BootsnAll Travel Community

So what's the most overrated place you've been to?

I reckon mine would be Washington D.C. It was a big disappointment and I doubt I'd go back

Las Vegas. The plastic fantastic.
Talk about a city without a soul.....

Los Angeles - from the palm trees, beaches and beverly hills of the media to the dirty, souless, characterless reality.

Sorry dragon_ian_uk, I liked Vegas :-) This is a very personal/subjective question, but I went to Vegas knowing its rep, and without gambling once, was able to spend a few days watching shows like Cirque Du Soleil, seeing things like 3D Imax and over-the-top architecture, eating cheap huge meals, and be entertained.

I really only used it as a base. I really went for the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam (strange I didn't know they made dams I thought they just made vacuum cleaners...) and Black rock canyon.

I stayed at "Excalibur" which was fun in it's own way. As for the food, I managed to almost put myself off eating, those huge buffets.... i started having icecream with sprinkles for breakfast just because it was there !!

I did enjoy the big shot on top of the Stratosphere !!

Overrated? Florida, with the exception of the southern part. What's all the fuss about? Some mouse with big black ears? Mice are meant to run around my house and scare my girlfriends.

I love Miami though and I spent New Years into the millenium on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation...

Vegas was a one-time great thing for me...

I saw three nights of Phish, stuffed myself at every opportunity (Alladin buffet was SO good!), watched the ESPN Zone turn into Roger Rabbit land thanks to some dried fungal variety in a plastic bag and did the Stratosphere thing.

I have no interest in going back though. It's just something nice to do when you're 22 years old... then never do it again.

I agree with Ian, i found Las Vegas really Over rated...
but i dont think this is las vegas's fault.. i think its just the way that movies embellish it and stuff!
but the most UNDER rated place i have been is Basel, Switzerland! forget Zurich and Geneva, Basel is the coolest place ever! i went to school there for 2 years and it was the best 2 years of my life!

I can admit that Florida sucks..parts of it do at least...but when you only go to the major jaunts of it youre not seeing the best part which are the lesser known towns off the beaten path..

I hate to say it but Bangkok was prob. the most overrated city I went to. It was just one big mall to me...a mall with a lot of creepy live sex shows. I LOVED northern and southern Thailand...but I doubt if I go back I'll spend more then 1 day in the sweltering pollution that was Bangkok. (I did enjoy the royal palace in the capitol but that was about it)

Los Angeles. I was utterly, utterly disappointed. It was so dirty and barren and lifeless. I just felt this tired, sad atmosphere.

But I guess my disappointment also may have had a lot to do with the fact that I was only 15 at the time and it was my first visit to a foreign city. The only other exposure I'd had to LA was through movies and the media - which does wonders for its reputation but the city itself just can't deliver.

Loved San Francisco on the other hand. Strange that a city so close can be a thousand times more charming (to me, anyway).

Vegas overrated? Who ever rated it highly? I mean, my God, where did you think you were going? It is EXACTLY what it's portrayed to be.

And yeah, LA-bashers....what a surprise...here we go again....

Not the first Travis: do you like LA? If so, please tell me why.

I'm not having a go at you - I'd love to hear different opinions about it. Like I said, I was there when I was 15, and in a school tour group <shudder>.

Catch,

No, I don't like LA. (And I used to live there....and I would never again.) But it's a very easy punching bag that I get tired of hearing people punch who don't know it beyond the "surface". And, frankly, you were fifteen on your trip. No offense. Older people punch it also, and for good reason.

It IS a shithole of urban sprawl....

BUT...

There ARE some great things in that BIGGIGANTSHITHOLE.....and unless you know where they are....and are with a local guide....you'll never see the good stuff.

I just get tired of people saying "it's that" when LA is actually an amazing melting pot with everything.

And it is WAY more vibrant--in its whole shitholekindaway--than the provincial tightass town of San Francisco.

NTF Travis

Funny how most of these are North American cities. Mine is no different.

I've heard about New York City my whole life. It's people vibrant and alive. It's nightlife exuberant and varied. It bands together in adversity. Hell, it successfully weathered not one but TWO movie tidal waves!

But it's just a city and just as uninteresting as every other city. Sure you can go eat in the same seat where Meg Ryan faked an orgasm. You can walk in Central Park. Go see live music in Brooklyn. From this outsiders point of view, it's all just tourist stuff. My guess is you have to live there to know it well.

D

I agree with several of the above posts. Vegas is exactly what it is. It can be a lot of fun. LA is a really cool place if you are not in downtown Watts. I'm really surprised that many infrequent bootsnall travelers don't like LA. To me, it is a thousand times more fun than any of the other "must see" US cities. (except maybe San Diego)

For me, with all the hype about the Caribbean, I was extremely disappointed with St. Kitts and Nevis. What an absolutely godawful place. I,ll never go back there, or to Florida unless someone's paying me.

Exactly. You have to live there.

I've lived in both NYC and LA. And I would never choose to live in either again. But they both have great things to offer, as long as you've been there long enough to know where they are. (And know what to avoid.)

That said....I really do think they are both SHITHOLES and try to avoid them as much as possible. But "over-rated"? That's a different question.

To all the San Francisco fans who are about to jump down my throat....please don't.

NTF Travis

Surfers Paradise - bloody awful place full of idiots with too much time on their hands and not enough interest to find something better to do

I agree about Surfers, but it still isn't as bad as Tijuana. What an armpit!! It has everything bad about the US mixed in with poverty, crime and 19-year-old college kids out on the piss.

I agree with Florida (Flat as hell the highest point is 300 feet,hot/humid,bland) Vegas also
which is trying to be Venice,Paris etc.I have even heard some people say I'd rather go to
the Venetian than Venice! Pisa, skip the leaning tower,It's a tower it leans who cares.
I wish i could get another 5 million people to agree with you about Los Angeles.I wouldn't live here if I had to drive on Freeways to get to work or wasn't close to the ocean.

I went to LA with my family 5 years ago and thought it was... OK. We did the touristy stuff, and that was about it.

When I went again this year I wasn't expecting much so hardly spent any time there, but even walking around (in LA!?) I found a cool (if don't-take-your-camera-out-if-you-want-to-keep-it) Hispanic district (the Jewelry district I think) and Japantown.

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10

THE INCA TRAIL!!!

At between $200-$300 for a nice 3 day walk this has to be the most over touristed, over priced, over rated destination that I have ever visited.

It must be absolutely amazing for anyone who has done no hiking at all but for someone who has done quite a bit .... it's just a very nice trek (far from untouched) ---> nothing more nothing less!