Where was your most disappointing holiday, and why?

[wholetawn]

I'll start off. Our most disappointing trip was to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. The scenario is stunning, but we found the people unhelpful and quite frankly, lazy, unless you were offering to pay them a lot of money to do something small.

Jamaica is my second worst. Seeing the blatant sex tourism (western women with young local men) was eye opening. As was the doubling of marked prices in shops, the harassment, the scamming, the gross dirty bed, and the food stalls handing us the worst most burned pieces of jerk meat. I left an honest tripadvistor review of the hotel and then the owner harassed me until I removed it.
Never again.

Magaluf. 2003. Got sunstroke. Got robbed. Cracked a rib. Caught crabs.

Oh no really?? We are going there soon! Where did you stay/ where should we avoid?

Yet it gets recommended EVERY SINGLE TIME on threads about Italy. I sometimes play Lake Garda bingo with myself to see how long it takes a poster to come along and recommend it 🤣

Ok why??

So many rave about it ?!!!

I really loved Lake Garda 

(Stayed in Riva del Garda and visited other places at that end of the Lake, plus Garda Land).

@KStockHERO I don't know what's disappointing about that. Sounds like a full house on the Magaluf cultural experience bingo card

I think lake Garda is lovely in season. Out of season, not so much. It’s very quiet. When are you going @thisisasurvivor ?

@Puppylucky yes. I'm sure. It was roughly a quarter of a century ago. I'm well aware that where we stayed back then, now has a thriving gay scene. Places change and so do the people who frequent them. Doesn't change previous experience though.

Yes re Lake Garda, we found Lake Como like that, average age was about 90 and walking speed 1 mile a year.

Barcelona. Witnessed two violent muggings on my first night there. Got pickpocketed. My friend had her drink spiked in a bar on our second night and then was sick for the next three days.

I had an anxious, bad feeling the entire time I was there and I’m a seasoned traveller, love cities, am open minded etc.

I just didn’t feel happy there. I wouldn’t go back.

Lands End, and 'some' parts of Cornwall

• Every tourist spot/view/beach had paid parking, often with only 1 working machine
• Lands End had a diabolical, tatty theme park, along with shops to walk through- just to get to the views
• Almost every beach required a very steep walk down and up to get to
• Visited off season and it still felt incredibly touristy
• Drove around Padstow for nearly an hour trying to find a park- we never found one

There were parts of Cornwall I really enjoyed, but Lands End in particular was a real disappointment.

ha! I am staying at lands end on Saturday night. Thanks for managing my expectations!!

Ahh I see

No not sure maybe in a few years

I have heard so many horror stories so we left everything at home and took some coins out with us in our pockets

Great city just felt on edge

Why do the police not try to do more there?

I think it was the one when I thought we were having a lovely time but he was messaging other women throughout. Bummer.

Cornwall - crowded, touristy, over priced, awful weather.
Egypt-Creepy men, very dirty
Turkey- again men

Fiji.

Resort didn't tell us another was being built right behind our room & started pile driving day we arrived. Room shaking thump-thump for the entire week. Resort also lied about amenities & was basically a hotel with a pool.

It was our first holiday with DS1 & he kept falling asleep every time we tried to leave the room.

Were scammed by the hotel recommended tour driver who I engaged to take us on a drive. Asked him to take us to a famous lookout. He stopped by the side of the road, strewn by rubbish & claimed that was it. It wasn't.

It's actually a pretty boring country to visit unless you enjoy sitting by the pool drinking cocktails. It lacked adventure.

Sharm El Sheikh

The hotel was definitely not 4* and the majority of people were Russian who were rude, didn’t understand any etiquette around queuing or talking to staff and were racist.
the food was also very geared towards them too.

Oh, and I did I mention that you also have to pay if you want a photo in front of the iconic Lands End sign pointing in all directions? 😂

I'm sure you will have a great time- because there were lots of things I did enjoy about Cornwall too.

DLP. Kids didn't even want to go into the park on the last day, stayed in the hotel and swam.

Portugal (Algarve). Awfully disappointing, went once and have never gone back. Don't get the raving about it at all. The beaches weren't that nice, the main road was treacherous to drive on and locals weren't remotely friendly - seemed to hate the Brits. We stayed in Vilamoura, and were only glad we didn't book Albufeira as that was truly grim. We very happily went back to Spain the following year and had an amazing holiday in Nerja.

Where is DLP?

And agree with a PP about Lands End. It's a dump. We couldn't get away from it quickly enough.

I'm also going with the countries of North Africa - Tunisia and Egypt were horrendous. The 'nicer' men proposed marriage and hassled you at every turn. The phrase 'beautiful blue eyes' still makes me feel a bit nauseous. Then there were the ones making lewd gestures, openly masturbating and calling us whores.

If I ever go back to the general area Morocco wasn't actually too bad and I didn't have a problem in Marrakesh (only on excursions). However I went with DH, dressed very conservatively (long loose trousers and tops) and carried a scarf that I wore over my head within the Medina walls. I did see other female tourists in what we see as normal summer clothing getting a lot more hassle though.

Turkey. The behaviour of the local men was grim and unnerving. I couldn't relax at all.