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.

Cannes.
Incredibly hot, not a huge amount to do and I got eaten alive by midges.
To be fair, I was recovering from an accident and was still on crutches. Had I been more mobile we would probably have visited more places but it was all just too much like hard work. It wasn't a bad holiday, just not a great one.
The firework competition was amazing though.

Las Vegas in August. No surprise it was absolutely boiling hot. So hot you couldn’t breathe. The hotels were interesting but miles apart from each other and the walls were unbearable. Streets full of beggars and men handing you playing cards with porn on them. Everything was so expensive. We put aside £200 each to gamble and it was gone in 40 mins on the first night. Rented a car and got out of there to the mountains and canyons nearby - much better. The year after there was the worst mass shooting in American history outside our hotel.

I loved it!
Where did you go (or not go) to think it was overrated?

Yes. They were hair braiders. They melt them into you. We all had lighter burns. The ones that looked like smiley faces because of the shape of the metal on top. I wasn't old enough to be aware of the club scene back then though. And now I'm too old for it, despite being a complete raging lesbian. 😂

Interesting, I went to Bora Bora and stayed in one of those overwater bungalows, one of my best holidays! I found the people from Tahiti lovely, not to mention quite beautiful as well! Mine was New York, I was underwhelmed, must be because everyone talks it up. It didn't really do anything for me.

Bulgaria, Sunny Beach.
Not my idea of a good destination at all but I was persuaded to go by my ex with his parents and sister/her partner.

Family holidays are my idea of hell so I said I'd think about it but his dad booked me on immediately for 2 weeks 😑. When we got there the 'hotel' was an absolute dive and the family were total pissheads.

They did nothing but drink excessively and sunbathe for the whole holiday and my 'D'P, despite insisting before we went that we'd do our own thing, was glued to their sides most of the holiday. His behaviour towards me got worse and worse and culminated in him shouting at me in a restaurant and I had to leave the table to cry. Turned out he'd spent all his money and couldn't afford what he'd ordered and expected me to pay for it all seeing as I was 'freeloading off his family'!
His dad took him to one side to tell him he was being an arsehole so he blamed me for that too. If I tried to do anything for myself, like shopping, I was told I was being rude and disrespectful. He booked an expensive go-carting and jet skiing experience and again I had to pay as he'd run out of money. I couldn't wait for the holiday to end. Longest 2wks of my life - I was looking for cheap flights home within a couple of days but everything was full 😓.

As soon as we got home he dumped me. It was my first relationship after divorce so was painful to realise my abusive ex-h was a much nicer guy than the twat I was seeing.

He contacted me a few weeks later to tell me his parents kept asking about me and telling him he was an idiot for breaking up with me so we should get back together 😂. He then tried to ruin my next two relationships.

My first honeymoon in Zante.

My (now ex!) H moaned constantly that we were on holiday without his daughter for 2 weeks and said he'd never go on a 2 week holiday again.

Someone parked a donkey outside our apartment.

The salt flats outside the apartment were used as a moped race track.

The second week we were there (yes. He was still moaning!!) we had new neighbours who kept having screaming matches in the middle of the night.

New York, the rudest place I’ve ever been too. New Yorkers are so rude. Food was dire and expensive.

Airport staff were rude and unhelpful. One member of staff said we were in the wrong terminal. Didn’t ask they told is as we went through security. This made us panic slightly, we decided to stay in the terminal as per ticket and turns out we were in the right place. She was so aggressive and was shouting at us.

the level of homeless was sad, it was cold with snow on the ground and people were sleeping everywhere. Hated New York.

By far, Marbella! The tackiest, most British-Spanish place. We also had pretty average weather.

I loooove Turkey. I’m sad to read others have had bad experiences :(

And actually feel the same about NYC.

couldn’t for the life of me understand why people loved it so much when I went on holiday. I did all the touristy things to tick off the list, stayed in midtown where all the huge buildings are, went to ‘famous’ restaurants. Thought it was all average at best.

I am living here atm and I will say it’s a better experience than holidaying! I am living outside of Manhattan in a quiet, clean and safe area. I love it!

DP and I have December off work this year and were thinking about New Zealand. Then we watched some YouTube videos and decided it just looks like Scotland and after a 30 hour flight that's got to be a bit disappointing.

Morrocco and Egypt. I was sure would not get out alive. To have such malevolence in your face, at every moment for two weeks was pretty devasting. Simply for being a woman, a different faith, a different colour, and a different culture.

I was dressed appropriately.

Rhodes.

Hotel was ok, basic but fine - way below the standard of what we thought we were booking. Right under the flightpath from the airport. Miles away from anything and lots of development going on at the time. Ex was a complete arsehole the entire trip. He was always an arsehole but it's different when you can't get away from it. There was just nothing much to do. Couldn't wait to get home.

Paris is a shithole full of sleazy men.

Iceland is one of my favourite places but i would concede there isn't much to do if you're not into scenery/hiking/horse riding - restaurants and bars are extremely expensive.

This is bizarre. I've been to Gran Canaria several times with family and none of us have ever been grabbed by hair braiding women. Just to reasssure anyone who is going to GC on holiday this year!

Absolutely 4plus. Cairo - utter shithole and the abuse and hate for being a woman was disgusting. Will not visit any other North African country either. I was an attractive young woman travelling with a female friend which didn’t help. We dressed modestly - made no difference. Ended up confined to hotel room getting to the civilisation of Israel was a blessed relief.

We found Lanzarote absolutely beautiful! We had a villa slightly inland and a car. Totally exceeded my expectations. Beautiful deserted beaches cactus clear skies everywhere very clean and smart. Would love to go back.

Didn’t you look up the location of the flat before you went?

British Columbia 2008. Amazing place but BA lost one of our suitcases which we didn't get back until we landed back at Heathrow and all our spending money went on buying new clothes, foortwear and toiletries! Haven't flown with them since!

Mid Wales. However, Gower peninsula was amazing.

Sunny Beach in Bulgaria. It was shut. We went in early May which in Bulgaria is out of season only we didn’t know that. It was dull and overcast the day we arrived.
The following day DH says let’s go for a walk.
It started to rain, we were soaked and I had this feeling of doom and just wanted to get on a flight back home. We should have. Three days later I was in hospital with bi lateral pneumonia. Never been back.

Iceland.
First day was great. Dry weather, nice hotel in Reykjavik.
First night it snowed heavily. Went out first thing as we had booked the blue lagoon.

Weather appalling. Snow blizzards. Don't. Know how we got there without going off the road.
Did enjoy the blue lagoon but it was very quiet. Didn't realise at the time that all the roads were closed and no one else could get there.
We were evacuated from the Water due to the storm.
Got dressed to leave. Were told all roads were closed and we were snowed in.
Slept on the floor of reception with 300 other people with towels for blankets.
After 17 hours we got a police and snowplough escort back to Reykjavik.
Day 3. Did manage to go out as we tried to make the best of it. It was -10 and very cold.
Day 4. Flight home. Terrible drive to the airport. We didn't realise that they closed the motorway after we got on.
Huge snowdrifts and cars crashing around us.
It was like the apocalypse.
Got to the airport. Checked in.
All planes were then cancelled. All roads were closed too.
We slept in departures for 2 nights. No luggage, limited food and no staff as they hadn't been able to get to work.
We could get a flight home until the Thursday when we were meant to fly home on the Monday.
We had to fly in to a different airport to where our car was and then get a taxi.
Ended up spending £2200 on extra flights and all the expenses.
Took 4 months for the insurance to pay out but we still lost money overall.

carried a scarf that I wore over my head within the Medina walls

I did that in Istanbul after several miserable days of being hassled endlessly by creepy men (I was in my 20s with blonde hair, which seemed to act as a magnet to every creep in the city). Luckily, I had a sarong in my luggage and in desperation I put it round my head one day and voila! The creeps thought I was a Muslim and left me alone.

Malta.

It was like we’d gone back to holiday in the 80s - and not in a good way. The food, everywhere, was poor. Really stodgy pizza and pasta (like it was the 80s!).

The hotel had two pools (well three, but one was adults only so not relevant to us) but one or both of them were hired out for private functions most of the time. Worst was when they closed the main pool because an Irish wedding was being hosted on poolside. Our room overlooked the pool (like many other guests) and we all were treated to the many, many long speeches and disco at loud volume. Second worst was that the hotel was hosting some kind of high school ball one night and the teenagers just ran up and down the corridors of hotel rooms screaming.

Going anywhere was terrifying. The driving is dire and getting the bus means being thrown around erratically. Valletta was disappointing - the weird breeze blocks closing up entrances to many, many buildings so somewhat spoil the ‘picturesque world heritage site’ thing.

Some friends went the week after us (different hotel) and were similarly unimpressed

Malta - 360 Churches. That all look the same 😅

And not much else.

The aquarium was quite nice. It was the only thing on the island that felt like it was in the right century. 🤣