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?

Barbados in 2004 - we were only young, early 20s, went there for me to be a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding.
Felt very on edge all the time outside the hotel (which wasn’t an all inclusive resort, just a B&B with a pool). Me and my then BF (now DH) were very street smart in London, had traveled, and were used to UK raves and all nighters etc, (where there had been knife and even gunshots 😦) which never wobbled us… but there was a permanent undertone which we both felt, like we were seen as easy potential targets and we had that feeling of being watched. My BF did get stood up to nose to nose and asked for money, but held his own. I nearly shat myself.
I imagine it’d be completely different 18 yrs later and we’d love it but I don’t think we’ll ever go again.

We’re looking at Hawaii for our honeymoon. Which island did you stay on please?

Dublin - pretty similar to a lot of provincial towns in the UK but twice as expensive, neither particularly ugly nor attractive, kind of bland, not much to do. Lots of nicer places in Ireland.
Marrakech - hassled all the time and grabbed by hawkers on the market.
Amsterdam - you can find plenty of other cities in the Netherlands with canals and pretty buildings that are just as nice, minus the hoards of stoned men wandering around and leering. You can also find coffee shops throughout the Netherlands, but I mean, if you want to get stoned that's hardly difficult in the UK. If you're going for prostitutes then you're a piece of shit.
Cyprus & Malta - concrete shitholes
Madrid - polluted, unmemorable apart from the Prado
Dubrovnik - OK, it's quite an attractive place, but all I can remember was really bad service (and my standards are pretty relaxed) and people trying to rip us off wherever we went
Athens - apart from the Parthenon a complete shithole.Spend half a day there.
Barcelona - worth visiting once to see the sights, but really bad vibe due to all the crime and hoards of intimidating men lurking around every corner.
Oslo - not particularly attractive, not much to do, ridiculously expensive

I agree @awaynboilyurheid , have never had a bad experience with the Canadian border, arriving by land or air, over 20+ visits. The same cannot be said of the US border police, particularly the land border.
That said this summer we are hopefully entering Canada for the first time since covid and I am feeling incredibly nervous about all our vaccination paperwork being accepted!

Agree with PP re NYC, Paris and Center Parcs, but I did really like Croatia. Beautiful coastline and friendly people. Also, enjoyed Devon. Went on a lovely boat trip and saw seals and porpoises.

Centerparcs. Basically a load of flat-roofed, stinking, damp bungalows which when you think about it is obvious given the British climate. Escape the bungalow for a nice meal out? Yes if you enjoy the quality (and clientele) of a motorway service station. How about a night out in town? Not a chance. You are basically imprisoned. Never been so glad to leave a place. Really don't get it.

Can flip this on its head, lots of places are hot as good as they seem (especially in the world of insta). I’ve travelled lots and always said I want to see as much of the world as possible which means not keep going back to the same
places....then I went to Barbados. And I’m determined to always save enough to go back at least once every 2 years forever. It’s heaven on earth.

Rome - grubby, lots of traffic, people trying to rip you off, horrible Italian men leering at women and being 'laddish' in the streets, neglected cats and large crowds everywhere. Hated it.

Much as I love Ireland- the naff houses built in the most inappropriate places with builders rubbish left all over, really piss me off.

Don't think I've ever been on holiday anywhere that had no redeeming features - normally because i research very well beforehand. I do remember an Easter weekend in a wooden hut in the Ardennes whether the weather was shit and the power kept going off. And even there there was plenty to do. The most disappointing place I ever went was Vittel in France. A spa town famous for it's mineral water. We stopped off there overnight. There was literally NOTHING there apart from a spa hotel and a pizza restaurant. And a similar place in Poland where everything shut at 9pm.

Canada. An intolerable two weeks spent one summer in a musty cabin in the middle of nowhere after a 4 hour drive from Toronto airport. Nothing to see apart from a lake and a lot of pine trees. And mosquitoes! No-one for miles around. My nails were destroyed by the end of day one and I'd read all the books I'd brought by day four.

OH insisted on cooking over a campfire and everything took ages and was always burnt… even the coffee! Completely unecessary. Got so bored of traipsing through the forest with nothing to see apart from yet more rocks and trees. Was terrified when we discovered (what OH said was) bear shit on the path! Couldn't even rest as there were hundreds of noisy birds at 6am and deafening crickets and frogs at night—and anyway I was terrified that a bear or wolf would break into the cabin and eat us.

Drove into a nearby village one evening in desperation for some entertainment (at my insistence) and all we could find was a grotty bar that was full of men that looked like Willie Nelson, and Guns & Roses on repeat on the jukebox. I sat bored out of my skull while OH played pool with the gang of Willies. The bartender wasn't able to make me a Cosmopolitan so I had to drink awful beer.

And yes the border guards were very rude—they asked OH (who is Canadian) loads of questions about where he was going, for how long, etc… I wish he had just said "I'm a Citizen of this country and I'll go where I bloody well want and stay for as long as I bloody well like!".

Give me Dubai any day!

London. Went back after 8 years living in New Zealand. Stank of urine and I'd forgotten how dirty it was. The only good thing was Harry Potter Studios. Now that was awesome!

Makes me so glad to have done my travelling half a century ago, before mass tourism. I'm happy to live on my memories (with a few top-ups from the 2000s) in the most glorious paradise on earth, despite its being despised by some on here.

' . . . a grotty bar that was full of men that looked like Willie Nelson, and Guns & Roses on repeat on the jukebox. I sat bored out of my skull while OH played pool with the gang of Willies. The bartender wasn't able to make me a Cosmopolitan . . . '

You do surprise me. I can't imagine asking for a cocktail in a Canadian dive bar.

And I'd rather holiday in HMP Swaleside than Dubai.

Stay in Santa Monica! We were there over Easter and loved it. Big homeless/drug problem but didn’t feel unsafe. We had half a day in ‘proper LA’ then turned around and came back to SM!

I don't get to travel much so perhaps I'm easily pleased, but the only place I've ever been that was a bit meh was Pisa. Nice to see the tower but the rest of the town is a dump and I was ready to leave after about 30 minutes.

New York, I loved - I had one experience with an incredibly rude fudge vendor 🤣 on Ellis Island but it was one of those situations where you can't quite believe how unpleasant someone is being and it ends up becoming funny. My travelling companion and I spent the rest of the holiday snarling "Here's your motherfucking fudge!" at each other in terrible Brooklyn accents for the rest of the trip whenever we fancied a laugh.

And I loved Capri too, but I was only there to see the Roman villas and I was aware that the town was a bit chichi and overpriced, so I just didn't bother with it. I was completely enchanted by it, it felt like I could encounter satyrs at any moment.

Paris. Didn’t see the point of it.

Sydney. I actually gasped when I saw the bridge and the Opera House. The Opera House is FILTHY and the bridge is actually pathetic in real life. It's so small and unimpressive.

Darling Harbour is the only place worth visiting and Manly but Sydney itself - hugely unimpressed.

Totally agree with this. Santa Monica (pricey) or Venice Beach (cheaper) are a great way of dipping into LA without it being too grim. Despite the homeless problem, I never felt unsafe even walking alone by the beach at night. And I love the shops and cafes of Abbot Kinney. Locals were super-friendly too (and genuine).

How can you hate the whole of London?

This quote always pops up on these threads. You could say the same for any other city or country mentioned, but no. It’s only London we’re all supposed to adore.

Malia in Crete.
I was married back then (circa 1991) and we didn't realise it was a Club 18-30 resort. I felt like an OAP the whole fortnight and I was only 27 😎

It’s only London we’re all supposed to adore.

New Zealand too.

Ha! This is true 🤣 My two favourite places. And I’m always right 🤪

But fair enough, we can’t all like the same things

I could not agree more with this!

I've seen so many mentions of it, I looked one up and it looks awful. As you say, flat roofed wooden chalets that don't work with the damp British climate, weird fake 'tropical' pools, and worst of all....chain restaurants to eat in. Who goes on holiday to eat at a Cafe Rouge? What a strange, artificial concept.