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?

I’m Australian and I came on to say Bali! It sucks!

Only place I have been robbed is Barcelona - my husband lost his watch and I woke up early one morning with what I swear to this day was a hotel worker in our room picking up my handbag presumably to make off with it. I sat up and said oi! and he put bag down and left. I am pretty sure we locked our door but wouldn't swear blind to it. Anyway I reported to reception and they couldn't have been less interested.
My DH also thought someone was gouing for my bag in Paris queing for Eiffel Tower and lunged at him first and he ran off. he may have been an innocent passerby.
Despite this I enjoyed both trips and would go back to Barcelona happily but never Paris again (confirmed again after the way the police behaved this weekend). I do love France but dislike Paris.

I love Paris...don't get the hate at all.

You shouldn't blame somewhere for being busy, any more than you'd blame it for being cold or wet.

But if you're heading to somewhere which you hadn't researched and were expecting to be a rural idyll on the basis of seeing it on Countryfile, and then it has the entire population of England in it then you might understandably be a bit disappointed. It wouldn't normally happen to me because I always research if I'm going on holiday: it only ever happens if I'm an accidental tourist.

Berlin was the ugliest city I have ever visited. Frankly, it made Milton Keynes look attractive. It baffles me when people go on about the place. It doesn't begin to compare with London, not to mention Barcelona, Madrid, Rome...even Munich. I also prefer Manchester and Edinburgh. Still, that was 2008, so maybe it's changed.

I'm also baffled by the way people go on about Ireland. I've been twice. Both times the weather was grey and dingy, and the landscape bleak and depressing. Also, there's nothing to do. Dublin really disappointed me. It didn't feel like a city - more like a boring town. On top of all that, there's an undercurrent of hostility towards the English. If I'm going through all the hassle of airports and flying, I'm going somewhere warm and sunny! Why British people fly to Dublin when they could go to London (for me, the greatest city in the world) is a total mystery.

@theyhavenothingbuttheaudacity
Land of Legends in Turkey?

I wouldn't say Berlin was beautiful like, say, the Hausmann areas of Paris, or Bruges, or Amsterdam. But there are beautiful parts; and anyway, IMO it's about the feel of a city, and Berlin feels to me vivid and interesting, cosmopolitan and relaxed and cultured.

And here you go again with your weird, unpleasant, twisted mentality!

It's not about being 'allowed' to go somewhere or not! I never said "if you don't like it, don't go there". I said, as a factual statement, that Barcelona on the whole isn't actually that unsafe, that the petty crime is centred around one area (where the tourists go, hence the perception from tourists that the city is dangerous), and that it's easy to avoid it if you want to/know how to. That is literally it. Everything else is some weird argument you're having in your own weird little brain.

@Iamthewombat I asked you why you repeatedly go to the same area if you know full well there are lots of bag snatches there. It doesn't seem like sound logic to me to voluntarily keep going to a part of a city you know is dodgy and dangerous, but I now understand that logic isn't your forte, so it makes more sense.

I might go and stand in Leicester Square after work and then come and post here about how London is full of scammers and thieves and you can't go anywhere without being robbed.

I think it'd be a good idea for you two, Iamthewombat and pixie5121, to tkae your argument elsewhere now. It's taking up a lot of room on the thread.

@Kris02
Found Berlin dull to look at but really interesting, and it has a really cool vibe and loads to do. Equally great for 20 somethings to go crazy or a family break with young kids. Nobody would claim it’s an “attractive” city.

Similarly for Dublin, if you’re just staying in the city itself you have to do your homework, as none of its attractions have a “wow” factor but there’s plenty enough for a weekend - botanic garden , Phoenix park, museums, mooching around South Dublin and the two main cathedrals, etc. Much better though is to take a whole week (or preferably two) and explore the whole of Co.Dublin with Dublin as a base. You have a dozen or so great coastal towns and villages for day trips, plus a few cool historical sites, Wicklow. If you’re with young kids, do Tayto Park as well.

Agreed - I did bloody try!

Well, I loved Paris, Venice, NY, Croatia, Egypt, Florence & Athens (which was SO much better than we expected - the new museum is fabulous).
And Rome is my favourite place in the world - been 7 times, & planning an 8th.

I want my cities to be real & not sanitised/Disneyfied, so a bit of muck or graffiti is fine (altho I really don't recognise the criticisms in this thread).

Interestedly because everyone knows about the Barcelona pickpockets it might help people perception of the city if they don’t lose their wallets and purses.
The opposite of emperors new clothes ; you’re expecting to be a victim but it went better than you expected.

It's Berlin, though...why would you compare it to the other cities you mentioned? The fact the architecture is drab and ugly is kind of its entire MO! Even just doing stuff related to WW2/the Holocaust could take up an entire weekend...Checkpoint Charlie, remaining bits of the wall, Holocaust memorial/museum. It's not my favourite city either but there's loads to see and do!

Being surprised Ireland was grey and dingy...really? The landscape is beautiful, even around Dublin City. A cheap DART ride will take you right out into Wicklow, or right up to north county Dublin by the coast. There are some amazing pubs in Dublin with trad music, beautiful cafes, the Book of Kells, the GPO and all the history around that. It's not my favourite city either but a 'boring town'?

I also liked Moscow, Istanbul & Petra - really fascinating places, & so much variety.

@HeritageVegetable I used the traffic police corruption as a cute anecdote. It seemed more palatable over breakfast than much of the nation's apathy towards the state sanctioned murder of an investigative journalist. The prime minister was questioned several times. Several other government ministers were questioned. Apparently there were only about 5 of us not in on it 🤷🏼‍♀️

The country's rotten to the core and the small scale of that corruption is unimportant to me.

Oh yes, I was aware of the story about the journalist's murder but had forgotten. That was properly awful TBF, even if on a smaller scale than China's atrocities.

It was dreadful. The shrine to Caruana Galizia is still outside the law courts in Valletta, it’s a testimony to the depth of feeling of the Maltese people about it. The inquiry In its conclusions, written up in a 437-page report, said the state had "created an atmosphere of impunity, generated by the highest echelons" - sound familiar? The current PM has apologised.

Appalling though that is, it’s not a reason not to enjoy a holiday there.

@Chubarubrub again I am sorry for your experience. FWIW, I have been threatened in the UK and America but never on the continent. Perhaps it is random, perhaps men suss something about our backgrounds or our confidence.

You have certainly got me intrigued about Berlin!

I think the most 'Emperor's New Clothes' to me, would be Ontario, Canada. The much vaunted niceness and politeness of Canadians was sadly lacking! I heard them talk about it, really didn't see any much of it. It was cold, grey, and soulless. But then again, we went there during an incredibly harsh winter/spring, and were mainly in the 'burbs. I did love the Niagara falls though, and the aquarium.

I can't really talk about NZ from the point of view of a tourist - other than to agree it is very expensive, and that if you go rural, it can feel like you've possibly strayed into a Gothic Horror film. Or a spaghetti western. I do stand by our friendliness though, and our food. If you go expecting a Lord of the Rings fantasy or theme park, you are definitely going to be disappointed.

I loved LA, especially the beach, and people were very friendly. San Fran', I found depressing.

Paris - have always had a great time there, and people have been so friendly, and forgiving of our lack of French. Ditto, Rome. And Madrid.

Loved Byron Bay and Sydney, once again, the people were so friendly, there was a real buzz to it, and the food was great.

Berlin's not 'ugly'. Or only if you're expecting pretty chocolate-box type 'old towns'. But go to Prenzlauer Berg or Charlottenburg or Grunewald and wander around some of the leafy streets with the turn-of-the-century housing and you'll find it really quite beautiful. Plus all the green spaces and lakes, walks along the river/canal, etc. Nothing ugly about any of those.

Some parts of Cornwall are very pretty.
That's about all I can say about it, I'm sorry to say.

I hated Paris because it's the only city I haven't felt safe in.

1 We were accosted by a very threatening man while waiting for the ride up to Montmartre who tied a bracelet around my son's wrist and demanded 5 euros
2 We were waiting to cross a road and a man was bending down trying to rifle through OH's pockets on his cargo trousers
3 A man came up to us demanding money while we were waiting on the platform for the Eurodisney train

Maybe we were just unlucky but 3 incidents in the space of 5 days means I will never return.