“Smelled Like Pee”: People Share The Most Hyped Travel Destinations That Left Them Disappointed

This may pose a shock but Tokyo, Japan The entire city felt like Plastic To me I was visiting Tokyo with a friend of mine just as a typical Tourist. Inner City Tokyo is like some form of dystopian fairy tail. Everything seem’s rushed, lacking any beauty that catches the eye and everything ultimately cost a Tourist a Fortune. Even for the Local Japanese citizen visiting and living in Tokyo is like living in Manhattan. It cost an arm and a leg simply to purchase a Can of Pop (Soda) I have to admit, I was disappointed with my own Country’s capital of Tehran because like Tokyo i felt it was unappealing, lacking in natural and historic tourist attractions and to rushed. Looking Back I actually preferred Tehran over Tokyo. I’m A Historian which can make my opinion a little more tricky maybe. When i travel to various countries I’m more interested in studying the History and Historic sites then shopping and going to amusement parks In addition Maybe it was different for me and my friend because we went to Tokyo with little knowledge of the city so we didn’t really know how to find the ‘hidden gems’ of the city. We mostly just traveled to whatever seemed of little interest to our eyes and we occasionally followed behind Tour groups Literally Everything is automated from the Eateries to the Hotels. What ever happened to good Human interaction and Hospitality. We figured taking the City Bus to get a moving on the ground view of the city might appeal to us. That Bus ride felt like the longest 1hr ride of my life. There’s also little options in terms of eating if you are not A fan Of Sushi or if you can not consume Pork or Beef. There’s nothing wrong with that because that’s the main diet of Japan but if your Someone who doesn’t eat Pork or Beef, a Vegetarian or a hater of Sushi you will assuredly have a somewhat tough timing finding suitable eateries for your taste By the 3rd Day I was begging my friend to see if we could schedule an earlier flight to go back to Iran. My hopes of what I thought Tokyo would be were practically ruined. I’ve done some research on the more natural and historic landmarks of Japan so maybe I will return. But Tokyo was not my cup of tea

Well for me it was the Walk of fame in Los Angeles,CA. It was a filthy street full of homeless d**g addicts lurking around in absolutely filthy conditions. However, something I would distinctly remember is a homeless woman who could have been someone significant but seems to have lost everything. Her placard said that she was just in “need of some hugs.” That screamed out that “All that glitters is not gold.” Then there were run down shops on both the sides with hideous wigs and costumes which also doubled up as stores as guys who were selling tour tickets to go and see “George Clooney’s house”. The traffic was terrible, which is of course a very renowned fact. We went there to celebrate a decade of our wedding, and after all the heat and dust and the grueling drives, I think I should have just stuck to the solitaire that was offered in the first place. I would like to quote here from Tilly bagshaw, “America is not all about wealth, but the perception of wealth”. PS: We loved the Disney and Universal studios and that did leave us with some beautiful memories.

I think Santorini, Greece is the most disappointing place I’ve ever been. It’s not much different than the thousands of other islands in Greece except that it’s more expensive and crowded. This goes for many big destinations - especially islands. A few examples are: The Bahamas (avoid Freeport) Italy (avoid Capri) Croatia (avoid Brac/Bol) Usually, there’s a nicer, cheaper, quieter, prettier, less stressful destination right around the corner from the tourist trap. It pays to get off the beaten path! It’s hard to get a photo in Santorini without hundreds of people in it (this was in low season!) Photo: TravelingWithKristin, Travel Blogger

Here I am in Johannesburg for a second time, staying in a hotel in Sandton, the nicest area of the city. Yesterday I wanted to go to a place near Gandhi Square. So I took the Gautrain (pronounced “how-train” by the locals) to Park Station and experienced disappointments one after another. First, street names are often inexistent at street intersections. I didn’t have a local SIM card to use GPS. I had to ask the locals for direction all the time. Some storekeepers told me to watch out for dangers. On Harrison Street homeless people sleep. Sidewalks are full of ditches and litters. Apparently unemployment rate is very high. The most common job is probably security guard. Of course there are some nice people who give me direction but most seem to be hostile to foreigners. Street markets and street vendors are everywhere. Most people around Park Station are desperately poor. Trash service is non-existent. Many shops are no longer in business, put out of business by street vendors. There are few industrial jobs so people have to try to sell something as little as candies or fruits on a small tray. Bus drivers are generally fat because they take cheap cash fares and put them in their pocket. So besides Sandton that lives off wealthier tourists and business owners. Johannesburg has many ghetto areas which are worse than Phnom-Penh or Ho Chi Minh City. My diagnostic is since Mandela took over, things have gone downhill. An amazing observation is many locals use iPhones, the local prices of which are usually twice those in USA.

The Mona Lisa: small picture behind a lot of glass behind a railing behind lots of people craning to look at the famous picture they can’t actually look at. Since I love art, I have to add The Last Supper, which is a wreck you wait in line to see. And I labeled the Brera, Milan’s major art museum, the Dreara because all the great paintings were filthy (though I hope that has changed). The Leaning Tower, by contrast, was super cool when I was a kid wandering up and feeling like I was going to fall off one of the open edges. And the Eiffel Tower: first time I walked up to it was at night and, by accident, we walked backstage into the national Christmas celebration as it was televised and stood next to the camera guys.

Italy One of the pictures I printed and made into a cover for my notebook at work to motivate me to work harder and save money for 2 years I’ve fantasized about Italy for the longest of time. I fell in love with the country when I was 12 after I watched the movie “Only You” Italy felt magical out of this world and that was confirmed to me by every movie set in Italy I’ve seen since. Not only the country but how Italian people seemed in those movies so friendly, warm, somewhat carefree, and in many ways like my Mediterranean country’s people. Just Google Italy and look at those dreamy wonderful pictures. How I’d loved to visit it that when I decided to major in languages I wanted to study Italian. Though unfortunately then I couldn’t meet the requirements for the Italian department, I consider myself very lucky now. I was 24 and on my way to Italy after exactly 12 years of dreaming and falling head over heels with this country and I have been saving for 2 years for this trip. I went to Italy in August and visited 3 cities Venice, Florence, and Rome. These 3 destinations had more tourists than Italians even more most shop owners were immigrants from other countries. Venice was the most dreadful, I visited it on a weekend and waking up early and starting to explore and enjoy the city to find it roaming with tourist all carrying a map it felt like a maze theme park dead of authenticity and abandoned by Venetians to be a make-believe city for tourist to enjoy and be a source of profit for the country. Would I give Italy another chance? Yes, I definitely would. Still it was for a very long time the love of my life but this time I’d learn from my mistakes and get off the beaten track, go to small towns and choose a better time to visit than the peak season.

Ho Chi Minh - Its because of the people. Firstly was when my friend and I arrived there from Cambodia we just took a cab immediately and the driver informed us that he will use the meter. So we trusted him. I chose not to activate my data roaming at that time so we don’t have our own internet. We do not know how far our hotel was and the money conversion from my country. Then its just less than 1.5km and we paid almost 800,000 dong(S$48) . He dropped us two streets away from our hotel for some lame reasons and we bought it. (I know we’re both stupid at that time). We’ve realised that our money left was so little. Then We told the receptionist about what happened and she said that usually we only have to pay for atleast 90,000 Dong and some drivers don’t want to drop in the hotel because the passengers are complaining to them. Secondly was the shopping thing I don’t like to haggle because for I’m shy but you don’t want to end up paying double compared to the other store and such a waste of time specially when you have a limited time you just wanna buy the thing that you want and go to your next destination. And since I’m from Manila I didn’t really feel much difference , its almost the same. But to summarise that trip I can tell that we’re the one to blame coz we didn’t do our homework. We didn't plan well and made any research. Knowing the currency is very important so you can tell if its too expensive or just right.

Stonehenge. You read about it in textbooks all those years. You long for the day when you can clap eyes on it, in living Neolithic colour. Then, one day, not long after moving to the UK, you and your new hubby are driving along a non-descript A road, when he suddenly points to a field and says ‘There’s Stonehenge.’ ‘Whaaaat?’ ‘Stonehenge.’ ‘As in the Stonehenge? As in mystical, prehistoric monument?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘Well, Hell! Let’s stop and check it out.’ You trudge unceremoniously around a field and stare blankly at a bunch of big stones. In a circle. ‘What do you think?’ asks hubby. ‘They’re big stones. In a circle.’ ‘Yes, but it’s the most architecturally sophisticated lintelled stone in the world. Each stone weighs about 25 tons and stands 13 feet high! And they were transported from 150 miles away! Back when there was no possible way things that heavy could be transported so far. We’re talking 3000 BC. And…and…it’s so mysterious. Was it a Druid Temple? Or a tool for predicting eclipses? Or a cult centre for healing?’ It’s a bunch of big stones, arranged in a circle. It’s also cold and pissing down with rain. Can we go now?

Oslo, Norway. I am a solo female traveler who has been to over 24 countries and lived in two. Of all the places I have been, Oslo in Norway was the most disappointing. Instead of experiencing Viking and Norwegian culture, I was harassed and followed by several Pakistani males. Somalian males openly urinated on the trees in parks and dealt d***s on the sidewalks. There were pickpocket warning signs all over the area I was staying in — and I found out later that I was staying in a hotspot for rape. 100% of the suspects were non-Norwegian and 100% of the victims were Norwegian. You couldn’t pay me to visit again.

Dublin, Ireland. I worked there for over a year (some stories are elsewhere, fans!) but the town… The first weekend I was there there was a riot in the main street after some football game had one side win and another lose. Nope, no idea. Wandering around on other days I saw bouncers/security guards on corner stores (what we’d call dairies in NZ). One kindly suggested that I keep my camera out of sight in town. I thanked him for the comment. And seriously, is the town that rough? And “Temple Bar”… is it a great place for a drink? Yes, probably. But unless you enjoy the company of loud, smelly people in great numbers near you all determined to drink as much as possible, avoid. And the drunks…. pointless arguments, urine, vomit…. Come to think of it the whole town seemed to be full of heavy drinkers. The station I’ve described elsewhere too - the tracks were littered with human… well, excrement. I think someone commented that this was no longer the case. I’m glad to hear it. (I did get to see the Book of Kells - so Dublin had that, at least)

Bogota, Colombia. That is a very miserable place. There are things that they do that you don’t think about asking. For example: The beds don’t have box springs and it is almost like sleeping on the floor. They don’t have heat or air conditioning in their hotels. I should have stayed at an American hotel but, this place had very good reviews on tripadvisor...

Delhi, India. It was my first time visiting India and Delhi, and I prepared myself for some extraordinary experiences, but one can not prepare himself for the cultural shock he will get as soon as he steps into the city. 😱 I was disappointed by the low standard for the hotels available in Delhi. The only normal hotels were in the Airport city, which is practically out of Delhi. If you want to be in the city, lower your standards. I mean it is better to have no standards at all 😀 Also, the prices were like you are staying in some pretty expensive hotels in Europe, but the service you will get is like you are staying in a dorm room that last time was cleaned during the summer break. I tried 6 different hotels until I found some decent home-stay place.

I have a few. 1. Los Angeles, California, USA:
The number 1 most disappointing city that I have seen was Los Angeles. I have lived in the US all my life and mostly grew up on the east coast. It was so many years since I was a child that I was able to see Los Angeles. I knew that the city was large, older and I knew not to have high expectations, so I felt prepared. My family and I embarked on a long road trip from the east to west starting in Atlanta, GA, USA to Los Angeles. We stopped in many cities, large and smaller, and was generally surprised by the growth of the United States. We were having so much fun and enjoying everything. When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were very excited, expected a lot and wanted to have lots of fun. When we arrived in the early midnight hours, which was too many hours early to be booked in a hotel without paying for an extra day, we decided to sleep in our car (Almost new Mercedes Benz), bad mistake. We tried the hotel lot, then was warned for our safety, drove to another, then another, then another. This felt oppressive and we felt displaced and understood what it was like, even though we had a hotel for the next day. We drove back to the hotel in a really nice suburb of Los Angeles. In the afternoon after we rested, we drove around the city and noticed that once we left Irvine a wealthy suburb south of Los Angeles, and drove towards Los Angeles, we noticed that the standard of living was low. The homes looked older and run down, there were barely any restaurants or stores, people were rude and impatient, in Beverly Hills and other parts of California people treated me like a movie star and some even asked if I was one. There was so much homelessness and people acted like it was nothing. Every shopping center had a minimum of two homeless people there, and because of this, you rarely find a mirror in any bathrooms and some restaurants even have theirs locked. D***s were so available at a grand opening party that it was scary, it was a grand opening party, imagine if it was a regular party. No other city had parties that d***s were everywhere like that. There were nice exotic cars once in a while, but not as much as you would expect, the average citizen had more older cars than the other cities unless you were in the beach towns, Malibu, BevHills/HolmbyHills/BelAir or Orange County. There was lots of graffiti and ugly old houses among one of the nicest geographies in the USA. Traffic is 21 hours a day on the weekdays. Hollywood Blvd is so unpleasant and the streets like many others, smelled like urine. The city's parks are not maintained, and the highways are probably the most beautiful construction project. The mansion neighborhoods were not that desirable even if the prices are $100 million usd, to get to them, you drive through windy, hilly and narrow roads that are broken and have houses that look like prefab homes with stucco siding as neighbors probably priced at $5 million. If you are an aspiring actor, model or entertainer, don't bother coming unless you already got the job, because people go for movies, modeling or entertainment, but those agencies don't accept walk ins or visits, and a lot of the homeless people I saw were young people. The weather is always mild, foggy in the morning, dry in the day, warm, but other than summer, most of the year kind of annoyingly type of temperature where it is not warm enough, but not cold enough either. 2. Miami, Florida, USA: Miami, or the parts that people think of (Miami Beach, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Aventura) is very beautiful! The problem is that this part of Miami is very small compared to the whole Miami area. Even in Miami beach, a short drive quickly takes you from luxurious areas, to areas like Little Havana or other run down areas. Hialeah is so run down and that's a lower income community. Places that are supposed to be wealthy like Coconut Grove looked below average for USA standards. CG looks like a rich city of a developing country, with jungle plants covering everything and nice houses and some not so nice peaking out the jungle plants. The roads are bad and you actually see the roots of the older Grove trees uprooting the roads. The roads in most of Miami are bad except the Florida Turnpike and the far far northern suburbs that have more in common with Fort Lauderdale than Miami. In Miami, the water views are amazing, but if you are not a visitor or beach goer, you will miss that experience and it will be mostly a South American country. Panama seems more like a USA city than Miami, this isn't bad, but then you notice what people go there for. 3. Lagos, Nigeria: I'll give the country a break, it's not a tourist country, but it doesn't take advantage of the natural geography enough. This city is the fastest growing city on earth, and there are not enough buildings to house the people. The city is very dirty, crowded, not planned out well and even the richest parts of the city, where travelers go are not even pretty aesthe...

It has to be Jaisalmer. Throughout the city you would find trash lying around. And, the whole city looks like a construction site. Ignoring all the trash around, you would wish to see the fort. But, you would have to struggle just to reach there as the roads surrounding the fort would be choked with buses and taxis. Ignoring all the traffic and trash around, you would wish to see the famous sand dunes. But, you would again have to struggle just to reach there as the taxis would charge a ridiculously large fare. Ignoring all the exorbiant cab fares, traffic and trash around, you would wish to stay in the tent hotels between the desert. But, here again, you would have to pay an extraordinary amount just to have basic necessities. Also, the hosts would flaunt their ...

I have to say it depends on who you visit it with. I run tours and one place we visit is the famous “Snow Monkeys” of Japan. Monkeys that sit in a hotspring. When I first saw it I was utterly underwhelmed, but when I take customers with children there, it is fun because of their enthusiasm. The same is true with several “tourist traps” that I now enjoy. If the people I am with are having fun, or making it fun for me I feel fun. I used to hate Mt. Fuji because of the crowds, but this year I climbed Mt. Fuji with a very fun group and it was less about the lack of anything spectacular about the mountain (really not worth going unless you have good friends with you), and more about the people I was with. All that said, the most disappointing was that big museum in Paris (forget how to spell it, but the one with Mona Lisa). I would never take customers to someplace like that. Tokyo Disney was only good because our trip was paid for, but even still my young daughter liked everything about the trip better than Tokyo Disney itself. For me it was stupid, I was just running around getting “fast-passes” while my daughter and her mom are trying to see the parade with the snow princess, but can’t even get past the crowds to see it. Light parade we got lucky because we snuck past some security ropes, but people come and camp out from 10 am to get a front seat view. Same as some shopping center in Orlando run by Disney. It was the worst way to spend a rare evening with my parents and daughter, but it was “highly recommended” Now for the best. Deep sea fishing with the kids on a boat that takes us a couple miles offshore and we are guaranteed to catch something. (My daughter caught a shark). And not meant to be an advert, but the places I take people that are off the tourist areas. The reason I take them there is that I enjoy it myself and no crowds. Making soba noodles with a master soba noodle maker, making sushi with a sushi chef, planting rice, etc. I loved riding a motor scooter around rural Thailand where there were no crowds and backpackers. I did not like the famous temples of Thailand (or Japan).

Thankfully, we’ve been overwhelmed with awe and fascination during most of our world travels throughout this gorgeous planet. But every once in awhile, there’s a disappointment.

The remote sections of the Great Wall of China far from tourists, as well as the scenery it penetrates, surpass all expectations! And we obviously appreciate its staggering length and rich history.

But the touristy parts of the wall are pretty disappointing.

Switzerland is our favorite country to visit. And the town of Lauterbrunnen is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. During the summer, the stunning valley features a contrast of greenery and snow-capped mountains, with a lengthy waterfall.

But this town certainly changed since our first visit in 1985, overrun with tourists now.

In fact, it’s the train ride down into the valley that’s far more appealing than the town itself. These days, the nearby village of Wengen is much more picturesque from ground level than Lauterbrunnen, and far less touristy.

We love sitting in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan right at sunset, with the Statue of Liberty and the Colgate Clock in the distance.

But the base of Lady Liberty was underwhelming.

The Las Vegas Strip is one of the most visited places in the world. But we’ve never been overly impressed by it, and we don’t find flushing our money down the toilet (gambling) to be a worthwhile pastime.

Disney World combines the humidity of Florida with large crowds most of the year. Compared to the places we’ve been around the world, this manmade facility 250 times the size of Vatican City isn’t a destination we’ll ever go back to again.

Portland, Maine, is a popular tourist destination for Bostonians but many Americans are unimpressed with its high prices, overrated points of interest, and often abysmal weather.

Brazil has some incredibly mesmerizing scenery but the famed Copacabana (and most of Brazil) was surprisingly disappointing for us.

After traveling the entire Pacific Coast of the United States many times, beholding its stunning beauty every visit to Florida is a letdown for us.

And England’s Stonehenge is a complete bust in our opinion, ranked by many travel experts as the most disappointing tourist attraction in the world.

To be honest, Paris wasn’t overly impressive to me. I visited there in 2007 and we saw all the sights (Notre Dame, went up the Eiffel Tower, etc.), but the downtown area had a distinct odor of urine.

Also, I remember visiting the Eiffel Tower and there were a huge amount of Romanian Gypsies accosting tourists and asking them for money. They would all have a letter and they would give it to an unsuspecting tourist to read (including us). The letter would explain their problems (hungry, homeless, etc.) and ask for money. There were scores of them waiting on the greens near the Eiffel Tower, just waiting to pounce.

I’ll probably go back one day and my opinion may change, but I wasn’t overly impressed at all with Paris.

Yes, I took my wife and three daughters to Europe, we are from the western US so we were flying a good distance around the globe. We planned the vacation in the summer of 2018, but were not traveling until June 2019. One of the highlights in my mind was visiting Notre Dame. When I was 17 I had the pleasure of being an exchange student in Paris, I celebrated my 18th birthday there. I have a great picture of me standing next to one of the gargoyles on one of the towers of this incredibly beautiful cathedral.

Then two months before our trip the fire happened; hugely disappointing, and devastatingly sad. I felt so sorrowful for the people of Paris, and France in general. My family and I still spent a few hours walking around outside the fences around the cathedral. I very much wanted to get a picture of each one of my three daughters and my wife near that same gargoyle while my girls are still teens, and now I do not think that will be possible. I am 56, and I sincerely hope that I will be able to walk inside of Notre Dame restored in my life time.

I was incredibly disappointed after visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China. The whole experience was so fake to me, they pretend that a massive museum was built upon an excavation site and that they are still excavating and restoring the statues, but its all so fake. I recall foreign archaeological experts offered to help unearth the secrets when the discovery was first made but China barred them from visiting … the result is unfortunate. Everything is restored “too perfectly” … and the broken pieces even look fake.

In Xian you will find “Terracotta” warriors every where in front of stores etc .. these look exactly like the ones in the so-called “Tomb”.

If you are in China, I would much rather recommend “Longmen Grottos” near Luoyang where you will find an equally amazing site, but much less “molestered”. The Buddha statues are damaged, weathered, and many smashed and stolen … this is much more realistic and a much more awe inspiring site! (it’s a lot less expensive than Terracotta Warriors too!)

Three Sisters (Australia) It’s located in Australia. When I visted it I just took a picture and photo the scenery around it (not the Three Sisters) . Taking a photo of it is just difficult because you need a camera with a pretty big zoom. And going to the location is hard as it was a pretty steep road but I took the bus back then. Yes I know that it’s a natural rock formation well I mean it’s kinda cool that nature made this by herself but I find this Stone Forest in China more awesome sorry Australia.