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.

The entire U.S. isn’t violent, racist, tacky, ignorant, etc. 🙄 🎨 🖌️

San Sebastian
Lisbon
Manchester
Belfast

Sydney is the best and most beautiful city in the world

I was underwhelmed by Iceland.

Luxembourg was not what I’d expected, in a good way.

Turkey

Oh no, why ? ( I’m supposed to be going there soon).

I refuse to visit under Erdogan, he will not get one penny of my money via tax nor patronage.

Florence: hot and cramped, or pouring with rain, overly ornate cathedrals, tour bookings made and accepted for dates places were not open to public, mediocre food everywhere we ate.

This thread is brilliant 😂 The amount of people writing off entire countries from a holiday…

I honestly can’t think of anywhere I’ve been that was a let down. No where is perfect but in defence of some of the places mentioned…

San Francisco - visited in 2000 and again a few years ago - yes homelessness and mental health crisis has exploded and it’s evident in many parts of the city (and throughout California from my experience) but it’s still a fabulous place to visit and we had a great time both times.

LA - love it - big dirty, overwhelming city but what a place! It’s like all cities, there are some bits you want to avoid and some places which I’d happily live in.

Vegas - I’m not sure what people expect! It’s the tackiest place I’ve ever been with an undercurrent of sleaze everywhere you go but we all know that’s what Vegas is right…? It’s Sin City!

NYC, Florence, Paris, Rome, Naples - love them all. They’re cities, not tourist resorts.

Ibiza & Majorca - beautiful islands if you stay away from the big resorts.

Gotta stick up for the Canary Islands too - they’re formed from volcanoes, they’re going to feel a bit barren and think almost anything you read about the Canary Islands tells you that in the first paragraph…I think the black lava fields in Lanzarote and the sand dunes in Gran Canaria are stunning.

And the person who said that they didn’t see what the fuss was about Edinburgh…totally agree, it was much better when we weren’t overrun by TikTokkers 😉

Milton Keynes. I ended up having to travel there with work over the course of three years and I had no expectation by my god, the soulessness of the place was stark. Nothing felt like it had naturally evolved, it had all just been plonked there at the same time, grid upon grid of housing. Even the 'city centre' was nothing more than a retail park. Satan let loose with lego bricks.

Overly ornate Cathedrals? What?!

Paris just dirty and constantly had people trying to sell us stuff. What I hated the most was seeing all the love locks on the bridge.

I visited Amsterdam recently for the first time many, many years. I actually thought the place had been cleaned up, sanitised a lot, particularly in the red light district which is now a sort of unthreatening touristy sex-based theme park.

Back in the mid 90s it really was properly seedy, and a real eye-opener with anything & everything openly on sale, which of course was a big part of the attraction. I was very pissed off to see that my favourite coffee shop in the heart of the RLD is now a burger bar. 😠

Glad you love it, really. Just didn’t do it for us. The opera house was surprisingly fly small and dibghly grey. We’d always imagined big and white, much lauded waterfront was mediocre, too.

Isle of Wight. Don't get me wrong,it is a beautiful place,but I didn't realise that there were so many very steep hills! Partly my own fault I suppose,I should have done more research (being disabled with mobility issues). But I don't recall anything that I read about it mentioning that it could be VERY hilly on many parts of the island. On the plus side though,I came home after a week not having gained any weight at all! It's not unusual for me to put on between 5 and 7 lbs normally. Its all Premier Inns fault with their buffet breakfast

I've lived in both New York and San Francisco; these cities have experienced extreme and quick changes which make them prime targets for "not living up to the hype". I do see perceptible shifts in cities elsewhere too, but I think that US cities are especially prone to quick and really dramatic, wide-reaching changes (I'd say fundamentally different from London and Glasgow, where I have also lived), perhaps because of the outsized influence of the mayor of the city in a US context. On the plus side, things can also dramatically improve - but it's important to do very current research if you go.

RE shit(e) in the streets in San Francisco, I unfortunately can believe it because I have witnessed it - in December 2016, seeing someone shit(e) on the CalTrain platform and then wipe the shit(e) all over every available sign so they could not be read. I'd never seen that when I lived there (1998 to 2013) and I am not sure I would have believed a story about it from a stranger. There were at the time serious unaddressed mental health issues operating, as well as misguided political protests and periodic instructions to police to disengage, among other dynamics.

Again, this is diametrically opposed to my experiences of Florence! I've been lucky to visit 5 times over the years

My first visit - it was the very first place I ever went to apart from 2 package holidays with my parents. I was studying art & i was 20 years old & quite honestly thought i had literally died & gone to heaven. It was unnaturally beautiful to me.

It was a total light bulb moment where I realised these places from books were real & I could visit them - it was possible! I grew up working class & places like Florence were not on the radar really

That trip started a love affair with Italy that has lasted 35 years now. I was in Florence most recently last year with friends & we had the most marvellous time! Neither of them had been before so it was wonderful for me to have the fun of seeing it all through their eyes for the first time.

I spent my 40th in Paris & my 50th in Florence!

I simply don't understand how anyone could fail to be wowed by it.

Honestly this thread is making me laugh now! Surely people cannot be serious ??!

Paris.

Dominican Republic - Felt cheap & nasty, was glad to come home
Tunisia - A few years ago, a prevailing atmosphere of tension.
Lanzarote - Not my thing

But I've travelled a lot so only three failures is not a bad ratio.

Malta for sure. Don't get the love for it. Barren, humid as F, not pretty at all apart from the lagoon.
Manhattan... a bit of a letdown but probably more because of who I was with. I'd like to go again alone

LA/ Hollywood.. been twice.. just dull and dirty... everything so spread out...

Sydney I was bored with but love Melbourne.
Perth is fairly souless and I've spent a lot of time there

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.

Paris. I always want to love it but it's running out of chances. People are just so rude.

Love Athens. Have maybe been 10 times (dh work).