In the past few months, I’ve visited three cities I don’t really like: Milan, Barcelona and Paris. Two of these were in passing, as part of larger trips. Paris was the one I was looking forward to the most – despite having a love/hate relationship with it, it’s been twelve years since my last visit, so I was intrigued to see how I would find it now that I’m a lot more well-travelled.
But these trips did make me wonder: with so many new places to visit, is it ever worth re-visiting the ones you didn’t like, or is it a waste of time? Is there a redemption arc to be made?
With Paris, I hoped so. With Milan and Barcelona, I think it re-affirmed why I didn’t like them the first time around, because it’s nothing really personal. Milan, a city of glamour and shopping, just isn’t for me, and that’s fine. Barcelona? Revisiting made me realise that it’s probably a great city to live, and to explore outside of the tourist attractions. But I find as a tourist city, it’s lacking in a lot of things that make city destinations great, and outside of that, I’m not a big city person anyway.
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I wrote a post a few years ago about why everyone either loves or hates Paris. I feel like Barcelona is similar – it’s a destination that divides opinion more than most, and I’d say you’re more likely to enjoy it if you like big cities in general. Paris, on the other hand, has a reputation beyond what most destinations have. It’s the most visited city in the world, so it stands to reason that more people have an opinion on it, and the way it’s romanticised I’ve always believed contributes to people’s disappointment. Treat it as a normal city, and you’ll find something deeper than the tourist surface.
That’s what I tried to do on my most recent trip there. I will say that the only problem with all three of these trips is that I didn’t have time to do a deep dive, but in all honesty, nor did I want to.
What I do find, though, is that re-visiting places is often great because you’ve usually seen all the main tourist sites, you’re more familiar with where places are, and you can just take it at face value and settle in rather than rushing between the must-see attractions.
So when it comes to re-visiting places you don’t necessarily like, this could in fact be a good thing, because you’ll find spots that you never thought, or had time, to explore the first time around.
Like I say, I didn’t have enough time to really do this on my recent trips. But even so, in Barcelona I found a fantastic little tapas place off the main drags and decided I could happily spend several evenings doing just that, and in Paris we hit up a couple of new areas which we loved and wished we had more time to explore. The less said about Milan, the better. (I really did only have a couple of hours there plus my overnight stay, and the way back through at the end was one of my most stressful travel experiences of all time!)
It made me think – if you find yourself back in a place you didn’t enjoy the first time around, maybe it IS worth re-visiting.
Apart from anything else, I’d visited all of these places a long time ago (2011, 2012 & 2013, so over a decade for all three!). In that time, I’ve become a much more confident traveller. I’ve learned a lot about what makes a city tick, and how to avoid scams. I know what I enjoy and what I don’t; I don’t visit attractions for the sake of it, or do something because it’s what everyone does.
And after all, it’s hard to write off an entire major city from a fleeting visit.
My downfall is that I decided to check out all the tourist attractions anyway (from the outside; in my usual fashion!). Mostly because it had been so long since I’d visited that any photos I have of them are awful; now that I’m much more into photography, I wanted to at least come away with decent photos.
This meant I pretty much did the opposite of what I’m trying to say in this post!
But, what I did manage to do was stress less about seeing things and just enjoy the vibe, with time to check out bars and restaurants, or aimlessly wander new neighbourhoods. This is exactly what I did enjoy about the visits to Barcelona and Paris.
And because Barcelona and Milan were in passing to other destinations, it’s not like I’d “wasted” a trip on visiting somewhere I didn’t like; I needed to go there anyway.
Los Angeles was another prime example. Didn’t love it the second time around; but managed to enjoy it more than I thought I would.
But it’s not like we went out of our way to visit; we kind of needed to go there on our west coast American road trip, and we wanted to go to the Warner Brothers studios.
Seattle: I found it a bit boring on my first visit, but going back and exploring different neighbourhoods, I really liked it!
Once again, we had a reason to re-visit Seattle – the MoPOP Museum, which was our highlight.
So maybe that’s the answer. If you have a reason to re-visit somewhere, whether that’s to use it as a base for somewhere else, or to visit something in particular (an event or an attraction), then it’s a good excuse to see more of the city in general, or at least do things differently to how you did the first time.
Then there are the places that you didn’t love in the circumstances. I have to admit a few of the ones in Europe are because of the weather. Copenhagen and Amsterdam were both freezing when I visited, and I didn’t love them. We ended up doing a huge walk in Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens were closed, and we somehow missed Nyhavn which is obviously now the most famous image of the city. Looking at a map now, I have no idea how we even missed it.
Oh, and the Little Mermaid statue is the most underwhelming tourist attraction I’ve ever seen.
What I’ve really learned from this is that I would like to visit Paris again, with a focus away from the main sights, and I feel like I should give Copenhagen another chance. I won’t bother going to see the Little Mermaid statue again though!
So I don’t know, is it worth revisiting places even if you didn’t like them the first time around? I struggle between knowing that the world is a big place and there are so many things that we’ll never see and therefore why would I focus on places that didn’t bring me joy, and accepting that some places do have redemption arcs and maybe that’s worth finding out.
What do you think? Have you revisited anywhere you didn’t like, and did you come away feeling differently?
Want to read about some of the places I’ve visited more than once despite not loving?
⭐ Milan & Lake Como: Two Days In Northern Italy
⭐ #tbt: Hitting Two Of Europe’s “Big Cities”: Barcelona & Rome
⭐ A Fleeting Visit To Los Angeles
⭐ Warming Up To Seattle: A Second Visit
And some I’ve re-visited because I loved:
⭐ Loving Lisbon: A Perfect 3 Day Itinerary
⭐ Three Days In Fairytale Budapest, One Of My Favourite Cities
⭐ My Top 10 Things To Do In Vancouver
⭐ Is The Go City London Pass Worth It? I Got The Two Day Pass To Find Out
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I liked Venice more on my subsequent visits, especially since I stayed for 2-3 days not a rushed day trip.
Yes! This is exactly what makes a good re-visit. I’ve found that most people who “hate” Venice only went for day. When in reality… what makes Venice great is after those people have left. (I offended someone once by wording it like that. 😂) And also having the time to get off the beaten path a little.
Hi Clazz,
Great read!
I love your open-minded take on revisiting places you didn’t initially enjoy. It’s true that travel preferences evolve, and different circumstances can change our experience of a city. Your perspective on seeing destinations from a new angle—whether through food, photography, or a more relaxed approach—is a great reminder that no place can be fully understood in one visit. This definitely got me thinking about giving some places a second chance!
I tried to comment on your site, but it wouldn’t post, so I’ll try again on Reader. Sorry if this is a repeat. I think a lot of it for me has to do with expectations. High expectations can often lead to disappointment. Good to visit for a second time with open eyes. Maggie
Oh that’s weird! No duplicates this end, but not sure why it wouldn’t have worked so appreciate you trying again haha.
Yes, I agree with that – it’s a big part of what I wrote in my Paris post about why I think so many people don’t like Paris. And I think one thing I enjoyed about going back to Paris recently was accepting that and
Off the top of my head, the only place I didn’t like was Annecy, France, and it was 100% because of the crowds. I really want to return someday in a less packed month (and definitely not on Bastille Day, which it was when we were there). I think returning to a place or not has a lot to do with the specific reason you didn’t like it in the first place. Other times you have to keep returning somewhere for circumstantial reasons, like us driving through Nebraska to get out to Colorado – haha.
Yeah, I agree with that – it’s down to why you didn’t like it. That sounds like a good reason to return to Annecy, as you’d see it in a completely different light.
Everytime I go to a place I have been before, I try to visit something new.
I lived in Barcelona and loved it. So many things to do and see.
I think that’s a good idea. My only issue with a few of the places I’ve re-visited is that I’ve gone with different people, so I’ve had to re-do a few of the same things haha. But generally I try and at least do something different.
To me Barcelona seems like a great place to live. I just don’t love it as a tourist city.
I think it really depends on why you didn’t like it, and whether that would be any different if you were to return (e.g. going in shoulder season to avoid crowds you experienced on a previous trip in peak season). Saying that, I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to return to anywhere I wasn’t overly fussed on. If I happened to be passing through, sure… but otherwise, there are too many other places I’d love to see!
Haha I feel the same about that last part – it’s a big old world! I don’t think I’ve ever gone particularly out of my way to return somewhere I didn’t like, but these recent visits have made me ponder the value of it. Especially Paris, which was a standalone trip, but there were several reasons for the visit and it had been so long since I’d been there, I was curious to see what I’d make of it this time around.
Paris is somewhere that did grow on me. I visited a couple of times in 2016/2017, as it was a convenient place to meet up with Laurence when he was living in Cambridge and I was out in Lyon. Having the time to explore beyond the main tourist attractions definitely helped us see another side to the city.
See, that’s where I think there can be value in revisiting places. Seeing a new side to somewhere can make such a difference. But perhaps it’s better visiting for a reason like that, outside of the context of simply “being a tourist”.
I think some places definitely have that redemption arc and can be worth returning to, although it helps if you have a good reason to go back. Cologne springs to mind for me, I didn’t think it’d be somewhere I’d go back to but fate kind of took me there and then I ended up enjoying it more on those visits.
I think it can work the other way too. I think you can grow to dislike a place on a return trip that maybe you enjoyed more on the first visit.
It completely is worth visiting places you dont like. as long as you go with an open mind. I really hated India after visiting the first time. I went back the next year and had a great time and have been now a total of five times. Theres always more to discover! and you realise you approached places the wrong way the first time and find other ways to explore