Most overrated destination you’ve visited?

[Rnm62]

Just that really..

Agree with Bali! Rubbish massages, shitty weather, complicated to get to.. food was fab though. But give me Thailand over Bali any day.

Have read all 33 pages of this thread with great interest as I love travel and wish I’d been to more places than I have managed so far.

For me, I haven’t hated anywhere but the following stick with me:

Rome- amazing history and sights but interspersed with a horribly dirty, inhospitable city with poor infrastructure (why invest when people will come anyway?) it’s also the only place we’ve been scammed, by a taxi driver, but we had our kids with us so just paid to get away from him. I wouldn’t go back. it’s the only European city I’ve felt this way about. Pisa on the other hand was lovely, we stayed three nights and dug deeper than just the tower.

Crete- we’ve been to 7 Greek destinations and this was the worst. There were probably nice parts too but what we saw wasn’t great.

Marmaris- pestered to buy gold on a tui organised trip, felt unsafe as they made an unscheduled stop at a cousin’s jewellery store. This was reflected in the general feel of anything outside the hotel

I've got to agree. And I love Manchester. It's just not somewhere to 'visit' unless you are going to a specific event. Or to drink.

The shopping isn't what it was. It's never really been a tourist city. The vibe generally in the city isn't as buzzing.

It's decent enough for a night out drinking but beyond that I'm struggling.

We used to go all the time before COVID and it's just not what it was. It's frustrating.

For anyone saying Maldives, try the Seychelles. So much better- yes you have paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean but you also have culture, interactions with locals and the chance to leave the beach and visit places, not just 'do activities.'

It was many years ago now but the restaurants in Bali were full of rats when I went. They leave food out as offerings for religious reasons. It put me off the whole place.

Kenya was both fantastic (especially safari and the markets of Mombasa), and absolutely horrible (beaches with literally dozens of predatory creepy men staring at you all the time and aggressively trying to sell you crap).

I always start of reading these threads with amusement but then it descends into a vague depression. I just can't reconcile what I am reading with my own experience of a huge amount of these places.

I have travelled a lot and to many, many of the places mentioned here and have always found something to enjoy! I am not into resorts or beach holidays so the places I haven't been to are places like the Maldives, Bali etc as I have zero interest in them. However I know enough to know that I am not going to enjoy that sort of a holiday so I simply don't go.

I often read these threads where people declare that 'there's nothing to do and it was boring' about places as like Venice, Dublin, Paris and I genuinely wonder what do people expect to find and what sorts of things do they want to do in a city?

I love art, literature and history and can always find things of interest to do where ever I go. I also love researching where I am going so I know what I want to see and do.

I'm going to Copenhagen in September and I will definitely want to see The Little Mermaid. I know she is small (as would anyone who ever even looks at a photo or reads anything at all about it) so I am hardly going to be surprised by that fact.

When we visit somewhere for the first time we often do walking tours, sometimes self directed (in London recently, despite being there many many times, we researched a Shardlake walking tour and it was a lot of fun and took us walking through parts of London we had not been in before; in Prague we did a guided World War II walking tour which took us in the tunnels under the main square; in Trieste we did a self guided James Joyce walking tour; in Budapest we did a Jewish Ghetto walk etc etc

Anyway I LOVE travel and very often return to loved places multiple times and I am lucky that my work allows me to travel very frequently too.

I am still aghast that people find ALL of Italy underrated etc

start off...sorry

'I often read these threads where people declare that 'there's nothing to do and it was boring' about places as like Venice, Dublin, Paris and I genuinely wonder what do people expect to find and what sorts of things do they want to do in a city?'

I agree. There is SO MUCH to do in Dublin and Paris (haven't been to Venice, yet!), I don't know how anyone could not manage to fill a few days. Just walking around you see so much, admittedly not a lot of fun if it's pouring rain. I do wonder what on earth they were expecting/ looking for

Another Venice lover here. Went for the third time last summer and nearly cried. So beautiful.

Paris - hated it and didn't feel safe.

Venice- it smells and the canal water is the colour of shit. Like the Thames used to be.

We had a weekend at a Centre park and we were not impressed. The cycle trial consisted of what looked like old railway sleepers space a foot apart.

When I taught at a Catholic school, I was inveigled into going on a school trip to Lourdes to make up the number of adults. As you say, it was very tacky and rather pervy I thought. The procession of old-fashioned-looking black coloured wheelchairs and wheeled stretchers was simply bizarre

Herne Bay.

For some reason that escapes me still, my parents retired there. Not only does it have that run-down, forlorn look of many British seaside towns, but there is also nothing there, and as a community, its heart has stopped beating. it gives you the impression that it closed down at the beginning of the War and never recovered. It is all mobility scooters and cheap all-day breakfast cafes

I knew a woman who was dying when she went. A young mum with 3 kids. She was understandably bitter and unhappy and frightened. She came back from Lourdes like a different person. She wasn't cured of her cancer but she lived for several months as a much happier person. So maybe it is tacky but it also does good for some people.

@Completelyforgot I have been to Venice more than a dozen times and I still adore it. For various reasons it is probably the place I have visited most so far.

I have been there at all times of the year (though I mostly avoid the summer months) and I have never been unduly bothered by any smells.

Weird that people hate Lisbon!
I loved it there as most people I know have.
If you go and have time, you MUST see Sintra. Here there is a collection of old palaces in stunning pine forests.

New York
Venice - my only enduring memory of the place is the smell.

My main issue with Paris is not what there is to do, it’s the vibe of the place, there’s an evil atmosphere to me, it’s the sort of place that I can imagine at the end of times demons congregate.

no amount of paintings or architecture is going to make up for that.

I've never read a better description of Paris, that's brilliant!

I simply don't understand that view of Paris!
I love it and have visited about 8 or 9 times and will spend 6 weeks there later this year and I just can't wait!

Vancouver. Dreary.

Vancouver is one of the few places on this thread I really agree with. I think you have to do trips OUT of the city nearby but the city itself I found to be a bit of a shithole.

I didn't particularly have expectations of it either. It was just 'meh'.

You’re about to spend 6 weeks there? do you reckon you’d do that another couple of times?

goes to show everyone is different I’ve tried it 3 times, it’s Hell on Earth to me. Rome is far superior in every way.

Prob won’t be appearing in the visit Paris website!