Anyone ever visited an overrated location?
I think that in all my travels I'd have to say Miami didn't seem very exotic at all. I'd always wondered what it was like and then when we arrived I saw all those buildings with not even a little strip of beach, nothing much to do except party and no natural beauty left besides the sea. I preferred Key West and then the Everglades park and my first look at a real live alligator in nature.
This was many years ago though, perhaps it's changed.

I lived in Hawaii for three years and even though there is a high point of kitsch touristic stuff, I learned where to find the traditions too. I also sold hotdogs and slurpees on Waikiki Beach just for the experience. It was a crack up. The real native Hawaiians are such beautiful people when you meet them, that I have a great souvenir of my stay there. And the parties are so good. They always said, "Haole parties they give you chips, we like to eat!"

My first vision of New York as I emerged from the subways in my brand new jacket as I hadn't worn a coat in two years in Hawaii, was like a Woody Allen movie scene! And when I got bumped almost off the sidewalk without an excuse, I cried out," Why it's just like the movies!"
I can also remember being enchanted at my first "real" deli food, and those dill pickles and cheesecake and things like that.
So I enjoyed it. I never really got the time to go back except for flights in and out and an occasional foray in to see a museum before a flight. It never attracted me much.

Oh yeah, I remember another one, Mount Rushmore, now that's got to be one of the ultimate let downs as it's surrounded with Billboards and stuff and then it's just what you think it is, statues in the middle of nature.
I think I preferred seeing Christo wrap the Pont Neuf in Paris. I happened to be there that day.
Or seeing those steles or menhirs in Brittany.
Or seeing Pedro's South of the Border finally in the Carolinas.
Or Beale Street in Memphis.

Paris is one of those cities that doesn't let you down. I mean, when you arrive and see the monuments lit up, you're impressed.

London, I apologized to the cabbie at exclaming how neat it was and pointing at stuff to the kids, and he said "no problem I much prefer to hear that than other things!"
And he was even proud to tell us what it was.

Amsterdam was also a bit of a letdown, not from an aesthetic point of view, but the open use of drugs was a shock to me.

Reykavic was not a letdown in the least, it's a really pristine city like no other, but boy is it expensive! 50 bucks for a pizza and a salad! Iceland is intriguing.

Venice is just as magical as it seems. I loved it. Bruges is even more wonderful than anything I've seen written about it. Really.

I would have to say my biggest disappointment in a travel destination would have to be Jamaica. I visited the island during a 7 day cruise last year, and was shocked at what I found. While heading downtown from the port, there were farm animals running loose in the streets. When we got downtown it was one begger after another. All of this was found in the "tourist" part of the island. I heard it gets worse once you leave the "safe" part of the island. Needless to say I was not impressed with this particular port of call.

Overrated locations? Well...we must talk about the terrible Los/Las brothers...Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I can't imagine why anyone would want to spend more than a few days in either place. Las Vegas is a sleazy nightmare...no more need be said about it...but isn't it the top destination of American tourists after NY and LA? Los Angeles could be something special if it weren't for the fact that it's overcrowded, terribly glitzy, polluted, backup up with traffic, overcome by them parks, frought with cookie-cutter suburban housing projects, terrorized by gang violence and loaded with humans who only show their facades because that's all they have to display! The museums are nice though...

Loch Ness is a bit overrated, Nessie did not appear for our boat...we were terribly disappointed. Hong Kong is nothing much to speak of unless you are a habitual shopping addict...lovely skyscrapers though. Beijing was sadly a disappointment simply because the air pollution envelopes everything...much like other large Asian cities. It seems that they are having difficulties in upkeep at the Forbidden City, even despite the high rate that they charge tourists to enter! Another overrated Asian site is Bali...beautiful island and lovely people, each of whom would love to sell you everything but their kitchen sink! Get used to the mantra 'want to buy?' while viewing Mt. Agung or the bat cave...

The best policy is to set off with very modest expectations. That said, one needs to develop the ability to see through hype, to avoid getting carried away by one's own, usually over-active imagination, and try to form a reliable impression of the location beforehand. In recent years, I've developed the habit of doing my homework pretty thoroughly before choosing foreign destinations, and on the whole have not been disappointed.

I'm a Northern Californian (or even Central) and I grew up getting taunted by the Southerners for being a hick. So my first forays into Los Angeles were rather rude. I mean here we'd been treated as unsophisticated by the LA folks as teens and then you see what life is like there, it's a bit like the country mouse and the city mouse! I think that having to spend more time on the roads all day would drive me to road rage. There are some pockets of areas I like, but that's about it.
Las Vegas? Only been there twice. I hear it's like Disneyland now for grown ups. It's not a place I'd drag my kids too. I'd rather have them see the beauty of the desert.

I guess my visit to the Taj Mahal was exemplary of the difference between all the research and guidebooks in the world and reality. The area is surrounded by dacoits (bandits) and the busdriver refused to let me off the bus on the way despite the fact I was going to be sick. They'd only let you off at stops where they'd try to sell you stuff like crafts and then you'd parade in and they'd give you a coke. It is a beautiful site of course, but you're never ever able to let up your guard as the pickpockets do not care about where you're from and they approach you and make your life a misery. The bus driver and guide told us that if we weren't there at the time of departure they'd leave us there. So we decided to stay in the bus during the Red Fort visit. The sellers pounded on the windows of the bus while we sat there waiting.
My Indian friends tell me that they even hesitate before visiting the Taj any longer.
It is a beautiful place but be prepared for a culture shock.
Sri Lanka was more accessible to us and we knew people there so had a much better visit. Thailand as well.
New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places in the world and the people invited us into their homes and to their tables and to coffee!
We were hitching at one point as the buses didn't come often in the South Island and a guy just said to come up and have coffee and cake. He was happy to see visitors.
Little old ladies in Morris Minors would pick us up.
Australia is great too, but on a more grandiose scale.

Here's my thoughts- The Spynx was rather dissapointing, much smaller than I'd imagined, and with a 'Pizza Hut' right next door. The Great Pyramids were superb, although Cairo has been allowed to encroach upon the whole area, and one has to take photographs from a particular angle to make the scene look desert-like. Syndey opera house is not as nice a sight as the bridge opposite. Paris is a great city, and has a unique atmosphere. Bombay (now called Mumbai) was the most interesting city I have visited, although I have no desire to return, because of the massive contrast between the rich and the poor there. I agree with Bruyere in that New Zealand is beautiful, especially the fjords, and the whole Picton Sound area. Australia, though I was not too impressed with.(Sorry to have dimissed a whole country in a few words, maybe I didn't get to know it well enough).
The most memorable place I have been to is Antarctica. I have remained fascinated with it ever since.

Hello, we've got a traveler here I see!
Picton was indeed one of the most beautiful harbours I can remember.
Australia is beautiful but man, it's big!

By the way, the grand canyon is impossible to appreciate on a post card. Just thought I'd let you all know!

The Pyramids were a huuuuge let down for me. Too many tourists!

Alexandria, Egypt was the worst let down of my life... I had actually expected it to be very quaint and I immagined all of the buildings would be those white ones with orange roofs (do you know the kind?). When I got there and saw a regular city (which smelled of sewage on the road in), I was ready to cry. I have no clue why I expected Alex to be fairy-tale like...!

Hawaii was very nice, but Maui has NO nightlife. That was a bummer.

Rome was much better then I ever expected.

Florida... UGH! As soon as you cross the border you're offically in tourist land.

My problem is that I get so excited (obsessed, actually) about travelling, that I get my hopes up really high before the trip. I wasn't really looking forward to going to Rome, so maybe that's why I thought it was cool... Egypt, on the other hand... I'd wanted to go my whole life (doesn't everyone?), and I had high expectations.

Corinne

Egypt, Italy, and Me

I have to agree with Cream'O'Wheat...Jamaica was the crotch of the universe.

I made the mistake of taking my 13 year old son with me. I knew we were in trouble when the hotel desk clerk informed me to be sure to stay between the armed guards on the private beach. The armed guards were there to keep out "unsavory characters." We soon found out who these characters were. The next day, on the beach (and well between the armed guards), my son and I were relaxing in the sun, when two Jamaican women came up and started braiding our hair (quite a feat since he and I have short blondish hair). They didn't ask if they could, or if we were interested, they just started pulling at our hair.

Then we decided to go bathing. Shortly thereafter, guys in motor boats would come in close and ask us which drugs we would like to purchase.

When shopping in Montego Bay (a BIG mistake), shop keepers grab you firmly by the arm and force you into their shops, saying, "You buy from me."

A totally unpleasant experience...though it is a beautiful island. Too bad it's inhabited by Jamaicans.

I think the problem with many famous places is the reality cant live up to a life time of build up. My first trip to Paris was great but the Eiffel Tower, well ok there it is now what? Same thing with Stonehenge, all the anticipation, reality cant live up to it.
That's why I think it's the suprises that really impress. The Avebury stone circle in England and the West Kennet burial Mound or perhaps Newgrange in Ireland run rings (stone rings!)around Stonehenge. While in Paris my favourite place was the Rodin museum. That's another example the Mona Lisa we've all known about it but when you finally see it. Hmmmm.

Quogequox

You're 100% right!

C

I haven't been far...MY! What a bunch of travellers! Wish I could!

However, I HAVE been to Sardegna. I suppose tourists think it should be beautiful, the Emerald Coast...Costa Smeralda...Well, it's a TINY island, but I never got there!

Spent the whole 6 weeks in a tiny town, with the occasional excursion to the sheep farm just outside of town...stuck with a (just)3 year old in a palazzo...with old folks I didn't know....and it was dreadful. My partner was so CARRIED AWAY with being HOME that he forgot I was even there...and, well, it was just HORRENDOUS!

First time I ever considered "offing" myself! Serious! And I'm really not that weird! Just wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole!

Anyway...made it home! That was more than a decade ago! And I do not wish to besmirch Sardegna! Just...well, I didn't find it too pleasant!

I have to say....been to Disneyland, too. I found it to be all that I thought it would be! California was TOO HOT in August...but...it truly was a fantasyland...and that's what I went there for!

Picture it...Niagara Falls in November. For one week. With my wife (now ex-wife).

Sentimental fool that I am, I thought it would be so romantic to spend our first wedding anniversay in this legendary honeymoon haven. Talk about mistakes!

The only things open were my wife' mouth, the Falls and the 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum'. With regard to the Falls, about 30 seconds will do it. You walk up, say, "Oh, look at that!" and you're done. In the museum, you see the world's longest fingernail and the thrill is gone. This left six days and twenty-three hours to go. We were told that everything else was closed because of the time of year.

I French-kissed the 727 prior to boarding for the flight home.

I think Jazz read my mind I live 2 hours from LA, and my mother-in-law lives in Las Vegas. I hate both cities with a passion!

Add to the list of LA's downfalls the simple fact that it can take over an hour to go five miles on the freeway- sometimes even at midnight. And that the area is so sprawling that you can't get anywhere if you don't use the freeway!

Las Vegas is even worse. To me, its capital crime is the strangling haze of tobacco smoke that drapes everything in a nauseating leaden cloud. I'm allergic to tobacco smoke, and in CA. at least public places are smoke-free. And from an environmental persepective, Vegas has to be one of the worst possible offenders- a couple of million people in the middle of a desert, draining water and electricity at a fearsome rate.

I've travelled very little outside the US (just to Mexico and once to Vancouver, CA), so I've little to say in that area.

I think everywhere I have traveled to has been a rewarding experience, so I would imagine there has been no over-rated sights for me. I do recall Paris as being quite beautiful...

I suppose it depends on your age and stuff too. When I saw Miami I was a California girl used to traveling in the West and had not been to the East Coast yet. I'd done lots of traveling but hadn't crossed the Rockies.
Come to think of it, I've never gone back to Florida.
I made a recent trip to Austria for business and had such a wonderful time as the co workers there received me like one of them. Plus the food reminds me of the German origins on my grandmother's side. Sticks to your ribs.
Though I was there for work, I had a lot of fun too.
As I live in Europe now, I don't travel as much as I work more. So my vision has changed.
I'm not blasé by any means, I simply can take the time to appreciate things as they don't come as often now I work.

I'm basically a big kid when I travel.

Oh yeah, I also loved Europapark, like a German version of Disneyland near Strasbourg on the German side. It's out in the country, based on European stuff, they've even taken some of the Disney stuff and adapted it to their own legends, and they have rides and shows for every possible age, from babies to seniors.
Disneyland has never been that good for that many people.
I also love the scary rides and did the satellite one with my kid, which plunges you into an abyss then you go down backwards in a doughnut like affair and loops and all. Not too many moms on that one! And I was laughing so hard I thought I'd die.
So even kitsch stuff is fun for me, but I don't like total disregard for the surroundings and the culture.

Jazz hates Las Vegas? It's the greatest place in the world!
Aruba, now there's a place I won't be going back to.

Cannot believe that anyone might have been disappointed by Sardinia.Guess you should have been to places like Jerzu,Orgosolo,Oliena.You should have tried the Cannonnau and the shepherd's cuisine. You should have tried bottarga;torrone.You should have seen a number of nuraghe; Nora;....You should have attended a popular feast, if possible one of the carnivals.You should have followed a shepherd for a while.Hiked to the top of one of the mountains in the Gennargentu area.
If you are lucky ..people can be so hospitable over there.
If there is any part of Sardinia I would NOT visit it's the Costa Smeralda.That's where Sardegna lost its soul.
It's so nice to travel around , so many surprises in the scenery.
Only place that disappointed me recently was Spain, or more precisely Barcelona and Madrid (apart from the Prado) but I am sure it was my own fault.
Should have prepared my trip a little better.And should have respected the "siesta".

Hey, Flem! Must say....I DID see lots of what you said...briefly...climbed up into a nuraghe...bought jewellry in Oliena...went to the caverns in Dorghali(?)...took a tour of a huge fibre factory in Oristano(?)..I think...took a tooth-rattling, and very frightening ride in a teeny car on a tiny road to the top of a mountain I think was Gennargentu...I ate with the gentry rustic-style in a few barn type sheds...and stayed in a tiny village with all my hubby's relatives, while he cavorted around the countryside with all his folks. I was there for the six weeke surrounding Easter and every weekend in this teeny tiny town it was a "festa" for one saint or another, which is fine, but, as can be attested to by my vacation videotape...each procession was exactly the same, with folks in the exact same order in the lineup, with almost the exact same clothing! The name of the Saint was different...I have three of these processions in a row!

If I have to be brutally honest..it was my screaming, shell-shocked(culturally) 2/3 year old and my grumpy galavanting hubby, and being stuck in a hillside casa with folks I didn't know and couldn't communicate with on my own...OK...

It wasn't the place, it was the company!
Sardegnians are wonderful, generous people. The countryside is beautiful.

Thank you for reminding me of a few of the memorable things!

Have you ever seen the "CAge Aux Folles" version where the one guy pretends to be his partner's wife and a woman in a Southern Italian village?
Your account reminded me of that. Michel Serrault is dressed up like a woman and has to cook and clean and do all the stuff a normal wife would, and then one of the brothers or cousin's gets a crush on him! Flem, I'm sure you'll get my reference and probably provide us with the number of the film as it must be two or three.

What I like about Sardinians is that their standard Italian is so easy to understand and pure, because it's so different from Sardinian!
I have a cousin from there too.
I also had a kind of nightmarish Italian village experience, not because of the language or culture really, but because my daughter was teething and wasn't a good sleeper either and my in laws were there and we were staying with cousins in an apartment, and my kid must have awakened the entire village as in the morning the ladies with plates of food balanced on their heads would yell up to the cousin and say, "what's wrong with that baby?"
So I broke down and took her to the doctor who was a very nice man, refused any sort of payment and told me she was just teething. From that point on, I simply referred them to this guy (he's a distant cousin undoubtedly!) and things went much better!
Then she'd also wreak havoc with the cousin's house, play with everything like onions and cans, refuse to be fed from a spoon and want to do it herself, I also refused to let her have any sugar, now that was stupid!
Finally the old uncle took her out to the café, and came back and she was eating this enormous ice cream cone, and I said, "oh well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions!"

The thing is that it's hard to experience certain places without knowing someone there, and knowing someone there means we won't have the typical tourist experience.
I rarely had the typical tourist experience of Hawaii except for package deals during the year for the neighboring islands. And even then I knew what I wanted to see.
New Zealand for me was tops because people invited us to their homes and lives.

My own experiences of travel are broadly similar to prof's. Of course, there have been trips and vacations that I have enjoyed less than others, but it nearly had little, if anything, to do with the location. There are lots of other things that can spoil a holiday.

Perhpas the secret is not only to get one's expectations right but also to look for things of interest even in places like Kingston, Jamaica. The very fact that the place is so badly run down and so far removed from most people's notions of the Caribbean is in itself interesting. That said, I hope tour operators aren't 'selling' Jamaica as an idyllic island ...!

The C.N. Tower and Skydome in Toronto are DEFINITELY overrated. The only thing that is breathtaking is the view. My dad had a little, tiny part in building and supplying parts for the revolving roof. I have never been up there and I will never go up there! The C.N. tower is about 30 miles from where I live, but I can see it just fine from my living room window and balcony. It looks much more impressive from far away. The last time I was around the grounds at the C.N. Tower and Skydome there was blowing paper garbage everywhere, the plants, gardens and planters looked like they had not been attended to for weeks, I don't think they ever hose the sidewalks down, and I nearly suffocated walking through the airless plexiglas walkway to Union Station!(It was a very hot day.)Overall, not a pleasant experience. It is also very pricey to go to the top of the C.N. tower. There are a lot more interesting things to see in Toronto than the C.N. Tower.