Destinations that turned out to be surprisingly good

[Pluvia]

Salamanca. On a trip through Spain we randomly stopped there for a night at Salamanca and loved it. Inexpensive bars and restaurants, lots of locals, no tourist hotspots — so much so that we spent the day looking round and stayed a second night.

Cardiff. A lovely, bustling, buzzy city with a beautiful river, park, castle, shopping, cafes and a harbour and history. I'd gone for the weekend to visit an old friend, ended up moving there.

Lucca. So beautiful and lots to do and see.

Great museum recommendations, thanks - really pleased I posted now.

I've been to many of the places listed here, but always under the auspices that I would be really interested in them & their history etc places like Gdansk, Krakow, Venice, Budapest, Palma, Liverpool, Hobart, LA etc and I regularly contribute to the frequent threads listing the 'worst' places to say that I've never been disappointed by a destination as there's always something to discover.

I do, however, have a place that surpassed all my expectations - Treviso! Previously known to me only as the cheapest airport for Ryan air flights to Venice until one work trip require me to stay there for a few days and it was an utter revelation.

A beautiful city full of gorgeous architecture and super wealthy so lots of amazing wine bars / restaurants and lots of incredibly well heeled locals. It is the home of Benetton, Prosecco and Formula One...
I was totally surprised and spent a wonderful couple of days just wandering around soaking it all up.

I have a similar lovely surprise visiting Norwich for work too. Loved the tiny streets and Cathedal

That's interesting, UniBallEye. Thank you. Treviso goes on the list.

I wonder what the difference is between those of us who go to unpromising-sounding places and manage to find things to like and appreciate about them, and those who go to Paris, Rome, New York and don't find anything to enjoy there? Is it the place or is it the traveller? Do those of us celebrating the less-famous places have lower expectations that are met fairly easily? Are we particularly good at finding the nicest hotel in the nicest spot in a generally lacklustre place? Are we all the kind of people whose day is made by the discovery of a tiny museum run by passionate people or learning about a place's history or even just a neighbourhood restaurant where the food wouldn't win any prizes but the atmosphere and the staff are charming? No idea.

I think it's all of the things you listed @Pluvia really.
I've often wondered if the people who are disappointed by places like Paris, NY, Rome etc are more frequent resort type holiday makers and like going to places where it's primarily geared for tourists and everything is easy to do / navigate. Not really reflecting the reality of those countries but a constructed 'palatable' alternative?

I truly have never been disappointed by any destination I have been to but I love seeing new places & different things. And I research, research, research and always have ideas of what I want to do or see when I get there.

And....some people love to moan. Some of the reasons given for hating a place were truly laughable on that other thread, but then it started to get irritating as it revealed so much bias / ignorance.

Some people are not cut out for travelling and find it all a total hassle

I do love this thread. From Bolton to the roads in Oman to the Grand Canyon, there really is something for everybody

Lots of small towns in Hungary and the surrounding countryside, the thermal spas and Lake Balaton. Towns like Koszeg, Gyor, Szombathely, Estzergom.

And Rjukan in Norway - fascinating location of the heavy water plant attacked by saboteurs in WW2. Very interesting museum but also a nice town and access to fabulous mountains all around.

Bad Reichenhall in the Bavarian Alps.
No one has ever heard of it. It's half an hour across the border from Salzburg but is much nicer and easily accessible by train from Munich airport.
It has thermal baths, a lovely pedestrianized town centre, great restaurants, a cable car up into the mountains and nice hiking plus easy access to Salzburg by bus for day trips. You can also get to the beautiful Königssee lake by bus too.
It has a really Mediterranean feel to it somehow, even though it's nowhere near the sea!

@haismfh

Bad Reichenhall in the Bavarian Alps. No one has ever heard of it. It's half an hour across the border from Salzburg but is much nicer and easily accessible by train from Munich airport. It has thermal baths, a lovely pedestrianized town centre, great restaurants, a cable car up into the mountains and nice hiking plus easy access to Salzburg by bus for day trips. You can also get to the beautiful Königssee lake by bus too. It has a really Mediterranean feel to it somehow, even though it's nowhere near the sea!

Just googled. Wow!! Stunning.

@iamnlhfss do you speak Hungarian? How did you get on in those smaller towns / cities? We're really interested in travelling in Hungary but don't speak the language and wondered how hard it would be?

I don't think it's just about moral flaws OP.

I think that some people genuinely hate the packaged tourist experience and huge hordes and queues (even though they are tourists themselves), so they might be on the other thread saying that they hate Bruges/Amsterdam but on this thread saying they love Antwerp/Rotterdam.

Loads of people on both threads have followed up their on-topic post about a place they hated/loved with "on the other hand I loved/hated X". There must be a huge overlap in posters.

Western Massachusetts is only two hours from Boston. It has great museums, Tanglewood and other summer theatre and music, quaint towns, diverse food, and friendly folk.
Avesbury feels much more authentic than Stonehenge. You can touch the stones and walk the circuit.
The Museum of Childhood in Tower Hamlets has great exhibits of antique toys and dolls. It’s a great place for social history, The nearby leisure center is dry clean and relaxing. It had women only days which were great. I plan to go again with my vegan friend. The local markets have great spice selections. Vegan food without skillful seasoning is a bit pants.

Threads featuring places that have disappointed appear now and again and just repeat the same stuff each time.

Beautiful cities are shitholes. People are bored by the second day in places with galleries, museums, historic buildings, parks etc. It becomes a competition to be as disparaging as possible.

Much nicer to have a positive one like this.

@Ericaequites

Western Massachusetts is only two hours from Boston. It has great museums, Tanglewood and other summer theatre and music, quaint towns, diverse food, and friendly folk. Avesbury feels much more authentic than Stonehenge. You can touch the stones and walk the circuit. The Museum of Childhood in Tower Hamlets has great exhibits of antique toys and dolls. It’s a great place for social history, The nearby leisure center is dry clean and relaxing. It had women only days which were great. I plan to go again with my vegan friend. The local markets have great spice selections. Vegan food without skillful seasoning is a bit pants.

Museum of childhood is currently closed I believe and having major changes made. I went when I was a kid and loved it. Not sure I like the look of the new ideas as much.

@UniBallEye Do you speak Hungarian? How did you get on in those smaller towns / cities? We're really interested in travelling in Hungary but don't speak the language and wondered how hard it would be?

No I don't. I'm a fluent German speaker. German is more widespread there as a second language than Hungarian. Some people did speak English but not many.
Menus tended to be in Hungarian, German and English so no problem there.

Don't let it put you off though. Everyone I met was very friendly and helpful. There's so much to see and do there and it's relatively quiet - not overrun.

@UniBallEye Stupid me.. .German is more widespread there as a second language than ENGLISH

Disney & Universal Florida. Absolutely brilliant fun.

@iamnlhfss thank you, that's really helpful. We don't have much German either but I am sure we'd manage.
I'd really love to see more of the country and smaller places, sounds wonderful

Avesbury feels much more authentic than Stonehenge. You can touch the stones and walk the circuit.

I remember being able to clamber over the stones at Stonehenge.

Could you say more about Tasmania, zombie? it feels so far away I am really curious to know what it’s like.

I'd second the recommendations for Cseky Krumlov (an easy day trip from Prague) and Antwerp - beautiful old town and one of the worlds most impressive railway stations - plus lots of interesting museums in the day and cellar bars in the evening.

Hvar - one of the Croatian islands with a lovely Venetian port and some interesting villages that were easy to get to by bus.

Bamburgh in Northumberland - amazing scenery and lots of outdoor activities (and good food).

I loved Vienna - DH had a business trip so I went with and pottered around on my own - beautiful city.

Oslo - again I went with DH and spent the time visiting museums etc but I was glad his meals were on expenses as it is really expensive to eat out there.

And a day trip to Butlins in Bognor when DC were small as there was so much to occupy them and the pool was brilliant

[quote UniBallEye]@iamnlhfss do you speak Hungarian? How did you get on in those smaller towns / cities? We're really interested in travelling in Hungary but don't speak the language and wondered how hard it would be?[/quote]
My biggest gripe about any travel article in a newspaper is that they never say how it is getting by language-wise.

For example if you go to Copenhagen everyone speaks English.

If you go to Lake Garda you'll probably get by with English, French or German (and Italian, obviously!)

But they'll go somewhere like Slovenia and they don't say if you can get by with English or maybe German or Italian.

I'd love to go to Lviv (if Putin can manage not to invade), it would be really useful to know if the locals speak any English or German. Same for places like Gdansk or Krakow, I'm guessing a lot of Poles do speak English because they've spent time in the UK (before Brexit).

When I went to Budapest I found it easier speaking German than English there, but that was in 2000 so it might have changed now? I guess outside Budapest it's different though.

Nuremberg, I had imagined a concrete jungle (perhaps I thought war crime trials must have been somewhere ugly) and was presented with a delightful cobbled market surrounded by gorgeous medieval buildings. Christmas lights, snow and gluhwein helped further.

Also Chessington. I expected something tacky but loved it.

San Sebastian. Street after street of lovely little bars selling the most amazing pintxos (tapas). Then a great sandy beach for daytime. And lots of shoe shops for some reason. I only had three days there, but could have spent two weeks.

This was all pre-DC, of course...