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 never got on with Paris or New York. Both a bit busy, bustly, touristy. (Although, last time in Paris, I stayed in le Marais and much preferred it. Like Soho but even gayer 😁).

I really liked the Louvre in general but the Mona Lisa was a bit pointless. Not so much the painting itself, but more that there's always so many tourists jostling and taking pictures you can never get near enough on your own to have a response or build any kind of relationship with the work.

Cornwall, generally. North Devon and Pembrokeshire coasts are similar, nicer and quieter. Although I did like the Eden Project.

I don't think the Science Museum in London is all that. Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry is more interesting.

The Isle of Wight - what a disappointment! Dirty and bit fun down and no way to go home early as ferries were all booked.

I'm old enough to have visited Stonehenge when you could park your car and walk around the stones, touch them and sit on them.

Portmerion, it was very expensive and I felt I'd seen it all after about half an hour

I am very easily underwhelmed, but I think it's probably to be expected when things are so massively over-hyped that they're a bit of a disappointment when you get there.
Have to disagree about the Taj Mahal, though. I thought it was astonishingly beautiful - but then I thought of the colossal cost of it at the time, compared to the presumably dire poverty of most of the population. Not to mention the poor wife who died so young, giving birth to their umpteenth (13th?) baby.

Two of the non hyped up things I've really enjoyed recently were the Dorset cottage which was Thomas Hardy's childhood home - you don't often see ordinary people's homes as they were then (I find the inside of stately homes a major bore) and the massive ammonites just sitting on the beach at Lyme Regis.

Noooo to York Minster being underwhelming - it's so special! The Rose window is stunning. In fact York as a whole is one of the few cities in which I would happily live.

I know i will get a pounding for this but Venice was underwhelming in parts. It felt like one huge great tourist trap, with the native Venetians viewing us as cattle to be herded and ripped off. Wayyy too crowded, the best bit by far was coming in by speedboat from the airport.

National history museum and science museum for me too. OK in the main halls (but far too busy to see much), but some of the other rooms/halls were so neglected and boring, and yes, so many of the hands on exhibits didn't work. In some of the upper halls, you were waiting for the tumbleweed to pass by as there were so few people in them, which kind of proves they were uninspiring if no one was there when the main hall was packed. Eg one model ship after another, another, another - fine if that's your thing, but when there's dozens of them, not really much interest. Sadly, a bit underwhelmed by "Dippy" the dinosaur too.

The smaller, regional, museums are just so much better in my opinion - far more variety, more modern so more stuff working, etc. The Ironbridge museums, for example, really brought it's topic (the industrial heritage) to life in a way that the natural history and science museums just didn't!

Think we've all done too much travelling these days. We have a mantra 'seen one...seen them all...'

The Taj Mahal didn't really do anything for me but probably because of the thousands of tourists there. And the same with Versailles.
Actually I reckon if one had a famous landmark to marvel at/enjoy on one's own it would be an entirely different experience to being jostled and having one's 'space' and 'flow' interrupted by others. Always have this issue with exhibitions too.

On the other hand, the landmark that has really stayed with me through all my travelling is Meteora in Greece. However I knew nothing about it until DSis suggested I visit. It's spectacular and sooooo peaceful because it's off the beaten track and not many tourists venture that far afield...

Trevi Fountain is tiny.

Were you at the right fountain? I find it weird that it's stuck down an alleyway, I expected it to be in the middle of a big square, far more open - but you can hardly call it small!

Was surprised how small the Statue of Liberty was, but I still love her.

Mona Lisa would be about the only one on this list I'd agree with, I think, tiny and drab.

AnneElliott totally agree that the Isle of Wight is a hole. Crowded, dirty, tourist trappy, full of dull over priced restaurants and desolate out of season - not desolately beautiful, just desolate.

The Sistine chapel

The Mona Lisa

Both meh, not worth the queuing at all.

And Epcot. Didnt get that at all. Prob excellent for americans who never travel and want to experience cultural cliches.

Westminster Abbey - just heaving with tourists and you couldnt really see anything or quietly contmplate.

Unlike many pp I love Paris but my 16 year old self was severely underwhelmed by the Champs Elysees - not sure what I was expecting, some kind of elegant tree lined Avenue I think, not a massive traffic filled road.

My main underwhelmingness is for Mediterranean holiday resorts. I didn't go abroad on a beach type holiday until I was 16/17, and I was completely underwhelmed by how scrubby the beaches were, and how dry and rocky the landscape was. I have always felt that no beach abroad held a candle to Cornwall or Devon or even the Essex coast.

Oh the irony of posters complaining how crowded some places were....

The spire in Dublin . It's a useless monument and a complete waste of money .

Florence. But it was about 150 degrees and the queues for everything were about half a life time. I am sure, if and when I got back, I will feel completely different about it. I still remember, before the heat and queues set in, my first sight of the cathedral. I had no expectation of it, but what I saw was gasp out loud beautiful.

Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. Too many crowds, and not at all as beautiful a setting as I was expecting.

Christmas tree at rockerfeller centre - it's sparse in real life! My pictures of it look amazing though?!

Disneyland. Expensive and a bit rubbish. Kennedy space centre was amazing though!

The souk and square in Marrakech. Just constant pestering from everyone. And really, really scruffy looking, not at all how I had pictured it. I'm the only person I know who didn't like it though.
Nowhere else has disappointed me but I would be wary of some places because of this.

Stonehenge and the Mona Lisa.

Both elicited a deflated 'Oh' when I stood in front of them.

Pompeii. Walking around ruined street after ruined street which all looked exactly the same in 1million degrees and then laying 10 euro for some lukewarm water. Boring and a rip off. Colosseum a bit underwhelming too - spent most of the time watching the cats. Disagree totally that grand canyon underwhelming - its the most amazing thing I've seen!!

We were booked to go to Egypt at easter few years ago .... just as trouble was starting in that region. DH rang the travel agent the day before the travel advisory was issued to see where we could go to with a bit of history that time of year - ended up in Turkey, to see Ephesus, Miletus, Priene. From the sound of it we got the much better bet.

The Roman forum is a bit underwhelming, I suppose.....compared to the rest of Rome eg the Baths of Caracalla or (a short train ride) Ostia Antica. Our enjoyment of the place was enhanced by having watched some very excellent lectures on classical architecture and engineering.

Definitely Dublin. Really wasn't fussed by it and wouldn't have gone for longer than a day.

All the comments on here about Eygpt are what I've heard a lot and are exactly why I have no interest in going there! My in-laws love it however.

I have not been but the White House is not exactly small but seems like the size of a British stately home?!? The Mona Lisa is smaller than I expected it to be!