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?
And you are violating the forum rules by spewing out epithets–shouting them no less. Don’t do this again.
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!”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
[ul]
[li]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.[/li][li]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.)[/li][li]The Everglades. Important, obviously. But boring as hell to actually visit![/li][li]Vienna. When I went there on holiday about fifteen years ago, I couldn’t believe how grubby it all seemed to be.[/li][li]Edinburgh. I’ve only been there for work purposes, but it seemed a really really grey place. Eurgh![/li][/ul]
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.
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! 
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.
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.
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.
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…!