A few people above have mentioned Luxembourg, without saying whether they meant the country of Luxembourg or the capitol Luxembourg City. Yes, the country is tiny, but there is a difference.

I agree that Luxembourg City isn't very exciting. I would have no desire to return, either. However, I visited a couple of little towns in Luxembourg and found the hilly countryside very beautiful and the towns adorable. Vianden has a cute castle above the town. I imagine it's touristy in good weather in season (I went in May in the rain) but it seems like the kind of quaint town many would enjoy for a chill vacation. I hope to return to Luxembourg someday to see more of the towns - in better weather!

I'll try anything twice. Really I will.

But not Cesky Krumlov.

I can't really think of a place where I had such a bad time that I'd never go again. I do have places that I wouldn't feel the need to revisit- Olympia and Delphi in Greece; Hadrians wall (or at least the portion I saw), Alnwick, probably not Sorrento area, or the areas of Germany Ive already been (Cologne, Heidelberg, Baden Baden). Most of the places i dont feel the need to revisit are on the smaller side and I felt like I saw what I wanted. On the other hand, I love big, busy cities and would love to revisit London, Rome, Madrid, and even Athens.

Lourdes, France. I found the sight of all the pilgrims depressing. We couldn't leave fast enough!

We had a similiar experience at Fatima, where pilgrims crawled on their knees seeking what I guess is a cure, forgiveness, or a sign of devotion.

Big Al..we had a disastrous experience in one of the two paradors in Santillana del Mar, obviously made the wrong choice. Terrible room and meals. It's the only bad parador experience we've ever had, the others have been wonderful.

Without a doubt Blackpool, England tops my list.

Ludicrous lights shaped into teapot shapes on the lamp posts, cold tourists huddled in anoraks and blankets upon the wet sand, forlorn donkeys standing on the beach, a pathetic attempt at an Eiffel Tower (Why? It's already been done and 100 years before too!) and of course the TV show we'd seen the night before in our hotel in Chester about how the main sewage discharge pipe for Blackpool was... you have probably guessed it... right off the main beach.

I wouldn't even stop the car but fled town in horror and headed to the Lake District. My wife really wanted me to stop so she could buy a gag "Kiss Me Quick" hat but she had to go without!

HappyTrvlr; What Parador in Santillana del Mar? We are in the Gill Blas for one night.

Madrid--I was a chaperone on a high school trip there. Half the kids, one other chaperone and I got food poisoning. The hotel staff gave some people polite treatment and others condescending. They accused a room of quiet girls of breaking a doorknob and refused to let us go until we paid $95 in damage fees. (This was over forty years ago so $95 was a hefty fee.) My memory of the city was of a sterile place.

I might go back if someone else were paying the freight, and I've learned to never say, "Never." But I would not choose to go back.

There are a few other places that are low on my list of want to return. But I have found something wonderful about every place I've been. Of course there are so many places I haven't been that I am sort of selective about where I return.

I research like crazy so don't have any major disappointments. That being said:
Siena was larger than I expected and once was enough
carmel - lovely but again, been there, done that
Rome - great sites but just not my town; however, I have to fly there and back on my upcoming trip to Tuscany so we will be spending our last night there
Brussels - I'd always wanted to go there and the Grand Place was beautiful, the fries and waffles great but it had a weird vibe that made me uncomfortable
New Orleans - twice was enough

It is interesting that some of us have has not visited a country or a city in years (even decades,)'and still have the
same image of the place....
Madrid ( Barcelona, Bilbao) under Franco ,Berlin( Dresden, Leipzig , Potsdam) before the unification,
Eastern Europe, former Yugoslavi a, parts of Italy .....etc come to mind.

There's no place in Europe I wouldn't go back to if the trip were free. However, I wouldn't pay to return to:
Amsterdam
Gdansk
Bruges
Holyhead
Bristol
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Frankfurt

I love the references to Kilmarnock because I've never been, but have to visit for work on Friday.

I am really enjoying this thread. I know everybody is different but when I see Naples, Lucca, Pisa, Florence and Rome on a such a list I shake my head in wonder.

I can quite understand Croydon and Slough, although I doubt you'd find either on any "places to see before you die" list.

anyone going to quarrel if I say Croydon?

can't say I'd cry if I never saw Reading again, either. nor Southend. and the Isle of Sheppey does not have a great deal to recommend it.

willit - please do come back and give us a warts and all critique of Kilmarnock.

Anne, I'll see your Croydon, and raise you a Slough

"there's no place In Europe I wouldn't go back to if if the trip were free"

I wouldn't go back to Gibraltor if you paid me!

And I would not go back to GibraltAr either!

Is Slough horrible? I ask because after my recent trip to England I asked DH if he could get a transfer to England for a year or two, and it MIGHT be possible, but the office is in Slough!
Is there anywhere nearby that is nice?

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

My goodness Peter, that is quite the poem! Thank you. I Googled it and read all about the author and how he eventually regretted writing it.
I also learned that the original show "The Office" is set in Slough.
My husband got a good laugh out of the poem as well.

Hmmm...well I guess if he gets the transfer we'd have to live somewhere else and he could commute !

We had a rather disappointing time in Gyor but I don't think I need to warn too many folks about it. I wouldn't go back.

So, Peter, how does one pronounce Slough?

One would think that anyplace with a name like that would be a hellhole to begin with.

Iris..We stayed in the Parador Santillana, not the Gil Blas so ypu're safe! We spent a month in Northern Spain, wonderful trip with many excellent paradors. This was the most expensive of the whole trip, the room was tiny and in poor shape. At dinner, we sat next to the boxes of cereal ready for breakfast and the food was terrible.
Remebering beautiful paradors in Baiona and Leon....
Hope Gil Blas works outmformyou!

St C, Slough rhymes with Thou or cow.

Thanks, Peter.

Raincitygirl, we spent four years living in Maidenhead, just a short distance from Slough. I will start a new thread titled For Raincitygirl to answer your question rather than hijacking this thread.

Well, I would never go back to Switzerland if I had a choice. Work has other ideas.

I have no real interest in returning to Nancy, France, either. And I think I've seen everything I need to see in Hamburg.

Never to return
Le Havre
Rotterdam
Charleroi
But… in 1989, Bucharest was very dreadful. Now, it’s better. I think.
Never say never.
But I have met many nice people in all of these cities.

Can anyone tell me why Colmar makes this list?

(BTW, I think it's very different to say you won't return somewhere b/c you feel you saw the place, v. saying you won't go back b/c it was not an interesting or fun place).

I know that in the places I listed it wasn't that I totally dislike those cities or villages it was just that there wasn't a lot that makes me want to go back. I love Dublin and know many people don't. I will keep going back there. Switzerland was just so expensive and can't afford to go back to any part of that country. Rome was so crowed and dirty imo. I want to see new places and only return to cities I love.

Geneva
Thessaloniki
Zadar

LOL. You know, if any '1st-time-to-europe' tourists were to browse this forum for ideas, most of europe would be written off!
Personally, no place has revolted me as much as it seems to have done to some. Sure, I like some places better than others, and won't return to many because there are other places I want to see, but that's simply because there is so much beauty around and I'm greedy to see more.

About Slough: Yes, there are nice areas nearby - Windsor, to name one. It's a badly planned industrial estate for most part. Plenty of people who work there don't necessarily live there. It's not a tourist destination ... in fact the problem is that it's rarely a destination at all: it's a pass-through town, a handy interchange town, a town that no one seems to care about enough to make nice. It reminds me of Gary, Indiana.

<b>Vienna</b> was the first thing that came to mind. And I found it really odd that one of my best friends said she liked it better than Paris. That statement did not move me to revisit Vienna; instead, it moved me to reconsider her soundness of mind. I truly do think I saw most of Vienna's "good bits"--and now I'm done.

<b>Prague</b> left a bad taste in our mouth because of the international drunks who throng there. Not Prague's fault, but I'm not tempted to return.

<b>Monaco, Monte Carlo</b> We did everything "good" in the 'burg and will never, ever return.

Yet...
...I would go back to Madrid, not because I loved it, because I want to do more art there.
...For the same reason, I would go back to Nice, which I found to be dirty and crowded, because of the excellent art collections that I would love to revisit.
..while I did not love Brussels itself, I loved using it as a rail base and coming back at night there to enjoy La Grand Place and some excellent restaurants.

I enjoy Galway and Dublin only because I adore Irish trad music. I know where to go in each city to find "the good stuff", and our family will return endlessly for the sheer joy of it. Plus the country is FINALLY making great IPAs. :)

~ Magdeburg
~ Inverness
~ Moulins
~ Chateauroux
~ Belfast
...and NYC!

i had very high hopes for Brussels...maybe that was my downfall. Aside from the Grand Place and the collection of awesome gothic churches there just wasn't much in the way of tourism that suited our tastes. The other problem was that we went in early March. Other European capitals were blooming with flowers but not Brussels. The parks i read about were completely barren and void of any life. London is actually sunnier which is really saying something. Public transportation was inconsistent and outdated. Everything is covered in scaffolding (Palace of Justice has had scaffolding on the dome for 10 straight years) The chocolate and beer were great but you could find that in other Belgian cities. i wouldn't go so far as to say NEVER EVER AGAIN but our appetite for Brussels is about as strong as bread and water for dinner.

<i>It reminds me of Gary, Indiana.</i>

That isn't fair to Slough.

Have you BEEN in Slough Travelgourmet - it is beyond awful! Nobody goes there unless they must, on business. The only good thing about Slough is the train to London.

If you have been there, then apologies, and I will take your advice and never plan a trip to Gary Indiana :)

<i>Have you BEEN in Slough</i>

I've been through.

<i>Nobody goes there unless they must, on business.</i>

At least there is business!

Gary, Indiana is a crime-filled, rapidly depopulating eyesore.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...al-centre.html

Slough may be bad, but it ain't Gary.

Strange, I actually have seen those photos before the DM site. What a tragedy. OK. Slough is not this bad.

Slough (the client sites I have visited) has lots of lovely glass business cathedrals. But the rest of it appears to be absolute S£&(! Also, none of the people I worked with lives there.