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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Our Travel Expectations

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Travel is sometimes like a box of chocolates – never know what you’re going to get. In this episode, we share stories of places that blew us away, and those that didn't live up to the hype. We want to hear YOUR stories about the places you've visited that far exceeded--or failed to meet your expectations. Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. (Just so you know, our mailbox will cut you off after two minutes so please call again if you get disconnected) You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at Hello@AtlasObscura.com.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You never really know what you're gonna get when you take a trip somewhere.

0:07.4

Sometimes you are so pumped up, you're so excited, you've got these like huge expectations

0:14.9

and then you get to the place and it is a total let down.

0:20.6

This is an incredibly common phenomena with Japanese tourists who visit Paris.

0:25.6

They expect romance and baguettes and what they get is a really busy city filled with

0:33.3

dog poop and ugly gas stations and unfriendly Parisians.

0:40.2

You know, on the other hand, sometimes you go somewhere expecting absolutely nothing

0:45.4

and when you find it just thrills you, it goes so far beyond your expectations.

0:51.5

I was driving through Tennessee and it just happened to stop at this place called Backyard

0:57.1

Terror Dinosaur Park.

0:59.2

I guess I expected, I don't know, like some paper mache, something kind of real homemade

1:05.7

feeling and what I got was basically Jurassic Park.

1:10.1

It seemed like just hundreds of dinosaurs, of real size, they were like three stories tall.

1:16.9

I could not believe someone had built this themselves in their backyard.

1:22.1

As I walked through it, I just kept going, what the hell, like over and over.

1:29.4

You know, sometimes you get surprised.

1:33.0

So that is what this episode is all about.

1:35.2

We asked our staff to share their stories of trips or places that far exceeded their expectations

1:41.8

or times on a place just did not live up to the imagined version that they were hoping

1:47.2

to find.

1:49.1

You will hear about a noodle spot in Vancouver that surprised our sound engineer after he

1:54.3

tried their homemade noodles.

...

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