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?

That sounds awful OP.

LA was an absolute kip. I have never felt so unsafe anywhere else. I was with DH, I have travelled many Asian/ European countries as a single female traveller and felt far safer.

Also and I do not know what I was thinking but we went to Benidorm 1 year. Wow it was grotty I am all for people enjoying themselves but drunk people basically having sex in public at 10am not great. I don't know why we booked it just could be bothered doing much research that year. Never again!

Paris for me too, rude unfriendly locals, pick pockets rife (though I suppose thats true of a lot of places) Cant see the attraction

Capri. The whole island is designed to gouge tourists as quickly and rudely as possible.

Disneyland, Paris. Hours and hours of walking and queuing, for days. Mediocre food. Overpriced tacky souvenirs. Grinning, glassy eyed, staff. Nowhere to get a packet of sweets or a newspaper. A completely closed system. If DisneyCorp didn’t want you to have something you weren’t getting it. Mind you, I’m not their target demographic. My kids loved it but I’d rather scoop my eyeballs out with a spoon than go again.

Egypt (Cairo & Luxor). Filthy dirty open sewer & rubbish everywhere. Basing evening over where there's a toilet due to virtual dysentery & scared to eat anything. Fending off pervs even if conservatively dressed. Beggars. Female party, we decided to wear hijabs then got left alone. Meat hung up outside crawling with flies. Have to say the Egyptian hospitality was heartwarming & the sites were interesting.

Boston Massachusetts in 1999. Everything was like one big building site. The people were not friendly and it was expensive. The Kennedy museum was cold though.
Also agree with PP about Las Vegas - the most surreal place I have ever been to, not in a good way. And the food 🤮🤮

Los Angeles. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

Barcelona.

Florence - it was generally beautiful but just seemed completely unappreciated by the locals. I was shocked at the amount of graffiti on the sculptures & buildings.
DH & I had a couple of great holidays in Turkey but when we visited Marmaris, it felt like Blackpool. Really glad we didn’t book there.Yet it’s always advertised as a great resort.

Cool (as in good!) not cold!

I felt a bit similar. Took the family to NYC on holiday, They all loved it. I was pretty bored. Marching down endless ruler-straight glass canyon streets in the humidity, I really missed London's endless open parks and squares and winding alley ways. It was so expensive I felt utterly rooked every time we stopped for something to eat. The massively hyped HighLine was a fairly dull walkway with some grasses planted on its sides, less interesting than loads of conservation areas in London that no one mentions at all, they are so commonplace. Apart from the library which I adored, and the Met which was pretty cool, I felt it was London's very boring cousin.

Devon. Stayed in a beautiful apartment but beach was just a shingle beach with huge stones and a deep drop off so not suitable for kids.Decided to travel further to a beach . Traffic, no parking, no facilities. And the tide was out , I had no idea it was tidal and left black stinking mud in its place.

Dublin ... I just don't get the excitement. I know of a few people that any excuse to get over there they go but for me one night was more than adequate so expensive too.

It's a shame it has put you off small hotels as some of the best I have ever been to have been small. That does sound horrific where did you see the reviews.
Agree with others about Centreparcs overpriced and I felt like I had gone back to school in the big gymnasium for most of the activities. Nothing to do in the evening after a meal and could barely see in the dark walking back to find our cabin.

Been to two Haven sites with young children in the past and they have been underwhelming and so expensive even though it was a 'Sun holiday ' voucher and a bit cheaper than normal prices for a long weekend , plus we had to pay extra for things too such as entertainment passes and linen . (Not sure if they still do these deals now though?)
Even one of the Haven reps joked that nobody could get drunk there as it was too expensive and this was years ago.

Paris. It should tick all the boxes for me - but it just doesn't. I love history, art and parks - and it has all of that in abundance, but for some reason I just don't get the right vibe.

The cost and queues for the museums and galleries reminds me once again how bloody lucky I am to live in a country where we have world class cultural facilities which are free. Pars also seems to be a difficult city to get around - the places worth visiting are far apart from one another, and often nowhere near convenient public transport hubs.

Another cliche, but the Parisians are not very welcoming or helpful. I love France, and never have this problem with the French outside of Paris. Food is overpriced, and often not all that good.

I also found Athens to be hugely disappointing. The ancient sites are amazing, and the Parthenon museum is suberb, but the city otself is so depressing. it is run down and covered n graffiti and rubbish. It is as if no one cares about it. So sad.

Malta - bombed to death during the war and still not recovered, everywhere seemed like a building site.

Disneyland Paris - ridiculous queues for very short rides, over priced, overy hyped, overcrowded and our children hated it.

Capri - absolutely heaving, too many boats unloading hundreds of people all at once onto the island.

Melbourne, depressing, cold, boring.

You had no idea the sea in the UK was tidal?

Agree LA. The drugs and vagrancy problem was so evident.

I walked over to the laundrette one morning (we were travelling light for a few weeks) and I felt quite vulnerable even a block from our super pricy hotel.

I want to take the kids back to the Warner bros tour there but only if we stay outside the city.

Cardiff. It’s just really rough. Loads of drink women staggering around.

Moscow was one holiday we didn't enjoy. No one spoke to us all all. Glad we went as it was on our bucket list (interested in history)

Yep agree on NYC, felt claustrophobic, grey, dull etc. Also didn’t rate Bluestone, too family orientated, so felt unrelaxing and I thought all the food in the restaurants was shit.

Center parcs is butlins in the woods.

LA. Utter crap hole. 'Hollywood' being the utterest of total crap holes.