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?

Barcelona is an amazing city if you get off the tourist trail.

I’ve been loads to visit family and have never felt unsafe. Best food I’ve ever eaten, great wine and friendly funny people.

Same here. There's really not a lot to do at all. The hotel was fantastic, especially for the price we paid but there's sod all there except for a small souk and other hotels.

@Lavenderfarmcottage depending how far you want to travel San Diego Zoo is one of the best I’ve been too. I’m not a massive zoo person but thought this was great.

Legoland at Carlsbad was also fun.

Ah....Cotes du Spree, my favourite region 😆

(Sorry, couldn't resist! We're going there in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to wall to wall Turkish food- and the local beer!)

I'm amazed we're on page 29 and no one has mentioned Cambodia.

Angkor Wat was pretty but the rest of it... Just seriously bad vibes.

@NaeRolls Thanks for those tips that super useful. I do have 4/5 days in Cape Town itself with my 7 year old daughter before the rest of the family arrive and we’ll have a car then and start to do the road trip and appreciate the recs. So those tips for Cape Town are good. Even about the backpack etc.

Thanks to everyone else giving tips.

For everyone claiming that they didn't like somewhere because "it was too crowded":

If you're standing in the middle of Piazza San Marco/ in front of the Colosseum/wherever: Walk. Either pick a random direction or open up Google Maps and see what looks interesting. Walk briskly for 15 minutes.

Still crowded? Thought not.

I accept that there are some places where this tactic may lead you to a 6 lane highway and an industrial estate, but ancient historic cities usually have quite a hinterland of interesting stuff. Venice, certainly- just get right away from the centre and there's plenty of space and beauty, even in August!

New Orleans is a very odd place. I quite enjoyed the sightseeing and the food. The hotel we stayed in wasn't great but what really shocked me was the sight of middle-aged Americans drunk and vomiting in the street. It's definitely a drinking destination which really isn't my thing. Just bizarre.

Egypt. Lovely country horrible people. Spat at by old men perved on by young men and the women were just awful to us. p.s i did cover up....

It's like LV - the ability to drink on streets is a novelty to them.

Definitely Paris, overrated, overpriced and the only place I’ve felt unsafe.
Give me Barcelona, Berlin or New York over Paris any day.

Lisbon wasn't my cup of tea but I wouldn't describe myself as genuinely disappointed.

The countryside (particularly the coastline!) was beautiful...

Essaouira was about one of the few places I really didn’t like. We were travelling as a family. I remember that year it featured as a top 10 destinations to head to in a magazine. I didn’t get it or the vibe at all - whole place felt seriously off. Our experience there wasn’t helped by the fact we were travelling with blond hair blue eyed toddler who was being touched constantly and even had random men picking him up telling us they wanted to teach him Arabic.

We weren’t hassled at all in Marrakesh so enjoyed that city more.

Naxos definitely, just spent 9 nights there towards the end of June. Beautiful, diverse island, very green in parts for a Cycladic island and the food was some of the best I've had in Greece. The villages are gorgeous.

Would swerve Paros though, personally I found it too busy, Naoussa was like mini Mykonos, full of beautiful people and ridiculously expensive. Although I liked Lefkes and Piso Livadi.

I also really liked Sifnos and Milos 😎

I keep on thinking of Ab Fab in Morocco 😂

I remember sorrento quite fondly... But that was about 15(?) years ago. We stayed at the holiday home of a family friend. See urchins were a bit of an issue to first time we visited. 🤔

My ex boss retired to Naxos, bought a house there. Looks absolutely divine.

We've been to Karpathos twice. It's a bit arid/rocky in places but the food and people make it. We went two years apart and the waiter in one of the local tavernas recognised us.
It's so quiet as well, semi-empty tavernas overlooking a tranquil beach/bay with crystal clear waters.

Olympos up in the mountains is also fabulous. Almost completely cut off from civilisation.

There really is a world beyond Corfu and Santorini, just requires a bit of planning.

Our DD was 2 the first time we went. 3 flights in total but stopped at Venice on the way back.
Last time we went it was two flights and went to Rhodes for a few days towards the end in an AI resort, then flew direct back.

Morocco - Marrakesh city, its smells horrifically bad (like hot rotten meat) and is really busy, roads are completely terrifying (seemingly no logical road laws with cars going everywhere) and the market stall owners pounce on you and harass you. Its pretty overwhelming.

A nice taxi driver pointed us to a shop, just looked like an escalator from outside. It was huge, empty, air conditioned and had loads of cool things and the staff actively avoided us letting us browse in peace. I think it was designed for 'rich tourists' to buy stuff for their mansions (huge fossils, marble furniture, statues, art, fancy perfumes, silk clothes etc...) although not everything cost that much (obviously big furniture did but we bought handmade toys for our kids for about £3 each and local jewellery etc...). We where like the only people there but it was a much need escape from the outside streets.

Further out in the mountains surrounded by nature is utterly stunning though.

I like Paris more than many people seem to as well. I find people at worst professionally civil and at best lovely, friendly and helpful. You mainly just need to observe French manners – say bonjour madame/monsieur etc when you goo into a shop or cafe, say thank you for every little service (handing you the menu./showing you an item etc), say a proper thank you when paying and when you leave.
The rudest Parisians I've met are the ones who live in London
I've also found delightful quiet neighbourhoods in Paris full of little grocers and bookshops. If you go to the Louvre, Sacré Coeur etc of course it'll be busy, full of tourists and people sharking off tourists. You need to wander and go off the main drags.

By contrast, in Rome and Venice I found people really unfriendly, quite hostile actually. I get that they're busy places, and Venice in particular has a serious problem with overcrowding, but there’s no excuse for being quite so hostile. I'm always pleasant and polite to people and don't go round being abrupt and demanding things like some tourists I've seen.

Ibiza. I hate clubbing but went because everyone told me what a wonderful and beautiful island it was when you got out of the main clubby towns.

It's nice, but not "beautiful" IMO and we drove round pretty much the whole thing. Unless you're into drinking and partying there is barely anything else to do (we did the caves and Ibiza Town) and I'm not the type of person to just sit by a pool or on the beach all day.

I'd much rather go to Majorca, which is beautiful IMO and have more options of things to do.

Some of these are so surprising! And I have loved some of the places mentioned...

For me - Agra. Taj Mahal (and other historic sites) were amazing, but outside the walls of the Taj it's hellish. HELLISH. I was sexually assaulted many times (we had to stay in the city for 3/4 days). I've travelled a lot - world wide, and it still gives me the actual frights.

I see Barcelona mentioned a lot. I get it, but we stayed a little way out of the main city, and we loved it (I thought Las Ramblas was awful and scary though).

One year, we returned to a country we often visited, but this time we couldn't stay in our usual spot and ended up just a few miles down the road. The difference was staggering!! The experience was awful. It was grimy, chaotic, and filled with rowdy crowds. I absolutely hated it. So sometimes, it just isn't right - ya know?!

I really like Florence just before Christmas - we've been many times and the first week or two of December are always great! There's lots of lovely little places to browse, eat and a drink that are a bit more off the beaten track that aren't so crowded, too. The areas around the Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio and Duomo are always busy but quieter later in the evening or early morning.

We tend to walk out of the centre and find a neighbourhood bar or trattoria.

I don’t think I have been anywhere that truly disappointed me, and there have been many places that exceeded my expectations (including many mentioned here - I loved LA, Turkey,, Norwegian Fjords, Barcelona, Venice to mention a few).

Places that didnt fully meet expectations:

-New York: I guess it is such an iconic city it is just hard to live up to the mental image. We were there in winter and it was cold and grey wet much of the time rather than the kind of crisp, ice skating in Central Park kind of weather you see in the movies. DH had been before and wasn’t keen on ticking off the major tourist sites again and I don’t feel we really found great off the beaten track stuff either.

-Marrakech: souks just all flogging same tourist stuff and felt you couldn’t linger anywhere as you would be pounced by traders trying to entice you to buy. Beyond the medina lots of busy roads and not that charming. We stayed in a gorgeous riad with a pool though so chilled out there a lot.Also discovered avocado and date smoothies which were worth the trip alone.

-China: I thought we were exploring some off the beaten track areas but everywhere was quite touristy (even if mainly with Chinese tourists). In particular Tiger Leaping Gorge sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime destination but really no different to hiking in the Alps or something which is far more accessible! Overall still enjoyed the trip a lot but didn’t quite hit my (very high) expectations.

China and New York I would happily return to (and probably will to take DC). Marrakech only if it were a starting point to eg visit the Atlas Mountains, rather then a destination in its own right.

Menorca
Dubai - what did I miss about Dubai? Everyone raves about it.