Popular places you have no desire to visit

I have family in northern Italy and have visited Venice several times. To me, the time of year you go makes a huge difference. I love the city but I will never go in July again. Much too hot/humid and crazy crowded.

My last trip there was June 2015. Going in June is perfect. It’s about 10-15 degrees cooler, the crowds were half of what they were in July. You could actually move around the city without touching people.

 

The worst Christmas I've ever spent was covering the fucking Russell Athletic Bowl between a 6-6 Virginia Tech team and fucking Rutgers of all people. I love college football, but that was a moment that I questioned my choice to ever get in the business to begin with.

 

We were there in March 2017. It was uncrowded and in the 60’s. You could eat anywhere. Walk anywhere. No waits. St Marks square was empty at night. A joy to visit and explore.

 

Great advice, since I'm getting ready to go a week from Friday. I'll be there for seven full days, so I did plan on doing one "tourist" day to try to knock all of that stuff off the list. But if I don't get to it all, I'll be fine. I want to take a few day trips by train while I'm there. Brighton and Wales are definitely on the list. Train travel does not seem that expensive at all over there.

 

A guy I know was going to cover a basketball game at UMass. Instead of flying into the nearest airport, which is 45 minutes away, he wanted to experience Boston and flew into Logan. He then got caught in Boston traffic and got to the game at halftime. His employer was not happy to pay flight, hotel and rental car for the dude to watch one half of a basketball game.

 

GPS makes a huge difference.

Even in Boston.

Helped out at a business event last year, and was directed with perfect accuracy to the basement loading dock entrance of the old(er) Convention Center on Boylston Street.

I have yet to visit an American city too complicated for a smartphone.

The walled cities of ancient Europe? Not so much.

 

Like @typefitter, I've been supremely lucky. I get to travel a lot.

Been many, many places and seen many, many things. So I had to think about this thread for a long time.

It'll sound weird, but there's no place I wouldn't go - or go back to - no matter how popular.

I disagree with skipping the landmarks and tourist hotspots, too. Especially if you're only ever going to see that place once. You just need to manage how you go about seeing them. I'd hate for people to visit my hometown, for example, and not see the things for which we're famous.

That said, having hit the the highlights, try to experience these places as a local might.

 

Finding the balance between "tourist hotspots," "off-the-track wandering," "planned out" and "whatever happens" is damn near impossible.

Best travel experience of my life: we stayed a night in a barn in the Swiss Alps late in the summer. They let the cows out of the barns in the summer and tourists can "sleep on straw." Most beautiful place I've ever been. (Photo attached, b/c they're favs & probably best ever.) Did some research to find it, but it was mostly a stab in the dark based off a few pictures on a website that looked like it was designed in 1998. Certainly not in any guidebook. Wasn't a single American name in the guestbook. Had to take a gondola to get to the farm, then walk 1/4 mile down a small gravel road to the barn.

We were eating at a small restaurant at the top of the gondola that evening, our group, three old Swiss men hiking through the region and the couple who owned it. One of the guys went out to smoke, then urged us to come outside and listen. All you could hear were cowbells rustling in the distance and bouncing off the mountains. Incredible, of course, but we'd heard it all day. "No, no, listen more," he said. Ok. And sure enough, WAAAAAYYY waaaay off in the mountains you could hear someone singing, a shepherd singing the nighttime blessings to his flock. The guy says, "You're lucky. We're Swiss and we've never even actually heard anyone do that."

I've worked very hard for similarly "authentic" experiences other times and places and, comparatively at least, struck out and wished I'd stayed at least a little more "on the path." Still, I haven't often regretted at least getting out of a city and into the countryside.

 

Trying to think of my least favorite places.

— I really didn't like Amsterdam. Too much traffic. Too many people on bikes on the bike paths, and then too many tiny cars and mopeds on the bike paths, too. I was constantly nervous and felt like I was always in the way, always 1 second from getting destroyed by a bike.

— The traffic in New Jersey outside NYC this weekend made me vow for the 10,000th time I could never live there. (My vows may not mean all that much, for better or worse.)

— I've had amazing and bla visits to Vegas. I remember standing in the piano bar at New York, New York. The room was divided. Half was standing room only, and was packed. The other half had tables and chairs and was abandoned. Not a single person. But, you had to pay $X per hour to sit down, so everyone smashed into the other side. Fuck that shit.

 

I've been to Seattle three times and can't think of a reason to go back to the city, though I love all the beauty that surrounds it.

I've flown in and out of Rome six times and I'm at the point of not wanting to spend any time in the city if I can help it. If I could go in whatever passes for the off season, when the tourists and traffic aren't overwhelming, then maybe I'd like it more.

Never been to Vegas, never once considered going to Vegas.

 

Popular place I don’t want to visit? Based on the last two months of golf, apparently the fairway...

But seriously, folks....

I’ve been fortunate to travel a bit the last 10 years. Haven’t had a bad experience yet. Try to learn just enough of the language to show you try/care. Basic phrases, menu ordering, pleasantries.

I would love to visit Egypt and we had plans a long time ago. Right now it’s a no-go.

Never been to London. I want to. I have a sister who adores it and a wife who hates it. Probably will get there at some point.

As for the U.S., I’ve never done the Pacific Northwest. Not opposed to it. But never really wanted to go.

We don’t visit the same place often. Except New Orleans. Just love it.

 

These pictures, which are lovely, make me feel bad for my vow never to return to Switzerland, which is one long, amoral chisel masquerading as a country. I forgot about that when I went on my tirade about Brazil. Switzerland is the Brazil of the north.