Favourite and least favourite holiday you have visited?

[Ellabella989]

Love travelling and always looking for recommendations. Where has been your favourite and least favourite holiday you have ever visited and why?
So far my favourite has been the Canadian Rockies - amazing scenery.
Least favourite has been Benidorm - got terrible food poisoning and was a bit too “Brits abroad”

Best - Argentina: Buenos Aires and Patagonia in particular, or New Zealand.
Worst - Australia

Best: Alsace
Worst: Lake District

Best: Iceland, Outer Hebrides, Shetland, Canadian Rocky Mountains, French Alps, Venice, US road trip (DC to Miami.)

Worst: I genuinely can't think of anywhere I've been on holiday that I haven't enjoyed! I think I just get excited about going anywhere new at all.

Even when I've stayed in specific locations that I might not have chosen, I've still enjoyed myself - eg we once stayed in Larnaca, Cyprus on a cheap autumn deal and Larnaca itself wasn't great, but we had a hire car and went all over Cyprus, including going into the mountains, and crossing the border into Northern Cyprus, and that was lovely and even in Larnaca I still enjoyed sitting on the balcony with a drink after a day out and watching the world go by and we found a couple of nice restaurants, and the people were lovely. I've also been to a couple of places in Eastern Europe for long weekends where the hotels were weird, the food was odd and generally everything was quite shabby and Soviet-looking, but I wasn't looking for luxury and relaxation on those trips and was going out of interest/curiosity - generally, those places were actually way better than I was expecting, if anything!

I think it's unfair to judge a country/holiday on crap hotel food/weather/resort

I absolutely love Crete but loathe Malia - I'd never judge the island on that.

Am delighted that there's posts about favourite holidays in Northumberland - I live on the coast and feel so lucky, it's beautiful.

On to best and worst - best has to be Crete as I've been there over 20 times as fiance lives there/I'll be living there soon. Genuinely welcoming people who can't do enough for your and fantastic beaches/scenery.

Worst - sorry but another vote for Tunisia - never again. Lecherous men of all ages so far as my guide round the market dragged me away into a taxi back to hotel as it wasn't safe. Seriously - if you're a blonde haired woman do not venture out of the hotel complex.

Apart from a shit £200 week in Rhodes when I was 18, I can't think of a shit holiday. But I am slightly obsessive about googling to make sure we go to nice (by which I don't necessarily mean expensive) places.

Therefore:

Best:
Denmark
Manly, Australia
Cahors,France
Chicago
Arizona
Praiano, Italy

Worst:
Rhodes

Agree with PPs saying Portugal is soulless. I've been a few times and yes it has sun and beach restaurants but honestly it is just lacking SOUL

Best - Maldives, for a beach holiday you can’t beat it. I liked USA and Vancouver. Also Singapore and I find Mexicans to be really friendly.

Worst - Hong Kong, rude, pushy people and it smells like sewage.
Japan was hit and miss - nice scenery and culture but I found it odd that it was so homogeneous (stuck out like a sore thumb) and we found it hard to find English speakers!

Whizzing, I think I’d be bored in the Maldives 😱 - I know it’s a very popular destination but what is there to actually do there?! It looks like a multitude of tiny islands where people just do nothing all day
I mean, the views look beautiful, I know quite a few people who have been who like snorkelling and fishing but I’m not much of a water fan myself - I like a paddle and lying on a lilo and I’m not exactly an energetic holidayer but all I ever see is pictures of people lying down on their water bungalow balconies!
What can you actually do there?!

Agree @CakeNinja I have no wish to to the Maldives. Looks very pretty and if it were as bear as the south of France I'd definitely go for a mini break but I can't see the attraction of that hideous journey to just, er, lie there and maybe go snorkelling or on a boat trip.

You never see any sign of the local culture in friends' photos of the place - they just stay in their huts on the water, instagramming it and going for the odd snorkel.

Or am I missing something?

Best: Maldives, Venice, Rome, Istanbul, Morrocco

Worst/ Boring: Agadir / Florence

Upcoming: Sharm El Sheikh and Antalya.

Best - Nile cruise fascinating, west coast Scotland the scenery, California road trip fun.

Worst - Ireland twice, it rained incessantly.

When i told family and Friends i was going Maldives for 10 nights i got the same reaction “thats too long, u will get bored”. But it was the best. We went snorkelling in different parts of the Indian Ocean. We saw dolphins in their natural habitats. We learnt how to dive and was up close to the most beautiful fishes. I was surrounded by millions of fishes and turtles that were swimming alongside me. It was like a whole new world under the Ocean. I never felt such sadness to leave Holiday before.

Best - Santorini
Worst - Howath in Yorkshire

Also the maldives has the best beaches, fantastic food and drink offer. Great views. But we never spent a full day lounging as we were always active usually under water. I would like to go back to swim with sharks.

Best: Croatia, Sri Lanka
Worst: France (bad weather) and Turkey (got sick of all inclusive)

Best: Japan especially Tokyo. Absolutely amazing country and people. Also Budapest, jersey, Prague, krakow and Florida.

Worst: Bahamas, Dublin

Best: Florida, Cornwall, France, British Colombia.
Worst: Mauritius, Italy in Summer

Best: The Outer Hebrides
Worst: Majorca

Best:
French Pyrenees, a Foix/Carcassonne/Prades de Conflent triangle. Beautiful, quiet, lovely people, lots of history.
Sicily, all of it.
Venice, went off-season 14 years ago, pre-massive cruise ships.
San Fransisco/Big Sur.

Worst:
Tunisia, in 1992, I was 17 and busty.
Atlanta, went as a favour for a friend, was a craphole.

Best: Egypt, Kenya, . Lithuania, Krakow, Scotland

Worst: Dublin, Copenhagen.

Worst - Corsica

Best - loads! Barcelona, Ireland, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Australia, Berlin, South of France, Las Vegas

Best: Thailand, Venice, Northumberland
Worst: Leysdown in Essex. Was disappointed by New York but willing to give it another try. Lanzarote not the prettiest place but had quite a nice time due to the company.

@Legomadx2 - we got the opportunity to stay at a luxury resort in the Maldives for free (long story) and we were totally non-plussed about the idea as I don’t really do ‘lounging on a beach’ holidays and thought it would be utterly dull.

But like @WhyWhyWhy2019 we were hooked on the diving and snorkelling, some of the most memorable experiences of my life were under the water there. Also it was actually very relaxing to be on a tiny island with no pressure to check anything off a sightseeing list. Just snorkelled and dived, ate and drank, chilled out. Bliss!

Maldives. Is about sea life. If you don’t want to enjoy that every day then might as well do all inclusive anywhere with a decent beach.

Other than the Maldives my personal highlights have been Japan (loved everything about the place) and California (especially Yosemite).

India had so much I enjoyed, so many stunning places and some wonderful people but is the only place I have been where at times I felt extremely unsafe and harassed.

Marrakech as a place failed to live up to my expectations. We were staying in a beautiful road though so made the most of it - every time we ventured out we were disappointed.

In the UK the Lake District is one place I keep going back to. Pembrokeshire is one place I really want to go back to.