Place that didn't live up to expectations

[Anonymous]

Brussels (sleepy and lack of architectural cohesiveness)
Venice (witnessed a purse snatching in action)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything Disney
Charleston - I was shocked at how rude the people were
Madrid - but loved the rest of Spain
Toronto - definitely the low point of our trips to Canada - very dull compared to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver, and the countryside in Quebec and the Maritime provinces
Cities in Switzerland - very boring and sterile - countryside is gorgeous, though
Watkins Glen
Mackinac Island - everyone in Michigan raves about this place, but it is a big nothing. I would rather be in Flint
Costa Rica - Mexico, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil are far more interesting countries if you want to head south
Seattle - cold, unfriendly people and mediocre food
Austin, TX - so-called "music scene" is vastly overrated; traffic is horrible; it's not as liberal as people think it is
Aruba - absolutely nothing to do there once you want to do something other than lie on the beach

You sound fun.

Yes, I am a lot of fun. I love travel and have been to over 60 countries. The vast majority of the places I have been to, I have a great time. The topic is places that didn't live up to expectations. For several of these, I listed alternatives I liked better. The list of places that were a disappointment may be longer than other peoples ' list, but that's because I have been to a lot of places. If the topic was "places that lived up to/exceeded expectations", I could list over a hundred places, but that wasn't what was asked.

[Anonymous]

Austin. Ugly and boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything Disney
Charleston - I was shocked at how rude the people were
Madrid - but loved the rest of Spain
Toronto - definitely the low point of our trips to Canada - very dull compared to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver, and the countryside in Quebec and the Maritime provinces
Cities in Switzerland - very boring and sterile - countryside is gorgeous, though
Watkins Glen
Mackinac Island - everyone in Michigan raves about this place, but it is a big nothing. I would rather be in Flint
Costa Rica - Mexico, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil are far more interesting countries if you want to head south
Seattle - cold, unfriendly people and mediocre food
Austin, TX - so-called "music scene" is vastly overrated; traffic is horrible; it's not as liberal as people think it is
Aruba - absolutely nothing to do there once you want to do something other than lie on the beach

You sound fun.

Yes, I am a lot of fun. I love travel and have been to over 60 countries. The vast majority of the places I have been to, I have a great time. The topic is places that didn't live up to expectations. For several of these, I listed alternatives I liked better. The list of places that were a disappointment may be longer than other peoples ' list, but that's because I have been to a lot of places. If the topic was "places that lived up to/exceeded expectations", I could list over a hundred places, but that wasn't what was asked.

Is that supposed to be a lot?

[Anonymous]

You DCUMers are so pathetic. Tripping over yourselves , trying to brag and compete.

What a sad lot. Spend some of your millions on therapy, and maybe you can stop trying so hard.

[Anonymous]

I love Venice, Paris, NYC. Probably my 3 favorite cities in the world, for different reasons. The American south on the other hand….Disney and all the other places mentioned…

[Anonymous]

I don’t think I have been anywhere that has just been dreadful. Just a few things here and there that didn’t live up to expectations.

The Alamo - the slogan is the only memorable thing about it
The Grand Canyon - Much prettier and more accessible ones out there, such as Bryce
Carlsbad Caverns - was a letdown after Luray
Buenos Aires- Terrible food. How are these people not constipated?
Scottish Highlands - REALLY terrible food. And midges.
São Paulo - Felt unsafe, did not like the vibe
Mumbai- Filthy, crushing levels of poverty on display (similar to São Paulo), crowded
Tokyo - Also so very crowded, and there was something (especially about men) that was disconcerting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think I have been anywhere that has just been dreadful. Just a few things here and there that didn’t live up to expectations.

The Alamo - the slogan is the only memorable thing about it
The Grand Canyon - Much prettier and more accessible ones out there, such as Bryce
Carlsbad Caverns - was a letdown after Luray
Buenos Aires- Terrible food. How are these people not constipated?
Scottish Highlands - REALLY terrible food. And midges.
São Paulo - Felt unsafe, did not like the vibe
Mumbai- Filthy, crushing levels of poverty on display (similar to São Paulo), crowded
Tokyo - Also so very crowded, and there was something (especially about men) that was disconcerting

Also hated the Alamo. No basement, and I didn't find my bike!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think I have been anywhere that has just been dreadful. Just a few things here and there that didn’t live up to expectations.

The Alamo - the slogan is the only memorable thing about it
The Grand Canyon - Much prettier and more accessible ones out there, such as Bryce
Carlsbad Caverns - was a letdown after Luray
Buenos Aires- Terrible food. How are these people not constipated?
Scottish Highlands - REALLY terrible food. And midges.
São Paulo - Felt unsafe, did not like the vibe
Mumbai- Filthy, crushing levels of poverty on display (similar to São Paulo), crowded
Tokyo - Also so very crowded, and there was something (especially about men) that was disconcerting

Also hated the Alamo. No basement, and I didn't find my bike!

Didn’t think much o San Antonio overall. River walk is cute for an hour, but not much else going on in the city.

Was blown away by Scottish Highlands….so beautiful. The part we visited was pretty remote, so not a lot of restaurants. We were there for hiking and scenery and not food. Also love Grand Canyon. One of my favorite places. If you go to South Rim at peak tourist season, I could see not enjoying it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think I have been anywhere that has just been dreadful. Just a few things here and there that didn’t live up to expectations.

The Alamo - the slogan is the only memorable thing about it
The Grand Canyon - Much prettier and more accessible ones out there, such as Bryce
Carlsbad Caverns - was a letdown after Luray
Buenos Aires- Terrible food. How are these people not constipated?
Scottish Highlands - REALLY terrible food. And midges.
São Paulo - Felt unsafe, did not like the vibe
Mumbai- Filthy, crushing levels of poverty on display (similar to São Paulo), crowded
Tokyo - Also so very crowded, and there was something (especially about men) that was disconcerting

Also hated the Alamo. No basement, and I didn't find my bike!

omg lol- This made my day! I loved this movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the coast of Ireland - like all around the edges... but Dublin was just meh. I have family there and I enjoy them but I wouldn't do more than 2 days there without them. My expectations were probably too high. There's actually not that much to see.

I had no expectations of St Louis, MO but I absolutely hated every minute I was there.

Haha, Dublin was a place that I had absolutely no expectations for and I was blown away by how much I loved it!

+1 really enjoyed Dublin. Walking around and a bike tour, food and live music were great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Egypt. Disgusting. McDonald’s by the pyramids. Blegh

Buenos Aires. Never been so bored in my life and I don’t eat red meat

Munich. So boring. I just can’t.

Geneva. I just fell asleep remembering when I lived there and have never been so bored in my entire life

Monaco. Why bother.

For Egypt - ya Cairo is not a good place to visit. You will feel like a walking wallet. All the car burns honking at once. It just has a stressful vibe. The pyramids didn’t make it worth it for me. A lot of the rest of Egypt is fine though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Costa Rica. I didn't realize how big of a sex tourism destination it was. Lots of older white men and young prostitutes. It was beautiful scenery interspersed with weird creepy old man vibes. I ended up running into the seemingly nice middle-aged med we'd sat next to on the plane at a restaurant. Turns out they were with some prostitutes and their pimp. One complained when they didn't laugh enthusiastically enough at his jokes and weren't flirty enough. We got out of there fast.


Key West. It's beautiful but very expensive and the beaches suck. I don't like Jimmy Buffet music and Duval street is overrated. There are much better places to go.

Felt the same way visiting Phuket and parts of Thailand. Lovely locals but the older fat white men with young girls was unnerving.

Ditto parts of Cambodia. It’s very disturbing. If you’re just going to Siem Reap / Angkor Wat you probably won’t notice it though. Cambodia is very with visiting and not a disappointment, but that aspect is brutal. I backpacked around fir a few weeks so was taking buses with locals. I was surprised to old fat sloppy (badly groomed) white guys on these buses with their younger local girlfriends. It was unexpected for me. My vision of a expat was someone more sophisticated who takes care of themselves and can afford to have a car. Boy was l wrong in this case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Istanbul, Turkey. I had a 11-12 hour layover at the new Istanbul airport in my way to Accra, Ghana. Never left the airport. I walked around for my over an hour trying to find one of the lounges that’s I could pay my way into. I asked several staff workers for assistance but they were dismissive, rude, unprofessional, aggressive, simply couldn’t be bothered to even look at me. Felt definite racial overtones (I’m AA). I will return to Washington in about 2 weeks via IST. Thinking about actually venturing out into both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, but after the airport fiasco, I’m afraid that my experience could be worse in a less-controlled environment.

What a weird story. You were disappointed about an airport. Doesn’t belong in this thread

[Anonymous]

I love Peru and have visited probably 7 times as l have family there. Most of the country is worth a visit. Machu Picchu is a place that exceeded my expectations.

Commenting here to say the Colca Canyon is disappointing / not worth going to, because l see it on lots of itineraries of friends going. I guess it seems convenient for some itineraries just doing Lima / Arequipa / Cusco and MP. It’s not really that convenient, you spend a large portion of the day on the road to get to a very dry scrubby canyon that not naturally beautiful (it’s not the Grand Canyon) and see a mangy looking condor on a leash. All the tourists perching looking for the non-existent condors - it was so sad it was almost funny. 2 days on a bumpy dirt road to see that, no thanks!