Worst 'tourist' places you've visited

[ThunderOnlyHappens]

A little inspired by the school trips thread but I have been thinking about the worst places I've visited in pursuit of leisure. Disclaimer-sorry if you live there/love it. These are not anything other than my experience on that day/time.

There was the time I took a group of patients for a nice country stroll, which turned out to be a lay-by off an A-Road.

Or going on holiday to a small town near Gainsborough and realising that there was nothing to do, at all. We were there for a week!

The cape Garden Route to Knysna is one we wouldn't bother with again. Just a bit underwhelming. Hours of driving - green bit, sea, b&b. We just didn't 'get it'.... I'm afraid when we saw that road signs were used as gun target practise this was unnerving and you felt you had to keep the car moving at all times. There were also a lot of people along the route who used drugs and tried to wave us down.

Madeira - horrid dull food all served with chips. Lots of big lorries and fumes. Hardly any good beaches

Madeira doesn't really sell itself as a beach destination and it's lack of beaches is quite well known.

Bulgaria - plane touched down at Sofia Airport and was surrounded by a pack of wild dogs! Frozen washing hung off drab balconies of soviet looking high rises. No fresh fruit - all black and bruised. All local dishes were a derivation of potatoes. Open plan toilets - which is basically a room that people just walk into and defecate in. Never again

Well I'd pretty much expect most of that from Bulgaria, given it's history. The toilets would be a disappointment, but I also wouldn't assume that toilet facilities in other countries would always be the same as the UK.

UK - Keswick pencil museum, also a slate splitting demonstration in North Wales were mind numbingly dull

Again, what did you expect? I assume that you have no interest in the history and manufacture of pencils or local industries, so why go?

Don't people look into what is on offer in these places before going?

Dublin

@Barbara ......re: Keswick & slate splitting ....I was a parent-helper on a school trip, but I'll stamp my feet next time and demand somewhere interesting!
Others - just holiday mistakes.....errr, isn't that what this thread is about!!!!!

Madeira Really? I loved it there and the food was amazing. All that lovely fresh fish and what have you.

OP... I live near Gainsborough... which small town was it? I'm thinking Scunthorpe?

Am I the only person who thinks Malta is an utterly charming Island?

The Mrs and I went there despite warnings from family and had an excellent 7 days and we still want to return to finish seeing the sites. Comino was fantastic, food was brilliant, accommodation was bad but we did go on the cheap!

Popeye village was great if you like the irony ;)

Keswick pencil museum was a must.

I'd missed out on the Lakes as a kid so my kids had to go there! I think it's a great (tiny) bit of history. They'll complain about it in adulthood no doubt!

We've been down a slate mine in Wales too and still rate that whole holiday as one of our best. I love North Wales! Bore da.

Not much puts me off (or rather, I know what I don’t fancy so avoid specific places) and I’ve had a great time in many of the places listed here so I don’t really have a “worst” holiday. I had fun in Vancouver but found it a bit dull. I didn’t like Cala d’Or in Mallorca (it would come under the type of place I don’t fancy but was a last minute holiday with young kids and suited everyone else) but I love Soller. I think that’s about it.

I hated Goa. Seedy as fuck. DH wasn't impressed at all by Marrakech but I didn't mind it too much, our hotel was fantastic and the staff lovely. Agree with the poster that said LA is just a giant car park, very accurate description! Benidorm is a shithole indeed and yes, Madrid very dirty.

I’ve been going for decades now and I don’t think it was the place it was either. Seems like quite a few businesses are closing down especially on the Main Street next to the river , hasn t been the same since bhs left.

It's another city that has alienated people by being overtly "anti car". Rather than use inconvenient park n ride, car drivers just go to the out of town shopping/attraction areas instead. The city centre is then left to the non car drivers, i.e. undesirables, uni students and OAPs. It's the same in numerous city centres.

I used to love York and must have been dozens of times over the years, both for day trips and short breaks/holidays, but the last few times, I go into the city itself less and less. I'm really not interested in the same chain stores on the main street and the student bars/pubs, and even the shops on the shambles are just the same old novelty - fine if you've not been before, but boring once you've seen them.

No, I love Malta too aso

We've been 4 times in the last few years, twice staying on both Malta and twice on Gozo and it's likely we'll again in the future as we haven't spent enough time in Valetta yet and there's so much else we still haven't seen. Gozo is my happy place and I'd love to retire there.

We do scuba dive though, and it's one of the best places in Europe and even the world for wreck diving but there's lots of other interesting and beautiful parts too.

I can only think that the people who think the food is shit, don't like amazing pizza or lovely, fresh seafood, because that's what I eat a lot of while I'm there.

LoniceraJaponica: based in Bardolino but yes we did get ferries to other places (along with 1 million other people). The rudeness of other tourists really didn't help - I've never been so openly stared at so just didn't feel comfortable. Also found the locals very sexist which put me in a bad mood. I'd wanted to go for years and read lots about it, so compared to expectations, I thought that the scenery was pretty but not jaw-dropping.

I went to Epcot with my DCs as older teenagers and they found it hilarious.

Likewise, I went with OH 25 years ago and we thought it was brilliant, and we spent two full days there. Took 15 year old DS a couple of years ago, and we just couldn't believe how naff it was, and really struggled to fill the day until the fireworks (which were also pretty naff). DS spent the day laughing at all the "futuristic" things which look ridiculous today. Given how Disney have innovated and created other fantastic theme parks and attractions, they seem to have completely forgotten to update Epcot. What a let down!

I still love York! Wish I was there now, its glorious in autumn.

I think for anyone from the 'old world' particularly Europe, certain new world cities can be underwhelming. I have found this myself in both the US and Australia. We are surrounded by history at home; architecture in particular. We don't notice it 99% of the time - it's only when it's absent that we appreciate it. This is my thinking anyway.

I feel sad saying this as I loved the place itself... Bruges. The amount of English and American men absolutely off their faces shouting and cheering, stinking of booze, falling into you in the streets and spitting on the floor everywhere. I did go at a particularly busy time and would love to go back and hopefully enjoy it more - like I said, the place itself was so SO beautiful but I seriously couldn’t enjoy it

Just come back from a long weekend in Brussels, which was surprisingly attractive and had a fantastic 'classy' nightlife. No hen or stag do's to be seen anywhere.

We went to Brugge for the day, and I didn't get the hype at all..reminded me of York but not as nice. Absolutely snided with tourists and really quite small. The walk to and from the station was like going to or leaving a stadium concert or football match there were that many people.

Definitely recommend Brussels though.

Everybody saying Blackpool...yep, complete disgrace. Why anyone would go there is beyond me. Just the worst of chav infested run down seaside towns. Makes Bridlington look like Monte Carlo.

Love these threads! Dublin and Edinburgh always come out really badly.

I was disappointed with Lake Garda - my whole family were. Scenery was just OK and rather underwhelming. There wasn't much to do.

Goa - really disappointing. Tacky and soulless.

Paris - agree with the piss smell, it's because men urinate freely outdoors, it's a cultural thing. Also smells of drains because of poor sewerage. Brussels is the same.

Vancouver- really bland, dull and utterly soulless.

Ashamed to say I had a shit time in Berlin. Had wanted to go for years, everyone I know raved about it, I fully expected to absolutely love it, had a giant list of things I wanted to do.

Found it grey, depressing, absolutely full of roadworks, one giant noisy building site and a lot of the main must-see sights were barely worth the hour and a half it took on various forms of public transport to get there. Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag building etc - just so what?

Fully aware the problem is with me and not Berlin as I am literally the only person I've ever met who hated it. I was so surprised to have a totally crap time and was glad to get home after just 4 days.

Hong Kong is amazing, especially if it's your first experience of the Far East.

I had a chuckle at the poster who said they were disappointed with his Hong-Kong because it was 'too built-up'.

Well, I like Paris (although I do agree it smells of wee), I also like Amsterdam, Lanzarote and Tenerife. Although there are small corners of the latter two, especially Tenerife, where it is embarrassing to be British due to the crowds of loud drunk Brits sitting half-naked in bars.

The only bad holiday I had was to Scotland when I was 12. Hotel was horrible and it rained every single day for our two-week August holiday.

Fuerteventura for me, I went with a friend who promptly broke her foot but wouldn't get it looked at by a doctor , leaving me to spend great periods of time by myself.
It was freezing cold at night and our hotel was further away from the town than first thought. It was not the best holiday I have been on!

Why weren’t you with your friend? Presumably she was alone?! Surely you just go to Fuerteventura to sit by pool or beach. Couldn’t she have done that?

I think posters should put their expectations of the place as well as the reasons why they disliked it.
Blackpool for example, I knew I'd hate it and have turned down many hen night/boozy weekend invites there.
However, we took the kids to the tower a few years ago when we had Merlin passes and I really enjoyed the actual tower part.
Hated the rest of it, it was just as I expected, people shagging in doorways, vomiting etc.

Oh and York..The hen and stag do's have taken it over, especially on a Saturday race day.

Gangs of prosesseco'd up women who have been drinking since 11 and are leering and trying to sexually assault the doormen on the pubs, and aggressive lager addled blokes who are mean and confrontational because they have lost loads of money on the gee gees trying be billy big bollocks.

Personally wouldn't like to be in York city centre after 5 p.m. on a Saturday again.

Tarifa in Spain - wind wind wind. Ruined the holiday.

Tenby in Wales. Food poisoning.