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.

Alcudia in Mallorca?
If you were on holidays somewhere other than Alcudia what would you do in the evenings that they didn't have?

I'm finding this thread totally fascinating!

Sad that it’s no longer a magical experience for other people, if it’s dirty and run down.
I still have my happy memories obviously.

Would have been very easy for you to explore the rest of the island.

Yeah. We were early 20s when we went (so a long time ago 😭) there was just no night life.

It was arranged by PILs who asked if we wanted to tag along. Maybe it was the area or the time of year but I just found it so dull.

At the time id have enjoyed nightclubs but even decent entertainment would have been nice. There just didn’t seem to be anything.

Even going for walks to explore was just very samey and not interesting.

I definitely would never go back.

@wimonnzy I agree. How can anyone say there's 'nothing to do' in a city? In any city? I really don't understand what they're expecting. At the very least they could hop on a bus or train and go somewhere else.

It’s was unbearably hot when we went to Athens on a day trip from Kefalonia. I remember a German woman being told off by a museum guide because she wouldn’t put shoes on her toddler in a pushchair. Lots of street hawkers hassling us and our young teenagers. Wouldn’t return.

For me it’s a long weekend with young kids (or toddlers) in a pleasant enough outdoor environment - with a cool swimming pool, sports facilities, clubs, boats/bikes for hire, and kid/toddler friendly restaurants on your doorstep (which saves driving, packing, planning). It’s not meant to be the Swiss alps.

Yes we went and it was rough. Got threatened walking through a park by a Greek weirdo - made a slashing movement with a bottle. Until my husband made a move towards him which he obviously wasn’t expecting. There was a further incident on a beach on one of the islands too. That was several years back perhaps it’s improved?

Loved Malta but we were in an upmarket area in a friend’s apartment. Loved the historical sites and the people were super friendly. I think the touristy areas looked a bit boring from memory - all apartments that looked the same. The capital was ace as was St Julian’s where we were located

Edinburgh was such a let down

Have spent a lot of time in Athens/Piraeus over the years, my DH had to go there a lot for work and I often went with him. We’d make sure we had tim3 like book a day cruise from Piraeus to Hydra, Poros and Aegina. Hydra is absolutely stunning. Then after his work was completed on the Saturday we’d catch the metro to Acropolis hill and have dinner in a restaurant watching the Acropolis light up as the sun set. Then go for a walk on the hill, the flickering candles on the tables of outdoor bar terraces would be a beautiful sight, it would be packed with families, groups of young men, young women, couples of all ages just enjoying the atmosphere. All with he floodlit Acropolis high up on the hill in the background. We loved it so much we still go back occasionally even though DH is retired now.

Re Paris, my DD's went regularly to concerts, especially if the Zigga dome Amsterdam had sold out. They were constantly sexually harassed the minute they got off the plane. There are good looking men offering lifts and trying to get young women into cars. On one occasion a young group of german guys, in the same hotel and going to the same concert, stepped in to protect them because no-one, including the hotel seemed concerned. You didn't have to be a guest to enter the hotel. Young women get groped on public transport (we'd call it sexual assault) as part of the culture. We've regularly travelled around North Africa but found Paris more sexually threatening.
I agree that it's about research and being honest about what you are interested in. If you aren't into Castles, old prisons, historical architecture, brewery or chocolate making etc, or don't want to drink, then Edinburgh and Dublin won't appeal. Although both do also have hiking opportunities and Edinburgh has a beach.

I'm loving this thread.. I've never been able, for many reasons, to travel, never been out of the UK, & reading everyone's complaints about other countries makes me feel so much better! Home is best? :-)

I went to Switzerland for the 2008 Euros (not supporting England before I get jumped on for loutish behaviour. England didn’t qualify as it happens) and it was beautiful, but goodness me, the Swiss were a miserable bunch. Obviously, I didn’t meet every Swiss person, so I realise that’s a generalisation, but it was sour-faced waiters, unfriendly locals and pretty furious people everywhere we went. I have no idea why, since it’s such a beautiful, efficient, wealthy nation. The only other friendly people we met were football fans from other nations. Clearly, the Swiss didn’t embrace having an international sporting event in the same way as other places I have been for sport.

Paris - Absolutely overrated
tenerife - bored out of my mind but that could have been because of who I went with
vienna - I felt intimidated and unsafe
New York - I felt let down. Dirty and rude people everywhere

I liked Dublin 👍 ok there are some grotty bits but there are loads of museums, art galleries, history walk tours ..loads of things to see ! Trinity college and the book of Kells was great 👍 Guinness experience was funny and cool. EPIC museum about the Emigration and the Famine😢 was brilliantly done.

Gibraltar.. forced to go by circumstances in twenties, bit of a dump

I agree with you about the mosquitoes - we go to Mallorca a lot and it is the worst part of the island for bites. I got out of the car to go for a quick walk to see a monastery there, looked down and 5 were already feasting on my thigh. Gave up and went home for an antihistamine.

I have been reading this thread and thought I have enjoyed everywhere I have been on holiday, even a grotty caravan park, with open sewers in Ingomells 60 odd years ago, then I remembered Tunisia 1981! It was an incentive holiday my DH won through his work. So 50 odd people, couples and families from the same company, in a high quality hotel North of Tunis. Breakfast was madiera cake and fig jam, dinner was Tunisian cuisine, which the kids in the party hated. Fortunately at lunch the pool bar served pizza and burgers. Every trip out involved waiting for busses which often didn't turn up, and if they did were late. Trip into Tunis, being groped in the souks, beggers with limbs missing, roadside stalls selling none refrigerated meat covered in flies. When we entered our room and put the light on, cockroaches scurrying for cover. Visited Carthage which was like walking round a building site. No local shops to buy essentials for the children such as nappies.We were there for two weeks, after 3 or 4 days serious meetings organised with the agent who took us there, and they ending up finding somewhere to get essentials such as breakfast cereal, and shipped loads of boxes in so the children had something to eat. We had no DCs at the time but I was 3 months pregnant. The travel company who organised trips for our company had done loads before, all really goid, but they got this one seriously wrong. The Hotek was The Baie des Singes, and was really aimed at French business customers, so little English spoken, and no facilities for family holiday makers. But the country was a right dump.

We were on holiday in the 70s in the Italian Lakes. At the time the UK was known as the sick man of Europe. Day trip to St Moritz. We were refused service in a tobacconist and the assistant made it perfectly clear that it was because we were British. That was a good day trip. The bus stopped to show us where Mussolini was strung up and shot.

I was travelling with the Netherlands team, so I'm not sure the Brits abroad theory holds water in my case

So its
my own country. My beloved Scotland. And I’m just so let down at the amount of litter and crap being left on the streets in the countryside, tourist areas and natural wild spots. It’s bad enough in the cities where the rubbish is overflowing with bad council decisions. But this is just awful. Beautiful places we advertise as world class spots, sitting with plastic bottles, McDonalds wrappings, crisps etc. it’s honestly just awful just now. Lazy folk and it’s not just tourists, and no there shouldn’t be bins provided (ie someone moaned there should be his at the devils pulpit) just take ur shite back with u please.

Awww thank u!!!!!!!
I swear I am surrounded in work and out with people obsessed with Tenerife. Buy houses, holiday every time they are off. All
rhey speak about bla bla. I swear I spent 3 days there and other that the laughs I had with my friends it was the most BORING place I’ve even been to. I’m telling u I’m well travelled and I wouldn’t go back even for free. What a disappointment sorry Tenerife lovers I love beaches sea and islands but I accept it might just be me but I just didn’t get this one :(

Ah, I loved Gibraltar! I went with a friend in March and it was so interesting and beautiful. We walked all over so got loads of steps in too.

I don’t remember Prague that fondly BUT I was away with a boyfriend who was a bit of a waste of space (we split up two months later).

I think the Swiss consider themselves superior to everyone else, unless you are hiding your money in their banks.