Boy, these responses are real eye-openers...great post Tat!

Forte dei Marmi, Italy. Yuck.

We only picked up a rental car in Monaco and drove away but I knew it wasnt somewhere I would want to hang out.

I am willing to give Paris another shot although I wasnt that impressed.

In USA I hate the midwest and most of Texas. I grew up there so I am allowed to say it.

I lived in TX for 2 long years-and will never go back if I can help it.

For those of you who mentioned Germany...could you elaborate? DH and I have it at the top of our list for our next trip overseas (we've been only to the UK)...along with Italy. I'm very curious to hear more about this!

I'm not sure about "never," but I am very unlikely to return voluntarily to Bulgaria.

"Tom, why Colmar?"

I just wrote about this on an Alsace-Lorraine post. My wife and I traveled in Alsace in the Fall. The Routes des Vins drive was gorgeous with one spectacular little town after another. The vineyards were gorgeous.

We almost stayed in Colmar in the Petit Venise area, but other posters on this Forum tralked me out of it, and I am SO glad they did. We stayed in Ribeauville instead, and it was a much nicer base.

I found Colmar to be the least quaint and least charming of any of the other Routes des Vins towns. I did not find it quaint or charming at all. The Petit Venise part was worn and ragged. The boats going through their faux canal looked like they could capsize any minute.

I had gone in '84 and was disappointed then, too. I chalked it up to being young and naive about the nuances of Europe. Upon further review, I (in my opinion) was right. To me, Colmar is very, very overrated. I would go back to Alsace, but never Colmar.

Without a doubt.....that stupid glass factory outside of Innsbruck Austria.

Spells something like Svaronski. Can't remember the correct spelling The biggest dissapointment I have ever heard visiting a tourist trap in Europe!!

Never is a long time but I will need major baksheesh or an inescapable business meeting to lure me into returning to:
Katowice, Poland - grime a go-go;
Frankfurt - no there there;
Lisbon - not until all the drivers have been re-educated;
Birmingham - see Frankfurt;
Brugge - been there, done that.

Of course you might disagree.

Gardyloo, I agree with you about Frankfurt and Birmingham. I have spent way too much time on business in both of them and found no reason to return.

I'll add St. Louis and Texas to my list too. Seattle almost makes my list but I have relatives there so I can't say never.

I racked my brain and can only come up with one spot: Waterford.

swalter518
SEATTLE ???
I live here and it ROCKS. Beautiful location with mountains and water all around. Diverse people and culture. I love Seattle.

Paris: Dog poop and prima-donna's.

Mexico.

In the States, Los Angeles, (what a horrid, posing, crime-ridden dump!)and when it comes to a condescending attitude how about Aspen, Breckenridge, and just about any place in Colorado.

I am sure there are many nice and friendly people in Germany and Austria. My experience, however,of the Germans and Austrians I met, as well as waiters, bank clerks, etc. was that they were quite unfriendly, often quite anti-American. Smiles are rare. Such dour people.

Ones I met personally liked lecturing about "what's wrong in America." As a guest in their country I politely disagreed and would try to change the subject.

Yet Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Haydn offer something of a redemption, at least a reminder, that at one time civility flourished in Germany and Austria.

Powell, we had a similar experience in southern Germany, Lindau to be specific. And "dour" was exactly the word I found myself using to describe the people we came in contact with. Couldn't even get a smile out of a waitress in a cafe!

that is such a hard question. I think the only place I've been to that I wouldn't want to return is the Florida Keys (with the exception of Key West but I wouldn't travel just to go there). Oh and Mazatlan Mexico.

Given the choice between Frankfurt,and Texas,I'll take Frankfurt.At least you can get great beer there.

Ani -

To reply to your question: I had a different experience with the Germans. Maybe I had low expectations, but I found the Germans to be more polite than many Europeans. They are more formal than we are, and I guess that could be interpreted as arrogant. They seem to be more cautious of strangers as well.

I thought (insert IMHO here) that the Germans on the whole were more helpful and/or friendly than the Dutch, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Finns, the French, the Russians, the Brits, the Austrians, and whatever the heck you call those Belgians. The only people I found to be more friendly are the Danes.

I should disclose that my great-grandfather is German, but he left Germany for the U.S. vowing to never return.

Interlaken and (in the US) Key West.

Guys: Just returned from Germany and Austria and found 99% of people - wait persons, clerks, people on the street - to be wonderful! Very cheerful, charming and helpful - this was late October 2003 - could that make any difference? People constantly and graciously helped us in both countries -when our car broke down, when we got lost, when we had stupid questions.

I am a nice, friendly sort but I know from reading this board that a lot of you are, too, so I don't get the disparity of experience. If it makes any difference, I was in Bavaria most of the time in Germany and in Salzburg, Linz, Durnstein and Vienna in Austria.

The place I did find a few semi-unfriendly folks was Bratislava though the people in the Slovakian countryside were extremely nice if a little depressed. I probably would not go back there but am glad I did it once.