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.

@oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends "The Algarve", ie most of the southern coast of Portugal is totally mixed. You have the golf, the beaches etc which seem the de facto places of enjoyment for Brits.
There is a lot of culture, a lot of fun (water parks etc), so MANY beaches. Very nice towns - Albufeira outside of August evenings, Portimao.
Moorish history such as Silves.
Lagos is a very vibrant town.
Where on earth did you go that you were bored?

Morocco - treated awfully. Ripped off and hassled constantly
Malta - boring building site
Corfu - nothing but sunbeds

But Ive had far more fantastic holidays , unexpected great experiences etc. But I’ll never go back to those 3

Albufeira was the nearest town, but can't remember the name of the actual place.
Not interested in golf or waterparks, don't want to sit on a beach & do nothing for hours on end, saw no evidence of culture.
I've had several good holidays in mainland Portugal (Lisbon, Porto, Douro, Ericeira) but that was awful.

I love New York (obviously 😆). I feel people
go expecting it to be something other than a big, busy, noisy city, and then they’re somehow disappointed. There’s so much to do and see it’s impossible to be bored.

The only place I really didn’t enjoy is Florence.

San Francisco. I expected so much prettiness. No one warns you about the levels of poverty , down and outs and visible crime. It's well known to many Americans . Tourists not so much. Some very fancy hotels butt right up against basic shanty towns. I say this as a child of a New Yorker, and who grew up jn Glasgow.

I also found Amsterdam bleak and a bit depressing with its open sex trade.

@oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends I have to say "your loss".
Okay, I have an "in", but the internet can show you all the fun and cultural events.
Many people take a lazy holiday in the Algarve, nothing wrong with that. Not my choice AT ALL.
If you want culture, you have to go to the effort of googlng, noting and - possibly - booking/mapping a trip.
Would absolutely recommend Silvss

This was pre-Google, & the tour companies' guides were very misleading.

With apologies to my Irish relatives : Dublin, I’m afraid. I was expecting a ‘proper’ capital city with loads of cool & interesting stuff to see & do. What I found was an Irish version of Leeds, except everything was twice the price.

Also, another vote for Paphos. There’s nothing wrong with the place, but it was just far too ‘Brits abroad’ for my taste. Seeing a shopping centre with a Debenhams next to the road from the airport made me realise we had come to the wrong place.

Oh Dublin is even regarded widely in Ireland as being a bit of a shithole

Irish Leeds is incredibly accurate 😆. I like Leeds, but I wouldn't pay £15 a drink there.

I found Dublin to be offensively expensive, and that was 12 years ago 😳.

some interesting responses. I lived in Chicago and absolutely loved it. With a lot of these places mentioned there are certain no go areas where the chance of being pick pocketed/mugged is high but plenty of safe areas too.
I didn’t love Madrid but went years ago and there weren’t many good places to eat but I’m sure it’s changed now. I wouldn’t go back to Venice after watching a programme on the impact of tourism there.

Mallorca. Too many cyclists. Massively over rated. Inland is OK but the coastal resorts are mostly just tacky. Traditional food is good tho.

Switzerland. Unless you like skiing, boring as hell. Beautiful but boring. Food is rubbish too.

Ibiza. Beyond awful. Tacky. Chavvy. Urgh.

USA. Violent. Racist. Very very capitalist. Tacky. Ignorant. (New Mexico was lovely.)

Greece (which I didn't hate but...). Scruffy. Loads of half finished buildings. Even local foods in tourist areas was awful.

Malta & Dublin

Crete
Florence
Whistler

"Irish version of Leeds" - YES! No shade on Leeds, I do like Leeds. Actually much better than Dublin. But you'd never hear of people making a special effort to visit Leeds.

I've only visited as a Chicago as tourist but it's is one of my absolute favourite cities. I spent quite a while after we got back plotting how we could move there.

Lake Como. Need all the tik tok and instagrammers to off. They actually get in the way of a lot of places these days.

I think "movie New York" is so iconic it is quite difficult for regular New York to live up to it. I didn't hate it by any stretch but every minute should feel like living in a rom-com, right?

Me too. Loved Chicago and would love to go back.

Paris. Underwhelming.

Dublin.
carcassone. Was expecting a medieval city like York and it’s not.
Nit quite sure why everyone raves about Edinburgh.

@JambonetFromagei went on a day trip to Leeds when Northern a rail were selling tickets for 20p a few years back. I was expecting a big city vibe. But there was very little to do.

Tenerife. Just awful! Soulless and barren.

So a VERY long time agp

We only had a year there but would have happily stayed for longer. We brought a souvenir back of DD who was born there and has American citinzenship. Although currently debating whether that is a good thing or not!!