Most overrated destination you’ve visited?

[Hairbrush123]

For me, it was Paris. Not an AIBU, I know

@Unprecedentedusername

Cotswolds - theme park countryside for Londoners

Lived there by accident... Yes, pretty countryside... But coastal scenery in south west is much better.

Lots of very overpriced towns... Oxford /Cheltenham and horribly tourist villages that rremind me of those doll's houses.... Im looking at you Bourton on the Water. Utterly dull... Nothing to do but take a few pics dodging thousands of tourists on coach trips.
I think Japanese & US tourists must think all the small villages are like this in UK

@Puffalicious

Oh God yes, Miami is so boring and bland!

Even the famed SOuth Beach is a bore, once you've seen the few Art Deco buildings that's it, just a row of hideously expensive restaurants, great for people watching the 'beautiful people' trying to make sure they're seen though!

Isle of Wight . Been twice as I thought I was missing something. And I was treated like a leper when I visited just after lockdown . Run down and unfriendly

@Harlequin1088

India.

“Oh my God, it’s so spiritual!”

No it’s not, it just stinks.

I really have to laugh at people who visit India because they think it's "spiritual". It's like visiting the UK for its food. Why Indians need to be spiritual, I don't know, except because some Westerners are still stuck in the hippy dippy past.

Reading the thread, I seem to like many of the places other people hate. Giza was amazing for me, as was the Cairo Museum. Just the thrill of seeing something so old and still surviving.

Love NYC though I still prefer London. The museums, the culture, the architecture.

Loved Athens and Turkey. Maybe because I am not white and was not hassled. Also so much to see.

Not been to Dubai.

I can live with being badgered to buy stuff given how poor people are in many parts of the world. I would rather that than stay home. The only places I didn't like that much were parts of the US where one had to drive everywhere. I prefer walkable cities.

@IvorCutler
Lol about Dublin. This thread isn’t doing much for Irish tourism 😂 I’m a non native but have been living here for half of my life. I love it and I like the grit. It is expensive though.

I think for some reason people seem to be expecting a “major” European city experience - eg, Barcelona, Madrid, London, Amsterdam or Prague. The reality is it’s more on a par with places likes Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow - both in terms of size, population and tourist stuff. I live nearby and like it too. It’s a fun place to live (if you can afford it) but there’s nothing touristy about it whatsoever! There’s probably dozen great day trips from Dublin though, but tourists don’t realise that’s where they’d be better spending their time, rather then 3 days in the city, which can be covered in 1/2 day or 1 day or so - unless you want to, say, cycle around Phoenix Park which is really fun.

Loved Edinburgh though absolutely beautiful loads to do and super friendly

@DappledThings

ivykaty44 think you might have missed that poster's username.....

no idea about the name? means nothing to me?

NYC, Venice and Gibraltar. Complete anti climax of expectations

Dubai - Felt like modern day slave trade. I’d never set foot in that country again.

@ivykaty44 check out this poem www.oatridge.co.uk/poems/j/john-betjeman-slough.php

LA and Malta are my contributions.

LA is absolutely filthy, both from pollution and littering. Even in supposedly nice areas such as Santa Monica and Venice there are homeless people everywhere, and they are not the kind of homeless people who just sits quietly with an empty cup asking for change. It's the scary kind who shouts at you (or themselves), and are just generally really intimidating.

Malta I found really boring and the people quite racist. It doesn't have much of an identity.

@HelloFrostyMorning

Cornwall

Stonehenge

Not a place but a painting.. The Mona Lisa. A bit 'meh' and stupidly small.

We felt the same about the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, we spent ages looking for it then realised that the group of people were standing round it. The White House was the same, we walked up and down in front and eventually realised that that was it! We were able to do a tour of it, years ago when it was possible, we were in the East Room and a Texan on the tour said, loudly, Gawd, mah den's three times the size! All the critics of San Francisco, we went in 1990 and loved it but over the years it's definitely gone down hill. I think that the problem people have is that they see the 'nice' bits of cities, towns etc in magazines, TV shows and the reality is that they're the same the world over.

I like most of these places! The city I was least impressed by was Barcelona but I didn’t hate it. I must be really easily pleased.

Brussels.
Totally shocking.
Dirty and horrible. We went there for a weekend away on Eurostar and the only one good bit Brussels has is the train back to UK!

Agree with the Mona Lisa - haven’t seen it in person since 70s but it was tiny then !!

Right just catching up with the posts saying Japan and Thailand. What all of Japan and Thailand? So the fantastic cheap food, the Buddhist temples, the beaches, the onsens/spas, the mostly lovely people, the gardens, the night life, the skyline... none of this appealed to you?

Las Vegas. Ridiculously hot. Ridiculously over the top. Loads and loads of people everywhere. Old fashioned shows in old fashioned theatres. Horrible restaurants. Too many people smoking as they pull the arm of the one armed bandits over and over and over ...

Paris and Venice?! Insane! Both are awesome. We managed Venice in 2020 it was mostly empty even our teens were blown away. And paris is amazing every trip there’s something new to explore. Very odd opinions on this thread!

The only places I detest are ones where I was constantly sexually harassed. Cairo is horrific the museum is good yes but it’s the most horrible place I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit. But was in my twenties with female friend. Got to the point we couldn’t leave our hotel room without abuse or leering 😒

After reading this thread I feel depressed and disgusted. How sad that so much money and so much jetfuel has been wasted on giving lucky people so much to bitch about.

Bruges — went there a few times because we used to live close by. The architecture is pretty but it basically exists purely for tourism so it’s a very skin deep experience. I also got harassed by a waiter there for daring to offer a coffee with lunch. 😂

Pisa — absolute shit-hole. The leaning tower was smaller than I expected and the place was overrun by people selling tat. Honestly most of Italy felt like this to me, except the Florentine hills and Verona. And driving in Italy was one of the most stressful experiences ever.

The Peak District — I think my expectations were too high. I thought it was going to be on par with the Lake District.

Love Paris, sure the touristy bits suck, it stinks, and I find the homeless communities under the bridges heartbreaking, but there is so much character and history. I’ll never get tired of it and find something truly memorable each time we visit.

Venice.

Very beautiful and I think great for a weekend but it's actually pretty boring and once you've seen the main sites, which doesn't take long, there's an air of soulessness about it.

@CocteauTwin
I didn't like Dublin much either - it's expensive and not very exciting. I think Belfast is much nice
Belfast is probably more attractive, but the streets and architecture are similar to what you’d get in many midsize English/Scottish cities. Dublin is something different, a bit more bustling and chaotic. And there are in fact some really nice areas out the centre, but you need to know where to go - they’re not walkable from the centre. On another note, one of the most things to do on a break in Dublin (weather permitting) is to hire a bike and spend a whole day exploring Pheonix Park and nearby pubs/cafes. Much better than the pointless Guiness/Jameson’s tourist traps!

Pre-panemic I was well travelled both UK and overseas (due to work and leisure). I've been to some quite random places with work as used to do international conferences to not well known industrial and UK cities. So...
Places that everyone loves but I had a sh*t time in (due to a combo of weather/company/hassle/didn't meet the expectations) :

Highlands
Menorca
Florence
The Gambia
Vietnam
Oxford
Some of Australia's East Coast (actually quite a lot of it)
Dordogne

Places I'd been that were surprising (not the best there is..just had a good time..surprisingly)
Glasgow
Portsmouth and Fareham
Birmingham
Loire Valley (yes there's not much there but so relaxing in a way I didn't expect)
Oslo
Berlin (although perhaps not surprising)
Slovenia
The Kent coast. I like all of it.

Lands End. Judging by the amount of people who were just using the car park to turn around, I wasn't alone.

I could cry for what Lands End has become, it was amazing in the 90's. Locals don't have to pay the £7 car park fee and I still won't go. Last time we went we took our young baby to the little farm and when we we went to buy tickets we were told we needed to pay for the baby too!!