Overrated vacation / gravity-based recreation destinations

**GeezerSteve** · 11-17-2018, 10:38 AM

+1 re Bend in the first post. We have some very good friends there but, yeah, Flatchelor is meh and much of the Three Sisters Wilderness Area is overcrowded, so bad that USFS will soon impose quota-based permits.

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Yeah, the National Parks are depressingly crowded. . . .

Well, that depends on the park and where in the park. We've been in numerous places in the North Cascades NP that see a human party no more than once every 1 or 2 years, some places average 1 party every 5 years. So long as you avoid the WA100 summit standard route approaches, it's easy to find days of solitude in NCNP.

**Peruvian** · 11-17-2018, 10:40 AM

I’ve been to Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui as a tourist and only in Maui did I feel unwelcome. It’s beautiful and all but the locals were not friendly at all. I can appreciate that living in a ski town, but some were downright hostile.

I’ll add Key West to the list. Once the cruise ships started pulling in it became more of a shitty destination than it had been.

**plugboots** · 11-17-2018, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by iceman

I was just in Puerto Rico last weekend for the first time, we were only in San Juan but it was pretty cool in a scruffy kinda way. Reminded me of Miami in the '80's before it took off. We're gonna go back and spend some time and scout around probably this winter some time.

Is this the place you picked from that thread a few months ago? Cool.

Anyway, I think most of you are doing it wrong.

**Benny Profane** · 11-17-2018, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Peruvian

I’ve been to Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui as a tourist and only in Maui did I feel unwelcome. It’s beautiful and all but the locals were not friendly at all. I can appreciate that living in a ski town, but some were downright hostile.

I’ll add Key West to the list. Once the cruise ships started pulling in it became more of a shitty destination than it had been.

Great place for alcoholics who enjoy sunburns.

**Meadow Skipper** · 11-17-2018, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by BFD

This thread is perfect for me. I am critical to the point of being annoying. Homer, AK biggest waste of time in AK.

+1, and it’s not even on the way to anywhere.

**iceman** · 11-17-2018, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by plugboots

Is this the place you picked from that thread a few months ago? Cool.

Yeah exactly. I don't remember who recommended it but I'm glad we went, it really worked out well. Super easy trip, saw some cool stuff, ate pretty good food, went to the beach, kinda felt like they appreciated the cash infusion, it was good.

**iceman** · 11-17-2018, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

+1, and it’s not even on the way to anywhere.

Well it's the end of the road I hear.

**Peruvian** · 11-17-2018, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Great place for alcoholics who enjoy sunburns.

That’s what it used to be like. Now it’s jammed with fucks who just finished their all you can east breakfast buffets buying T-shirts and having one drink at Sloppy Joes.

**hutash** · 11-17-2018, 11:15 AM

The only problem with crowds is if you hang around with them. I still love Yosemite and Zion despite the crowds. Their saving grace is that with a small amount of effort you can avoid them. An alpine start on Angels Landing solves that problem. Walk a mile on just about any trail in Yosemite and the number become tolerable. Head of trail and they become zero. Same in Hawaii. Stay in the resort towns and your life will suck. Camp in one of the many campgrounds and most days you have them to yourself. Life is what you make of it. That said, the east coast still sucks.

**TAFKALVS** · 11-17-2018, 11:44 AM

I thought the big island was great and have been there 3 times. Maui was a bizzare mix of franchise/chain type businesses everywhere with very hostile/unfriendly locals probably due to the fact that place is overrun with fat disgusting white people waddling from buffet to shop center.

**Kenny Satch** · 11-17-2018, 12:16 PM

I would never consider Maui overrated but Honolulu was IME.
X2 on the locals being no to trilled with us. I should've never told them I was from New Jersey. It created a bad situation.

**Benny Profane** · 11-17-2018, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Kenny Satch

I would never consider Maui overrated but Honolulu was IME.
X2 on the locals being no to trilled with us. I should've never told them I was from New Jersey. It created a bad situation.

That usually happens everywhere. Aren't you used to it by now?

**Cono Este** · 11-17-2018, 01:07 PM

I love Maui. I could smoke weed and go stare at fish for months like I did last yr. but we sold our family place so that sucks.

Cabo was a shit hole. From the minute I got there people were ripping us off at the grocery store by scanning whiskey bottles ahead of our stuff. The house we rented had a septic tank that filled up every three days , and the asshole charter captain intentionally killed my billfish hoping I’d stuff it.

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**ill-advised strategy** · 11-17-2018, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

Vegas sucks.

I was reading this thread with the vague sense that I knew there was someplace I'd been that was supposed to be amazing but I couldn't wait to leave. It's Las Vegas.

Only time I ever had fun in Vegas was going to an ECHL game in a rink that was inside some ginormous casino. The rest of it is just truly incomprehensible to me.

**Self Jupiter** · 11-17-2018, 01:18 PM

^this, even when I visited as a dumbass 22yo on an escape from ski town

**Ted Striker** · 11-17-2018, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

All I know is Hawaii is far as shit for us. I can get to islands in the tropics in like a third or a quarter the time and a lot cheaper and that's what I've done. My brother lived in Lahaina Maui for about 8 years, he loved it but that was a while ago.

I lived in Lahaina (briefly) as a kid because my step dad got a job there, and we couldn't wait to get back to the mainland.

There are good and bad things about all of the islands, but mostly it's just America in the ocean. The Caribbean is more diverse, closer, and less expensive.

Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

Kauai > Maui, and so is the Big Island.

My mom is on the big island, and it's gentrifying, but still way behind Oahu and Maui.

Originally Posted by Peruvian

I’ve been to Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui as a tourist and only in Maui did I feel unwelcome. It’s beautiful and all but the locals were not friendly at all. I can appreciate that living in a ski town, but some were downright hostile.

It's simmering on all of the islands, but boils over when there are too many people in one spot.

**highangle** · 11-17-2018, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

+1, and it’s not even on the way to anywhere.

It never was a cake eater gravity resort town, but anymore, Homer is like a night club on Tuesday afternoon...

Years ago, back before the IFQ system, Homer was a scene. Thousands of Spit Rats would string out all summer on the proceeds from half-share deckhand jobs. The Dawg after a 24-hour halibut Opener was like the bar in some Bob Hope pirate movie - with about 37 metric tonnes of cocaine added.

SRSLY - I have an old pic somewhere of a 2" wide line of coke the entire length of the Salty Dawg bar...about 1992.

**DJSapp** · 11-17-2018, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Peruvian

I’ve been to Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui as a tourist and only in Maui did I feel unwelcome. It’s beautiful and all but the locals were not friendly at all. I can appreciate that living in a ski town, but some were downright hostile.

My family got robbed in Kauai. Broad daylight break and enter into the rental house while we were in the house. Perp snuck in through an open window and stole my step-mother-in-law's purse with a couple hundo and my father-in-laws parkinson's meds. The perp also managed to perfectly avoid the 8 camera setup on the house, so it was definitely a local. Probably does it every 2 weeks when a new fish shows up.

Found out later that Anahola beach isn't a great place to stay because the neighborhood is part of the Hawaiian Homelands (aka Hawaii for Hawaiians). Every other visit to Kauai has been fine with locals. So fwiw, it just could have been where you were.

**kathleenturneroverdrive** · 11-17-2018, 01:56 PM

Staying in Hana on Maui ain’t bad at all if you want something secluded, slow and quiet. There’s pretty limited lodging and a car is a must to get there and get around though.

The resorts on Maui kicks ass if you have little kids and their enjoyment is the focus of the trip. But going there as an adult w/out kids would have made me nuts.

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**Ted Striker** · 11-17-2018, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by highangle

SRSLY - I have an old pic somewhere of a 2" wide line of coke the entire length of the Salty Dawg bar...about 1992.

So every one of those bills has been in someone's nose? yuk.

**old goat** · 11-17-2018, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Yeah, the National Parks are depressingly crowded, but, the up side is that at least America is getting out and experiencing them. If they were ignored by the public, the oligarchs would be drilling and grazing in them.
On a trip I did a few years ago in southen Utah, I found that secondary state parks close to national parks are much much less crowded, and pretty much as beautiful and fun to be in.

true

**GeezerSteve** · 11-17-2018, 03:24 PM

you guys might try getting off trail in one of the less crowded wilderness NPs

**toast2266** · 11-17-2018, 06:48 PM

Vegas is a shithole, but if I stay out of the casinos, I have a good time. There's tons of good food, always good concerts happening, and wandering the strip with a tall boy makes for some of the best people watching on the planet. And during shitty mountain town shoulder season, I can buzz down there for less than $200 round trip, which is about 1/3 the price of flying anywhere else that's sunny.

Plus, I don't think it's overrated (or underrated). Pretty much anyone who's going to vegas knows what they're getting in to. Obviously it's not for everyone.

**Name Redacted** · 11-17-2018, 06:51 PM

Vegas also has some pretty nice climbing and stuff in Red Rocks.

**Kenny Satch** · 11-17-2018, 07:10 PM

Originally Posted by toast2266

Plus, I don't think it's overrated (or underrated). Pretty much anyone who's going to vegas knows what they're getting in to. Obviously it's not for everyone.

1st and only time there I kinda knew but didn't realize how f'n annoying it was to get from point a to point b. The old area was liberating and I wish we stayed there.
I hate people that are sheep and fuckin eggheads treating me like sheep. If you tell I have to zig like everyone else then I have to zag. Can't tolerate being manipulated to spend money but that's Vegas therefore never ever again.