Most disappointing travel destination or tourist attraction [Edited thread title]

[Ronald C. Semone]

I had a friend in the Peace Corps who had occasion about 40 years ago to visit Timbuctoo. He said it was the most disappointing experience he had ever had. It was once a great city, but there was nothing there then except a few dirt streets and mud buildings. "The answer", he said, "to 'What do they do on Saturday night in Timbuctoo?' is 'nothing."

My own most disappointing exerience was my visit some years ago to Casablanca. I guess I've seen the movie too many times, but I expected a truly exotic city. It turned out it could have passed for Houston or Vancouver or any one of dozens of modern American cities.

What was your most disappointing experience in visiting a fabled city or famous site?

[even sven]

Timbuktu is a great place to visit! Drifts of sand pile up in the streets (which are empty for most of the hot day), which are lined with gorgeous medieval sandstone houses unlike anything you find elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. Peek inside the heavy, ornamented doors and you might be surprised by a courtyard full of colorful tilework or old, forgotten fountains. Even more delightfully, you still stand a good chance of being asked inside to join the family for some cool yogurt or a shared meal as you marvel at their mix of modern and antique hand made furnishings. They may only speak Songhai (a language of a great medieval empire) but the laughter is universal.

Likewise, students of one of the world's oldest universities may try to practice their English with you in cafes, and the men who work to preserve rare manuscripts (written during the time of the crusades, and now used by Tauregs who write their family secrets in them before burying them in the vast desert that only they can traverse with reliable safety- even today) may invite you to see back rooms full of their dustiest tomes. It's a quiet city, but it's very much a living city. To go to Timbuktu is not really to see history, as to experience how that history lives.

Timbuktu doesn't happen at it's sparse tourist sites, but over cups of strong tea with men in flowing robes who will tell you as much about the ancient trade as they will the modern "Al Qaeda of the desert" and the CIA agents who "appear and disappear like ghosts" around the city, in the recessed doorsteps where veiled women beckon you to admire their babies (with khol around the eyes and heavy leather amulets at the neck), and in the precocious patter of Aladin-style street kids-turned-tour-guide.

Along the outskirts of the city, nomad tents huddle. While during the day the mysterious and fabled Tauregs (whose militant independence still rankles many governments) may hustle to take tourists on desert tours. But they also still engage in camel-caravan salt trade across the Sahara. Indeed, you can still buy blocks of salt at the local market, the sort of thing that would have pleased a medieval king. And beyond the city....nothing. You are on the edge of civilization. Black Africa, in it's diversity and glory, ends here. A few steps past the city and there is nothing else, just a desert you can't get across, and the fabled lands of Arabs and the Europeans beyond that.

[even sven]

Oh yeah, and I think Shanghai is a snore. A modern city like any other city, with an overpriced dumpling shop in a tourist trap? Give me Beijing any day!

[treis]

The terra cotta warriors of Xi'an. All the pictures make it seem like there are a ton, and the descriptions of the army talk about thousands of warriors. In reality, the peasants hated the emperor and smashed the army to bits a couple years after it was made. All of the warriors you see have been put together like a puzzle, and there are only a hundred or so of them. It's still pretty cool, but quite a bit less impressive than seeing thousands of clay warriors like I was expecting.

[FatBaldGuy]

Am I the only one who opened this thread expecting a debate on the relative merits of Priceline and Travelocity?

[woodrowjween]

No, that's what I thought the debate was going to be too.

[Baron Greenback]

Timbuktu is a great place to visit! Drifts of sand pile up in the streets (which are empty for most of the hot day), which are lined with gorgeous medieval sandstone houses unlike anything you find elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. Peek inside the heavy, ornamented doors and you might be surprised by a courtyard full of colorful tilework or old, forgotten fountains. Even more delightfully, you still stand a good chance of being asked inside to join the family for some cool yogurt or a shared meal as you marvel at their mix of modern and antique hand made furnishings. They may only speak Songhai (a language of a great medieval empire) but the laughter is universal.

Likewise, students of one of the world's oldest universities may try to practice their English with you in cafes, and the men who work to preserve rare manuscripts (written during the time of the crusades, and now used by Tauregs who write their family secrets in them before burying them in the vast desert that only they can traverse with reliable safety- even today) may invite you to see back rooms full of their dustiest tomes. It's a quiet city, but it's very much a living city. To go to Timbuktu is not really to see history, as to experience how that history lives.

Timbuktu doesn't happen at it's sparse tourist sites, but over cups of strong tea with men in flowing robes who will tell you as much about the ancient trade as they will the modern "Al Qaeda of the desert" and the CIA agents who "appear and disappear like ghosts" around the city, in the recessed doorsteps where veiled women beckon you to admire their babies (with khol around the eyes and heavy leather amulets at the neck), and in the precocious patter of Aladin-style street kids-turned-tour-guide.

Along the outskirts of the city, nomad tents huddle. While during the day the mysterious and fabled Tauregs (whose militant independence still rankles many governments) may hustle to take tourists on desert tours. But they also still engage in camel-caravan salt trade across the Sahara. Indeed, you can still buy blocks of salt at the local market, the sort of thing that would have pleased a medieval king. And beyond the city....nothing. You are on the edge of civilization. Black Africa, in it's diversity and glory, ends here. A few steps past the city and there is nothing else, just a desert you can't get across, and the fabled lands of Arabs and the Europeans beyond that.

That's an ace bit of writing. :)

[Chapulin]

What was your most disappointing experience in visiting a fabled city or famous site?

Belize. It was dirty and everyone was shady and it just felt strange.

[dalej42]

Hollywood/Beverly Hills. Yeah, I was only 23 when I first visited, but I figured it would be filled with movie stars and glitz. It was fun to drive on the streets that I'd heard about all my life from movies and songs and to see the names of some of the bars and restaurants.

[Kyla]

Cancun. I went there when I was fifteen and not exactly a sophisticated traveler and I still found it unbelievably boring. What I discovered from some pamphlet in the hotel was that in 1972, the Mexican government fed a bunch of data into a computer to figure out the best place to built a tourist resort and it spit out CANCUN. So they built this ginormous tourist area on what had previous been a tiny fishing village.

And that's all Cancun is. Hotels. There's nothing to see, nothing to do. The beach is very nice, but I'm not really a beach person and can only lie around on the beach for a couple hours before I get bored. I can lie around at home! I just don't get going to another country to do it. The restaurants are a bunch of fast food chains, there's no interesting cityscape, there aren't any museums or anything actually worth seeing. The best thing about it is that is relatively NEAR interesting things (like Tulum and Chichen Itza) but you can stay in other places in the area and see them as well.

Milan is also boring as fuck.

[aruvqan]

I spent a fabulous month in St Malo once. Tiny walled port, no vehicles allowed in the city center at all. You can walk across the entire thing in 10 minutes.

In the city center you find cafes, small shops for sausages, cheeses, baked goods, pastries, greengrocers, fishmongers. People are friendly and you can sit and people watch. It is a slower, more peaceful vacation. You can eat excellent food, talk to random people, walk the city walls and look out over the harbor....

Most people would consider it amazingly boring. You can keep Paris or Monaco. I'll take St Malo, thanks.

[Yorikke]

Am I the only one who opened this thread expecting a debate on the relative merits of Priceline and Travelocity?

No, you're not. But I like this thread better.

Joe

[buckgully]

Hands down, Times Square, NYC for New Year's eve.

On TV it looks like a huge, fun party.

It's not really a party. It's more like hiking half-dome at Yosemite, only instead of being rewarded with a sense of accomplishment and one of the most dramatic views the Earth can offer, you get barfed and peed on by drunk douchenozzles. You get there about 10 hours early (any later and you'll never get anywhere near times square by midnight) carrying everything you need for the world's most boring 2 mile hike. It's row after row of police barricades, many of which have lines of pissed riot cops behind them, surrounded by people who are in good spirits when they get there but become increasingly zombie hordeish as the day goes on and they realize that perhaps they should have brought something other than jello shots and everclear to eat and drink.

Then the sun sets and the CHUDS come out from the sewers. That usually livens things up for a bit, but CHUDS smell even worse than people who've been standing in puddles of their own everclear and lime jello tainted urine for six hours.

Then the ball drops, everyone sings off key for a bit and then the pissed riot cops shove everyone out of the square by hitting them on the head with heavy wood batons. You file onto subway cars like cattle and hope the station at the other end of your journey isn't closed for the night, in which case you can either get off on an open stop close to where you need to go and walk the rest of the way (all the while chanting 'Warriors, come out and playy-eeee-aaaayy") or you can just ride the train to some random stop on Long Island and move into the first available rental you find, because you ain't ever getting back to Brooklyn at that point, man.

[Savannah]

Timbuktu is a great place to visit! Drifts of sand pile up in the streets (which are empty for most of the hot day), which are lined with gorgeous medieval sandstone houses unlike anything you find elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. Peek inside the heavy, ornamented doors and you might be surprised by a courtyard full of colorful tilework or old, forgotten fountains. Even more delightfully, you still stand a good chance of being asked inside to join the family for some cool yogurt or a shared meal as you marvel at their mix of modern and antique hand made furnishings. They may only speak Songhai (a language of a great medieval empire) but the laughter is universal.

Likewise, students of one of the world's oldest universities may try to practice their English with you in cafes, and the men who work to preserve rare manuscripts (written during the time of the crusades, and now used by Tauregs who write their family secrets in them before burying them in the vast desert....

Well, after reading that glorious description, I certainly want to go there!

[DiosaBellissima]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

That's not fair: the Alamo itself doesn't necessarily suck, but the city of San Antonio being right up against the walls of the Alamo definitely take something away from the whole experience. I mean, the shitty tourist shops selling ugly tshirts are literally butted up right against the Alamo on every side. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Missions in California-- sure, some are right in the middle of cities, but most of them at least have a little space preserved on all sides.

I dunno, maybe I'm being too harsh, but the whole city sprawl right around the Alamo completely ruined it for me. :(

[etv78]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

That's not fair: the Alamo itself doesn't necessarily suck, but the city of San Antonio being right up against the walls of the Alamo definitely take something away from the whole experience. I mean, the shitty tourist shops selling ugly tshirts are literally butted up right against the Alamo on every side. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Missions in California-- sure, some are right in the middle of cities, but most of them at least have a little space preserved on all sides.

I dunno, maybe I'm being too harsh, but the whole city sprawl right around the Alamo completely ruined it for me. :(

Yes, you SPOILED BRAT, you ARE being too harsh!

[drastic_quench]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

That's not fair: the Alamo itself doesn't necessarily suck, but the city of San Antonio being right up against the walls of the Alamo definitely take something away from the whole experience. I mean, the shitty tourist shops selling ugly tshirts are literally butted up right against the Alamo on every side. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Missions in California-- sure, some are right in the middle of cities, but most of them at least have a little space preserved on all sides.

I dunno, maybe I'm being too harsh, but the whole city sprawl right around the Alamo completely ruined it for me. :(

You skipped the basement, didn't you?

[RandMcnally]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

That's not fair: the Alamo itself doesn't necessarily suck, but the city of San Antonio being right up against the walls of the Alamo definitely take something away from the whole experience. I mean, the shitty tourist shops selling ugly tshirts are literally butted up right against the Alamo on every side. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Missions in California-- sure, some are right in the middle of cities, but most of them at least have a little space preserved on all sides.

I dunno, maybe I'm being too harsh, but the whole city sprawl right around the Alamo completely ruined it for me. :(

Y'know, that's what I came in here to say. Horribly disappointing.

[clairobscur]

No, you're not. But I like this thread better.

Joe

Same for me. I think the OP should request a title change to attract more viewers and posters.

[put down the sabre]

The terra cotta warriors of Xi'an. All the pictures make it seem like there are a ton, and the descriptions of the army talk about thousands of warriors. In reality, the peasants hated the emperor and smashed the army to bits a couple years after it was made. All of the warriors you see have been put together like a puzzle, and there are only a hundred or so of them. It's still pretty cool, but quite a bit less impressive than seeing thousands of clay warriors like I was expecting.

This is false, from what I remember. There is a room of reconstructed ones, but there are also loads more that are originals.

[put down the sabre]

For me, most medium-sized cities are pretty disappointing. Dublin, Portland Oregon, places like that. that might just be personal preference though. Places like Portland seem to have all the inconvenience of a large city but few of the cultural pluses.

Las Vegas was a little bit boring.

Generally unimpressed with California. San Francisco seemed to revolve around tourism a bit too much -- it seemed hollow, rather than a real city.

Japanese tourist sites are boring concreted monstrosities (thinking of places like Hakone). I also think Kyoto is horribly overrated. There are some nice places there, but hidden away amongst the concrete. In fact I'd put Japan as a whole. So much of the 'historic' sites are concrete reconstructions.

New York was a bit boring if you didn't want to spend lots of money. I always tell European friends if they can only visit once city on the East Coast, make it Washington.

pdts

[jjimm]

Australia.

Admittedly I went only to the east coast, during winter, but damn that's some boring shit right there. The fucking pubs shut at 7pm in most places! And the fish and chip shops! Parochial towns in England aren't much fun in winter either, but at least we make an attempt at a nightlife.

That said, I liked Byron Bay, and Sydney was seven shades of awesome, and I'd love to see the outback and Perth and so on - but the majority of the few thousand miles I drove through Queensland and NSW was shockingly dull.

Sorry, Aussies. :(

[Renee]

Yes, you SPOILED BRAT, you ARE being too harsh!

Did I miss something? :confused:

[Ronald C. Semone]

Same for me. I think the OP should request a title change to attract more viewers and posters.

How do I do that?

[romansperson]

Most disappointing site? Stonehenge. When you see it on TV, you imagine this massive monument.

The whole thing would have fit in my yard at home.

Colonial Williamsburg is also awful. It was by far the most commercialized place I've ever visited. I hadn't wanted to go in the first place (my parents wanted to spend Christmas there and insisted I come along), and having to shell out for every. single. thing. to do or see didn't help matters. That was 4 days of my life I'll never get back.

[olivesmarch4th]

Well, I found Athens, Greece rather underwhelming.

Maybe it was the context - it was a whirlwind tour of several famous Mediterranean sites, including Rome, Tuscany, Capri, and Santorini. Rome was amazing, and the modern architecture seemed to fit seamlessly with the historic sites. Athens was not that. It was an enormous, kind of gritty city but did not in itself seem all that remarkable. Both the Acropolis and the Archeological Museum were amazing, but the city itself just didn't fit together aesthetically the way Rome did.

Granted, I was only there for a single day. But it was the most anticipated site i visited and the ones that truly blew me away - Santorini, Greece and Dubrovnik, Croatia - were completely unexpected.

[Tully Mars]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

I felt the same way, but for a different reason. I've read the histories of the Alamo since I've been old enough to read. It's one of the more facinating stories in US history. But, when I finally got around to visit it around 1990-91, it was a big letdown. It was more of a shrine to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas than anything else. Every exhibit had a posted pedigree of which member of the DRT provided it or sponsered it. There was little information about the 200 years of history before the battle or the strategic and political importance of the battle.

The Old Stone Fort museum in Nacogdoches had a similar problem the last time I was there (over 30 years ago).

[salinqmind]

Well, now I want to go to Timbuctoo! Booking my mud hut right now...

Can it be a state? I'd been to Florida a few times as a child and had the best times of my childhood there (admittedly, I WAS a child, I was with all my cousins, and a good day was having a picnic on the beach, not looking to score blow with supermodels in Miami). Was taken when in my teens to Disney World, which I can't say I exactly hated. I have some good memories, but it was so big, so plastic, so middle-class. We spent so much time in the killing heat waiting in lines, nothing to buy but overpriced Disney stuff for souveniers, yadda yadda, I wouldn't put myself out to go back. Being a nature loving tree-hugging sort, I had a much more enjoyable time walking the beach on Sanibel Island. (though traffic is gridlocked on the main roads and it takes 20 minutes to drive a mile away to a restaurant).

[olivesmarch4th]

Well, now I want to go to Timbuctoo! Booking my mud hut right now...

Can it be a state?
Ha, that reminds me of the first time my Mom took me to Ohio (I grew up in Michigan.) I was so disappointed that everybody spoke English. I was expecting something more like India.

[Digital is the new Analog]

How do I do that?

Easiest way is probably for you to report your OP - click on the triangle. In the message, ask them to update the thread title with something like (in person - not website)..or however else you want to clarify it.

Self-reporting doesn't trigger anything bad. It's just a useful way to get a moderator's attention.

You can also post here and wait for a mod to read it..or PM the mods directly.





On-topic: I've been lucky in my international travels. I can't think of anything that I expected to be awesome, but wasn't.

Domestically, I've gone to some places that I didn't have enough free time to make interesting. But I've come to the conclusion that most places have a character of their own, if you only figure out how to tap into it.

For example - When I was 25ish, I had a month long work trip to Europe. I got to see a little slice of Belgium, Gemany, France, and England. Most of the travel time was on weekends, and it's hard to see anything great in a short period of time. And I was new to this 'travel' thing. So my time in London, for instance, was a few tours, and wandering around for a few hours..then hopping on a plane to finally go home.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine went to London. He and his girlfriend were hanging out at a local pub, befriended some people, and got invited back to their house for dinner. They stopped at another pub on the way...narrowly avoided a brawl..then did the dinner thing. They got to see a very different slice of London than I did.


-D/a

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Yes, you SPOILED BRAT, you ARE being too harsh!

What the fuck crawled up your butt?

[Caiata]

I was super excited about Troy, but actually due to the many settlements that were built one right on top of another over the years it was there, and the mishandling of the original excavations, there just wasn't much there. A bunch of crumbling stone walls and a few marble columns & ceiling fragments. I'm very glad that was the first ancient ruined city we stopped at in Turkey, instead of the last.

Mind you, I'd still recommend it to anyone interested in antiquity cities who was headed to Turkey ... but for the love of God, go there first, THEN to Pergamon, then Ephesus, then Aphrodisias. That way the whole journey is heading from "there's nothing here anymore" to "holy CRAP that's amazing!" with no backsliding along the way. :)

[Sunspace]

Easiest way is probably for you to report your OP - click on the triangle. In the message, ask them to update the thread title with something like (in person - not website)..or however else you want to clarify it.Maybe change "site" to "location" in the title. :)

[kushiel]

Cancun. I went there when I was fifteen and not exactly a sophisticated traveler and I still found it unbelievably boring. What I discovered from some pamphlet in the hotel was that in 1972, the Mexican government fed a bunch of data into a computer to figure out the best place to built a tourist resort and it spit out CANCUN. So they built this ginormous tourist area on what had previous been a tiny fishing village.

And that's all Cancun is. Hotels. There's nothing to see, nothing to do. The beach is very nice, but I'm not really a beach person and can only lie around on the beach for a couple hours before I get bored. I can lie around at home! I just don't get going to another country to do it. The restaurants are a bunch of fast food chains, there's no interesting cityscape, there aren't any museums or anything actually worth seeing. The best thing about it is that is relatively NEAR interesting things (like Tulum and Chichen Itza) but you can stay in other places in the area and see them as well.

Milan is also boring as fuck.

Cancun and similar resorts aren't for people to visit historical sites. They're for people from frigid climates to escape to for a week every winter. We have a ridiculously small population here but we manage to fill up charter planes and resorts with people escaping the winter. :D

[Balthisar]

Palenque. While the archeological site was something that I thought was impossibly beautiful in Mexico, the town itself was the most boring place I'd been to in my life. There was really no point in leaving the hotel, other than to get to the sites.

(Luckily San Cristobol de las Casas made up for it. I'd never heard of the place; it was just a good launchpad for getting to the Lagunas de Montebello. But what a fun, great place!)

[Kyla]

Cancun and similar resorts aren't for people to visit historical sites. They're for people from frigid climates to escape to for a week every winter. We have a ridiculously small population here but we manage to fill up charter planes and resorts with people escaping the winter. :D

That trip was the first clue in realizing that my idea of a good vacation (doing interesting things and seeing new places) is not the same as many other peoples' idea of a good vacation (lying on the beach getting drunk). I grew up in California, so I had no frigid winters to escape from, but when I was in grad school in Michigan, I took my spring breaks in Colombia and the Philippines (the latter was a school trip, and paid for). Got away from the cold AND I did something interesting, all at the same time!

Hey, if you enjoy the lazing around sort of vacation, more power to you. It's just not what I enjoy, and I was correspondingly massively disappointed with Cancun.

[buckgully]

Maybe change "site" to "location" in the title. :)

Or perhaps "destination"?

[Ronald C. Semone]

Easiest way is probably for you to report your OP - click on the triangle. In the message, ask them to update the thread title with something like (in person - not website)..or however else you want to clarify it.

Done. We'll see what happens.

[Llama Llogophile]

The Sistine Chapel.

You wait on unending lines and when you finally get in it's dark, the ceiling is high so you can't see much detail of the frescoes, it's hot, and there are these security guards going around loudly (and vainly) trying to keep people from taking photos.

The rest of Italy was great, especially Florence. But I'd skip the chapel, and most of Rome now that I think of it.

[Kyla]

The Sistine Chapel.

You wait on unending lines and when you finally get in it's dark, the ceiling is high so you can't see much detail of the frescoes, it's hot, and there are these security guards going around loudly (and vainly) trying to keep people from taking photos.

This wasn't my experience at all. The ceiling is too high to see a lot of detail, but all the rest sounds completely different from my own trip. It was great. :confused:

[Llama Llogophile]

This wasn't my experience at all. The ceiling is too high to see a lot of detail, but all the rest sounds completely different from my own trip. It was great. :confused:

I was there in the mid-90's. Perhaps it's changed - I hope so.

[Kyla]

I was there in the mid-90's. Perhaps it's changed - I hope so.

I was there in 1999. It was also early spring (March, I think). From the "hot and crowded" descriptors, it sounds like maybe you were there in the height of summer/tourist season?

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Yes, you SPOILED BRAT, you ARE being too harsh!

And you are violating the forum rules by spewing out epithets--shouting them no less. Don't do this again.

[Smeghead]

The Sistine Chapel.

You wait on unending lines and when you finally get in it's dark, the ceiling is high so you can't see much detail of the frescoes, it's hot, and there are these security guards going around loudly (and vainly) trying to keep people from taking photos.

The rest of Italy was great, especially Florence. But I'd skip the chapel, and most of Rome now that I think of it.

This was similar to my experience at Versailles. That was an awful experience. We were crammed in like sardines everywhere we went, with grouchy French people glaring at us and yelling things like "Don't touch that!"

[drastic_quench]

That trip was the first clue in realizing that my idea of a good vacation (doing interesting things and seeing new places) is not the same as many other peoples' idea of a good vacation (lying on the beach getting drunk). I grew up in California, so I had no frigid winters to escape from, but when I was in grad school in Michigan, I took my spring breaks in Colombia and the Philippines (the latter was a school trip, and paid for). Got away from the cold AND I did something interesting, all at the same time!

Hey, if you enjoy the lazing around sort of vacation, more power to you. It's just not what I enjoy, and I was correspondingly massively disappointed with Cancun.

I'm all about doing interesting things and seeing new places, but if I'm on vacation, I'll also want a few belts of the good stuff. Dr. Jones had his whip in his adventures; I get by with my flask.

[An Gadaí]

I found I had to agree with Samuel Johnson on the Giant's Causeway. I think I would have liked it more if it hadn't been so crowded the day I visited.

[multimediac17]

Australia.

Admittedly I went only to the east coast, during winter, but damn that's some boring shit right there. The fucking pubs shut at 7pm in most places! And the fish and chip shops! Parochial towns in England aren't much fun in winter either, but at least we make an attempt at a nightlife.

That said, I liked Byron Bay, and Sydney was seven shades of awesome, and I'd love to see the outback and Perth and so on - but the majority of the few thousand miles I drove through Queensland and NSW was shockingly dull.

Sorry, Aussies. :(

I live in Queensland and though I like it here (certainly don't want to live here forever, though) I can't imagine it would be very interesting as a tourist attraction.

[Arrogance Ex Machina]

Well, I found Athens, Greece rather underwhelming.

Maybe it was the context - it was a whirlwind tour of several famous Mediterranean sites, including Rome, Tuscany, Capri, and Santorini. Rome was amazing, and the modern architecture seemed to fit seamlessly with the historic sites.

I agree with you completely on both counts and I doubt it was the context, more like Athens just is dull. It has a few interesting things, sure, but the city itself is boring and big and sort of tired. Rome on the other hand has history everywhere intertwined with all sorts of more modern things to see. Even Barcelona was far more interesting than Athens despite not having much ancient history.

[Chefguy]

The Alamo, certainly, but I was expecting it. Las Vegas just sucks ass. Carthage was somewhat of a disappointment, since the ruins are pretty much gone, but the history of the place is great. Alexandria (Egypt, not Virginia) is pretty much a bust.

My wife went to Timbuktu and loved it, other than the flight up from Bamako. I refused to fly on Air Mali's Russian-built junkers, and haven't regretted it in the least.

[Kyla]

I'm all about doing interesting things and seeing new places, but if I'm on vacation, I'll also want a few belts of the good stuff. Dr. Jones had his whip in his adventures; I get by with my flask.

Well, I'm no teetotaler. I'm not trying to imply that drinking is bad. I just find vacations that consist entirely of lying on the beach and having people bring you margaritas to be boring. Just my opinion.

[eleanorigby]

Nassau, The Bahamas. The entire island (New Providence Island) is dirty and poorly developed (the Cuban embassy is above a Chinese take-away). There is razor wire everywhere, along with graffiti, drunks and garbage. The traffic is horrendous-it took us well over 2 hours to go less than 5 miles at "rush hour". It's also very humid for an island in that part of the world.

We drove over to Paradise Island just to see it: sterile, manicured American mall and casino on steroids. If anything, it was worse than the rest of Nassau. We did not go back. The forts were mildly interesting; the plantation site on the far western part of the island a bit more so (but under renovation). There are no real beaches on Nassau. The snorkeling was cool. Maybe if we were boating people we would have enjoyed it more.

It was on par with the rest of the Caribbean--I'll never go back. YMMV.

[ralph124c]

I would say most of the Caribbean-Aruba is nice and clean, but boring (though I wound up dating a hot brazilian chick there). Jamaica was dirty and had too many people trying to sell us junk.
Dallas, Texas was a waste of time-boring and empty (after 5 PM).
Padre Island (Texas Gulf coast) was dirty and full of drunk rednecks-plus the beach was scummy-water looked like sewage plant outflow.
Key West, Florida-have a drink, watch sunset , go home!
Charleston, SC-you can see everything in about 2 hours-then go home.
Atlanta, GA-the "charms" of this dump escape me.."Coca Cola World" is a joke-you basically pay to see ads for Coke.
On the bright side:
-Brussels, Belgium: nice city! Clean, interesting, and great food/friendly people (food much better than France)-Reyjavik, Iceland: fascinating place, great people..but damn expensive!
I also liked Caen, France-good Norman cider, and interesting history.

[A. Gwilliam]

It was on par with the rest of the Caribbean--I'll never go back. YMMV.

Does that mean your experience was similar in the rest of the Caribbean? I've only been to Puerto Rico there, but my understanding is that the various islands differ enormously, so that if you don't like island A, you might well fall in love with island B.

Anyway, to get back more firmly on topic:


Bruges, in Belgium. It's a mediaeval town that's been well preserved/restored. Only to me it seemed so new and clean, it was like something from Disney.
Puno, in Peru. To be honest, I was rather disappointed with Peru full stop, although of course Machu Picchu is stupendous. But I got a particularly violent form of food poisoning in Puno. As a result, I abandoned seeing Lake Titicaca and any idea of travelling across to Bolivia, and got the hell out of the area. (Maybe this really only counts as a bad personal experience.)
The Everglades. Important, obviously. But boring as hell to actually visit!
Vienna. When I went there on holiday about fifteen years ago, I couldn't believe how grubby it all seemed to be.
Edinburgh. I've only been there for work purposes, but it seemed a really really grey place. Eurgh!

[apollonia]

My mom's vote is for Jamaica. She had expected a nice, relaxing island vacation with her friends. They were actually robbed at gunpoint on the beach.

[Smeghead]

Edinburgh. I've only been there for work purposes, but it seemed a really really grey place. Eurgh!
[/LIST]

Edinburgh is my favorite city I've ever been to. Of course, last time I was there, it was on that sunny day - you guys remember that day? It was nice.

[A. Gwilliam]

Edinburgh is my favorite city I've ever been to. Of course, last time I was there, it was on that sunny day - you guys remember that day? It was nice.

It wasn't just the weather; it was the physical environment. It still seemed grey even when the sun came out! :)

[An Gadaí]

Edinburgh is my favorite city I've ever been to. Of course, last time I was there, it was on that sunny day - you guys remember that day? It was nice.

I had no expectations of Edinburgh at all as I was only passing through and I thought it was one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever seen. I didn't think anywhere in Britain was that beautiful.

[bump]

The Sistine Chapel.

You wait on unending lines and when you finally get in it's dark, the ceiling is high so you can't see much detail of the frescoes, it's hot, and there are these security guards going around loudly (and vainly) trying to keep people from taking photos.

The rest of Italy was great, especially Florence. But I'd skip the chapel, and most of Rome now that I think of it.

Well, no shit. The ceiling isn't really the cool part. It's the "Last Judgment" painting on the far wall that's the *real* masterpiece.

That's what shocked me- the ceiling is pretty ho-hum, but the "Last Judgement" was astounding.

I'd have to say Florence in general was a letdown. There are only so many depictions of John the Baptist or the Madonna & Child that you can really see- it seemed to me that most of Florentine museum art was composed of those two things, with the exceptions of the big well known stuff like Botticelli's Venus.

[Implicit]

Monaco. Of course it was pouring rain, but still, there wasn't much to see and the whole place felt phony, should have stayed on the train.

[A. Gwilliam]

I suppose seeing the "Mona Lisa" also kinda belongs in this thread. I wasn't bothered about seeing it (I really don't get what the fascination is), but I had to pass through the gallery it's in to get to something I did want to see, and it looked like a completely rubbish experience. A fairly small portrait, encased in a glass box, surrounded by hordes of tourists, many of whom were flashing away with their cameras (always a smart move when taking pictures of something behind glass :rolleyes:). No thanks...!

[kushiel]

That trip was the first clue in realizing that my idea of a good vacation (doing interesting things and seeing new places) is not the same as many other peoples' idea of a good vacation (lying on the beach getting drunk). I grew up in California, so I had no frigid winters to escape from, but when I was in grad school in Michigan, I took my spring breaks in Colombia and the Philippines (the latter was a school trip, and paid for). Got away from the cold AND I did something interesting, all at the same time!

Hey, if you enjoy the lazing around sort of vacation, more power to you. It's just not what I enjoy, and I was correspondingly massively disappointed with Cancun.

I wasn't trying to say your opinion was invalid, I was just trying to say that for people who don't have wonderful warm weather Cancun can be nice.

[Meyer6]

Vienna. When I went there on holiday about fifteen years ago, I couldn't believe how grubby it all seemed to be.

I must concur with Vienna. Grimy, dull, and expensive. There were some nice buildings, but it seemed like there was little to do that didn't cost a fortune (and we were broke backpackers at the time), and even the food was high priced and all very pretentious. Didn't find the people at all friendly either.

I'm sure it didn't help that I had just come from Prague, which is lovely - attractive, cheap, cool, lots to do. Vienna was terrible in comparison.

[Kyla]

I wasn't trying to say your opinion was invalid, I was just trying to say that for people who don't have wonderful warm weather Cancun can be nice.

I lived in the Midwest for six years and Eastern Europe for two. I understand about cold winters. I'd still never return to Cancun.

[Shamozzle]

The Sistine Chapel.

You wait on unending lines and when you finally get in it's dark, the ceiling is high so you can't see much detail of the frescoes, it's hot, and there are these security guards going around loudly (and vainly) trying to keep people from taking photos.

The rest of Italy was great, especially Florence. But I'd skip the chapel, and most of Rome now that I think of it.
You are advising people to skip Rome?

:confused:

[Nava]

Edinburgh is my favorite city I've ever been to. Of course, last time I was there, it was on that sunny day - you guys remember that day? It was nice.

You've got the wrong city: the Scottish city that insists of wearing a hat of clouds even when the rest of the country is sunny is Glasgow. Edinburgh gets gorgeous weather, specially on the fall.

I've been disappointed by very few places, but then, my attitude tends to be of the "let's get surprised" kind. I know there isn't much point for me to go to Cancún or Punta Cana because that's not the kind of tourism I want to do: for the same reason, I will not be found within 100 km of Marbella and it's very unlikely I'll do more than pass through Ibiza "ok, yeah: beach full of shrimp-colored north-Europeans, big nightclubs, let's go back to the ship".

If I'd had more than a weekend to spend in Nice, with no car and on a short budget, I would have been bored out of my mind by the third day; since I only had two days and my hotel was close to the old parts/beachfront, it was fine. If you want to see the area (not just go down to the beach), there are many villages nearby which would be better as "command centers". The same can be said for Rosas in NE Spain: lots of things to do and places to see in the area, but if you're in "the big village" getting from the hotel to the road takes a ridiculously long time unless you jump into the car before the other tourists have woken up.

[Martini Enfield]

For me it's probably San Francisco- besides Alcatraz, I was just thoroughly underwhelmed by this city that's so frequently held up as One Of The World's Great Cities. And I've never seen so many homeless people in a city before or since, for that matter.

[Shamozzle]

If I'd had more than a weekend to spend in Nice, with no car and on a short budget, I would have been bored out of my mind by the third day.Of course, you could always hop the train to Cannes or Nice. They're 10 or 15 minutes away.

[PookahMacPhellimey]

You've got the wrong city: the Scottish city that insists of wearing a hat of clouds even when the rest of the country is sunny is Glasgow. Edinburgh gets gorgeous weather, specially on the fall.

True. But you get the free "performance art/stand-up comedy/theatre" that is Glaswegian people. :)

Loudly seconding Shamozzle's reaction to Mach Tuck::

Do not skip Rome. I repeat: Do not skip Rome.

My own vote of negativity goes to Irish towns and cities in general. Go to Ireland if you like its specific type of wild and raw nature (and don't mind rain), friendly people, talking, Guinness and music. The towns, well they tend to have a smattering of cute coloured houses and pockets of nice architecture here and there if you know where to look, but to be quite honest, they are nothing like as beautiful, interesting or cultural as what you could easily find in most of mainland Europe (Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France etc). And most of those places are cheaper.

[A. Gwilliam]

For me it's probably San Francisco- besides Alcatraz, I was just thoroughly underwhelmed by this city that's so frequently held up as One Of The World's Great Cities. And I've never seen so many homeless people in a city before or since, for that matter.

I think that's how the place struck me the first time I went there. But on subsequent visits, I've come to like the place more. I may even end up loving it: I like the distinct feel to the various areas, and I love that there's all that nature right at its back door.

Seattle, on the other hand...!

[Nava]

Of course, you could always hop the train to Cannes or Nice. They're 10 or 15 minutes away.

I'm reasonably sure that I didn't need to hop on the train from Nice to Nice... did you mean Monaco? Neither Monaco nor Cannes are places I have the slightest interest in seeing, sorry.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

Dublin's the only one that really comes to mind. The whole city seems to be set up around drinking. Temple Bar is an outrageously expensive shithole, and if you really want to be surrounded by drunks and stag parties you may as well visit any mid-sized town in the British Isles as opposed to paying the eye-watering charges they levy there for a pint of ale. Similarly, the museums all seem to be geared towards drink: the Guinness Factory, Jameson Whisky Museum, etc.

Dublin's one redeeming grace was Kilmainham Gaol, where we had a guided tour by a woman who knew her shit and obviously cared quite a deal about the history of the place, and where we had by far the best tourist experience. Oh, and it also only cost us €1.50.

[MsWhatsit]

Mt. Rushmore is a massive disappointment that I would really recommend against visiting in person. The reason is mostly because everyone is very familiar with scenes of it in movies, where actors are climbing on it or running across it or flying helicopters near it, and you're seeing it right there in close-up.

In person, you're seeing what looks like a tiny carving on a distant cliff face. It's very underwhelming. I mean, if you're in the area and want to stop anyway, sure, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. The Crazy Horse monument just up the road is pretty cool, though.

[Susanann]

I suppose seeing the "Mona Lisa" also kinda belongs in this thread. !

Seeing the Mona Lisa, is really not that much more exciting than seeing Plymouth Rock.

[Susanann]

DisneyLand, DisneyWorld are very disappointing as a travel destination......... if you are over the age of 7.

[Susanann]

Do not skip Rome. I repeat: Do not skip Rome.
.
Rome (and the Vatican) is probably the best man-made (as opposed to natural wonder/Yellowstone) travel attraction/destination in the world.

Do not skip Rome.

[Agent Foxtrot]

The Alamo. It was a wall and nothing else. Yawn.

The Grand Canyon was a giant hole. I looked down in it, muttered "Meh," and went back to the RV.

[Bridget Burke]

Actually, the Alamo is a Chapel & the Long Barracks. Surrounded by walls (http://the-alamo-san-antonio.com/html/alamo-grounds-map.htm) built in modern times that also surround the gift shop & other modern buildings. Even as kids, we thought the gift shop rather tacky; but it includes an informative diorama of The Battle.

There's also a granite marker (http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=30779) inscribed in Classical Chinese by a Japanese visitor, comparing The Battle to an incident in Japanese history. Erected in 1914, it was missing on my first visit in the 50's; back then, the Japanese Tea Garden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Japanese_Tea_Garden) in Brackenridge Park was called The Sunken Garden. Years passed. The monument reappeared & the garden's name reverted to the original.

Another "new" feature at the Alamo is a plaque commemorating Adina de Zavala (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adp/history/bios/zavala/zavala.html) for her efforts at preserving the place. Good for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas for allowing it; she was often at odds with their methods.

Anybody wanting to learn more about the other San Antonio missions should visit the park just south of town.

Concerning the OP: I haven't traveled enough to be widely disappointed. I recall not being overwhelmed by Amarillo, but it's not regarded as a tourist highlight. Even by other Texans.

[A. Gwilliam]

Seeing the Mona Lisa, is really not that much more exciting than seeing Plymouth Rock.

Well! I'd always assumed that the Rock was a rocky promonotory of some sort. I'd never realised that it was literally just a rock! :eek:

[Agent Foxtrot]

Well, I found Athens, Greece rather underwhelming.

Maybe it was the context - it was a whirlwind tour of several famous Mediterranean sites, including Rome, Tuscany, Capri, and Santorini. Rome was amazing, and the modern architecture seemed to fit seamlessly with the historic sites. Athens was not that. It was an enormous, kind of gritty city but did not in itself seem all that remarkable. Both the Acropolis and the Archeological Museum were amazing, but the city itself just didn't fit together aesthetically the way Rome did.

Granted, I was only there for a single day. But it was the most anticipated site i visited and the ones that truly blew me away - Santorini, Greece and Dubrovnik, Croatia - were completely unexpected.I was underwhelmed by Athens, as well. The entire city is dirty, the people are rude, and the whole joint smells like urine. I was asking a taxi cab driver for directions, and he said he didn't know, even though it was the next street over.

[An Gadaí]

Dublin's one redeeming grace was Kilmainham Gaol, where we had a guided tour by a woman who knew her shit and obviously cared quite a deal about the history of the place, and where we had by far the best tourist experience. Oh, and it also only cost us €1.50.

Kilmainham Gaol is amazing. If you ever happen to be coming to Dublin again and want a more teetotal experience, give us a bell. There are plenty of things to do that aren't beholden to Diageo and Pernod Ricard. :)

[Llama Llogophile]

You are advising people to skip Rome?

:confused:

Probably should have said I would skip Rome on my next trip to Italy, having been there already. Yes, it's worth going to and there are some great things to see. But I was disappointed with some of it, and my experience was that Florence was a much more interesting place.

[Docta G]

I think that's how the place struck me the first time I went there. But on subsequent visits, I've come to like the place more. I may even end up loving it: I like the distinct feel to the various areas, and I love that there's all that nature right at its back door.

Seattle, on the other hand...!

Yes, Seattle sucks. It rains too much, and everyone there is a heroin addict. None of you would like it, and you should spread the word about how horrible of a place it is. Remember: do not move to Seattle. It sucks.

[put down the sabre]

Yes, Seattle sucks. It rains too much, and everyone there is a heroin addict. None of you would like it, and you should spread the word about how horrible of a place it is. Remember: do not move to Seattle. It sucks.

That joke was funnier when people were doing it about Portland.

[Docta G]

That joke was funnier when people were doing it about Portland.

(1) It's not a joke. It's a real ploy.
(2) Seattleites did it first.

[Shamozzle]

I'm reasonably sure that I didn't need to hop on the train from Nice to Nice... did you mean Monaco? Neither Monaco nor Cannes are places I have the slightest interest in seeing, sorry.Sorry, yes, I meant Monaco.

[Icarus]

Seeing the Mona Lisa, is really not that much more exciting than seeing Plymouth Rock.

......In the same vein - less of a tourist destination than a destination for the curious.......Sutters Mill, the spot where gold was discovered in California. There are some buildings nearby with historical artifacts, but the actual physical spot is nothing. There is a short walking path, a little sign pointing, and the bank of a river. That's it. You could wade in, take a piss, grab a handful of mud, etc., and no one would be the wiser.

[legalsnugs]

Graceland. Don't go to Memphis just to see Graceland. It's small, tacky and crowded and (at least when I was there many years ago) they didn't let you see the personal areas of the house (people were still living there). The whole area near it was tacky and a bit creepy. And Paul Simon even wrote a song about going to see it! Tsk. Memphis was wonderful - fountains and Beale Street and Mud Island and hotels with ducks - but Graceland? Feh.

[Malthus]

Cancun. I went there when I was fifteen and not exactly a sophisticated traveler and I still found it unbelievably boring. What I discovered from some pamphlet in the hotel was that in 1972, the Mexican government fed a bunch of data into a computer to figure out the best place to built a tourist resort and it spit out CANCUN. So they built this ginormous tourist area on what had previous been a tiny fishing village.

And that's all Cancun is. Hotels. There's nothing to see, nothing to do. The beach is very nice, but I'm not really a beach person and can only lie around on the beach for a couple hours before I get bored. I can lie around at home! I just don't get going to another country to do it. The restaurants are a bunch of fast food chains, there's no interesting cityscape, there aren't any museums or anything actually worth seeing. The best thing about it is that is relatively NEAR interesting things (like Tulum and Chichen Itza) but you can stay in other places in the area and see them as well.


The best vacation I ever had was when we rented a car and drove across the Yucatan. We lived out our fantasies of being modern-day explorers ... so many great archaeological sites to see along the Puuc route! Off the beaten path, many of 'em get few visitors (Tulum is nice in location but unimpressive, and Chichen Itza, while very impressive, is covered in hordes of tourists - not that one should miss it on that account!).

My favorites were places like Uxmal and Kabah - the "Temple of the Masks", while not large, is truly awesome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabah_(Maya_site)

[Brynda]

I've been to Dublin twice now, and was disappointed both times. It just sounds so lovely--but isn't. The Gaol was interesting, but past that, give me Cork any day.

[A. Gwilliam]

......In the same vein - less of a tourist destination than a destination for the curious.......Sutters Mill, the spot where gold was discovered in California. There are some buildings nearby with historical artifacts, but the actual physical spot is nothing. There is a short walking path, a little sign pointing, and the bank of a river. That's it. You could wade in, take a piss, grab a handful of mud, etc., and no one would be the wiser.

Damn, I was sure there was nobody around at the time! :o

[Jack Batty]

When I first moved to San Francisco, the ex and I decided to go check out the Coit Tower; we were having lunch in the area, so, shucks, why not.

It smells like pee. We didn't go up to the top. The odor was too strong to wait around for the elevator.

[Zyada]

When I first moved to San Francisco, the ex and I decided to go check out the Coit Tower; ... It smells like pee.

Given what it looks like, I don't find that surprising at all! :D

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

And I've never seen so many homeless people in a city before or since, for that matter.

Yeah, when I went to San Francisco a few years ago, I was shocked at just how many homeless people there were everywhere. And I come from New York City, so the homeless are nothing strange to me!

[Finagle]

Well, I don't have to travel there, but ... Salem, MA. You think "Witch craft trial" and "Olde New England village with concentrated quaintness and maybe a stock on the town green." What you get is a small, congested, somewhat down-at-its-heels city with a lot of extremely tacky witchcraft museums and occult stores.

[Kyla]

The best vacation I ever had was when we rented a car and drove across the Yucatan. We lived out our fantasies of being modern-day explorers ... so many great archaeological sites to see along the Puuc route! Off the beaten path, many of 'em get few visitors (Tulum is nice in location but unimpressive, and Chichen Itza, while very impressive, is covered in hordes of tourists - not that one should miss it on that account!).

My favorites were places like Uxmal and Kabah - the "Temple of the Masks", while not large, is truly awesome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabah_(Maya_site)

That does sound really cool. I've been to the Yucatan four times, but only on family vacations with my parents, which is...less than thrilling. I know I've been to Uxmal, but it was when I was a little kid and I don't remember it.

[Malthus]

That does sound really cool. I've been to the Yucatan four times, but only on family vacations with my parents, which is...less than thrilling. I know I've been to Uxmal, but it was when I was a little kid and I don't remember it.

Uxmal is a great site. In general, I love the Puuc style - it is very different from the more generally known lowland Maya style, as it is composed of stone mosaics.

Chichen Itza is of course a world-class site, and for sheer religious evil I've never seen anything to compare - makes the Aztecs look like wusses. ;) Everywhere you look there are skull platforms and gruesome depictions of human sacrifices - and my favorite relief carvings in the Ball Court: the Maya ball game is depicted being played with a flaming skull with a mohawk as the ball! How cool is that? :D

[Balthisar]

Well, I'm no teetotaler. I'm not trying to imply that drinking is bad. I just find vacations that consist entirely of lying on the beach and having people bring you margaritas to be boring. Just my opinion.
(She's referring to Cancun.)
The best vacation I ever had was when we rented a car and drove across the Yucatan. We lived out our fantasies of being modern-day explorers ... so many great archaeological sites to see along the Puuc route! Off the beaten path, many of 'em get few visitors (Tulum is nice in location but unimpressive, and Chichen Itza, while very impressive, is covered in hordes of tourists - not that one should miss it on that account!).
And to think you can do both of these activities on the same peninsula!

I kind of like to do both of these, but depending on what I'm doing. Cancun proper seems kind of busy to me, but there was nothing like lying on the beach doing nothing just a bit to the south in Akumal. The only reason I ventured out to Tulum on that trip was because the weather was rainy. In all, it was one of my best vacations ever.

But all the same, I complained a bit earlier about Palenque, because other than the site, I was restless with nothing to do. The whole driving trip through Chiapas (as a whole) was freaking awesome. It was also one of my best vacations ever!

[BrotherCadfael]

I've traveled a good bit -- in the State's, not internationally -- and I have to say that I rarely if ever find anyplace as nice as home. Of course, I DO live in Vermont...

Agree about Mount Rushmore vs. Crazy Horse.

[Barkis is Willin']

We made the best of Branson, MO. We had no idea what we were getting into. We thought there were casinos and good shows. More like an AARP convention.

[FlyingRat]

I have a couple:

- The beach areas in Bali (Kuta, etc.).

The beaches are, indeed, gorgeous, but the number of touts, the traffic, and the general press of humanity are a real drag. Go to Ubud, up in the hills, instead-- it's still touristy in places, but it's much more artsy and interesting to wander around (not to mention cooler).

- The Mona Lisa. I second the "underwhelming" assessment.

- The Book of Kells, at Trinity College in Dublin (and I feel guilty for even saying this).

I fully acknowledge that the Book of Kells is an amazing work of art and justifiably famous, but both times I saw it I was a little let-down by the actual physical object. A large part of it was the crush of people in the final room where it's on display (the same problem as with the Mona Lisa) and the fact that you can (necessarily) only see a small portion at a time. I feel more fulfilled by being able to look at high-resolution scans and the like, under good light where you can really see all the detail.

I will say that the whole exhibit at the Trinity College Library (which I last saw in about 2002, so it may have changed) was well-worth going to for the way it presented the Irish manuscript tradition. It's just the last room that I wouldn't spend much time in. :)

[eleanorigby]

Does that mean your experience was similar in the rest of the Caribbean? I've only been to Puerto Rico there, but my understanding is that the various islands differ enormously, so that if you don't like island A, you might well fall in love with island B.
Nope--that holds for me for the entire region. We traveled the Caribbean about 20 years ago. I'll never go back. It holds no charms for me at all. YMMV.

Martinque: dirty with trash littering the streets
St Thomas: slightly cleaner
Barbados: mildly interesting historical tour, but not worth the trip.
St Maarten: meh
US Virgin Islands: cleaner, but boring
Puerto Rico: we only saw the inside of the airport
And everywhere-hawkers and buskers who do not leave you alone. I also have no fondness for Lladro figurines, Rolex watches, perfume or gambling.

I'm not a tropics fan--I found this out by traveling to the Caribbean! :)

[Sakuma Drops]

It was on par with the rest of the Caribbean--I'll never go back. YMMV.That's too bad. The Virgin Islands (especially St. John's, USVI and Virgin Gorda, BVI) are great and feel much less "landscaped" than other portions of the Caribbean that tourists are typically funneled into. Puerto Rico is nice, too, it has some awesome non-beach things to do (rainforests, caves, Arecibo Observatory, Ponce Art Museum, Old San Juan), and if you want great diving, the outer islands of Culebra and Vieques are wonderful.

The Bahamas always struck me as primarily a place where cruise ship tourists go. Same with Cancun/Cozumel. There seems to be much more in those places to cater to people who are just off the boat for a few hours and either don't have time or don't care to actually immerse themselves in the culture of the places they're visiting. It does not help that one of the closest places to the cruise ship dock in Cozumel is Carlos & Charlie's, Ground Zero for 20-year-old morons drinking Fishbowls and trying to hook up.

[Uzi]

For me it's probably San Francisco- besides Alcatraz, I was just thoroughly underwhelmed by this city that's so frequently held up as One Of The World's Great Cities. And I've never seen so many homeless people in a city before or since, for that matter.

Yep. I had the same impression. But to add to that there was a well dressed guy lying on the sidewalk, projectile vomiting into the street, while people stepped over and around him like it was an everyday occurrence.
I was there for a week while my wife was at a conference. I got an old and tired vibe from the city and couldn't wait to leave. I eventually just ended up in the hotel room and read some books. Walking across the Golden Gate and Alcatraz were cool, though.

[even sven]

San Francisco for tourists sucks- the tourist destinations are completely segregated from the real life of the city, and are minimally fun. The tourist sites are the absolutely bottom of the barrel and have few redeeming factors.

But San Francisco is a great city to eat, to get lost in, to shop in, and to just watch the world go by. With a tiny bit of research, you can get authentic food from any part of the planet, from top-notch dim sum to Senegalese specialties. The specialty shops are world class. An afternoon in Cole Valley or the Mission...it's absolutely brilliant.

I'll give you, there are A LOT of homeless people. They'd all be in your city, but the weather in SF is better. In the end, they are pretty harmless.

[DoctorJ]

I'd have to say Florence in general was a letdown. There are only so many depictions of John the Baptist or the Madonna & Child that you can really see- it seemed to me that most of Florentine museum art was composed of those two things, with the exceptions of the big well known stuff like Botticelli's Venus.
My problem with Florence is that it felt less like Italy and more like an Italian theme park. It didn't help that 2/3 of the people I met were American students doing a semester abroad.

And I love great art, but it's easy to get overwhelmed when there's so much of it in one place. If I make it back I'll take Rick Steves's advice and stay in Siena or one of the other hill towns and do a day trip into Florence.

[Smapti]

I was there in 1999. It was also early spring (March, I think). From the "hot and crowded" descriptors, it sounds like maybe you were there in the height of summer/tourist season?

1999 was a Jubilee year, wasn't it? Might explain the crowds and added security.

[Kyla]

1999 was a Jubilee year, wasn't it? Might explain the crowds and added security.

I don't know what a Jubilee year is, and I believe you have it backwards. It WASN'T hot or crowded with added security when I was there.

BTW, I'm from San Francisco and the places tourists go generally baffle me. Why would anyone voluntarily go to Fisherman's Wharf, for instance? Apparently a lot of tourists. I don't know, it's weird. I don't think San Francisco is particularly thrilling myself, but it's like tourists intentionally go to the dullest part of the city.

[Sakuma Drops]

BTW, I'm from San Francisco and the places tourists go generally baffle me. Why would anyone voluntarily go to Fisherman's Wharf, for instance? Apparently a lot of tourists. I don't know, it's weird. Fisherman's Wharf is where there's usually a big pile of sea lions on that one dock. If you've never been to coastal California and have never seen anything like that, then I guess it's something for the itinerary. OTOH, I don't see the point in going to some place like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Hint: if you can also go to one in freaking Times Square, it's probably not a One-Of-A-Kind San Francisco Experience.

Me, I preferred the Japanese Tea Garden. Very tranquil and out-of-the-way enough that not many tourists go there, it seemed (I've only visited SF, never lived there). Coit Tower was cool, also.

[China Guy]

Yangzi River 3 gorges. I didn't go back in the 1980's before that damn dam was built. Now it's essentially a placid meandering river and the gorges don't exist in anything but name.

If you go to China on a group tour - pick one that does not feature the gorges.

[Princhester]

Australia.

Admittedly I went only to the east coast, during winter, but damn that's some boring shit right there. The fucking pubs shut at 7pm in most places! And the fish and chip shops! Parochial towns in England aren't much fun in winter either, but at least we make an attempt at a nightlife.

That said, I liked Byron Bay, and Sydney was seven shades of awesome, and I'd love to see the outback and Perth and so on - but the majority of the few thousand miles I drove through Queensland and NSW was shockingly dull.

Sorry, Aussies. :(

England.

Admittedly I only went to see the wildlife, outback, beaches, reef and rainforests but damn that's some boring shit right there.

[HazelNutCoffee]

Dublin was disappointing for me, although the rest of Ireland wasn't. I dunno what I was expecting, but I was underwhelmed.

I wasn't that impressed with Pisa, either. The tower was interesting, but the whole city seemed like one big tourist trap.

Seeing the Mona Lisa was . . . interesting. People file in, snap pictures, file out. They don't even look at the painting. And the painting is tiny and behind a barrier so you can't really look at it close up. Not that the mobs give you a chance to linger anyway.

For me, the opposite experience was seeing the statue of David, in Firenze. In pictures, it doesn't seem that impressive, but in real life . . . wow. It was truly awesome. I was truly blown away by how stone can be carved to look so much like flesh, and the subtle curves of the muscles are just perfect. (Especially in David's butt.)

[Nava]

Graceland. Don't go to Memphis just to see Graceland. It's small, tacky and crowded and (at least when I was there many years ago) they didn't let you see the personal areas of the house (people were still living there). The whole area near it was tacky and a bit creepy.

Wait, you mean the whole reason to see Graceland isn't the tack factor?

I haven't seen it, but yeah, from what I know about it I figure anybody expecting a tasteful location will run away screaming.

I don't know what a Jubilee year is...

It's one of those notions which came from the thight bonds between moneymaking and religion; it doesn't make any sense theologically speaking, but makes sense as a way to improve the influx of pilgrims to sites.

Strictly speaking, a "Jubilee" is a "time of joy (jubilation)"; it's often used to refer to anniversaries for example. In a Catholic context, it's a year that has been marked as "extra super bonus" for a pilgrimage site. Compostela seems to be getting them almost every other year, sheesh...

Yangzi River 3 gorges. I didn't go back in the 1980's before that damn dam was built. Now it's essentially a placid meandering river and the gorges don't exist in anything but name.

If you go to China on a group tour - pick one that does not feature the gorges.

My brother was in China a couple of years ago; they skipped that on the advice of a friend who's from China, under that exact reasoning. I guess the reason the not-extant-any-more Gorges are kept in tours because people are dumb enough to sign for them, but damn - if people were rational, it wouldn't make any sense.




I went to Fisherman's Wharf because I was making a point of buying one (1) small touristy item for each of my close relatives at every location I visited during that year: I was going to tons of places, so that seemed better than angsting over finding one perfect present for each person and maybe ending up with a dozen heavy items. FW was an evident good point to get touristy crap. One of the most succesful items from that trip wasn't something bought, though... it's a picture of a golden stretch of sea: "that's the Pacific?" "yeah; well, a tiny bit of it, of course" "woooooo, you've been to the Pacific! Showoff :D" (hey, most of my family haven't!)

[ralph124c]

Well, after reflection, I'd have to add : Boston, MA
-dirty (trash in the streets)
-overpriced
-terrible traffic
-overrated restaurants
-nasty people
You can see most of what is interesting in 2 hours. The public transit system is slow and dirty (the MBTA subway stations stink).
Mostly, Boston is a rundown, crowded city with limited appeal.

[etv78]

Well, after reflection, I'd have to add : Boston, MA
-dirty (trash in the streets)
-overpriced
-terrible traffic
-overrated restaurants
-nasty people
You can see most of what is interesting in 2 hours. The public transit system is slow and dirty (the MBTA subway stations stink).
Mostly, Boston is a rundown, crowded city with limited appeal.

Ralph-I take it you're a New Yorker. :rolleyes: While aren't as WONDERFUL as NYC, we do have our world-class universities, and great museums, and the ocean.

[madmonk28]

For me it was Bali. I hated, hated hated Bali. Just one big tourist trap and drunks on spring break. I should note that I lived in Indonesia for two years, so its not like I wrote off the whole country, but Bali sucks. There was a nice island about 1 hour away from us by boat that had quiet beaches, no hawkers, and no drunk college kids vomiting into the sea. We went to Bali once and that was one time too many for me.

[Koxinga]

Just jumping in about the Alamo -- I can't say that I'm entertained going there, but for me that's hardly the point. For me the place should be regarded as a shrine and a place of reflection rather than a vacation spot. I think of the hundreds of people, Mexican and Texian, who died there and why. Of course, the place is promoted as a tourist destination, but that's not the Alamo's fault.

[An Gadaí]

- The Book of Kells, at Trinity College in Dublin (and I feel guilty for even saying this).

I fully acknowledge that the Book of Kells is an amazing work of art and justifiably famous, but both times I saw it I was a little let-down by the actual physical object. A large part of it was the crush of people in the final room where it's on display (the same problem as with the Mona Lisa) and the fact that you can (necessarily) only see a small portion at a time. I feel more fulfilled by being able to look at high-resolution scans and the like, under good light where you can really see all the detail.

I will say that the whole exhibit at the Trinity College Library (which I last saw in about 2002, so it may have changed) was well-worth going to for the way it presented the Irish manuscript tradition. It's just the last room that I wouldn't spend much time in. :)

The Book Of Kells is a huge tourist draw, but like the shitty Molly Malone statue it's not something I'd think to recommend to a tourist. Funnily enough, most of my recommendations would be corpse based. :) The bog bodies in the National Museum and the mummies in St. Michan's Crypt are two of the more interesting things to see in Dublin IMHO. One is free in and the other is maybe 3 euro.

[aruvqan]

Yep. I had the same impression. But to add to that there was a well dressed guy lying on the sidewalk, projectile vomiting into the street, while people stepped over and around him like it was an everyday occurrence.
I was there for a week while my wife was at a conference. I got an old and tired vibe from the city and couldn't wait to leave. I eventually just ended up in the hotel room and read some books. Walking across the Golden Gate and Alcatraz were cool, though.I have been to Atlantic City, Vegas and Reno. I do not understand gambling, I don't particularly care for gambling, and the entire vibe I got from the 3 cities was tired desperation. People trying to get that one win ... and losing their rent money doing it. The food was disappointing in general [though I understand that you can now find 'specialty' places like some of the ones in Mohegan Sun, we go there for the BBQ place and the Tuscany [Todd English's place] and other than some of the high profile name shows boring. In defense, we only went to Reno because it was the stopping point for one vacation trip headed to Fresno to visit mrAru's mom.



Me, I preferred the Japanese Tea Garden. Very tranquil and out-of-the-way enough that not many tourists go there, it seemed (I've only visited SF, never lived there). Coit Tower was cool, also.That sounds like a good place to visit. I normally avoid large cities like NY Boston LA and such unless they have some very specific museum or feature we want to visit.


Seeing the Mona Lisa was . . . interesting. People file in, snap pictures, file out. They don't even look at the painting. And the painting is tiny and behind a barrier so you can't really look at it close up. Not that the mobs give you a chance to linger anyway.

)I am probably one of the few visitors to the Louvre that has actually never seen the Mona Lisa. THe Winged Victory of Samothrace however is phenomenal, and I can't forget being in a gaggle of kids with nuns when they discovered the statue of the Hermaphrodite .... :confused::dubious::eek::D
NSFWish this is the view (http://image46.webshots.com/47/5/70/98/308857098aSTWoE_ph.jpg) when you walk into the main room it is in, and this (http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/jwss/bath2004/images/Louvre%20Hermaphrodite%2002.jpg) is when you walk around to the front.

[Bridget Burke]

San Francisco for tourists sucks- the tourist destinations are completely segregated from the real life of the city, and are minimally fun. The tourist sites are the absolutely bottom of the barrel and have few redeeming factors.

But San Francisco is a great city to eat, to get lost in, to shop in, and to just watch the world go by. With a tiny bit of research, you can get authentic food from any part of the planet, from top-notch dim sum to Senegalese specialties. The specialty shops are world class. An afternoon in Cole Valley or the Mission...it's absolutely brilliant.

I'll give you, there are A LOT of homeless people. They'd all be in your city, but the weather in SF is better. In the end, they are pretty harmless.

Might that be Noe Valley (http://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods/sf/noevalley/) instead of Cole Valley? I visited my sister in SF; she was on a long-term business stay. We visited the Mission District--including the mission itself & its graveyard. The firefighters of 19th century SF built an especially impressive monument for one of their own who did wrong & was hanged. Still, he deserved to be remembered. (Many of the later arrivals in the graveyard were Irish.) But I found Noe Valley especially charming. Just a hilly neighborhood with little shops & restaurants. Not one of the Famous Sights but a great way to spend a few hours.

My sister insisted we visit Fisherman's Wharf. Definitely a tourist trap but she loved the sea lions.

Coit Tower had been hosed down when I visited. I like murals as much as I like missions & the view from the top was lovely.

And there's nothing to beat City Lights Books. Just across Jack Kerouac Alley from the Cafe Vesuvio. Walk around the block & you're in Chinatown.

A great city for walking! (A good city has enough non-homeless people on the streets that they outnumber the bums. Houston shares mild weather, so we're also on the homeless itinerary. They really freak out the suburbanites, though.)

[Sakuma Drops]

That sounds like a good place to visit. I normally avoid large cities like NY Boston LA and such unless they have some very specific museum or feature we want to visit.Yeah, the Tea Garden (which is part of the larger Golden Gate Park) is not unique to SF (although it is the oldest in the US) but it's a nice nod to the Asian communities in the area. My favorite part is the tea house where you can purchase Japanese tea and snacks :)

There's also apparently a very good Asian art museum in SF, but unfortunately I never got around to going there.

[Malthus]

For me it was Bali. I hated, hated hated Bali. Just one big tourist trap and drunks on spring break. I should note that I lived in Indonesia for two years, so its not like I wrote off the whole country, but Bali sucks. There was a nice island about 1 hour away from us by boat that had quiet beaches, no hawkers, and no drunk college kids vomiting into the sea. We went to Bali once and that was one time too many for me.


Heh, I went to Bali (admittedly many years ago now) and loved it - the secret is to go inland. Hang out at Kuta Beach, all you see is drunken Australians (not that there is anything wrong with that, if that's what you are into!) Inland, there is lots of great stuff to see ... I particularly enjoyed climbing Mt. Batur. The whole area is freaky - a volcano inside a gigantic volcanic calendra ...

Still, I must admit I liked Prambanan and Borobodur on the island of Java the best.

[Smeghead]

Well, I don't have to travel there, but ... Salem, MA. You think "Witch craft trial" and "Olde New England village with concentrated quaintness and maybe a stock on the town green." What you get is a small, congested, somewhat down-at-its-heels city with a lot of extremely tacky witchcraft museums and occult stores.

I can second that. I posted elsewhere here about how disappointed we were with our trip there. People were lining up for hours for the witch museum, which turned out to be the cheesiest, hokiest waste of time and money I've ever seen.

[Yarster]

Wow - so many good ones are already taken. The Alamo and Athens are right on. I remember seeing Stonehenge for the first time and thinking "This must be a model of it for the handicapped people who can't do the hike to the real one which is 10x the size and must be just over that hill." Nope - that's the real thing. Apparently moving some six foot tall boulders is a big deal because everyone was three feet high back then.

Yet somehow you all missed: Helsinki, Finland.

Oh yes, I took a cruise on the Baltic and we stopped for a day in Helsinki to do a city tour. Every other city in other countries where we only had a day felt like you barely scratched the surface. With Helsinki, there was literally NOTHING to see and they ran out of that nothing in less than half a day. But we did see...ugly grey square buildings that made Russian slums look nice..and lots of saunas. Seriously, how is that a site? But let's not forget their Olympic stadium, with a giant statue of some Finnish runner no one has ever heard of, followed by a trip to a park to see a bunch of pipes welded together in honor of some Finnish composer you've also never heard of. We ended in a random church between some rocks that was also nothing worth seeing. What the hell? For a country that invented the cell phone and has an amazing ship building industry, did they not bother to invent any culture along the way? Next door in Sweden and Norway, there was amazing stuff. How did Finland miss the boat? Yeah, I know the Nazis and Russians probably bombed them back to the stone age, but no one bothered to re-build anything like the rest of Europe?

[Floater]

Helsinki is, in my opinion, a very nice town and if you have never heard of Paavo Nurmi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi), Jean Sibelius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_sibelius) or the Temppeliaukio Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church) I honestly think it says more about you than of them. ;)

As for myself I don't think I have ever been disappointed by a place, country or whatever as I never have any pre-made expectations. I just go around exploring things.

[Yarster]

Helsinki is, in my opinion, a very nice town and if you have never heard of Paavo Nurmi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi), Jean Sibelius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_sibelius) or the Temppeliaukio Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church) I honestly think it says more about you than of them. ;)

As for myself I don't think I have ever been disappointed by a place, country or whatever as I never have any pre-made expectations. I just go around exploring things.

Sorry, I'm just not up on my Finnish runners from the 1920s, composers with such well known works such as...uh...um..., and the Church of (something that sounds like you order it at a sushi bar) :D. On the plus side, Sibelius does kind of resemble a bad guy from a James Bond movie in his later years...

[jjimm]

Ralph-I take it you're a New Yorker. :rolleyes: While aren't as WONDERFUL as NYC, we do have our world-class universities, and great museums, and the ocean.Are you feeling OK, dude?

This is an opinion forum. Some of the opinions may differ from yours. Tough titty. Suck it up and stop throwing little tantrums.

[Diceman]

Jamaica. Probably 90% of the island consists of ramshackle slums. You are strongly advised to not leave the resort, except as part of a tour group. It's hard to enjoy yourself when right outside the resort walls people are living in squalid poverty.

[MsWhatsit]

Sorry, I'm just not up on my Finnish runners from the 1920s, composers with such well known works such as...uh...um...,

Finlandia. I've never heard of the other two guys either, but Sibelius is a pretty well-known classical composer.

[Kyla]

Fisherman's Wharf is where there's usually a big pile of sea lions on that one dock. If you've never been to coastal California and have never seen anything like that, then I guess it's something for the itinerary.

Oh, I forgot about the sea lions. Yeah, they are actually really fun to see. I went to Alcatraz (for the first time!) a few years ago when I had a friend visiting and we enjoyed seeing the sea lions a lot.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Ralph-I take it you're a New Yorker. :rolleyes: While aren't as WONDERFUL as NYC, we do have our world-class universities, and great museums, and the ocean.

Someone not liking Boston means they are a New Yorker? :confused: Just what is wrong with you that you've now had two bizarre outbursts in just this thread alone?

[Kotka]

New York, but that was probably our own fault. We were there for about four days, and the only fun thing we did was the Body exhibit. The rest of our time was spent cruising police stations to find a place to get fingerprinting done for Canadian immigration, and going to a restaurant in New Jersey. I tell you, underwhelming!

Belgrade, Serbia, though I guess it's not really a big tourist destination, in 1999, with a big pile of garbage burning in front of the train station. That was just a travel low point for me.

[Whack-a-Mole]

Meteor Crater in Arizona is kind of a let down.

Don't get me wrong...it is impressive. But it is in the middle of nowhere and is basically a hole in the ground (albeit a big one). You stare at it for several minutes and then kinda wonder how much longer you need to stare at it to make it worth the effort.

If you happen to be driving past anyway because your route took you past it then I'd say stop and see it. In no way is it really worth a special trip though.

Four-corners is similarly boring. You lie down and are in four states at once. Whoo hoo! (not)

[kelly5078]

It's odd to see people listing the Mona Lisa as a tourist destination. I mean, it's just one painting, and you pretty much ought to know what it's going to look like (although you might not have anticipated the glass). But the thing's in the Louvre, for Pete's sake. If you can't find something in the Louvre that takes your breath away, you're probably dead.

[Bridget Burke]

Someone not liking Boston means they are a New Yorker? :confused: Just what is wrong with you that you've now had two bizarre outbursts in just this thread alone?

Ever hear the one about the Westerner who visited Boston? A Native gave him a tour of the cultural, historic & educational highpoints of that fine city.

The Westerner was duly impressed & said that Boston was definitely the Omaha of the East!

[Lemur866]

I live in Seattle, and I'd have to wrack my brains for reasons to visit here. Um, we have the Space Needle? And....well, that's all I've got. It could be worthwhile to go out to the Olympics or Cascades if you like to see moss and trees, or go out boating in Puget Sound, but the city itself?

[Rocketeer]

Yes, Seattle sucks. It rains too much, and everyone there is a heroin addict. None of you would like it, and you should spread the word about how horrible of a place it is. Remember: do not move to Seattle. It sucks.

Rains ALL THE TIME. Do not visit unless you like LOTS OF RAIN.


RAIN.




RAIN.

:D

[Yarster]

Lemur866 - most people think Pike's Place Market is pretty impressive. There are other interesting sites and museums around the space needle as well.

That said, I hate constantly rainy cities with shitty weather, so you and London have that in common in terms of great cities that are otherwise ruined by having to do everything inside. Yes, yes, I know if I visit Seattle in August when it doesn't rain it's amazing and that's true. Except you can visit San Diego anytime and you're virtually guaranteed to have great weather.

[Malthus]

I live in Seattle, and I'd have to wrack my brains for reasons to visit here. Um, we have the Space Needle? And....well, that's all I've got. It could be worthwhile to go out to the Olympics or Cascades if you like to see moss and trees, or go out boating in Puget Sound, but the city itself?

Well, according to the folksong ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Settler's_Song_(Acres_of_Clams)

And now that I'm used to the climate,
I think that if a man ever found
A place to live easy and happy,
That Eden is on Puget Sound —
That Eden is on Puget Sou-ou-ound,
That Eden is on Puget Sound —
A place to live easy and happy?
That Eden is on Puget Sound!

No longer the slave of ambition,
I laugh at the world and its shams
As I think of my pleasant condition,
Surrounded by acres of clams —
Surrounded by acres of cla-a-ams,
Surrounded by acres of clams,
As I think of my happy condition,
Surrounded by acres of clams!

:D

[fjs1fs]

For me, most medium-sized cities are pretty disappointing. Dublin, Portland Oregon, places like that. that might just be personal preference though. Places like Portland seem to have all the inconvenience of a large city but few of the cultural pluses.

Las Vegas was a little bit boring.

Generally unimpressed with California. San Francisco seemed to revolve around tourism a bit too much -- it seemed hollow, rather than a real city.

Japanese tourist sites are boring concreted monstrosities (thinking of places like Hakone). I also think Kyoto is horribly overrated. There are some nice places there, but hidden away amongst the concrete. In fact I'd put Japan as a whole. So much of the 'historic' sites are concrete reconstructions.

New York was a bit boring if you didn't want to spend lots of money. I always tell European friends if they can only visit once city on the East Coast, make it Washington.

pdts

Tough customer: bored by Vegas, SF and NYC!

[BwanaBob]

FWIW, I enjoyed Seattle's "underground city" tour.

[Sakuma Drops]

I live in Seattle, and I'd have to wrack my brains for reasons to visit here. Um, we have the Space Needle? And....well, that's all I've got. It could be worthwhile to go out to the Olympics or Cascades if you like to see moss and trees, or go out boating in Puget Sound, but the city itself?I've heard that the Experience Music Project is a pretty cool museum. And I did enjoy the aquarium when I was out there. Pike Place Market....eh, it's okay. Part flea market, part mall with funky shops, and that one counter that they toss fish over.

If you get bored with the city then there are some decent day-trip opportunities, like Mount Saint Helens and Vancouver. And you can take a boat ride to Victoria, BC and tour the gardens there. So maybe it's better used as a base for general exploration of that region of the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle seems like a nice place to live. And I always find the "omg RAIN" comments interesting, since it seems to be rainy and cool in Monterey, CA most of the time too and I've never heard anyone describe THAT area as anything but amazing and beautiful (which it is, I've been there). Maybe they just have better P.R.? IDK.

[eleanorigby]

That's too bad. The Virgin Islands (especially St. John's, USVI and Virgin Gorda, BVI) are great and feel much less "landscaped" than other portions of the Caribbean that tourists are typically funneled into. Puerto Rico is nice, too, it has some awesome non-beach things to do (rainforests, caves, Arecibo Observatory, Ponce Art Museum, Old San Juan), and if you want great diving, the outer islands of Culebra and Vieques are wonderful.

Not really. I'm perfectly happy never going to a tropical place again, to drink rum based concoctions (complete with umbrellas), be accosted by "natives" who want to sell me flowers they just picked off a bush etc. I have limited funds and limited time: I would prefer to spend both on a vacation I want, not one a travel agent thinks I should have. That said, we ended up in Nassau last year because of a family reunion/patriarch birthday celebration. The rest of the Caribbean was done on our honeymoon--I'm sure it hasn't gotten less spoiled in the ensuing 23 years.

I don't care in the least if others find the Bahamas to be Paradise on earth-more power to 'em. I prefer Iceland, Scotland, Norway, Greece and UK (some of which I've not been to yet, but maybe someday).

I loved Seattle. Not the town itself (or the Space Needle), but the surrounding area. We went up to Victoria and stopped on some of the San Juans. Wonderful trip.

[Voyager]

Colonial Williamsburg is also awful. It was by far the most commercialized place I've ever visited. I hadn't wanted to go in the first place (my parents wanted to spend Christmas there and insisted I come along), and having to shell out for every. single. thing. to do or see didn't help matters. That was 4 days of my life I'll never get back.

Seconded. My wife went to William and Mary and when I went to visit her, 40 years ago, CW was a lot nicer. We took our kids about 20 years ago and it was sinking even then, now it's been turned into a bloody amusement park.

The Alamo didn't impress me, but I'm not a Texan and don't give a crap, even if John Wayne died there.
I was in Athens for just a short while, in awful weather, and am not eager to go back.

Mission Control in Houston was the biggest shock. It is a lot smaller than it looks on TV. Not bad, just surprising.

[Susanann]

Meteor Crater in Arizona is kind of a let down.

Don't get me wrong...it is impressive. But it is in the middle of nowhere and is basically a hole in the ground (albeit a big one). You stare at it for several minutes and then kinda wonder how much longer you need to stare at it to make it worth the effort.
)

What ELSE?? would you expect Meteor Crater to be?

[Sakuma Drops]

Not really. I'm perfectly happy never going to a tropical place again, to drink rum based concoctions (complete with umbrellas), be accosted by "natives" who want to sell me flowers they just picked off a bush etc. I have limited funds and limited time: I would prefer to spend both on a vacation I want, not one a travel agent thinks I should have. That said, we ended up in Nassau last year because of a family reunion/patriarch birthday celebration. The rest of the Caribbean was done on our honeymoon--I'm sure it hasn't gotten less spoiled in the ensuing 23 years..I guess what I was trying to get at is that it's very easy to not like the Caribbean if you visit areas with a ton of tourists (especially cruise ships). I really do know what you're saying about pushy salespeople and cheesy, oversized "tropical" drinks - places like Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas (where the cruise ships dock); Cancun; and Cozumel are rife with this stuff. My brother has visited St. Barts' as well and he says that in addition to being very touristy, it's waaaay overpriced due to all of the wealthy Europeans who frequent there.

But there are areas where there's very little of that. I was actually surprised at how laid back and not fake the majority of Puerto Rico was (it looks a lot like many parts of the US in terms of businesses there, but that's another issue). Perhaps it's because PR isn't totally dependent on tourism to make money the way that other islands are, and therefore the tourism machine isn't in overdrive there with wall-to-wall t-shirts and Rum Runners. The outer islands of the Virgin Islands (that is, outside of Tortola and St. Thomas) are full of laid-back natives and expats who couldn't give a crap about trying to sell you cheap knicknacks.

Sorry if this all sounds like a big rant. I hate touristy places as much as you do, believe me. That's why I feel that I should give credit to the places that are still somewhat like what the Caribbean should be, and to the wonderful people I've met there.

[Kalypso]

I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be about the Winchester Mystery House. I'd always been fascinated with it and all the weird things about doors and staircases to nowhere and the labyrinthine passages. I finally got to go a couple years ago and it's mostly a big, old, decrepit, unfurnished house. There was a lot less fun stuff than I thought there would be, and it was a lot more run-down. It was kind of like a movie where they put all the good bits in the trailers. Oh, and it was really expensive to tour.

[Yarster]

I'd have to agree with Sakuma Drops on being very surprised by Puerto Rico. It was where our cruise ended, and due to some logistics, the plane flights out were significantly cheaper if we stayed over an extra two days, so we did and extended the vacation.

The rain forest was completely free to enter and other than a few cheap tolls on the freeways (which were nothing compared to the Eastern seaboard in the U.S.), there were no B.S. charges. We took a boat to Viaques island and did the bio-luminescent tour at night and had the single best piece of pork I'd ever had in my life at the restaurant on the island. It's like a combination of Hawaii and Mexico (and the good part of Mexico, not the 'get your head cut off by a Mexican drug cartel' part).

[A. Gwilliam]

FWIW, I enjoyed Seattle's "underground city" tour.

As the person who originally mentioned Seattle in this thread, it's only fair to state that I also enjoyed the underground tour there. I would certainly recommend it to anyone with an interest in things historical, or in things that are a little different.

[ralph124c]

I love Seattle- Alaska Avenue is loaded with neat places. I likes most of the restaurants there, inclding the one in the Red Lion Inn-I'd also recommend ETTA'S-great food.
My dislike for Boston is based upon 20+ years living nearby.
Whenever I visit the place (usually to accomodate visiting friends and relatives), I am always disappointed-the place looks so nice in the tour books, but never in person.
I guess I've had enough of overpriced, bad restaurants,and just plain rude locals.
Take the "Quincy Market" area of Boston-shops selling tourist junk , with lousy restarants-all with a big pricetag.
Plus, Boston is loaded with homeless (mostly winos and druggies)-I don't like some filthy, smelly bum shoving his begging cup in my face-and the odor of urine..Boston Common is redolent of it.

[Roderick Femm]

Many places in Japan, as someone has mentioned, are so commercialized and tourist-trapped (for Japanese tourists, mind you) that whatever beauty there might have been is completely overshadowed and hidden. (Kyoto and Nara are pretty good exceptions, although its best not to go during popular tourist times. The temples and shrines can be just wonderful. Try early April for the cherry blossoms, or early November for the autumn leaves; or winter for the solitude.) On the other hand, I love going to Tokyo because it is so big and there is plenty to do there (museums if you're interested, or shopping, or just people watching).

Example: there is a place near Sendai (NE coast, on the Pacific) that is advertised as one of the three (or six, or five, I don't remember) most beautiful places. It's a string of islands off the coast that you can see from the town. But the town itself and everything leading up to it is (or was in 1988) filled with one junky souvenir shop after another, and it's pretty hard to appreciate the putative beauty.

And don't get me started on the agonizing four-day bus tour I was on a couple of years ago in the area north of Sendai, because my Japanese sister-in-law thought I would love the experience.

Other disappointments include any of the modern Asian cities I have been to, including Hong Kong, Seoul and Bangkok. Mostly just noisy and busy, with not much interesting ot see or do (although I do recommend the side trip to Panmunjom if you're in Seoul, if they're still doing that, it's gripping).


Roddy

[Isamu]

Lemur866 - most people think Pike's Place Market is pretty impressive. There are other interesting sites and museums around the space needle as well.

That said, I hate constantly rainy cities with shitty weather, so you and London have that in common in terms of great cities that are otherwise ruined by having to do everything inside.

Seattle is Rainier!

[Springtime for Spacers]

Dublin was disappointing for me, although the rest of Ireland wasn't. I dunno what I was expecting, but I was underwhelmed.

I wasn't that impressed with Pisa, either. The tower was interesting, but the whole city seemed like one big tourist trap.

Seeing the Mona Lisa was . . . interesting. People file in, snap pictures, file out. They don't even look at the painting. And the painting is tiny and behind a barrier so you can't really look at it close up. Not that the mobs give you a chance to linger anyway.

For me, the opposite experience was seeing the statue of David, in Firenze. In pictures, it doesn't seem that impressive, but in real life . . . wow. It was truly awesome. I was truly blown away by how stone can be carved to look so much like flesh, and the subtle curves of the muscles are just perfect. (Especially in David's butt.)

Pisa, yes, it had a really drab and neglected air to it when I was there (1995). There seemed to be half arsed, unfinished restoration projects everywhere that hadn't been touched for months (or years). One thing that made the visit worthwhile for me was the remaining frescos (that weren't destroyed by WWII bombs) in the Camposanto. The Triumph of Death is amazing. I second the recomendation of Siena. A beautiful city with a vibrant happening air. I was so happy to be going down some steps that were fully restored at the top and had actual people working on the restoration at the bottom.

Oh and when in the Louvre, after sparing a glance through the crowds at the Mona Lisa go find Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, Now that's a painting!

[Sakuma Drops]

We took a boat to Viaques island and did the bio-luminescent tour at night and had the single best piece of pork I'd ever had in my life at the restaurant on the island. It's like a combination of Hawaii and Mexico (and the good part of Mexico, not the 'get your head cut off by a Mexican drug cartel' part).Vieques is indeed awesome. Culebra is the same way; I don't think there's a single big tacky resort on the island, the locals are nice but not in a fake, "let's con the touristas out of some cash" sort of way, and the diving is excellent. Best of all, it's a 20-minute flight from San Juan (as is Vieques). In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you're staying in San Juan and you want to go to a decent beach, skip the island-side ones and fly to Culebra or Vieques for the day (the beaches on "mainland" PR are not all that great). You'll be treated to beaches like these (http://www.elyunque.com/9.html) that have almost no development and very few people.

[Martini Enfield]

But San Francisco is a great city to eat, to get lost in, to shop in, and to just watch the world go by. With a tiny bit of research, you can get authentic food from any part of the planet, from top-notch dim sum to Senegalese specialties. The specialty shops are world class. An afternoon in Cole Valley or the Mission...it's absolutely brilliant.

A lot of people have said this and whilst I'm sure it's true (at least for certain values of true), I think it does rather suggest that someone at the San Francisco Tour Bureau isn't doing their job properly since so many people (like myself) get to San Francisco, visit Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf, and then say "Now what?"

Also, IMHO, "Great Food" should not be a primary reason for visiting a major city- one of them, maybe, but not the main one.

[Princhester]

A lot of people have said this and whilst I'm sure it's true (at least for certain values of true), I think it does rather suggest that someone at the San Francisco Tour Bureau isn't doing their job properly since so many people (like myself) get to San Francisco, visit Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf, and then say "Now what?"

I have only visited a couple of times, both over a decade ago, and I have a memory like a sieve. I can nonethess think of an answer to that question even now. I don't remember it being in the slightest bit hard to find information about things other than that which you mention.

[dukette71]

I'd say the Alamo. I'm a huge history nerd and love even the most empty of battlefield, the most stale of museum, the most blah of site. . . but goddamn, the Alamo sucked.

That's not fair: the Alamo itself doesn't necessarily suck, but the city of San Antonio being right up against the walls of the Alamo definitely take something away from the whole experience. I mean, the shitty tourist shops selling ugly tshirts are literally butted up right against the Alamo on every side. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Missions in California-- sure, some are right in the middle of cities, but most of them at least have a little space preserved on all sides.

I dunno, maybe I'm being too harsh, but the whole city sprawl right around the Alamo completely ruined it for me. :(

No, not being too harsh at all. You left out my favorite part: they have a lock of Davy Crocket's hair on display. Weak!

[clairobscur]

England.

Admittedly I only went to see the wildlife, outback, beaches, reef and rainforests but damn that's some boring shit right there.

:D

[clairobscur]

Seeing the Mona Lisa was . . . interesting. People file in, snap pictures, file out. They don't even look at the painting. And the painting is tiny and behind a barrier so you can't really look at it close up. Not that the mobs give you a chance to linger anyway.



When you're in front of the Mona Lisa, make a 180° turn. There you have a huge, famous painting (Veronese's marriage at Cana (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_owmNZHkEsvY/TTmtF6LqK2I/AAAAAAAACtg/vUhIjx4MsB0/s1600/Veronese-Cana.jpg)) without glass, without barrier and nobody's looking that way.

I find this fascinating. You enter the room with those two paintings and everybody is around the one you barely can see, while completely ignoring the other that covers a whole wall. There's something surrealist about it.

[eleanorigby]

Sorry if this all sounds like a big rant. I hate touristy places as much as you do, believe me. That's why I feel that I should give credit to the places that are still somewhat like what the Caribbean should be, and to the wonderful people I've met there.

All that is fine for you. You aren't about to convert me; I dislike even Florida for vacation (and I was born and lived there for several years-I was so glad when my father got a job in a temperate climate)--I'm not one to lay on a beach. Look at it this way--there are now 5 fewer people to clutter up the islands, so you can enjoy them more.


Seriously, if I won a trip there I would turn it down. NOT just because of the tourist claptrap, but because my notion of relaxation is not geared toward tropical anything. YMDV.

[Martini Enfield]

I have only visited a couple of times, both over a decade ago, and I have a memory like a sieve. I can nonethess think of an answer to that question even now. I don't remember it being in the slightest bit hard to find information about things other than that which you mention.

Everyone's got different ideas about what's worth doing when on holiday, so I shall observe that there's very little of interest for me personally in San Francisco, besides Alcatraz. So yes, there was information on things that were available to do, but of the ones that were actually open at the time we were there, I personally thought very few of them were worth doing or nearly as interesting as they were made out to be.

[AClockworkMelon]

Wow - so many good ones are already taken. The Alamo and Athens are right on. I remember seeing Stonehenge for the first time and thinking "This must be a model of it for the handicapped people who can't do the hike to the real one which is 10x the size and must be just over that hill." Nope - that's the real thing. Apparently moving some six foot tall boulders is a big deal because everyone was three feet high back then.They seem taller than six feet to me. (http://www.foxnews.com/images/383342/1_61_062108_stonehenge1.jpg)

[madmonk28]

Stonehedge was a let down for me for a different reason: when we went there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease and they wouldn't let you get out of your car to walk on the grass, so we had to just drive by it.

[put down the sabre]

Tough customer: bored by Vegas, SF and NYC!

Perhaps! But on the other hand I love Tokyo, St Petersburg and Death Valley.

pdts

[jjimm]

England.

Admittedly I only went to see the wildlife, outback, beaches, reef and rainforests but damn that's some boring shit right there.Almost touché... All of this stuff was indeed there - but I had come straight from South-East Asia that not only has most of the natural wonders you mention (minus the marsupials), but also things to do when the sun goes down. But like I said - east coast only, in winter. Not the best introduction. And I liked Byron Bay; it was gorgeous, and there was also stuff to do in the evening.

[Isamu]

When you're in front of the Mona Lisa, make a 180° turn. There you have a huge, famous painting (Veronese's marriage at Cana (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_owmNZHkEsvY/TTmtF6LqK2I/AAAAAAAACtg/vUhIjx4MsB0/s1600/Veronese-Cana.jpg)) without glass, without barrier and nobody's looking that way.

I find this fascinating. You enter the room with those two paintings and everybody is around the one you barely can see, while completely ignoring the other that covers a whole wall. There's something surrealist about it.

I was going to say exactly this. Turn your back on the Mona Lisa (it may be great but you'll never get close enough to see why) and feast your eyes on the Marriage at Cana.

[Sakuma Drops]

I think it does rather suggest that someone at the San Francisco Tour Bureau isn't doing their job properly since so many people (like myself) get to San Francisco, visit Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf, and then say "Now what?"I think that's true of the Visitor's Bureau (or whoever is in charge of tourism advertising) in a lot of places. The tourist attractions with the most money also tend to have the most advertising, so more visitors are made aware of their existence.

A good case is when I visited Monterey, CA, which has no shortage of nice places to visit. I remember flipping through an area guide and saw that one heavily advertised place was a gallery that had a lot of Thomas Kincade (sp?) stuff. Not something I would necessarily associate with Monterey in particular, but they had a semi-long writeup in the "things to do" section and a full-page ad. Obviously they had a bigger advetising budget than some of the other places in the area.

This is why I often turn to those "off the beaten path" travel guides, or just hit up plain ol' Wikipedia (which usually has a list of local attractions if you look up a city) to find out what is really interesting in a place I'm about to go to, rather than what's merely the most heavily visited. There's a chance I might be traveling to Florence, Italy at some point this year or next. I'm not really interested in seeing a million different artistic interpretations of the Madonna, but I did a little research and found out about the Galileo Museum (http://www.museogalileo.it/en/visit.html), which is MUCH more up my alley.

[Isamu]

Everyone's got different ideas about what's worth doing when on holiday, so I shall observe that there's very little of interest for me personally in San Francisco, besides Alcatraz. So yes, there was information on things that were available to do, but of the ones that were actually open at the time we were there, I personally thought very few of them were worth doing or nearly as interesting as they were made out to be.

Yes, this. In addition, Chicago might be a great place to live, but it's not a great tourist attraction, unless for some reason you're specifically interested in Chicago history. It's cold, and the landscape is as flat as a pancake.

[DMark]

Milan is also boring as fuck.

I've been to Milan easily 20 times or more, and loved it - plus, you have Lake Como nearby. Then again, I usually like bigger cities, so Milan was perfect for me.

The Grand Canyon would be on my list.
Sure, for a few minutes it is quite glorious....but it is one hell of a schlep to get there for a few minutes of "wow" and then a whole lot of "...now what?"
I suppose it would be different if you took a river raft ride, or a mule/donkey trip down into the canyon, but just standing on the rim looking down? Boring after you get those few snapshots and play the obligatory game of "step back darling, step back just a bit further..." as you have your spouse pose.

Mt. Rushmore - talk about a very, very brief thrill. Geez is that a yawner. Makes Grand Canyon look exciting in comparison.

The Eiffel Tower...I had to be dragged there, hated every minute, creepy and dangerous elevator up a bucket of rivets - all the while standing next to a bunch of tourists crammed together. The ONLY nice thing about being on the Eiffel Tower is that you can finally look out at Paris and NOT see the damned Eiffel Tower in the distance. This was best sumarized by an American couple I overheard on the elevator going down the Eiffel Tower - the guy looked at his wife/girlfriend and said, "So, we never have to do this again, right?" She smiled and said, "Right. We never have to do this again."

[BetsQ]

Phuket in Thailand is at the top of my list. I don't like the beach and I'm not a fan of wading or swimming in the ocean. I got so many mosquito bites that I couldn't sleep one night. The local "town" is full of creepy drunk Germans and Australians looking to hook up with local girls. We went for an elephant ride one day - I'll not be repeating that experience. On the plus side, we had some really awesome noodles at a little shack off the beach. I'd say the beaches of Bali were similar for me, but I really enjoyed the interior of the island. I loved a lot of other places in Thailand - Bangkok is amazing, Ayodhya is interesting, Kanchanaburi has an unforgettable museum, and I never even made it to Chaing Mai - but I don't understand the attraction of Phuket.

[Malthus]

We went for an elephant ride one day - I'll not be repeating that experience.

For some reason, this made me giggle. :D

[madmonk28]

Phuket in Thailand is at the top of my list. I don't like the beach and I'm not a fan of wading or swimming in the ocean. I got so many mosquito bites that I couldn't sleep one night. The local "town" is full of creepy drunk Germans and Australians looking to hook up with local girls. We went for an elephant ride one day - I'll not be repeating that experience. On the plus side, we had some really awesome noodles at a little shack off the beach. I'd say the beaches of Bali were similar for me, but I really enjoyed the interior of the island. I loved a lot of other places in Thailand - Bangkok is amazing, Ayodhya is interesting, Kanchanaburi has an unforgettable museum, and I never even made it to Chaing Mai - but I don't understand the attraction of Phuket. North Phuket is different, the beach is part of a national park and it is much quieter. I agree though that the city and bearh around it are is just a big sleazy shithole.

[Lemur866]

Lemur866 - most people think Pike's Place Market is pretty impressive. There are other interesting sites and museums around the space needle as well.

That said, I hate constantly rainy cities with shitty weather, so you and London have that in common in terms of great cities that are otherwise ruined by having to do everything inside. Yes, yes, I know if I visit Seattle in August when it doesn't rain it's amazing and that's true. Except you can visit San Diego anytime and you're virtually guaranteed to have great weather.

OK, not to spoil the joke, but what people don't understand about Seattle is that it only rains constantly in the winter. From May to September we have only an average amount of rain. From September to May it's constant drizzle, alternating with overcast. Oh, and the lovely term the weather-people have here, "scattered sunbreaks". Like, it's useful here to distinguish between a day that's gonna be constantly overcast, and a day that's gonna be almost constantly overcast.

But that's just in wintertime.

Getting back to tourism, yeah, Seattle has a couple of Museums and an Aquarium. So does everywhere. Those don't strike me as a reason to visit a city, unless those museums hold world-class pieces. The Louvre is a reason to visit Paris, the Uffuzi is a reason to visit Florence, the Smithsonian is a reason to visit Washington, the British Museum is a reason to visit London, the 507 museums in Rome are reasons to visit Rome. The EMP is not a reason to visit Seattle.

[suranyi]

Yes, this. In addition, Chicago might be a great place to live, but it's not a great tourist attraction, unless for some reason you're specifically interested in Chicago history. It's cold, and the landscape is as flat as a pancake.

Both San Francisco and Chicago are terrific places for visitors if you are into musems.

S.F:

Exploratorium
Academy of Science
DeYoung
Legion of Honor
Museum of Modern Art

Chicago:

Field
Shedd
Art Institute
Science and Industry

I am into museums so I am baffled by anyone who could say that either of those cities could have nothing for visitors. (Let alone New York City!)

[Sakuma Drops]

OK, not to spoil the joke, but what people don't understand about Seattle is that it only rains constantly in the winter. From May to September we have only an average amount of rain. From September to May it's constant drizzle, alternating with overcast. Oh, and the lovely term the weather-people have here, "scattered sunbreaks". Like, it's useful here to distinguish between a day that's gonna be constantly overcast, and a day that's gonna be almost constantly overcast.

But that's just in wintertime.I visited Seattle in January one year, and I was relieved by how decent (comparitively) the weather was there having just come from Upstate NY. Fifty degrees and drizzle? Oh god, twist my arm, I MUCH preferred 10 degrees and snow and 20 mph winds :rolleyes:

The only thing that sort of freaked me out at first was the fact that it was pitch dark outside until almost 8:00 in the morning, but I think that has more to do with where Seattle is located in the Pacific time zone than anything else (i.e. near the western edge).

[Kyla]

Yes, this. In addition, Chicago might be a great place to live, but it's not a great tourist attraction, unless for some reason you're specifically interested in Chicago history. It's cold, and the landscape is as flat as a pancake.

What kind of stuff do you like to do on vacation? I lived in Chicago for three years and I thought it was endlessly entertaining. I have a hard time imagining anyone being bored there, unless maybe you're super into outdoorsy activities, and it's the winter. (There's a lot of outdoorsy stuff to do when it's warm.)

[GargoyleWB]

...Milan was perfect for me....


I loved Milan, one of the best places in Italy I've been to. The Museum of Technology is one of the coolest museums I've ever seen and was my favorite moment from all of Italy. Yes, it's far better than that chapel ceiling thingy or that ancient monster truck arena in that other city.

[Kyla]

I loved Milan, one of the best places in Italy I've been to. The Museum of Technology is one of the coolest museums I've ever seen and was my favorite moment from all of Italy. Yes, it's far better than that chapel ceiling thingy or that ancient monster truck arena in that other city.

Is that the DaVinci Museum? I went there, and everything was only in Italian. :confused: I can read Italian pretty well, because of its similarity to Spanish, but it just seemed weird that they didn't have multilingual placards. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to puzzle through everything.

[Nava]

Is that the DaVinci Museum? I went there, and everything was only in Italian. :confused: I can read Italian pretty well, because of its similarity to Spanish, but it just seemed weird that they didn't have multilingual placards. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to puzzle through everything.

Oh noe, oh woe... sorry, every time I've gone to a museum in the US with someone who didn't read English I've had to translate the placards. I guess I can say I feel your pain, but I can't say you've got the right to complain.

[Novelty Bobble]

New York, I love architecture and walking and apart from a couple of notable exceptions it doesn't deliver. It is such a pain to try and stroll anywhere without being stopped every few minutes for lights. And the canyons of skyscrapers feel very monotonous after a while. I appreciate there are excellent restaurants and cultural diversions but I can get those in London without the downsides just mentioned.
I'm actually in CT. on business as we speak and have the option of stopping into the weekend on the company dollar to visit NY.........I'll pass.

And Cairo and the pyramids. I was so underwhelmed. They are big I suppose but standing at the base I found it difficult to get a sense of scale. The city itself is a nightmare to get through with very few interesting features on the way.

Now Istanbul is a different matter. I was knocked out by that place and can't wait to go back.

[Isamu]

What kind of stuff do you like to do on vacation? I lived in Chicago for three years and I thought it was endlessly entertaining. I have a hard time imagining anyone being bored there, unless maybe you're super into outdoorsy activities, and it's the winter. (There's a lot of outdoorsy stuff to do when it's warm.)

Yeah, I take your point. I like to swim/sail in tropical oceans or visit ancient world heritage areas when I vacation. :p So Chicago isn't really for me. And there are many many worse cities for tourism. But someone upthread mentioned Chicago as a great tourist attraction. I can see that if you're really into Chicago but otherwise, nah. Can't see how it's even a contender. But, I repeat, I could certainly live there.

[jjimm]

North Phuket is different, the beach is part of a national park and it is much quieter. I agree though that the city and bearh around it are is just a big sleazy shithole.When you guys are talking about the "city" in Phuket I think you mean Patong, which is a sex-trade based horrorshow that would make Sodom and Gomorrah blush. However, Phuket Town itself, about 20km away from Patong, is quite pleasant, in a medium-sized unremarkable southern Thai town way.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

The terra cotta warriors of Xi'an. All the pictures make it seem like there are a ton, and the descriptions of the army talk about thousands of warriors. In reality, the peasants hated the emperor and smashed the army to bits a couple years after it was made. All of the warriors you see have been put together like a puzzle, and there are only a hundred or so of them. It's still pretty cool, but quite a bit less impressive than seeing thousands of clay warriors like I was expecting.
I have a friend who saw the King Tut exhibit in Egypt back in the 1980s and said the same thing. He said (at the time) a lot of the stuff was laid out on those big folding tables you see at convention halls that were covered in fabric. He said if felt like going to a really weird rummage sale or a cut-rate wax museum in Niagara Falls. A lot of key pieces were a lot smaller than he expected and the building was really dirty. He was expecting "wonderous".

I guess it was similar to the exhibit they just had in Toronto. The cool "gold sarcophagus" that was in all the bus and subway ads was actually only 20 inches tall or so. But from all the photos in the ads, were were expecting one that would have actually been big enough for the actual dude's mummy.

[Malthus]

I have a friend who saw the King Tut exhibit in Egypt back in the 1980s and said the same thing. He said (at the time) a lot of the stuff was laid out on those big folding tables you see at convention halls that were covered in fabric. He said if felt like going to a really weird rummage sale or a cut-rate wax museum in Niagara Falls. A lot of key pieces were a lot smaller than he expected and the building was really dirty. He was expecting "wonderous".


Heh, amusingly, the actual royal mummy - of Ramses l - was for a century an exhibit in a cut-rate house-of-horror in Niagra Falls! (It was later discovered to be a real royal mummy and returned to Egypt).

I can imagine the Ka or poor old Ramses looking at the gawking tourists getting their two-bits-a-gander at his hideous dried-up corpse and thinking "this is not the afterlife I was expecting ... :smack: " :D

[As for the warriors of Xian - when I went, there was literally a whole army of 'em covered by a huge stadium-like roof. There is a picture of it on the Wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army They were not smashed by angry peasants, being buried underground.) ]

[Angel of the Lord]

Wow. I have to totally disagree on Athens. The Acropolis is amazing, the Plaka is fun, and even Monastiraki's flea market and the tourist-y stuff around Omonia Square was great Plus the museums, and the temple of Zeus and. . .yeah. I thought Athens was awesome. I liked it more than Rome, which I saw on the same trip. It felt more real, and more friendly.

Rome was awesome, but crowded. I enjoyed the Vatican quite a bit (we were within a five minute walk of St. Peter's). And the day trip to Naples/Pompeii was truly fucking incredible.

About the only place that I've visited that I've found underwhelming is Toronto. I went when I was about 14, and it was just. . .well, underwhelming is a good word. It felt exactly like any large city, without any sort of individual flavor. The highlight of that trip was sneaking down to the pay phone near the pool to call my best friend in Illinois (lesson learned after that trip: collect calls aren't free). And, lest you think I was just being a brat teenager, the same grandmother and cousin I went with to Toronto also went to Ottawa a bunch of times, and I loved every trip there. Sparks Street, the Parliament buildings, Byward Market, the Mint, the museums...yeah, I'd totally live there. Not in Toronto, though. Yawn.

[Morbo]

Belize. It was dirty and everyone was shady and it just felt strange.

What? I knew it wouldn't take very long for someone to post something completely contrary to my experience, but this is just baffling. The only way this makes any sense to me at all would be if you stayed in and around Belize City and didn't go anywhere else.

[Kyla]

Oh noe, oh woe... sorry, every time I've gone to a museum in the US with someone who didn't read English I've had to translate the placards. I guess I can say I feel your pain, but I can't say you've got the right to complain.

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that I didn't enjoy this museum as much as I could have if the placards were in English. It was weird; every big museum I have EVER gone to has had placards in English. If I'm at a small museum in a place with minimal tourism (ie, every museum I went to in Colombia), it's not a surprise, but a big museum in Italy? It was just...odd.

[even sven]

[As for the warriors of Xian - when I went, there was literally a whole army of 'em covered by a huge stadium-like roof. There is a picture of it on the Wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army They were not smashed by angry peasants, being buried underground.) ]

They were both. The tomb was looted soon after he was buried and the terra cotta soldiers were smashed to bits- almost none remained whole- and what you see now was carefully pieced together.

I found it to be both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time, somehow.

[Siam Sam]

Phuket in Thailand is at the top of my list. I don't like the beach and I'm not a fan of wading or swimming in the ocean. I got so many mosquito bites that I couldn't sleep one night. The local "town" is full of creepy drunk Germans and Australians looking to hook up with local girls. We went for an elephant ride one day - I'll not be repeating that experience. On the plus side, we had some really awesome noodles at a little shack off the beach. I'd say the beaches of Bali were similar for me, but I really enjoyed the interior of the island. I loved a lot of other places in Thailand - Bangkok is amazing, Ayodhya is interesting, Kanchanaburi has an unforgettable museum, and I never even made it to Chaing Mai - but I don't understand the attraction of Phuket.

North Phuket is different, the beach is part of a national park and it is much quieter. I agree though that the city and bearh around it are is just a big sleazy shithole.

When you guys are talking about the "city" in Phuket I think you mean Patong, which is a sex-trade based horrorshow that would make Sodom and Gomorrah blush. However, Phuket Town itself, about 20km away from Patong, is quite pleasant, in a medium-sized unremarkable southern Thai town way.

Don't care for most of the island of Phuket either, but the town of Phuket has some interesting old Portuguese architecture. No beach to speak of, as it's on the eastern or landward side of the island; the town/beach that's generally recognized as a shithole is Patong. What jjimm says is spot on.

[Kyla]

Yeah, I take your point. I like to swim/sail in tropical oceans or visit ancient world heritage areas when I vacation. :p So Chicago isn't really for me. And there are many many worse cities for tourism. But someone upthread mentioned Chicago as a great tourist attraction. I can see that if you're really into Chicago but otherwise, nah. Can't see how it's even a contender.

Chicago has some of the best museums in the world. If you enjoy going to museums, like I do, it's a great destination. It also has some really spectacular architecture, many interesting neighborhoods, and tons of restaurants with great food. In the summer, there are street fairs every weekend. All of those things are what I, personally, enjoy in a vacation. Big city with lots of stuff to see and do? Fantastic. I went there as a tourist several times and enjoyed it so much that I moved there!

Just depends on what you like. Personally, I'm not particularly into swimming in tropical oceans. As I have already noted in this thread. :cool:

[Martini Enfield]

Chicago has some of the best museums in the world. If you enjoy going to museums, like I do, it's a great destination.

What sort of museums are there and what notable exhibits are in them? I'm not disbelieving you, it's just that I'm quite a museum fan myself and I can't think of any "A-list" stuff I know to be in Chicago Museums off the top of my head the way I know there's some incredible stuff in the British Museum, the Louvre, and even the Australian War Memorial... so I'd be interested to know what's there so it can go on the "Stuff I really should see" list. :)

[suranyi]

What sort of museums are there and what notable exhibits are in them? I'm not disbelieving you, it's just that I'm quite a museum fan myself and I can't think of any "A-list" stuff I know to be in Chicago Museums off the top of my head the way I know there's some incredible stuff in the British Museum, the Louvre, and even the Australian War Memorial... so I'd be interested to know what's there so it can go on the "Stuff I really should see" list. :)

Well, just off the top of my head, the Art Institute of Chicago is the home of Georges Seurat's most famous painting:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/27992?search_id=5

ETA: And also Grant Wood's:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/6565

[CanvasShoes]

I wasn't all that impressed with Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, it was VERY VERY pretty, but that's all there was to do. Tourist around and look at this pretty spot and that pretty spot and this pretty bay, and that pretty rain forest-y area. I like to DO things on vacation (and not off in the woods getting eaten by mosquitoes accompanied by some man who's lost his marbles because it's FISHING SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! either). GIRL things, shopping, dancing, shows, FUN.

In case you didn't notice :D I like to shop, and go to shows and go on waterpark rides and rollercoasters and stuff like that. For that reason, I actually LOVED Vegas. Not for the gambling or whatever, I think I may have put 11 bucks all told in slot machines, most of my time was spent shopping (AWESOME outlet stores out in the boonies there, Henderson maybe? It's been since 2001 or 2002?), rollercoastering, riding, watching shows and cooling off in the various pools and the waterpark.

Of course the three times I've been there, the first time was as part of an online group, similar to a dopefest, called Trivia Travelers (old now dead VPLaces board), so there were about 30 of us, not counting the local members. Then twice with a guy I was dating from CA. (AK, CA, it was never meant to work :D).

[Kyla]

What sort of museums are there and what notable exhibits are in them? I'm not disbelieving you, it's just that I'm quite a museum fan myself and I can't think of any "A-list" stuff I know to be in Chicago Museums off the top of my head the way I know there's some incredible stuff in the British Museum, the Louvre, and even the Australian War Memorial... so I'd be interested to know what's there so it can go on the "Stuff I really should see" list. :)

IMHO, the best museum in Chicago is the Art Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Institute_of_Chicago). I've been to a lot of art museums in and I think it's up there with the best in the world. It has a really spectacular collection of impressionist art especially. My parents are from California and pretty disdainful of the Midwest as a region of rednecks and morons and when they came to visit me I don't think they were expecting much when I took them here. They ended up being so impressed they went back a second time, when I was at work. Besides all the fine art, they also have a huge collection of armor and weapons, which are fascinating.

I used to be a docent at the Field Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Museum_of_Natural_History), so I am somewhat partial to it. The best thing at the Field is Sue, the largest and best-preserved T-Rex ever found (http://www.fieldmuseum.org/sue/).

Just down the road from the Field is Shedd Aquarium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shedd_Aquarium), the second-best aquarium I've ever been to (after the Monterey Bay Aquarium). It has a lot of really fantastic stuff.

The Museum of Science and Industry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)) is a bit schizophrenic as a museum, but in a delightfully weird sort of way. The most prominent exhibit is probably the U-Boat (http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/). Which I do not recommend visiting if you're at all claustrophobic. :eek:

Those are just the biggies. There are a number of other smaller specialized museums.

[suranyi]

The Museum of Science and Industry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)) is a bit schizophrenic as a museum, but in a delightfully weird sort of way. The most prominent exhibit is probably the U-Boat (http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/). Which I do not recommend visiting if you're at all claustrophobic. :eek:



I like the coal mine ride myself.

[VarlosZ]

New York, I love architecture and walking and apart from a couple of notable exceptions it doesn't deliver. It is such a pain to try and stroll anywhere without being stopped every few minutes for lights.
Well, in fairness, you're not supposed to stop for the lights, and the crosswalks aren't anything more than suggestions. The only meaningful "Don't Walk" sign is a specific car that will actually hit you.

As far as big cities are concerned, New York is generally considered to be the quintessential pedestrians' town, AFAIK.

[Cyberhwk]

If there's anything this thread shows it's how widely tastes differ.

I will also concur with Dublin though. Loved Belfast though.

[Novelty Bobble]

Well, in fairness, you're not supposed to stop for the lights, and the crosswalks aren't anything more than suggestions. The only meaningful "Don't Walk" sign is a specific car that will actually hit you.

As far as big cities are concerned, New York is generally considered to be the quintessential pedestrians' town, AFAIK.

Who on earth considers it a pedestrians town? compared to which cities? Have you been to many other cities around the world?

Paris, London, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Munich, Hong Kong, Sydney?

In all of those you get changes of scenery, architecture, back streets, parks and they are all much easier to walk through.

New York isn't a bad place to visit, it has many things to commend it and a wonderful alive "buzz" but for somewhere to stroll through it really isn't visually interesting or user friendly enough for me.

[Eats_Crayons]

About the only place that I've visited that I've found underwhelming is Toronto. I went when I was about 14, and it was just. . .well, underwhelming is a good word. It felt exactly like any large city, without any sort of individual flavor.That's a shame. Being one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, Toronto does have a LOT of flavour, but you really know where to find it, and amazingly the one time I was helping tourists with directions I was amazed at how dull their "scenic guide" was. There is a mall in Chinatown - and our Chinatown is one of the largest in North America which is why it's used in so many films and TV shows - and if you go inside, it feels like you've left the country entirely. You'll likely be the only non-Asian in the place and almost no one speaks English.

Their guide failed to mention Kensington Market AT ALL. :eek: That place would have been the outright coolest place EVER for me from the ages of 14-18. I would have absolutely, unabashedly LOVED it! My relatives in their 60s thought it was awesome and spent the entire day there enjoying walking around despite the rain. But no. The guide focussed mainly on the CN Tower and the Eaton Center (a big mall, whoopee!), the old Fort which isn't particularly interesting compared to the tons of old forts you see elsewhere in North America. I feel very, very sad for tourists coming to Toronto if all they have to rely on their visit is from the tourism board. Dreadful and dull stuff.

[Malthus]

They were both. The tomb was looted soon after he was buried and the terra cotta soldiers were smashed to bits- almost none remained whole- and what you see now was carefully pieced together.

I found it to be both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time, somehow.

It is true that the tomb was looted, but the breakage of (many of) the warriors was not generally vandalism - it was caused by the original wooden roof falling in.

When I was there, you could see some of the warriors still partly buried. And there were certainly many of them - it looked like thousands.

[Siam Sam]

I've pretty much enjoyed everywhere I've gone. But gambling at the Lisboa Casino in Macau was something of a letdown. Pales in comparison with Vegas. I was just in the one casino, but it's supposed to be the top one, at least it was at the time (1995). No drinking at the gaming tables. There was one bar in the basement in a roomful of slot machines, but you had to drink at the bar itself and not take your glass over to a slot. The blackjack dealers were dour. No sense of fun like at Circus Circus.

[Nava]

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that I didn't enjoy this museum as much as I could have if the placards were in English. It was weird; every big museum I have EVER gone to has had placards in English. If I'm at a small museum in a place with minimal tourism (ie, every museum I went to in Colombia), it's not a surprise, but a big museum in Italy? It was just...odd.

Shrug, they've been The tourist destination since Byron's times (and a huge travel destination for other reasons before the word "tourism" got invented) - they have some of the worst hotels out there, and can't really see the point of updating installations. After all, why spend money on that when people go anyway?

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Who on earth considers it a pedestrians town? compared to which cities? Have you been to many other cities around the world?


Buh? New York City is one of the only places where having a car is a detriment. The majority of people get around by walking or by taking the subway. It is absolutely a town for pedestrians.

[Novelty Bobble]

Ah, I think I see the issue.

Compared to other US cities I'd agree that NY is easier to navigate without a car. The distinguishing feature of many US cities is that you absolutely have to have a car to get anywhere. In Europe we sort of take it for granted that there will be buses and trains so we wouldn't think that that alone makes a city good for pedestrians. I accept that in the US you may find NY exceptional in that way.

So I'm more concerned with the aesthetic pleasure of walking, and the things to see, the changes in scenery and architecture. And that is greater in other cities.

[Martini Enfield]

Those are just the biggies. There are a number of other smaller specialized museums.

Interesting... an entire U-boat, you say? And an actual Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton? If I ever make my way to Chicago I shall definitely have to check those out.

[MsWhatsit]

The U-boat is awesome. They basically built the rest of the museum around it. (Physically, I mean.) You can go on a little tour through the inside and everything. Well worth the price of admission.

[Sunspace]

While I found Londoin fascinating, I have to admit that I was underwhelmed by the Crown Jewels (http://www.royal.gov.uk/The%20Royal%20Collection%20and%20other%20collections/TheCrownJewels/Overview.aspx). The sceptres, crowns, and ceremonial objects were interesting. However, the gold plate--the salad bowls and whatnot--didn't impress me. Yes, it's real gold, and there's a lot of it. But it just looks like trailer-park bling to me: quantity instead of quality.

On the other hand, the First Star of Africa diamond, set in the Queen's sceptre, was utterly amazing.

On the third hand, the way the exhibit was set up was a little unsettling. You enter the room and step on a moving sidewalk (gold-plated, with the Queen's initials), and stand there as it whisks you past the treasure. You can duck back via a separate passageway if you want another look, but you cannot stand still in front of the Crown Jewels.

[Recliner]

Hands down, Times Square, NYC for New Year's eve.



I'll agree that this is surprisingly boring. I was there on 12/31/1999, which I consider pretty definitive. I expected more cameraderie, but it was really just a massive crowd and no real interaction beyond counting down from ten.

That said, I had a hell of a lot of fun doing other things that night. But Times Square on NYE is just as boring as it is any other time, I reckon. Oh, and the police move everyone out right afterwards -- the REAL "gathering" is the huge hassle it is to clean up all the crap people leave behind. It was somewhat fascinating to see these regimented brigades of sweepers appear, along with very strategic policing ("Move along, folks. If you're going Uptown, I recommend...")....they clear out Times Square and get it shined up for the next day, when it becomes....whatever it is that Times Square is. Backdrop-slash-Flagship-Billboard, I guess.

[Cicero]

When you're in front of the Mona Lisa, make a 180° turn. There you have a huge, famous painting (Veronese's marriage at Cana (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_owmNZHkEsvY/TTmtF6LqK2I/AAAAAAAACtg/vUhIjx4MsB0/s1600/Veronese-Cana.jpg)) without glass, without barrier and nobody's looking that way.

I find this fascinating. You enter the room with those two paintings and everybody is around the one you barely can see, while completely ignoring the other that covers a whole wall. There's something surrealist about it.

Clairobscure, thanks very much- I loved that painting but never knew what it was even though I bought all the guide books. And there was another- The Money Lenders or something.

Mona Lisa seemed pretty small compared to those. I was one of the tourists taking pictures though...


In Dublin, that statue of Molly Malone is just gross. As is most of Dublin, apart from Trinity College. Temple Bar is disgusting.

The one monument that wins hands down as the most vapid, shitty monument on earth is that of Dodi and Diana at Harrods.

[An Gadaí]

In Dublin, that statue of Molly Malone is just gross. As is most of Dublin, apart from Trinity College. Temple Bar is disgusting.

Temple Bar was a designed tourist trap and I don't understand its popularity at all. There are plenty of parts of Dublin that aren't gross but where few tourists ever go.

[Kyla]

Temple Bar was a designed tourist trap and I don't understand its popularity at all. There are plenty of parts of Dublin that aren't gross but where few tourists ever go.

Well, I had a nice time in Dublin. I went to some museums, and from there, I wandered around and got wildly lost and just looked at the city. It was very cool, except when I found myself in a pretty sketchy-looking industrial area which was definitely not a tourist area.

[manx]

Dublin's one redeeming grace was Kilmainham Gaol, where we had a guided tour by a woman who knew her shit and obviously cared quite a deal about the history of the place, and where we had by far the best tourist experience. Oh, and it also only cost us €1.50.

I loved the week I spent in Dublin, but the best thing we did in the week we were there was go on a tour of the Gaol. I had the same experience as you, with a friendly, knowledgeable guide who was politely unphased by our utter ignorance of modern Irish history.

We avoided (on the edvice of everyone we met and every guidebook I've ever met) Temple Bar, and found ourselves in a lot of nice pubs. Terrible food though. I don't know why - maybe our luck was against us. But In six days we didn't have a decent meal, unless you counted the Guinness.

The one monument that wins hands down as the most vapid, shitty monument on earth is that of Dodi and Diana at Harrods.
But it's so awful it's amazing, right? I love the undiluted madness of it.

[Huerta88]

Pisa. I'll be damned. It's leaning (it was kind of cool to climb up, I admit).

Oh yeah, there's a horde of Chinese vendors selling tat.

Now what??

(Not entirely fair -- lucked into a much-better-than-expected artisanal restaurant in an old warehouse -- and had a decent hotel with a view of the Tower).

But having come from Venice and Florence -- big letdown, not really worth the trip.

[jtgain]

*slight hijack. It seems to only be fair that if you are looking for a beach vacation where you drink all day long and lie in the sun, then it's not proper to come on here and say how much you think Alaska sucks. Or you wanted to go cross country skiing and Florida really disappointed you. Obviously you think that.

I'm not the OP, but I'm sure that the spirit of the thread was a vacation destination that is within your sphere of interest.

I was going to come on here and nominate Disney, but that would violate my own rule. My daughter loves Disney and that's who they build the parks for, not me.

[mcgato]

...
Example: there is a place near Sendai (NE coast, on the Pacific) that is advertised as one of the three (or six, or five, I don't remember) most beautiful places. It's a string of islands off the coast that you can see from the town. But the town itself and everything leading up to it is (or was in 1988) filled with one junky souvenir shop after another, and it's pretty hard to appreciate the putative beauty.
...
RoddySadly, that has probably changed significantly.

[D_Odds]

Sherwood Forest now consists of 5 trees and a souvenir shop (or at least it did when I was there 20 years ago). Nottingham was a non-descript town and its castle was lackluster, at best. If I was Robin Hood, I would have let the sheriff have the place and moved to York. That was a much nicer city to visit.

[beartato]

We spent six weeks travelling through Italy at one point - loved so much of it so dearly. Rome was our last stop, and the city we flew home from, and something I was pretty excited for. It was absolutely terrible, especially compared to other Italian cities we had fallen in love with. My husband and I always joke about French men, and how they'll barely wait for him to turn his back before asking me out for some coffee with bedroom eyes... in Rome there was nothing to joke about. If my husband didn't have his arm around my shoulder and his tongue down my throat at virtually all times the men would invade my personal space to a ridiculous degree, including grabbing my arm with a firm grip and pulling me hard towards themselves. It was stinking hot, obviously not the fault of Rome, but it was nearly impossible to figure out what to wear - anything temperature appropriate just made the violations of space and decency more frequent. I took almost no pictures because letting go of my husband even for half a minute was frightening. The food was garbage compared to the rest of the country, including restaurants that had been recommendations from friends who had lived there. Such a terrible way to end a trip, and a city we've never even talked about returning to. Why would you go, when there are so many fantastic Italian places to see?

[Chapulin]

What? I knew it wouldn't take very long for someone to post something completely contrary to my experience, but this is just baffling. The only way this makes any sense to me at all would be if you stayed in and around Belize City and didn't go anywhere else.

Well I never said the ENTIRE country of Belize was awful. Obvioulsy I just mean the area we were at, which was Belize City.

[Southern Yankee]

We spent six weeks travelling through Italy at one point - loved so much of it so dearly. Rome was our last stop, and the city we flew home from, and something I was pretty excited for. It was absolutely terrible, especially compared to other Italian cities we had fallen in love with. My husband and I always joke about French men, and how they'll barely wait for him to turn his back before asking me out for some coffee with bedroom eyes... in Rome there was nothing to joke about. If my husband didn't have his arm around my shoulder and his tongue down my throat at virtually all times the men would invade my personal space to a ridiculous degree, including grabbing my arm with a firm grip and pulling me hard towards themselves. It was stinking hot, obviously not the fault of Rome, but it was nearly impossible to figure out what to wear - anything temperature appropriate just made the violations of space and decency more frequent. I took almost no pictures because letting go of my husband even for half a minute was frightening. The food was garbage compared to the rest of the country, including restaurants that had been recommendations from friends who had lived there. Such a terrible way to end a trip, and a city we've never even talked about returning to. Why would you go, when there are so many fantastic Italian places to see?

I was also disappointed in Rome, but completely acknowledge it was our own fault. We also ended a long trip through Italy (driving ourselves most of the way) in Rome and we were exhausted by the time we got there. Other than the Vatican (which we loved) our hearts just weren't in it anymore by that point. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe one night of all places (I was absolutely craving a cheeseburger by then.) I would love to go back and start a trip there. I'm sure it's amazing in the right frame of mind. On the other hand, I loved Venice, which I hear many people complain about.

[CTburns]

I would have to say Bali. I didn't stay in a plush resort, I wouldn't have to fly halfway around the world to do that. I stayed near Kuta Beach and did different day-trips around the island, and the whole place was filthy and annoying. I found Bali to be worse than many of the third-world shitholes that I have visited. French Polynesia sucks too! Save the money and go to Hawaii.

[Malthus]

I would have to say Bali.


... I stayed near Kuta Beach ...

I think I see the problem. :D

[Aeris]

Well! I'd always assumed that the Rock was a rocky promonotory of some sort. I'd never realised that it was literally just a rock! :eek:



And not even a very big one at that. Before it was protected people would come and chip pieces off of it to take home. Now you just look down into this hole and there it is. The End. It was still pretty cool though if you like going to historical places, which I do. And I love the town of Plymoth!! It is so freakin adorable! Little seafood places, ice cream shops, and lots of families. We also went on the most amazing whale watching tour. I could totally live there...in the summer.

The Liberty Bell was really dissapointing. A REALLY long line outside. Nothing to look at while waiting. Then you look at the bell. Again, the end.

I completely disagree with the previous posters about San Fransisco. I loved my time there. I think it is a beautiful city. We rode a streetcar, went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate factory, went to Fisherman's Wharf, walked along the beach, went to different places to look at the bridge. Of course we only stayed a day or two, I don't know if we would have continued to be entertained if we stayed longer. We went there as part of a trip to Sequoia and Monteray Bay. Loved that whole trip.

Chicago: Loved the Science and Industry museum.

[Captain Lance Murdoch]

I had great trips to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Edinburgh. We can't all be the same, obviously.

[Siam Sam]

I would have to say Bali. I didn't stay in a plush resort, I wouldn't have to fly halfway around the world to do that. I stayed near Kuta Beach and did different day-trips around the island, and the whole place was filthy and annoying. I found Bali to be worse than many of the third-world shitholes that I have visited. French Polynesia sucks too! Save the money and go to Hawaii.

I think I see the problem. :D

Me too. That's like coming to Thailand and staying on Khao San Road. On Bali, we've spent several days in Ubud, a delightful little town in the middle of the island, and gone dolphin watching off the north coast at Lovina Beach. A really nice time.

[legalsnugs]

Well! I'd always assumed that the Rock was a rocky promonotory of some sort. I'd never realised that it was literally just a rock! :eek:

I had the exact opposite experience with the Rock of Gibraltar. I expected a rock, maybe even a large rock, but was amazed to see that the "Rock" is a huge, fantastic, ape-covered mountain! What's the total opposite of "disappointing"?

[stpauler]

Puno in Peru. I visited the floating islands expecting more of a National Geographic experience. I should've known. After being invited in to see one of their homes made of the reeds, getting inside I saw that it was a standard frame construction with 2 by 4s and plywood. The kids were huddled up watching cartoons on the TV.

The Sistine Chapel was also a letdown for me as well. But that had more to do with my ignorance of it than anything. I had always pictured that the Creation of Adam filled up the whole ceiling and was rather enormous. So when I finally got in there and was amongst the hundreds of people in there constantly needing to be shushed, I was surprised to see it just be a small part of a very busy ceiling.

Negril, Jamaica. I'd never been to Jamaica before and the previous year was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The hotel was on a beautiful piece of beach and the water was clear and warm. However, there were no waves. It just stayed flacid and boring. (Compared to Puerto Vallarta where there was a day where there were warnings to stay out of the water because of the waves). That and Jamaica is pretty much a shithole. I've travelled to some very iffy places in the world and I've never felt more unsafe constantly than when I was there.

Lastly, the Centraal part of Amsterdam has changed for the worse in the last couple years. I was just there a couple of months ago and I don't remember it being so much of an after hours frat party. The city just felt exhausted from partying.



(bumping old thread as it was linked to by a current thread)

[jrbor76]

YMMV but I found the Alamo interesting. Actually, all the missions in San Antonio are interesting, but the Alamo more so from a historical/military perspective and the other missions more so from a "this is how they lived back then" perspective.

However, if you're ever in San Antonio and get the chance, I highly recommend you get one of the riverwalk-area boat tours. I can't say what it's like at day but it's really spectacular at night, and if you get a guide who's anything like the one I got, you'll be amazed how much you learn.

[Voyager]

I mentioned Mission Control when this thread was new but I have a new one - the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. When you walk out of customs they pretty much tell you "the Little Mermaid statue? You will visit it, and you will be disappointed."

I wasn't much impressed by the Parthenon either. It is totally wired together now. I went before the museum opened, and it was cold and rainy, so it might have just been a bad day. It is not that I don't like ruins - Ephesus was awesome.

[campp]

What ELSE?? would you expect Meteor Crater to be?

For what you get, um, I would expect admission to be cheaper. It's a ridiculous ticket price for what amounts to be nothing much.

[ralph124c]

South Beach, Miami has gotten pretty sleazy over the years-and now very expensive. I much prefer North Miami Beach now-its quieter and much less expensive.
I have to disagree about Williamsburg, VA-I always enjoyed my visits there-the best time to go is early spring and late Fall-less crowded and not hot.

[Siam Sam]

I mentioned Mission Control when this thread was new but I have a new one - the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. When you walk out of customs they pretty much tell you "the Little Mermaid statue? You will visit it, and you will be disappointed."

That reminds me of the fountain of the little boy pissing in Brussels. A big "meh."

[Mississippienne]

I don't want to say Athens was disappointing, exactly, because the ancient sights and ruins are unbelievable to lay eyes upon -- I was blown away by the SCALE of some of the monuments, such as the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which is so huge that my mind could barely grasp how human hands created it. But Athens itself smelled like piss and the people weren't friendly at all. To be fair though, New Orleans also smells like piss and it doesn't have a Parthenon to recommend it, and plenty of people like going there.

[ralph124c]

Davenport Iowa-seems to be inhabited by zombies..even the "good" restaurants don't serve after 8 PM. What-do people have to be home by sunset? Absolutely nothing there to see or do.
A city that's best avoided.

[Ludovic]

Davenport Iowa-seems to be inhabited by zombies..even the "good" restaurants don't serve after 8 PM. What-do people have to be home by sunset? Absolutely nothing there to see or do.
A city that's best avoided.Ahhh, Davenport: the top tourist attraction in Iowa!

[Drain Bead]

Definitely the Biltmore Estate. Huge crowds getting pushed through a tight velvet rope course to see approximately 1/6 of a huge restored mansion. The grounds are beautiful, and I had a great brunch at one of the restaurants, but the tour itself was boring and left me feeling vaguely awful, thinking of all the excess and consumption of resources.

[hogarth]

I agree with:
The Sistine Chapel: There are a couple of beautiful pieces (God + Adam, the Last Judgment), but it was incredibly dim in there; if I wanted to see any details, I'd have better luck looking at them in a book or on the internet. And some of the art was kind of mediocre (e.g. paintings of "women" who look like Sylvester Stallone smuggling a couple of apples under his shirt). It probably didn't help that I was there with a tour group (and a dozen other tour groups, of course) so it wasn't very leisurely.
Macao: My wife and I don't gamble, so it probably wasn't worth the day trip. There were a few cool things to see though in terms of art and architecture, I guess.

This was similar to my experience at Versailles. That was an awful experience. We were crammed in like sardines everywhere we went, with grouchy French people glaring at us and yelling things like "Don't touch that!"
When my wife and I were in Paris, we were leaving on Tuesday and we didn't realise that the palace of Versailles was closed on Monday. I figured it wasn't worth going to Versailles if the palace was closed, but my wife insisted. I'm glad she did, because the gardens blew me away! They're just enormous and beautiful and filled with fountains and statuary.

[An Gadaí]

Ahhh, Davenport: the top tourist attraction in Iowa!
Well Bix Beiderbecke does still have lots of fans.

[hogarth]

I forgot to mention:

I was pleasantly surprised by Mount Rushmore. I figured it would involve 3 minutes of looking at the faces, then saying "Yup, that's Mt. Rushmore all right, what's next?" But there was a nice little trail to walk around with park rangers giving interesting and informative talks in strategic locations. I certainly wouldn't spend all day there, but it was a pleasant stop on our bus trip to Yellowstone.

We saw Crazy Horse immediately afterwards, and I had much more of a "That's a huge, incomplete Crazy Horse all right, what's next?" feeling there. Plus it had a certain amount of begging for donations, which was a bit of a turnoff for me.

[Voyager]

For what you get, um, I would expect admission to be cheaper. It's a ridiculous ticket price for what amounts to be nothing much.

It is privately owned. I head the head of the family which owns it on Marketplace; he is pretty happy with the admissions charge. It is keeping them in style in Philadelphia.

[Hermitian]

Oh noe, oh woe... sorry, every time I've gone to a museum in the US with someone who didn't read English I've had to translate the placards. I guess I can say I feel your pain, but I can't say you've got the right to complain.

I know I am late to the discussion, but I kind of agree with the original comment. The Italian museums in cities that were heavily visited by international tourist didn't have anything in any language other than Italian. It's like they didn't even care (which did jive with overall hostility that we received from many Italians).

Think about it. Foreigners make up a LARGE percentage of the people that visit these tourist museums. What kind of non-Italian people are most likely to be there? Those from the European continent or more wealthy, educated tourist from around the world. Wouldn't it be great if there was a language that most of these people would know to some degree that they could also include on some of the signs to help the highest number people....

[stanger]

Having lived in San Antonio all my life, I am disappointed when people are underwhelmed by The Alamo, but I can understand it.

Being in the center of town and close to the river, it was quickly surrounded by the growing city, and the area was used for storage and not revered as anything special for a long time. All that remains is the chapel and part of the adjoining barracks, so most of the compound and battlefield have long been covered over by buildings and pavement. It is a wonder that the chapel, the part everyone recognizes from the pictures, even still stands at all.

It isn't impressive to visit as a structure, and it is a small building surrounded by a modern city, but it is the surviving monument to a very special event in Texas history. Considering that a lot of other special places around the country have been lost to growth, neglect and indifference, I am glad that the little chapel still remains, humble though it is.

[ralph124c]

Plymouth, MA, is a big letdown. First, you have that stupid rock-nobody knows if anybody from the Mayflower actually stepped on it-I guess you have to "take it on faith"-the rock was engraved in 1880 or so..only 260 years after the "maybe" event.
Then you have the replica "Mayflower"-wait in line, pay $8.00..to see..a replica.
Other than that, its a typical tourist own, with the usual overpriced restaurants serving lousy food. You can buy the same knicknacks (made in China) at similar places anywhere. Plimoth Plantation is OK..but very expensive..you can actually participate in a fake "Thanksgiving" feast..with actors pretending to be Mayflower immigrants. If your thing is half raw, half burnt food, with ashes and (probable) dirt mixed in, go for it.

[Arrendajo]

Almost anywhere with tourists is going to be hellish for me. I go to Cancun all the time, because I have family there, but they live downtown, not out in the tourist zone. Downtown Cancun is about as charming as downtown Boise, but with lots better weather. The city is entirely modern and cosmopolitan and could be anywhere. I have no interest in lying on the beach drinking for hours, so visits to Cancun are usually pretty boring for me, except I do enjoy visiting family there.
I had never heard of Timbuktoo being a tourist destination anyway. I always thought it was synonymous with "the ends of the Earth." I'd go there though, after reading evensven's description. But she's a good writer and could probably make Cancun sound fascinating. (Actually there are fascinating things in and around Cancun, but you have to speak Spanish and know some locals to get at them.)

[DummyGladHands]

Greece for me. Very very crowded, and the ruins are, well, ruined. Many of the "treasure" are not on display for a myriad of reasons, and it just seemed dirty to me.
Now Turkey, I LOVED Turkey

[Shagnasty]

Plymouth, MA, is a big letdown. First, you have that stupid rock-nobody knows if anybody from the Mayflower actually stepped on it-I guess you have to "take it on faith"-the rock was engraved in 1880 or so..only 260 years after the "maybe" event.
Then you have the replica "Mayflower"-wait in line, pay $8.00..to see..a replica.
Other than that, its a typical tourist own, with the usual overpriced restaurants serving lousy food. You can buy the same knicknacks (made in China) at similar places anywhere. Plimoth Plantation is OK..but very expensive..you can actually participate in a fake "Thanksgiving" feast..with actors pretending to be Mayflower immigrants. If your thing is half raw, half burnt food, with ashes and (probable) dirt mixed in, go for it.

I work about 20 minutes from Plymouth and have never been there but I hear it is pretty in its own way. Some people seem to eat it up. You would be surprised what some people think is a great tourist destination. One of my best friends recently got a job as a manager at Plymouth foundation and they certainly seem to put a lot of work into making it a great place to visit. I don't care about the rock in particular but I would like to see the recreation of the Mayflower even if it isn't completely accurate. No one knows exactly what the real ship looked like but I like all recreations that try hard based on designs of the period.

My nomination is Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I have never understood New Englander's fascination with their beaches and their willingness to spend huge amounts of money to stay a week 50 miles away from home. It is slightly classier than the Jersey Shore but not by much. You can look at the water but don't get in for long because the water is freezing even in August and you might be 2 feet over the line on a private beach and get chased off. I can go there any day of the week in less than an hour and it would never occur to me to do such a thing.

I have been forced to go by friends a few times and never could wait to get back home. I always wanted to walk the beaches with signs pointing to the Caribbean or at least North Carolina where the real ones are. I have taken my family day trips to Martha's Vineyard as well. All of us well traveled. It isn't exactly terrible but it is extremely overrated and way too high priced compared to really desirable destinations in other parts of the country and around the world. The best I can figure out about Cape Cod and the islands is that really Northeastern rich people used to go there before plane travel was invented and the idea that it is a good place to go has persisted into the present day.

[Enola Gay]

Another vote for Belize, the Mona Lisa & Plymouth Rock. Mona Lisa and Plymouth Rock were just underwhelming, but Belize was filthy and terrifying (and I've had awesome experiences in Jamaica, Bahamas, & everywhere else in the Caribbean.

But Rome, San Francisco, Istanbul, Cancun, Athens, Dublin, Vegas, & Miami Fl all rock. And an awesome surprise was Honduras. Not sure what I was expecting, but was stunned at the beautiful beaches, excellent food and drink, and awesome, warm people. Would go there again in a heartbeat.

[Floater]

I have seen Mona Lisa, but it's impossible for me to have an opinion about her as there were 150 Japanese (at least) tourists between her an me so I didn't get a close up look.

[Bridget Burke]

YMMV but I found the Alamo interesting. Actually, all the missions in San Antonio are interesting, but the Alamo more so from a historical/military perspective and the other missions more so from a "this is how they lived back then" perspective.

However, if you're ever in San Antonio and get the chance, I highly recommend you get one of the riverwalk-area boat tours. I can't say what it's like at day but it's really spectacular at night, and if you get a guide who's anything like the one I got, you'll be amazed how much you learn.

I first saw the Alamo as a kid. Of course I'd already studied Texas History in school & had even seen Davy Crockett die there, thanks to Walt Disney. But I remember just being amazed by such an ancient building in the middle of a Texas city. There's a lot more to the mission (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adp/history/hframe.html)(& the other missions in San Antonio) than That Battle. (Even as kids, we found the giftshop tacky fun...

We first visited the River Walk before it was revitalized (for HemisFair) but found it charming; highly commercialized & sometimes overcrowded, it retains charm. Thank the San Antonio Conservation Society (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Conservation_Society) for the River Walk, the mission parks & other parts of Old San Antonio that remain. But it's living history--most of the missions are also functioning churches & they keep expanding the River Walk...

[PoorYorick]

The Grand Canyon was a giant hole. I looked down in it, muttered "Meh," and went back to the RV.
Really? It was literally awe inspiring to me, nothing like the post cards.

For me, it was Bourbon Street in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of cool stuff to do in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but not standing shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of raucous drunks, all who are looking for some place to pee. Especially if you don't drink.

I did it that once just to mark it off my list.

[DrumBum]

Lenin's tomb was a bit of a disappointment for me. I shuffled in line for almost an hour before descending into a dark room that was perhaps 20' x 20'. Lenin was quite small in stature and looked like a wax figure. Four very large soldiers with guns kept the line moving and ensured that no one spoke or touched the glass case.

At least it was free...

[Ludovic]

I didn't have an entry in this until Bourbon Street was mentioned. During the night it was pretty much what I expected: party until late in the evening (i.e. way after 2 am), which was cool because that's exactly what I did. What no one mentioned was that the party starts early in the morning as well. Waking up to loud blues rock being played outside your door at 10 am is not fun, even if your hotel is right on Bourbon Street!