Overrated / Underrated

[DiegoDiego]

Disagree with Bucharest. I've tried to like it thrice now. The old town is overpriced touristy sleaze. The bulk of the city lacks organic neighbourhoods, just chain convenience stores and very few places to eat or drink out. The few interesting parts are too spread out in a city that's not very walkable and has terrible traffic. There are some areas with good architecture they're free and far between. It'd probably be in the bottom quarter of my ranking of East/Central European capitals. Each to their own though, perhaps I'm missing something.

[Michael W]

Overrated: Dublin. Heard a lot of good things about it, but went and found it to be nice enough, but also pretty dull. At great risk of enraging the locals, it feels no different from any large British city. 

Not sure sure about underrated. I enjoyed Warsaw, which seems to he overlooked a bit in the UK when people visit Poland, but it's the capital city which probably means it's not really underrated at all. 

[DiegoDiego]

I'd agree with Warsaw being underrated. I think it suffers from the same problem as another greatly underrated city: Glasgow. Their appeal isn't picturesque but the intangible, which is much harder for a fresh-off-the-boat tourist to get to grips with.

[Self-raising Lazarus]

Overrated- Salzburg. Spent 2 nights there this summer and was delighted to be leaving, strange layout for a city, no life at all during the week after 6pm and only the food redeemed it somewhat.

Underrated- Ljubljana. beautiful city center which feels like a small tight knit community, people are friendly and extremely helpful, even if you only know a handful of words (The mrs simply would not accept Dober dan is good day) with some incredible nature on its doorstep. The attractions are reasonably priced with no masses of tourists you get in Tier 1 cities.

Underrated- Split. Having been to both Dubrovnik and Split there is only one I would return to, good value for money some decent beaches close to the city, interesting mix of food on offer and life seems slower.

Would also add Berlin is the only destination I've been to more than once where I still haven't seen all the main attractions and with the sad exception of horrendous homelessness is a really enjoyable city.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Self-raising Lazarus

[O_Kahn]

52 minutes ago, Self-raising Lazarus said:

Overrated- Salzburg. Spent 2 nights there this summer and was delighted to be leaving, strange layout for a city, no life at all during the week after 6pm and only the food redeemed it somewhat.

Underrated- Ljubljana. beautiful city center which feels like a small tight knit community, people are friendly and extremely helpful, even if you only know a handful of words (The mrs simply would not accept Dober dan is good day) with some incredible nature on its doorstep. The attractions are reasonably priced with no masses of tourists you get in Tier 1 cities.

 

 

 

Agree on those two.

Dublin also over-rated.  

From our US trip - Chicago was under-rated, and San Francisco maybe over-rated (partly down to insane queues for everything)

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Cairo.


Shitehole.

[pozbaird]

I’m usually of the opinion that ‘each to their own’ hits the spot (in cities, music, sports teams… life in general). For everyone who hates New York, someone will love it. One person’s shitehole is another person’s favourite place. Having said that, just my opinion now, I found Los Angeles to be a shitehole. A big, vast, diverse, bizarre, interesting, crazy place… but a shitehole. Glad I went, no desire to ever go back. Box ticked.

In North America & Canada, would go back to Denver and Calgary in a heartbeat.

[vikingTON]

Underrated/Not rated -

Thessaloniki - Superb food; city walls/architecture and the gateway to the northern Greek coast.

Olomouc - Prague without the tourist tat and better weather. 

Wroclaw - Best city in Poland, although Gdansk runs it close. 

Malaga - Tarred with the airport for gammons but the city is enjoyable to visit with local beaches and excellent sweet wines and tapas in the traditional bars. 

Overrated?

Amsterdam - Possibly because I lived in Groningen for six months so the novelty value isn't there, but I wouldn't rush back. I don't do museums or art so the Rijksmuseum etc. does nothing for me either. 

Bratislava - People are doing it very badly wrong if they count it as visiting Slovakia, or spending more than a day there without getting up into the hills around it. It's like visiting 'the Highlands' by going to Inverness only. 

[bdu98196]

New Orleans - absolute stinking shite hole, full of homeless, alky, junkie, thieving b*****ds trying to pick pocket or rob you. The architecture and culture should make it decent but cant detract from the scum everywhere. Nothing says classy city quite like a tramp telling shop holders to give the $50 or they will shite on your floor!!!!

 

Montenegro & Bosnia are both nice and very good value, much like Croatia with culture but significantly less expensive and popular with Western Europeans. Kotor is has similarities to Dubrovnik in terms of history and culture but without the premium (Game of Thrones) prices.

[Cosmic Joe]

Zakopane in the Polish Tatras is nice in the winter. Paris cannot be described as under-rated but remains a fantastic city to visit. Naples probably does fall into the under-rated category as a lot of people put it down because there is an edginess to it, but I prefer it to Rome. 

I might have just been unlucky but Vienna did not impress. When you are met with a rude reception at Tourist Information then it kind of puts you off the place from the word go. 

[Lyle Lanley]

On 28/08/2022 at 16:26, Paul Kersey said:

The only Nordic destination that I've visited was Oslo. It was clean and civilised but expensive as f**k and a tad boring. Up there with Zurich as the most expensive and boring city in the universe.

 

Spent the day in Oslo before flying to Molde a few years back. Oslo didn't really impress me that much. Like you said it felt a bit boring. Molde was far nicer. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by Lyle Lanley

[Merkie84]

Overrated - Paris

Dirty, expensive  and the locals are horrendous. 
Having seen the tourist sites, no desire to go back. 
 

Underrated - Berlin

Class city, really vibrant, lots to see and do. 
Would love to go back. 

[Jambomo]

I found Hamburg overrated.

We went as part of a larger tour round the North of Germany and before I went I read a lot about how great it was but I found it a bit dull and quite seedy tbh. There wasn’t enough other stuff of interest in the city to balance out the sex tourism. 

[Darren]

On 03/09/2022 at 00:08, pozbaird said:

I found Los Angeles to be a shitehole. A big, vast, diverse, bizarre, interesting, crazy place… but a shitehole. Glad I went, no desire to ever go back. Box ticked.

I'm of much the same opinion on Los Angeles. I can only assume folk walking around Scotland wearing LA T-shirts have never actually been. LAX is a nightmare as well.

Mostar would probably be my under-rated place. Had such an amazing time there, despite having my bank card nicked.

I thought Bucharest was an absolute hovel, but Brasov was pretty nice. 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

5 hours ago, Darren said:

I'm of much the same opinion on Los Angeles. I can only assume folk walking around Scotland wearing LA T-shirts have never actually been. LAX is a nightmare as well.

Mostar would probably be my under-rated place. Had such an amazing time there, despite having my bank card nicked.

I thought Bucharest was an absolute hovel, but Brasov was pretty nice. 

We had a stop over in LAX on tuesday and it was fine, even left the airport and strolled to in n out in proper antony bourdain fashion, back in through security in ten minutes. I really like LA as a place to visit, burbank, west hollywood and silverlake are great to explore. Love visiting the movie studios etc. yes its sprawling and the traffic is nuts but i just plan around not doing things too spread apart. Also love visiting Anaheim and OC. 

[O_Kahn]

15 hours ago, Darren said:

I'm of much the same opinion on Los Angeles. I can only assume folk walking around Scotland wearing LA T-shirts have never actually been. LAX is a nightmare as well.

Mostar would probably be my under-rated place. Had such an amazing time there, despite having my bank card nicked.

I thought Bucharest was an absolute hovel, but Brasov was pretty nice. 

 

I should have mentioned Mostar, excellent even as a day trip from the coast.

Copenhagen is fine, but the Little Mermaid is very over-rated.

[johnnydun]

Over rated-

Las Vegas. Just tacky shite on a huge scale, once you've seen one roulette table, you've seen them all.

Dubai. A building site that seems to be only for c***s on Instagram to say they've been there.

Under rated-

Singapore. I don't know if you can class Singapore as under rated but the place is great and absolutely spotless.

Sanaa. Great city in a stunning country, well 14 years ago. It makes me so sad that the place has been destroyed. I would love to go back again when peace breaks out.

[MONKMAN]

On 21/09/2022 at 19:39, johnnydun said:

Over rated-

Dubai. A building site that seems to be only for c***s on Instagram to say they've been there.

Under rated-

Singapore. I don't know if you can class Singapore as under rated but the place is great and absolutely spotless.

Dubai is a city built using modern day slaves, full of pretentious arseholes with too much money and knobs who like to show off and think they've got money.  Hotels are nice though.

Singapore is my favourite city on the planet. 

[kennie makevin]

Overrated - Glasgow. Is there an uglier, more filthy city in Europe ?

Underrated - Edinburgh. Is there a more beautiful city in Europe ?

[MONKMAN]

24 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

Overrated - Glasgow. Is there an uglier, more filthy city in Europe ?

Underrated - Edinburgh. Is there a more beautiful city in Europe ?

Edinburgh or Mumbai?