History Main / TrashyTouristTrap

* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}:

* Both the Museum of Freedom and the Walden Pond cabin in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' were clearly trash even before the bombs fell.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has Novac, pre war name unknown, a town with a giant model T-rex to promote its motel. And that's pretty much it. There is also Primm with the Vicky and Vance Casino. Unlike it's real world counterpart, Vicky and Vance were a pair of white collar criminals running a check fraud scheme rather than bank robbers. The idea of making a Casino themed after them, especially far from any place where they were relevant, comes off as particularly desperate.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In Season 3, Dean and Sam investigate a Florida tourist trap called "The Mystery Spot" with the assumption that genuine supernatural activites are happening there. It turns out to be anything but genuine and is instead an obvious, but playful tourist trap. Sam gets trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop for entirely unrelated reasons, however, and multiple very dark things happen at The Mystery Spot.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In Season 3, Dean and Sam investigate a Florida tourist trap called "The Mystery Spot" with the assumption that it is real. It turns out to be anything but real and is instead an obvious, but playful tourist trap. Sam gets trapped in a TimeLoop for entirely unrelated reasons, however, and multiple very dark things happen at The Mystery Spot.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': "D.W. Goes to Washington" has a flashback to the time D.W.talked the family into visiting "Santa's Igloo" ("Share a sundae with Santa and his friendly reindeer!"). In spite of what the [[VeryFalseAdvertising place's commercial and billboard showed]], the "igloo" turns out to be an ordinary house with a cheap igloo facade attached to the front and "Santa" is a surly, disheveled man dressed in half of a Santa suit who growls at the Reeds for not bringing a sundae to share.

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[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': Whenever Jon goes on vacation, he often ends up at some trashy, overpriced place, like one strip when he ended up at a "resort" that charged him $23 for an overcooked hamburger without condiments or sides. Garfield, of course, snarks about it every time but sometimes Jon actually enjoys whatever tacky roadside attraction he's visiting.

[[caption-width-right:1000:The real mystery is why anyone bothered coming.]]

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "[[Music/UHFOriginalMotionPictureSoundtrackAndOtherStuff The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota]]" doesn't so much make fun of the tourist attraction (which sounds to be [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nothing more or less than its name implies]]) but rather the kind of person, as represented by the narrator himself, who finds it unironically amazing, though-provoking, and worth a long road trip just to stand in front of.

* Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen from ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'' is a roadside gas station that doubles as an eatery and an oddities Museum, complete with an all-rails tour of the nation's most depraved serial killers ("Captain Spaulding's Murder Ride"). While the whole establishment is impressive on the surface, Captain Spaulding himself is a MonsterClown with a murderous temper who likes to send his customers in the direction of a [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether family of killers]] (the Firefly Family) and the MadScientist Dr. Satan just down the road.

* "Creator/BillBryson" remarked on his father's ability to find terrible roadside attractions when driving.

Where the road-trips flock to when the leaves change and their money stays as tribute for worthless garbage.

They are typically available with purchase of admission and they will insist that you check out their gift-shop. Most of these attractions are mom-and-pop businesses with nothing but their insulated community and tourist season keeping them afloat. Because of this, fiction likes to portray them as ramshackle and poorly made, yet criminally expensive to attend, often finding new and ridiculous things to add on to a ShockinglyExpensiveBill.

Compare CrappyCarnival, SouvenirLand and SuckECheeses.

* Lester's Possum Park in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' is a small opossum theme park. The main part we see is the ''Possum Posse Jamboree,'' an animatronic musical show reminiscent of Disney's own ''Ride/CountryBearJamboree'' or [[SuckECheeses a particularly bad Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant]]. The song the animatronic band plays makes Max cringe, and one of the animatronics is so broken it just splutters electronic noises and sparks. Goofy has fond memories of the park from his youth, but Max finds the experience unbearable.

* Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen from ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'' is a road side gas station that doubles as an eatery and an oddities Museum, complete with an all-rails tour of the nations most depraved serial killers ("Captain Spaulding's Murder Ride"). While the whole establishment is impressive on the surface, Captain Spaulding himself is a MonsterClown with a murderous temper that likes to send his customers in the direction of a [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether family of killers]] (the Firefly Family) and the MadScientist Dr. Satan just down the road.

* In ''Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest'', landmarks of importance for quests and questers typically take the form of roadside attractions that exist within the FantasyAmericana otherworld quests typically occur in. Such landmarks include the town of Gateway, Nevada (where people come to wrestle Clifford the Cyclops), convenience stores ran by personifications of fate, dragon wildlife preserves, a bed-and-breakfast ran by a witch that will try to cook and eat them as payment for hospitality, and a SouvenirLand where important {{MacGuffin}}s are given to customers as prizes for games [[spoiler:which is actually a front for summoning the Lost God ran by its {{Cult}}]].

* In ''Series/AmericanGods2017'', roadside attractions are built in places that people feel hold some special significance, making them [[PlaceOfPower Places of Power]] according to the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve belief-based cosmology]] the series runs on, hence why gods will convene to them for matters of importance. Even then, Wednesday implies for as fulfilling as humans find in them, it leaves them with a sense of profound dissatisfaction. The only exception to this we see in the series is The Center of America Motel, a place that actually isn't at the exact center (the pig-farmer wouldn't sell) and is so devoid of that transcendent spark that the gods like to use it as TheNeutralZone.

* The Questionable Area? from ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' is an abandoned roadside attraction located near the Quarry where Psychonauts HQ is located. Because of the massive amount of psitanium deposits in the area, the entire area is home to a lot of unusual paranormal activity (most notably a waterfall that flows upward) and a lot of unanswered questions (a RunningGag of the area is that ''everything'' in it is punctuated by a question mark). It would eventually be turned into a tourist destination, including a cryptid display in a cave, a playground and [[GreasySpoon the Lumberstack Diner]]. This location would inspire Ford Cruller (who at the time was a park ranger) to form the Psychic Six, eventually culminating in the formation of the [[Characters/PsychonautsPsychonauts Psychonauts]]. By the time Raz visits the area, the Questionable Area? is (nearly) abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.

* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': Ben and his family stop to see the world's largest rubberband ball in the appropriately named episode "Tourist Trap". It's revealed to be [[SealedEvilInACan used as a prison]] for an alien creature made of pure electricity called a Nosedeenian (nicknamed "Megawatt"), escaping from its prison when Ben's omnitrix makes contact with it. They end up destroying the rubber band ball, but then they replace it with the world's largest lightbulb instead.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': ''"Doug's Bad Trip"'' has the Funnies go on a long car trip to the Great Painted Gorge, but Doug and Judy keep seeing billboards that advertise tourist traps. They all turn out to be disappointments. The first advertised as having a mysterious creepy thing turn out to be just a potato that looks vaguely like a vampire bat, the second stating to be a bug ranch was just a bunch of bugs in miniature barns, the third was claimed to be a poetic field but was just a desert with a sign.

** The Mystery Shack is the primary location of the series, acting as a ''[[Franchise/RipleysBelieveItOrNot Ripley's]]''-style museum of "oddities", which are all just fake displays and an overpriced gift shop. Ironically, one of the ways [[Characters/GravityFallsGrunkleStan Grunkle Stan]] showcases himself [[EveryoneHasStandards to have standards]] is by swindling people with makeshift monsters only and absolutely refusing to touch (let alone display) the real monsters of Gravity Falls, because Stan knows [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow that they are way too dangerous]]. Dipper discovers this the hard way in "Boss Mabel", when he exploits the fact Stan left for a while to capture a monster for display and the thing puts two tourists in the hospital. [[spoiler:It was originally [[Characters/GravityFallsTheAuthor Stanford "Ford" Pines']] house/laboratory for his research in the geniunely weird things that happen in town. After he winds up lost in the Multiverse through his portal under the building, his brother Stanley took on his identity and has been working decades to bring his brother back, turning it into the Mystery Shack in order to keep the lights on.]]

** The episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E16RoadsideAttraction Roadside Attraction]]" involves Stanley bringing the twins and Mabel's friends on a roadtrip through Redwood Highway to get back at his competitors in their petty feud. Such competitors include a Corn Maze, Granny Sweetkin's Yarnball, House Shoe, Log Land, The Big Thing, The Giant Pan, Upside-Down Town and Mystery Mountain.

* The Questionable Area from ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' is an abandoned roadside attraction located near the Quarry where Psychonauts HQ is located. Because of the massive amount of psitanium deposits in the area, the entire area is home to a lot of unusual paranormal activity (most notably a waterfall that flows upward), and it would eventually be turned into a tourist destination, including a cryptid display in a cave, a playground and the Lumberstack Diner. This location would inspire Ford Cruller (who at the time was a park ranger) to form the Psychic Six, eventually culminating in the formation of the [[Characters/PsychonautsPsychonauts Psychonauts]]. By the time Raz visits the area, the Questionable Area is (nearly) abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.

** The Mystery Shack is the primary location of the series, acting as a ''[[Franchise/RipleysBelieveItOrNot Ripley's]]''-style museum of "oddities", which are all just fake displays and an overpriced gift shop. Ironically, one of the ways Grunkle Stan showcases himself [[EveryoneHasStandards to have standards]] is by swindling people with makeshift monsters only and absolutely refusing to touch (let alone display) the real monsters of Gravity Falls, because Stan knows [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow that they are way too dangerous]]. Dipper discovers this the hard way in "Boss Mabel", when he exploits the fact Stan left for a while to capture a monster for display and the thing puts two tourists in the hospital. [[spoiler:It was originally Stanford "Ford" Pines' house/laboratory for his research in the geniunely weird things that happen in town. After he winds up lost in the Multiverse through his portal under the building, his brother Stanley took on his identity and has been working decades to bring his brother back, turning it into the Mystery Shack in order to keep the lights on.]]

* Lester's Possum Park in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' is a small opossum theme park. The main part we see is the ''Possum Posse Jamboree'' an animatronic musical show reminiscent of Disney's own ''Ride/CountryBearJamboree'' or [[SuckECheeses a particularly bad Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant]]. The song the animatronic band plays makes Max cringe, and one of the animatronics is so broken it just splutters electronic noises and sparks. Goofy has fond memories of the park from his youth, but Max finds the experience unbearable.

* Lester's Possum Park in ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' is a small opossum theme park, the main part we see is the ''Possum Posse Jamboree'' an animatronic musical show reminiscent of Disney's own ''Ride/CountryBearJamboree'' or [[SuckECheeses a particularly bad Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant]]. The song the animatronic band plays makes Max cringe and one of the animatronics is so broken it just splutters electronic noises and sparks. Goofy has fond memories of the park from his youth, but Max finds the experience unbearable.

** The Celebrity Vegetable Museum is famous for its farm growing vegetables that look like various celebrities.
** Mount Rushmoore itself has been repurposed for tourists to bungee jump over the tar pits below.
** Frog Rock [[NonIndicativeName only barely resembles what could be a frog from the right angle]]. Max admits that even though he didn't pay anything to see it, he wants his money back.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': ''"Doug's Bad Trip"'' has the Funnies go on a long car trip to a targeted destination, but Doug and Judy keep seeing billboards that advertise tourist traps. They all turn out to be disappointments. The first advertised as having a mysterious creepy thing turn out to be just a misshapen potato, the second stating to be a bug ranch was just a bunch of bugs in miniature barns, the third was claimed to be a poetic field but was just a desert with a sign.

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" doesn't so much make fun of the tourist attraction (which sounds to be [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nothing more or less than its name implies]]) but rather the kind of person, as represented by the narrator himself, who finds it unironically amazing, though-provoking, and worth a long road trip just to stand in front of.