To ask what famous landmark or must visit place/thing were you secretly underwhelmed by?

[Midge1978]

I went to stonehenge this year and whilst I was trying to get in touch with my inner druid, trying to project historical importance and mystery onto the place, I just couldn't escape the feeling that I was just looking at some very old stones and it was actually (whisper) a little bit boring!! Dh thought it was all marvellous though so I have never told him!!!

I've just read that someone was 'blown away' by Scarborough.

That's it, I'm out.

Zaphos They could have been talking literally. It can get quite windy there.

Palace of Knossos on Crete, I love ancient Greek/Roman sites. This one seems to have "reconstructed", and spoiled (in my opinion anyway).

Agree with Beedoo, the White House is much smaller than it appears on TV. I came upon it by accident!

Also, the Mona Lisa. About 12" by 8" and almost impossible to see up close due to crowds.

this thread makes me think of this character from the fast show
m.youtube.com/watch?v=lpq30EUTDGM

Westminster Cathedral and Land's End.

I'm wondering if you meant to go to Wesminster Abbey and went to the wrong place. (Though can't remember much about the few minutes I was dragged around Westminster Abbey, so can't say if anyone should be impressed by that.)

I went to Westminster Cathedral for the first time last Saturday. I was a bit mystified why it was all looked so new, inside and out, and had to google to find it was built very recently, for a London church.

Ive just remembered another one. Arthur's Pass in NZ. We kept on getting told "oh you must visit it, it's amazing". We drove for a zillion hours to get there and it was foggy. We couldn't see a thing. And the tearoom had run out of tea the day before 😆 The fog cleared a bit the next day. It started to lift and we kept looking around expecting this amazing scene to appear. It never did. I'm still a bit perplexed by it, were we looking at the wrong thing? Was there another Arthur's Pass and we had gone to the crap one? Lots of NZ was spectacular though - whale watching was gobsmackingly good!

So actually it would make perfect sense to be underwhelmed by Westminster Cathedral, if you were expecting a lot of history.

I should also say we went to Westminster Cathedral due to an invitation to a service, so its merits as a tourist attraction weren't relevant. Just in case anyone thinks I should have researched first.

It reminds me of

I'm a little surprised at people not liking Singapore. I wouldn't mind living in a high-rise like this. But then I don't judge it as a tourist destination, as in general I have no desire to be a tourist, and no expectation of enjoying tourism, no matter where I go. As a hypothetical place to live, I like the look of Singapore, and the food. It must have the most scenic city to airport drive of anywhere in the world. Where else is the motorway central reservation full of trees and flowers for mile after mile. Not sure I'd want to cope with the heat on a permanent basis though.

We went on a bus tour in Singapore and found it absolutely fascinating.

The leaning tower of Pisa.. it was smaller than I thought. And having sat through engineering lectures with the man that stopped it leaning over further even the leaning thing didn't do it for me. And after the beautiful two weeks in the likes of sienna and Florence, Pisa itself was a bit of a tacky town too...

We drove around the Ring of Kerry in a perpetual shroud of fog. Occasionally it would lift and we'd see further than 3 feet past the bonnet of the car and we'd say "what a lovely ..." and before we had time to say "view" it had closed over again. But I still loved it, though the bits of green verge and suicidal sheep were beautiful, and had a grand time. Hellishly expensive food though.

Loved:
Tokyo
New York
Seoul
Buenos Aires

Underwhelmed:
Prague
Reykjavik
Mexico City

Rosslyn chapel thought it would be in the middle of woods, hard to find and magical. Right on the edge of a village with loads of coaches, didn't bother going in.
Notre dame, 14 and on a school trip, absolutely breathtaking.
North Norfolk coast just so wild and primitive, gorgeous.

If you get chance go back to Rosslyn. I visited it 21 years ago when it was relatively unknown and less developed, loved it. Went back last year and thought one of the best and most sympathetic developments of a site I've seen. Nice grounds to wander through too.

I loved the leaning tower of Pisa, so much fun climbing it with the kids - didn't think they allowed that. Flirence was kknds disappointing actually.

The night glow at Bristol balloon fiesta, the Mona Lisa too small and you can't get close enough to see it properly.

Mine is the Sydney opera house. Good architecture but didn't take my breath away.

PP who say the great barrier reef/disneyland underwhelmed them! I was so overwhelmed by these! Loved them

Cheers Casanova, going back next year so will defo go back and visit.

Had such happy memories of The Natural History and The Science Museum. Visited a few years ago and they're just dull and dusty.

New York was everything I hoped it would be. We visited at Thanksgiving and it was all frosty and magical. We ate in some amazing restaurants and walked for miles and miles and everywhere looked like a film set.

The Bahamas were tacky and plastic fantastic. Our hotel was lovely but everywhere was so commercialised and sterile.

shoesarefab

@binkybix

About 15yrs ago. I'd always wanted to go as a girl at my school went and her pics were amazing (this was early 90's). But by the time I went they'd had to shut the original pools because of the damage done by people going in them. Everywhere else in Turkey I have loved though

I think I went about 8 years ago, so maybe it had recovered a bit by then? I did look it up and it seems as though they did replace some if the most damaged bit. Or maybe I'm easily pleased!

I was disappointed by the Titanic exhibition in Belfast. I thought it would be better.
Copenhagen was a disappointment too.