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Biggest disappointment and nicest surprise


Kejan

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I found Cannes to be disappointing. Very little to do, plenty nicer beaches near by and was also really expensive (which I did expect tbh). It has a glamorous reputation but I thought it was very 'meh'. Luckilly I was only there half a day.

In terms of a surprise, Paris. Possibly seems like an odd choice to many but I really had no interest in going and only went because my girlfriend decided just to book flights and only told me after she'd done it. I thought it would be really girly and shit, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been back since. Excellent city. 

I ended up marrying her as well, although I'm still not convinced I've ever been forgiven for not proposing in Paris, even though it was made as clear as it could be that there was no chance of this ever happening. 

Brussels was also disappointing but it was expected because several people had told me it was shit. Only really went there as we were getting a train to Amsterdam. 

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I've quite enjoyed Brussels the times I've been there. There's a few nice neighbourhoods and great food of every cuisine. If you wander enough there are some nice local bars to be found. There are hundreds of touristy cities in Europe with quaint old towns but Brussels is a package that is hard to find elsewhere.

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5 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

I've quite enjoyed Brussels the times I've been there. There's a few nice neighbourhoods and great food of every cuisine. If you wander enough there are some nice local bars to be found. There are hundreds of touristy cities in Europe with quaint old towns but Brussels is a package that is hard to find elsewhere.

Brussels is absolutely terrific for food.  Pricey as f**k, though.

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I'll add another vote for the Bahamas on disappointing. Not at all clear what the fuss is all about once you get there although maybe it helps to be in less of a tourist location than Paradise island and Grand Nassau.

For a surprise a train trip I made on the Japanese island of Shikoku through the mountains from Ikeda to somewhere close to Kochi on a local single car train while consuming a tin or two of strong zero. Scenery was amazing in places with what looked like orange trees growing all the way up the side of very steep gorges and people having small farms all the way up to the top of mountains, which is unusual in Japan. The guy working the station at the far end where I got off the train clearly didn't like gaijins very much and on seeing me basically acted like WWII had never ended, which was quite amusing and showed that it's off the normal tourist trail, because JR staff are normally not like that even in remote out of the way areas.

 

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16 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Aye Brussels is a fucking tip. Not least because I had just come from Brugges

Yeah, I thought Brussels was just a big, unfriendly concrete jungle. 

I've never been to Bruges but I have only good things to say about Ghent and Antwerp. Charleroi was a fucking shitehole though, it's a francophone Falkirk FFS.

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not really had any disappointing trips although Rome didn't live up to my own expectations as it was my first trip away alone. 

I was really impressed by Belfast, loads to see everyone was really friendly and the food was top notch. 

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not really had any disappointing trips although Rome didn't live up to my own expectations as it was my first trip away alone. 
I was really impressed by Belfast, loads to see everyone was really friendly and the food was top notch. 


Surprise: Rome.
Contrary to the opinion above, I found Rome to be even better than I expected. There's the obvious attractions of course, but in terms of just walking around and enjoying a city, it's just so easy to get around, friendly locals, with so many nice places to stop for a coffee, a bite to eat and/or a beer around every corner and I found Rome to be the opposite of everything a European city generally is. Which brings me to the following...

Disappointment: London.
In terms of sightseeing and 'things to do', you're obviously spoilt for choice in London and it's hard not to enjoy yourself there. But in terms of just walking around, getting about and taking in the city, IMO it's just too big, too congested and busy, and not a city you can go to and just take it as it comes. Making the most of the attractions and good places to eat from my experience takes a bit of planning and organising getting from A to B. Folk tend to be in a rush everywhere, too desperate to see everything and just generally lack manners, whilst it feels like you never get a breath of fresh air. Outwith the attractions and just walking about, I found London to be perhaps the biggest, ugliest concrete jungle I think I have visited to date.
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All of these were from the same trip I went on 4 years or so ago. It was a Geography/Classical Civilisation trip to the Bay of Naples.

Disappointment: Naples and Pompeii

Naples is a massive tip, like Leith in Trainspottting but with 3 million more people. Not to say there isn't some great buildings in Naples but it was full of crime and the Mafia have quite a bit of control in Naples.

Pompeii was very disappointing, far too many tourists had ruined the site and it felt like it had lost it's character. Due to to the volume of tourists who don't know how to respect the site a lot of buildings were also fenced off. The Gladiatorial Arena was still quite nice - a Tannadice-sized arena that held around 16000-20000 people.

Surprise: Capri, Sorrento and Herculanem

Capri is a tax haven, and is accessible by a 35 minute ferry from Sorrento, it is a limestone island with some beautiful coves dug into the coast, it's well worth visiting.

Sorrento is probably the nicest town I've ever visited, it's like an Italian St Andrews, with beautiful old buildings and feels like it has not pandered too much to tourists. Feels like a traditional small Italian town, with narrow streets and very compact housing right on the coast with a beautiful beach.

Herculanem was another Roman town destroyed by Vesuvius, it was basically a village with about 1000 people living there at the time of the eruption, but it has preserved much better as it was destroyed by boiling mud, rather than buried by falling ash. It gets visited by very few people and has not been wrecked by tourists. Probably because the people who know about it, know why it exists and how to respect the buildings.

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Disappointment - Phuket, just too busy and commercialised to have any kind of charm, full of Russian tourists and a honking sewer smell everywhere.
Honourable mentions to Barcelona and Sydney in this category.

Pleasant surprises - Brussels, there are better cities, but this one is nothing like as bland as it's made out to be.

Honourable mentions to Cesky Krumlov and Hoi An.

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10 hours ago, DiegoDiego said:

I'm off to Graz next month, any tips?

Its one of those cities thats just excellent to have an aimless wander about especially around the clock tower/old town.Some really nice cafes and it actually has a nightlife unlike the rest of Austria

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On 26/02/2017 at 21:42, 8MileBU said:

Disappointment: London.
In terms of sightseeing and 'things to do', you're obviously spoilt for choice in London and it's hard not to enjoy yourself there. But in terms of just walking around, getting about and taking in the city, IMO it's just too big, too congested and busy, and not a city you can go to and just take it as it comes. Making the most of the attractions and good places to eat from my experience takes a bit of planning and organising getting from A to B. Folk tend to be in a rush everywhere, too desperate to see everything and just generally lack manners, whilst it feels like you never get a breath of fresh air. Outwith the attractions and just walking about, I found London to be perhaps the biggest, ugliest concrete jungle I think I have visited to date.

Obviously having been trapped here for half a decade I'm seeing it a bit different but planning and organising from A to B? It's much easier to get from one part of London to the other than any other UK city I've been in despite its size. There's a few exceptions (Getting to South East London can be a bit of a b*****d at times but there's f**k all touristy there anyway) but between the tube, overground, trams, national rail, buses and walking it's pretty straightforward and cheap.

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  • 1 month later...

Madrid. Dirty, all gray for some reason, and filled with rude nervous people. Not to mention its restaurants, which is always a big selling point for me. Santceloni was clean and comfortable, but the staff were nearly impossible to find when i needed them, contributing to the general feeling of Spanyards being too preocuppied with being hasty wrecks. And that one place with a flashy name, El Club Allard, was too expensive, with nothing but a serious selection of wines. Not that I'm complaining about wines, but it just felt... provincial. Not at all what I expected from a city like Madrid. I don't know why it felt this way, maybe I was extremely unlucky.

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9 hours ago, ViktorVic said:

Madrid. Dirty, all gray for some reason, and filled with rude nervous people. Not to mention its restaurants, which is always a big selling point for me. Santceloni was clean and comfortable, but the staff were nearly impossible to find when i needed them, contributing to the general feeling of Spanyards being too preocuppied with being hasty wrecks. And that one place with a flashy name, El Club Allard, was too expensive, with nothing but a serious selection of wines. Not that I'm complaining about wines, but it just felt... provincial. Not at all what I expected from a city like Madrid. I don't know why it felt this way, maybe I was extremely unlucky.

I think Madrid's so huge that it's a city you really have to get to know, like London, to get the best out of it. Think I prefer it to Barcelona though, more of a working city with less pretensions.

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