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Original poster

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

960 replies

Cheeseandlobster · 29/05/2022 12:24

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?

OP posts:
TheMarmaladeYears · 31/05/2022 16:40

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!

Still, at least you discovered that bears do shit in the woods.

DameHelena · 31/05/2022 16:45

<<ba doom-tish>> Grin

TangoWhiskyAlphaTango · 31/05/2022 16:45

Lisbon - had high hopes but the pavements were full of dog shit and litter & drug pushers on every corner. Horrible place.

curious79 · 31/05/2022 16:47

The Maldives - massively overrated.
£16k holiday (2 of us, one week) but mediocre in all ways. Having a small plunge pool in your villa right by the sea - pointless. Massive bath you’ll never use in the middle of the Villa - pointless. But you pay for that. Bland food.
Should have gone on safari

DameHelena · 31/05/2022 16:47

TangoWhiskyAlphaTango · 31/05/2022 16:45

Lisbon - had high hopes but the pavements were full of dog shit and litter & drug pushers on every corner. Horrible place.

Oh no! I went, just a few years ago, and didn't get that impression at all.
It's still not a wealthy city, despite the incursion of some Antipodean-style brunch joints and independent galleries, but I didn't find it seedy or particularly dirty. I thought it was a lovely, laid-back, attractive place for the most part.

ToppTotty · 31/05/2022 17:31

TheMarmaladeYears They do! Right on the path we were walking on. I was terrified there was one hiding behind every bush. And at night we had to (according to OH) tie our food in a tree at night! It was horrific.

Gwenhwyfar · 31/05/2022 17:58

"Places like Charleroi and Bucharest and Stuttgart."

Charleroi has nice paintings in the town hall, a great industrial and coal mining museum in Bois du Casier and a photography museum. Just don't be in the lower town on your own at night...

Tworoads · 31/05/2022 18:20

Anyone want to do a thread on great places to go then? Speaking as someone in the middle of a shite holiday, I would love to read it

Gwenhwyfar · 31/05/2022 18:27

"Brussels
Some nice architecture but was honestly one of the most boring cities I’ve ever visited. Luckily we only went for a weekend but for a capital city I expected a lot more than a few parks and a nice square."

Did you actually try any of the museums?
Or the old cafes?

Parrish · 31/05/2022 18:42

The Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Run down small towns, crap accommodation run by amateurs, poorly trained hospitality staff, arsehole drink related behaviour everywhere and so much traffic. Actually did that thing that Londoners used to do which was pretend not to understand a Scottish accent. Never again.

theDudesmummy · 31/05/2022 18:46

For the people commenting on Johannesburg earlier: it really is an exceptionally dangerous place. I have family and friends there (I grew up there) and I only know one person who lives there who has not been mugged at gun or knife point, or actually stabbed or shot (I am not exaggerating). And that one person is my mother, who never goes anywhere without at least three very large dogs. My parents live there, but I have never taken my 13 yo DS to see them there. I fly the parents to Europe instead.

When Johannesburg "downtown" was mentioned as somewhere to go, I presume you are not actually referring to central Johannesburg/Hillbrow? That is probably one of the most dangerous places on earth. Do your friends really live there?

Having said that, my one experience of being mugged in SA was having a knife held to my throat by a gang of three young men, to have my phone stolen, and that was in Cape Town.

PAFMO · 31/05/2022 19:47

Tworoads · 31/05/2022 18:20

Anyone want to do a thread on great places to go then? Speaking as someone in the middle of a shite holiday, I would love to read it

Somebody started one on the back of this one. Yesterday, or the day before.

Newlywednearly50 · 31/05/2022 19:55

ToppTotty · 31/05/2022 16:11

I am going to have a pina colada the next time I am in a swim up bar (whatever that is) in Dubai.

I LOVE. Pina colada and will fight anyone who disagrees ( 😂joking? I can’t fight)!

babysgotthespends · 31/05/2022 20:28

poetryandwine · 30/05/2022 03:56

I am so glad a few PPs share my love for Paris. I really do not get the common British dislike for the place.

Yes, it is expensive. London, anyone? It is beautifully quirky, I thought Brits would love that. The people are more formal but if you engage them politely by and large they return this. They are slower to smile but when they do it is sincere. I will take that over the false bonhomie of the British and the Americans any day. And there is so much art, there is always a concert or gig in a beautiful historic building, the shops are so different….

And the food! Not uniformly, of course, but by and large. With a little effort you can find expensive good food in most major cities. But you have to do some real research to find wonderful, reasonably priced restaurant meals in London. Maybe we have gotten lucky but we have done better in Paris.

Grin I don't think all Brits dislike Paris. They certainly don't all love London!
(I personally love Paris and London and am British)

Reinventingat40 · 31/05/2022 20:29

Barcelona for me, was a student working in nearby Salou & went to Barcelona on the train for a shopping day, was pickpocketed, very scary, didn't even realise until I went to a restaurant & wanted to pay for a drink... Was underwhelmed by the city overall.

Rome, people were extremely rude... Ordered a bottle of water off one of the stalls around the colosseum, the trader gave me a bottle of frozen water, like an ice block for 5 euro.. When I asked him for an unfrozen bottle he started roaring at me... Also underwhelmed by the city itself... Loved Bergamo was so impressed
Also thought Verona was very overrated but the people were very nice, much friendlier than the Romans..

EggRollsForever · 31/05/2022 20:56

That's funny as all the English students from Manchester way loved St Andrews due to the blue skies and brisk weather as opposed to Manchester drizzle.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 31/05/2022 21:03

Parrish · 31/05/2022 18:42

The Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Run down small towns, crap accommodation run by amateurs, poorly trained hospitality staff, arsehole drink related behaviour everywhere and so much traffic. Actually did that thing that Londoners used to do which was pretend not to understand a Scottish accent. Never again.

Re the Jurassic Coast, it sounds like you just stuck to the towns. I'm not a fan of them but there are some fab villages especially inland (Hardy country innit) and the coastal path is something else. We've been a couple of times. If you just stuck to Weymouth and Bournemouth and West Bay I could completely understand your point. (I'm guessing you did, if you mention arsehole drink related behaviour) I don' tknow when you went but post COVID they've been struggling to recruit hospitality staff, like everywhere.

movemyshed · 31/05/2022 21:18

I haven't been to Paris recently but have spent quite a lot of time there over the years and absolutely love it. It's my favourite city.

I like London but don't know it well. The Wallace collection has been mentioned - I agree it's well worth a visit.

Barcelona I also loved when I worked there for some months in my younger days. It's a shame if it's changed so much.

These threads are awful. I remember one in which someone had gone to Edinburgh for a few days and had run out of things to do by the second day. 😕

AnnieSnap · 31/05/2022 21:40

Gwenhwyfar · 29/05/2022 20:41

"Blimey you must have led a sheltered life. Cardiff isn't rough!"

I lived in Cardiff for a decade. If you're not in a drug gang, you probably don't have to be scared of getting shot, but it's not true to say it's not rough at all. There are plenty of areas right by the centre that are considered 'chaotic'. Some of them are right by some more middle class areas though so it's a totally different experience to living in somewhere like Pen Rhys.

This applies to every major city in the UK (and outside the UK).

BlackandBlueBird · 31/05/2022 22:12

I take people who say they hate London to mean people who don’t know London.

Not always! I was born in London. I lived in London for over 20 years. I hate London.

THEDEACON · 31/05/2022 22:55

The isle of Arran - bleak overpriced tourist trap The Lake District - bland scenery compared to Scotland and again overpriced overhyped and over populated with tourists

Pallisers · 31/05/2022 23:01

there are so many posts here about places I have been saying "offered drugs/drug dealers on every corner" I've never been offered drugs anywhere ever. Only time I noticed a drug dealer was on the dart in Killiney in Dublin where a deal was taking place over the phone in a very business like manner.

I am a bit agog at the poster who thought Hawaii was like a posh version of Blackpool. Maybe if you never leave your resort but even then ...

pixie5121 · 31/05/2022 23:15

Pallisers · 31/05/2022 23:01

there are so many posts here about places I have been saying "offered drugs/drug dealers on every corner" I've never been offered drugs anywhere ever. Only time I noticed a drug dealer was on the dart in Killiney in Dublin where a deal was taking place over the phone in a very business like manner.

I am a bit agog at the poster who thought Hawaii was like a posh version of Blackpool. Maybe if you never leave your resort but even then ...

Perhaps you're oblivious to it? The poster was right about Lisbon. I lived there for a bit and there were drug dealers absolutely everywhere. I got offered drugs at least once a day.

BonnesVacances · 31/05/2022 23:23

I used to live in Barcelona and everyone told us over and over again how lovely San Sebastián was. So we took the overnight train there for a short break and it looked like Scarborough!

It rained the whole time and they had a general strike while we were there so we couldn't get any food for 24 hours, other than in one bar which had Basque tapas. Unfortunately I was in my first trimester and couldn't stomach fish or the smell of it. And because I hadn't had my Weetabix, didn't poo the whole time we were there. It was so miserable!

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