Travel disappointments and pleasant surprises
A discussion: tell me where you loved and where you didn't!
I wasn’t planning to post again this week but I’ve been thinking about travel all day today (I’m flying to Copenhagen tomorrow, writing a travel piece for a magazine as we speak and simultaneously trying to plan a holiday with my boyfriend and a trip away with my ma) so I thought I’d open it up as a discussion.
I haven’t been anywhere for a long time (believe it or not, my last beach holiday overseas was in 2017), so wanting to go everywhere means I can’t decide which destination to focus my efforts on. Greece, Portugal, France, Italy? Somewhere entirely different?
It’s hard to know where to start when there are so many options, especially when you’ve possibly seen some turquoise sea on an Instagram reel and decided to book a trip on that basis, but you didn’t see the 3,600 people sardining on the beach behind the person holding the camera.
I tried one of these ‘ask the audience’ type posts when I first joined Substack and had about 23 subscribers. Unsurprisingly, no one responded (OK, one person did) and I felt about as cool and relevant as you can imagine. In fact, it was so embarrassing that I archived it afterwards. If you follow me on Instagram though, you’ll know I *love* to crowdsource obscure information and ask people to send me their recommendations or opinions on things on everything from blenders to natural deodorant. Well, this is me doing that again.
My question is this:
Where have you been (anywhere in the world) that exceeded your expectations? And where have you been that didn’t live up to them?
I’ll tell you a couple of mine….
I’m sorry to say it but I’ve been to Berlin quite a few times now (a couple of friends lived there) and although the coffee and food scenes were good, I’ve always found it a bit depressing aesthetically and it hasn’t hit the spot for me. Other people seem to fall in love with it on the first visit and want to move there. I feel the same about Margate (a seaside town in the UK). Everyone seems to love it but I don’t feel the spark, for similar reasons to Berlin.
Antwerp – I loved it! It’s small and walkable, has a great design scene, so many good antique and vintage shops, a couple of cool hotels (I can suggest some if anyone is planning a trip?), beautiful architecture and the train station alone is worth getting the Eurostar for. It’s also cooler than Brussels in every way, yet it’s less hyped as a city break destination than its capital cousin.
I’ve also had great experiences in Marrakech and LA – both destinations that everyone predicted I’d hate (the hassle, the traffic) but that wasn’t my experience. I loved them and have been multiple times!