Page 26 | Places that were a let down

DarcyDear · 2025-08-15T13:07:01+00:00

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.

LillyPJ · 17/08/2025 18:06

crazeekat · 17/08/2025 17:19

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 :(

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The north coast of Tenerife is fabulous - lots of interesting places there.

Abhannmor · 17/08/2025 18:10

Ponoka7 · 17/08/2025 14:21

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.

Dublin has oodles of beaches. Booterstown ,Howth , Seapoint , Sandycove , Killiney. Probably missed some. Hills too. You don't have to get wasted / ripped off in Temple Bar with all the yanks , Aussies , Brits on the piss hen and stag parties. Same applies to Prague and Berlin. Or anywhere really. Bit of research.

pinotnow · 17/08/2025 18:11

One thing that surprised me about NYC - the fresh produce. You know how you walk into a European market or supermarket and are wowed by the gleaming piles of tomatoes and peppers etc and they just seem bigger, fresher and juicier than the ones we have here ? I didn't really associate that with America and didn't remember it from my previous visit, but this year the supermarket opposite our hotel had exactly that. So many types of tomatoes all piled up and then round the corner rows and rows of ridiculous things like peanut butter jelly spread in a squeezy tube. Just everything you could want, whatever floats your boat. Not cheap any of it, but not as expensive as I had been led to believe either.

PerspicaciaTick · 17/08/2025 18:40

Can I add Southwold. Very expensive and almost impossible to find anywhere to eat of an evening as most places seemed to shut at 4pm and only open for evening service a couple of random times a week. Definitely a place for a day trip but I wouldn't holiday there again.

BitOutOfPractice · 17/08/2025 19:27

PerspicaciaTick · 17/08/2025 18:40

Can I add Southwold. Very expensive and almost impossible to find anywhere to eat of an evening as most places seemed to shut at 4pm and only open for evening service a couple of random times a week. Definitely a place for a day trip but I wouldn't holiday there again.

I love Southwold but agree. Apart from a couple of pubs its closed by 8pm

mumtumfun · 17/08/2025 19:35

NYC been three times. As a londoner i found it not a patch on it

Tel Aviv- everyone was so rude!

most French ski resorts - underwhelming and too crowded

mumtumfun · 17/08/2025 19:37

pinotnow · 17/08/2025 18:11

One thing that surprised me about NYC - the fresh produce. You know how you walk into a European market or supermarket and are wowed by the gleaming piles of tomatoes and peppers etc and they just seem bigger, fresher and juicier than the ones we have here ? I didn't really associate that with America and didn't remember it from my previous visit, but this year the supermarket opposite our hotel had exactly that. So many types of tomatoes all piled up and then round the corner rows and rows of ridiculous things like peanut butter jelly spread in a squeezy tube. Just everything you could want, whatever floats your boat. Not cheap any of it, but not as expensive as I had been led to believe either.

I agree - when I visited the states i wasn’t prepared for the sheer variety and volume of fresh produce. But now I find it just excessive and a bit gross how wasteful it must be

mumtumfun · 17/08/2025 19:39

BitOutOfPractice · 17/08/2025 16:36

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.

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Sigh yes - Swiss don’t like foreigners really at all

mumtumfun · 17/08/2025 19:41

Lincslady53 · 17/08/2025 17:06

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.

So basically you went to a poor country (it was very poor in 1981) and you were disappointed it was poor?

Crikeyalmighty · 17/08/2025 22:01

@Jerseycreamtea I went to Vienna for new year last year and really enjoyed it - didn’t find it remotely threatening I must admit

Crikeyalmighty · 17/08/2025 22:05

@crazeekat now I think Scotland is beautiful and I love the humour and find lots of Scot’s great , very savvy and astute, but I have to agree

somethingbeginningwithb · 18/08/2025 00:57

Baconking · 16/08/2025 06:14

Who goes on holiday to Milton Keynes?

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No one in their right mind 😂 The subject is 'places that were a let down' so I responded to that alone.
Talking specifically about holiday destinations: Tunisa and Niagara Falls.

somethingbeginningwithb · 18/08/2025 00:59

Meadowfinch · 16/08/2025 00:52

MK is the only town I used to get lost in every time I visited. I had a customer there before the days of satnav and always left an extra hour to find them. 😁

Despite their ghastly grid system, everywhere looked the same, every road, every junction. A town built to look like a maze. Thankfully nowhere else in the UK has been built on the same principle.

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I actually ended up dating a local when I was down there. Despite the fact he had lived there all of his life, he couldn't navigate his own city without a satnav as everything looked the same.

wavingfuriously · 18/08/2025 10:43

Abhannmor · 17/08/2025 18:10

Dublin has oodles of beaches. Booterstown ,Howth , Seapoint , Sandycove , Killiney. Probably missed some. Hills too. You don't have to get wasted / ripped off in Temple Bar with all the yanks , Aussies , Brits on the piss hen and stag parties. Same applies to Prague and Berlin. Or anywhere really. Bit of research.

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Agree. everyone who says they dislike Dublin doesn't know the real city. It's small, plenty to see, surrounded by interesting countryside. Friendly people, little bars playing real irish music here and there. Beautiful Phoenix park. Bet haters were all staying around Templebar area!😄

SarahAndQuack · 18/08/2025 11:07

wavingfuriously · 18/08/2025 10:43

Agree. everyone who says they dislike Dublin doesn't know the real city. It's small, plenty to see, surrounded by interesting countryside. Friendly people, little bars playing real irish music here and there. Beautiful Phoenix park. Bet haters were all staying around Templebar area!😄

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Yeah, but that's sort of the point ... I'm reading your post and yawning. Ok, if I were going to Reading and someone told me the main attractions were a beautiful park and interesting countryside (ie., an attraction outside the city itself ... so, not the city ...), I'd thank them politely and think it sounded ok for a middle-sized city with no particularly exciting reputation.

I sort of expected more from a capital city. And I think what jars is the way it bigs itself up, but then can't seem to live up to that.

Newname42 · 18/08/2025 11:15

Jerseycreamtea · 17/08/2025 16:42

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

Vienna unsafe? Compared to what, Vatican City? I’ve lived there for a few years, it’s so much safer than other capitals such as Paris, London, Amsterdam, Athens…

OneNeatBlueOrca · 18/08/2025 11:23

SarahAndQuack · 18/08/2025 11:07

Yeah, but that's sort of the point ... I'm reading your post and yawning. Ok, if I were going to Reading and someone told me the main attractions were a beautiful park and interesting countryside (ie., an attraction outside the city itself ... so, not the city ...), I'd thank them politely and think it sounded ok for a middle-sized city with no particularly exciting reputation.

I sort of expected more from a capital city. And I think what jars is the way it bigs itself up, but then can't seem to live up to that.

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Quite. Phoenix park is just that. A park.

Very flat with a zoo and some other stuff.

It's not that great for a capital city.

Piggywaspushed · 18/08/2025 11:41

I'm ambivalent towards Dublin. I found Amsterdam more of a let down.

I'd forgotten until someone mentioned it how awful a 'day trip' to Gibraltar from Spain is if you get stuck in a 3 hour queue to cross the border. And then the pace itself is not very exciting , other than to say you've been there. DH did misfuel the car on the way there which has coloured my experience. What I did learn from this, though, is not to mention to Spaniards near Gibraltar that this is where you were going!

Crikeyalmighty · 18/08/2025 11:43

@Newname42 I know it’s weird as I said below - went last new year . Loved the naschmarkt area and a great little vinyl cafe/bar we found - I could happily live there

Piggywaspushed · 18/08/2025 11:54

I asked my DSs who visit quite niche European cities and went interrailing last year.

Favourites were Budapest,which they loved, and now Belgrade (just come back)
Bucharest is nice to look at but apparently a ghost town.
Liked Paris and Geneva the least (they were v tired in Paris!)

Andorra is 'not worth the trip' other than to tick it off. Barcelona is OK but less solo traveller friendly.

DS1 has been to Split and Ljubljana and really liked both. Brasov was also good. I loved Dubrovnik when I went.

In the middle as kind of 'meh' are Milan and Vienna. Perhaps too expensive for young lads. They did go to football in Milan though so that made up for it.

NonHighStreetClothes · 18/08/2025 12:46

SarahAndQuack · 18/08/2025 11:07

Yeah, but that's sort of the point ... I'm reading your post and yawning. Ok, if I were going to Reading and someone told me the main attractions were a beautiful park and interesting countryside (ie., an attraction outside the city itself ... so, not the city ...), I'd thank them politely and think it sounded ok for a middle-sized city with no particularly exciting reputation.

I sort of expected more from a capital city. And I think what jars is the way it bigs itself up, but then can't seem to live up to that.

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I get it, you have a strong opinion on Dublin but what jars those of us who know it & love it is that your impression is not the reality we know.

The main attractions of Dublin are not the Phoenix Park or the surrounding countryside. They are components of what makes up the city.

At the end of the day its just a case of differences of taste & opinion.

But Dublin features so frequently on MN as a 'boring' city that it got me wondering what (mainly) British people feel its missing ?

Its a city with a medieval, viking & Georgian legacy.

It's a city full of literary & music history.

It has beautiful streets & squares as well as things to be expected in any capital city - national gallery, national theatre, national concert hall etc. It has parks - St Stephen's Green right in its heart. The Liffey running through it & two major canals - The Royal & Grand Canals. Dublin Bay is minutes away.

I'm heading there in September & really looking forward to it!

Philthefridge · 18/08/2025 12:49

I’ve loved both my (very different) trips to Dublin. I found it a great place to hang out, see stuff, eat and drink and go out with friends, and great access to the seaside. Living near Leeds, I’d put it over that great city for a weekend break myself!

wavingfuriously · 18/08/2025 14:21

NonHighStreetClothes · 18/08/2025 12:46

I get it, you have a strong opinion on Dublin but what jars those of us who know it & love it is that your impression is not the reality we know.

The main attractions of Dublin are not the Phoenix Park or the surrounding countryside. They are components of what makes up the city.

At the end of the day its just a case of differences of taste & opinion.

But Dublin features so frequently on MN as a 'boring' city that it got me wondering what (mainly) British people feel its missing ?

Its a city with a medieval, viking & Georgian legacy.

It's a city full of literary & music history.

It has beautiful streets & squares as well as things to be expected in any capital city - national gallery, national theatre, national concert hall etc. It has parks - St Stephen's Green right in its heart. The Liffey running through it & two major canals - The Royal & Grand Canals. Dublin Bay is minutes away.

I'm heading there in September & really looking forward to it!

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Agree with you👍 the history i learnt from attractions in Dublin was a complete eye-opener...Kilmainham Gaol for example..Trinity college was another..so beautiful.. and the advantage with its smallness is that you can easily walk everywhere😊

Crikeyalmighty · 18/08/2025 14:40

I had a perfectly good time in Dublin too and totally loved Dalkey which we went on the DART to -

Crikeyalmighty · 18/08/2025 14:42

I think one issue about Dublin is it looks very English ( not unlike say Liverpool or Bristol or Leeds) snd same chains and food etc , so it may be for a break it was just all ‘too’ familiar ‘ - doesn’t have an exotic feel and it rains ‘a lot’ - Asa place in its own right though I had a really good time ( been 3 times)