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.

We decided to do a detour to the home of the pork pie, Melton Mowbray. Oh dear. Not the idyllic village the name suggests.

We went into a fancy pork pie shop and bought a pork pie...only to realise the same ones were for sale round the corner in Morrisons.

The grin was about Salisbury.

I like the IOW too. But it has started to get a bit frayed around the edges IMO. It is economically depressed and in the past few years I think that has become more obvious.

I'm going to narrow it right down and say Hamleys - basically a snootier version of the Entertainer. Way smaller than you expect it to be. Totally shit experience.

Not indigenous to the UK but I'm also going to say all branches of Nando's. Overrated doesn't even begin to describe it.

I’m sorry but those of you saying Stonehenge, exactly what were you expecting? Yes, it’s big stones. Never pretended to be anything else.

I’m lucky enough to be old enough to have visited when you could walk around unhindered and touch the stones and sit on them.

But I’d hardly call them disappointing.

Stone Henge is just a NT scam.

Too right. Most people don't realise that the stones were concreted in less than 100 years ago and haven't been naturally standing as they now do for 100s/1,000s of years.

Yes, the stones themselves are ancient, but that's the nature of all stones/rocks, surely?!

Northumberland is good for non drivers. Berwick's on the main east coast line and you can get buses to lots of day trip type places from there like Alnwick and holy island etc. The bus goes along the coast so lots of nice scenery.

Salcombe, Devon. Tiny little crowded pavements and streets in the summer months meant constantly bumping into people all the time and very expensive clothes and gift shops and ice creams that you needed a second mortgage for. I could feel my bank balance emptying itself just gazing through the shop windows.

I love Stonehenge! It’s not the stones for me as much as the chance to really get a sense of how people lived and to feel I’m standing looking at something that was so significant to people so long ago.
And I live in Cornwall. And love it. I grew up in London and I like visiting but couldn’t live there again. Agree with the first pp who said Highbury was not a good place though!!!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Stone Henge is just a NT scam.

Too right. Most people don't realise that the stones were concreted in less than 100 years ago and haven't been naturally standing as they now do for 100s/1,000s of years.

Yes, the stones themselves are ancient, but that's the nature of all stones/rocks, surely?!

Nooo! Really? I honestly didn't know that! We were going to go for the summer solstice!

Tough question. But I’m going to say England is probably the worst bit.

I thought Stonehenge was English Heritage not NT, maybe it's both.

Blackpool and Dungeness and Festinniog are all equally depressing !

I live in London and genuinely believe it's the greatest city on earth. I also lived in York and love it. But then I also quite like Stonehenge so shows what I know 😂!
I don't really get the appeal of Bath, Brighton, Scarborough or Blackpool though.

Agree with Bristol, when I’ve been I always go to the same bit which seems to be the only nice bit but it’s a bit grim in other bits.

Don't all cities have grim bits? I think they pretty much all have lovely parts and run-down deprived parts. Not that I've been to them all but it seems pretty demanding to expect an entire city should be beautiful and amazing from end to end.

Hebden Bridge....rain-sodden, vertiginous, exhaust-fumed, self-righteous.

Durham.
Amazing Cathedral and close to Northumberland and Newcastle but as a City in its own right it's really grim.
Very little to do in the City itself and all the shops are closed down or charity shops.

Some people find fault with anywhere.

The Isle of Wight is great! West Wight is -although windy - nice and quiet with beautiful views and walks. We have had wonderful holidays there.

I remember a thread on where is crap and people were saying “There’s nothing to do in X” “It’s boooooring” - I couldn’t believe people could say Edinburgh or Dublin were boring. what did they want to do?

The one place that is Truly Awful is Stonehenge. Well, Stonehenge itself is ok but to make a big visitor experience out of it, and to view fenced-off stones with thousands of other people... hideous.

@SmidgenofaPigeon

I don’t think it’s really even possible to say ‘London’ because you should be specific. What bits? They’re all different 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m saying Brighton. Wanky and grimy.

All of it - does that help?

(I'm so tired of this stock response to anyone criticising London - just because some people wank over it as a magical string of urban villages, doesn't mean it isn't a big old pile of endless sprawl to others)

@supermoonrising

Tough question. But I’m going to say England is probably the worst bit.

Stupid comment.

@SmidgenofaPigeon

Im from Norfolk originally and am touched no one has said any bits of it are overrated...yet 😅

OK, the Norfolk coast. Muddy beaches a million miles from the sea because the tide’s out or no beach at all because the tide’s in. Flat as fuck.

York. I’ve lived here for almost thirty years (Christ...) and in the last five it’s become almost unrecognisable.

Cornwall. I thought it was a depressing mess.

Devon. See Cornwall.

I suppose lots of places would be much nicer with 90% fewer people. Fat chance of that though this summer!

Weymouth area. Once you've seen Maiden Castle and driven to the tank museum (I have a houseful of boys) and failed repeatedly to persuade folk to see the swan sanctuary and water gardens (I have a houseful of boys) there's not a lot left and the town's a bit of a dump. Other parts of Dorset are another thing entirely.

And I can't avoid the horrible place because family. Lockdown's helped there... not had to try and get there through gridlock for family birthday in middle of school summer holidays for a couple of years for which I'm very grateful.

Cornwall's great if you're adult and like walking along cliffs, great if you're a very small child and like beaches, tacky adventure parks and miniature trains, and terrible if you have bored tweens/teens or a DH who is too tall for most of the WiFi-challenged cottages we've rented there.

Thankfully we all really like going to the same place - where nobody (so far!) has said is overrated. I am hoping we get the chance to safely go this year.

@lastqueenofscotland

Bristol: Full of tedious rich kids who think liking bristol is a personality trait See also: Brighton

Florida. Fucking horrid. Super expensive glossy theme parks surrounded by absolutely crippling poverty.

Florida

Was that a UK staycation you went on?