And of course... the reverse may apply.... somewhere you really looked forward to but was bitterly disappointing.

Mark

Paris...I'd heard so much about how rude people were etc etc. Negative comments from relatives did not help either. Yet when we got there we found people friendly, polite and helpful and had a great time in the city.

Benidorm All my work collegues said it was a shithole full of charvers, even though some had never been.
We went with an open mind and really glad. It's as tacky or classy as you want, depends on what you do, where you go and where you drink.
We love it.

Turkey.
I normally pick our holiday but hubby fancied Turkey. For some reason I didn't like the sound of it but since I always get to choose, thought I'd give him the benefit of the doubt- so we went ahead and booked. I was quite apprehensive after booking. I'd heard a few say that it was dirty there and I began to think it was going to be "cheap and tacky".
Glad to say I was proved wrong. It was a great holiday. The people friendly, the weather hot! the food delicious and the drinks inexpensive. We're definitely due another visit soon.

it wasn't a place that made me change my mind, but my first coach trip to spain a few years ago.
my partner and i were driving past the coach firms offices and saw an offer for 10 days in spain for £99 HB. as someone who could not sit on a london bus for half an hour, i was very dubious about 18 hours on a coach and even at the price could not see me getting to dover never mind spain.
we got home and decided to give it a try and went, the next day to the oasis park in calella.
my partner had got worse and worse in terms of flying -she got so nervous, had panic attacks(usually at the bottom of the steps when we were trying to board the plane)- that we had given up on foreign holidays before this trip.
it turned out to be the first of many, with many different coach firms,and opened up a whole new experience for us allowing us to again indulge ourselves to twice a year sunshine breaks.

Bangkok
went there for only 2 full days to keep OH happy and loved it

Albufeira - needed to use a banked timeshare week before it expired and the only choice was Albufeira. Thought it would be all lager louts and kiss-me-quick hats ........ but couldn't have been more wrong. Found the Old Town and the fabulous beaches and bought a place there instead of in Spain.

Mine's the opposite-------------a few years ago booked 3 days in Dublin---somewhere I'd always wanted to go-----------------I hated it

Dublin had gone no-smoking-so first thing in the morning I used to go and have a ciggy outside the hotel-----There were people just sprawled out from the night before!!!!!!

The only good bit was when we went to County Wicklow!!!! which I might add was beautiful!!!!

Even sitting by the river -people were coming up to you asking for money etc: Kids begging in the alleys by Temple Bar!

Don't get me wrong I live in a big city---------but it's nothing like there!!!!

When we stayed at Punta Jabillo in CT, Lanzarote. We had stayed in CT several times before, but never there. We always used to walk past and dream about staying there as it had a superb location right on the sea front....well, we got an opportunity go go there and it was the worst hotel (and i use that term loosely) we have ever stayed in. In addition, there was a tropical storm that lasted 4 days ( out of a 7 day holiday). Our room flooded, the island was cut off from everywhere else as the airport was closed, half the guests got food poisoning and so many other things that i will not bore you with. Oh..and to make matters worse, I came down with some sort of infection caught from the pool. I was ill for a month when we got back home. We love Lanza but have never been back there since then!

Thought twice about going to Tunisia on a yoga break a couple of years ago - not becuse of the place but because it was an active holiday, something I'd never done before and I was a bit aprehensive. Needn't have worried. The teaching was not what I was used to (think she'd been out there too long and wasn't up to date on some of the changes to poses) but the hotel was nice, my room was huge and the others on the course were lovely. Had a great time.

We were quite disappointed with Shanghai - we spent 4 nights there and it was too long. It just wasn't our cup of tea. The Bund we'd been told was fantastic, great architecture. Well, I thought it was nothing special, nothing I hadn't seen before - very much like Grey Street in Newcastle or the Albert Dock area in Liverpool. After everything else we'd seen on our China trip, I was very disappointed.

Florida had never appealed to me and I had no desire to go. However, we went because the kids wanted to and after the first trip we had to return. (Big kid me!!) We ended up going every year for about 3 years before buying our own villa in Kissimmee which we had for about 12 years. We eventually sold it after being hit by the 3 hurricanes a couple of years ago and decided to do cruising instead, which was another thing I wasn't really looking forward to but after the first one, went back for more!! But I still hanker after Universal studios and Walmart and Target so back we will go in 2008, only staying in someone else's place. Yippee!! No cleaning for me

Florida was also the place I never had any longing to visit but an American friend lived there for a year studying at Uni for a masters degree, she was lent an apartment in St.Petersburg Beach for the whole time and kept inviting me to visit her so I took the plunge and I spent almost a month with her. I realised pretty quickly that it's not just Disney World (though I did enjoy the couple of days spent there) but a variety of experiences both natural and man made which I thoroughly enjoyed. I even came back with a sun tan (very rare for me) after actually sitting on the beach or round the pool (again not normally what I like to do). This was well over twenty years ago and I haven't been since but as my friend is about to retire to the area I have no doubt I will be going again.

Goa was the one that changed my mind, as a regular traveller to Thailand I was sure that although we would like Goa it would not be a patch on Thailand.
We decided to take the plunge and booked for xmas in Goa a couple of years ago, I spent the couple of weeks leading up to the holiday wishing we had booked for Thailand and I was sure we had made a huge mistake.
I even ran into someone I know at the airport and said to them "I am looking forward to it but wish we were off to Thailand "

Anyway - unbelievably Goa was an instant love affair for me and I fell for it hook, line and sinker, Goa is now my no.1 passion in life and although I still love Thailand I think Goa has now overtaken as my favourite holiday spot.

Germany was the place I did not want to go to but I was persuading by my boyfriend and I have been to quite a few places since because I have loved it.

Berlin, Munich Cologne the cities and also Bavaria, Black Forrest and Rhine and Mossel doing fly drive different times and I will not refuse to go anywhere else in Germany. It was beautiful and very warm (the weather I did not expect.

I now let John chose all the holidays and he has never been wrong since, Poland, Croatia. Bosnia, Montenegro to name but a few and this year Serbia.

Linda

Tennerife - Playa de las Americas. My daughter had recently broken up with her long term boyfriend so we thought a week in Playa would cheer her up. Even though it was August the skies were overcast for the whole 7 days and Playa reminded us of Blackpool. We've never been back & I don't think we ever will!

Mediterranean cruise for 10 days. It was a fantastic ship with all the luxuries and entertainment that cruises are well known for. The service and food were out of this world and the cabins immaculate. But never ever again! It taught me that being confined to a place that i couldnt escape from, and a planned schedule of places to visit and set mealtimes etc. was not for me. I love the freedom of doing your own thing. Maybe i will change my mind when i am older and want that type of holiday, but for now, definately no.
PS. Hi shirleyV I am with you on that one Goa is in my heart and soul now after only one visit

Not specifically about a destination, as I had never been there before..more about a hobby. Rob is big into scuba diving and is a Divemaster. I have always been completely terrified and when I tried it in a special pool, there were claw marks on the side of the pool that Sanjii's cat would have been proud of where i tried to get out

Anyway, we went of a holiday with the scuba diving school that Rob belongs to (Frog Squad) to Egypt and the marine life was so stunning thati plucked up the courage to have a go in the Red Sea....anyway, I am now a qualified scuba diver and have been diving in Malta since then and return to Egypt later this year...so that holiday changed my mind about scuba diving...and i love Egypt.

Hi Justval. well done for conquering your fears, a whole new (under)world opened up to you now. When i was in Greece everyone was raving about all the wonderful coral and sealife they could see while snorkelling. I have a huge fear of putting my head underwater, though i love swimming. I bought the snorkell etc but could not muster up the courage, so lost out on all the sights. So i wanted the experience but the wimp in me kicked in.

Oh lisawithans, you really should have plucked up the courage. I had a fear of putting my head under the water, after I nearly drowned when i was smaller. I pluked the courage up in the Domincan and have never looked back,the site of the fish and coral was amazing, although I still havn't been able to muster up the courage to scuba dive yet.