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!

I can't really think of anywhere I hated (I even enjoyed Blackpool and Weston Super Mare but I have a soft spot for tacky seaside places). I'm also surprised at the pp who said the Lake District is 'oppressive' with all the big hills etc. but obv everyone is different. Wracking my brains now to think of somewhere awful, there must be somewhere

I'm not that well travelled so maybe that's why, this thread has made me feel better about that though.

For me it was Whitby. My mum made such a big deal of going and it was full of coach loads of people older than my mum and dad. We were not amused. Quite a few friend’s go at the weekends and love it. But I just didn’t gel with it.

Has anyone actually enjoyed Venice? I've been to most major cities in Italy but never Venice simply because I've never heard anyone say a nice word about it.

Yes. I really enjoy Venice. But then I do spend a lot of time roaming the streets and thinking of the stories the buildings etc would tell if they could talk.

I never stay in a hotel, instead I chose an Airbnb apartment and the last one I stayed on was next to a convent and i could speak to the nuns from my windows they were so close. Could even have handed over a cup of sugar if they’d needed it.

Then there was the elderly lady who’d lower her shopping basket down on a rope with money and a shopping list in it. People would do a bit of shopping for her when they passed and she’d pull the basket back up.

Gondolas? I haven’t been in one and don’t expect that to change.

Opera - there’s a really unusual one where each act of the opera is set in a different room in an old house and as the opera unfolds you move to a the relevant kind of room. I really enjoy it and you don’t have to dress up but it’s nice to make a bit of an effort.

I know Venice gets crammed but if you avoid peak season you can avoid most of the crowds. In fact I have a picture I took at about 7.30 on a Saturday morning from the front of a water bus and there was absolutely nothing on the canal in front of us. It looked as if it had been cleared for a documentary or a film and I still think of that morning.

China.

The Great Wall - shit
The terracotta army - just ok
Beijing - shit

Never. Again.

San Francisco. Huge disappointment

Amsterdam..me and my sister got ripped off as soon as we got off the plane, we were charged over €100 for a 5 minute taxi journey by 2 big eastern european men. It was awful. Only one guy to start with,but just after we got in he stopped to let his mate in. The whole thing was awful. Put me off Amsterdam for life.

San Francisco was awful,

Yep! We found ourselves in an area where even the kids were walking around with baseball bats. First few we saw, we thought they were just going to play sport, but then you notice nearly them all had them and all walking in different directions, most definitely didn't look sporty!

Then when driving away, we found ourselves driving through a gun battle - we heard a few cracks and thought it was a car back firing, but then we noticed some police crouched down on one side of the road, and some "locals" crouched down on the other, all as we passed between them!

Anywhere in the Caribbean was a massive disappointment for me. Perhaps we should have stuck to organised tours which made the places look like a Lilt advert but at each island we hired a car and it's the only place in the world where I've literally been frightened for my life a couple of times. Beautiful place but I wouldn't go again

Venice I LOVE! I was said it's the only place abroad I'd like to live. Sri Lanka too but venture outside the walls of the hotel. And my favourite holiday of all was LA. Good job we're not all the same

"London - cold rainy full of rude miserable looking people, too expensive"

This made me laugh out loud. How can it always be cold and raining in London?

I can assure you that London has plenty of dry and even warm or hot days.

I certainly don't agree that the people are rude. Me and DH speak to people all the time when we go there (about once every 6 weeks). People talk to us on the buses, on the tubes, in shops, restaurants etc.

I also don't think it is particularly expensive. With an oyster card the transport is reasonable and so are a lot of restaurants. The indian restaurant we eat at in Covent Garden is cheaper than our local ones in Essex

Ah London, the thing I hate about there is the grubbiness and all the escalator handrails in the tube have a stickiness to them, though they are probably the same in any big city.

Visited Bath yesterday for the first time in a few years and was reminded of how lovely it is. I really don’t understand how people can dislike it - yes traffic is dire but so is everywhere. We used the park and ride which is a very good service, so avoided the jams.

The west coast cities of the US seem to be in a bit of a crisis. I visited San Francisco about 25 years ago, and was quite shaken by the fact that you were mobbed by homeless people outside the hotel who would touch and pull at you. Then SF was cleaned up and went through a "sanitised" era. Now it looks as if it's back to being overrun with homeless again.

Last year I visited Seattle and Portland. Both had very large amounts of homeless people. The hotel porter in Seattle was telling me that due to very generous programmes these two cities have attracted homeless from all over the US, plus the fact that shelters won't allow drug use in them so many prefer to sleep in tents. On the news in Portland was the concern of "hipster" residents at tent villages in their neighbourhoods.

I've just remembered some years ago I was at a dinner party sandwiched between a US banker and a Dutch model. (Ever felt like dog poo on someone's shoe?!) They were talking across me about how awful London was. The awful food, the greyness, etc etc. I was on behalf of London. It has a million faults, but still...

Loved Lanzarote though! Very clean, nice bars and restaurants and friendly locals. No marauding groups of hen/stag parties. Might seem boring to some but me and OH loved the laid back feel of the place.

Las Vegas. Seedy, old ladies approaching my DH with offers of 'ladies' to our room, lots of drunk people at 10am.

Los Angeles - I enjoyed the stuff I did there but the place itself is grotty. And it's such a pain to get anywhere, spent a fortune on taxis

Surprised at people saying San Francisco - I absolutely loved it there! Perhaps I was just lucky with the parts I visited

We love visiting London but reckon it is only a good place to live if you have a lot of money.
Having lived in France and the Netherlands just cannot emphasise enough how shit public transport is in London by comparison.

I never recognise the London people talk about on these threads 

I've lived here two years and the public transport is phenomenal- £1.50 to go anywhere on a bus! It used to cost me £6 return to go to my nearest town in the Home Counties - a 3 mile trip. Public transport outside London was dreadful.

People talk to me all the time, in the shops, at the bus stop. People talk to my dog. People are lovely where I live.

It's cheap as FUCK to do things in London. Museums, markets, festivals, free children's activities , I get Londonist 'free and cheap things to do this weekend' every week.There is so much free stuff to do and competition makes things cheap. Eat out every weekend for £5 - £10 ish, masses of street food and markets - loads of incredibly cheap restaurants, again because of competition. Where I lived in the Home Counties eating out was an expensive luxury - £50 plus at a local bog standard restaurant.

It was £12 for me to do a Pilates class in the Home Counties, it's £7 where I am in zone 3.

London is so much better if you're without money. When I lived outside if I didn't have much money I couldn't go out. Petrol and parking really prohibitive - no reasonable public transport. Here I'd go out if I only had a fiver.

I've literally lived all over the UK - moved 30 times. London is better than anywhere else I've lived.

We loved San Francisco, but sounds like we visited when it was much better. There were a few homeless people, but no more than London.

We stayed in Sorrento as it was cheap. Knew it was a tacky place, but brilliantly located to visit lots of great places such as Pompei.

Loved Lanzarote. We had done research so knew that one part of the island is very windy, so we didn't stay there. Spent the week visiting places designed by their famous architect and eating amazing lunches at quiet restaurants. We hired a villa rather than staying in a resort, so that probably helped. Also was a lovely walk from our villa, along the sea front to an amazing classy bar where we sat in a beautiful garden overlooking the sea.

Hated Venice, but I went many years ago when it was very run down. Every building I just kept thinking, this would look amazing if it wasn't so run down. But in the last 35 years apparently a lot of money has been spent restoring buildings, so it now does look amazing. I keep meaning to go back.

Dublin was boring. I expected the architecture to be much better than it was. Glasgow is much better and more impressive. Also a bit confused by those commentators saying Dublin is fantastic as it has a natural history museum full of stuffed animals. Seriously I suspect few tourists would be interested in that. The Gaol looked interesting, but like most tourists I suspect, we had flown there for a weekend. So no car, and the Gaol just looked too hard to get to. Although looking it up now seems easy by bus. But generally it just felt like any city in England and so not worth the flight.

Loved Blackpool 30 years ago. Keep wanting to go back, but fear I will be very disappointed.

Guernsey was very boring. Admittedly we were only there as part of a cruise stop, so we had no car. But all the tours offered sounded very boring. We walked to the park through the main town area. It was a nice park, but nothing amazing. Those who came back from the tours were not impressed.

New York was disappointing. Yes we enjoyed Ellis Island and the prison visit. But it is not as good as London. Washington DC though is absolutely amazing.

Amsterdam
Marrakesh
New York

Both have trams, lots of bars, lots of shops, and historic bits in the middle. Croydon (my home town BTW) has more green spaces and parks. But Croydon is a not-very important provincial town whereas Munich's the capital of Bavaria. I just expected something bigger and better.

Did you miss the Englischer Garten, one of the world's largest urban public parks? Or all the little barbecue spots down by the river? Or the Nymphenburg Palace park? Or the zoo park? Or the Olympiapark (quite often with free fireworks shows, markets and festivals)?

Munich used to be my home town and if you think there's not enough green spaces and nothing going on, you seriously weren't looking hard enough!