Where is the most overrated holiday destination you’ve been?

[phoanymoany]

Where have you been on holiday and thought “wow, that was a waste of my time and money”.

Mine was travelling to a fairly remote tropical island where people were supposed to be so friendly. Unfortunately we found the people we interacted with in the hotels and restaurants to be anything but nice. It piddled down with rain and then we almost got scammed.

Everywhere I went in Germany apart from Berlin.

Boring and the food is rubbish if you don’t want to eat bread and cakes for every meal. I think it might just be too much like home. Even the weather was crap.

I think the problem with LA is that everyone obviously goes to the touristy places that they’ve heard of, which are all a bit shit - dirty, crowded, lots of homeless drugged up people. But if you do your research and go to the right places it can actually be lovely.

Costa Rica. I really, really wanted to love it and was expecting some sort of a Blue Planet type experience, but “eoc-tourism” is ruining it and (I feel bad saying it, as I am part of the problem) destroying all the nature. The volume of boats carrying Europeans and Americans to Tortegeuro is washing away the banks of the rainforest, huge volumes of rubbish is scattered on beaches and all the beautiful wildlife (jaguars, monkeys, toucans, crocodiles, slouths and the like) have been scared away by humans…Maybe I have just been spoiled with natural places like Sri Lanka and India but this felt like a really grubby American theme park. We had this really sad, overwhelming acute feeling that humans are destroying the planet all the time we were there, which wasn’t quite the holiday vibe we were after as a family!

Vegas. A meat market, should have gone to old vegas rather than the strip.

Old Vegas is so different and a good place for an evening out. I often wonder what people expect from places, Vegas for me is exactly what I expect. We used to fly into Vegas, spend a couple or three nights, buy what we needed for our road trip, take some sun, visit a couple of blingy casinos then get off.

Mauritius. The amount of poor dogs out there broke our heart, and a few of them had clearly been horribly mistreated by humans. Would not go back!

Hated Paris. .
Dublin surprised me 😊

All I know is that it now has a pretty bad homlessness problems, is a city designed for cars, not pedestrians, and is quite segregated as the city is sprawled over a wide area, so it takes a long time to get anywhere.

I adore Venice, it is just magical and unique, battered to bits but you can just feel the history of it. Enjoy!

Nul points for Phuket. The rest of Thailand is (mainly) fabulous but Phuket falls flat. It’s the only bit I’d never go back to.

As for Bali, I get people being disappointed by the beaches and sea, and Kuta is a veritable dump, but inland is stunning.

@couiza I agree re Florence. I SO wanted to love it but I didn’t. Adored Venice though.

@Hobbesmanc Could I ask what it was about Manila you disliked? And where else you went that you loved. The Philippines is on our list for a potential future trip.

Edinburgh - pretty in parts but very snobbish, not a patch on Glasgow

I've lived in Edinburgh and I agree. It's beautiful but kind of soulless and aloof, not to mention the whole overpriced fudge, bagpipes and tartan circus thing.

Edinburgh has the looks but Glasgow definitely has the personality!

The Gambia. Got D and V the third day in. Couldn’t even swallow a sip of water without it comin up or out. The maitre d looking into guests bags as we left the restaurant in case we’d taken and orange or a bread roll. This was policed heavily. Couldn’t walk anywhere without locals following you asking for money and young men touting sex to older European women. And the dogs, the cruelty to to dogs…..😢😢😢😢😢

I definitely do not judge Ireland by Dublin. I had one of my best holidays in the Irish countryside. It’s a magical country and I look forward to going back soon. Dublin is very meh though.

I see someone has already said it but Jersey. Been to Guernsey, Sark, Herm a few times and love them. I was really expecting to like Jersey but didn’t. Not sure why though.

So much hate for Paris! I used to live there and love the place. There's just something fantastic about it. It's much easier to live in than London. Maybe it's a good place to live, but a crap holiday destination. 🤷🏼‍♀️ (Parisians do love to be rude and awkward though, but they don't seem to get any more offended if you argue back)

New York- now that's dirty, and makes Paris look sparkly clean. But New Yorkers were incredibly friendly and helpful to me.

Lanzarote and Tenerife. I only went because I wanted a cheap holidays and I found out why they are so cheap. Nothing awful, just not my cup of tea. My colleagues can't seem to keep away though.

Florida. So bloody hot and rainy. Queues in the themeparks were totally unreal.

Came on to say Prague.

Just weird vibe, overall disappointing.

Didn't love Bangkok either but the rest of Thailand I saw was beautiful. We were travelling with Thai family which helped I think. Phitsanulok is definitely worth a visit.

The only let down for me in Venice was the food but that was our fault. We didn’t do enough research and just picked dud places. I still dream about the food I ate in Rome.

Mauritius. Looked like Scotland. Rough sea . Appalling poverty outside the hotels .
Also Berlin. Sadness from every street corner.

Dublin is mostly a shit hole yes

SF went 20 years ago was fab now I hear so many bad stories

LA utter hell

Lisbon - great but then my bag was stolen

Love Palma in Majorca

Love Paris and Rome

Hated Thailand Ko Samui total dive
Marrakech hated every second got touched up in the market was so bad

Zurich so fcking expensive 26 quid for a baguette
Bern was so nice though. Loved the bears on the hill

My all time fave is Croatia
Just heaven 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

Paris had a McDonald's when I was there in 1990. It's not new (and it certainly doesn't make a place worth visiting - and never did)

Also London

Love it so much

For me:

No proper central area it feels. Dodgy and undercurrent dangerous undercurrent.

Loved Segada/Banau and most other places though.

Loved Paris, Dublin , Barcelona and New York. Yeah they have smelly scruffy parts but so do all big cities.