Places you've been underwhelmed by

[HannaPintura]

I just love going away and have really loved most places. One place in particular really Underwhelmed me...Gibraltar...just like Britain in the sun! I'm sure it has so much to offer, but I couldn't wait to cross the border back to Spain!

I think a lot of people on this thread are just bad travellers...stay home with your tea instead hides

Madrid bored me senseless, nothing to see bar statues

I adore Barcelona and Venice,also Bath and Edinburgh.
Not long returned from Lisbon and was so dissappointed in it.
I found it very dirty and depressing (think human excrement in doorways), many, many beggars and homeless people.
Lancaster underwhelmed me too for a county town.

Didn't you visit El Prado, Tara? Or all the sites with history of the Spanish Civil War?

We did make an effort to speak French though. So many don't and wonder why they get a rebuff.

I'm fluent in French. Have worked in French. Went to uni in France for one year and have a joint honours degree from a Russell group in French. Parisians are still absolute rude wankers every time I am there.

Redcliffe in QLD. Visited and thought no wonder the Bee Gees left.

Ellie

Dublin I agree with. Visited Book of Kells, but really there wasnt anything else that really attracted us. Museums and attractions you get in every City. I was expecting the city to be more beautiful than it is.
But lots of places here people are posting about, I love.

And yes Sorrento is not great. But I though people knew it was a cheaper place to stay so you can visit places like Pompeii and Herculean?

LA - I felt frightened and uncomfortable at times....

Lucerne Switzerland- just left me cold

Venice after the first hour - more tourists than locals, bad (unpalatable)and expensive food a plenty

Florence - crowded, dirty, pickpockets, prostitutes outside our hotel, can't take pictures anywhere, buses out of town = pushing shoving nightmare with poor service routes.

Prague - just didn't love it - had heard so many good things

Cornwall - too many people, tourist trap, expensive and the Cornish seem to hate tourists - South Wales has similar scenery but you are actually made to feel welcome

Rome - too busy, artefacts not managed well

Florence - busy, dirty, hawkers everywhere.

@ElliePhillips you're right. I'm not fluent but I speak enough to get by and not automatically be branded too touristy but in Paris I remember a waiter basically charging £10 for a plastic bottle of coke because it was "sunny" and as I smoked at the time I asked for an ashtray, he shrugged and pointed to the floor as if I were delusional.

Seville. I think part of the problem was me as I had an allergic reaction on the journey there so one eye was swollen up completely and the other barely open and I wasn't feeling my best. Good cathedral but I think I was underwhelmed by the social side as I was ready for bed before the nightlife woke up. I went to see Scooby Doo in the cinema for the air con to pass the time in the day.

Dublin, spent a day there with the DCs and that was plenty. It didn't help that we had to while away the time from getting off the boat at 7am in Starbucks/ McDonalds. The charm of Ireland is rural, not urban. Dublin would probably be OK for adults only, but for a family, there wasn't much in the city centre. The bud tour was good.

The Trans-Siberian was a once in a lifetime trip. Worth doing the once. Not sure I could face repeating looking at silver birch trees continually for 4 days from the confines of a small berth again. The monotony of the landscape has helped me to appreciate the sheer diversity and subtlety of the British landscape. For so much of the UK, travel10 miles and the character will change.

Andorra. A complete shithole. Basically one long traffic jam through streets lined with petrol stations and officious policemen shouting traffic instructions. We were stopped at the French border and made to unpack the entire car down to the spare wheel on the snowy roadside by an incredibly rude official. And I got food poisoning . Horrible place!

Agree with Marrakech. It was a complete nightmare to drive in- no respect for rules of the road, donkeys and pedestrians everywhere and our sat Nav didn't have most of the smaller roads so we got hopelessly lost. Entirely our own fault but we arrived during a religious festival which meant most of the market was shut and it was almost impossible to find somewhere to eat. And a lot of people hassling us. Still enjoyed it in parts but as this was somewhere I had wanted to go to for ages I was so disappointed.

I can understand the Lanzarote comments- it is rather a bleak place but I loved that. The resorts aren't that nice, but we stayed in a lovely casa in the hills, surrounded by vineyards. The north of the island is much more lush and, through exploring the whole island, found a lot to love. It rained lots though- not the winter sun we had been promised!

Most of the Islands in Thailand, beautiful on the surface, full of stray dogs & filthy behind the scenes.

New Zealand, it reminded me of the UK, I was very underwhelmed.

Sheffield. Not that I was necessarily expecting wonders, but DP and I got the train down for a day out once and I hated it. It was very depressing and I just got bad vibes all day.

Also the Peak District. I was expecting to like it as I love the outdoors and spend most of my weekends in the Dales, Lakes or North York Moors. But I found the PD very meh.

I love this thread. Georgian council estate wins it for me.

I was expecting to be underwhelmed by SF because DH had hyped it up so much, but I loved it. Don't even remember many homeless people. I may have been inured to it by then, after driving along the rather disappointing Californian coast. Lots of towns with a very weird vibe (Monterey, Santa Cruz) and you haven't seen homelessness til you've seen the beach at Santa Barbara

Barcelona is without a doubt the biggest travel letdown I've had. Apart from the Gaudi architecture it's just a huge non-descript city.

Hated Vancouver the first time I visited. But loved living there. It also helps tremendously when the sun shines.

Apart from the Parthenon I thought Athens was a total dump.

The trick with Venice is to go in the evening. I've been a few times - during the day it's hot, overcrowded and awful. In the evening it's so quiet and cool and lovely to walk around.

legally I agree with a previous poster re. Vancouver. It's a lovely city with a mixture of very modern buildings and interesting older buildings dotted here and there ( marked with a plaque giving its history). It's a great (and safe) place to cycle, and if you ever go there, make sure to do the sea wall cycle. Grouse mountain, Capilano, Granville Island, Gastown, Victoria island and its wonderful gardens are just a few of the things that spring to mind when I think of Vancouver. You're also close enough to travel to Whistler-the peak to peak ride there is great, and there's wonderful scenery on route, including a stop at the sea to sky gondola and lots of amazing waterfalls.
Actually, this thread probably isn't a good one to read if one is planning a trip anywhere as one person's experience won't compare to another's, obviously, and it would be sad to miss out on a trip to somewhere you always wanted to go, based on someone else's experience. Further up thread, I dissed Las Vegas and Venice, probably unfairly.
Las Vegas was a pit stop (albeit a three night one) on route to the Grand Canyon (which I thought was amazing-sunrise there was out of this world) and San Francisco (which I loved, though the homeless aspect of it was sad, but that seems to be an increasing problem in most cities-but not in picture perfect Monaco!)
The trip to Venice was in the height of summer and I said at the time that I'd love to go back at a different time of the year. There are some amazing buildings there that I'd love to visit properly, and Murano and Burano are really beautiful too.
So, I wasn't exactly underwhelmed by Vegas and Venice-just not in the right frame of mind when I posted last night.

bradshawcrr best comment of the thread. Although they do terrific fish & chips at Morgan’s.

I think there’s two places I’ve been properly underwhelmed by. One was Langkawi - awful beaches and dirty. The other was Mont Tremblant ski area in Canada - overcrowded, unimpressive ski area with a sterile atmosphere in the village & typical (lack of) French Canadian hospitality.

I’m genuinely baffled as to how you could find Japan dangerous though.

@DingDongDenny totally agree with you. Florence was a huge disappointment to me after wanting to go there for years. Siena and the smaller Tuscan towns are far nicer.

Praia da Luz in Portugal. Dreary town, boiling weather. We came home early.

Istanbul. Hated every fucking second I was there. Everyone constantly trying to gouge you. I absolutely loathed it.

Thailand. I found all the cliches about it to be true. Let me be clear, the Thai people were mostly lovely but on arrival at Bangkok airport I saw a very flowery, gently worded bill board about leaving children alone during your visit and it soured the place for me from the start, it was worded with less emphasis than the drug smuggling posters and that just really pissed me off. I just couldn't get to grips with the place at all. However I was with my ex H who I was on the path to despising by that point, so that didn't help either.