They should spend more time out at sunrise and sunset.

Definitely lens filters are playing a role in these

Old enough to be grandparents and still surprised when reality doesn't match the brochure?

I mostly have the opposite problem: experiencing great views when traveling, but the pictures taken rarely look as impressive. Well ...

To get the first view it looks like you'll also need to lie down on some uncomfortable-looking rocks.

Step 1: stop planning your travel based on oversaturated artsy photos.

How do these places smell? I can still smell the pines of Tuscany in Italy and the grasses of Creel in Mexico, something the best HDR 4K HD imagery cannot capture and convey.

The the places in the pictures they had to 'tolerate' still look nice...Just saying..

The photographers who captured those shots took at the very least hours - if not days - of waiting & preparing. Its unrealistic to expect to just turn up at the spot and see the same thing, and just as unrealistic to expect your amateur photography efforts to match their years & years of practice & experience.

I actually prefer the look of (5) to 3/4 as a place to go and see (although I'll acknowledge the merits of 3 and 4 as artistic photographs.)

how can you expect a sunset if you are not there at sunset?

I have never seen a picture that does the Grand Canyon justice. Even the iMax screen with its "helicopter tour" is a poor second to just standing on a Rim looking across and down (and down, and down).

Stop looking at edited pictures.

@Dubu Some awesome views cannot be captured at all (imagine light clouds, full moon, stars and tiny branches - such a perfect moment, but you cannot capture it all in one shot), some need perfect setup = years of practice. Sometimes you can get great picture and be quite sure, that the camera was in another universe...

Why did you edit out the pics that are referred to in the accepted answer? Please re-include those.

@mts I have not 'edited out' entirely, because I have still kept their links. I do so because they and my grandparents and I were being unfair: it does not make sense to compare sunrise or sunset pictures to day time pictures.

@Timere I would greatly prefer if you kept them because otherwise the accepted answer does not make any sense anymore. While you can edit your question it is against the spirit of the site to completely turn around a question, especially after it has been answered. It is ok if you have been unfair, that's what the forum is good for, please do allow for others to get the same learning effect. I really urge you to put back those pictures (you can surely keep the ones you added as well).

I find it ironic that the complaint is about reality being inferior to photographs, yet what you are really showing is that some photographs are inferior to other photographs...

@AakashM They probably overestimated; but to clarify, my grandparents do not depend on pictures from commercial travel material that are biased, but rather than on putatively neutral third parties (e.g. Flickr, Pinterest, etc...).

@papakias Yes, of course. We should always feel grateful of what we have. Even after seeing the more beautous pictures, my grandparents still would have visited these destinations, but might have felt better if they had lowered expectations.

@mts Thank you for your advice. I have submitted some Suggested Edits that specify exactly which pictures are discussed in the answer. Does this suffice? I fear that if I add back the original pictures, then this question would comprise > 10 pictures and be too long.

@Timere I'd much rather have the question edited back to contain what it once did than you trying to edit someone else's answer and stand by my last comment. You should be less afraid about your Q being too long.

FYI, "neutral third party" photographers you find on the internet take great pride in their craft and will make an effort to ensure their art is stunning: timing the picture, setting up the precise framing and composition, choosing the appropriate shutter speed/aperture to tell the story they want, and adjusting the color/contrast/exposure in post processing. I've seen pictures that make a socket look amazing.

@Michael Your second clause is not intended. The allegedly inferior pictures were chosen to match what my grandparents saw, and not because they appear inferior to them.

They can buy photo books and spend more time looking at beautiful pictures, if it makes them happier! That strategy for enjoying nature can be just as effective as travel (or more, for some folks, e.g. for reasons described in this question). It also has side benefits of being safer, much less expensive (in currency and time), and (if the places are far away) more environmentally friendly than travel.

I find it very surprising that the views you are now showing in the edited question were only considered "tolerable" in person. Perhaps your grandparents just don't like the outdoors and would prefer some other kind of vacation?

The more you edit this, the more I think your parents just take awful photos. The exposure on [8] is completely off, and that's why there's no detail to be seen. I'm pretty sure to a responsive human eye, it would have looked much better.

The places from the second photos are still incredibly beautiful. I would suggest enjoying them as they are, bearing in mind that there are many people who can't afford to go there (or anywhere) and see them.

Number 1 has had color saturation added to it, number 3 has had color saturation AND a blur effect (you can notice it in the corners) added to it, and number 7 is almost certainly using a wide-angle lens and, you guessed it, color saturation. You had similar effects going on in the other pictures you uploaded - these are simply effects that you will not see in real life, no matter where you go.

Downvoted as the question has been changed (not just added to) when there were already several good answers.

@Willeke The question itself has not been changed materially; the pictures were replaced in response to the comments and answers.

@Willeke But those original pictures were unfair (See this), and these newer pictures still serve the purpose? Only two answers referenced the pictures, and in both cases I updated them to specify the picture.

@Willeke the well written answers are now pointless: How so? I do not consider my changes to have affected the utility of the answers.

@Timere, if you do not understand my point it is pointless to discuss it. I will take away my comments, including this one later today.

@Willeke No offense intended: I am genuinely trying to understand your point, but it appears that we differ on the degree of difference? My previous comment was intended to clarify that I did not expect the answers to change based on the edits in my post.

That 7 image is absolutely nasty. It is hideous compared to any unaltered image you can take with any camera. It looks like a "Retinex" filter was gaudily applied by someone who just took a night school course in Photoshop at their local community centre.

@Timere I think changing your example pictures only really serves to create confusion - the highest voted answer, the one you accepted, uses a picture as reference that is now a link-only. While it is true this doesn't change the utility of your question and the answer given, that is sort of the point - there is no value added by changing the pictures, only some possible confusion for readers coming in and seeing a picture referenced in an answer that they don't see in the question.