There's a first time for everything — and the first time you travel to a place you've never been, you risk being drawn to a tourist trap like suckers to lollipops.

How to Tell If You've Landed in a Tourist Trap
There are several telling characteristics:

• Look around. Are you surrounded by other tourists?
• Did you arrive on a bus with at least a dozen other travelers?
• Can you see anyone wearing a fanny pack?

• Is there a dearth of locals, except for vendors?
• Do you see an abundance of souvenir stands -- and practically every one sells the same junk?
• Are you besieged by people offering to sell you things that a) you don't want and b) they claim are genuine?
• Do your surroundings have an air of unreality?
• Are the closest places to eat well-known fast food joints and ice cream stands? Bingo. You've definitely arrived.

What's Wrong with Visiting a Tourist Trap?
Tourist traps surround some of the greatest places on earth, and many of them are well worth seeing. As long as you keep your money in a safe place and don't mistake the tourist trap for reality, there's little harm. Still, there are drawbacks:

• There will be crowds.
• Figure on waiting in line to get to attractions... and the bathroom.
• Expect to deal with staffers who don't subscribe to the César Ritz philosophy.
• Pickpockets, hustlers, and sad-faced souls with sorry stories populate tourist traps. In New York, for instance, strangers don't normally talk to one another. In Times Square, however, you're likely to be approached by any number of new "friends." NB: Act like a New Yorker: Don't engage. Ignore them and walk away.

• Tourist traps are inauthentic. They don't offer a true representation of a destination.
• They keep you from serendipitous discoveries of fresh places.
• It's unlikely you'll get to interact with "real people" since locals avoid these areas.
• They exist purely to extract money from your wallet.
• Friends and family will yawn when you come home. You risk hearing, "Been there, done that."

What are Some of the World's Most Popular Tourist Traps?

• The pyramids of Giza in Egypt are a tourist trap. Yes, they're ancient. Yes, they're iconic. But don't expect to stand in awe of them for more than a minute without someone coming up to hustle you to buy a postcard or take a ride on a camel.
• Times Square is a tourist trap. Yet if this is your first trip to New York, you'll want to see it for the bright lights, the signage, Broadway's live theaters, perhaps even the crystal ball that drops on New Year's Eve. Regardless, the only New Yorkers you'll see in Times Square are ones weaving through crowds to get up to an office or down to the subway. Times Square restaurants such as the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and the Olive Garden may be part of the real America, but they're far from the real New York.
• Niagara Falls, the popular honeymoon spot for generations, is a complete tourist trap. And yet, right across from a strip dotted with tacky stores and kitschy attractions, gush the marvelous Falls themselves, a natural wonder to behold. So what if the Maid of the Mist boat exclusively carries plastic-poncho-clad tourists guaranteed to get doused and it's crammed with kids? It's still fun, and if you go to the Falls without taking the ride, you're missing out.
• The entire city of Las Vegas is a tourist trap. Yet the glitz, the glamour, the excitement, the over-the-top hotels and restaurants, and of course the gambling, are all worth experiencing. Besides, you might just get lucky.