The most overcrowded, chaotic tourist attraction over the holidays revealed in new study

It’s the ultimate tourist trap.Trying to avoid crowds this Christmas? You might want to steer clear of Universal Studios, which is reportedly the most overcrowded tourist attraction on Earth come wintertime, according to a study by student travel company Rustic Pathways.“Some attractions remain overcrowded in winter, as everyone has the same idea of seeking out seasonal fun,” declared Shayne Fitz-Coy, CEO of the platform.To deduce the globe’s most congested Yuletide travel hubs, the Rustic Pathways crew analyzed Tripadvisor reviews complaining of overcrowding and long waits at over 900 winter-specific destinations around the world.They searched for key terms including “crowded,” “overcrowded,” “long wait,” “full of people,” and “chaotic.”The number of negative reviews was compared to the total number of reviews to give a per 1,000 review complaint rate, which they then converted into a percentage.  The findings revealed that Universal Studios in Hollywood, California was the most mobbed winter travel locale.Nearly 40% of reviews mentioned “crowding” or “long waits,” truly putting the “tinsel” in “Tinseltown.”One December review griped that the theme park was “grossly overcrowded,” while in January another reviewer said, “[kids] would have lost their minds in lines that long.”Want to 30 Rock around the Christmas tree? Fir-gettaboutit.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree unsurprisingly ranked the second most overcrowded Yuletide travel destination with over one-third (34.9%) of Tripadvisor reviews bellyaching about the throngs of visitors who pine for it every December.Many dubbed the crowds “seriously dangerous” while another stated there was “0 crowd control.”But there’s a lot of work that goes into this sappy attraction, which has been a Big Apple tradition for 93 years.This year’s tree — a 74-foot-tall Norway spruce from Massachusetts — was chosen out of 100 hopefuls scouted by Long Island-...