Have you ever been anywhere on holiday that was like the emperors new clothes?

[Cheeseandlobster]

I did. Last year I went to a very small hotel in Greece. 16 rooms only with pages and pages of great reviews.

When I arrived all the tables were pushed together and everyone was sat together pissed as farts getting louder and louder. One woman was drunker and swearier than the rest and it turned out she was the owner.

It was expected that you socialise and drink at the hotel even though the entire pool had no sun from 1pm and the surrounding area was beautiful. The owner would bark at you if you asked for food from the menu and would openly slate other guests for making reasonable requests. And the interrogation you got if you went out of the hotel was crazy.

Luckily I met another lovely solo traveller who felt the same as me so we paired up and left the hotel at the same time each day to share the interrogation. I will never stay at another small hotel again because of this.

Anyone else?

Well Centre Parcs. I thought it was like some weird cult. Torrential rain, staying in a grubby lodge, over priced food, pool wasn’t that clean (especially changing rooms), bored witless. Everyone going on about how brilliant and amazing it was.

I went to centre parcs in the

in the very early 90s and wasn't that impressed, the activities away from the swimming dome area were expensive and the food over priced even then ( captive audience isn't it?)
People tended to love it , but I left me cold ( plus I can't ride a push bike so I felt left out of that !)
Florida / Disney was also over hyped , but that again was in the 90s so it might be very different now? I did like Epcot though! Stayed in a grotty hotel , so that didn't help.
Haven't been back to either place.

Cyprus. We went to a friends wedding. People raved about going. It was literally a dump. Everywhere half built and abandoned, rubbish galore, shit food in general, tacky in many areas, rubbish beach.
Wedding was nice as hosted at their families place in the middle of nowhere, and we stayed in a small family run B and B. But hit any tourist areas or ‘places to visit’ and it’s unbelievable

Bali- most of it is tropical Marbella for Australians

San Francisco

Dubai. Absolutely hated it, and it's pretty much run on slavery.

Petra in Jordan. Absolutely stinks like one huge urinal, awash with beggars, oppressively hot, just a misery.

Sounds awful op. Fancy asking why you wanted to leave a hotel to catch the sun elsewhere? How bizarre. Must have been a bit intimidating.
I like the Greek islands , although I wasn't over keen on Zante at all , but that was probably because of a mediocre hotel without a pool , power cuts most nights and not a great resort. My early 1990s holidays were all pretty disappointing come to think ! 😂

Lucerne in Switzerland. Looked so beautiful in the pictures and yet in real life just felt so claustrophobic and everything was horribly overpriced (£8.50 for a Malibu and coke in 2001). Everyone was so rude, they clearly hated tourists, despite us being super polite and we went on a little trip up a mountain in a cable car / train thing , the driver stopped half way up and got out and had a wee in front of all of us. It was just all so odd. Never want to go back again.

Las Vegas. Not my kind of place at all anyway, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.

It was so depressing seeing these dead eyed people endlessly pumping cash into machines, as we were getting up for our morning coffee. Difficult to find anything healthy on a menu for a reasonable price (i'm not a food puritan but after a week, I was ready for something not junky). The streets were teeming with hawkers and homeless people.

I don't get it.

I just can’t get on with NYC. So many people talk about it as a true dream destination trip and one of their favourite cities to be in, but I always end up being a misery and comparing it unfavourably to London. I have a FWB who lives out there so I usually visit a handful of times a year - including sometimes at Christmas when it’s supposed to be Magical with the capital “M” with all the lights and decorations and open air ice skating - and so have seen it through the eyes of a local rather than just the “tourist” experience, but I still just find it grubby and a bit dull.

However, I adore plenty of other parts of the US: a part of my heart will always live in Michigan, and as far as I’m concerned it’s always sunny in Philadelphia.

Centre parcs. Insanely overpriced for what it was (small dirty cabin). Overcrowded pool. Nasty dirty spa where people just left their Sun newspapers scattered about with their chocolate bar wrappers. And some pretty rough clientele whom I would never mix with in real life and made the vibe at the activities and restaurants pretty nasty. Never again. We spend a fortunate on holidays every year but can’t abide poor value.

Malta - for a small island nothing was easily accessible. Even waiting for a bus with no shade in the middle of a duel cartridge way was awful.
Too many hills for the heat, water park was rotten and underfunded for the price.
Hotel was four star but instead you dress to cross over into different pools, via a small hotel lobby. Entertainment was lapse and the Italian night only served pasta! Disappointing

New York. I've visited several times for various reasons and I've always found it a bit underwhelming. I don't hate it or anything, and have always had a good time, but I still find it kind of meh.

Agree with Las Vegas. Awful place, boiling hot

I’m the same with New York … wouldn’t go back. Not a patch on London. I really expected something much better.

Agree with San Francisco- didn't get the hype at all. Alcatraz was interesting but the rest of it I just found overpriced, dirty and unfriendly

Centre parks too! Bloody awful, dirty well used lodge ours had mice. Food disgraceful, first night hubby got us an Indian which was expensive and tasted terrible. Poor worn out facilities, was never as glad to leave anywhere. I don’t get the attraction.

Sydney - told so many times I’d love it. But found it all a bit over-rated and preferred Melbourne.

Croatia.

It was fine, but friends spoke about it as an amaaaaaazing place. I preferred Bosnia.

Paris, Venice - very beautiful but incredibly smelly and so many people

Rome 🤭

It was top of my list to visit for a long time so maybe I hyped it up too much but it was so disappointing.

Dirty, overcrowded, people were rude and lots of overpriced places and hawkers to avoid.

Wow, I had the opposite experience with Petra -- it far exceeded my expectations and felt almost magical. It probably helped that we went in February so the temperature was probably around 8-12 degrees C which was perfect for exploring. It wasn't terribly crowded when we went and at times it almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Every capital city I’ve visited hasn’t had a patch on London in my eyes

Venice.
sooo overcrowded (yes I know, ironic). And you can’t just sit outside a cafe and have a drink without food.
also hated Istanbul