You can Instagram all you want about travel ‘being not a place, but a new way of seeing things’, but that doesn’t change the fact that some of the world’s more popular tourist destinations are being overrun.

I know you were there before it, like, became all commercial bru, but if you are planning an overseas trip this year CNN has a few words of advice.

They’ve named 12 places you might want to steer clear of, but we’ll just pick five that South Africans tend to gravitate towards.

And no, Cape Town doesn’t make this list, although we could probably use a few less visitors as we plough towards Day Zero.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

With UNESCO threatening to take away its World Heritage status due to extreme overcrowding, Dubrovnik has decided to take drastic measures in order to cut tourist numbers.

The city is capping the number of people who can scale its 15th century ramparts at 4,000 a day — 10,388 did so in one day alone back in August 2016, many drawn by the city’s starring role in “Game of Thrones.”

The mayor is also planning on cutting the number of cruise ships entering the ancient port. Nearly 800,000 people disembarked from cruise liners in 2016, most staying for just three hours.

You do get decent bang for your buck, though.

Venice, Italy

Sick of selfie stick-wielding tourists on the Rialto Bridge and cruise ships plying the Giudecca canal and back, Venetians took to the streets in 2017 to vent their frustration.

The city’s population has plummeted to just 55,000 in response to mass tourism, which sees around 30 million people travel there each year.

In fact, there are now plans to prevent cruise liners sailing up the Giudecca canal, instead forcing them to take a new, longer route into the iconic lagoon.

We wrote about Venice being on the verge of collapse back in 2016, and it appears the situation hasn’t improved.

Santorini, Greece

There are few places in the world with sunset views as spectacular as Santorini, but the tiny island in the Greek Cyclades is reaching breaking point.

Almost two million people visited in 2017, 850,000 on cruise ships which drop anchor in its caldera, with passengers staying for a matter of hours rather than days.

While those numbers have been capped to 8,000 a day by the island’s mayor, with a rising population due to the tourist boom, Santorini is in serious danger of losing its charm.

There go all of those #nofilter sunset shots on Instagram – SAD.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Five thousand people a day visited Machu Picchu in 2016, double the number recommended by UNESCO.

Despite foreign travelers requiring an official guide since 2014, Peru’s government stepped in to issue new timed visiting slots in July 2017, with a morning session from 6 a.m. until midday and an afternoon session from noon until 5.30 p.m.

While the restrictions aim to stop overcrowding, the effects are yet to be seen.

You’ll have to find somewhere else to ‘find yourself’, dude.

Let’s finish with Mount Everest, Nepal-side

Local sherpas have long complained that a boom in numbers is causing dangerous overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain above sea level.

Having already limited permits in 2015 to climbers with experience of high peaks, Nepal has now gone one step further, controversially banning blind people, double amputees (with the exception of those who obtain medical certificates) and solo climbers (unless accompanied by a guide) from attempting to conquer Everest or any other mountains in the central Himalayan country.

Officials say the new guidelines have been implemented to reduce accidents and climbing-related deaths.

Stick to hauling yourself up Lion’s Head at first light, perhaps.

Anyway it’s your holiday, and you do as you please. Heck, maybe you can even treat yourself to a bath for your troubles.

You’ll find CNN’s full list here.

[source:cnn]