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 love Sam Francisco but take the point about beggars. LA is grim though, particularly Hollywood. Nice coastal areas though!

Port Merion.
Jeez. Never go.

Agree with Demented Ma about Callanish Stones on Lewis. It's one place that I often think about. It was so atmospheric and totally unlike Stonehenge.
I didn't like Tuscon, Arizona because of the huge spiders and scorpions. Hotel staff picked up scorpions and spiders at dusk in buckets and took them out to the desert. Spiders (tarantulas) were the size of side plates.

I think, with Budapest, it didn't help that our first experience there was with the taxi driver who tried to fleece us and got quite nasty.It made us wary of getting taxis there again, so lots of walking , I was about 5 months pregnant at the time and it just wasn't the right type of holiday for us.

The Temple of Artemis in Selçuk, Turkey. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It is now a single column made up of bits of stone which were found around the site, standing in a muddy pond. There was a tatty board with information on. Best bit was the storks nesting on the top.

The Parthenon. But we were there at the same time as squillions of people off the cruise ships - so crowded and no atmosphere at all.
Infinitely preferred the old Agora, where there was hardly anybody. Peaceful and very atmospheric - and shade under the olive trees.

Milan. Really odd feel to it, really weird and depressing. Bizarre architecture.

Newquay too - great beaches but that's it. Bit of a let down.

Desperate to go to Iceland!

Tara336
Madrid bored me senseless, nothing to see bar statues
Didn't you go to the river, the Prado, Reina Sofía, Thyssen or Caixa Forum galleries, or the palace, or the Retiro park or the Campo del Moro with the peacocks, or any of the markets, or rooftop bars, or the oldest restaurant in the world, or the cathedral, or any of the beautiful plazas, or the Bernabéu to watch/find out about Real Madrid, or to the civil war battlefields, or El Escorial monastery, or medieval Alcalá de Henares its beautiful old university and the birthplace of Cervantes, or the mountains or beautiful places like Miraflores and Manzanares del Real, or the palace and river walk at Aranjuez, or over the mountains to Segovia and the Roman aqueduct, or the science museum, or shopping in the Serrano district, or to walk around/eat or drink at bars in the Chueca, Malasaña, La Latina or Lavapiés districts, or to the Matadero, or to see the turtles at Atocha, or to taste some Spanish food such as jamón ibérico, chorizo, cheese, calamares, olives, octopus, salmorejo, tortilla de patatas, pintxos (they're Basque but you can find nice ones in Madrid too), etc. What a shame.

I think being underwhelmed stems from seeing photos of the best parts of places and not realising they are the only good parts, bit like movie trailers or from the familiarity of seeing images everywhere in the digital era. Agree on SF. New York I loved despite the familiarity and Moscow was breathtaking in so many ways.

Snowdonia - dreary tourist trap, completely lacking the buzz of comparable alpine resorts.

Vancouver used to be a beautiful city but is now ruined by over construction, far too much traffic and is shockingly expensive.

I loved Bangkok when I was there in '93. Everything fascinated me and the tuk-tuks were fun. Never, ever go shopping there without someone who knows Bangkok well and who has your best interests at heart.

locked out - we were in Madrid recently. Went to a few places you mentioned. Seriously put off when we went to civil war victims burial site built by Franco using forced labour, only to see Franco buried there in prime position in the church and with flowers on his tombstone. (No wonder Catalonia wants to split!)

How can anyone find the Taj Mahal underwhelming? We found it breathtakingly beautiful, both from a distance and close up. And I'm not easily whelmed by anything, one way or the other.

Went to Stonehenge for summer solstice... awful! Like a festival without a stage so many food vans. Sitting around in a field all night. Sunrise was lovely and watching all the different sorts of people was interesting but I'll never go again. You can mingle with the stones though so I can say I've been in the middle of the stones. Not that great all in all.

Spartacus - we stayed in Reykjavik and took organised trips to various sites. It worked for us. Had lovely day at Blue Lagoon and booked an underwater massage. Amazing scenery and great history.
Take advantage of happy hour for drinks and take some bottles in from duty free if you like a tipple. Alcohol very very expensive.

Can't help feeling people must have different expectations to me because I absolutely love Paris, New York, Florebce and Venice. Yes, they're all busy - not really sure what people expect? I guess it depends what you do when you're there, I try to avoid tourists as much as possible, if you're just heading to the Eiffel Tower and Times Square then I guess that would be a pain in the ass.

Moscow I found massively depressing - just cannot get my head around it to be honest. Much preferred St Petersburg even though it's grottier.

To defend Dublin, it’s a great city but not particularly tourist-friendly. You’ll have a better time if you’re visiting friends or if a helpful Irish colleague can give you some tips on where to go and what to do, otherwise you’ll just end up in temple bar, and that is a bit .

I think most people will love Cork and Galway. (Can’t speak for Limerick, Belfast and Derry as I’m not familiar).

Iceland underwhelmed me when I lived there as a child. The Icelanders are lovely people but living in Rekjavik was horrible. Like living on the moon. Lava, lava and more lava. Lines and lines of smelly drying cod. But the worst was the winter, when it was dark 24/7. The sun would rise briefly just over the horizon and be gone in 15 minutes. I hear it's quite the happening place now so a (quick) visit could be fun. Or not.

Disneyland Paris, biggest waste of £3k ever.

I loved lanzarote. I had very low expectations and thought it was absolutely stunning, spotlessly clean, wonderful food, no traffic and very unspoilt

I also love New York. I have been many times and it’s the only city I can imagine living in apart from London

Also absolutely loved Amsterdam, loved the cycling culture, fabulous shops, great restaurants, lovely child friendly museums. We saw very little sex and drugs and thought it just fabulous

Didn’t like
Orlando - horrible place, too much traffic. The magic kingdom is run down and shabby and needs serious money spending on it. Food is poor and it had no atmosphere at all. However, the state of Florida has some fabulous places.

Scottish highlands. My DH dragged me there and it did nothing but rain solidly for a week. The food was fabulous but I hated every second of the holiday

Portugal. Everyone raves about it. The beaches were beautiful but the water was freezing. We love exploring towns and villages and found none with any charm. We went to all the places people rave about and could only conclude that they haven’t been anywhere nice of that was what they thought lovely. Having said that I would like to visit cascais and Lisbon but utterly underwhelmed and wouldn’t go back in a rush

Hollywood. and the Eiffel Tower

Some shockers here, it's quite funny. Can't imagine being underwhelmed by the Alhambra or Florence or Rome at all. I found Dubrovnik to be a disappointment, it was just too done up, whereas I was expecting something like Florence. The Cotswold town I live in has been mentioned a few times on here and universally liked, so that's nice; it is a lovely place and not too touristy as we tend to get mostly walkers rather than coaches.

Tapandgo
locked out - we were in Madrid recently. Went to a few places you mentioned. Seriously put off when we went to civil war victims burial site built by Franco using forced labour, only to see Franco buried there in prime position in the church and with flowers on his tombstone. (No wonder Catalonia wants to split!)
Yes, Valle del Los Caídos is quite a divisive place and many people - myself included - refuse to visit it although it's clearly visible from the roads around it that lead to El Escorial, for example. As Franco is buried there it's become something of a Fascist shrine. Not something that sits well with me.

Franco's only daughter died last month and chose to be buried with her husband's family.

There is something ironic about not liking places because they are too busy whilst contributing to the business yourself by actually being there.