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Original poster

What is the most overrated destination you have ever been?

809 replies

Meltinthemiddle · 04/09/2023 18:24

Mine is Dubai l.

OP posts:
MistyTrains2 · 04/09/2023 22:27

This is the thread to read if you were feeling shit about not being able to afford a summer holiday 😄.

Santorini. It's a nice walk along the rocky head, but it's literally houses and shops on a hill. Nice photos. The beaches are crap. I went on a yoga holiday so I was there for a reason but I wouldn't go for a holiday.

suburbophobe · 04/09/2023 22:28

jamaica, dangerous

Not at all. Been over 15 times. Solo. Absolutely fabulous place.

Takoneko · 04/09/2023 22:29

IcedPurple · 04/09/2023 22:17

Isn't Bali kind of like an Aus version of Magaluf?

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I haven’t been to either but know enough to say they don’t seem at all similar. Magaluf is a small resort town of maybe 5,000 people. Bali is an island of over 4 million people.

MistyTrains2 · 04/09/2023 22:29

@MissDollyMix the lakes are quite nice out of season, especially autumn and spring colours...but it does rain a lot.

givemeasunnyday · 04/09/2023 22:30

Meowandthen · 04/09/2023 21:20

100% agree. Too many refuse to embrace anything different.

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It's the stereotypical Brit thing isn't it? Travel the world and expect everything to be just like home. Travel is wasted on so many.

And people wonder why they get called whinging Poms!

Longagonow96 · 04/09/2023 22:30

Awittyfool · 04/09/2023 21:39

What's sad is that so many of these places were pretty fabulous 20 or so years ago. Population growth and mass tourism has definitely spoilt the cities in particular.
They are all blending into a generic graffiti strewn series of famous attractions ( at a price book in advance) surrounded by souvenir shops, crap tourist restaurants, and people hustling you.

Its time for the next evolution of holidays. Once it was only the rich doing the "grand tour", We had the explosion of cheap fights and hotels for family hols in Spain, then Airbnb and weekend breaks ...whats next I wonder.

one doesn't have to to to a tourist trap. We really liked Zaragoza and Teruel.

Evanna13 · 04/09/2023 22:30

I am from Dublin and not surprised to see the dislike here. If I came as a tourist and went to Temple Bar and the Guinness Factory I would not be impressed either. Especially if the weather was bad.
However there are so many lovely places and things to do here I feel that tourists often miss out. It is a great city with mountains and coastline, lovely coastal villages, castles, mountain walks, amazing parks, theatre, museums and amazing restaurants (outside of the tourist hotspots). But much of the inner city is very similar to inner city of majority of UK cities. Also very expensive for people from the UK as wages are much higher here.

Longagonow96 · 04/09/2023 22:32

User135644 · 04/09/2023 21:44

San Francisco
Any other Democract run city in America

They seem to absolutely ruin cities.

Whereas Repubs and MAGAs ruin lives.

suburbophobe · 04/09/2023 22:34

Santorini. It's a nice walk along the rocky head, but it's literally houses and shops on a hill. Nice photos. The beaches are crap.

LOL. This makes me laugh. Santorini is amazing. It's the remains of a volcano that blew up X-thousand years ago. Utterly beautiful. Houses and churches tumbling down over the cliff sides. Oh, and you get a bus out of town to black-sand beaches, as good as any other place.

Plenty of houses and shops on a hill in Britain too. Also stunning. 😊

Billi80 · 04/09/2023 22:35

The Lake District, pretty much everywhere in England..

HoraceGoesBonkers · 04/09/2023 22:36

I didn't like the bits of provincial France I've been to. I do like Paris though.

JamSandle · 04/09/2023 22:36

TenOhSeven · 04/09/2023 18:34

San Francisco.

This is mine too.

Onelive · 04/09/2023 22:37

.

Zone2NorthLondon · 04/09/2023 22:37

Dubai.Brent Cross with the heating turned on
Absolutely vapid,empty and full of dullard expats

JudgeJ · 04/09/2023 22:37

Flopsythebunny · 04/09/2023 18:39

Key west. It was like Blackpool with sunshine.
After such along drive it was disappointing

The drive down over the bridges and so on is the best part, Key West itself is pretty forgettable and so is Marathon

Ozgirl75 · 04/09/2023 22:38

This reminds me of those funny trip advisor reviews; Mount Everest “it’s just a big mountain”, ;Hanging Gardens of Babylon “bit boring, not worth the walk”.

Onelive · 04/09/2023 22:39

Onelive · 04/09/2023 22:37

.

Edited

In reply to ‘What is there in Dundee?’

The Endeavour.

SurreyMumOfOne · 04/09/2023 22:39

Waikiki (Hawaii). High rise towers next to an imported sand beach. There are nicer beaches in the Med.

Paris; smells of wee.

Rio; stunning geography, but too dangerous too really get out and get under the skin of the place. Allegedly. I was told so by enough people to put me off and I've done more than my fair share of risky traveling.

Arguably Dubai, but then I didn't rate it highly in the first place, I just had a chance to visit family.

Original poster
Meltinthemiddle · 04/09/2023 22:39

MistyTrains2 · 04/09/2023 22:27

This is the thread to read if you were feeling shit about not being able to afford a summer holiday 😄.

Santorini. It's a nice walk along the rocky head, but it's literally houses and shops on a hill. Nice photos. The beaches are crap. I went on a yoga holiday so I was there for a reason but I wouldn't go for a holiday.

Haha that's why I started the thread definitely making me feel better 😂😂😂

OP posts:
GhostOrchid · 04/09/2023 22:40

This is a great thread. Think mine have all been mentioned.

Venice - obviously, it’s amazing but I had a bad experience and was shouted at (unfairly!) by some Venetians. St Mark’s Square was overcrowded with huge tacky advertising hoardings, and cruise ships would stop discharging huge numbers of tourists. Got dragged round too many churches.

The Lake District - so glad someone else has said this! Dull little towns and nothing to do. I’m probably biased as I’m from the Peak District which I think matches it for beauty and has more interesting towns and villages. I think Castleton, Eyam, Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton and Chatsworth beat anything in the Lake District. My in-laws though are Lake District nuts and so there are many family trips there.

Montreal - to be fair, I wasn’t desperate to see Montreal and was visiting a friend but it’s like a second rate American city crossed with a second rate European city. Quebec more widely also seemed very dull. Just lots of pine forest. Quebec City is quite cool though.

Dublin - agree it’s just a bit meh.

Places that have exceeded my expectations:

Prague
Munich
Belfast
Washington DC

oh, and we did San Francisco about 14 years ago and found it fine but that was before it really headed downhill. I expect all cities to have grot spots and dodgy bits but I don’t remember feeling particularly unsafe. We did venture into a Latino area a bit off the beaten track to eat at a particular taqueria and kept our wits about us but nothing bad happened.

JudgeJ · 04/09/2023 22:40

MermaidEyes · 04/09/2023 18:57

I quite liked Rome, but I felt like this about Florence. When you've seen one painting you've seen them all.

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Florence trumps Rome and Venice every time for me, far more than just 'paintings'.

Longagonow96 · 04/09/2023 22:40

Tonightsthenight91 · 04/09/2023 21:05

Another for Bali. Shocked at Dubai 😮 it’s got everything you could ever want! Endless things to do and see

I want streets and buildings that are hundreds, preferably several hundreds, of years old, so no it hasn't.

Malapataraso · 04/09/2023 22:40

devildeepbluesea · 04/09/2023 18:35

Las Vegas. Complete shithole.

Vegas, yup. Cesspool.

ebts · 04/09/2023 22:40

Cairo
Capri
Hvaar

Malapataraso · 04/09/2023 22:41

SurreyMumOfOne · 04/09/2023 22:39

Waikiki (Hawaii). High rise towers next to an imported sand beach. There are nicer beaches in the Med.

Paris; smells of wee.

Rio; stunning geography, but too dangerous too really get out and get under the skin of the place. Allegedly. I was told so by enough people to put me off and I've done more than my fair share of risky traveling.

Arguably Dubai, but then I didn't rate it highly in the first place, I just had a chance to visit family.

There are also nicer beaches literally everywhere else in Hawaii.