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!

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. Cheap long weekend getaway, cheap for a reason, it’s an absolute shit hole.

Sex shops and dancing girl shows everywhere, hotel (5* apparently!) was run down and minging. There was a sign on the lifts asking guests not to punch and kick them and the bar ran out of alcohol,

Good weather and I’ll remember it on my deathbed though which means it was worth it 😄

Disclaimer - Nessebar along the coast was lovely and I’m sure Bulgaria has lots of other lovely places but Sunny Beach isn’t one of them.

Kuta in Bali. Couldn't sit on the beach for being hassled by hawkers. Everywhere grimy and tacky. Could have gone to Magaluf and avoided the 18 hour flight. Luckily staying elsewhere

Marrakech . Dirty, full of leery men and got food poisoning that took 2 weeks to get out of my system properly.

Vienna - my overriding memory is of a lot of road noise and busy multi lane roads everywhere.

The streets that link where the Moulin Rouge is in Paris and the Sacre Cour.

Now I adore Paris. But that area is like something made up.

Weird thrift shop things with no windows and people just leaving in and rifling through the clothes. African (??) men trying to tie bracelets on me the whole time.

Not a pleasant experience and won't be back to that part of the city ever.

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.

I felt very unsafe in Brussels a few years back (on mini moon). Then I had my phone stolen in a bar.

Alcudia, Majorca, grim, full of kids, beach was jampacked with lovely view of a power station. Nice. And it rained loads, in August. Total waste of money, we wanted sun palma airport was disgusting, sick and shit smeared all over in toilets, urghh

Amsterdam. I organised the (student) trip. It snowed. My “mates” all pissed off and abandoned me while I deal with some issues on check in so I traipsed the slushy streets until I happened upon some people I knew. Played catch up drinking until I hit the wall. Went to bed early. Some people from the other group we were sharing a coach with had a fight and someone’s nose got broken.

Never. Again.

Agree with Leicester square and Blackpool.

I didn't like Jerusalem at all. It was a long time ago, but sensing the conflict, getting harassed and lots of hassle.

Casablanca. Fortunately it was only a stop on a cruise. Abject poverty side by side with outrageous opulence and really creepy men on every corner.

Grand Canaria.
Nothing vegetarian to eat AT ALL.
A noisy quarry with digging right next door all the time.
However the worst bit was constantly being hassled by time share sales people when down in town. We were a magnet as we obviously looked like Brits so pretended to be German and they left us alone.

L.A. - Basically a large car park

Dubai - Hot as hell and nothing to do.

Lanzarote - Windy, cold and boring.

Blackpool- Just grim

Epernay - Massive disappointment. Nothing was open in the evening and we were only there for one night.

Luxembourg - In a tent, in the rain, with a 4 yo. We went to Eurodisney within 5 days of being there.

Oia in santorini for sunset was absolutely hell on earth.
Would not go back again

Las Vegas, too expensive, prostitution everywhere, the glamour of the strip is ruined by the huge expressway so a five minute wonder took 10 times as long. Just found the trip to be really hard work.

I guess I've learned my lesson, I much prefer European cities and cobbled streets!

New York. I don't get it. London is a million times better.

🙄 Paris doesn’t smell of piss. And Stockholm is amazing.

Pisa is generally awful apart from the old town - if you go, stay away from the area around the tower which is the most hideously touristy place I’ve ever been in my life.

If you like piles of rubbish you’d have loved Tunisia.

Cadiz. Shithole.

I agree that NY is overrated. Brash, grubby, rude people, roads an arse to cross. On the other hand I love DC.

The blue lagoon Malta. We took the boat trip having seen pictures and it looked gorgeous. When we got there, it was just a cliff with people perched all over it and a small bit of sea at the base. I felt like a guillemot sitting on a rock with hundreds of others. Oh and we had a group of Maltese teenagers playing loud music about 3 feet away.

I second Paris actually, I find it a really stressful and overwhelming city. I'm sure it was romantic before the modernists took over, now it just feels like a dirtier version of London.

Blackpool I can u derstand but NZ...😮

Blackpool. Ghastly, grotty, run-down chav infested shithole. Even the fish & chips were crap. Never again.

Skegness. Ditto.

Cagliari the capital of Sardinia, it's dirty run down & covered in graffiti.
The hotel's customer service was awful, most of the restaurant.treated us with contempt even when we ordered in Italian.
Apparently the North of the island is nice 🙄

@bibitty, nooooo! The Ring of Kerry is beautiful. The whole of Kerry is beautiful and the people are so friendly.