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.

I went to Krakow last November, I'd packed warm thermals & jumpers but I was far too warm and at one point, walking on the bridge over the Vistula from Podgorze to Kazimierz there was a large thermometer on the lamppost reading '16c' - my friend & I were carrying our coats, sweating!
Krakow is a great city for lots of history, restaurants, shopping & bars; although we did visit Auschwitz Birkenau & found that a lot more upsetting than we'd expected to.
I'd definitely go back to Krakow - it felt very safe too.

When I went to Lanzarote we hired a car & drove round the island - outside the main resorts it's amazing!! I recommend visiting the nature reserve near Playa Blanca with the Pozo & Papagoyo beaches, the Cactus Garden, Caleton Blanco, Timanfaya national park, some of the small towns inland & the caves.

Salzburg. We joined a tour before our flight and I fell in love with this little city.
Soll, also in Austria,i'd read it was some boozy party animal place so we popped on a bus as were staying in neighbouring village. It was quaint,quiet and small ( though was 5pm so maybe early)with lovely little shops and church.
Krakow- no litter,lovely temperature and everyone so slim!

@changemynamechangemynamewhen nice to see the Sistine chapel joke hasn't been forgotten 😂😂😂

I found New York a bit underwhelming and dirty, I thought the same about Rome and Marrakech.

I couldn't believe how much the South Island of New Zealand seemed like wales but a bit sunnier

I thought Sydney was distinctly underwhelming as well - the bridge is nice but the opera house looks a bit grubby

The Sistine Chapel. It's very over-rated and not worth it

It didn't make you scream then?

The size of the queue might have done if we'd had to wait in it, fortunately we were let in immediately (it's not what you know...) and could bypass the crowds before opening time.

Paris!

I have visions of this romantic, lovely city. Oh my god never has a place been more over hyped, Eiffel Tower isn’t all that, a lot of Paris is dirty and ugly. So many tat sellers 🙄

Romantic Paris is not

New York, disappointing, not a patch on London.

Portsmouth, what a shit heap.

Positano, beautiful, but fucking unbelievably expensive. We were very young/naive when we went. Ran out of money by day 4.

Budapest, I thought it would be alright, but we had the best holiday ever. So much to do and see, lovely people, amazing food, so much culture. Highly recommend.

Brussels
Horrible Grey city.
Stayed in the centre in a hotel. Nothing to do..
Absolutely nothing. Very disappointed.

Everybody that has been to Tenby has raved about it. We had childhood holidays there a few times.

I went, and I really didn't see anything other than a welsh seaside town. I must have done something wrong.

Hawaii (Oahu).
This is going to sound stupid and I was quite disappointed but it was ‘American’ rather than ‘Hawaiian’.

Brussels
It was so bad. I remember walking for miles to try to buy a bottle of water. Impossible.. no shops nothing..
Very disappointed.
I said once I was there that Brussels has one good thing- a train leading to London..

Forbidden city - amazing and fascinating and Starbucks (unexpected!)

We did a trip around California and agree that San Francisco was very disappointing but the days before we were in Yosemite and it was stunning, I was not expecting how beautiful it was, such a change from Death Valley the night before.

Krakow was much better than I expected. I enjoyed Barcelona but it was very expensive.

We went to Seville in October just got a bit of sunshine but the old town was great, loads to see and lovely food. Well worth a visit.

ElaineMarieBenes I'm sorry you can't go back just yet, but here's hoping when you do it'll be just as great as before. Did you try Ksara vineyard tour? Best rose I've ever had

Cairo was filthy with vertical shanty towns made of breeze block with no windows, power, water etc. The museum was full of wonderful objects just chucked in display cases. NY was a disappointment in some respects and fabulous in others. Time square awful, central park great
Many places have extremes of poverty and very comfortable areas. I hate feeling a tourist but it does broaden your horizons .
You get frightening levels of security in some areas....Sri Lanka was beautiful but check points, guns etc made me uncomfortable.

Most places I've been aware of what to expect eg Paris dirty, etc. New York was a disappointment though, agree not a patch on London. Venice was much colder weather wise than I assumed.

Places that have surprised me, Budapest was beautiful, cosmopolitan & the food was amazing!
Las Vegas didn't expect to like but it was fun & again some amazing food. LA was a stop over but I liked the laid back ness of it & again some good food. God I love food!

I've only ever heard brilliant things about Tel Aviv & really want to go.

Times Square, NYC. Walked straight past it when looking for it and had to retrace our steps. I thought it was going to be a bit like Trafalgar Sq, but it was just a road junction with lit up adverts 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sorrento. The nicer parts weren’t that accessible, the beaches were inaccessible and divided up between different hotels - I hated having to pay to swim in the sea. Terrible traffic too. Not really what I expected.

The Sistine Chapel was massively underwhelming. The only person screaming that day was the security guard telling everyone to be quiet every 2 minutes.

Gibraltar is not a touristy place. I lived there for a while and it is very much a working country (feels more like a town) and the only reason cruise ship stops there is the duty free!

Went on a carribean cruise a couple of years ago, not impressed at all, expected lovely beaches and lots to see, we had to pay to go on public beaches that were supposed to be free, silly money for sun loungers and umbrellas, hassled every few yards, people tagging on to us and asking for money, really dirty and tatty, streets full of rubbish, really expensive for stuff you can buy at home for much less, the only nice shops sold only diamonds and expensive jewellery, I found it scary and threatening, wouldn't go back for a gold pig. Norway boring, industrial and gray, also unbelievably expensive. Gran Canaria full of cockroaches and transvestites.
Loved Cuba, Mexico, Turkey. Cyprus boring, parts of Spain gorgeous and Bulgaria scruffy and horribly cruel to animals and Great Yarmouth sad and tatty like Blackpool.

@Elouera Northern lights- Many photos have been touched up and coloured.

It's not that they have been touched up, the camera picks them up better than the human eye. Obviously some photos are but not all.

Pompeii- Bit disappointed. I assumed there would be the plaster casts of where people were found, frescos, tiles etc

There are frescoes and tiles in the old buildings. Herculaneum is better though.

@DKanin I couldn't believe how much the South Island of New Zealand seemed like wales but a bit sunnier

Really?! I'd never have compared the two. I can't quite believe it to be honest.

@bettybattenburg- Agree, Herculaneum is better. When we were in Pompeii, many areas were shut or fenced off and very few buildings allowed access inside. It was just different to what many documentaries implied, and I expected to see more onsite. I enjoyed Naples museum though.

Memphis. I knew several people who'd been and loved it but I hated it (apart from Gracelands which is an excellent museum)
It was tacky and I felt unsafe the whole time I was there.

@Elouera When we were in Pompeii, many areas were shut or fenced off and very few buildings allowed access inside

That's very annoying, we were lucky that it was all open when we went. I didn't go to the museum in Naples - we went to Pompeii and Herculaneum and up Vesuvius.

Cyprus. I was expecting an interesting mixture of Greece & the Middle East. What I found was a not very interesting mixture of Greece & the U.K. I was expecting the souk, but the reality was Debenhams - literally.

Not a bad place, but definitely too ‘Brits abroad’ for me.