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!

Dungeness was quite spooky. Why people choose to live there is probably a whole new thread!

St Ives can do one. much too crowded Depends when you go- If you go there outside of peak holiday season, it is lovely. Went there last September, after schools had gone back- still summery but less crowded. Surrounding areas like Carbis Bay and Hayle also lovely.

Newquay, further north has lovedly beaches but town too busy.

Weston-Super-Mare is pleasant enough at day time but the town gets rough at night. I live not far from there. I would not want to be in town after 8pm, no way.

Paris, just never again. Went twice as a student, and got constantly harassed and groped everywhere I went. Museums awesome, was so keen to go, really expected Paris to be great but it's just not worth the grief. Got chased by two blokes with knives early one evening as well, if you are not there as a couple - it's a dangerous city to explore. I felt safer in the Golden Triangle & Laos than I did in Paris.

Blackpool - dump

Derby - shit hole

Glasgow in the 1990s was awful, went a couple of years back and it was awesome, great food, clean, lovely bars - plenty to see and do.

Dover - serious grade A shithole

We have friends in Amsterdam so when we go to visit them, we go where all the locals go and not to all the tourist shitholes.
I love the Dutch, they are just the nicest people and the men are seriously fit !!

Now, Sardinia.... Pretty, but desperately boring...

how canpeople compare vegas to blackpool-at least u have nice hotels in vegas and food

Las Vegas - compromise was I’d go there and ex would do the Grand Canyon. Expected to hate it and really really did. Like a theme park in the desert.

San Francisco - weird, creepy vibe and am sure the hotel was haunted.
Felt very unsafe there too as it was in a very very dodgy area.

London - too big, too busy, too dirty, too hard work. Always relieved when it’s time to go home. I do love the Natural History and the British Museums though.

Loved Venice, Istanbul, Split, Sorrento, Mykonos, Majorca.

Jury is out on Paris as was very depressed at the time.

Las Vegas. Bleak, void of charm and character, plastic, cheap, tacky, stunk of cigarettes, Febreze and desperation.

Thankfully only there for one night on way to the gorgeous, breathtaking and stunning Grand Canyon. Will never go to LV again.

@stoneofdestiny re: Dungeness- I have wondered that. It would creep me out living there methinks.

@BruegelTheElder You are 100% right about getting to know cities on foot.

I think honestly the reason we haven't preferred the 'number one cities' is that they are just overrun with 'bucket list' tourists in a way that others are not.

@GabsALot But Blackpool has decent fish and chips

Rye - good god, what a dump. Twee, streets FILLED with Londoners having a weekend away. Crap scenery, nowhere non-touristy to eat. Massive disappointment, ditto the nearby beaches.

Lived in Paris and I love it but I know it well. I also agree that it stinks of piss, particularly the Metro, and that dogshit is everywhere.

Agree Las Vegas isn't great - we went once for three days and had a nice time but never need go back.

I'd also put Devon on my list. Ilfracombe, Torquay, Plymouth, you name it. Pisses with rain all the time plus depressing architecture.

Love threads like this! Malta always comes up, and I also never need to go to Egypt after reading this one I think.

People complaining about Vegas have clearly never been to Reno.

excursion to 'worlds end' not entirely sure what we expected but a big cliff overlooking the sea with nothing else to see or do isn't anything new to Scots lol

I bet you didn't even notice the wind.

I love that corner of the world, because my dad was from there, but it's overrun with tourists and tourist traps now.

I think a lot of these depend on your state of mind as well. We had a horrendous experience in Ruoen. I was driving my mate's car and there was this horrendous junction, where traffic was literally coming at us as a crossroad AND as a diagonal cross roads (so the junction was like a union jack). The traffic lights were flashing some combination I'd never seen before (I think it was "fuck you English wankers) and the car was overheating, with steam billowing out and threatening to die in the middle of this manic crossing, with French cars hooting disgustedly at us and I couldn't see a damn thing because of all the steam.
We got across (somehow) and pulled up somewhere (the car died) and I couldn't stop shaking and all these old French men were going " phffftt... English cars " and my friend (who's car it was) was screaming " It's a FRENCH CAR " at them.
I don't hate Ruoen though. Just that experience. Although, admittedly, I have never been back.

Another time a group of us went to Brittany (St Marlo) in the winter and we were HATED everywhere we went. Including:
Cars driving at us/trying to run us off the road
People clapping and cheering when we left bars (this happened 2 or 3 times and we were only there for a long weekend)
Being given worse options in restaurants (again, several times). Eg smaller plates of the same dish that people at the next table were also eating.
Ordering a brandy after a meal and them walking past the drinks cupboard to get us cooking brandy out of the kitchen.
They were probably gobbing in our food as well.

But we all thought it was hilarious and had a great time. (Although, my friend did divorce her husband straight after we got home. But that's another story).

Bangkok. Humid pollution. Rude people. Will only ever transit at the airport as I love the islands.

Lanzarote, boring, soulless, ugly. Went to visit the “ old town” expecting a few hundred years old, cobbled streets etc. Was built in the 1960s.

Milan. So ugly; with the atmosphere the Frankfurt.

California. Everything shuts at 9pm. Full of cars.

Paris is great! You just need to walk it and ignore the faint whiff of wee. And I am a Dubliner so I have long experience of watching sad English tourists trudging around in the rain, looking confused. Don't go to Temple Bar; only go on O'Connell Street to see the GPO and its museum. Up at the top of O'Connell Street you'll find the Hugh Lane Gallery with a gorgeous collection of Impressionist paintings and a reconstruction of Bacon's studio. Get the Dart out to Howth or Dun Laoghaire and walk the pier in either place. Go to the zoo in the Phoenix Park (it's a million times better than London Zoo and a full day out if you're there with kids, but bring snacks because it's vast and the snack stands get busy). The Dublin mountains are a half-hour drive from the city and stunning. Go down to Killiney and see where the rock stars live - Dublin Bay from the Vico Road is supposed to be as beautiful as Naples...The National Gallery is beside the Natural History Museum, known in Dublin as the Dead Zoo because it's all stuffed animals in glass cases. Amazing old-world atmosphere and it's small/not crowded. Also free. Just don't do the manky touristy bits in the very centre of the city and you'll be fine. Great food, great atmosphere, lovely buildings, loads to do. In general, I think the best thing to do anywhere is not the number one tourist destination but the less popular ones. The garden route in South Africa is a snooze but just off it you'll find the most incredible little towns and beaches. It's a jumping-off point.

I went to Madeira when I was pregnant and my DH refused to drive because the road past the hotel was so fast and dangerous, so we didn't get to explore beyond Funchal. We stayed in a gorgeous place but it was VERY expensive to eat there so we had to waddle out every evening to find food, and all the menus seemed to have the same thing - espada with banana/avocado. Fish and banana do not go, in my opinion. I got sunburnt because I failed to realise that pregnancy made my skin so much more sensitive to the sun. Not our best holiday, but not really Madeira's fault.

Someone else has been to Margarita in Venezuela?!

Fortunately when I went it was blazing hot and we did the Angel Falls/piranha trip!

SAN Francisco- I knew it had deteriorated but Lordy it was a dump. Very dirty, lots and homelessness which was very sad to see and cold and grey. Fisherman’s wharf was the expected tourist trap but we knew it would be.
Conversely we had a great stay in LA in the silver Lake area and love how easy it was to get around. It helped having been there before.

Lots of the places mentioned I love!

Glasgow- but I am Glaswegian
Edinburgh- loved there for 2 yers so know where to go
Berlin- smells of curry and chips but loved it! Felt like we were in a film
Bangkok- seedy for sure but amazing street food and markets
Goa- love Palolem and Vagatur but tgat was 20 years ago, going to trance parties and like like!

Marrakech, got the shits as the famous orange juice was diluted with tap water.
Got sick of haggling in the Market. Just tell me the effing price.

Egypt, Luxor didn’t want to leave the hotel as my mum& I were constantly hassled by locals.
Cairo, and this was 30 years ago. Huge & full of traffic; turn left & the pyramids were just there. Disappointing.

Parts of New Zealand. The country was completely empty; especially South Island. I felt like saying: where is everyone. However the scenery was stunning.

Hong Kong, packed, crowded, claustrophobic, concrete everywhere. I was only transmitting for a couple of days and I took the plane out a day early I hated it so much.

Cape Verde, so boring! Literally nothing to do, even the island tours highlight was ‘this is where a golf course is going to be built in the future!’ i was so excited when it was time to go home.

Oh Fuck. I've just booked us a family holiday over Xmas in Dominican Republic. No wonder it seemed a good deal

I loved all the places in America that I have been to. Vegas for the fantastic OTT hotels and the most snacking buffets, Los Angeles did have a very seedy side to it, and Venice Beach was particularly scary with gang members blatantly intimidating people all along the strip. Wasn’t too impressed with San Diego but I didn’t do much research before going so possibly missed the better parts. Loved San Francisco too and wished I had the chance to have spent longer there.

Seems like a lot of people need to consider their expectations before they visit a place.

You can't go to Vegas and then complain that it's just casinos and bright lights in the middle of the desert!

i.e.:

Parts of New Zealand. The country was completely empty; especially South Island. I felt like saying: where is everyone. However the scenery was stunning.

Yeah... it's New Zealand! People go for the lack of people and the stunning scenery!

Must agree with many of the posters that Prague is not the place it once was.I was there for the first time in early 1990 just after the fall communism and it was so appealing.I went again 1996 or so and it had lost its grey veil and was just wonderful.I visited last year again and it was just tacky and overcrowded with everyone bombing around on Segways .Couldn't wait to leave

Koh Samui just awful, so many fat old men running after young girls and young boys .Starving stray dogs everywhere .Was crying non stop just looking at it all on my honeymoon so we left for Krabi which was idyllic and with very little tourism annno 1996.

Disneyland et al in Florida .Kids didn't even like it.

Hurgarda in Eygpt was grim.I was pregnant and was stared at every time I left the hotel.The place just seemed so desolate.

Venice was a disappointment and very overpriced shit food.
Cornwall is overrated and a LOT of the people are racist
Bath dull but great rugby team
All Canary Islands - awful. Dull, boring and shit food
Vegas - hideous
Florida - also hideous

I went to Prague in 2002 and it was amazing and so atmospheric, but I appreciate that it has probably changed a lot. I got some amazing Bohemia crystal and amber jewellery. Loved it so much. Will never go back after reading this thread!