, Euro Disney, "101 Places Not to See Before You Die" brings you unforgettable tales of the most ill-conceived museums, worst theme parks, and the grossest Superfund sites that you'll ever have the pleasure of not visiting. Journalist Catherine Price travels the globe - and beyond - for attractions that aren't worth the trip, like Jupiter's Worst Moon, an Outdoor Wedding During the 2021 Reemergence of the Great Eastern Cicada Brood, and Fan Hours at the Las Vegas Porn Convention. With guest entries from globe trotting writers including Nicholas Kristof, Michael Pollan, Rebecca Solnit, and A. J. Jacobs, "101 Places Not to See Before You Die" is filled with stories and anecdotes of misadventure to which any seasoned traveler can relate. It's also a testament to why we hit the road to begin with: to put ourselves in new and interesting situations, and to collect stories and memories that make even the worst experiences in the moment worth the trip.
Irreverent and compulsively readable, "101 Places Not to See Before You Die" highlights destinations we can all live without - while reminding us why we're willing to put up with the bed bugs and the food poisoning and set out to explore the world.

• ISBN10: 0062000047
• ISBN13: 9780062000040
• Publish Date: 22 June 2010
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: HarperCollins eBooks
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kevin Costain]

This might be a good read while on a trip somewhere. You could sit there, basking in the glow of some warm-place resort reading a book about unusual travel experiences. The effect of describing what “not” to see, however, turns out to be quite the opposite.

““Some people might argue that San Jose, California, is itself a place not worth visiting before you die. Fair enough.”

It’s a simple passage, but there’s a hint of something there if you let it linger. What’s supposed to come across as irreverent and funny actually feels angry and cynical. By Chapter 9’s opening sentence above, I could recognize that angry voice.

Chapter 12 itself contains only one sentence. It’s kind of a joke-y thing but, I wondered reading this if I should have expected more.

Another moment in the book - an overnight stay at a Korean temple smacks of tourists in another country what have to do things they don’t like and get pissed off because they weren’t served burgers:

“Things went downhill from there. Exhausted and cranky, one by one we began refusing to play monk. If one of the whole points of Buddhism was to cultivate acceptance, why, I asked, did we have to go through such an elaborate meal ceremony? The Venezuelan couple went a step further: they left.”

Also, a mention of the Bay Area RT system and its carpeted floor. This was removed in June of 2015, so maybe it’s not so bad now.

This, frankly, reflects badly on the person in the story, presumably the author. A place “not to see” is that way because you didn’t like it? Really? The core of this book seems to amount to “traveler discomfort.” Clearly we’re all going to have different experiences and levels of tolerance to things, but making a compendium of discomfort seems anti to the goal of offering really horrible experiences as a point of interest (the Running of the Bulls from the bull’s point of view, for example).