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.

Having livedmin a tourist place and had smelly coaches disgorging passengers outside my front door I would think the most obvious thing to do would be to tell people it was awful so they wouldn't visit.😁

@sadperson16

Tebay is the gateway to a magical kingdom.Once you have eaten a giant scone served by a person with a weird,impenetrable accent who sounds slightly Scandi,you will never look back.

The teacakes..... they are huge, and expensive, but so, so worth it.

My favourite is the mango and lime one.

St Ives is completely overrated. It’s been taken over by tourists, it’s quite polluted in some parts, it’s bad on the knees, as to do anything there is a backbreaking walk up or down an incline, all year round the beaches are windy. And apart from a few landmark gourmet/ seafood restaurants and the Tate, the rest of the eating out / culture scenes are Wetherspoons level or plastic flashing nik naks

Cornwall, reliant on tourism, hates tourists.
Norfolk - possible the most unfriendly people I've ever has the mispleasure to spend time with outside of Cornwall.
Bristol - heard so many great things, went, and it's pretty rubbish and mundane.

Yes! That part of England / Scotland is an overlooked treasure.

London. Crowded, dirty, unsafe.

Stone Henge.

Some people find everything boring, and others go to places utterly unsuited to their tastes and then moan about them.

The poster who didn’t like Portmeirion - what exactly did they expect? Rides? They said then they enjoyed a zip wire. Why would they think you could zip wire around Portmeirion?

I don’t much like Brighton. But that’s me. I can understand how it appeals to some, so I can’t say it is “awful” and certainly not “boring”.

The places that are wholly bad are the too popular ones, but that I suppose is not their fault. I can imagine this thread after the summer: people will be saying everywhere is dreadful due to the volume of holidaymakers aimlessly tramping around in anoraks.

I live in E Devon (currently into hour 21 of rain) but am a native of the NW of England. Devon beaches vary massively. Devon lanes are narrow and have hedges on either side. However, we all have reverse gears and what pisses residents off most is that tourists seem incapable of using them.

Exeter is a really boring city centre; the cathedral is about the only decent place but the "suggested" entry fee is a rip off.
Exmouth is horrible, particularly in the school holidays, but then so are Bridlington, Withernsea & Hornsea. The E Yorks places are where DH spent happy times as a child; I think they are boring as anything.

Lands End is a shit rip-off but there are loads of lovely places close by which are fine.

Nobody has yet mentioned the Eden Project but I found it completely underwhelming and very happy that I got in for free as it wasn't worth paying for.

I am not a fan of London but I love Manchester, Liverpool and Chester. My own DDs think Manchester is wonderful and the people really friendly. We took a school trip to Manchester a few years ago as part of a tour and the kids from the SW thought it was fantastic. My dad lives in Altrincham so I know it very well. It suffers like parts of London/Surrey and perhaps West Bridgford from having excellent schools, nice houses and being on the tramline into Manchester.

Stonehenge.

These threads always end up full of mean and often absurd comments.

It's not just the UK that cops it though, having seen the equally ridiculous past threads about disappointments abroad.

Scotland

I disagree with most of the posts I've read so far! 😂

London is incredible!! Though of course it depends where you spend your time. If you live in a council flat in Croydon you're likely to enjoy the surroundings less than if you live in a Georgian townhouse in Bloomsbury.

Devon/Cornwall/Wales all utterly gorgeous.

Beautiful England.

@DynamoKev

also as Samuel Pepys once said: to tired of London is to tire of life...) Yeah, he’s been dead some time, hasn’t he? Hardly a good judge of the sprawling polluted shithole called London now.

Very true!

I’ll also add London (All of it)
Brighton (Wanky is the perfect description)
Norfolk (It’s just too flat and boring)

But I love the Highlands and Snowdonia! Each to there own.....

Cornwall - over priced, overcrowded, and too many Airbnb picturesque cottages. It's an overrated theme park. I do recall we had to pay to get out too.

Portmeirion, Wales. Utterly charmless pastiche of an Italianate resort. Grubby, tired and itty. Very expensive. Poor food. How long can they keep banging on about a 1960s TV series that no one remembers?

• tatty not itty!

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand, thanks for the correction and yes, it is indeed as if they paved paradise and put up a parking lot at Land’s End and John O’Groats. Someone else mentioned Portmeiron, which did have a bit of an Amusement Park feel (but then, that’s what it was designed as!) but I loved it there - it just seemed old-fashioned and quaint rather than tawdry and commercialised.
@Ukholidaysaregreat that would be a great idea for a new thread!

I think some of these comments are down to people visiting somewhere for a very short period and then only doing the most obvious, hackneyed, touristy things on offer. If all you can think of to do in London is to look at Big Ben, visit the dungeon, go on a sightseeing bus and visit Madame Tussauds, yes it's pretty shit and over-priced. Similar for Edinburgh and York.

If, however, you spend some time exploring on foot, visit out of season or on a weekday (so don't go to York for the Christmas shopping!), and check out some of the restaurants and walks recommended by locals, you will probably have a lovely time. Much cheaper too.

I remember visiting the Louvre in Paris the first time. We spent a few hours exploring the different rooms, and barely saw a quarter of what was there. Fantastic, and loads still to see on a future visit. Then we went to the Mona Lisa room, and were instantly hemmed in by hordes of tourists crowding round and taking photos of this one portrait (madness - you can buy a much better quality print in the gallery shop if that's what you're after).

Given how empty the other rooms were, I bet that the majority of visitors just go to see the Mona Lisa for 10 mins, nothing else, and then declare the Louvre to be a 'shit, crowded rip-off'.

I love most of the places I go in the UK to be honest. We holiday here a lot and love it. Some I found underwhelming like Edinburgh and Sheringham and Cromer in Norfolk, but I still think they were worth the trip.

We tend not to go in the holidays (during our pre children years and now we have pre school children) which I think makes a difference.

North Wales and Anglesey - booked for three days, stayed two and fled.

Portmeiron was lovely but we waited for ages for lunch in the hotel as the waiter was busy giving 5 star service (and lots to chat) to the Welsh-speaking local family on the next table and perfunctory service to us!

Any Centre Parcs

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand I love the East Coast mainline between Durham and Edinburgh, but the west Highland line is something else again. And unlike the east coast one it doesn't matter which side of the carriage you're on, the views are spectacular from both. But then I also love the way you get to get off at Crianlarich to stretch your legs for ten minutes while they split the train.
Can't remember who asked for tips about where to go in Edinburgh, but you need to say a bit about what you like. No point me sending you to historical bits if you hate history or down the coast if you hate outdoors stuff.

I'll add it to my 'to do' list!

LaBellina I've lived in London most of my life and have had a few moments I could count on 1 hand where I may have felt unsafe for a few seconds at night, alone- which would be the same in any city- and quickly felt fine again. Nothing ever happened it was just my instinct of being alone at night. To make a sweeping generalisation that London as a whole is unsafe is utterly ridiculous!

The bits about unfriendly locals make me laugh. The poster who says they’re so unfriendly in Norfolk, they’re just people going about their lives, they don’t get put there as props to make your stay special. They’re not theme park workers.
The tourists probably think Londoners are unfriendly and unwelcoming when we are trying to get to work of a morning and they are dicking about at the ticket barriers, letting their kids use the tube like a gym with monkey bars and harassing you to take their picture outside the Shard. Funnily enough, 8am on my morning commute was not always the time I was likely to burst into ‘WELCOME TO LAHNDAN TOWN GUVNOR’S! and tip my hat at them 😂

I absolutely loved St Ives and loved all the art history about Barbara Hepworth and that movement.

You pretty much can't beat that view as the train comes into the bay on a beautiful summer's day. What's wrong with everyone?

Yes it's busy. I expected to hate it but the Tate was sublime and DC loved body boarding all day with wetsuits ready to hire and lifeguards on guard. It really is a fantastic place.