Most disappointing holiday/tourist destination/attractions?
Discussion
I think I’d like Vegas less if I went with just my Mrs but we go with friends every 2 years. Last time there were 11 of us and it was brilliant. Yeah the beggars and street performers can be a bit full on you just have to be equally forceful back. You can’t complain about getting ripped off in a taxi if you’re daft enough to get into a taxi in Vegas. Use Uber or Lyft, they’re practically free.
My most overrated visits have been Marrakech which is a colossal s
t hole and Graceland which is a small badly decorated house. The only saving grace (pun intended) is his car collection.
My most overrated visits have been Marrakech which is a colossal s
t hole and Graceland which is a small badly decorated house. The only saving grace (pun intended) is his car collection.hoegaardenruls said:
it's possible to catch a lot of the sights in Turin just by using locations from the Italian Job.
I did this aged 19 - went for a few days on my own (my first and last solo holiday) and just wandered around the sites. I stayed in a cheaper hotel than the Lingotto, but persuaded the receptionist to let me up to the track! The Palavela (the other building they drive onto) was looking very sad and dilapidated when I visited, but I hear it was renovated for the 2006 Winter Olympics and is now in regular use.edit: Back on topic, The Taj Mahal is great, but Agra around it is the s
ttiest sthole I've ever been to. The whole place reeked of sewage.Edited by schmunk on Tuesday 20th February 15:05
Rider007 said:
Absolutely love HK. Bustling markets ,food ranging from street food to Michelin restaurants. Excellent transport (trams, buses, subway, ferries ). Victoria peak views, laser show of the skyscrapers at night. Racing at Hong Kong jockey club. Vodka Martini's at the Peninsula hotel. Hydrofoil over to Macau for the casinos. Lamma Island. Excellent expat community. Cooler than Singapore which I wasn't really impressed with apart from Marina Bay Sands.
I quite like Singapore but it’s a bit sterile. It’s basically Hong Kong without all the naughty bits. For me was visiting the Pyramids. I had this image of being in the middle of the desert and mystical, totally changed as I was sat in KFC 100ms away scoffing a burger. Dirty, smelt of horse piss and too many "you come see my cousins shop!", wish I'd never been.
Oh yeah and Paris, never want to back there again, expensive sthole.
Oh yeah and Paris, never want to back there again, expensive s
thole.Edited by Fluffsri on Tuesday 20th February 15:10
Fluffsri said:
For me was visiting the Pyramids. I had this image of being in the middle of the desert and mystical, totally changed as I was sat in KFC 100ms away scoffing a burger. Dirty, smelt of horse piss and too many "you come see my cousins shop!", wish I'd never been.
Oh yeah and Paris, never want to back there again, expensive sthole.
The pyramids are a bit like the Taj, a diamond in the rough. Standing before them if you block out the fast food restaurants, litter, smell, hawkers etc and just focus on what an incredible feat of engineering they are you can get lost in awe. Until a carrier bag blows across the sand and get stuck on your leg.Oh yeah and Paris, never want to back there again, expensive s
thole.Edited by Fluffsri on Tuesday 20th February 15:10
I agree with the above comment Agra is a f
king dump. In fact I have had my view of India forever tainted by Agra and Delhi, what horrid places they are, I couldn’t wait to leave.Fluffsri said:
Oh yeah and Paris, never want to back there again, expensive sthole
I liked Paris (but not Cairo). thole I really like boat trips and the ones down the Seine are excellent, the architecture and history on the river are stunning, the Louvre is great as are the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.
Obviously there are drawbacks in the traffic and the thieves and jihadist terrorists but i think it’s a great city for a weekend break.
El stovey said:
I quite like Singapore but it’s a bit sterile. It’s basically Hong Kong without all the naughty bits.
There's plenty of naughty bits in Singapore - but it's reasonably well hidden behind the Govt-sponsored 'perfectly integrated crime-free society' veneer. I quite liked it there, especially the weather and the food, but after 2 years residency, I was going stir-crazy - it is indeed, quite sterile, 'Asia-Lite, if you will. I think Hong Kong is legendary - taking a Star across the harbour is utterly amazing, and I've had some monumental nights out there too. Food is also wonderful, and I love the buzz, the 'edge', the character. Arrival is not quite the same nowadays though, no longer landing at Kai Tak.I love Paris, New York and Hong Kong. They are three examples of great world cities, each with its own unique atmosphere and great restaurants, hotels and bars.
I don't like Dubai. It's mostly too hot, entirely geared towards driving, unsettling in its artificiality and alcohol is grossly overpriced. Muscat though, is lovely.
Cairo is mostly nasty with abysmal food, but Tunis is much better, still dirty, but with much better food and culture.
I don't mind Naples, but you have to be careful there and know some locals.
Monaco is the most overrated place on the planet. It's a nasty, cramped, overpriced sthole. There are so many much nicer places either side in France and Italy. The only reason to be there is as a tax-exile.
I don't like Dubai. It's mostly too hot, entirely geared towards driving, unsettling in its artificiality and alcohol is grossly overpriced. Muscat though, is lovely.
Cairo is mostly nasty with abysmal food, but Tunis is much better, still dirty, but with much better food and culture.
I don't mind Naples, but you have to be careful there and know some locals.
Monaco is the most overrated place on the planet. It's a nasty, cramped, overpriced s
thole. There are so many much nicer places either side in France and Italy. The only reason to be there is as a tax-exile.captain_cynic said:
had ham said:
On a personal level, as a place I'd nominate Las Vegas - was expecting it to be far more fun - instead I found it dirty, trashy, and pretty horrific
Vegas isn't dirty by a long shot, or even remotely trashy these days. It's a family destination, the only thing it's missing is a Disneyland. It's not been "sin city" for some time and is now just an alter to consumerism.OK, North LV and Henderson are pretty dodgy, but that's the same with all American cities as they like to shove all the poor and ethnics into quarters.
However the things worth in Las Vegas are outside of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon, Mt Charleston and the like.
For me, I hate so-called party destinations, Ibiza, Bali, Tijuana. Mostly because of the type of people that congregate there.
if you want it to be it can be easily carnage. having organized a stag there despite being a number of times before, my eyes were opened to what was on offer by Vegas Jeff! I would never take my future kids there (god willing), but would go with the GF and not just mates, and it can definitely be a place for things other than just partying but that aspect is still very much there.
i don't get people who say LV is tame/boring. i would say you need good budget to get the best out of it and a certain amount of money that you are prepared to write off whilst there. that said you need a certain mindset to enjoy the phoniness of it. take it for what it is a crazy place that shouldn't be there and is completely fake. my first experience of it was sams town rv park and then casino. i though it was horrendous, old people in slippers, dressing gowns some pushing there intravenous drip trolleys around the casino. then i saw the strip for the first time and hit the BJ tables in the wynn and sams town was a distant grim memory.
vixen1700 said:
All this hate for Blackpool. 
Had two weeks up there when I was 18 in 1985 and it was a great drink/shag fest with some lovely Northern lasses.
Plus a quick walk round the TVR factory seeing the 350is being built.
Seriously, what's not to like?
The question i have of Blackpool is what were you expecting!? Had two weeks up there when I was 18 in 1985 and it was a great drink/shag fest with some lovely Northern lasses.
Plus a quick walk round the TVR factory seeing the 350is being built.
Seriously, what's not to like?
how can you be disappointed in what is widely known to be a dump?!
Been there once driving through for a look having been in the ribble valley cycling and once for a weekend with mates for the darts at the winter gardens.
hilarious nights out as a southerner (almost as good as bolton), reflex was legendary, the northern women are very friendly and seem to love a southern accent almost as much as the yanks do.
the place itself is a windy dump (but not really than most other old British seaside resorts) and the guesthouse we were in was the worst place i have ever stayed apart from one in Len's (that i chickened out of staying in in the end), but its quite amusing in a watching northern landwhales on holiday perspective much as i imagine Southend, Clacton, Walton etc would be for northerners.
cbmotorsport said:
LordHaveMurci said:
Padstow.
Agreed. So many nice parts of Cornwall, why you'd go there more than once in your life I don't know. It's perennially popular though. in the off season/non school holidays without the crush its ok, but still its character is gone - most of the interesting independent shops gone replaced by poncey shops, chains etc
Kermit power said:
First one for me is Florence. That's possibly a bit unfair on Florence, but of all the places I went to on business over the course of a decade of very frequent travel, that was the one which was completely and utterly over-hyped by everyone I mentioned it to before going. The Ponte Vecchio and the Cathedral square were OK, but I was expecting so much from the way everyone had reacted to mention of the place that it was probably never going to be able to live up to it.
We went to Tuscany on our honeymoon and stayed in the hills outside Lucca which is an utterly beautiful town which seems to have escaped the tourists fortunately.Had day trips to both Florence and Pisa on the train. My abiding memory of Florence is how dirty it was. I was very underwhelmed too.
And Pisa was a big let down too. The nearest train station is basically some railway sidings! And you have to walk through some sort of business park to reach the tower, where you're immediately assaulted by a thousand hawkers trying to sell s
te. Very disappointing.I can wholeheartedly recommend Lucca and a nearby spa town called Montecatini though. And the museum at Vinci was good too (and, fortunately, very quiet when we went).
Joey Deacon said:
Girlfriend and I have both agreed that neither of us ever want to go back to Paris.
Las Vegas has got worse in the last few years, it seems to me that people are trying to rip you off more than ever. Taxi driver from the airport to the Wynn charged me $45 and then turned his nose up when I gave him a $50. It had been 12 years since I had last been and I thought it wasn't the right way but was not sure enough to question.
Streets are full of "street entertainers" who just want your money plus I was constantly asked for money by people who had hard luck stories and needed "$10 for gas". I think Las Vegas is really struggling and the people are getting more and more desperate which just puts people off from going back there due to being ripped off.
On the way to Vegas we had some time so popped into Hollywood to see Hollywood Boulevard. What an absolute dump, seriously a place where you do not feel safe walking the streets.
LV is booming again. development is all go at North end of strip and even gaming revenues are up.Las Vegas has got worse in the last few years, it seems to me that people are trying to rip you off more than ever. Taxi driver from the airport to the Wynn charged me $45 and then turned his nose up when I gave him a $50. It had been 12 years since I had last been and I thought it wasn't the right way but was not sure enough to question.
Streets are full of "street entertainers" who just want your money plus I was constantly asked for money by people who had hard luck stories and needed "$10 for gas". I think Las Vegas is really struggling and the people are getting more and more desperate which just puts people off from going back there due to being ripped off.
On the way to Vegas we had some time so popped into Hollywood to see Hollywood Boulevard. What an absolute dump, seriously a place where you do not feel safe walking the streets.
where did you walk in hollywood not to feel safe? certain back streets yes but in the day it seemed fine
At present,RAF museum Hendon.
Took my grandson there last half term ,even at 10 years old he is an authority on war planes. And was bursting with expectation as what he would be seeing.
So it was with great disappointment we found only 1 major display hall open. The other 2 important display halls were closed for rearrangement ,no mention on museum web site .
A total let down
Took my grandson there last half term ,even at 10 years old he is an authority on war planes. And was bursting with expectation as what he would be seeing.
So it was with great disappointment we found only 1 major display hall open. The other 2 important display halls were closed for rearrangement ,no mention on museum web site .
A total let down
cbmotorsport said:
theplayingmantis said:
it was nice when i was a kid, before all you c***s saw Ricky Stein on tv and came and ruined it for the rest of us!
i like Ricky but he has ruined/changed padstow's character completely.
Yes, it was lovely in 1954, I'm sure. i like Ricky but he has ruined/changed padstow's character completely.
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