Holiday destinations that were unexpectedly lovely OR awful.

I went to Belfast on business last year and LOVED it. I'm taking the kids back with me at the end of August. Can't wait.

When I first arrived I got a cab from the airport. The driver asked me if I'd been before. When I said "no", he replied "Ah we've been waiting for you!" In that gorgeous accent and I was sold!

For those posters visiting the Amalfi Coast and worrying about Capri after the bad press, try Ischia or tiny Procida, also accessible by ferry from Sorrento, Napoli, or other coastal towns

What bad press?

And yes to the other islands you've mentioned.

I should have said: although I damned New England with faint praise, it would have been way more fun as a couple. Our problem was that most of the fun was to be had in antique shops or fine dining in the evening. With toddlers in smash'n'grab mode and an early bedtime, we really didn't get the benefit of it. However, Portland (Maine) was really delightful and I wish we'd had more time there.

Loved Belfast and most of NI

The Giants Causeway was spectacularly underwhelming...

Loved Venice but found it repaid the effort we'd put in to the holiday - gone v late in the season, stayed for a week not a weekend break (we are art/museum obsessives), minumum time spent in San Marco which is a tourist hellhole even out of season, ditto Murano. You can eat amazing Venetian food if you make an effort and do some research but you can also eat some terrible overpriced dreck churned out for daytrippers. Can totally see why it has mixed reviews.

In contrast Verona is just disappointing - astronomically expensive in opera season, opera got rained off, fake Romeo and Juliet site annoying.

Best place ever - Umbria. Incredibly beautiful and spiritual, fantastic food everywhere, stunning art, none of the hordes of tourists from Tuscany.

Loved Krakow but Warsaw was better for being unexpected - so much history, Old Town is stunning, so much mix of architecture, really lively place with loads going on. Loved it.

Salzburg - liked it so much I got my own dirndl for the next visit If you are into classical music the festival is a must do. As is the puppet opera

New York - brilliant. Could just wander about everywhere and feel you were on a movie set. Don't go in August though - it was sweltering!

Great to see all the love for Belfast and Northern Ireland on here - have always felt pretty blessed to live here, even though I grew up in harder times. The beaches and mountains are stunning, there's some great foodie restaurants, lovely quirky cafes, lots of cultural/arts events most weekends and the craic's ninety!
Anyway, back to the point of this thread:
Hated Agadir - ruined by hotels owning the beachfront, tons of flies, and foggy cloud until at least midday. We took off on a bus to Essaouria to escape, and loved it there. Felt much more pleasant.
Loved Ecuador and Galápagos Islands (though was expecting to as it was real holiday of a lifetime stuff)
Also agree with pp about Machu Picchu being even more spectacular than you hope it will be. Hope to return to South America someday and explore Chile, Bolivia, and southern Argentina, although I'll need a lottery win!
Love love love NYC, just hanging out and pretending to be a local. Also fell in love with Arizona when we drove through it on a short US road trip. The food was glorious, and the weather pretty balmy for February, despite there being snow at the Grand Canyon, which I'd highly recommend visiting by steam train from Williams, and then going back the following day for a helicopter tour - I didn't really get how huge it was until I saw it from the air.
Niagra was definitely disappointing bar the Maid of the Mist boat tour up to the falls.
Ibiza is also on our top destinations list and we return every couple of years. The San Jose area in the south west is beautiful, and I loved exploring all the little cove beaches around the north coast. Not fussed on San Antonio or Playa d'en Bossa, but they're easy to avoid.
For those posters visiting the Amalfi Coast and worrying about Capri after the bad press, try Ischia or tiny Procida, also accessible by ferry from Sorrento, Napoli, or other coastal towns. I was underwhelmed by Capri but loved Ischia, and can still 'taste' the amazing lemon spaghetti we had there! Also loved Positano, but that may have been more to do with a love of the film 'Only You' with Robert Downey Junior and Marisa Tomei...
Love Italy in general, but generally visit outside peak holiday times as I can't stand the heat, so haven't really encountered much overcrowding and queues in places like Florence and Rome. Milan horrible in comparison, though the Duomo is fantastic.

UK Loved- Harrogate, York, Oxford, Cotswolds, Scotland (Oban and the isles), Snowdonia, Bristol, Bath. Surprising myself I thought Birmingham was great. Haven't been anywhere in UK yet that disappointed me.

Europe Loved - Barcelona (stay in Gracia District it is amazing and very different from the hustle of Las Ramblas and Gothic area), Carcassonne and drive over the Pyrenees to Spain, stunning, Bayonne, Nice, San Sebastian, Seville, Malaga, Estepona, anywhere in Italy. Maastricht and Aachen.
Meh - Bilbao, Paris (yikes I know), Cologne, Monaco, Cannes. Just not for me.
Other Loved - New Orleans, Arizona and the Gr Canyon, Charleston, Savannah, New York, Nile cruise (when you could do that)
Meh, Beijing, San Fran, LA. awful.

Great thread, great information, great tips.

I've a way to go to catch up on some of you lot though!

We're in Reims - France tonight and it is unexpectedly awful, thankfully we'll be moving on tomorrow!

followyourart...Berlin is fantastic...we lived there for 3 years...if you know where to go it's amazing, quite unlike other places. You can go from lake beach (Wansee) to spectacular gardens and palaces (Charlottenberg Schloss and Potsdam) to Oxford like street of high end shops, and sprawling forests (Charlottenberg and the hill of Teufelsberg..made with the rubble after bombing) The dome in the Reichstag is worth a visit (tea time less queues) and the city never sleeps..or it didn't when we were there! The culture is fab and the zoo is amazing, as is the aquarium...so do go!

Also....Montenegro..we went there last year...fabulous...and would definately go back. We went to Kotor, amazing scenery and friendly people.

Hated: most of Morocco. Beautiful places and some very kind people ruined by acres of tourist tat, crap food, street hawkers and endless, endless sexual harassment.

Loved: Tenerife. Went with PIL, was expecting horrid package-tour naffness - it was beautiful, perfect weather, lovely walks in pine forests, thought briefly of moving there.

Another one here who loves the child-friendly island of Cyprus and especially Paphos (not 'Pathos' as someone wrote earlier). It's great for treks through the Akamas conservation area or woodlands. Best time to go is for Springtime or late summer (up to autumn half term).

cedar we're off to near begur in the costa Brava next week. Do you have any particular recommendations?

Paphos left me cold.
I was expecting so much more from it.
The water park an hour away was the highlight of our holiday there.
I wouldn't return.

thanks largerleon, yes it does. i'm thinking somewhere just outside paphos in a village with a few tavernas/bars might suit us from what you and badbad have said. i'm going to get a book from the library and read up a bit as well.

dreaming I went to Limassol on a cruise ship in the 80's which started my love for Cyprus. Then went to Paphos on a 2 weeks package in the 90's with now exH. I hired a little Suzuki jeep and just took off away from the grumpy bastard ended up staying a night at a little taverna in the Troodos mountains, then went to Nicosia and boggled at the bullet holes in the city walls. I also went the other way(?) into Protaris and found lovely bars and restaurants and Coral Bay was amazing.
Went back to Paphos about 8 years ago and returned to Limassol which hadn't changed much in 20+ years. Paphos was much more developed and commercialised but in the old town there were still nuggets of unspoilt-ness.
I now have friends in dog rescue on Cyprus who I would ask for off the beaten track places to stay, away from the tourist areas. I would definitely go back.
Hope this helps.

Places we've stayed and loved:

Rome (went in January so not crowded at all)
Barcelona (although both DH and I had our not designer but normal sunglasses stolen)
Costa Brava around Begur. Beautiful countryside, lovely little villages, great restaurants.
Lake Garda
Guernsey - had a couple of lovely holidays there. It is fully of lovely beaches like Cornwall but without the crowds. Thoroughly recommend it for anyone looking for a bucket and spade style holiday. Great cafes and restaurants.
Greece - particularly Paxos and Andros. Corfu was OK but wouldn't rush back there.
In the UK we like South Devon, Dorset (loads to do there with small children), Isle of Wight and Lake District. Also Isles of Arran and Bute in Scotland. Beautiful.
In London a surprising hit with two 7 year olds and a 5 year old was the tour around Buckingham Palace. I wondered about the wisdom of doing this before we went in, but they have an audio tour for children and all three of them loved it.

thanks badbad - that's very useful. we were looking to go october

Could they put it in Travel Advice and maybe make it a sticky instead?

No need. Everything goes into Classics these days it seems.

Have reported this thread for classics. Some very inspirational ideas here. Need to buy a lottery ticket too

largerleon - which resorts in cyprus? which ones are good, which to steer clear of

Depends what you want. All the resorts have their good and bad points.

Polis & Latchi are quiet with not much to do, but scenery is lovely and mostly modern properties - first time I went there wasn't much there, but last time there were some pretty large hotels and plenty of apartments built.

Pathos is mixed - some modern areas, some run-down, plenty of shops, nightlife, water park, some historical sites. Some new hotels being built, quite a few luxury older hotels, lots of new apartments/villas both close to the town and in the hills 10/15 minutes away.

AyiaNapa very lively, mostly modern, water park, nightclubs, good beaches, etc.

Protaras - close to AyiaNapa for nightlife etc but generally modern, lots of shops/restaurants, good beaches, watersports, etc, but not so much historical sites, yet, close to the occupied Turkish areas of Famagusta that you can now go on a bus to around, which is a fairly unique sight-seeing trip!

Limassol and Larnarca are fairly old resorts, but some new developments, but quite industrial/commercial in parts. I holidayed there many years ago, but tend to avoid these days.

For me, I choose between Protaras and Pathos as I go quite regularly, both are close to water parks, shops, restaurants, beaches, etc. But I really do my homework to check out the properties, local area etc - especially in Pathos.

The other point is that it gets VERY hot, July and August are actually quite unpleasant and you end up hiding from the sun or locked in your accommodation with the air-con. The East end, Protaras and Ayia Napa are hotter than the west (Pathos), so even worse in Summer. In fact a lot of accommodation lies empty in July and August, with May/June and Sept/Oct being the prime months.

largerleon - which resorts in cyprus? which ones are good, which to steer clear of. Reading the reviews on here i think one of the key things is choosing the right resort and interested in going to cyprus next year

Interestingly NY is not on my bucket list at all. I loved San Francisco.