Most disappointing destination/holiday

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For me, it was the Norwegian fjords. Not because they weren’t beautiful (what we saw of them, they were!) but because it was cold, rainy and foggy when we went. One town known for being very pretty was ridiculously busy and there was a cruise ship blocking the view from the restaurant we booked. We knew the prices were going to be high, but expected good quality… when you pay over £100 for a train ticket, you expect there to be toilet roll and soap in the toilets!

where have you been that was disappointing?

I feel this about French food😆. Everyone pretending it's great. It is not and it's really expensive! There are lots of dull bits of France that are very depressing.

We stayed in Sant Agnello. There really isn't any nice walking in Sorrento as everything is built up to the cliffs and the streets are narrow with very narrow pavements and loads of loud traffic. The middle of the town is pedestrianised, but it is somewhere to mooch around the shops rather than go for a walk.

If going for a walk is something you enjoy doing I would stay somewhere where you can do this with less traffic and more space.

Sorrento was great for taking a boat trip to Capri and around the Amalfi coast and visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum, but not for someone who enjoys proper walking. I'm not fussed about a beach if there is a nice pool anyway.

We really enjoyed Barcelona, the history, architecture and lovely friendly helpful locals. Our son was living there managing a hostel so he had an itinerary ready for us (he was too busy to accompany us), lots to do and see but still relaxing.

A few!

High up there was Marrakesh; lethal roads, grabby people, very little to see. No idea why it is so popular!

The Gambia; went in my 20s for a cheap break. Poor hotel food, dirt poor outside the hotel, again very little to see and do. Felt exploitative to the people who lived there.

And, slightly unfairly, Rhodes, as got caught up in the fires! Spent 3 days being shuttled from hotel to hotel and then evacuated on a 4AM flight after a full day at the airport.

Sorrento was our best ever holiday! We didn’t go to the beach, though, I wouldn’t do that in Italy.

Food was amazing, we went to capri, Amalfi (lovely walk from the harbour up a steep hillside to mountain top village) Pompeii and Naples.
The town was small enough to walk around… and limoncello!

We used to live near Glastonbury so did the big shop there weekly. It was where the people so drugged up they were incapable of leaving the festival lived in communes all year round. I worked for a local psychiatric hospital and it was full of long term addicts who came for glasto and never left! The locals were lovely and put up with a lot.

Dull, yes 😴.
Nothing we could do about that, but found a lovely little Vietnamese restaurant that saved us from starving 😀.

Tunisia is definitely top of the list for not being safe and not worth travelling to.

That’s so funny, tobee! My son was similarly underwhelmed by it. I’ve never been but huffed and puffed at him for being such a philistine - but maybe he had a point!

I think sometimes it’s not that there’s anything wrong with the place (or attraction), it’s just that things get hyped beyond reason.

Disneyland Paris. Rude staff, awful food and our hotel was a looong way from the park. The best bit was Buffalo Bill's wild west show which I think is closed now anyway. It was a few years ago when we visited mind, so the park may have improved since then! Though I wouldn't go back.

Crete is also crap, dried out vegetation on steep mountains and rocks for beaches. Terrible place.

@OneMintWasp know it well as we live in Bath- I always say about Glastonbury - great for buying a crystal or a broomstick , rubbish for practical stuff - I do though head off to Clark’s village which I love . Get all my cheap Skechers there!’

Crete. Stinking hot, grubby, not much to do, awful food and omg the toilet situation. Walked past the beach toilets one day and the toilet paper was piling out on to the beach and I don’t think people had been well (probably the food!). Spent the whole week feeling gross and wishing ourselves at home.

And controversially Ibiza. Clearly a lovely place to be but it rained for six days out of seven and it’s not an island with other forms of entertainment, especially over Easter weekend when everything was shut. Ended up huddled round an iPad watching Netflix wearing three layers all week. Was very disappointed but would love to go back.

Same year, second holiday attempt ended early due to a fairly horrible injury. That’s a whole other tale, we laugh about it now, sort of.

We have had some nice ones!

Bali was a hole

luckily it wasn’t a destination just passing through for a bit on travels

I had a great time there and found everyone really friendly. Do they like old ladies?

We really love Krakow. Found everyone so polite and tuned into the tourist trade. We've been several times now.

I spent two weeks just outside Sorrento and loved it. I went to Pompeii twice and it's within easy distance of Naples. Went over to Capri four times, it was fabulous.

I live in Joburg! You were right to feel unsafe. It's like the Wild West here. I've been mugged at gunpoint AND at knifepoint, many burglaries, car windows smashed... But last year we moved to the safest suburb in the city, in a security complex. We can walk around the neighbourhood at night as there are CCTV cameras monitored 24/7 by a private security company. I've never slept as well as I do here. I bloody snore. I know we are very privileged to be able to live here. It's so sad because Joburg is full of wonderful, warm, friendly people, it is a properly cosmopolitan city with cultural influences from all over Africa and the world. But the fear makes it hard. I get anxiety every time I stop at a robot (traffic light).

I haven't been to Egypt but I'm not surprised you felt unsafe there. The mass sexual assaults of women there have been horrifying to read about.

Centre parcs. It was like someone sucked all the fun free stuff out of Butlins and then charged six times as much.

Butlins bognor regis. Ugh

Also loved Santorini but then we stayed in a plush place right on the cliffs. The food was fabulous and great value. There are so many different parts of Santorini. Now my friend went on a cruise and dropped them all off for 30 mins for the sunset 😂🤷‍♀️ which they couldn't see for the rest of the cruise 😂 You get what you pay for.

Paris I didn't get either. I couldn't understand why it has such a reputation. Went on a boat down the (rather brown and murky) Seine. Didn't think much of Las Vegas, but weren't expecting much - we went for the experience - just the once which was plenty. Disappointed on cruise through to the Baltic past Denmark, Sweden and so on. We've been to Italy several times but the worst was a short Christmas trip. Food was dire, accommodation diabolical (one light bulb in the room which made a TocH light look like a flloodlight. It was so dim we couldn't see what colour socks were. Christmas dinner was in the evening, so we had to source our own lunch - but where? We were in a strongly Catholic country and nowhere was open It was a good job we'd taken some provisions - crackers, cheese, a bit of salad and bran loaf. To top it all, we caught flu on the journey and were so ill when we got home.

I went in summer, but I loved Riga. Stunningly beautiful turn of the century architecture, amazing market buildings made from Zeppelin hangars, beautiful Orthodox churches. There's a river/canal running through the whole city with a park on both sides that you can stroll through.
I did encounter one of the rudest/frostiest people I've ever met: toilet attendant at the bus station. It was honestly like the Soviet era had never died She was SO rude though that it just made me laugh.

My biggest disappointment was probably Marrakesh.Not much to see or do, not particularly lovely to look at, and yes I know it's a poor country and has lots of social problems, but it felt exceptionally grubby, dirty and run-down. Had an unpleasant encounter with some teenage lads we asked for directions, who wanted money for showing us there and started getting threatening. The only place I've ever been where I genuinely thought things might get nasty.

I don't understand the Santorini hype. There are so many Greek islands which are almost identical, they're just harder to get to.
They're also ten times quieter, and the food is way better.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea
The town was not large so not like the distances one normally goes on a city break.
There was a small bay about 2.5km away but due to roads being so narrow and twisty with no pavements, we couldn't walk there and the cliffs mean that it's not possible to walk along the shoreline.
Walking into the countryside outside of the town didn't seem possible from reviews of paths on line (dogs/closed paths etc)
The sea was too choppy for boats to Capri etc.
Pompei was good and a vineyard tour interesting but just not enough walking for me.