Have you ever visited somewhere and found it very different from what you expected?

[Mle8308]

Plymouth Rock, I've had friends visit from the west coast and they wanted to go see it, so we made a day trip. They were shocked when they saw it, they were expecting it to be on the beach. Instead, it's literally right off the side of a main street, it's covered by a nice monument structure and you look down on it. It's maybe a structure 15' x 10"??? It's fenced off down below so you can't get close it it, it is on the water, but not like a huge beach. There is the busy street, a sidewalk, and the structure. It's still cool to see, but not what most people expect.

 

[tony67]

Yeah, we just got back from a two week trip to Ireland last month and we never visited Dublin. To be fair, we had never planned to anyway but I spent a lot of time reading the reddit irish tourism forum for research. A lot of posts there warning about the conditions in Dublin, not unlike any major city though. We flew in and out of Shannon and stayed in Doolin, Dingle, Killarney, and Kinsale. It was a beautiful country! I highly recommend Shannon airport, so tiny and you go through pre clearance there, took 5 minutes at immigration/customs.

Yeah, Shannon used to be a great Airport, but DAA (Dublin Airport Authority) took it over and we are forced to fly into Dublin for the most part.
In general they have made is inconvenient to go to the west for most people.
If I had the option I'd always choose Shannon over Dublin, but even folks who live 20 minutes form Shannon have to drive up to Dublin or limit themselves to trips that fly out of Shannon. Changes my be coming, but I wont hold my breath.

As you said- most major cities have problems, but Dublin has has such a drastic fall its mind boggling.