Overrated places in the UK

[Fixitup2]

What are your over rated places in the U.K. that everyone else seems to love?

Mine is the Peak District which imo has mediocre scenery spoilt by too many roads and too many people. I hate it and only ever agree to go if there’s nowhere else and we need to stop somewhere that way.

Londoners don’t hang around Oxford street and Leicester Square unless they’re 15 and even then it’s more likely to be Carnaby street and soho

As a Londoner my places to go are:

Marylebone high street for shopping and some amazing restaurants including German gymnasium and delamina

Hampstead Heath or more likely kenwood for dog walking

Only go anywhere near Oxford street for selfridges and even then in and out in the side entrance by st Christopher’s place. Lunch in st Christopher’s place or a drink in Harry’s bar. Also the big M&S or primark if it’s really early but rarely

Spitalfields and brick lane on a weekend

Borough market if it’s early or mid week or it’s too busy

Some of the wharfs on the river. Personally love butlers wharf. It’s quite and great food

The London Bridge area. Especially Bermondsey has a brilliant vibe, great shops / people watching / njce places to eat.

@FizzyPink I love the Isle of Wight! It's not posh (it's very rundown in fact) but there is such beautiful scenery and history. And I believe it gets the most sunshine hours in the UK. The countryside inland feels magical to me, like Cornwall. I'd happy retire there!

I agree with Stonehenge too. The spiritual aspect of the place has been completely ignored - it just feels like a bunch of stones cordoned off in a field. Most places you get a feel of what went on somewhere before, but this was completely absent there.

I'm getting to the idea from the thread that anywhere worth visiting is probably a bit shit as it's a busy tourist nightmare, and any places that aren't are underfunded, grim shit holes, and if they are of both of these they are super crap.

London

At the Pay Paradise, they put up a parking lot kind of thing

I think you may have misheard Joni Mitchell's lyrics there.....

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

@HeronLanyon I'd agree about defending Stonehenge. Physically, yes it is "just a pile of stones" but when you think about the history and how they got there is makes me feel so connected to the landscape!

People seem to expect to be entertained 100% of the time. A lot of the places mentioned on here are really thought-provoking for me because of the history. But maybe I'm a big nerd

@CathyorClaire

Warwick Castle.

Half mile yomp from the car park. Extra £9 per person for one of the few bits we wanted to see (dungeons). Couldn't turn round without tripping over a screaming kid and didn't bother to see the jousting show which was the other thing we might have been interested in due to massed screaming kids.

Hell in a tabard.

Oh how I agree with this. One of my big life mistakes was to buy an annual Merlin pass and go to WC on a hot bank holiday weekend with hour long queues to buy a bottle of water.

The shame is that I loved it as a child. Pre-Merlin. The dungeons were great without all the theme-park hokum.

Edinburgh was grim when I went, the tourists attractions were dull compared to London.

I love how people are getting snappy when people mention the place they live, people like different things, people see different things.

I love Devon (most of it) but understand why some don’t.

I agree with Bournemouth, I live in Dorset and I think Bournemouth and Weymouth are probably the worst bits but there are lots of lovely places close by including lulworth, Lyme Regis and lots of other places.

London. Great for two days - and no longer. I am one of the many I’m sure who get on the train at Euston happy to be heading home to the north west.

@Nataliafalka. A friend of mine hates London with a vengeance as she says every time anyone says they are going/have been.

I spent a lot of time in London with work. I said to her during one of her rants that I love the South Bank and walking from the National Theatre along the river down to London Bridge, all the views and places to visit en route. I asked this friend if she didn't even like that bit. She'd never been down to the river. Turns out she'd been for a day, once. So how she can write off London in it's entirety I don't know.

I feel like people are doing similar about other places on this thread.

@YouKnowItsTrue
...Genuine question, what’s the best way to do Oxford Street?
Bus. From the North. Get off at Orchard Street. In side door of Selfridges to the Food Hall. Have a quick look around Selfridges (if you must). Out of same door and back on a bus going South. Better still, don’t bother. (Last time I did this my wallet was still knicked!)

Brighton definitely

@LifeAfterBreastCancer

Brighton definitely

Why? Just asking as we are planning to visit for the first time.

Wimbledon was absolutely filthy this morning on my walk. Rubbish strewn all over the streets. Grim.

[quote RockingMyFiftiesNot]@Nataliafalka. A friend of mine hates London with a vengeance as she says every time anyone says they are going/have been.

I spent a lot of time in London with work. I said to her during one of her rants that I love the South Bank and walking from the National Theatre along the river down to London Bridge, all the views and places to visit en route. I asked this friend if she didn't even like that bit. She'd never been down to the river. Turns out she'd been for a day, once. So how she can write off London in it's entirety I don't know.

I feel like people are doing similar about other places on this thread.
[/quote]
I think this is very much the case. A fair few of the comments indicate a lack of knowledge about the place they visited. The ones that are based on "I visited once and it rained" are particularly eye opening!

Some of it is dependent on what you are looking for in a place. One PP said that they didn't know what there was meant to be to do in the Lake District, because they got bored looking at scenery for more than 5 mins... It's an outdoorsy holiday location, the whole point of going there is that you go outdoors. If you don't enjoy hillwalking and are looking for somewhere with lots of indoor attractions and laid-on entertainment, don't visit the Lake District!

So I think some of it is not so much that places are overrated per se, but that people visited places totally unaware of what to expect and it wasn't what they thought they'd signed up for.

Icannever.....Longleat. Is fab that would be the best money spent.....is that not also for the passport ticket which covers everything so you could spend two or three days there not just one?

I must be odd . I love most of these places and have a real soft spot for British seaside towns especially the old fashioned ones. I love the IOW because it is old fashioned and I was pleasantly surprised by Bournemouth. I am shocked by the people complaining about the rain in the Lake District. How do they think the lakes got there??.
I live in Blackpool and it’s refreshing that we don’t get many mentions but I guess MN thinks it’s too grim to be overrated. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of visitors we have had over the last few weekends.

@Lovemusic33

I love how people are getting snappy when people mention the place they live, people like different things, people see different things.

I love Devon (most of it) but understand why some don’t.

I agree with Bournemouth, I live in Dorset and I think Bournemouth and Weymouth are probably the worst bits but there are lots of lovely places close by including lulworth, Lyme Regis and lots of other places.

I live in Dorset too, so that's why I mentioned it as I used to live in Bournemouth myself. Dorset is lovely in a lot of places, but I kind of end up avoiding everywhere worth going to in the summer (unless I'm up at the crack of dawn) or you just end up stuck in traffic most of the day.

Usually at this time of year we get out a lot locally before the summer tourists arrive, but the weather has been shocking! It is going to be heaving here if good weather finally arrives.

So I think some of it is not so much that places are overrated per se, but that people visited places totally unaware of what to expect and it wasn't what they thought they'd signed up for.

Totally agree @BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand - I commented earlier that it seemed like people hadn't done their research before visiting places then finding they weren't their cup of tea. Fully understand that some people don't enjoy outdoors holidays/leaving main roads to walk to see stunning scenery. Completely their choice of course, but then they can't claim to know that area well enough to call the entire place 'overrated'.

Cornwall. The scenery is lovely, but it's far too crowded in summer, difficult to drive and park and not easy by public transport. Plus it's a very long drive from most parts of the UK.

Lake District - same issues as Cornwall. Yes there are less crowded areas but they're generally for dedicated hikers which isn't for everyone.

People saying too many tourists...arent you too then if you are visiting the area ......

Sandbanks, the so called ‘millionaires paradise’ in Poole.

Yes it is possible to spot Harry Rednapp out and about, but otherwise it other than big brash houses and a branch of Rick Stein’s, it is a sandbank with a traffic jam. Nothing more.

I'm generally easily pleased and go places looking for the good. Like, I went on a city break and I could have focused on the weirdo on the train and the rough-looking bits and come back and said how overrated it was, but it's all part of the experience, isn't it? It's what you make of it, mostly.

Love how Edinburgh is forever England and that crazy Pay Paradise area.