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.

@Notjustanymum

Both Land’s End and John O’Groats had an awfully 1970’s exploited feel about them (At the Pay Paradise, they put up a parking lot, kind of feel) when I last visited. Everything was over-priced and tawdry, and you had to pay to get your photo taken by a signpost stating the miles to your hometown Etc. I guess it’s the commodification of what should be a natural landmark that grated on me, and I remember thinking that I wished they were a lot less “amusement park commercial”.

That's a fabulous mondegreen. Love it. I do agree with your point though

I nominate North Norfolk. Looks lovely but the people are mostly horrible. Really spoiled it for me.

It was years ago when we went to Ribby Hall so it may have changed. I thought the lodge was pretty grubby and there wasnt much for the children to do then and they were bored. We ended up going out to different places to keep them occupied. I remember one of the children having extremely sore eyes from too much chlorine in the pool.

Blackpool is really grim. Why would you want to go on a hen do in such a shithole? (And yes, I have spent extensive time there, it’s where I grew up)

Tunbridge Wells. One end of the town is ‘flourishing’, the other end has shops closing left right and centre. Londerners are moving down here at the rate of knots, subsequently pushing prices through the roof.

I love this thread. How everybody in North Norfolk be horrible? But I get that.Sometimes you roll up somewhere full of expectation ( this is probably the start of it) and encounter a steady stream of seemingly horrible people.

I go throw big mood swings when I go away.I am sick of my surroundings, I want to go somewhere, I go and then the rollercoaster starts.I like it/I dont like it.I want to go home.Its bizarre.

through

Blackpool, absolute armpit of a place.

Every national trust property I've visited.

I’m so proud that there are so many overrated places to avoid in the U.K. a full thread of shitty places in less than 24 hours.

Weirdly this thread has made me determined to visit Brighton.

@OnceUponAMidnightBeery No, it wasn't for the festival - just as part of a wider tour of the UK my husband and I were doing. I'm incredibly bookish but just thought the bookshops in Hay-on-Wye were very expensive/a complete rip-off! Couldn't see what the point was.

Oh and we also thought Torquay was pretty grim.

@DinaofCloud9

Weirdly this thread has made me determined to visit Brighton.

There’s a few places I want to visit. The power station dessert is one of them.

@Proudboomer

I like the iow mainly for all the reasons others don’t. It is old fashioned, a bit like stepping back to the 1950’s and quite run down in some places but it reminds me on my childhood holidays. Cornwall is too busy. The scenery is ok but doesn’t live up to the hype. The roads are terrible and anything remotely touristy is way over priced.

I live not to far from Brighton in West Sussex and have watched it go downhill for years. It is hilly, full of HMO’s, overcrowded with people who think they are so alternative just because they wear odd socks. The drug use is right in your face and it is not unusually for any open spaces to stink of weed and be littered with needles.
Gay pride which used to be a great event for the gay community and the straight is now more a show of fetish and get your bits out.
The shopping centre is nothing special and expensive to park.
The arches have been left to pretty much decay and to top it all the so called green council have just destroyed a stretch of 150 year old green wall on Madeira drive which they now admit was a mistake but hey we can now put in another cycle path.

Agree with all your observations, especially about the over abundance of cycle lanes due to the only Green council in the UK!

I live to the east of Brighton in the suburbs and I love it here! It’s fantastic being rural and also being next to the cliffs and the sea. But I absolutely hate central Brighton and Hove, lots of people who live in Brighton and Hove and surrounding areas are saying it’s gone downhill.

But given the choice between Blackpool and Brighton? Brighton wins every time, Blackpool is an absolutely awful place, and my DH says that who comes from Blackpool originally, he would never even go back to visit.

@BrumBoo

I still threaten the teens that if they don't work hard for their exams then they'll have to go to Bangor Uni...

What an odd threat. It's not Oxbridge, but certainly not the worst Uni by far. I've known a couple of graduates from there, only ever heard positive things about the city and university. I think there's a line between disliking a holiday and behaving like an area is being sent to borstal....

One of my best friends went to Bangor - lovely part of the country and the university is probably underrated.

Surprised that St Albans ends up on here - it's massively expensive so there are a lot of people wanting to live there!

I think the problem with Cornwall is that it's something like 50%* horrendously busy with tourists and their related tat, 45% extremely deprived and 5% pleasant. But it's quite hard to find the 5% and you've inevitably driven several hundred hours to get there.

I don't like London. I grew up there and spent my early adult years there, but I was so glad to leave and would never go back if I didn't still have good friends there. Yes, there are wonderful galleries and museums etc but the city as a whole has a really hostile feel that didn't exist when I was younger. I find both the upmarket and downmarket parts depressing in equal measure now. It didn't feel so stratified when I was a child (I lived in a neighbourhood that is now insanely expensive, but we had a great mix of neighbours then from many walks of life).

*All numbers in this post are completely plucked out of the air.

I think you all need some therapy. Most of the places mentioned are lovely. Cheer the fuck up

@NaughtyNell

All the people on here slaying places please tell us where you live, its clearly so perfect we need to visit

I'm not really slagging places off on here, I dislike crowds, and I do think some people have a mentality that says "other people say that's a nice place so I must go, even if there are a million other people there and there are equally nice places down the road".

For example - instead of Cornwall try Somerset or Kent

Instead of West Wittering try any of the other thousands of beaches in the south of England

Instead of Whitstable try Deal or Sandwich etc

But I do live in a place that has consistently been on the Best Places to Live list although it doesn't have any decent shops.

[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]
Turns out she'd been for a day, once.
I can empathise with your friend. I went to London on a works day trip
during the 60s one Saturday. It was shut. And my lovely cream coat was filthy.
I wouldn't set foot in the place again.

The Giants Causeway! Completely ruined by the National Trust and truckloads of tourists shuffling around like lemmings either following a tour guide or wearing those audio guide gadgets.

You need to go first thing in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the coach tour groups.

I’m another one who dislikes Brighton. It’s grimy, dirty, crowded, smelly and I really struggle to see any redeeming features beyond a few nice independent restaurants (though not so nice you can’t find equivalents elsewhere). I especially hate the way the air is thick with grimy salt that sticks to your skin.

I have lived in East London for the past 20 years, to put that into context. I can only presume the Londoners who move to Brighton hail from West London...

@sadperson16

I love this thread. How everybody in North Norfolk be horrible? But I get that.Sometimes you roll up somewhere full of expectation ( this is probably the start of it) and encounter a steady stream of seemingly horrible people.

I go throw big mood swings when I go away.I am sick of my surroundings, I want to go somewhere, I go and then the rollercoaster starts.I like it/I dont like it.I want to go home.Its bizarre.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I lived in N Norfolk for 2 years. Wells and Melton. I had no real expectations of the people there one war or another, but in all that time I met one nice person - and she was from London. I did meet a lot of absolute cunts though.
Bad luck maybe. But I'll never go back.

All the people on here slaying places please tell us where you live, its clearly so perfect we need to visit

I live in a place pretty ok for work and school, but not a "holiday destination" in any shape or form. Decent size-houses with garden in an excellent catchment area are not really an attractive feature for tourists, are they?

I never take holidays in the UK frankly. There are always somewhere I prefer than any UK destination, we visit enough of it on short trips.

I actually really like London, used to live in Central London pre-kids, but compared to other capital cities in the world? It's not on top of my list either.