Where in the world have you been that was very different to what you’d expected?

[Davespecifico]

For me it was a journey through Montenegro to Kotor. I couldn’t believe the fjords, steep cliffs and cruise ships.

Bridgetown Barbados. Called in for a day on a cruise (don't burn me, DH was lecturing). We couldn't afford an organised tour so explored in foot. It poured with rain so we got a cab and asked to be taken to somewhere locals would eat. Finished up eating macaroni cheese from polystyrene trays.

SAN Francisco for us- seems to have mixed views on this thread! We had understood it was fairly European like in its culture and so we expected some nice cafes and to be able to follow our usual European city break schedule which intersperses bits of sightseeing with beers or coffees in lovely cafes. Honestly the looks we got when trying to order a beer at lunchtime- I've never seen anything so hostile! And we never found any 'bars' as we would recognise them - it seemed like the only choice for just a drink was a seedy sports bar.
And just to show it's not all about the drink (!) I found the walk from the main part of the city to MoMA the scariest and saddest walk we've ever done- we had to walk the gauntlet of drug addicts and homeless people. Was really shocked.

Bethlehem. I was expecting it to be like Jerusalem but it was nothing like it. I couldn't wait to leave

Budapest. It was really lovely and now a favourite place. Not sure what I expected.

Also Kathmandu. I expected it to be all calm and Zen. 😂. I was on such a shock that I had to go back to Boudha within 30 minutes. I did go back to the day after and ended up spending over a month in Nepal.

@moosebetimeforsummer agreed! It was only the security guard and crowd that drew my attention to it. It was a flat experience to say the least.

Marseille is a fabulous place. Eurostar was a bit disappointing though. I planned to treat the family to a lunch in the restaurant car. I turned out to be a short counter selling crisps, biscuits and soggy wrapped sandwiches. But like GWR really.

Pompeii - and Italian cities in general, once out of the tourist centres what a filthy dirty dump. Dog mess everywhere, streets are dirty, buildings are huge ugly tenements. Disgusting place but tourist areas are lovely.

The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen........ I’d always thought it was larger and further out in the water rather than within a few yards of the shore.

Edinburgh - what a stunning place - it’s got everything going for it. My geography is so poor that I didn’t even realise that it’s so close to a beach - best surprise I’ve had in terms of surpassing expectations.

Totally agree with the sphinx and pyramids... it’s so not in the middle of the desert! The city is literally right next to it. Another strange place was Medellin in Columbia. I was expecting a rough ex-drug town but it just reminded of the The Glades in Bromley.

London. Not glitzy. Just dirty and full of very robotic scary looming people.

Loch Ness. Actually stunning / jaw dropping even though it was foggy.

Bicester Village. Not a retail therapy vibe at all. Naff, overcrowded and pointless!

Didn't like lots of Italy, the architecture is beautiful but the streets are tiny, dirty, crammed full of tourists, lots of thieves around which we were warned about several times by our tour guide. Particularly hated Pisa, what a shithole. On the other hand I was expecting to hate Venice as was told it was smelly and dirty, but I actually found it very quaint and loved the back streets and alleys!

Love Las Vegas and it wasn't what I was expecting either. I prefer it during the day as, with the desert & mountains, it makes me think of a city on the moon. I also got married there as DH and Iiked it so much.

Travelling stand outs for me:

Barcelona - Filthy and felt quite unsafe with all the pick pockets about.

Madrid - complete opposite to Barcelona, clean and friendly. really loved it.

Rome/Naples/Amalfi Coast, down to Southern Italy - really shocked by how dirty and poor the areas are. Gobsmacked by a lot of the accommodation available that is graded as 4/5 or 'Exceptional' on Booking . com - disgusting.

Florence - Lovely, would happily go there again.

Canada - beautiful and utterly vast!

Oh yes! @BarefootHippieChick, Pisa!!!

I forgot to add Pisa to my Rome/Naples..... blurb, another of Italy's poop holes.

Cahokia.

America brings many things to mind, but I admit that in my ignorance a vast pre colonial times Native American city was not one.

Costa Rica , the part we went to had terrible American junk food restaurants, so I bought food from the supermarket and cooked on holiday
Beach was beautiful but the surf town was ugly .
Incredible scary crocodiles

Niagara Falls...underwhelming.

Toronto...very dull and lacking in atmosphere.

Malibu...disappointing.

Hollywood...creepy.

Vanuatu, last year. I expected it to be tropical and it was, like far north Queensland, but it wasn't full of dangerous things like crocodiles and lethal stingers or snakes. We could swim in the river and walk bare-legged through long grass without fear. And the contrast between how the village people lived - no glass in the windows, no electricity, no running water or sanitation, no sealed roads - and the way they turned themselves and their children out and looked out for each other in the community and valued education for their children was an eye-opener. I'm afraid I'd equated plain poverty with deprivation and misery. There were no beggars in the town. We were approached only by smiling people who were offering us help to get where we wanted to go or finding us other people who were travelling in our direction, never looking for any reward. Oh, and everyone had at least two languages, even tiny children; many had three, four or more.

I took lifts with bunches of strange men in farm pickup trucks, rode on a plank in the back of the truck amongst woven coconut-frond baskets of fruit and veg and back again with sacks of rice and huge iceblocks from the abattoir and never felt anxious for an instant.

I learned how to get by in Bislama with a please and thank you and simple questions and answers. I even managed to generate an important question about whether the (horned) cattle were out, because I was scared of them and needed to know!

And I learned that the one luxury people have, even when they're cooking on an open fire and growing their own food with barely two vatu to rub together, is a mobile phone, with top-ups bought from a 'shop' that is some neighbour's thatched-roofed, woven-walled hut. I will never look at refugees with the latest phone again and assume they have all the other consumer goodies, too.

Life changing.

Florida Keys , Key Largo was a dump . Key west was lovely but it was 20 years ago .
Munich and Stuttgart are lovely and scenic .
Istanbul, vibrant , lots to do ,amazing food ,great hairdressers ,I love it there .

Agree BossAssBitch - Zanzibar wasn’t pleasant. We did a tour of Stone Town and I’ve never felt so intimidated in my life. Poverty everywhere and then you disappear into your 5* hotel.

San Fran - loved the architecture and it’s a really pretty place but the homeless put me off, they seem to wander and stagger about, together with the smell of weed!

Leeds was a bit shit, LA was nasty.

As a PP has said loving this thread. Its taking me away to all these wonderful (and the not so wonderful) places.

So many places I want to go to. Most of which I probably never will.

Really glad that Liverpool seems to have such a good review. I was supposed to be going there for a weekend this month, but now going next year. Can't wait.

I noticed a few people have mentioned areas in the South of France. I have been going for my holidays since I was 3 (on and off during my adult years though). I always found it quite boring as a child as it wasn't Florida.

My parents now own a holiday place down there so we get free accommodation. This has meant that I have re-visited France as an adult. I was very pleasantly surprised. Love the whole area.

Cannes is my favourite place, very closely followed by Monaco (especially the old town on top of the hill).

Not as bothered about St Tropez. Apart from the harbour with the big fancy yachts, its just a typical French town, but with designer label shops that obviously require and invitation to be able to enter.

Love the harbour in Frejus and standing on the bridge looking to the old town in one direction and out to sea in the other.
Also love a potter around St Raphael.

Now as an adult the French Riviera certainly is one of my favourite places on earth. Just hope I get to go again next year if 2020 is out of the question now. Not ready to stop going just yet (once my parents stop going they will sell their place so we will no longer have free accommodation and therefore a cheap holiday)

I was surprised how much I loved Key West. Such a lovely, beautiful and happy place.

Miami scared me. Tons of police blatting up and down the road. I didn’t feel safe at all!

Sarasota had the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen in my life!

I found New York completely overrated, expensive and dull. On the other hand, I loved San Francisco. I’ve been twice and would go again.

The Grand Canyon was great! We went through it in a helicopter though which was amazing!

I thought Vegas would be tacky but I loved it!

Khassab, Oman - the hotel was in the middle of nowhere but the beaches were simply gorgeous! We went out on a boat and loads of dolphins were swimming round us. So playful! Amazing experience!