Napa Valley Wine Train among ‘biggest tourist traps’ in the world, USA Today reports

The Napa Valley Wine Train, a historic and scenic Wine Country tour on rails, was recently named among the biggest tourist traps in the world by USA Today.

The wine train placed No. 53 on USA Today’s Aug. 24 list of “Top 100 Tourist Traps Worldwide“ coming in between Stratford-upon-Avon, a medieval market town in England, and the original Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

Other go-to Bay Area spots on the list were Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco at No. 15, San Jose’s Winchester Mystery House at No. 23 and another San Francisco tourist favorite, the cable cars, at No. 75.

Central and Southern California spots were mentioned too, with the Calico Ghost Town in the Mojave Desert leading the way at the No. 3 spot. Hearst Castle in San Simeon on the Central Coast came in at No. 51, Los Angeles’ Hollywood Walk of Fame was at No. 29 and the Santa Monica Pier came in at No. 42.

The Four Corners Monument (in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah) is the No. 1 tourist trap in the world, according to USA Today’s report.

To assemble the rankings, the publication says it reviewed 23.2 million Google reviews from July 2023 of the 500 most popular tourist attractions in the world, spanning 65 countries.

For each attraction, USA Today analyzed how frequently the reviews mention the term “tourist trap.” USA Today then divided the number of mentions in each case by the total number of reviews for that attraction.

For the Napa Valley Wine Train, which takes visitors on a three-hour, 36-mile round-trip journey from downtown Napa to St. Helena and back, USA Today reported 2,273 Google reviews, and found that three reviews — or .13% — included the offending term.

By comparison, the Four Corners Monument had 10,839 reviews, with 139, or 1.28%, of those reviews calling it “tourist trap.”

In separate lists, USA Today also analyzed how many Google reviews used the word “expensive” for its list of “Most Overpriced Attractions Worldwide,” and counted the number of Google reviews using the word “overrated” for its list of “Most Overrated Attractions Worldwide.”

Napa Valley Wine Train placed 13 on the list of overpriced attractions, and 44 on the list of overrated attractions.

Other expensive California attractions included San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences (No. 3), Monterey Bay Aquarium (No. 9), Winchester Mystery House (No. 18) and Disneyland (No. 20).

Overrated California attractions also included Hollywood Walk of Fame (No. 5), the Hollywood Sign (No. 23), and the Santa Monica Pier (No. 45).

According to USA Today, the most overpriced attraction in the world is the Blue Lagoon in Grindavik, Iceland; and the most overrated attraction in the world is Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon.

On it’s website, the Napa Valley Wine Train offers several different tour packages, including the Tasting on the Rails experience ($575), which includes seven wines paired with seven courses along the voyage.

For USA Today’s complete lists, go to usatoday.com.