Place that didn't live up to expectations

[Anonymous]

Did someone say Aruba or am I thinking of another thread? Would like to hear feedback on Aruba since we have a trip booked there this year.

If Aruba was unimpressive, what other nearby beaches would be better in July?

[Anonymous]

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.

Where in Costa Rica?? I've been and did not get this vibe AT ALL.

[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!

LOL. I agree that Dublin isn't the most exciting. But my in-laws live in the Irish countryside, so after a week or two sitting around drinking tea and eating old-fashioned, traditional Irish food, I am always SO happy to spend a few days in Dublin. Bring on some vegetarian meals and glasses of wine!

[Anonymous]

Austin, TX. Maybe it was just too hipster for me but I found the whole "we're so weird and cool" thing to be over the top. There are way cooler and weirder places in the US. I didn't hate it but just didn't get the hype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i bet the people saying Hawaii didn't go to Kauai.

Kauai is gorgeous and has some very chill areas, but it isn’t exactly traffic jam free. Getting from one end of the island to the other with only one road is kind of a nightmare. And if you’ve come all that way, who doesn’t want to see both Hanalei and Waimea canyon.

We wert to Kauai and Lanai and both were just fine, but no great. The 4S on Lanai was nice but nothing special. We did the helicopter charter on Kauai and toured most of the island and again it was nice but for a few hours more air travel I could have been in Southeast Asia which is just so much nicer and culturally more interesting. The beaches were fine but for a lot shorter flight I could have just as easily gone to one my favorite islands in the carribean.

Which is?

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

m

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. You basically wrote off a whole city based on your 12 hour experience at the airport. Yuyks!

[Anonymous]

Sedonna - crowded, touristy.

[Anonymous]

Key West. Dirty, run down and seemed down and out. Did not enjoy it at all.

[Anonymous]

Belize. The sandflies were absolutely horrific and my body was covered in welts from them the whole time. The food was terrible. People weren’t that nice. The water was pretty….the snorkeling was meh.

[Anonymous]

Dubai and Abu Dhabi. A larger scale atlantic city.

[Anonymous]

puerto rico

[Anonymous]

nyc is quite terrible as ewll

[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.

Where in Costa Rica?? I've been and did not get this vibe AT ALL.

Not the person who brought this up, but the only place I saw this was at the Springs resort in arenal

[Anonymous]

Harpers Ferry. It's not that it was so terrible, but it was very hyped to me by friends here and I just didn't get it at all. I can't understand why people rave about it. Actually, also Charlottesville - it's fine, but nothing special.

I've been to lots of the places other PPs have mentioned - I didn't love all of them but I didn't always have any particular expectations. Harpers Ferry and Charlottesville stand out for me because they were both places that people told me were amazing and beautiful.