Popular places you have no desire to visit

I did two work trips to India. I loved it and want to go back, although I understand why people don’t want to go.

I’m so tired of hearing about trips to Iceland, I have no desire to go now. I imagine it packed with annoying tourists thinking they’ve discovered some place new.

I’m checking off the Niagara Falls box in a couple of weeks. Planning to meet up with a former sj poster for lunch and a Maid of the Mist ride. We must be a couple of sheep.

 

In the U.S., Hawaii is probably one place I've been where I go back on occasion. I get to San Francisco from time to time because I have family and friends there.
I covered the National League in the '80s so I got all of those cities regularly, plus a few American League cities. I also did some NHL travel that I enjoyed. Being a Southern California beach boy, I just tried to make the best of snow -- playing in snow is a lot different than traveling in snow.
I've been to England and France a couple of times. Just found it touristy and expensive. We did get out of Paris and London, that was probably the best parts of those trips.
I have no desire to do anything in Asia, the Middle East, Africa or South America. Generally, if I can't speak the language, I don't want to go there. If they hate Americans, I don't want to go there.
Australia would probably be pretty cool. If we could go with a friend of mine who is married to an Aussie and lived in Sydney for many years, that would be terrific. But, she has unlimited funds, which would put us in an awkward position. And her husband has told me he is the only Aussie who doesn't drink, so no fun there.

 

When we took the Hearst Castle tour, I told my wife: "That's why I went into newspapers, so we could have a place like this some day."

 

Seven pages and no one has answered "Your mom's bed" yet? Are we growing up on this board or something? Disappointing.

 

It would've been worth it had I been able to meet Bjork.

One of the last things I did before heading to the airport was submit my SJ top 25 college football poll which was due that day.

 

This is my thinking. Had a bad experience on my one and only trip to Mexico -- a broken down car was the cause, but not being able to communicate certainly didn't help matters; it's probably a miracle I didn't end up cut into tiny pieces and left in a ditch somewhere -- and vowed then and there never to go anywhere they didn't speak English.
So England, Australia, Canada are all cool. Maybe even Japan, since I think it's westernized to some extent. But Mexico, South America, most of continental Europe ... nah. There are tons of places in the U.S. I'd love to see and might never get to.

As far as U.S. destinations, there aren't many. I'd love to visit California but San Francisco and Los Angeles have less and less appeal these days.
I've been to New York a few times, but have no real desire to go back. It's a little too big and overwhelming. Every time I've been there I've never been entirely sure where I'm going or how I got out.
New Orleans is another city I can take or leave nowadays. It's gotten incredibly sketchy in the last 10-12 years, to the point where it's way more scary than it is fun.

 

I enjoyed my vacation to New Zealand’s South Island more than my trips to Australia. I highly recommend it if you like outdoorsy stuff.

 

Just because it's a well-known tourist destination doesn't mean it can't still be fun and popular.

 

For a tourist, almost everyone you deal with in continental Europe speaks at last some English. Many speak flawless English. My daughter lives in France, is completely bilingual, and feels inferior because only speaking two languages is underachieving in Europe.

 

This is a true fact.

And @Amy, to echo an earlier poster's sentiments: Niagara on the Lake is much nice than Niagara Falls, the city. It's a lovely little village. But the Falls themselves never cease to amaze me. Took my kids on the boat last summer and they still talk about it. If you like golf, Legends is a fabulous course. And if you're an old-school hockey fan, Marcel Dionne has a diner in Niagara Falls and is hanging around most days, happy to chat. The poutine is heavy-duty good.

BlueLine Diner :: Official Website

 

We've talked about that flight before but if you ever do want to return to Cape Town, good news: United is starting the first direct flight from the States to Cape Town, supposedly early next year. They announced it few months ago but I haven't seen the official date. Going to fly out of Newark. It's going to make our annual trips there so much easier that I almost can't comprehend it. Still going to be a marathon but not having to worry about traipsing through Joburg after 16 hours on a plane, getting luggage, rechecking luggage, finding new gate and then having 2 more hours in the air is going to be life-changing. The only downside is that every time we fly there, we only take SAA because there is a seat in the second-to-last row that doesn't have a seat in front of it and I always pay 50 bucks more so I can have that one, so can totally stretch out. I will hate losing that seat if this direct to Cape Town thing works but willing to sacrifice it.

As for the original question, I know they have all kinds of things going for them, but both Portland and Seattle are places where I'm like, eh, not much desire to ever go there.