This paper questions how educationally enriching tourism can be, with the aim of challenging the pedagogical value of the touristic form of travel. The author begins with an overview of the history of tourism, discussing grand tourism and the link between education and travel, subsequently developing a parallel between tourism and voyeurism. It is through this connection to voyeurism the issue of self-effacement in tourism--the idea that authentic experience cannot be reached through a pursuit as its own end--is introduced. The article delves into three main supporting arguments relating to self-effacement: (1) the imposition of control on experience; (2) aestheticization in tourism; and (3) the imposition of otherness. In exploring the latter, specifically, the author distinguishes between two types of tourists and discusses how each fall prey to othering the culture of their destination. An alternative form of short-term travel that may hold more educational merit is then presented.