What famous places have disappointed you?

[mouldyhousemouldylife]

Or a landmark, artwork etc.

I guess mine is Plitvice Lakes in Croatia and Lake Bled in Slovenia. I've wanted to go for years as they both looked unbelievable and magical on photos, but going there just felt pretty ordinary. Very nice looking but I wasn't blown away.

Anyone else been to either? What did you think?

I agree with those previous posters who said Santorini,I was a tad disappointed I think it has definitely been oversold it was so busy and not as picturesque as I had imagined.

Loved Lake Bled! Leeds Castle, nice black swans, the rest was a bit rubbish. Buckingham Palace, plastic flower arrangements, electric fires and dust. Bruges Christmas Market - worst Christmas market I've ever been to.

Allhailthesun

Thanks for the tips thats good to know. Will look into it, its somewhere I've always wanted to see.

Another vote for Paris - noisy, dirty and unfriendly place. Probably the least romantic place I've ever experienced!

Drogosnextwife Definitely.Yes it’s quite grey and maybe there are some tacky shops. But the sheer scale of amazing things in one town is bonkers. Pantheon is amazing, Colosseum -( do the secret tour, skip the queues and see underneath the satge and the highest tier). The more you know about the Rome the better as there is so much.

Venice on the other hand....blugh.Like an Italian Disney - boat rides and overpriced attractions. All tourists and tourist traps but no real Venetians.

Nice. Rubbish. Horrid beach, appalling town planning and feels grubby.. Anywhere further up or down the coast - Antibes, Villefranche, Menton are delightful.

I think the places I have liked least, are the places I spent too long in, unless the point of the holiday was doing nothing. Sight seeing in a city, I can do a lot of it in a short time and then move on. I find other tourists the single most disappointing factor every where I go due to their behaviour, lack of respect for custom or culture and general rudeness.

Oh I always feel rather defensive of Paris when it gets a kicking on here. It’s a stunning city. I always found the people very nice too and patient of my dodgy GCSE French. It’s my Dads favourite place in the whole world and we’ve been so many times.

Sunrise sat on the steps at the Sacre Coeur with a croissant and hot choc watching the city come alive or wandering Pere Lachaise of an afternoon or my very favourite sat on the roof terrace of the Musee D’Orsay with a gauloises and a coffee.

I loved Rome too so much. We went beginning of Feb and it solidly pissed it down but it didn’t matter it was beautiful. I loved how you just popped out of a side street and boom there was the Trevi fountain nestled in a wee square. I was underwhelmed at the Sistene Chapel but we did the Raffaelo rooms first and I was a bit frescoed out to be fair.

We loved Paris too. We booked a spur of the moment long weekend one November. The weather was gorgeous and it wasn't too crowded.

This thread is fab.

"I went on a tourist visit to blah blah and when I got there it was full of tourists!"

"The water was the wrong colour."

"We couldn't find a card shop in Hong Kong!"

You guys should get yourselves on to trip advisor, the world needs you.

I'm another one who was completely underwhelmed by the Little Mermaid, she was tiny, you couldn't even get a good photo of her as people were climbing all over her.

Bethlehem

Hollywood

Anyone else happy that their chosen holiday destination isn’t on this thread?!

Paris to be honest as a 15 year old. I got flu from French bugs and spent a lot of the holiday at Disneyland. Hotel.
The city was disappointing- full of tourists, noisy rude French people. Everything was packed with tourists. Plus it was a boring city.

York minister was disappointing . People begging for money at tables as you go in,

The Guinness brewery was also boring- the highlight seems to be a free pint of Guinness ( I don't drink)

Tayto wildlife park- a park dedicated to crisps in Ireland. It's a landmark in
Ireland 🙄

The Eiffel Tower was a bit 💩. Just a steel thing with an elevator inside. Full of French people, Americans and Chinese tourists

Paris, Times Square, Liverpool (sorry to any Liverpudlians!).

Sydney, Australia- paid a fortune to get the kids citizenship by descentand passports so they could visit the Aussie side of the family. When we got there the humidity was through the ceiling, the days and nights were hot and sticky and the kids were miserable( yes I'm aware Sydney is humid and hot generally) also, full of zoos and playgrounds and not much else.
The opera house....meh 🤷‍♀️
Botanical gardens ....okay
Sydney harbour.... I don't like heights

Everything is so expensive too.

I don't think we will be back.

I loved Paris - and everyone was really friendly

The city was disappointing- full of tourists, noisy rude French people. Everything was packed with tourists.

Hilarious! Weren't you a tourist? You don't seem to have had much with holidays

Dakar - I went to visit a friend who lived there so I can't put it down to being a typical tourist but I never felt so unsafe in my life.

Hollywood - dirty and such a dump

Naples - as above

This thread is comedy gold.
Honestly - there should be an exam of some sort before people are issued passports!

I haven't laughed so much in ages as at this thread.

I have been to the majority of the places listed and experienced NONE of the issues listed here.

And they say travel broadens the mind - not mumsnetters haha!

And it isn’t even remotely possible that people might genuinely have different experiences to you, @caperplips? I am sure someone whose intellect is great enough that they deserve a passport wouldn’t fall into the trap of assuming that their experiences are the only right ones, and their opinion is the only correct one.

@morallybankruptme
Wow, I like Taytos but I never knew they had a park dedicated to them!

Agree with you re the Guinness Brewery.

Little Museum if Dublin was a stand out for me, great and quirky museum.

There are so many votes for so many places I have loved visiting.

NYC - had such a positive vibe. When I have my gap year (aka my midlife crisis and likely to last more than a year!), I'd love to live there for a few months.

Paris - I've been twice in the last year and had the most fantastic time. Had been a little apprehensive beforehand but loved every minute.

The shipwreck on Zante - yes, very overcrowded but all online reviews I read said this was the case so we found a tour company that have a low maximum passenger capacity and departed early in the morning so we were on one of the first boats to arrive.

Singapore - there are some really magnificent sights to see. Yes, very hot and humid but you're never very far from We were only there for three days on the way to Australia so maybe would have felt differently if it had been the main destination.

Sydney - not quite as expected but we were far from disappointed. It might have helped that we were based in manly and caught the ferry over most days.

Blue mountains - One of the highlights of our trip to oz - breathtaking scenery and snow in the middle of August was a very unusual experience for ds on his birthday!!

I can't think of any places that have truly disappointed. There are several that I have no desire to return to but there've always been enough good points to make it an enjoyable/memorable trip. These include Zante, Ibiza, Sri Lanka, Las Vegas. Ds has been my main travel companion for the last few years but at nearly 17, I think he's had enough of holidaying with his mum so this year the most I'll get away with is a long weekend camping in padstow!!