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Most boring places you've visited

snowstorm445

While we're all reminiscing about places we'd like to go back to after COVID subsides, is there anywhere you've been to that you found totally forgettable?

My own contender is Hannover in Germany - stopped there once out of curiosity on the way from Amsterdam to Berlin and I was pretty familiar with the name from history etc. Apart from an impressive city hall, and some nice palace gardens outside the city (pretty modest by German standards though), it was basically just filled with shopping streets. A few Germans I've talked to since told me it's a big hub for people travelling around Germany by train, but there's pretty much nothing there. And like a lot of German cities, it's historic parts were gutted by bombing in the war, and only some reconstructed facades remain.

Closer to home, I was in Sligo for the first time about two years ago. The county is lovely (Ben Bulben, Strandhill etc.) but Sligo town is pretty unremarkable tbh. Not shockingly boring, but not very memorable either. Plenty of Midland towns have a reputation for being fairly forgettable as well, but then that's fairly well known. :pac:

Any other nominations?

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Tony EH

Florence.

Without a doubt the most boring place I've been to. Once you get the Duomo, Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio off of the list, it's as dull as dishwater.

Naples.

Edgy and dangerous at night. There's a great museum of Roman statues in the city and outside you have Pompeii and Herculaneum. It's a short hop to the islands too. But Napoli itself...ugh.

San Francisco.

Not so "boring" as much as it's an awful shitehole. It's a horrible place and the homeless everywhere just reinforces everything that wrong with America. The only thing I got any interest out of was the Pompano.

Strumms

Brian? wrote: »

I had to spend 6 hours in Holyhead once. Ended up parking the car in the ferry port and falling asleep. Hole of a place.

The US: Albuquerque

Europe: Brussels

I don’t think you’ll ever see or hear a comment regarding Holyhead along the lines of... “ we need to come back next year, a unique, enlightening and fun experience “. A very strange, dullsville dump of a place.

Das Reich

Cairo. It have the traffic and the grey air very polluted that gives you just few hundreds metres of visibility, very dirty and there is no sight of any woman. I had lived in Rio de Janeiro which I (and any Brazilian) consider a sh*t place to be, but Cairo it just like Rio but only with the favelas and no rich areas. If there is any city in the world worse than Cairo please type here.

Ger Roe

Tony EH wrote: »

Naples.

Edgy and dangerous at night. There's a great museum of Roman statues in the city and outside you have Pompeii and Herculaneum. It's a short hop to the islands too. But Napoli itself...ugh.

I had forgotten about Naples, probably deliberately. Took a train trip there once from a holiday base at Sorrento and found it to be a total dump. Dirty streets and buildings and a bad feeling about the place. Straight out of the train station there were two dead rats on the kerb and rubbish blowing gently down the street. All I saw was an impression of neglect and disinterest in the place.

I had heard the phrase, 'see Naples and die'... so I got out before it might have happened.

[Deleted User]

Tony EH wrote: »

San Francisco.

Not so "boring" as much as it's an awful shitehole. It's a horrible place and the homeless everywhere just reinforces everything that wrong with America. The only thing I got any interest out of was the Pompano.

Have to disagree with you on this one. I’ve been to San Francisco many times and always have a blast. Certainly, the homeless situation is appalling and Market Street is a disgrace as the main downtown artery.

However, it’s a great city to go for very long walks. The uniqueness of each neighborhood creates a very vibrant patchwork of urban villages. You have places like the Marina (rich, white, preppy) vs. Chinatown vs. Haight Ashbury (hippy) vs. the Mission (Latino) vs. the Castro (gay). It’s fascinating to just wander around and people watch.

One of my favourite things to do there is to rent bicycles in North Beach, cycle across the Golden Gate, stop for lunch in Sausalito, and finally get the ferry back to SF from Tiburon. It’s a great way to spend a day out there.

Das Reich

Ger Roe wrote: »

I had forgotten about Naples, probably deliberately. Took a train trip there once from a holiday base at Sorrento and found it to be a total dump. Dirty streets and buildings and a bad feeling about the place. Straight out of the train station there were two dead rats on the kerb and rubbish blowing gently down the street. All I saw was an impression of neglect and disinterest in the place.

I had heard the phrase, 'see Naples and die'... so I got out before it might have happened.

I find strange that some people goes there without knowing its reputation among Italians. Saying that Naples is dirty and danger, who doesn't know that? The interesting things are all around, the islands of Ischia, Procida and Capri, the towns destroyed by the 79 a.d. eruption, the Vesuvio, Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano... But Naples?

[Deleted User]

Naples is the only city in Europe I’ve felt genuinely unsafe in. Absolutely fantastic food though.

MyLove4Satan

Deleted User wrote: »

Id say a tourist could get a good two authentic days out of dublin

But you will find that most cities are the same. Not everywhere can be New York, Paris or Hong Kong.

Dublin provides what one expects from a city that size.

alchemist33

Hibernicis wrote: »

Not this one ?

I went to that one too!

MyLove4Satan

A lot of Italian cities if you take away the history/culture are fairly bleak places. I love Turin. It is a city about the size of Dublin with incredible architecture in the shadow of the Alps. But after 7PM it literally becomes a ghost town. Like an actual switch is turned off. I see the same in so many Italian cities.

alchemist33

tommybrees wrote: »

Anybody been to FIJI?
Time seems to stand still

Second last leg on a round-the-world trip and while I didn't expect to enjoy being on an island a mile long with electricity for only four hours a day, I actually learned to like the peace and quiet, chatting with the handful of other tourists, playing touch rugby with the locals. But certainly not a place for excitement.

Das Reich

The Eagles wrote: »

Dangerous how? Mafia types or 'new Europeans' hanging around?

Its a poor city that always had a lack of jobs so very tiny proportion of "new europeans", the scumbags there are all natives.

hahashake

Nightlife is very subjective. Like, you were there one weekend and didn't know where to go + were with boring people so therefore the city is dull. I've had great nights out in mediocre cities and vice versa. At least cultural aspects or activities/scenery are a little more objective.

Mimon

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I didn't really "get" Amsterdam either.

When weather is nice, great spot to sit out and drink coffee/beer.

Mimon

Gavlor wrote: »

Great thread!

Rotterdam in the winter is the answer. Misery.

Leeds on a Sunday evening is up there too.

You could say that about anywhere, Liverpool or Rome

[Deleted User]

Mimon wrote: »

You could say that about anywhere, Liverpool or Rome

That's true, because Rotterdam is anywhere.

Brian?

gmisk wrote: »

Toronto is a fantastic city tonnes to do, good shopping, amazing food, good bars, sound people, baseball, football etc. Literally one of my favourite cities I have been too. Good day trips as well to places like Niagara Falls/Niagara on the lake. I don't think a stopover for a night gives you much of a flavour of a place as big as Toronto.

Totally agree with you on Vienna though.

My missus is from near Toronto, I’ve had plenty of experience of the place. Terrible public transport, jammed with traffic and a frozen hellhole in winter.

I’m too angry to be bored when I’m there though, I’ll give it that.

Thelonious Monk

Mimon wrote: »

You could say that about anywhere, Liverpool or Rome

why did you have to remind me that song happened :mad:

Rustyman101

yeah leeds of a Sunday, came back into the city from a gamefair on the outskirts, hit the city bout 7 ,thought there was a bomb scare, place was deserted ! end up in an irish club, like somebody's wedding from the 70s , good craic, advice dont do Sunday's in England or NI.

Gradius

Most of the popular cities, and just about all American cities, are bore-fests. Oh look, a Starbucks, gee whiz, a MacDonald's, a Chinese takeaway, an Indian shop, an Irish pub. Wowsers!

For all the proclamations on "diverse places", they sure end up being homogenous, indistinguishable black holes of interest.

Come to think of it, the word "diverse", as in relation to divergence, means a separation of one thing from another. How in the fook it came to mean the complete opposite is quite amazing

The Nal

Gradius wrote: »

Most of the popular cities, and just about all American cities, are bore-fests. Oh look, a Starbucks, gee whiz, a MacDonald's, a Chinese takeaway, an Indian shop, an Irish pub. Wowsers!

For all the proclamations on "diverse places", they sure end up being homogenous, indistinguishable black holes of interest.

topnotch

Dav010 wrote: »

Holyhead, possibly the worst town I have ever been.

I found Boston a bit of a letdown, but I was living in NY at the time so it was pale by comparison.

I was also very disappointed with Boston.

Aurelian

Brian? wrote: »

My missus is from near Toronto, I’ve had plenty of experience of the place. Terrible public transport, jammed with traffic and a frozen hellhole in winter.

I’m too angry to be bored when I’m there though, I’ll give it that.

This is very subjective! I thought Toronto was a great buzz plenty to see during the day and lots of different neighbourhoods, restaurants etc to visit at night.

Thought just walking around downtown in the evening was a good buzz and no menace!

Gradius

The Nal wrote: »

Yes, I'm sure "partying" to some means going to carbon-copy places. Thrilling.

What is actually interesting is seeing and experiencing how distinct groups of people live differently from you.

Don't party too hard in Starbucks in who-gives-a-fook now

Balmed Out

Das Reich wrote: »

Cairo. It have the traffic and the grey air very polluted that gives you just few hundreds metres of visibility, very dirty and there is no sight of any woman. I had lived in Rio de Janeiro which I (and any Brazilian) consider a sh*t place to be, but Cairo it just like Rio but only with the favelas and no rich areas. If there is any city in the world worse than Cairo please type here.

I have only been in a handful of Brazilian cities but quite like Rio. Great surf and the city is set in an amazing location. Other cities like Sao Paulo may have better restraunts and more urban neighbourhoods but Rio is not somewhere id regret visiting.
Cairo, ok the pollution is awful and its over 20 years since i have been. We spent a few days between trips east, west and south but the bones of 2 weeka in cairo itself. I loved it. Ive travelled a fair bit and it was the first non western country ive been to but to this day always seems the most foriegn and interesting place I've visited, felt a little like some sort of alien world from a sci-fi. It was pre 9/11 and apparently visiting it is very different since but how anyone could describe it as boring is beyond me.

Melanchthon

The Eagles wrote: »

Budapest. Very nice city to look at but didn't seem to be much of a nightlife. Bars were dead and the only action going were the clipper joint scam girls. Maybe I just unlucky?

Second night I was there I went back to the hotel early. Called up a prostitute and had a decent ride so the weekend wasn't a total washout.

Whatever about the other places people have listed , Budapest has a cracking nightlife and it's on the list to go back too again (3rd/4th time). Start the evening in one of the wine bars, find a music or rock bar at midnight, drink till 3am. In the morning hit the Turkish baths to recover yourself.

[Deleted User]

I don't think you were in Budapest pet. You couldn't possibly have missed the nightlife

The Nal

Gradius wrote: »

Yes, I'm sure "partying" to some means going to carbon-copy places. Thrilling.

What is actually interesting is seeing and experiencing how distinct groups of people live differently from you.

Don't party too hard in Starbucks in who-gives-a-fook now

I've never been in Starbucks. Easy to avoid.

If you cant find diversity and something interesting and different to do in "Most of the popular cities, and just about all American cities" (billions of people) I think - and no offence like - its you that may be the bore rather than the cities.

completedit

I find it so hard to engage with cities I visit. I tend to just drift through not really immersing myself. Some people just have more conducive personalities to get the most out of travelling.

Lesalare

topnotch wrote: »

I was also very disappointed with Boston.

So was I. But I think it has a reputation of not being the most exciting place on earth.