Underrated places to visit

Seville is a beautiful place, really wonderful cafe culture and much nice than Barcelona.

HBC08

Weepsie wrote: »

I also liked busan, but in general I just loved korea. 2 weeks was not remotely enough time there.

Porto also mentioned above is great. All doable on foot too really and a bit less busy than lisbon.

The whole of west cork is underrated. It's everything that kerry is but without the vast number of americans and I hope it stays that way. Roads are in rag order though.

I lived in Korea for nearly 10 years.Its a great country and id highly recommend for a visit.Busan is the 2nd city (although Incheon has recently overtaken it in terms of size) its a lot more rough and ready than Seoul and bizarrely theres a big russian population down there,its also a port city with lots of ships docking there including military carriers and all the madness that can include.

HeidiHeidi

Agree with a poster earlier about Utrecht - has all the charm and bustle of Amsterdam, without the big city feel. I loved it (about 30 years ago!!)


My big one for this thread is Ethiopia. It's all gone a bit pear-shaped over there at the moment, so definitely not one for immediately post-lockdown - but if the civil situation settles down (hopefully it will soon) there's a guy over there has set up a community tourist initiative in the north in the Simien mountains, guided trekking in the uplands and valleys - and it's really the most extraordinary holiday - you have a local guide and luggage porters (donkey men!) you sleep in purpose built little compounds in the most spectacular locations - all the money goes first to the communities to try and diversify them away from dependence on subsistence agriculture.


Luxury it most certainly is not, but I cannot recommend it as an experience highly enough! I've been twice, and can't wait to get back again.



And coincidentally, there was an article in the Examiner last weekend about it!


https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/travel/arid-40265270.html?fbclid=IwAR0fgxMCWSnFxpUCNJNxtWZIGf7IrIRK0DooBkjYW-fQs2wjhTF9vsDbiiY

Church on Tuesday

Mad_maxx wrote: »

County Mayo

beautiful scenery ( Louisburgh is as good as anything neighbouring galway has to offer ) , friendly people , long drives between towns , interesting coastline

Westport is a cracking town for its size

mariaalice wrote: »

Wales, we have has fabulous holiday there if you are the type that likes country pubs, history, senary, castles, hiking and just pottering around its for you. For me personality, I would avoid a lot of the coast except for Portmeirion.

Caernarfon Castle, Bodnant gardens there is loads to do.

We stayed in a posh restaurant with rooms for one night on a dinner bnb package and in Airbnb and the rest of the time the Airbnb had a hot tub on a balcony overlooking a river, car hire is cheap as well. We flew into Manchester and did it that way.

Chester is fabulous as well.

Westport punches well above it's weight, sad to see it so quiet these days though. Mayo has always been something of an underrated gem.


Agree on Chester, very interesting charming town.

FrankN1

+1 for Sligo also.

cashback

Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Beautiful city that mainly seems to get domestic tourists. Great restaurants, walkable, amazing architecture.

And 2 euro a pint.

Church on Tuesday

FrankN1 wrote: »

+1 for Sligo also.

The county yes, the town... not so much.

humberklog

cashback wrote: »

Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Beautiful city that mainly seems to get domestic tourists. Great restaurants, walkable, amazing architecture.

And 2 euro a pint.

Is there much of a museum there regarding WW2 and in particular the '41 Pogrom?*


*If you're sensitive then don't Google it.

Das Reich

bubblypop wrote: »

Serbia committed genocide to their fellow former Yugoslavia neighbours.
They stopped Kosovan Albanians from speaking their language, closed Albanian schools, threw Kosovans out of all government and civil service positions, threw them out of the police. Did not allow the teaching of any Albanian history of culture.
That's how they are like the English.
What is 'your loved Turks ' about?

Weak arguments. If you talking about the genocides against Germans and Hungarians in Voivodina and Italians in Istria that's was in the end of WWII and you must be very partial if you think Serbians also didn't suffer from the war. If you talking about the 90's, same thing here, a lot of Serbian civilians were killed and expelled from their homes. Shame the EU did leave USA to bomb Serbia and making things even more worse. USA took advantage of the weak Yeltsin government to create caos on Balkanic and destroy a former USSR ally. What else you want to blame Serbians for? Killing the prince of Austria and create the WWI?

cashback

humberklog wrote: »

Is there much of a museum there regarding WW2 and in particular the '41 Pogrom?*


*If you're sensitive then don't Google it.

Not sure about museums but do recall seeing some memorials.
Had a walk around the Jewish area as part of a free walking tour.

joe40

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Westport punches well above it's weight, sad to see it so quiet these days though. Mayo has always been something of an underrated gem.


Agree on Chester, very interesting charming town.

I would not call westport underrated, it is very popular with hotel prices to match.

I do think north Mayo is underrated. DownPatrick head sea stack is stunning and I really enjoyed a visit to the ceide fields.
I don't think either would be that well known.

alias no.9

seenitall wrote: »

Lol as far as

Sorry, I’m sure you had a fab time, it’s just that distance is about the same as Cork to Waterford, half a day’s drive max but more like a couple of hours, so that got me a bit but it sounds like you stopped off plenty to admire the scenery and eat well so good for you!

So yeah, on that note, that peninsula, Istria, is quite underrated in international tourism terms (if it’s Croatia, it has to be Dubrovnik, right?), it’s gorgeous with medieval little towns perched on hills and the standard beautiful coastline, and gastronomically blessed (especially if you like good wines, and truffles...). The Roman amphitheatre in Pula is one of the best preserved ones overall, and is good for concerts.

It's not about the distance, there's more than enough there to spend a week doing the journey and it's very much overlooked by irish tourists.

FrankN1

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Westport punches well above it's weight, sad to see it so quiet these days though. Mayo has always been something of an underrated gem.


Agree on Chester, very interesting charming town.

Westport is very nice, much better than Castlebar.

Das Reich

Das Reich wrote: »

Weak arguments. If you talking about the genocides against Germans and Hungarians in Voivodina and Italians in Istria that's was in the end of WWII and you must be very partial if you think Serbians also didn't suffer from the war. If you talking about the 90's, same thing here, a lot of Serbian civilians were killed and expelled from their homes. Shame the EU did leave USA to bomb Serbia and making things even more worse. USA took advantage of the weak Yeltsin government to create caos on Balkanic and destroy a former USSR ally. What else you want to blame Serbians for? Killing the prince of Austria and create the WWI?

Should have known a poster with your username would be sympathetic to countries committing genocide.
I don't know what your problem is, but your posts are way off topic.
It seem weird that you, a Brazilian, would get upset by me, an Irish woman, because I like a city, Istanbul, in Turkey! Or because I don't feel particularly sympathetic to Serbia, who murdered thousands of people in the Balkans.

I'll leave it at that. Please leave me alone from here.

Muahahaha

cashback wrote: »

Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Beautiful city that mainly seems to get domestic tourists. Great restaurants, walkable, amazing architecture.

And 2 euro a pint.

Was in Lviv a few years back and yeah it is an absolutely beautiful city, even more so than its neighbour Krakow imo. We got a train there from Krakow which was an experience in itself, especially the Ukrainian border crossing.

The architecture in Lviv is top class, its like an open air museum. There are statues of lions absolutely everywhere there, at the entrances to buildings, above doorways, etc. The symbol of the city is a lion and on the coat of arms so every building follows that with their own statue of a lion.

Charles Babbage

Muahahaha wrote: »

Was in Lviv a few years back and yeah it is an absolutely beautiful city, even more so than its neighbour Krakow imo. We got a train there from Krakow which was an experience in itself, especially the Ukrainian border crossing.

The architecture in Lviv is top class, its like an open air museum. There are statues of lions absolutely everywhere there, at the entrances to buildings, above doorways, etc. The symbol of the city is a lion and on the coat of arms so every building follows that with their own statue of a lion.

Lviv is one of the most beautiful central Europe cities, a jewel of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which is now a bit cut off in Eastern Europe. It also has its own beer.

Witchie

Bali is overrated but some of the smaller islands around it are wonderful. The Gillis and Nusa Lembongan are a refuge from the mainland. I prefer Nusa as it's a less harrowing boat ride.

Also love my chosen home of Kuala Lumpur which gets dismissed as just a stopover place or for business. It's a great spot.

Sir Lanka doesn't get enough praise. Train ride through the mountains from Kandy to Ella, National Parks galore and some stunning beaches. Like a less crazy, cleaner India.

Someone mentioned Den Haag and I have to agree. Much overshadowed by Amsterdam but a much nicer city. Scheveningen Beach holds great memories for me. Bought my debs dress in a 1950's vintage shop there, fell in love with a Kosovar refugee during the war in the region and the first abroad holiday my kids had. Maduradam was where as an innocent 10 year old I was flashed by a lad not much older but still didn't ruin it for me. The museums, culture, dinner on the pier...wonderful place

bb1234567

This thread is really getting me worked up for travelling after the pandemic! Some great suggestions

Charles Babbage

Witchie wrote: »

Sir Lanka doesn't get enough praise. Train ride through the mountains from Kandy to Ella, National Parks galore and some stunning beaches. Like a less crazy, cleaner India.

+1. India is interesting, but is a bit full on. Sri Lanka gives you something of the same part of the world without continuous challenge.

cashback

Muahahaha wrote: »

Was in Lviv a few years back and yeah it is an absolutely beautiful city, even more so than its neighbour Krakow imo. We got a train there from Krakow which was an experience in itself, especially the Ukrainian border crossing.

The architecture in Lviv is top class, its like an open air museum. There are statues of lions absolutely everywhere there, at the entrances to buildings, above doorways, etc. The symbol of the city is a lion and on the coat of arms so every building follows that with their own statue of a lion.

Definitely. I loved Krakow but Lviv felt fairly undiscovered in comparison.

We arrived there from Copenhagen. Spent four or five days and I would happily have spent longer. Then took a train to Budapest, stopping for a night in another Ukrainian town called Mukachevo. Great trip.

MyLove4Satan

Malta. The small island nation literally has everything. Great people and food and the history wow! Some of the most ancient buildings on earth.

intp1990

Cool to hear good reports about Lviv. I am planning to visit there when I can.

Montage of Feck

I'm going to have to go somewhere mad and off the beaten track after the pandemic.

HeidiHeidi

MyLove4Satan wrote: »

Malta. The small island nation literally has everything. Great people and food and the history wow! Some of the most ancient buildings on earth.

I second this. Valetta is just the most gorgeous town! I could sit and look at Grand Harbour alone for a week.

Shiok

Taiwan

Well known obviously, yet Taipei is more often than not overlooked in favour of other cities in Asia. Fab food & night markets, diverse history, beautiful scenic mountains, gorges & lakes.

Antwerp in Belgium is a nice hidden gem I really like. Diamond district, very strong Dutch influence as well.

FrankN1

Carlingford

Sleepy

My votes are really just places I visited that I never expected to be as good as they were:

Plymouth - beautiful coastline and a lot of Naval history

Maastricht - only spend a night there but had a great time

Vienna - mentioned multiple times in the "over-rated" thread but I had a blast there - where else could you see the opening night of the Russian State Ballet's Nutcracker for €5? Wonderful city to just wander around.

Hvar - small island off the coast of Split in Croatia that may well be ruined by tourism now (I'd love to know if it has been?) but it was an absolute paradise when I visited a decade ago.

VG31

Sleepy wrote: »

Vienna - mentioned multiple times in the "over-rated" thread but I had a blast there - where else could you see the opening night of the Russian State Ballet's Nutcracker for €5? Wonderful city to just wander around.

I think most people who think Vienna is overrated are the type of people who like nights out when they're away. Which is fair enough, but Vienna is definitely not a suitable destination for that kind of holiday.

rossie1977

County Leitrim.

Carrick on Shannon is one the best towns its size in the country and far superior weekend spot and makes much better use of its location than its much larger southern sister Athlone.

Ballinamore festival blows away any other around this area of the country like it.

You have Glencar waterfall, Shannon erne waterway. Maybe try to be only seventh person in recorded history to ascend Eagles Rock..