I really wish Fodors had a "like" button.

I live in the Dordogne, and after 18 years, have not yet seen everything. But tourists continually tell me that they've 'done ' this area in 1-2 weeks. On the other hand, I know that the time I spent in New Zealand, which was a lovely place, didn't allow us to see much of anything. But I don't have a great urge to go back. A chacun son gout.

I've never been to Paris. I have no desire to go to Paris.

France is a big country with lots to see and explore. Maybe your friend is not a city person. Maybe they saw all they wanted to see on their first visit. Maybe they'd just rather spend their precious vacation time exploring another part of the country.
What does it matter? you aren't going with them, it is their holiday for them to spend as they wish.

I don't understand how people can return to Paris year after year after year, but it is their choice, and I am happy they are happy with that choice.

kerouac - "like"
Grasshopper - "like"

I believe Aix-en-Provence is my "been there, done that" town.

It's funny, each time we have visited Florence , Tracy and I say, "You know, we really don't ever need to come back." Then, about two years later we say, "It sure would be nice to visit Florence again, wouldn't it?"

With Paris, it isn't so much about seeing it as it is about just being there for me.

Well whatever....to each his own and oh by the way we did learn the French language and enjoy speaking it!!

So some people do not fall in love with Paris, so what? OK, OK, I hear you screaming at me and I don't mean Paris per se, I mean any place in the world, some people don't care to come back, some would love to come back every year.

Honestly, don't we all have some places we don't care to go to? So enjoy less crowded Paris, that's all.

I've heard once this review of the Grand Canyon: what is there to see? A hole in the ground. Too bad it was at work, I would push him down to see

After our third trip to Paris, my wife said "I think I'm done with Paris!" Everone who heard it has been teasing her ever since about how pompous this sounded - totally out of character for her. Though it was good for a laugh, we'd both go back in a minute.

My first trip to Paris was for only a few days because my girlfriend hated it and so we returned to London.
Later in life I fell for Provence but I know others
who don't like it there. C'est La Vie!

I can honestly say that most places I have travelled to in Europe do not make me feel this way. Most of the places that I have visited I have been back on numerous visits. But I am also the type of traveler who enjoys taking lots of time in the places that I travel to and enjoying the people and my surroundings. To each their own...

It irritates me when people claim to have exhausted a city, when clearly they have only scraped the surface.

Most of us are irritated by a dismissive, reductive, know-it-all approach -- from those who don't "know" at all.

But It's completely legit to say "I'm not enjoying this much: This doesn't appeal."

I didn't like hot, dusty, noisy Paris on my first visit. I was 17, traveling alone, rather disoriented and certainly overwhelmed by the size and pace of the metropolis, despite my relative assurance in speaking French.

Curiously enough, from the moment I reached much larger London, I felt at home -- 100% at home.

I'd be interested in hearing from others WHAT places made you say "Once is enough"...

Apart from West Africa (whose climate is simply too punishing) and the Bahamas (pretty but dull), there is almost nowhere I would not want to re-visit.

OK, there's one more: The Luberon. I really have "been there, done that" for 40+ years. Always nice to visit but if I were forbidden ever to return, my life would not suffer.

Oddly -- as someone who visited the UK many, many, many times when younger -- I now avoid it:

I think it will have changed too much and will let me down, somehow.

tedgale - I agree w all you said!

Christina says - "I don't really think it's anyone else's business to decide what someone else should enjoy or do with their vacation" - ..
How noble of you!!! I dont think anyone (op) is suggesting it is their "business". YOu really must filter your thoughts before typing.

"Been there, Done that, Going back"
- applies to Walt Disney World and certainly to Paris!

Eh, I agree, there's a certain arrogance about claiming you know all there is to know about a place after a few days, but on the other hand, if you're not moved to find out more about it, so what (as tedgale says)? There are so many new places I want to see that I naturally want to prioritise these new experiences over going back to somewhere I've already been, even if I know I liked it a lot. If I had unlimited time and resources for travel, sure I'd do both, but since I don't, I err on the side of discovering new places when I can.

Kerouac's icecream analogy is all well and good, but another way of looking at it is choosing to go for safe old chocolate icecream because you know you like it rather than branching out and trying something new that you might love but you might hate.

Tedgale asks a good question. The one place I wouldn't return to is Ipanema Beach in Rio. Too many near naked women. Give me a good museum any day.

RJD, wasn't that London (and Samuel Johnson)?

It's the phrase "been there; done that" that I object to. I don't care what place someone is applying it to, or what experience. It just seems so dismissive.

Is this what the sum of one's travels and experience add up to? Been there, done that?

Ick.

I wouldn't even say that about a bad marriage. Surely I can find something more meaningful to say. If not, I don't even deserve these experiences.

And now, some nut will search through thousands of my past posts and find one in which I said, "been there; done that." And post it, of course.

Kerouac...well said...for you there should be not a "like" but "love" button!

I hadn't realised that Disney had a place to visit. Why would you?