Ever visited somewhere for the day and been really disappointed?

[Summerhouse2013]

We travelled to Yeovil in Somerset yesterday for the day, wow, we were so disappointed.

It was like a ghost town. Most of the shops were shut, only a handful were open. And towards the bottom area of the town most of the shops were completely closed down.

I'd always got the impression there was a lot more to Yeovil.

We left after an hour as there was nothing to do.

Can I ask why? I was hoping to take my son in the summer.

Warwick Castle. More like Alton towers than a proper historical experience. Impossible to learn anything about what actually happened there. Insensitive restoration to the buildings. Sad feeling of a beautiful historic monument being flogged for cash. Full of horrible people. The birds of prey were crap, one flew off and the show with it was just cringe.

We recently visited heights of Abraham. Took ages to find a parking space, had to queue to get tickets even though we'd pre booked and it cost a fortune even with a discount. Cable car was good and the views were nice but massively overpriced for what it was. Also visited Newquay a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed

Tate Modern. Total waste of time.

Unfortunately the tourist areas of Amsterdam are mostly a bit shit. I used to live there and promise it's an amazing place if you keep away from the Dam Rak/Leidseplein/Red Light District kind if areas.

I can't understand why you thought Yeovil was some tourist mecca, it's just a slightly depressing market town.

Agree with comments on Bath, it has a v odd demographic of rich retirees, new agers who are getting on a bit, families where the man commutes to London and the wife stays behind and spends all his money on Cath Kidston shit, tourists and fairly well off students.

Bath in many places in the city is really run down but the 'touristy' prices for everything still reign.

Abersoch

I'd forgotten to wear my burgundy cords and had the audacity to have a small child in a pushchair

Dublin for us. Could find anything to do, then we tried to go have a look found a little antiques shop and they wanted to charge us one euro each to come in. No thank you.

• couldn’t

Manchester - people were unfriendly, lots of beggars and drunk people milling about, didn't have a nice feel to it.

Harrogate - I expected it to be lovely but I was underwhelmed

Oh and Paris. So ridiculously expensive, touristy and generally shit. I genuinely hated it.

What the hell are you doing in Paris to slag it off?! It’s one of the most beautiful cities on earth! We took kids twice when younger and now they are teens just returned from third trip at their request had a brilliant time there nearly a week.

I went on a fly drive to Florida and was completely underwhelmed - until we got to Key West. What a beautiful place. The southernmost point of the US and across the sea from Cuba I believe. It felt like heaven.

Hay on Wye.
Was expecting a buzzing bookish vibe but just found loads of musty depressing second hand bookshops in a shit little town.

Lands End
Alum Bay
Cotswolds. Prefer the Peaks.
Gullivor's Kingdom MK
Sea life centre - expensive and over so quickly.

Love NYC but did live there for a year. Also liked the Eden Project and was fine with Warwick Castle.

Oh, that's awful. I do agree the public toilets are dirty and depressing, I only use them if absolutely desperate. We go by train so avoid the parking issues, and we take our own picnic because 'lunch out' has rocketed in price everywhere of late.

Really sorry to hear you were racially abused. DH and I are white so I haven't seen that side of the town - very sad that such a pretty little town should harbour racism like that.

Thirded for Warwick Castle. If you enjoy learning about the history of a building then this is not the visit for you. It is like a badly run theme park.

I loved Portmerion, was everything I hoped for, but had no teens!

Yeovil used to be such a lively town, with good shops and bars. It is a shit heap now.

Cambridge is strange - city centre is miles away from the train station (legend has it the station built there deliberately to keep the rowdy Londoners far away from their precious universities). The city centre is full of twee posh stuff, the generic high street brands, and not much else. There's supposed to be a famous bit of Mill Road full of "groovy alternative" shops, but when I went there it was just two second hand shops miles away from each other, and a grimy mural.

I used to have dreams of living there when I was younger, but after a few visits I was put right off.

Funny that I always see the same comments about Bath on these kinds of threads - that it's creepy and weird-feeling when people visit. I've never been but now I'm curious!

A relative of mine said exactly the same about them!

Canterbury and Margate

I know! I'm reading all these comments thinking WTF! Absolutely love Paris. Have been countless times and would live there in a heartbeat.

Also loved the Anthony Gormley statues at Crosby beach
Just shows how different we all are I suppose (or there's some right weirdos on here 😂)

I’ve been to Carcassonne 3 or 4 times, and love it.

The beauty is that it’s a lovely setting to not do very much at all.