Overrated holiday destinations - Vacation spots that didn't live up to the hype

[TheImportantFart]

Have you ever been on holiday somewhere everyone keeps telling you to go and then you arrive and it's actually really fucking lame? I have. Lots of times. Let me tell you about some of them:

Dubai

Fuck Dubai. Someone once described it as Canary Wharf with beaches and they were spot on. Setting aside the moral dubiousness of going to one of the most repressive Islamic countries in the world and treating it like the party capital of the Middle East, if you're not there to party Dubai is the most boring place on the planet.

Have you ever seen that episode of Spongebob where Mr Krabs retires and you see him doing all those things you do when you retire, and then it cuts to later and he says: "Well, I've done everything I wanted to do. And it's not even noon." No quote more accurately sums up my trip to Dubai than that. The only remotely fun thing I found to do there was the Wild Wadi water park which I had to do twice to stop myself from going insane, and even then there are much better water parks elsewhere (the Wild Wadi only has three good slides).

It's not even good for shopping - there's nothing you can buy there you can't buy in the UK or US cheaper. And Scuba Diving's a bust because there's bugger all to see in the waters around Dubai. If I want an indoor ski slope, I'll go to the one at Milton Keynes, or better yet, just go on a skiing holiday. It'll be a much more worthwhile use of your time.

Someone I know's Dad retired from being a corporate lawyer to become an author. He wrote a book which was published, then missed a deadline for the second causing him to get dropped by his publisher meaning he had to go back to being a corporate lawyer. Working in Dubai. My heart bleeds daily for that poor, poor guy.

Paris

The city of love? Huh! More like the city of shove! Geddit? Because everyone's so rude there and they shove you?... I'll show myself out.

I've been to Paris twice and the second time I ended up going home early. Like I said above, everyone's incredibly rude, you can't walk anywhere without being engulfed in cigarette smoke, and the fact you're now at serious risk of getting blown up by kebabs makes it even less attractive.

Paris is never a good idea.

Rome

Rome has a lot of the same problems as Paris, with the added issues of being hot, smelly and cramped. To be fair, I might not be judging Rome fairly since I went there on a school trip and stayed in a run-down hotel sharing a room with a guy who snored like a stuck pig and sweated like one too.

That doesn't excuse the fact that as I mentioned above, it's a dirty hellhole crammed full of perverts. One of the female teachers on our trip was constantly having her arse smacked and pinched by marauding Dagos. But for all that, at least you can get around Rome without too much trouble, unlike...

Venice

Venice has a lot of the same problems as Rome but with the added issue that if you want to get around the city you can either go on the water bus which takes forever to get anywhere, or you can hop into a water taxi and pay a flat rate of sixty euros to get where you want at your leisure.

I don't know if I was unlucky, but when I visited I was unable to find any of the famous food I'd heard so much about and the most interesting piece of artwork I saw was some graffiti scrawled on a wall reading: "I NEED A FAT POO" (written in English for some odd reason). The only reason I can fathom why Lord Byron loved the city so much is because he was off his head on drugs the whole time.

If you want to go to Italy, there are much nicer places to see - go to Tuscany or Naples or the Adriatic Coast, they're all beautiful. They're also much easier on your wallet. Do not waste your time with Sink City and Here Lies Julius Caesar.

So those are my stories about trips to overrated destinations. Tell me about some of yours.

 

[The Fifth Waltz]

I've only been to two states just outside my province.
Anyways, I live near Banff, Jasper etc. and I hate driving through there so much. People pulling over to look at mountain sheep, people taking selfies with a bear, white suburban moms doing yoga poses over cliffsides and overbooked camping.

 

[Cato]

I second Paris as an overrated destination. But my dislike of that city has less to do with the rudeness and more to do with how absolutely filthy it is. I'm not exaggerating when I say I was stepping around dog shit, piles of garbage, homeless people on mattresses, and even used sanitary napkins (yes really) walking around there. You're right about the shoving though; their metro stations especially are a goddamn mosh pit and I was taken aback by the lack of etiquette there.

I disagree with you about Rome and Venice. Especially the comment about taking forever to get anywhere in Venice if you don't pay for slow and overpriced waterbuses--I got around Venice completely on foot and it is an incredibly fun city to get lost in (and not difficult to navigate by map if you would prefer to get around efficiently).

As for destinations you didn't mention, I would say that Berliners make Parisians seem polite. There is an old joke that if you ask a Berliner if they know what time it is, they will respond "yes" and then walk away from you without another word. Berliners--even those in the hospitality industry--make an effort to be as unhelpful and snarky as possible, and have taken being "counter-cultural" and "anti-authoritarian" to extreme of an Eric Cartman "whatever, I do what I want" attitude, and they will aggressively assert that this isn't "rudeness" and if you don't "get it" you are just an idiot and don't understand Berlin culture. The government even launched a campaign a few years back to try to get customer service and public sector employees to be more professional and polite because the city was getting such a bad reputation among tourists for unpleasant locals.

 

[ES 148]

I've only been to two states just outside my province.
Anyways, I live near Banff, Jasper etc. and I hate driving through there so much. People pulling over to look at mountain sheep, people taking selfies with a bear, white suburban moms doing yoga poses over cliffsides and overbooked camping.

I've been to Banff in Scotland and it's very nice but afaik it isn't a holiday destination


anyhow I live in an overrated holiday destination, like most of the coastal UK (except banff, rip)

 

[Cato]

I've been to Banff in Scotland and it's very nice but afaik it isn't a holiday destination

Banff, Alberta, Canada is very much a tourist trap.

 

[dunbrine47]

Only thing that comes close to "overrated" to me is Texas; even though a lot of it had to do with mishaps and lack of time.

 

[James Howlett]

Sidney, Australia. The Opera House isn't all that well kept, it's kinda weird. It's like San Francisco but event more expensive, even after the exchange rate. A pack of cigarettes costs like $15. There's a mall every 4 blocks, and it's always ass to crotch with asians. The beach was meh and so was the outback. Like, you could do California or Utah and get the same experience for less than half the cost, and skip the fucking 18 hour plane flight across the international date line.

 

[Raging Capybara]

Hell de Janeiro.

Actually, any third-world shithole.

 

[UselessRubberKeyboard]

Prague. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely beautiful, and a great city to walk around and stare at pretty old buildings. Just don't expect to be able to afford anything if you find places like Paris or London expensive, because every.single.place in the city centre is a tourist trap.

If you're looking for beautiful old buildings and culture, as well as good prices and an interesting nightlife, go to Olomouc. Sure, it's not Prague, but there's a shitton going on and you can afford to get pissed every night.

What's the name of the place where Ben Nevis is in Scotland? Don't go there. Every shop is a camping and climbing outfitter or an overpriced gastropub. Go to Ullapool instead. And for fuck's sake, try the fish (and chips).

 

[Cato]

Prague. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely beautiful, and a great city to walk around and stare at pretty old buildings. Just don't expect to be able to afford anything if you find places like Paris or London expensive, because every.single.place in the city centre is a tourist trap.

Huh? If you simply walk two blocks off of the major tourist trails, everything is a fraction of the price you'd pay anywhere in Paris or London. That option doesn't exist in those other cities.

 

[Derp Potato]

Disneyland.

Overpriced. Crowded. Stuck in Anaheim which is complete shit to begin with.

But there is a bomb af Italian place down the street called Mama Cozza's that serves meatball pizza.

Really, any SoCal spot. Gotta plan your day around rush hour traffic which, last time I was there, from about 2pm to 6pm.

 

[TheImportantFart]

Disneyland.

I was going to put Disneyland Paris in the OP, but that's not an overrated holiday destination - everyone knows it's shit.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I would love to see you write as a correspondent for some travel website.

I mean, I know it was kind of done with "An Idiot Abroad", but that shit is always funny to me.

The only time I was out of the USA was during a cruise to Bermuda. We were only in Bermuda for 2 half days and one full day, but on the full day it was the Queen's birthday, so everything was closed. There didn't seem to be much to do there, but I'm sure that's partly because of the holiday.

 

[TheClorax]

Disneyland.

Overpriced. Crowded. Stuck in Anaheim which is complete shit to begin with.

But there is a bomb af Italian place down the street called Mama Cozza's that serves meatball pizza.

Really, any SoCal spot. Gotta plan your day around rush hour traffic which, last time I was there, from about 2pm to 6pm.

Went there for the first week of Summer Vacation last year as a very late Christmas Present. I had a good time. Of course we gave extra shillings for the E-Ticket Lounge just so we didn’t have to spend more money on food.
The trick is to go while most people still have school (which we had done). It’s not completely empty, and there are still plenty of lines, but compared to what it’s like during Summer...
As for overpriced, yeah. Any place attracting tourists will jack up the price tags.

As for overrated destinations. I’d probably say Yellowstone. I guess I’m probably saying that because I live so close to it, and my folks go there every year, but really. We get morons who can’t read the signs and get animals killed constantly. Traffic goes through the roof. All just to go to a forest that smells like bad eggs and some hot water.

 

[drtoboggan]

All of them.

 

[Cable 7]

I'd say the type of person you are, what you'd like to see, where you stay, and who you meet can really affect the holiday destination you go to.
But if there was a truly overrated place to go to, I'd say it's Los Angeles.
Scorching weather, droves of idiots, adn really not that much to see if you're someone who doesn't care about the celeberty lifestyle. It's really a waste.

 

[mulliganfarmer]

Gran Canaria. Soulless, culture-free, ugly as sin and had this kind of strange aura like you had simultaneously gone forward and back in time. English tourists sitting in bar chairs looking like they had been born in that one spot, aged and would die there. It was weird.

The hotel we stayed in was dire, decrepit and falling apart. No wifi to speak of so had to use my data to keep the kids I was there to look after amused at night. Events every night down at the pool were mostly enthusiastic students trying desperately to engage the people on the sun loungers who wouldn't even look up if they'd set themselves on fire. Thumping eurobeat music every night until the wee hours of the morning. That time of year the weather was not that warm and the pools weren't heated, and in the gift shop they sold inflatable pool toys that the kids weren't allowed use in the pool.

If I hadn't been brought along for free I would never have agreed to go.

 

[TiggerNits]

Paris is awful, doubly so when the season isn't mid Spring or late Autumn.

Cairo is a shithole of epic proportions and the best place to photograph the pyramids is on top of a fucking KFC facing them

Cape Town is the least terrible place in South Africa meaning it would at best be the 4th best place in some flyover state hell hole

Jamaica and most of the Caribbean islands in general are on par with Mexico and the rest of the bad parts of Latin America. Somehow smells worse than anywhere in Eastern Europe

Rio is gross

Everything from the Bay Area through to Vancouver needs to be nuked out of existence

Vegas is goddamed awful and if you want to waste money and get a tug job from a hooker with brown skin that barely understands English you're better off going to an Indian casino and going after the least chubby drunk Indian chick

Temecula is filled with people who make the stereotypical LA snob look like a fucking saint and anyone who can tie their shoes look like a Rhode
scholar

Toronto is just Taiwan with chubbier broads and shittier weather

 

[TheImportantFart]

The only time I was out of the USA was during a cruise to Bermuda. We were only in Bermuda for 2 half days and one full day, but on the full day it was the Queen's birthday, so everything was closed. There didn't seem to be much to do there, but I'm sure that's partly because of the holiday.

Bermuda's an absolutely beautiful island, one of my favourite places I've ever been, but there isn't much to do there, mainly because it's tiny. I would love to go back there because I enjoy the quaint, tranquil atmosphere, but I've already visited once and did pretty much everything there was to do.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Bermuda's an absolutely beautiful island, one of my favourite places I've ever been, but there isn't much to do there, mainly because it's tiny. I would love to go back there because I enjoy the quaint, tranquil atmosphere, but I've already visited once and did pretty much everything there was to do.

We did the swimming with the dolphins and SNUBA diving (which is different from SCUBA). Ya know, typical touristy stuff. I enjoy what little time we spent there, though. Again, I wish we had more time there when everything was open, but I got no complaints other than that.