A luggage storage company, Radical Storage, recently dug into over 71,000 Google reviews from late 2024 through November 2025. They looked at 100 of the world’s biggest travel hubs, specifically hunting for words like clean, dirty, trash, and filth. The results are a bit of a wake-up call. It turns out even the most legendary spots get overwhelmed when too many of us show up at once and municipal cleaning crews just cannot keep up. Here are the five tourist cities travelers are flagging with negative mentions as the dirtiest right now.
TOP 5 DIRTIEST TOURIST CITIES IN THE WORLD 2025
Larry Brain
- Dec 8, 2025
5. Paris, France (28.2% negative mentions)
The list of the dirtiest tourist cities starts with Paris. Despite that massive cleanup push before the 2024 Olympics and all the news about the Seine swimming project, more than one in four recent reviews still flag dirtiness. People are still mentioning rats and poorly maintained sidewalks. It seems the sentiment that sparked previous viral complaints hasn't quite faded away for many visitors yet.
4. Florence, Italy (29.6% negative mentions)
Italy actually appears twice on this list. The issue in Florence is partly architectural. Those beautiful, narrow medieval streets are impossible for big cleaning trucks to navigate. Add millions of day-trippers to the mix, and you get trash piling up fast. Authorities are trying to help by handing out heavy fines for dumping waste, but visitors still report sticky streets and full bins during the high season.
3. Las Vegas, USA (31% negative mentions)
That famous 24/7 party vibe comes with a messy morning after. The Strip might look magical at midnight, but daylight reveals the aftermath. Reviews frequently mention vomit, broken bottles, and flyers littering the ground, usually right after the clubs let out. Between the intense desert heat and the sheer volume of people walking around, keeping this place clean is a massive logistical challenge.
2. Rome, Italy (35.7% negative mentions)
The Eternal City lands in second place among the dirtiest tourist cities, and honestly, the details are a bit rough. We are talking about rats, aggressive seagulls tearing into trash bags, and even occasional reports of maggots. While the city has promised a new waste-to-energy solution by 2027, that does not help the situation today. Tourists are finding key spots like the area around the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain feeling noticeably neglected.
1. Budapest, Hungary (37.9% negative mentions)
Hungary’s capital takes the spot nobody wants. While the city is stunning, a 12% jump in tourism since September 2024 has pushed its waste collection services to the limit. People are noticing. The common complaints involve overflowing bins, cigarette butts everywhere, and broken glass on the sidewalks. It feels like a case where the city's maintenance is struggling to honor its own beauty.
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Vancouver should have made the list. I've been to cities in third world countries that are cleaner.