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?

Agree with the Mona Lisa and the Sistine chapel. Just crowded and impossible to get a proper view.

Fascinating!

I've been to quite a lot of the places listed, but decades ago.

I first saw the pyramids, aged 15, in 1977 and was blown away; same school cruise, The Acropolis, Santorini and Venice. Plus other wonders not (yet) dissed on here!

NY, aged 26, never seen such sky scrapers, despite London, by then! Wasn't underwhelmed by the Statue if Liberty, at all! Liked the White House, awed by Niagara (tho recognised the touristic tat all around!).

The Grand Canyon (recall its 1988 for me) blew me away; SF was as hippy and alternative as I hoped.

Saw Rome in 1995, enjoyed it; St Peter's- just wow!

Okay with Bruges, prefer Ghent.

Sydney beaches? Yeah, had some great backpacker moments on them, can't be underwhelmed- and19 years ago, my DSs loved them!

Paris, been 3 times, each better than the last. Last visit 3 years ago, expecting the Louvre to be packed with Chinese, which it was. But still a very successful visit! Speaking of which, Great Wall of China, circa 1986, at Badaling and at the coast. Amazing.

However- I get that so much of what I saw and loved was before tourist hoards/cruise ships.

Paris but I was a penniless student and just stressed about money the whole time.

LA - I didnt know it was so spread out, it just felt really tacky and grim.

Berlin. I even have it a second chance years later. Was just a bit of a boring place 🤷🏻‍♀️

Pamukkale in Turkey

DH travelled round Turkey and beyond as a teen in the early 1980s ( hitchhiking and working in bars/ farms to pay for it all) and has always said we MUST go and see this place. It looks amazing. We staying nr to Kalkan nearly four hours away so DH and I hired a car and drove. DH booked us into a five star AI hotel ( never been AI before)

The journey was long...longer than 4 hrs...
The hotel was...well...horrid. The food was terrible and I hated the school canteen feel. Also I think the whole of turkey and his wife and mother was in the hotel. It was packed.
Next day we went to look at the pools....I think the whole of the hotel had joined us...it was heaving. We were in single file walking along slippy sides of stinking pools that had cigarette butts, plasters and a child's nappy in...

Same holiday 'let's go to the seklikent gorge again...this time we can go all the way to the end to the most amazing waterfall'..so we went. Waded through chest high freezing fast flowing water, scrambled over rocks, plunged into pools...all the time walking close to a Turkish family. I don't speak Turkish- they spoke no English but DH is fluent. DH and Dad chatted away. Mum and I held each other's hands to stop us from falling. We walk and stumble for ages.

We get to the 'amazing waterfall' I have seen a more exciting stream being pissed by a five year old boy

The Mum and I didn't need to understand each other's language...we spoke the same language of facial expression...she sat next to me and we looked at our men chatting away ( apparently it was so much bigger when they were younger) and then we both did big sighs...got up, held hands and walked back...

I suspect the Dad got it in the neck on the way home

Picture of the pools below...without floating detritus

Sistine Chapel. Bunged to the rafters and angry officials clapping their hands and shouting "silencio" so totally ruining the place.

I only really go for the gift shops...

The Sistine chapel. It was practically empty when I visited. But I was absolutely knackered after trailing round the Vatican museums so the frescos were lost on me.

Carcassone. Was expecting a quaint medieval city similar to York. It's just another Frenchman town with a castle that's been turned into a tourist trap. I was so disappointed.

The Holy Stone of Clonrichert

What so much of this says is: 'You should've been here 'x' years ago!...' 🙄😊

We arrived on a local bus at 9pm, in October (hours and hours of travel from the Indian border) to Kathmandu, in 1986, as the dark was descending, and the place was deserted.

It was positively medieval.

However, the following day we met slightly older, way more 'alternative' folk, at a cafe, telling us how Kathmandu was 'ruined', but we should have seen Kabul 6 years earlier... 😂

@Igotmylipstickon yes!! When I went she had been doused in red paint and had to have a good hosing

New York is massively overrated.
Auckland is a bit Shit. The sky tower is like a giant syringe. (the rest of NZ especially the South Island is astonishing though)

Loved plitvice lakes. So beautiful. Wasn't impressed with the effiel tower

Barcelona and Seville. Both sprawling, busy, dirty and unfriendly.

In fact, I’m always underwhelmed by Spain as a whole, yet my DP adores Spanish food so keeps insisting we try new cities.

Never fail to be awed by the Austrian and Swiss Alps in winter. Barbados, although touristy in places, is also lovely.

The Vatican. Needed a good cleaner.

Paris - dirty, expensive, rude people, far too many scammers

Especially the Eiffel Tower - just a fancy ruddy great pylon really!

@MissLadyM Did you at least buy a comb from the gift shop?

Hated Lanzarote
Loved the blue lagoon in Iceland, was there in April.
Berlin is incredible, New York skyline totally iconic. The Taj and the golden triangle will stay with me forever
Agree about the Sistine chapel and the Mona Lisa

Paris - too many people and too much traffic - I got the absolute rage just going from the station to the Musee D’Orsay. By the time I got there I was too cross to even consider looking at any art - I just told dh to take the dses away so I could sit on a bench, looking at nothing, until I simmered down from homicidal to merely cross.

I have never been back.

Tbh, I suspect I would feel the same in any big, touristy city - I think I am just too old and too used to my nice, quiet lifestyle, to cope with lots of people, noise, dirt and traffic.

I adored New York, but Times Square was a huge let down. It's not even a square, it's a bloody road junction, overlit, noisy and just horrid.

And the christmas market in Prague. Full of foul smelling poaching pigs heads and other delights (to be fair I'm vegetarian which didn't help) but dear God, the smell made me heave. It was horribly touristy, full of tat as was most of the city. We loved the Cathedral and old part of the town, but the rest was a huge disappointment. DH and I both said we should have gone 20 years previously......

St Peters Basilica. Paid to use the lift and then still had loads of steps to climb to the top.
I'm dyspraxic and struggled to climb down the stairs again.
I had a lovely woman behind and beside me all the way telling me not to hurry.and stuff the people behind me...
I gave her a huge hug when I eventually got to the bottom!

Oh and the Arc De Triomphe was boring too.
I had a terrifying moment at the top of the Eiffel Tower. I suddenly heard a really loud WW2 air raid siren and thought WW3 had been declared..
It transpired after a while that it was a factory declaring lunchtime!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

I did most of my travelling in the 60's to late 80's. Stopped for a long time, then resumed more recently.
The contrast was unbelievable - in terms of the hordes of tourists, queues, mess, bureaucracy and general unpleasantness.
Tourist sights have often become 'downgraded' as well - often due to protection from vandalism - a pp mentioned the Mona Lisa behind glass - there seems to be a lot of that.
I now do not bother.

Shocked at people saying they didn't like Niagara I thought it was amazing!

Also agree about the Mona Lisa, it is much smaller than I expected. Loved the Louvre though and really enjoyed Paris.

@RiojaHaze i live close by too, just stones to me 🤣