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!

Pa ha ha, Popeye land in Malta. So pleased it was mentioned, we thought we’d dreamt it in some bizarre family nightmare, as we have never met anyone, ever who had heard of it or experienced the utter shiteness of it.

Others are St Lucia & Antigua, crap, naff holidays

Regarding Waltzing Waters- to be fair we were highly amused, it was so bad we were actually pissing ourselves with laughter. Have never laughed so much on a day out 😂

Dubai and Las Vegas - basically hotels and sand.

Agree Blackpool is run down. Can add Rhyl and Prestatyn to the list.

I still like Amsterdam. Stayed with friends in the Prinsengrach and it was lovely.

These threads crack me up. I’ve never been anywhere I hated, my views on some places mentioned on this thread

Amsterdam - i liked it but the red light distract & the old pervs were a bit off.
Prague - loved it but it was 15 years ago & in December.
Morocco - the catcalling & stares & general feeling of being a 2nd class citizen were not great.
Venice - went out of season so less crowds & smells but freezing.
NY - I was disappointed if i’m honest but maybe it’s because i’m a Londoner.

I like Mont st Micheal & parts of Malta are nice.

No I didn't she's my cousin

Haha good old yarmoof!

Koh Samui - dump
Ho Chi Min City - filthy
Las Vegas - seriously overrated
Nairobi - taxi drove into a protest on the way from the airport to town, then we slept in a tent on the roof of the safari place. I cant even remember how that came about. Didn't feel to safe. But apart from that I loved Kenya and Tanzania.

Vienna. Full of dodgey pick pocketers and gypseys 100s of them just hanging around everywhere. Whole place just had a dodgey run down feel to it. Kept seeong people fighting. Openly violent muggings. dog fights. Agressive beggers everywhere. Couldnt put finger on it but the only place ive been i didnt feel safe and im very well travelled.

I am laughing about the Waltzing Waters videos especially the supremely crap one. My local Tesco is right next door to where it used to be! My childminder took my Dcs there once and they were less than enthusiastic. They were still quite young.

Oh and some guy got on a tram and just sat there ranting and raving about something whilst his dog ran up and down biting people.

I loved Oia, it’s beautiful but don’t remember too many crowds but we went end May.

Lazarote. Rhymes with grotty.

Agree with many others on Blackpool & Paris - I feel like I need to sed it through the eyes of someone who loves it.

I would add Monkey Mia in Western Australia. It's all about the "wild dolphins" - which they bloody feed at the same time every morning. Can't think why they come back....
Sat in a cafe when I could have stayed in bed spectacularly underwhelmed.

In contrast I expected to hate Vegas & loved it.

@Hermie12 - I'll go one further and say Morocco in general. The dirt, the poverty on one side of the road and the extreme wealth (gated mansions) on the other. Horrible men in speedos with their poor wives covered from head to toe even in the water....

Really useful thread OP!

For me it was Barbados. We stayed in the 'posh' side with all the glitzy high rise hotels. It was an all-inclusive and the hotels all had a deal with one another that you could eat and drink at any one as part of your package.

They all looked the same though and the system was putting the much classier and more interesting independent bars and restaurants out of business - they were always empty, it was really sad. We were surrounded by tacky/retired Brits too.

It was a while back though, so hopefully things have changed now.

Fuerteventura. The hotel was miles from anywhere and my teens were bored stiff.
The beach was nudist so they refused to go on there.
Freezing cold wind we were wearing coats most of the time

We sunbathed with clothes on and I came home with a tanned head.

@LizzieBennettDarcy I agree Prague has gone downhill but I was lucky enough to go there when I was at uni back in 1996& it was stunning. Everything was incredibly cheap too. We went back in 2002 and my DH proposed on Charles Bridge😊

Las Vegas. Monstrous place.

The Norfolk Broads.

Norfolk-ing way I'd go there again.

Bangkok - awful, scam ridden atmosphere and full of greasy old men buying girls
Naples - just a scummy hellhole; I left after 15 minutes
Las Vegas - Blackpool with sun
Finland - it's said the national sport is suicide and I can understand why
Cairo - utter and complete filth absolutely everywhere

*Another vote for Malta. Miserable, rude people and nothing to do.

I was stuck in a crappy resort for 2 weeks (I am not a pool/beach person). There were no pavements so couldn't walk anywhere, buses were so crowded and I was nearly knocked flying holding my baby and a pushchair while people shoved me out the way to get on.

There was no sense of family friendliness either, we'd ask for a highchair in restaurants and they'd just shrug and say they didn't have one. I've never been so pleased to get back to the airport to come home*

When was this? Just because we went 2 years ago and had a totally different experience. Highchairs appeared everywhere as soon as we sat down. We'd bought one of those cloth ones you tie on and never used it in 10 days. Everyone really nice on busy buses making room for us and we used the buses loads to get to loads of places.

Bugger. Forgot you need asterisks round each paragraph to quote.

Love these threads - people's opinions are so different.
I also didn't love New York as much as I expected to.
I LOVED Venice - the architecture, sheer beauty everywhere you turn, the history.

However - Venice in winter is far superior. Cold, quiet, even prettier in the soft light.

Been to Paris for work.

Don't think I'd go there for a holiday.

Londoner here born and bred (and have walked through Soho on a summer morning so I do know all too well quite how revolting it can be) but honestly Paris is a shithole. Poo everywhere, piss everywhere, smelly and dirty. Even compared to Leicester Square when you are on your way to work.

Going back to Paris soon (for work). Might try and do some of the touristy things this time so at least I've done them, cos I know DP is never gonna take me there! I think his words were 'you can fuck right off'*

*He's not horrible, he has taken me on surprise foreign holidays to actual nice places

keepserving - am loving those Waltzing Waters vids. I feel sad that I will never be able to go there as is closed. I am however a veteran of Blackgang Chine in IOW - went there as a child when it had lit up fountains (maybe a precursor to WW) but was shocked when went back years later with DC only to find that almost half of it had fallen into the sea.

My worst tourist place was Morecambe - went there on an August Bank holiday and all the shops were closed with signs saying "Closed for Bank Holiday" - it an English seaside town FFS - surely August Bank Holiday is your biggest day of the year?

Paris also low on my list - expensive, underground is dirty and threatening. Everything feels a bit past its best - esp the Pompidou Centre.