Holiday destinations that were unexpectedly lovely OR awful.

most of the restaurants were pretty poor - I guess catering for one-visit tourists

There is the Real Roman Food Movement that pretty much guarantees you a lovely meal, as well as excellent restaurants who are part of the Slow Food Movement.

Stevie, the secret to Rome is skip the line entry to attractions, or small private tours not organized by the Vatican, or early bird entrance where you enter the Vatican about 2 hours before everyone else. You can also do it in the evening after closing time. You can even do a breakfast with tour included, or a dinner one in the evening.

None of these cost and arm and a leg

HTH 😊

oops and it was amazing, not as

dreaming - it's definitely worth it. We went on one of the open top hop-on-hop-off tour buses when we were in Las Palmas which was pretty cheap and lovely to sit on. The city is pretty big so we got to see all of it this way, especially when we were only there for the day. We jumped off in the old town and took a tour around that bit which was brilliant, highly recommend it. We had lunch there as well in a tiny little bistro as it was amazing. I'd been practising "do you serve vegetarian food" in Spanish for ages and they were so lovely there and made me a special meal using every type of fruit and vegetable they had! Definitely recommend going on the hop on bus and stopping off in the old town. It was stunning.

thanks theeternal - we can catch the bus to las palmas - so that's definately one day trip i'll be doing

curilox I don't know if your comments were aimed at me but just to let you know I love a bit of history and always read up and research where we are going. Frolicking in fountains yes lovely but - no use if your family are a bit older. Compared to other castles in the area and in Italy where we often go Carcasonne Castle is a bit empty and tbh boring IMHO.

I think this thread shows that we are all different and look for different things from our visits but we shouldn't assume that other people are unprepared (or stupid) just because we have different opinions.

dreamingofsun we went to Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria and it was very nice (this was a few years ago now so not sure if it's changed). On that same holiday we took a day trip into Las Palmas (which I believe is the capital city?) and I loved it so much there that I went back alone for a city break last year. I really enjoyed it

.

Oh and loved Antigua (safely ensconced in a fabulous club). Also hated Dublin.

I didn't love Rome - not because the sights weren't amazing, they were, but because they were all behind lanes and lanes of noisy tough traffic. Also most of the restaurants were pretty poor - I guess catering for one-visit tourists. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't go again.

Anybody staying in/near Carcassonne, if you like castles & you've got a car have a look at some of the other Cathar castles

We've been to Peyrepertuse & Queribus - both are stunning. (Lots of sweaty climbing though)

The Réserve Africaine de Sigean (safari park) is a good day out too.

Also it was not in the summer but Spring IIRC

PrivatePike there sure are some amazing sights but Vatican was horrendously too busy to properly enjoy (and we were on one of their booked tours!) as were the other "musts". I hate crowds so that spoiled it ergo overall experience was meh. Food was a bit meh with one exception but maybe we were unlucky.

My 6yo is desperate to go, but we said she must be a bit older, so will return no doubt.

Cannot imagine being 'meh' about Rome shock

I know

How can anybody diss Bridport and Dorset ..... spent so many childhood holidays in my Aunt's cottage next to an idyllic farm ..... proper Enid Blyton stuff - remember it all 55 years later; and, yes, it's all still gorgeous there. Also love St Ives. Worst place was the west coast of France .... blimey, most exciting trips were days out to the Hypermarche .... and that wasn't anything to compare to ours.

Loved New York & LA and lots of SoCal. Did not like Miami, Boston or San Francisco. Absolutely hated Las Vegas.
Loved Florence and Umbria. Did not like Venice.
Loved Belize - but we had a guide, so suspect we were protected from the scary bits.
Found Seville a dead bore and couldn't wait to go home - though the smell of orange blossom was spectacular.
Love Berlin. Love the Gower. Love the Isle of Wight. In each case, I was expecting not to.

Someone else said 'Rome (dirty and hot; once is enough)'. Each to their own etc. etc. but YOU'RE WRONG!

Not that I'd visit Rome (or any Italian city) in the height of summer.

loved turkey (but this was 30 years ago when waiters asked you what u had eaten when giving u the bill) though it was far too hot; indonesia (again 30 years ago), maritius though didn't like the cockroaches, greece both islands and mainland and have worked out now that you get one 18-30 resort on most islands and u just steer clear of that

disliked Isle of Wight - like a time warp but in a bad way, crap food, crap service and bad weather - enjoyed the expensive crossing but that was it

Love Singapore - beautiful, clean, safe, interesting.
Love the Amalfi coast - utter gorgeousness, to die for food.
Love Tel Aviv - amazing beaches, superb food and nightlife. Also surprisingly safe.
LOVE south Florida and the Keys. Best. Place. On. Earth.
Love Paris - because why wouldn't you?

Meh about Hong Kong, Barcelona and Rome.
Monaco - so boring.
Ambivalent about Thailand - loved Bangkok, the islands not so much.

theeternal - which resort in gran canaria? we are going there soon and i've been reading some negative comments on here

we have liked brittany, paris, barcelona, the coast on outskirts of dublin, pembrokeshire, dorset, bath, lanzarote, majorca

disliked central dublin not sure why maybe it was just boring, majorca (different resort to above) bad weather grubby beach bad food maccdonalds and loud nasty people (brittish), vendee so many bungalows and no character

Turkey. We were supposed to be going to Egypt but Thomsons cancelled all holidays to Egypt that year because the country wasn't considered safe, and got us to choose somewhere else. The first night we arrived there, my dad was poisoned and spent the whole holiday feeling unwell and the safe in our room was broken into. Everything was taken, money, return plane tickets, traveller's cheques. We learned later that the manager of the hotel, a local taxi driver and the owner of a restaurant nearby were in league together. The hotel manager would suggest this restaurant and offer to call a taxi to meet you outside. She'd call up to the room to let you know when it was here (therefore knowing that you wouldn't be in the room), the restaurant manager would recognise this specific taxi and slip something in your food to make you feel ill (presumably so when you got home you'd go straight to bed and wouldn't want to put anything in your safe/notice anything strange). While you were gone the hotel manager would use a master key to enter your room and reset your safe so she could get in and take everything, then they would split the money. She'd been charged several times before for theft etc but the police were useless, they absolutely didn't care (we were the tourists and she was the local, they took her side). It was an awful holiday, my mum phoned my gran in tears and my gran had to send us emergency cash so we could eat (the holiday was 2 weeks in a B&B), we had complete insurance and we still never got much back. The only plus of the holiday was that I got to go scuba diving.

A surprisingly good one was when we went to Gran Canaria. We got there late at night after a long delay, we were tired and hungry and completely fed up. The hotel, surroundings, everything about it did NOT look good. But it was actually one of my favourite holidays to date. The food was lovely, the beach was amazing (the sea was spectacularly clear), it was a perfect holiday. The only downside was that my parents and I were staying in a one bed apartment - the bedroom had their double bed and I had a sofa bed in the living room. The maid kept taking the bedding off my sofa bed (I assume she thought only two people were in there and that my mum had kicked my dad out of bed or something ) but it meant that every afternoon of the holiday I had to go down to reception and ask for more bedding

Inadays - do your homework for Capri and head out on foot towards Faraglioni. Its well worth it.

Ibiza - the worst holiday I have ever been on, I didn't like the people, the music, got my purse stolen from the hotel and got my bank card copied. The only decent thing about it was the day we went scuba diving.

Scotland - Loved it, I spent most of the time driving, but it was amazing. Me and DP had a fantastic time. The best holiday I had tied only with Center Parcs.

It strikes me this thread might be worth moving out of Chat. There are tons of holiday ideas here which I'm sure people would love to refer back to.