Tacky Tourist Photos

SUBMITTED BY: Thomas Schmeh and Tan Chau Qun  LOCATION: Eldon, Iowa Only two roles to choose from: Somebody’s gotta play the wife! Here’s the original for comparison: No need to bring your own pitchfork. The American Gothic House Center, which celebrates the life of artist Grant Wood, provides tourists with complimentary props. (Thomas Schmeh is [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Noelle Boc  LOCATION: Universal Studios, California (1985) It’s tough to line up your face in one of those hole-in-the-head photoboards. You have to make sure there’s not too much hair dangling through the hole, especially in cases when the color doesn’t match. You have to tilt your head at the perfect angle and [...]

SUBMITTED BY: The Cole Family of Colorado     LOCATION: London, England (2014) It’s not truly a family vacation until you’ve been publicly humiliated, right? Stockades are a staple photo-op of historical theme parks, whether it be commemorating the sadistic Pilgrims at Plimoth Plantation or even the Disney version of Revolutionary War America. But England’s Warwick Castle [...]

SUBMITTED BY: David Meerman Scott   LOCATION: Cairo, Egypt (2013) World famous papyrus researcher and Egyptian Ambassador Hassan Ragab was charmed by Disney’s EPCOT’s theme park — which inexplicably does not include Egypt — but he thought it was a bit “too computerized” for his tastes. Ragab’s attempt at a “more human” amusement park is the [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Tacky Tourist Photos   LOCATION: Orlando, Florida (2012) Old Testament fans surely don’t wanna miss the chance to play the role of Samson at the Holy Land Experience Bible park on the outskirts of Disney World.  As you know, Samson destroyed the Temple to the Philistine god, Dagon (Judges 16:23-30), by pushing out the [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Tacky Tourist Photos  LOCATION: San Diego, California (2012) Would you want this little old lady holding down the fort? This 1800′s-era musket at Old Town San Diego’s Mormon Battalion History Museum could be twice her height!

SUBMITTED BY: Rick Broussard   LOCATION: Las Vegas, Nevada (2012) Chorus of the Gods?  Rick’s melodic enthusiasm has little effect on his stiff back-up singers! If you happen to be at Caesar’s Palace, home of one of Evel Knievel‘s most bonecrushing stunts, make sure you keep your wife away from their flirtatious guards. (Rick Broussard, [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Ellie and Michael Mirman   LOCATION: Tel Arshaf (Tel Aviv), Israel (2012) Tourist sites are equally guilty of romanticizing the Vikings, but these Crusaders seem more likely to want to swap recipes than slit your throats! For the benefit of our Tacky Tourist history buffs, here’s the scoop on the Crusader fort just outside [...]

SUBMITTED BY: David Meerman Scott  LOCATION: Krakow, Poland (2012) Salt MINES?  People used to risk their lives for table salt, even though the oceans are filled with the stuff? Apparently so, and now the Wieliczka Salt Mines, home of an underground Catholic chapel carved out of salt and all-salt sculptures of Pope John Paul II [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Tacky Tourist Photos  LOCATION: San Diego, California (2012) The two biggest draws on the Old Town San Diego Trolley Tour are the free Mormon Battalion Museum and the free bottle of souvenir Hot Sauce. As you might suspect, free religious literature is also available in unlimited quantities.

(In honor of the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary and the recent delivery of three boxes of Thin Mints to Tacky Tourist Photos headquarters, we are rerunning this classic submission from yesteryear.) SUBMITTED BY: Kris Carlson  LOCATION: Savannah, Georgia (1997) When Kris Carlson and her husband-to-be Phil were looking for a romantic honeymoon destination, they skipped [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Kathie Fife   LOCATION: Hillsborough, NH (2011) Remember when educators carried rulers and would crack your wrists for chewing gum or misspelling a word? Well, in addition to shining the silverware of President Franklin Pierce, the Hillsborough Historical Society loves to romanticize mean old school teachers. (Kathie Fife is a nature photographer and greeting [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Debby Greenberg  LOCATION: Los Alamos, New Mexico (2011) So uranium yellowcake is a key ingredient for developing nuclear weapons, but you’re not supposed to eat it. That wasn’t the case with this celebratory mushroom cloud cake enjoyed by U.S. military generals after the 1946 nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll.  A replica of [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Mark Arsenault and Jennifer Levitz  LOCATION: Mount Vernon, Virginia (2011) Barack Obama won’t come greet you when you tour the White House.  Speaker of the House John Boehner won’t give you the time of day when you visit the Capitol. But George Washington cares about his fans. The Father of Our Country’s PR [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Mark Z.   LOCATION: Sarasota, Florida (2011) The guy who made the Marilyn Monroe statue in Chicago apparently specializes in providing opportunities to look up the skirts of fiberglass Amazonian women. But Mark’s parents are a lot classier. They preferred to re-enact the famous spontaneous kiss between a sailor and a nurse in [...]