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The iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris has been voted as the most disappointing visitor attraction, according to a survey from Virgin Travel Insurance, which revealed that almost a quarter of British visitors were left feeling less than impressed.

The survey revealed that many of the most recognisable tourist attractions around the world are failing to live up to visitor's high expectations.

The 4,000 year-old rock formation at Stonehenge in the UK was considered quite a let down by one in four visitors, as was the Mona Lisa housed in the Louvre in Paris, Times Square in New York and the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Even Egypt's Pyramids, one of the most impressive examples of human engineering and endurance in the ancient world, failed to impress.

Felice Hardy, of Virgin Travel Insurance, explained that travellers looking for the unexpected and less-well known delights on offer abroad should consider visiting less popular destinations.

'It's easy to be swayed by brochures that opt for the mainstream and focus on cliched tourist sights around the world, but many of them are overcrowded and disappointing,' she said. 'Pick carefully and don't always go for the obvious - natural phenomena are usually more exciting than the man-made, and can be wonderfully free of tourists.'

With a recent survey from Lonely Planet suggesting that a third of travellers are pursuing active holidays, it could be that sight-seeing in general is not as popular as it used to be.

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