Places people rave about but you don't really have any desire to visit

[nuitdesetoiles]

I know there's some element of judgement here but just based on what I've heard, seen on TV, types of people who go there, read about..

Dubai.. like plastic fantastic, cultureless and horrifically tacky

Thailand.... Looks like it's been ruined by all the tourists and those full moon parties look a bit dark and sinister

Australia.. some parts look lovely but just seems a bit British and dare I say it racist...

@TheVanguardSix

I'd get on a plane for: Norway Banff, Canada Estonia Lviv, Ukraine Baku, Azerbaijan Montevideo, Uruguay Ankgor Wat in Cambodia (and Cambodia in general only because I am so interested in its history). Laos Oman Any cities near the Arctic Circle/Yakutsk

Fancy going on holiday together?

Australia - looks like here but unbearably hot and not worth the environmental damage, time and discomfort to get there.

Dubai not now, not ever.
Paris present conditions don't look good.
Spanish holiday resorts full of English people : just why would you want to go there?

@Chunkymenrock

China-horrific animal cruelty. Anywhere hot with stray dogs and cats around-so heartbreaking.

Me too. If they can’t look after their animals they won’t get a penny from me. Rules out massive parts of the world.

@Lastbonestanding

Australia - looks like here but unbearably hot and not worth the environmental damage, time and discomfort to get there.

Looks like here

Have you read anything at all about Australia? Watched any programmes? It looks nothing like here at all. Granted, a big city is often a big city but there is so much more to every country on the planet than big cities.

We went to:
Cornwall (different places)
Woolacombe
Scarborough
I live near the Gower anyway
Newquay in Wales
Lake District
Somewhere in Scotland, but I can’t remember the name
London
Cotswolds
Bath
Tenby
Aberystwyth
Dublin

And probably a few other places, but I can’t remember them all. I remember mostly the bad holiday park entertainment; crowded beaches and lidos; cold oceans; rain; rain; more rain. Walking through mud; needing wellies; being chased by a ram; sand dunes; little towns full of the same shops we had back home; clock towers; castles and fish and chips.

Not for me. I don’t even like living in the UK, despite living in one of the more beautiful parts of the country. I’d move abroad in a heartbeat if I could.

Sorry that was for @icytravels
...it left out the quote for some reason.

@DBML

We went to: Cornwall (different places) Woolacombe Scarborough I live near the Gower anyway Newquay in Wales Lake District Somewhere in Scotland, but I can’t remember the name London Cotswolds Bath Tenby Aberystwyth Dublin

And probably a few other places, but I can’t remember them all. I remember mostly the bad holiday park entertainment; crowded beaches and lidos; cold oceans; rain; rain; more rain. Walking through mud; needing wellies; being chased by a ram; sand dunes; little towns full of the same shops we had back home; clock towers; castles and fish and chips.

Not for me. I don’t even like living in the UK, despite living in one of the more beautiful parts of the country. I’d move abroad in a heartbeat if I could.

You've missed out a lot of the places I love. I been everywhere on your list and I wouldn't go back to some of them but there are other gems that would be a real treat to go to.

Florida
Tenerife

@Lurkingforawhile. My horizons feel very small at the moment. Like most people on this thread, I haven't been over 10 miles from my home in weeks. A drive up the motorway and a service station coffee sounds like heaven to me .

I suspect many of us, despite dreaming of Dubrovnik and the Grand Canyon, will be jostling for a weekend in Bournemouth this summer.

I’m sad to see NYC on this list so many times. I absolutely love New York - we’ve visited 6 times. We got engaged there in 2014 and went back to get married in Central Park in 2016. I miss it so much and it will be the first place I go when Covid is under control.

However I agree about Dubai and China. No desire to visit either. But then again, I never fancied visiting Turkey but DH convinced me to go in 2019 and it was nothing like I’d imagined. It’s lush and green with friendly people and amazing food. I’d go back tomorrow if I could.

@DBML... I'm beginning to feel like that about UK breaks to be honest. I've booked my annual leave for this year but no actual destinations bar the Netherlands in August which is a carry over from last year..

I'm hoping abroad might be an option, we did the lakes, Lincolnshire, Wales and the peak District last year for short breaks. Tried to make the best of them but the weather got me down... And again the food in Llangollen where we went was awful.

The lakes was just a test of endurance, driving horizontal rain, relentless mud and crap food. Being treated like lepers by the locals for not being "local".. our friends are buying a property there which we'll go to for the occasional weekend break but I think as a family we've outgrown the lakes. The one thing we booked... White water rapids... Was cancelled due to a storm and in the rain there's very very little to do.

This thread is hilarious. Totally agree about Dubai. How can you not like London!? It has something for everyone. And how are full moon parties sinister? Some of the best times of my life.

@icytravels

Sorry, my quite button isn’t working for some reason.

I think it’s the weather to be honest. I live near to the Gower in Swansea, which is my kind of thing...no one else about; clean beaches; ocean; paddle boarding; no shops etc If it was anywhere else in the world, I’d love it. But it’s so ‘grey’ here and cold. I hate the rain, won’t step out in it unless I absolutely have to.
I travel to Florida (my favourite place in the world - not Disney, but the Keys or Anna Maria usually) and it feels colourful! Vibrant and bright. Hot and comfortable. I feel lighter the moment I step off the plane and see the sunshine, Spanish moss and smell green. Yes, it rains there...but it’s warm and over quickly for the most part. I desperately miss it when I return to the UK.

Any festival of any sort

I think one of the most amazing things about travel is the variety of different cultures, landscapes etc. A couple of years ago we 'did' the NE coast of the USA. We started in Washington which i LOVED - loads of free museums to explore, then we went to Philadelphia then New York then Boston then Cape Cod.

I remember when we stepped out of the train station in New York coming from Philadelphia, I felt like it was a huge assault on all my senses - the noise, the crowds, the high-rise buildings etc. Totally different from Philadelphia. But by the next day we were in full-on city mode. It's one of the things I love about visiting different places.

If you can't adapt and appreciate different ways of living then you can't really call yourself a traveller

Australia. I love Australian people, but the land seems inhospitable - harsh sun, ridiculous heat, drought, heaving with poisonous creatures... It's not for me.

Actually I will rule out any hot country, so I'm pretty sure the problem lies with me.

@nuitdesetoiles

The weather makes such a huge difference. I can’t bare the rain or cold. My minimum ‘happy’ temperature is about 24 degrees. My favourite temperature is 33 degrees and I start to get fed up of the heat at around 39 degrees.
However beautiful parts of the UK, I just can’t enjoy them in 16 degree drizzle.

I’m up for going anywhere to be honest!

The only thing I would never want to do - even less so in a post-covid world! - is go on a cruise. Looks deathly dull.

I’m in no rush to go back to Dubai, Australia or Barcelona, though.

Scotland
The Lake District
Any ski resort anywhere
Benidorm

Also, I never fancied visiting India but I went in 2016 with my daughter and it is an amazing place. I absolutely loved it. I think you just need to keep an open mind and realise that one place in a country is not representative of the breadth and variety of its culture and landscape. On that basis there's probably very few places in the world that I would not visit. I just love new experiences and learning about different cultures

@IEat. The only relief I felt this year was when the festival we were booked to go to was cancelled. I used to love them and we've always taken DC's but they've begun to feel like a bit of an endurance test. The enjoyment of the experience doesn't mitigate the hellishness of the camping, the toilets and the collossal faff doing anything. The DC's love them however so we've kind of made them a bit of an expectation. I think going forward we'll just get day tix and cab it back if we go to relatively localish ones. My days off camping at festivals are done!!

India, Thailand, To be honest, Asia just doesn't appeal at all.

@DBML ha ha that's too hot for me!! 2 x redheads in this family so we can't do too hot. 25c is perfect so southern Europe in springtime. We don't go there in August as it's too hot. For me it's not the temp so much as the rain and the damp and the lack of activities in most UK places when the weather is shit. Yes we can visit cinemas etc but we can do that in the big city we live in, if I'm paying £1k for a damp cottage in the lakes I can squeeze a city break somewhere sunny out of that for the whole family...

Australia. Thailand. Dubai.