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.

@marmitecake

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.

Honestly, I have never felt so uneasy in a place more than I did in Salcombe! I felt trapped in a way I never have before. It was like I was in a box the whole time I was there, left 4 days early as I couldn't stand it any more. The second we got to Plymouth we booked a Premier Inn for the night and I felt I could finally breathe again. Very very odd. I have very good friends who live there and they love it so I have no idea why I felt that way. Might have been the bloke in the local shop moaning about 'Grockles' (ha!) I will never ever go back.

York, dirty centre, loads of tat shops and about three harry potter shops on one street, but I’m clouded by the woman in the Ivy who was being very explicit about what she wanted to do to one of the waiters in earshot of my four year old. It was a gathering for a cat fancy group, but the conversation was grim.

Portsmouth, a bit ugly, nothing really there, left without a rear window which was memorable. Also they have a small and a bit crappy outlet that people seem to rave about. I did get to see a parent take their children into the sea to have a poo.

@MasterBeth

West Bridgford.

This suburb of Nottingham will mean nothing to most of you but to the people of Nottingham it is the Fulham, the Altrincham, the Morningside, the St Albans, the Leamington, the Clifton (Bristol one) of the East Midlands. Apparently.

It is supposedly very Mumsnet and naive and desirable, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything remarkable about it - a pretty ugly main street filled with midmarket chain restaurants, no decent pubs, uniform Victorian streets and peopled with rather too many self-satisfied arseholes. Not awful, but awfully overrated.

This made me laugh. I used to live there. The Stratford Haven is a decent pub, and there is a fishmonger and butcher. But the real reason parents flock there is because it has the best schools for miles around.

Those of you who are underwhelmed by Stonehenge should see the Callanish standing stones on Lewis or any of the neolithic remains on Orkney - they are amazing. And because they are remote they get far fewer tourists.

Haworth and the Bronte industry - I really didn't like it.

I did however live just outside the quieter parts of the Peak District on the Staffs/Cheshire border, which is nice and people don't really know it, because the Peak District is Derbyshire to them.

Brighton - depressing.

I found Devon and Cornwall very disappointing, mostly. Not as good as Wales. Although I loved Fowey, mainly because we happened upon it on an evening when the Red Arrows were doing a display.

Stonehenge- the stones are lovely, but the surrounding car parking/coach trip/grab yer money ethos is unpleasant.

I love Edinburgh, Bristol and Bath.

As for Surrey- yy, absolutely full of wankers washing their cars. No-one should ever come here go there. Bleugh. Gross.

@RaspberryCoulis

Those of you who are underwhelmed by Stonehenge should see the Callanish standing stones on Lewis or any of the neolithic remains on Orkney - they are amazing. And because they are remote they get far fewer tourists.

I went to woodhenge once, it was a few lumps if painted concrete

In my experience these are grim AF (apologies to anyone who lives there):
Brighton
Blackpool
Southend
Liverpool

(Have very much enjoyed Hastings, Oxford, Edinburgh)

“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

As seen on London Underground tubes during the 1980s, or was it the Seventies? Anyhow, not Samuel Pepys, but Samuel Johnson, much later in the C18th.

I like London, but got tired of living and working there a long time ago, though am still not tired of life.

Is there anywhere left that's rated?

Norfolk. Too flat and Great Yarmouth is iffy. Cromer was nice enough but not really worth a visit.

London...you couldn’t pay me to go within 100 miles of London! The less people there are, the more I enjoy life.

All city Christmas markets. I had delusions of magic. But they're too peppered with ignorant (insert chosen swear word here) people.

@MasterBeth

West Bridgford.

This suburb of Nottingham will mean nothing to most of you but to the people of Nottingham it is the Fulham, the Altrincham, the Morningside, the St Albans, the Leamington, the Clifton (Bristol one) of the East Midlands. Apparently.

It is supposedly very Mumsnet and naive and desirable, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything remarkable about it - a pretty ugly main street filled with midmarket chain restaurants, no decent pubs, uniform Victorian streets and peopled with rather too many self-satisfied arseholes. Not awful, but awfully overrated.

The garden centre at East Bridgford is pretty awesome though.

@TiltTopTable

I must be odd, or easily pleased, but I like most of the places mentioned. Not too keen on Devon as it's a bit boring, and don't like Blackpool, but I love the lake district, the peak district, Cornwall, Bristol, Stratford, the Cotswolds, Edinburgh, Oxford, York etc etc.

Me too. Clearly we have low standards.

Stonehenge is shit if all you see are the stones. If you go for a walk first, and have someone with you who is telling you the story of the area in context, pointing out the barrows, the other ancient sites, it can be really magical. Stonehenge really is all about the place setting and not the big lumps of rock.

@LubaLuca

Bath. It's okay, but nowhere near as special as I thought I'd find it.

I think that the problem is that these places may have very pretty bits in the centre, the old towns, away from there and they're all alike. The photos we see that make us want to visit are the pretty bits, naturally, I've very rarely been to places that lived up to their hype, anywhere in the world. Stand and take a photo of the Sphinx, turn 180 degrees and there's Burgerking, or whatever is there these days.

Another vote for Brighton. I was a nineteen year old northerner visiting her uni boyfriend from Brighton and ready to have my eyes opened.
In reality, it’s an uncomfortable pebbly beach and a city full of people who described themselves as “interesting characters”

Westbay

Over rated shit hole

@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.

I love the Peak District. There are plenty of places that are beautiful without too many people.

Scotland is overrated for me, too cold.

Oxford st London hell on earth and nothing there you can't get in any high street

@KateTheEighth

Westbay

Over rated shit hole

Yes to that!

Interesting to hear how many people dislike Cornwall. I love it, and I’m Australian so am fussy about beaches. I do think you have to be selective in Cornwall and go to the right places- I am interested in specifically which areas mumsnetters didn’t like.

I think the Cotswolds are overrated. Yes, the villages are very pretty and there are some great pubs, but really there isn’t much to see or do. Cheltenham is also very overrated.

The Giants Causeway- I cringe when I see people planning to come visit NI and saying they plan a trip up to see it. It’s ages from the airport/ Belfast, in the arse end of nowhere and just not worth the hassle. Google Image it and stay in Belfast.

Not in the U.K. but still popular with British mini-breakers: Dublin. Some pretty bits, but hugely overrated and expensive. Lived there as well so it’s not even a case of not knowing the “right places to go”.

@HopelesslyOptimistic

Is there anywhere left that's rated?

Rotherham and Stoke haven’t been mentioned yet...