Holiday venues that didn’t live up to expectations

Are you talking specifically Australia? I found perth very run down.and underwhelming

Paris. I was underwhelmed. Very disappointed.

Santorini, very pretty but very busy with tourists and the instagram crowd , I love Greece and its islands and have visited there since the mid 80s . But to me Santorini was Disney Greece , not real Greece .

Alice Springs certainly wasn’t ’A Town Like Alice’, but to be fair, I hadn’t expected it to be really.

Tenko

Santorini, very pretty but very busy with tourists and the instagram crowd , I love Greece and its islands and have visited there since the mid 80s . But to me Santorini was Disney Greece , not real Greece .

Took us hours to get there by boat ( which was very boring) and hardly spent any time there.

Booked a cottage in Scotland described as’’a romantic hideaway”. It was a hovel. The owners were landed gentry.

Brussels. Was a square and a few streets that were old/quaint but the rest of it was rather shabby. Good job there was the chocolate.

We liked Port Douglas, strolling on the beach. I did go in the sea but it wasn't jellyfish season.
There was a sign saying beware of crocodiles 😯

Ilfracombe - it seems to be a back to front resort.

Weston-super-Mare, ok for a day trip but I wouldn't put a toe in the sea there, likewise Barry.

Miami, only had a day there en route to the Caribbean but the best it was sailing out of there.

St Tropez. We had a day trip there when we were staying elsewhere. It rained and there wasn't much there. We obviously went to the wrong bit!

I can't agree with people who didn't like Santorini. I thought it was incredible. Each to their own.

We did a Nile cruise. The ship was lovely and the scenery but I was very upset to see the absolute poverty alongside prosperity. When we did excursions small children ran up to us begging. I was also distressed by the way they treat horses in Egypt. You could do a carriage ride but the poor horses were standing out in the hot sun waiting and they were whipped hard to get them moving. I never want to go to Egypt again.

Also, I’m not especially into ruins. Once you’ve seen one ruined temple you’ve seen everything.

I wasn’t that rapt with Norfolk Island. A long way to go for not a lot. Possibly biased because I caught Covid there and had to be ‘locked up’ for a week. The hotel room (prison) smelled of damp cloths.

I think we’ve been lucky as nowhere stands out as particularly unpleasant.

But of choice we always choose the less touristy areas. Noise and crowds are not for me.

Over the years though is has become more difficult to avoid the crowds, as areas have become more accessible and popular. As we have become less mobile, the option of wandering into isolated areas is no longer available. But hey Ho! We are lucky to still be pottering on holiday.

Egypt. My dtr and I went to Luxor and yes, the temples were fabulous, but everything else was dire. We paid top rate for a 5* hotel which gave us food poisoning and was not overly clean. In Luxor town we were groped and harassed, the place was filthy. Some of the shopkeepers were dishonest - short changing, not sticking to the agreed price and then hostile and intimidating when we objected, and the area was rife with pickpockets. Luxor airport was the most disgusting airport I have ever been to, and I’ve been to plenty of third world places. I think we got picked on because we were two European women. I should add that we dressed very conservatively, so weren’t offending anyone that way. I noticed that men and mixed groups didn’t get the same level of interference. Never going back.
My second nomination is Malta. I found it too hot, crowded and frankly boring. Okay, Valletta harbour is pretty and Medina is fascinating but it all felt claustrophobic to me. Great for a long weekend maybe but no more than that.

I agree. I hate crowds and have had unpleasant experiences in so called beautiful places eg Italian lakes. They are lovely to look at if you can see through all the hordes of tourists
I did love arctic Norway though. Calm and gorgeous.

We lived in Darwin for over two years (1989-91) as my DH's job sent him there - we had no choice!

Very remote, thousands of miles from anywhere, but a bustling lively city, but very clearly keeping its roguish outback reputation as the place you escaped to if you ran out of other options... There was/is only one road (the Stuart Highway) in and out.

Very hot, 30°C plus, all the year round, but extremely wet and humid with the chance of cyclones from November to April - the lightning strikes were spectacular.

A fair distance from any interesting places to visit - most required overnight stays such as Kakadu or Katherine Gorge. We flew to the Queensland coast and the Whitsunday Islands for our main holiday.
Some local places we were able to get to for a day trip included the famous Adelaide River jumping crocodiles boat trip, the Northern Territory country park, snake and crocodile farms and also a large National Park whose name escapes me.

Surrouded by a beautiful blue sea full of hidden dangers, it was impossible to bathe at any time of year - poisonous box-jellyfish, saltwater crocs and blue-ringed octopus, so any visit to the beach was just that, a walk along the sand. And no bathing in rivers either - the home of the enormous saltwater crocodiles

Our children, then 10 and 6, obviously went to school there and loved it, making very good friends, and we too become friendly with other parents, who were very welcoming.

Lots of outdoor living and BBQs obviously! The people were so friendly and welcoming, and we enjoyed our time there - but were ready to return to the UK when our tour was over

That sounds lovely*Blue sapphire*

Kate1949

I can't agree with people who didn't like Santorini. I thought it was incredible. Each to their own.

I enjoyed Santorini, but I guess I was one of the tourists filling it up. I found the steep narrow winding roads scary at times.

There is a strange irony in complaining about tourist crowds when we are tourists.

It won't be popular but this article is about what mass tourism is doing to the planet. Instead of focus on our disappointment, we should be thinking about the effect on local communities and the world in general.

www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/23/do-heatwaves-wildfires-and-travel-costs-signal-the-end-of-the-holiday-abroad?

Riga. We went for the Christmas markets and thought it would be like Prague but there was little sign of any markets and no atmosphere. It was as if it was still stuck in Soviet times. All the restaurants closed at 9.00.

A day trip to San Gimignano whilst staying with my grandmother. Interesting but full of the usual tourist stuff and very crowded.
On the way back my husband and I drove through the scenic route back to my grandmother's house and accidentally discovered Conca d'Oro, near Panzano.
It seemed like we had stumbled back into medieval times. We walked around and stopped to sit and look out over the "Golden Bowl" valley. Suddenly a group of young men on lambrettas came through the gates of the village, each carrying a silk banner, celebrating the different contrada of the Siena Palio.
They really should have been galloping on white chargers to make the scene complete, but I was content.

Malta. I went there in the mid 1980's, so before the sort of mass tourism we see today. It wasn't at all what I expected. It was very dirty, dusty and not particularly friendly. On top of that, the food was absolutely dire. We did B&B so we ate out a lot at all sorts of places and it ranged from just about palatable to decidedly horrible. The local wine tasted like anti freeze and was undrinkable. We did a day trip to Gozo which seemed like paradise in comparison.

Dd1 spent over a year in Darwin on her travels, and enjoyed it, but having always been a water-baby found it so frustrating to find a lovely warm sea you couldn’t even dip a toe in, because of the salties!

Although I certainly enjoyed the holiday, must say
I was a wee bit underwhelmed with Bali. I dare say that was because it’s been so hyped up over the years, especially in the days before mass tourism hit it.

Before we went, a dd who’d been told us which beach resort to avoid like the plague - ‘It’s an Aussie Blackpool - you’d hate it!’
😂😂