I’m thinking of such areas as Hot Springs Arkansas and Wisconsin Dells. Here in Ohio the coast from Lorain to Toledo had dozens and dozens of mom and pop motels, cabins and cottages often with their own tiny beach. “Sleep in a giant wine keg!” Many are still there. Quite a few tourist traps also like dinosaur themed forests and gravity defying houses. My family’s favorite, the mysterious Blue Hole in Castalia.
What are some other area across the US?
We stopped there for lunch once - very mediocre…
Williams, Arizona has really leaned into Route 66 nostalgia.
The Hungry Trout Resort, in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. I went here with my children 40 years ago and am gratified to find that it still operates to this day. We had a great time.
Lake George NY has many small motels in addition to the major ones. Not many chains, though; the independent hotels staked out the good locations before the chains existed.
Plenty of tourist trap stores on Canada St., the main drag.
How bout a good old-fashioned Mystery Spot? This one is in Michigan’s upper peninsula just across the Mackinac Bridge, but there are Mystery Spots in several other states. About as tourist-trappy as it gets. What causes the amazing phenomenon— is it a magnetic meteorite that crashed eons ago and is buried underground directly below? Or is it a series of optical illusions caused by forced perspective? We’ll probably never know for sure.
Tombstone, Arizona. Some Bordello-y B&Bs and small motels.
This is what came to mind for me, as well, though it’s changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. Since around 1990, I’ve met some friends up in the Dells every fall, for a weekend of playing role-playing games and hanging out together, and have watched the change as it’s happened.
What changed the Dells was the advent of the large resort, featuring indoor waterparks. Those transformed the Dells from a summertime destination (i.e., Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend) to a year-round destination. There are now four large operators (Great Wolf Lodge, Wilderness, Kalahari, and Mt. Olympus) which dominate the town; the latter one bought up a lot of the little mom-and-pop motels, and rebranded them.
Similarly, a lot of the old tourist-trap attractions, like Fort Dells, Storybook Gardens, etc., were sold, and torn down, as the properties became worth so much that the old owners couldn’t refuse the offers.
There are still some of the old attractions, like the Tommy Bartlett Show, the duck tours, the tacky little gift shops on the main drag in the Dells, etc., but the overall feel of the area has definitely changed.
Dammit. Ninja’ed in the OP and by kenobi. (We just got back from there a few weeks ago after I last visited back in the late 80s or possibly very early 90s. It is simultaneously completely different and completely the same as I remember it.)
I thought that was done a couple years ago. I didn’t seek it out for that reason. There’s some Tommy Barlett “Exploratorium” or whatnot, but I didn’t think the water shows were still going on.
Oops, you are right. They shut down the show in 2020, during COVID, and announced that it would not be coming back.
I blame forgetting that on the fact that I haven’t been able to get up there since 2019.
I figured you might not have been there in a couple years. I was shocked at how much was the same, though. Paul Bunyan restaurant was still there. A lot of the small-town breakfast diners seemed to still be there. The watering holes looked familiar. The motel our family would stay at (The Cliffside Motel, now Cliffside Resort) was still standing, a little bit more modernized and expanded, but maintaining that family-run Polish feel to it (I pretty much only heard only Polish when I took my daughter there to walk along the shore of Lake Delton.) A ton of waterparks, though there were a few, IIRC, back in the 80s. The kitschy Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. I feel like there also used to be a wax museum and a “wild west town” and stuff of that nature, but I didn’t come across those this time. And still a surprising number of ma & pop motels with “(NO) VACANCY” signs out front.
But, yeah, the place had built up and feels like it’s more of a waterpark destination now and less of a nature place to go relax fishing and hang around a campfire roasting sausages on a stick at night. (Though Cliffside still provides fire pits, a large grill for guests to use, and piers you throw a line into Lake Delton if you want a carp or whatever fish they have [that’s the only one I saw]).
The whole town straddled that uncanny valley between memory and the present.
It’s been a number of years since I visited, but I’d say the Amana Colonies in Iowa would fit what the OP is looking for.
That reminds me of visiting Rockome Gardens as a kid. I just looked it up, and apparently it’s long since closed.
Atlas Obscura is very good for finding some of these—site searchable by location or keyword, and they’ve got a couple of print editions, for easier undirected browsing.
But, for a quicker answer, I have a combination tourist trap AND motel at the Clown Motel! In Tonopah, Nevada, located right across the street from an old west miner’s cemetery, reportedly haunted!
Be sure to check out the up-to-date in-room decor and portraiture!
Some examples in Colorado that come to mind: Manitou Springs, Durango, and Glenwood Springs. In the foothills of the Sierra there’s Mariposa, Oakhurst and Sonora.
The trouble is sometimes small towns have a hard time staying “small” once they’re get on tourist’s radar. As soon as the major hotel chains see a profit center, they’ll start sprouting up in clusters and the roads approaching town turn into miles of strip malls.
Although it lacks kitschy tourist traps, Door County, Wisconsin, has oodles of Mom and Pop hotels and restaurants because the county has banned national chains.
So, no tourist traps, per se, but great natural beauty (and artist colonies, to boot!).
I’ve been there. It’s totally fake.
Solvang, CA. Small town founded by Danish immigrants that became increasingly kitschy over the years. It’s been ages since I’ve been there. The Santa Inez Valley has definitely become more high end, so I’m wondering if Solvang has classed up its act.
Townsend TN, and Maggie Valley NC are both pretty cool/laid back gateway towns to Great Smoky Mtns NP. Very much recommended to anyone wanting to avoid the traffic and crowds in Gatlinburg, Cherokee and Pigeon Forge.
The Black Hills area in South Dakota is just what you’re looking for. Mount Rushmore is a pretty good visit, but then you’ve also got the Crazy Horse monument, Reptile Gardens, Bear Country USA, all kinds of tourist trap stuff in Keystone, more in Deadwood, with plenty of small mom-and-pop motels in both places, and I’m sure there’s a Mystery Spot in there somewhere. Extend out to the Badlands and you’ve got the mother of all tourist traps in Wall Drug.
Honestly, there’s tremendous beauty in the Badlands and the Black Hills, all kinds of forests and wildlife and camping spots. Personally I think Mount Rushmore is worth seeing. But there’s all kinds of touristy kitsch all over the place, too.
EDIT: Didn’t mean this as a reply to Shoeless, and somehow I can’t delete, so please disregard that, Shoeless!
