Common tourist places during tourist season are usually the worst. I took a 10 day trip to Paris one summer and it was a mix of the most popular tourist places (Louvre, Eiffel tower, etc) and some underground shit my sister found.
Every tourist place was jam packed with annoying tourists, costly and had tons of scammers surrounding it. Every less known place was really awesome, aside from one sketchy neighborhood we had to walk through where we were followed for a while.
I’d also say that Northern Europe has generally been much more pleasant to travel through, for me.
I think it’s kinda like the old dating age formula; you can date people (your age) / 2 + 7 years old, and you feel like that’s the age of an adult.
When I was 15 I felt like ann adult, but people younger than me were teens. When I was 25 I felt like an adult but people under the age of like 20 were just kids. Now I feel like people in their early/mid-20s are just about adults. I’m sure when I’m 50 I’ll think back to myself now and consider myself barely an adult.