Places that were a let down

[DarcyDear]

Have you ever been anywhere on holiday and felt it wasn’t what you thought it would be? My friend is just back from New York and absolutely hated it. I’ve never been let down by a holiday but I remember being really taken aback at the levels of poverty and homelessness when I visited Los Angeles in my youth.

I don't like travelling by air and rarely holiday abroad.

But I'm an athletics fan and visted Stockholm a few years ago for the Diamond League meeting.

Was expecting a clean, pristine modern city and was disappointed by how "grubby" everything was. The old part of the city was beautiful, but the rest...

And the toilets at Arlanda airport. Aaaargh!

On the other hand, holidayed in Florence and stayed in the "Room with a view" hotel on the banks of the Arno. What a fantastic city and a wonderful holiday!!!

Good for you. Our experiences clearly differ.

Bucharest. There are some interesting parts, but because of all the stag parties the streets are overrun with bar and restaurant touts. It was impossible to just look at a menu and try to decide if you fancied a place - they moved in for the hard sell instantly.

It’s a very long time ago, but I went to Fuerteventura as a teenager and found it the dullest place I’d ever been. My parents agreed, until the last day when we went for a drive to see the sand dunes. They went into raptures over them, saying “It’d be worth coming back just for this”. I was horrified!

Venice - like Disneyland. Crammed with tourists, incredibly expensive and really boring. I was glad to only be spending a day there!

Malta - just an odd vibe. Very British 🇬🇧 with not much sense of culture.

Barcelona - very seedy at night
Dublin - I’m Anglo Irish and I travel to Ireland regularly but Dublin is just - not nice and very expensive. Looks like a bland copy of other EU cities with tacky Irish pubs added on. Also has the most traffic lights that I've ever come across. 🙄
The worst place I’ve been to is Dubai - capitalism on steroids - tacky, tacky, tacky. My friend refers to it as Milton Keynes in the desert.

Malmo

I got married there so to me it was like a rom com (or the last 5 minutes of one!) but I agree- it’s been so mythologised it can’t possibly live up to people’s fantasy.

I’m curious what you mean by Anglo Irish as that term has gone out with the flood? I’m Irish myself.

All American cities are disappointing and they can’t even produce decent food.

I agree with you!
i loved Rome but I couldn’t help feeling like it was some weird ancient stuff theme park

you know it all exists, but seeing it all IRL felt surreal

ditto Buda part of Budapest I felt like I was in the Chitty chitty bang bang film 😂😂

Went to Stockholm last year, was impressed by how spotless and tidy the metro was.

Loved LA and hated San Francisco

We have such strong associations of places in not real life, and theme parks are not real life
that when we see the real thing it feels like it is copying our movie version

I agree regarding Dublin city centre but there is so much charm in the coastal suburbs

Why the goading - we all like places and don’t return because there are so many other places to see

Usually reflects more on them than anything else.

Indeed..

‘The worst place I’ve been to is Dubai - capitalism on steroids’

Dubai doesn’t pretend to be anything else though. If you go there you should know that in advance. You don’t go expecting a deep cultural experience, unless you count the token trips available from the hotels.

I love how places are derided as being 'tourist traps' by, err, tourists!
Many of the places mentioned tend to have just one or two well known parts, those seen on TV and in glossy magazines, the rest is just where people live, just as they live anywhere in the world.
We once went on a tour in India, after two days one man was demanding to be returned home, with his wife, at the company's expense, his money refunded with compensation. His reasons were that they had told him it would be very hot, dusty and he would see poverty on the streets! They kindly relocated him and his poor wife to the last hotel on the tour to await us arriving 12 days later. 'The Portsmouth Man' became our code for moaners for years.

I have thought of another one: Bali. Was around 25 years ago (pre-bombing). I thought it would be really magical and I really disliked it. Tons of tat for sale, a lot of drunk Australians, and the restaurants had visible rats in them (they put dishes of food out on the floor as offerings to gods, the rats always got to them before the gods had a chance). I didn't like the jungle, too humid and the tourist areas were overcrowded and dirty.

Southend-on-Sea, popularly known as Southend-on-Mud.

I live on the South Coast, but I can honestly say I have no idea what 'weed' smells like! Maybe I have led a sheltered life!

I love Naples!

I love how places are derided as being 'tourist traps' by, err, tourists!

People who call places tourist traps aren’t tourists, they’re travellers, don’t you know.

Brighton will do the trick!