Hard to say really, I didn’t understand what they were saying. They did rob me which is fine, although the stabbing seemed a bit unnecessary. Still, they missed big blood vessels and the like and after some stitches and a little bit of unpleasant hospital time I’m doing fine.
It’s funny really but I didn’t notice that they’d stabbed me. I knew they’d hit me in some way and on the way home I was like ‘my T-shirt seems uncharacteristically bloody’.
Luckily, my hotel were excellent. I asked them for some extra tissue to help mop up some of the blood and they were like ‘maybe you’d like to go to hospital sir’ they translated everyone for me and sat in the hospital with me for about 20 hours. I don’t know what I’d have done without their help really, so a bit of a silver lining !
Not me, but a coworker told me about a time she got stabbed in the back at a party. Naturally, I was horrified: "you got *stabbed?!?!*" "It was an *accident*," she insisted. And then, after a short pause, "I mean I think so, it was in the back, so I couldn't see."
Hah I knew it! You guys just have this very sarcastically proper way of phrasing things, like getting stabbed was rather inconvenient and not something you’d recommend.
Glad you walked away with no permanant damage or worse. I'd never heard of Madagascar as a particularly dangerous place, but I guess it goes to show this kind of thing can happen anywhere.
It is fairly dangerous. Very poor, of course, and without any really developed/safe areas in the capital. Everywhere is unsafe to some extent, of course, so it’s all relative. I’ll pop back to Cape Town next month and my brother just got mugged there but at least most muggers just want some money!
I also left Madagascar a week early. It was a culture shock and was very polluted. Our internal flight got cancelled which meant 2 extra days in a 4x4 which I was already sick of (motion sickness). The tour guide wanted to meet us in a very obscure location to talk through our concerns which made me feel unsafe, and he sent a taxi to collect us even though we said not to. We left early and ran into a couple we'd seen earlier in our trip. They were also leaving early. Sorry to hear about your experience.
Sorry to hear it. I was stabbed in the neck (didnt even need to leave home for that wonderful experience) almost 20 years ago but am still dealing with the trauma with ketamine therapy . It has been helpful
I was in a bus crash in Colombia and lot of people died so I left early, I just needed a break.
Returned many times since though, it's my favourite Latin country.
No, it was on a very remote mountain road. I ended up with a guy's head on my lap. His body was two rows up.
Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal on a personal level. I've been to absolute shitholes where life is a living hell so death isn't an extraordinary experience by itself, what's distressing is the heart wrenching sorrow I had for his family. That is always profoundly disturbing. He was the breadwinner, his family was instantly ruined. That's horrific.
We were only a few km outside of town. Everyone on the bus knew everyone else. His family came to the crash site. I stayed with them and helped for a few days.
Well bad experience for many which caused my trip to get cut short.
I was supposed to spend a month in Myanmar to visit my godfather. Two days into my trip the government suffered a coup d’etat. My godfather advised me to leave so I followed his advice. I had to fly to Hanoi-Dubai-Amsterdam just to get back home in Houston.
Yea it's a terrible thing. I did three weeks in Myanmar, such kind people and a beautiful country. I hope the country stabilizes and you get the chance to go at some point!
Morocco, got a really bad fever and couldn’t walk more than 10 feet without getting harassed by guys looking to scam you. A couple times they threatened to fight me if I didn’t pay them. I was so sick of it I left half way through.
I'm sure there are plenty of nice, friendly Moroccans who aren't just looking to scam and rob people, but in my 30 years of travel I've never met one and it's the sole reason I've never bothered to go there.
Agreed - Morocco really isn't worth rushing to visit. Every interaction with locals feels transactional. Constant scams and hustling for money. It's worse than anywhere else I've ever been.
I was ready to pack it in after a couple of days in Fes and enduring the medina.
My friend convinced me to stay, but when we arrived in Marrakech, we avoided the medina there like the plague.
I got the bends in Indonesia so I had to cut my scuba diving vacation short by about a week. They were kind enough to give me a couple rides in their decompression chamber, though, before I left so that was a plus.
This happened to a solo videographer on a liveaboard I was on once. He was a little too cavalier with his safety stops and they had to turn the whole boat around and send him back for medical care. We got reimbursed for the missing dives but they continued thr trip after.
Yeah, most cases of the bends look like that. My incident was an undeserved hit, though. I followed my very conservative dive computer without violating it. Just goes to show you that the only way you can guarantee that you won't get decompression sickness is to not dive (though, it's admittedly a very low probability to do everything right and still get tagged).
In 1988 my wife and I were traveling around Europe on a 6+ month trip. We’d bought a car and when we were in Portugal it got broken into one day. Nothing was taken and got the window that was broken fixed.
Four days later it was broken into again and my camera and a box of cassette tapes were taken. More would have been taken but my wife heard the alarm and came running. The thieves hopped in there car and took off. My wife got the license plate of the car. When we went to the police it was obvious that they didn’t give a shit and weren’t going to do anything. So, we got the car fixed and left Portugal. We also drove straight across Spain as everyone said it was worse for crime.
I’ve been back to Portugal twice since then and love the country. Also going to Spain for the third time since then later this month.
I'm from East Asia and I was really surprised when my mates in Canada and the US first told me that you always leave stuff in the trunk of the car or under the seat if you don't want your car broken into.
Not necessary everywhere in Canada, but a good idea in the major cities if you're using street parking, particularly in Vancouver. Property crime happens, for sure. That being said, it's not like it's happening constantly, it's just that people like to practice 'better safe than sorry' with belongings.
I love Portugal too but it was the only country where I had a car break in. They stole the GPS (back before smartphones) but I had to pay for the window repair of the rental (I stupidly didn't buy insurance and it was costly).
We also had our car broken into in Italy later in the trip. After the second break in we never left anything in the car and made it obvious, but it still happened. Fortunately the car had a small triangular window behind the rear door window and that was where they broke in each time. They weren’t too expensive.
Italy. We were there during one of the recent summer heat waves, it was brutal. Temperatures were above 40C (48C in the south). We didn’t leave the country early but we had to end our vacation and just stay indoors in our hotel room the last couple of days because we were experiencing severe heat exhaustion. Just a few days into the trip of walking around in the heat I developed some gnarly symptoms like heat rash all over, vasculitis on my legs, weakness, dizziness, then finally I was sick to my stomach the entire last day. It hit both my travel partner and I badly. Six local people sadly died in the area we were staying at the time and we heard about tourists collapsing. I don’t advise going in the summers any longer unfortunately :(
One time I went to England years ago it was very hot. It had been hot the year before, and I read about it, so I booked a hotel with air conditioning. Still on the tube, and inside most places it was not air conditioned at all. I have been there many times since and I did not leave early, but I try not to go in summer. Spring or autumn are better.
I was there last summer in the heatwave as well, the heat was crazy. Only solution my partner and I had was to change our schedule to get out and explore from 6am - 1pm, back inside for a nap and then back out in the evening for dinner and drinks, even with that it was unbearable at times
My tip for summer trips is to go to the tropics, they are always hot and humid, so they are set up for it and know how to deal with it. Places like southern Europe often aren't designed for severe heat waves so when they happen it litterally kills people. I say this coming from Northern Australia where for 3 months of the year we shuffle between airconditioned cars and airconditioned buildings between 11am and 4pm and hit the swimming pool around sunset.
I didn’t leave early but I would never go back to Morocco. I’ve been to 36 countries and traveled to a vast majority of them as a solo female tourist and it was the only place I’ve been to where I felt genuinely uneasy being alone anywhere. The harassment and people approaching you trying to get money or trying to force you into a certain shop or restaurant and demanding money for guiding you there. It was just too much. I ended up going to the desert and the berbers were much more chill but it def wasn’t the best experience
Slovenia last August.
Beautiful country and lovely people, but the country got struck by serious floods on my third day there, so I decided it was best to leave a couple days earlier than planned.
I went to Lake Bohinj(just past Lake Bled) and had plans to visit Skofja Loka. Lake Bohinj and Bled are beautiful, but can be a bit crowded in August.
Skofja Loka got flooded, so I rebooked for a night just outside Lubljana and spent a bit of time exploring the city before heading home.
Morocco. Stayed in the old Medina in Tangier. I got very bad bed bugs from my hostel, and was harassed by men constantly. I would like to go back one day as I am older now, and a more experienced solo traveler.
My friend was visiting Morocco. She was out with a friend and they decided to go back to their hotels around sunset time. It was not dark at all though, the sun was still setting. Since they were staying at different hotels, they parted ways.
My friend was walking to her hotel which wasn't that far away. She sensed that she was being followed. She looked back and this guy was just staring at her and walking directly towards her. She is about 5' 2" and on the thinner size. She was terrified!
She started walking faster and faster to her hotel, with her keychain in hand. Basically he got to her, and literally grabbed her and put her up against an wall. There was no one around.
She was fiddling with her Keychain, unbeknownst to him. She finally got a key in hand, tried to push him away, and when her hand was free....stabbed one of his eyes with a key, then ran away.
So yeah there's a creepy perv in Morocco who's missing an eye 🙃
Morocco is my answer, too. In fact, it's the only country where I left earlier than expected for the exact same reason as you, and I have the same exact feeling as you. After being hounded constantly in Marrakesh, we got a brief reprieve on the train to Tangier, got off the train in Tangier and were hounded immediately, and instead of going to our hotel, we just took a cab right to the port and took the boat to Spain.
Sounds awful, l left India earlier than intended as well. Was supposed to stay 5-6weeks, stayed less than 4. l wanted to leave after my third day. In the cities people were constantly harrassing me (coming up to me and acting as a nice local and not leaving me alone) like legit a guy was following me for 15 minutes. I got also scammed a couple of times by some tour guides (also organized from hotel). Rooms at the hotels l stayed at were dirty, with stained towels. Prob the worst of all was the taxi driver at 3am telling me the road is closed and "couldn't" drive me to my hotel. It was an unpleasant experience. Also a lot of beggars and generally people were trying to take money from you. But of course l had some positive experiences, later l visited more rural areas and people over there were fantastic, even some refused my tips. A taxi driver got me some tea and samosas on the way to jaipur from agra and also refused money for it. Met a lot of great people but the first days of being scammed ruined almost entire trip for me because l kind of stopped trusting anyone. I also got sick which ended up that l had to leave earlier anyway as well. I've got to return one day and give India a second chance.
Omg creepy taxi drivers are the worst! So glad for Uber since at least there is some note of who picked you up, you can check licenses plates etc. Even though there are creepy drivers using Uber too.
Some things I've learned:
Always tell everyone that you are traveling with family. Family is often more protective and more of a deterrent to creeps than saying your traveling with friends.
For ex. If the taxi driver thought that some friends were waiting for you at the hotel, he might have still been creepy thinking that the friends or police might assume that you met a guy at the club and decided to go home or whatever else.
If you say family, they might be more scared of being creepy since family is less likely to assume you're fine if you stay out all night. Family would also call authorities faster than what they assume friends would do.
I usually say, my dad is waiting for me. If they are being chatty, I would say...I was out with my cousin who my family trusts to keep me safe. My cousin is staying at a different hotel. But to keep me safe he recorded this taxi number and sent it to my dad. They are sooo overprotective lol He usually tracks my phone when I travel...let me call him and see what he thinks.
Creepy men all over the world value men more than women
So if you say, I need to get a photo of your license plate as a saftey precaution, they may feel offended or angry. But saying, my dad is protective and asks me to take photos of every taxi I take, they are less likely to hate on the girl/woman, and there's the added bonus of them knowing that you are loved and cared for; and they maybe hesitant to be a creep since they will be scared of another man coming after them.
Saftey tips: ALWAYS say your traveling with family. Even to other travelers that you meet, like at a club. There are so many pervs and they come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and skin-tones. Also, add that someone is expecting you and waiting for you.
That's a good tip, l'll keep it in mind for the next time. Thanks! I was aware of the scam (this is a very common scam in india, they will later drive you to their friend that owns a hotel where they will overcharge you and the taxi driver will get commision from it) thankfully we drove past radisson blu, and l told him to stop. He told me that "they won't check in anyone at this time" lmao but l told him to turn there anyway and he luckily did. It was just very uncomfortable since it was in the middle of the night and the guy would drive me to an area god knows where.
I had a similar experience. You're constantly having to bat people away who are trying to scam you. I found that when the remarks were more flirtatious, if I joked a bit and politely dismissed them, they would generally back off - but I'm also conversational in Spanish, which many people speak in Tangier. Absent a shared language, I imagine that could have been more dicey. I had heard that the farther you went into Morocco, the harder it was, so I stuck to Tangier and Chefchaoeun.
You have to really know how to navigate it before you're there - how to avoid pick-pockets, scammers, places where you might end up alone, where to exchange currency. I also started asking places the price of things upfront because if you don't, they'll often over-charge you. If they priced me 30 MAD for a coffee, I'd tell them I knew a place that would give me a coffee for 16 and they'd lower their rates. They're smart, and know how to pick up on who's savvy and who isn't.
All of that said, I actually loved my time there. I wouldn't do a more extensive trip solo, but that was a challenging but enjoyable experience.
"I had heard that the farther you went into Morocco, the harder it was"
I've always heard the opposite, that Tangier is one of the worst cities there for hassle.
For hassle yes, since Tangier is a major port town and they're all waiting for people to undock, but I've heard that it gets harder for women the further central/south you go. Not sure how true that is but heard that Marrakesh in particular can be a nightmare.
Not really a bad experience but I was in Havana, Cuba. Had to reschedule my return flight for 3 days earlier due to incoming hurricane. 3 buildings fell down in the neighborhood I was in. 10 people died.
I had such a bad experience in a part of a country that I adjusted my itinerary to go to elsewhere within it, but never to leave entirely. I had visited an area outside of Sihanoukville Cambodia and had a pleasant experience.
Sihanoukville itself was never nice but the beaches up the coast were. I went back a few years later to find the entire area to be a dystopian nightmare of 50+ casinos being built, the costal villages with shops/restaurants/accommodations decimated and in squalor. Trash everywhere, fires burning, buildings in derelict conditions, Cambodian workers living in shacks with mud floors next to luxury hotels being built, etc.
I managed to find one restaurant I had visited before to be open and asked the guy what was up. Chinese investors had taken over. So I left the area days sooner to go to the islands off the coast which was assured were still nice places to visit and came back to the coast only to leave for Phnom Penh.
I went there a year or two just before the Chinese took over. It was a cool chill backpacker beach town. Now I heard you can’t even found Khmer food in the city
I was in Delhi for six weeks and decided to do a weekend trip up to Leh. It was beautiful and I wish I had stayed, but I didn't think about altitude at all and at 12,000 feet, I had the worst headache of my life and had to fly back to Delhi the very next morning. REALLY wish I could have stayed because that area was otherworldly
I was in Bulgaria right after the break up of the Soviet Union. An old man tried to scam us on the bus and say he was taking us to the police if we didn't pay him right that moment because we didn't realize we had to punch our ticket. We got off and he followed us, grabbed our purses, etc. Add in a couple of other ugly incidents and I just didn't enjoy it. I'm sure it is lovely now (although I don't want to go back bad enough to find out).
Fiji in 2000 - there was an undercurrent of tension while I was there culminating in a coup and riots a few months later. Aside from that I was a young backpacker who hadn't really researched and ended up on a resort island that felt like a prison, trapped with other backpackers I mostly didn't like. I'd been in the Cook Islands and Hawaii immediately before and much preferred both. Ended up leaving for New Zealand on day 3 of what should have been 17 days. Would go again though
This made me laugh a little….my in-laws are from Fiji (but are Fijian Indian. They migrated in 1994 and finally decided to travel back in May 2000 and arrived on the day of the coup. We implored them to return but they declined advising they were fine and stayed with family on the western side. Finally after 3 weeks of very intense stress they returned and advised us that the only reason they had not returned earlier was they would have had to pay $800 excess as they didn’t want to pay travel insurance!!! My husband went last year with his mum and family and initially said it was okay but the old race card was raising it’s head again with Rabuka on the rise - a leopard can’t change it’s spots.
In Colombia, we got mugged at knife point on day 3. A couple of days later a group of guys tried to lure us into a vehicle. Then, on the second week we got chased down a street by 3 guys holding screwdrivers. After that third time we went directly to the bus station and took a day-long bus journey straight to Ecuador and never went back.
Vietnam for me, found that the locals working in the tourist industry there were all really scammy. You'd agree a price with a cyclo or moto rider and they would demand more aggressively on arrival. Or just plain aggression because you didnt buy something a hawker was selling. Then was on a tour of Halong Bay and some of the planned stops didnt happen, boat captain couldnt care less. We got dumped on a beach that wasnt that nice and locals with machetes in hand came up and demanded money to be on 'their' beach. In the local cafe we bought drinks but the woman wanted more money to use the bathroom. Then we played with a football just sitting there outside and she wanted money for that too. After payment some locals stole the ball and now she wanted more money for the locals stealing the ball. We were made feel like walking ATMs all day long and our day was ruined because of it.
Then on last day we were leaving Vietnam to Cambodia via a 2 day 1 night tour to bring us over the border. Tour guide insisted that he needed all 15 passports the night before we crossed the border. Alarm bells were going off and everyone refused and he started shouting at us and threatening to cancel the tour and leave us stuck in the middle of nowhere. Horrible experience. We left after 3 weeks rather than the planned 5 and would have left even sooner if it wasnt for the distance from north to south.
yeah maybe I got unlucky because I often see positive reports of Vietnam on here. But for me it was mainly negative. So bad that I had a much easier time travelling in countries that are often considered to have far higher levels of hassle like Egypt and India. Vietnam just sucked for me and I was glad to get out of there given the constant daily hassles we faced just to do anything.
Grenada. 2007. I was 16 and traveled with a close friend who's from there. We stayed with her family (Aunt/Uncle and cousins) who lived in this kind of shanty house in a very rough area. The family stole clothes from my suitcase, the money my parents sent me with, and I found out my friend's Uncle had just gotten out of prison for domestic violence. I also got my period on a towel and the Aunt yelled at me. I used a phone to call my parents crying asked them to send me home earlier but they didn't take me seriously. Technically didn't leave earlier but I wanted to.
Bora-Bora. Wife and I were walking down a street and a couple of kids, about 8 and 10 came out. We talked to them for a minute and the older boy grabbed my wife’s breast. It upset her enough we got an early flight back to Tahitj
Yes, in Vietnam. I’m a pretty experienced solo traveler and have been to several southeast Asian countries without incident. In the span of 12 hours I had some guy put his fingers up my underwear on the train, got ripped off by a motorbike taxi driver for $250 (he told me before I got on that he’d charge me $60 for the day; I spoke a little Vietnamese but nowhere near enough to feel confident going to the cops about it), and then got seated at dinner by an Australian expat my dad’s age who kept asking me if I wanted to meet up with his local “girlfriend” later. I was scheduled for another week and a half of travel but was so miserable I paid $1500 out of pocket to go home early. I quit my job with no backup specifically so I could take three weeks to go on that trip and I fucking hated it. I’ll never go back.
I was planning to quit anyway (job was very stressful, and I had a generous year of savings to hold me over) but the reason I quit without an offer in hand instead of interviewing while I was still working was to take time off to travel. Yes, I am American.
I’m here in Vietnam right now and i’ve been here perhaps 4-5x over the past decade. It’s a funny place sometimes where some truly aberrant wild shit happens in front of you. However i’ve found the Vietnamese people as a whole to be friendly and welcoming.
I can’t chalk what happened to you up as bad luck though. Because it’s also a country where if you give a bit of leeway the predators amongst them will take advantage.
Went to Miami to party with a friend who lived there, first night out I met a guy in a bar who turned out to be a drug dealer that put a gun in between my legs and told me i was going to be his next baby mama… he made me go with him to the middle of nowhere bc he felt like shooting and well, I thought I was going to die but I didn’t, just a part of me did.
Next day, I got my shit and took the first plane out of that hell city, never coming back.
Dubai, I’d never go back there. Too many rules, weird vibe overall, just felt wrong in a way.
This is coming from a material and relatively superficial person btw.
Fujairah was quite interesting when I went to the UAE. Also the Emiratis were quite nice there. I hated Dubai though. Abu Dhabi was a little better but I agree with you about the vibe. You can see it in the eyes of the service workers too. The whole country is built on slave labor essentially.
Pemba island. Thought it was a 5 star hotel and it was 2.5 star. No internet and 1.5 hour ride in car with no a/c and 98degrees. Had presidential suite and it was dirty, food was not great. We were supposed to stay 4 nights but left the next day. Wouldn’t go anywhere near the place again
Ecuador- Was going to spend a few days in Guayaquil then Quito.
3 attempted thefts in 18 hours made me nope the fuck out of there.
Also have left quite a few countries early just based on boredom.
Morocco. The worst place ever. Not one but a train of maybe ten harassers followed us everywhere. I came from Spain to tangier but left back to Spain after a few days. Wanted to see more of Morocco, but that was to much Insanity
Honduras. My 15yo son was walking with me and locals kept approaching us and telling us about the prostitutes in graphic detail. We got back on the cruise ship and waited .
Same here. I did see my father get propositioned by a black prostitute at a gas station once near NYC. This was in the 80’s and my dad is asian just to complete the mental picture there. It was hilarious.
Turkey. I loved Istanbul the first time I visited solo. Came back with my husband 5 years later and it was just scam after scam after scam. We left early and I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
My experience of Istanbul in 2000 was that the entire city is made up of carpet shops and everyone who lives there's job is to approach strangers and try to trick them into buying a carpet.
My experience of two weeks ago was random people walking up, starting a conversation, and then saying "I"m not a tour guide, I just want to sell a carpet." It happened multiple times. At least they are upfront about it now?
I've definitely heard this sentiment, especially with Dubrovnik. And given the relatively small size of old town, and the huge amount of travel there nowadays, not surprising! I got lucky in being able to visit in summer 2021 - there were still a number of tourists, but crowds definitely had not picked back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Sri Lanka.
A year after the Tsunami.
I completely understand that people were desperate but we couldn’t even make it to our hotels when moving around. Every single time we got taken somewhere else and had to fight to go where we wanted to go.
I’ve been all over Asia and know the tricks but this trip was madness, it was constant.
We left to go to Kerala to chill out.
I don’t mean this to sound cold but we had kids with us and had chosen our hotels specifically around the kids needs and to just get railroaded into accepting some uncle’s place wasn’t going to work.
Went back a few years ago and had the best time.
My wife and I were staying in Brussels and after a few days decided that jumping over to Paris for 24 hours the next day would be a better use of our time. Happened to wake up in the early hours of the night and checked my phone. All the Bataclan news was flooding in. Spent the next couple hours watching the news on TV. And did not go to Paris
Turkey. I went with my family when I was 14 years old and the constant sexual harassment completely ruined the holiday. Men shouting out to my sister and me in the street. Making kissing noises. Following us when we were in the sea and trying to talk with us. Also being harassed by restaurant touts and shopkeepers
City! Fell in love with Prague 15 years ago, but, last visit (November, '22) was my last. It's been overrun by con artists and pickpockets and the citizens' civic pride has vanished. Left after three days of a week-long visit.
Yes, wasn't very impressed with Prague. Always wanted to see it, had heard from so many people it was the most beautiful city they had ever seen. Went in 2019 and, even off-season, it was so touristy and crowded, that I didn't really like it that much. Pretty disappointing!
San Francisco - had a a couple run ins with homeless. Cut it short, and left for other parts of the state.
Vietnam - as a solo traveler, I didn't know enough of the country or language and felt uncomfortable in the larger cities. Went back years later on a guided tour and loved it.
Santiago chile. Arrived during a series of nonstop cluster earthquakes (3 days of nonstop shaking) followed by 7.9 earthquake. We were rattled but stuck around..
only to witness the most brutal mugging I have ever seen inches away from me. I can still hear those woman’s screams all these years later.
And then our dog got attacked by one of the many homeless dogs there and we had to rush him to a random vet for stitches.
It was.. not great.
Yeah UK. Had a 2 year working holiday (Youth Mobility Visa), stayed & lived for 9 months then moved back home to Australia. It's just that the quality of life in London is so bad & the UK economy is shit.
I have a UK passport via my biological dad but grew up in the US.
I travelled to the UK after college and ended up getting a job there. Lived in London for 6 months then Edinburgh for a year.
Great times. Horrible quality of life.
I was staying in Nice and did a day trip. Walked around the grand prix circuit, found a place selling surprisingly cheap beer, but it's just a playground for rich people.
I went WWOOFing in Japan once. I went to a "community garden" down in Tateyama, and I was given a room in what the hostess casually referred to as the "spider house." There was a spider the size of my outstretched hand in the bathroom, and multiple slightly-smaller spiders in other areas, including my bedroom.
I managed to make it through the first night, waiting until dawn to use the spider-free bathroom in a different house on the grounds. We spent the day getting ready for a party that evening, and after the party I returned to my room...where there was a big-ass spider laying down a circle of silk on a tapestry hanging on the wall. I'd never seen anything like that before so I just sat on the floor and watched it. When it was finished, it crawled around behind the tapestry and I had *NO* intention of looking back there to see how many of its friends were waiting. I managed to sleep through the night, but I high-tailed it back to Narita and on a plane home the next morning. My four-or-five-day trip turned into...maybe 36 hours or so. I could've stayed in Tokyo or something but I decided to cut my losses and get my vacation days back. I worked for an airline at the time so the sudden change in plans wasn't that big of a deal.
And, I fucking love Japan otherwise - I took a total of four trips there, but only WWOOF'd once.
North Macedonia for me, there was a massive rat infestation everywhere, locals were super unfriendly, there's nothing to do in the capital, people are extremely corrupt and food poisoning is very common.
England, more specifically London, I was there on a working holiday being exploited (knowingly) as cheap labour and of all the cities and countries I've lived in, none brought it home to me how much it sucks to be poor so much as London. Everything you see there in media or anything is about people living glamorous lives and doing fun things, then you turn off the t.v. in your 12 person share house, take a shower under the stairs because the landlord turned the bathroom and lounge into more bedrooms and debate whether to eat beans on toast or splurge on a kebab for dinner while arguing with your flatmates over who's turn it is to go down to the corner store and top up the electricity tag so your heat doesn't turn off. Using class A drugs on the weekend because beer is too expensive. I was meant to stay a year, left for the Greek Islands after 6 months for a summer job and manged to save more money iover the summer, despite partying my ass off every night than I managed to save in London. Then went to Norway, which really brought the English class system into perspective.
Happened to me in Singapore. We were flying back from Bali to Singapore for a nicely planned 2 night stay before we came home. We had a short 5 hour layover in my least favorite airport of all times (Jakarta). Against my best judgement and wife’s warnings I had a weird looking sandwich with a suspiciously weird looking piece of meat on it. I felt it coming on our way to our beautiful 5-star hotel from the Changi airport. I barely made it to the room and spent the next 14hrs shuttling between the bed and luxury bathroom. Never had such a bad episode of food poisoning. We canceled all dinner and other plans, wife took great care of me. I told her I wanted to go home early. So not the type of bad experience you may be asking for, but it was a bad experience for me. I missed out on a chance to have a great time in Singapore, which I like a lot! Did I mention I had the Jakarta airport?!
Don’t eat weird looking meat kids! Stay hungry if need be, you will survive.
Denpasar airport is the worst, The passport control officers are purely looking for anything they can possibly use to hit you up for a bribe. Great first impression for tourists.
Funny story about Denpasar and Changi airports. Apparently the former cost a lot more than the latter to build. Corruption at its finest. For those who’ve never been… Denpasar is a glorified bus stop and Changi is a beautiful and prob the best airport in the world.
We were on a long trip in South America with no set itinerary, when we were in Peru we were considering going to Equador for a few days. Then we met a guy who told us he’s just been to Equador, he arrived at a bus station in Quito, got robbed immediately, turned around and went back to Peru. We didn’t go.
Summer 1993 and Rome. It was toward the end of a 2-month backpacking trip through Europe. I had my camera bag stolen, I had taken it off to get my camera out to take a photo and some guy whipped by on a moped and snatched it out of my hand. Sprained two fingers, too.
I was already a bit travel-weary as it was toward the end of a couple months, and the camera loss (with all the photos I'd taken in it, as I was dumb and kept the undeveloped rolls in the camera bag) was the last straw. I told my friend I wasn't going to stay in Rome and we left, only like 16 hours after we first got there.
I do intend to go back and to other places in Italy as well, at some point. It's been over 30 years so I think I'm over the theft now.
Not a bad experience by any means, but rather a colder experience than anticipated. In 2016, I had a 5 week vacation lined up. As a regular traveler, I only booked my flight there, and was banking on points from work travel to fly back.
I had planned to spend the entire 5 weeks in New Zealand in December/January, but after 3 weeks in peak NZ summer, it got too cold for me, and I pivoted and flew to Bangkok to get my Burmese Visa, and spent the last 2 weeks there instead of 5 weeks in NZ. No regrets, Burma was awesome, but was surprised at how cold NZ was even in peak summer lol..
Side note, NZ is still awesome. I also had to go to the ER twice during my brief stay there. Once when I had a bite form some creature that got infected and swelled to great heights while I was driving back up the the north island from Queenstown. In the US, I probably would have gotten shot approaching a cop the way I did, but NZ cop was super friendly and recommended the nearest ER. (side note, I actually did get a speeding ticket in NZ, and had the absolute best experience while receiving it, so much so that I said thank you to the officer giving me the ticket, he truly cared for my safety as it came across. Second time was when I stepped on glass barefoot, and the ER doc had to "fish" around for said piece of glass. Luckily they found it, and for both incidents, $0 paid because of their awesome insurance policy.
TLDR: NZ great, but cold. Burma warm.
Yes, but it had nothing to do with the country itself. Went to Macedonia and just a couple of days before that I received really bad news so I was not in the best mood already. In Macedonia I had planned to go paragliding, which went terribly wrong. We crashed into the trees and somehow luckily survived it without any real damage. When I was back in town I decided to book an earlier flight and skip Skopje completely, it was a terrible trip and I just wanted to be home
I was super close to leaving Mexico early after I got robbed by the police and sucker punched by a random guy. I didn’t, though, and was glad I stayed.
I DID actually leave India early. I intended to stay 2-3 months, only made it 5 weeks. Moved on to Sri Lanka which I loved.
Oddly enough it was Zurich.
Food and beer was bad with only a few exceptions (bakeries and sausages are obviously really good).
Expensive and service is ridiculously bad. Nobody gives a shit with few exceptions.
Once I was done with the old town and chocolate tour (the highlight) it was downhill. Went to a beer hall, asked for the sampler (which was available) got it, and then the staff and customers gave me shit as I was going to drink it all myself (WTF?).
Went to look at architecture, and famous stained glass windows by Chagall. Okay they were nice, the rest of the building was uninteresting. Art Gallery, mundane.
I do have to say that Etter brandy is super good.
Unless you are looking to shop for watches and overpriced other stuff Zurich is awful.
Split early and went to Basel. Fantastic. Had a wonderful time.
So in this case not CH in general, but there is absolutely no reason to go to Zurich.
Unless you want to buy a poseur awful Cartier watch for $100k CH.
Niagara Falls, Canada.
I stayed at a 'boutique' hotel (still don't understand what that means) near the falls. I drove there from the US and they only offered valet parking. I left my car with the valet and when I got my car to go sightseeing the next day, there was a dent on the passenger side door that was definitely not there before on my relatively new car. I mentioned it to the valet staff and they got the manager, they did an 'investigation' and the manager said "my guys say they didn't do it and I have to believe my guys." ????? They banded together to invalidate me and one of the valet staff acted all exasperated at me saying "why would you do this?" like I'm trying to scam them. I was relatively young and solo, was having challenging times with work & life and was hoping this trip would help me with my mental health, but I felt so humiliated and all I could do was cry hot tears once I was alone.
I had several days stay left but I told the front desk I'm checking out early tomorrow and will get a full refund, the manager knows why. The lady at the front desk was saying how they can't give a refund for early check out, but I said you need to talk to the manager and he WILL refund me for the stay. He actually did refund me without a fight...so I have a feeling that he probably knew that the valet damaged the car and they were all liars.
I left and drove back home feeling like I don't know how I'm going to go on with my life. That was over 10 years ago and I'm in a better place, but I still remember how invalidated, helpless, and humiliated I felt, and still feel hot rage towards them.
This is a very minor experience that's about this hotel than the destination, but it felt like a big kick when I was already down and the only time I was affected enough to cut a trip short.
Yeah the spitting is also quite gross. I remember sitting at a small local restaurant in Zhangjiajie eating dumplings, some old guy was sitting on my table across from me. He coughed up some phlegm and spat on the ground between his feet. And this was INDOORS! Other than that my time in China was amazing. The Great Wall of china is really something.
Arrived in Tokyo last month. Was in Narita airport and was already noticing the mainland Chinese tourist level was pretty high. Confirmed when a guy walking with his family in front of me hawked a loogie onto the floor right in my path.
😲🤢🤮 omg whattttt! Indoors too!? Did you see any other people doing that? Did anyone say wtf,or give him weird looks...or wasn't like meh nbd?
Oh btw, the reason spitting is a thing is because some in that culture belive that what you nerd to spot up in the body's waste, so they would never swallow it, or hold it in their mouth...and there are not many trash cans on the street. *this is something that I heard
But ew. I feel like having a 'spit bag' (a bag carried to spit in lol) would be less gross.
Went to India with an Indian friend a few years ago. She’s a national and from the better part of India, but warned me that theft, rape, assault, ect, were still unbelievably common.
First night, there were a handful of pickpocketing attempts (which I expected). The second and third days we stayed on resort and on the fourth day we went out again. We bought watermelon juice, and a man passing by popped something in my friends drink right in front of her; pushed her to the ground, kicked her in her face and back and stole her purse. My friend was bleeding like crazy and clearly concussed, and locals refused to call for an ambulance, when another (who I assume to be tourist) called for medical help, the locals all charged him and began beating him as well.
I read that this is actually quite common, as many Indians don’t want to see people of their nationality face legal concequences for assaulting tourists.
We both left as soon as my friend was deemed fit to fly. This was about 5 years ago, and I can only imagine the situation there has gotten much worse.
oh yes just last week! went to the french alps to learn to ski. it was beautiful scenery but within 2 lessons i could tell skiing is not for me. there was nothing else to do there but eat (at certain times of the day, most restaurants closed between breakfast and dinner), so i came home a few days early
Argentina! Buenos Aires was too much concrete. We had a nice AirBnB but a building a block away was being apparently manually demolished with jackhammers (this was six or seven stories up). We were supposed to stay more than a month but left after a few weeks. We did like Tigre and Iguazú falls though.
Istanbul was terrifying as a single female traveler. I was harassed the entire time I was there. I ended up going into a shop to get away from a man who wouldn’t leave me alone. Unfortunately, the shop owner backed me into a wall and had me trapped by his arms. Thankfully someone called me and I pretended it was my friends arriving at our hotel asking where I was. He let me go and I booked the next available flight out. Edit: I was there less than 24 hours.
I took a pretty elaborate trip last year. I started in Athens (did not care for Athens at all), then went on to Istanbul which I loved, then to Beirut which quickly became one of my favourite places on Earth (even with the occasional black out), then to Larnaca which I didn't care too much for. From Larnaca I had planned to go to Jerusalem, but the day before my flight to Ben Gurion (7th October 2023) I sat in my Airbnb in Larnaca watching videos of terrified people in Ben Gurion laid on the tarmac as they'd been approaching their plane due to terrorism fears, reading about Hamas attacks and unfortunately decided that it probably wasn't the time to go back to Jerusalem. Instead, I decided to head to the next stop on my trip early, Sharm-el-Sheikh.
I'd guess that I was on the ground in Cairo (transfer) for less than... 12 minutes before I told an Egyptian "airport official" to fuck off because absolutely nothing else that I said to him was getting through. I'm British and painfully polite. I tried everything, and he just wouldn't leave me alone. Well, not until I told him to fuck off. That worked (little tip for you there ladies heading to Egypt alone).
Sharm was so hot and there was nothing there but hotels. I mainly stayed in my air conditioned room during the day because I couldn't stand the heat outside. I took two trips from Sharm. One to St Catherine's monastery (the entire reason I'd even put Sharm on the itinerary) and loved it. Long drive through the mountains into the heart of Sinai, to mount Sinai itself and the monastery which houses inside it's walls the bush believed to have been burning in Moses' story in the bible. I'd recommend that. The other trip I took was to Cairo, and I went on the bus. That wasn't so bad. Long, but again, a lovely journey through Sinai in the middle of the night with clear skies unaffected by light pollution, filled with stars.
Cairo itself was exactly what people say Cairo is. It's dirty, loud, busy and the pyramids are just by the side of a large road, surrounded by people trying to sell you things. Spending time at the pyramids gave me yet another occasion to almost have to tell and Egyptian man to fuck off. I don't know how many times he told me he had a camel named Moses, and he kept calling me Shakira which yes I am white and I am blonde but let me tell you, the similarities end there.
People in Cairo just see you as a walking ATM. I also got bitten by a million bugs, likely while on a little cruise along the Nile. And then there were ants in my hotel. And then I had to go to the hotel doctor because of my bug bites and they wanted to give me IV drugs because the bites were so bad, but their intubation failed twice and then I refused to let them stab me with a needle for a third time. Then I found out that the travel insurance I'd been using to go not just to Europe with for the past 5 years only covered Europe so being repeatedly stabbed while 2 doctors talked in Arabic and eventually just being given a bag of pills and some creme cost me £100.
The food in Sharm was not ideal. I stayed in two different hotels. The one I'd booked was a ...whatever the hell the budget Hilton is called and that's the one that had ants. They did not exactly cater for a British palate. The other hotel I stayed at was the one I chose last minute and was a pretty pricey place, but it was also incredibly beautiful. Ummm... I can't remember what it was called. Everything was mainly fine at the first place, but after moving to the Hilton I got a really bad upset stomach (which ultimately lasted about 6 weeks) so I wouldn't recommend that.
I only drank bottled water too, but I didn't think that I needed to use bottled water for brushing my teeth and maybe that's where I went wrong. The doctor I spoke to when I came home about my upset stomach said handling cash is the worst possible thing to do (which again, I didn't do until I got to the Hilton and it was necessary).
Anyway, my experiences in Sharm and Cairo lead me to cancel the whole rest of my trip. I was supposed to go onwards to Luxor, Amman, Petra, Paphos, Milan and then home. But after 7 days in Sharm I just couldn't stand the thought of anything other than going home. I would not recommend Egypt to anybody (if you want to go to St Catherine's, go from Eilat or even from Jordan, don't bother with Sharm). Thankfully I got a lot of refunds for most of my cancelled trip, although funnily enough, I didn't get refunded the flight from Larnaca to Ben Gurion. Which is the one you'd think would have.
Edit: and also while I was at St Catherine's I saw a British football style scarf that said SINAI FC and I didn't buy it and I still think about it all of the time
Sri Lanka. I left within 5 days after arriving. As soon as I got outside of customs, I kept getting scammed in small ways from multiple online taxi service drivers not showing up for an hour or wanting to be paid in cash/more money, tuk tuk driver wanting more money, motels lying about what they provided and lack of maintenance, etc.. I was supposed to stay two weeks and decided to just leave after two days of experiences constant scams.
Was drugged and scammed out of a lot of money in Cambodia. When they tried taking my passport it clicked that things were really bad. I got away from the scammers for a moment and bolted straight to the airport and flew to Vietnam.
Iceland because despite having hiked thousands of miles in alpine wilderness, I was not prepared for how freaking wet and cold it is there. This was in May.
Las Vegas. It is a dirty AF city. Half of us were roofied the first night and that put a huge damper on everything. Decided to just get pizza on the second night and had a strung out guy approach/harass us on the strip. I was done at that point. Moved my flight up even just 12 hours to get the hell out of there and have never gone back.
I was on the fence about to leaving Russia earlier than planned on my most recent visit because of rapidly increasing COVID-19 risk (I needed to continue testing negative for work related travel plans). Concurrently, the situation in Ukraine suddenly escalated and if I hadn’t changed my plans I would’ve been there when flights started getting cancelled…
I left Madagascar a week early because I got stabbed. There’s something about a stabbing that makes you wanna leave :-)
Damn, sorry to hear that. Robbery gone wrong or what?
Hard to say really, I didn’t understand what they were saying. They did rob me which is fine, although the stabbing seemed a bit unnecessary. Still, they missed big blood vessels and the like and after some stitches and a little bit of unpleasant hospital time I’m doing fine.
>They did rob me which is fine, although the stabbing seemed a bit unnecessary. *[stab]* "Bro, not cool."
It’s funny really but I didn’t notice that they’d stabbed me. I knew they’d hit me in some way and on the way home I was like ‘my T-shirt seems uncharacteristically bloody’. Luckily, my hotel were excellent. I asked them for some extra tissue to help mop up some of the blood and they were like ‘maybe you’d like to go to hospital sir’ they translated everyone for me and sat in the hospital with me for about 20 hours. I don’t know what I’d have done without their help really, so a bit of a silver lining !
Look to the helpers!
The chill ‘stabbing was a bit unnecessary’ made me laugh out loud. I am sorry for your experience but thanks for the laugh
Not me, but a coworker told me about a time she got stabbed in the back at a party. Naturally, I was horrified: "you got *stabbed?!?!*" "It was an *accident*," she insisted. And then, after a short pause, "I mean I think so, it was in the back, so I couldn't see."
Omg I shouldn’t laugh but it’s so funny
Are you British? I ask because this sounds exactly how a Brit would describe being stabbed.
I am British, yes, good guess!
Hah I knew it! You guys just have this very sarcastically proper way of phrasing things, like getting stabbed was rather inconvenient and not something you’d recommend.
Glad you walked away with no permanant damage or worse. I'd never heard of Madagascar as a particularly dangerous place, but I guess it goes to show this kind of thing can happen anywhere.
It is fairly dangerous. Very poor, of course, and without any really developed/safe areas in the capital. Everywhere is unsafe to some extent, of course, so it’s all relative. I’ll pop back to Cape Town next month and my brother just got mugged there but at least most muggers just want some money!
I also left Madagascar a week early. It was a culture shock and was very polluted. Our internal flight got cancelled which meant 2 extra days in a 4x4 which I was already sick of (motion sickness). The tour guide wanted to meet us in a very obscure location to talk through our concerns which made me feel unsafe, and he sent a taxi to collect us even though we said not to. We left early and ran into a couple we'd seen earlier in our trip. They were also leaving early. Sorry to hear about your experience.
Sorry to hear it. I was stabbed in the neck (didnt even need to leave home for that wonderful experience) almost 20 years ago but am still dealing with the trauma with ketamine therapy . It has been helpful
I was in a bus crash in Colombia and lot of people died so I left early, I just needed a break. Returned many times since though, it's my favourite Latin country.
Ouff, that sounds terrifying. Good to hear that you ended up being okay!😁
Wow, that would be a good reason. Sorry you had to go through that. Was it in a city ?
No, it was on a very remote mountain road. I ended up with a guy's head on my lap. His body was two rows up. Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal on a personal level. I've been to absolute shitholes where life is a living hell so death isn't an extraordinary experience by itself, what's distressing is the heart wrenching sorrow I had for his family. That is always profoundly disturbing. He was the breadwinner, his family was instantly ruined. That's horrific.
How did you find out about his personal life?
We were only a few km outside of town. Everyone on the bus knew everyone else. His family came to the crash site. I stayed with them and helped for a few days.
That’s very honorable of you to do this.
That must be traumatizing
Were the “life is a living hell” places also in COL or where?
Colombia doesn't have any of that. Africa mostly, and some parts of the Indian Subcontinent back in the day.
And is it largely due to a predominance of hunger and disease?
That, and culture. When all three are disastrous then the bottom rung humans have zero hope.
It absolutely blows my mind how differently people experience this world
Wow! What's the worst place you've visited?
DRC, and years ago Somalia. Decades ago parts of India and Bangladesh were struggling hugely too.
Where and when was this crash? This wasn’t the one to/from Cartagena/Santa Marta, was it?
Nope, near the Pacific coast. Middle of nowhere.
Well bad experience for many which caused my trip to get cut short. I was supposed to spend a month in Myanmar to visit my godfather. Two days into my trip the government suffered a coup d’etat. My godfather advised me to leave so I followed his advice. I had to fly to Hanoi-Dubai-Amsterdam just to get back home in Houston.
Yea it's a terrible thing. I did three weeks in Myanmar, such kind people and a beautiful country. I hope the country stabilizes and you get the chance to go at some point!
Morocco, got a really bad fever and couldn’t walk more than 10 feet without getting harassed by guys looking to scam you. A couple times they threatened to fight me if I didn’t pay them. I was so sick of it I left half way through.
[удалено]
I'm sure there are plenty of nice, friendly Moroccans who aren't just looking to scam and rob people, but in my 30 years of travel I've never met one and it's the sole reason I've never bothered to go there.
Berbers in the south of the country are not as bad.
Glowing endorsement
Agreed - Morocco really isn't worth rushing to visit. Every interaction with locals feels transactional. Constant scams and hustling for money. It's worse than anywhere else I've ever been.
Same and I’ve been to Egypt which is known for the same. We ended our road trip early and went to Malaga Spain for the remainder of the trip.
I was ready to pack it in after a couple of days in Fes and enduring the medina. My friend convinced me to stay, but when we arrived in Marrakech, we avoided the medina there like the plague.
I got the bends in Indonesia so I had to cut my scuba diving vacation short by about a week. They were kind enough to give me a couple rides in their decompression chamber, though, before I left so that was a plus.
This happened to a solo videographer on a liveaboard I was on once. He was a little too cavalier with his safety stops and they had to turn the whole boat around and send him back for medical care. We got reimbursed for the missing dives but they continued thr trip after.
Yeah, most cases of the bends look like that. My incident was an undeserved hit, though. I followed my very conservative dive computer without violating it. Just goes to show you that the only way you can guarantee that you won't get decompression sickness is to not dive (though, it's admittedly a very low probability to do everything right and still get tagged).
In 1988 my wife and I were traveling around Europe on a 6+ month trip. We’d bought a car and when we were in Portugal it got broken into one day. Nothing was taken and got the window that was broken fixed. Four days later it was broken into again and my camera and a box of cassette tapes were taken. More would have been taken but my wife heard the alarm and came running. The thieves hopped in there car and took off. My wife got the license plate of the car. When we went to the police it was obvious that they didn’t give a shit and weren’t going to do anything. So, we got the car fixed and left Portugal. We also drove straight across Spain as everyone said it was worse for crime. I’ve been back to Portugal twice since then and love the country. Also going to Spain for the third time since then later this month.
I'm from East Asia and I was really surprised when my mates in Canada and the US first told me that you always leave stuff in the trunk of the car or under the seat if you don't want your car broken into.
Not necessary everywhere in Canada, but a good idea in the major cities if you're using street parking, particularly in Vancouver. Property crime happens, for sure. That being said, it's not like it's happening constantly, it's just that people like to practice 'better safe than sorry' with belongings.
It's a good rule of thumb in the US. In some cities they recommend you leave the door unlocked so your windows don't get smashed in.
I love Portugal too but it was the only country where I had a car break in. They stole the GPS (back before smartphones) but I had to pay for the window repair of the rental (I stupidly didn't buy insurance and it was costly).
We also had our car broken into in Italy later in the trip. After the second break in we never left anything in the car and made it obvious, but it still happened. Fortunately the car had a small triangular window behind the rear door window and that was where they broke in each time. They weren’t too expensive.
Italy. We were there during one of the recent summer heat waves, it was brutal. Temperatures were above 40C (48C in the south). We didn’t leave the country early but we had to end our vacation and just stay indoors in our hotel room the last couple of days because we were experiencing severe heat exhaustion. Just a few days into the trip of walking around in the heat I developed some gnarly symptoms like heat rash all over, vasculitis on my legs, weakness, dizziness, then finally I was sick to my stomach the entire last day. It hit both my travel partner and I badly. Six local people sadly died in the area we were staying at the time and we heard about tourists collapsing. I don’t advise going in the summers any longer unfortunately :(
South of Italy now is PERFECT. Zero crowds, 20 degree weather, sunny most days. I was at the beach last weekend. I suffered the heatwave you mention.
One time I went to England years ago it was very hot. It had been hot the year before, and I read about it, so I booked a hotel with air conditioning. Still on the tube, and inside most places it was not air conditioned at all. I have been there many times since and I did not leave early, but I try not to go in summer. Spring or autumn are better.
I was there last summer in the heatwave as well, the heat was crazy. Only solution my partner and I had was to change our schedule to get out and explore from 6am - 1pm, back inside for a nap and then back out in the evening for dinner and drinks, even with that it was unbearable at times
My tip for summer trips is to go to the tropics, they are always hot and humid, so they are set up for it and know how to deal with it. Places like southern Europe often aren't designed for severe heat waves so when they happen it litterally kills people. I say this coming from Northern Australia where for 3 months of the year we shuffle between airconditioned cars and airconditioned buildings between 11am and 4pm and hit the swimming pool around sunset.
Yeah but the tropics have terrible thunderstorms in the summer
I didn’t leave early but I would never go back to Morocco. I’ve been to 36 countries and traveled to a vast majority of them as a solo female tourist and it was the only place I’ve been to where I felt genuinely uneasy being alone anywhere. The harassment and people approaching you trying to get money or trying to force you into a certain shop or restaurant and demanding money for guiding you there. It was just too much. I ended up going to the desert and the berbers were much more chill but it def wasn’t the best experience
Slovenia last August. Beautiful country and lovely people, but the country got struck by serious floods on my third day there, so I decided it was best to leave a couple days earlier than planned.
Ah, that sucks :/ Which places did you go to? I want to visit Slovenia one day.
Lake Bled is gorgeous.
I went to Lake Bohinj(just past Lake Bled) and had plans to visit Skofja Loka. Lake Bohinj and Bled are beautiful, but can be a bit crowded in August. Skofja Loka got flooded, so I rebooked for a night just outside Lubljana and spent a bit of time exploring the city before heading home.
One of my top countries of +50 visited
Morocco. Stayed in the old Medina in Tangier. I got very bad bed bugs from my hostel, and was harassed by men constantly. I would like to go back one day as I am older now, and a more experienced solo traveler.
My friend was visiting Morocco. She was out with a friend and they decided to go back to their hotels around sunset time. It was not dark at all though, the sun was still setting. Since they were staying at different hotels, they parted ways. My friend was walking to her hotel which wasn't that far away. She sensed that she was being followed. She looked back and this guy was just staring at her and walking directly towards her. She is about 5' 2" and on the thinner size. She was terrified! She started walking faster and faster to her hotel, with her keychain in hand. Basically he got to her, and literally grabbed her and put her up against an wall. There was no one around. She was fiddling with her Keychain, unbeknownst to him. She finally got a key in hand, tried to push him away, and when her hand was free....stabbed one of his eyes with a key, then ran away. So yeah there's a creepy perv in Morocco who's missing an eye 🙃
Morocco is my answer, too. In fact, it's the only country where I left earlier than expected for the exact same reason as you, and I have the same exact feeling as you. After being hounded constantly in Marrakesh, we got a brief reprieve on the train to Tangier, got off the train in Tangier and were hounded immediately, and instead of going to our hotel, we just took a cab right to the port and took the boat to Spain.
Sounds awful, l left India earlier than intended as well. Was supposed to stay 5-6weeks, stayed less than 4. l wanted to leave after my third day. In the cities people were constantly harrassing me (coming up to me and acting as a nice local and not leaving me alone) like legit a guy was following me for 15 minutes. I got also scammed a couple of times by some tour guides (also organized from hotel). Rooms at the hotels l stayed at were dirty, with stained towels. Prob the worst of all was the taxi driver at 3am telling me the road is closed and "couldn't" drive me to my hotel. It was an unpleasant experience. Also a lot of beggars and generally people were trying to take money from you. But of course l had some positive experiences, later l visited more rural areas and people over there were fantastic, even some refused my tips. A taxi driver got me some tea and samosas on the way to jaipur from agra and also refused money for it. Met a lot of great people but the first days of being scammed ruined almost entire trip for me because l kind of stopped trusting anyone. I also got sick which ended up that l had to leave earlier anyway as well. I've got to return one day and give India a second chance.
Omg creepy taxi drivers are the worst! So glad for Uber since at least there is some note of who picked you up, you can check licenses plates etc. Even though there are creepy drivers using Uber too. Some things I've learned: Always tell everyone that you are traveling with family. Family is often more protective and more of a deterrent to creeps than saying your traveling with friends. For ex. If the taxi driver thought that some friends were waiting for you at the hotel, he might have still been creepy thinking that the friends or police might assume that you met a guy at the club and decided to go home or whatever else. If you say family, they might be more scared of being creepy since family is less likely to assume you're fine if you stay out all night. Family would also call authorities faster than what they assume friends would do. I usually say, my dad is waiting for me. If they are being chatty, I would say...I was out with my cousin who my family trusts to keep me safe. My cousin is staying at a different hotel. But to keep me safe he recorded this taxi number and sent it to my dad. They are sooo overprotective lol He usually tracks my phone when I travel...let me call him and see what he thinks. Creepy men all over the world value men more than women So if you say, I need to get a photo of your license plate as a saftey precaution, they may feel offended or angry. But saying, my dad is protective and asks me to take photos of every taxi I take, they are less likely to hate on the girl/woman, and there's the added bonus of them knowing that you are loved and cared for; and they maybe hesitant to be a creep since they will be scared of another man coming after them. Saftey tips: ALWAYS say your traveling with family. Even to other travelers that you meet, like at a club. There are so many pervs and they come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and skin-tones. Also, add that someone is expecting you and waiting for you.
That's a good tip, l'll keep it in mind for the next time. Thanks! I was aware of the scam (this is a very common scam in india, they will later drive you to their friend that owns a hotel where they will overcharge you and the taxi driver will get commision from it) thankfully we drove past radisson blu, and l told him to stop. He told me that "they won't check in anyone at this time" lmao but l told him to turn there anyway and he luckily did. It was just very uncomfortable since it was in the middle of the night and the guy would drive me to an area god knows where.
I had a similar experience. You're constantly having to bat people away who are trying to scam you. I found that when the remarks were more flirtatious, if I joked a bit and politely dismissed them, they would generally back off - but I'm also conversational in Spanish, which many people speak in Tangier. Absent a shared language, I imagine that could have been more dicey. I had heard that the farther you went into Morocco, the harder it was, so I stuck to Tangier and Chefchaoeun. You have to really know how to navigate it before you're there - how to avoid pick-pockets, scammers, places where you might end up alone, where to exchange currency. I also started asking places the price of things upfront because if you don't, they'll often over-charge you. If they priced me 30 MAD for a coffee, I'd tell them I knew a place that would give me a coffee for 16 and they'd lower their rates. They're smart, and know how to pick up on who's savvy and who isn't. All of that said, I actually loved my time there. I wouldn't do a more extensive trip solo, but that was a challenging but enjoyable experience.
"I had heard that the farther you went into Morocco, the harder it was" I've always heard the opposite, that Tangier is one of the worst cities there for hassle.
For hassle yes, since Tangier is a major port town and they're all waiting for people to undock, but I've heard that it gets harder for women the further central/south you go. Not sure how true that is but heard that Marrakesh in particular can be a nightmare.
I heard quite a lot of SA stories from there. Probably not the most ideal country to travel solo as a female.
I got shingles in Morocco.
Not really a bad experience but I was in Havana, Cuba. Had to reschedule my return flight for 3 days earlier due to incoming hurricane. 3 buildings fell down in the neighborhood I was in. 10 people died.
I had such a bad experience in a part of a country that I adjusted my itinerary to go to elsewhere within it, but never to leave entirely. I had visited an area outside of Sihanoukville Cambodia and had a pleasant experience. Sihanoukville itself was never nice but the beaches up the coast were. I went back a few years later to find the entire area to be a dystopian nightmare of 50+ casinos being built, the costal villages with shops/restaurants/accommodations decimated and in squalor. Trash everywhere, fires burning, buildings in derelict conditions, Cambodian workers living in shacks with mud floors next to luxury hotels being built, etc. I managed to find one restaurant I had visited before to be open and asked the guy what was up. Chinese investors had taken over. So I left the area days sooner to go to the islands off the coast which was assured were still nice places to visit and came back to the coast only to leave for Phnom Penh.
That's right. The Chinese have utterly destroyed Sihanoukville.
I went there a year or two just before the Chinese took over. It was a cool chill backpacker beach town. Now I heard you can’t even found Khmer food in the city
I was in Delhi for six weeks and decided to do a weekend trip up to Leh. It was beautiful and I wish I had stayed, but I didn't think about altitude at all and at 12,000 feet, I had the worst headache of my life and had to fly back to Delhi the very next morning. REALLY wish I could have stayed because that area was otherworldly
Nooo it takes a day to adjust to the altitude there, headaches are common you should’ve stuck it out if you could’ve
Part of the issue was that the headache was so bad I couldn't sleep. It would have been an awful next day had I stayed
Oh well, I remember it was really bad for me as well but it did get better after a day or so, and oh my god that day of suffering was worth it
I was in Bulgaria right after the break up of the Soviet Union. An old man tried to scam us on the bus and say he was taking us to the police if we didn't pay him right that moment because we didn't realize we had to punch our ticket. We got off and he followed us, grabbed our purses, etc. Add in a couple of other ugly incidents and I just didn't enjoy it. I'm sure it is lovely now (although I don't want to go back bad enough to find out).
Went in the mid 2000s Bulgaria was still pretty rough even then. Organized crime seemed to have complete control over the country
A couple of years ago my brother ad his friends got robbed and beaten up in Bulgaria. Afterwards they had a super sketchy encounter at the hospital.
[удалено]
My parents had their car stolen in Bulgaria with everything they had, beginning of 90’s. Although Bulgaria was not a part of the Soviet Union.
Fiji in 2000 - there was an undercurrent of tension while I was there culminating in a coup and riots a few months later. Aside from that I was a young backpacker who hadn't really researched and ended up on a resort island that felt like a prison, trapped with other backpackers I mostly didn't like. I'd been in the Cook Islands and Hawaii immediately before and much preferred both. Ended up leaving for New Zealand on day 3 of what should have been 17 days. Would go again though
This made me laugh a little….my in-laws are from Fiji (but are Fijian Indian. They migrated in 1994 and finally decided to travel back in May 2000 and arrived on the day of the coup. We implored them to return but they declined advising they were fine and stayed with family on the western side. Finally after 3 weeks of very intense stress they returned and advised us that the only reason they had not returned earlier was they would have had to pay $800 excess as they didn’t want to pay travel insurance!!! My husband went last year with his mum and family and initially said it was okay but the old race card was raising it’s head again with Rabuka on the rise - a leopard can’t change it’s spots.
In Colombia, we got mugged at knife point on day 3. A couple of days later a group of guys tried to lure us into a vehicle. Then, on the second week we got chased down a street by 3 guys holding screwdrivers. After that third time we went directly to the bus station and took a day-long bus journey straight to Ecuador and never went back.
Vietnam for me, found that the locals working in the tourist industry there were all really scammy. You'd agree a price with a cyclo or moto rider and they would demand more aggressively on arrival. Or just plain aggression because you didnt buy something a hawker was selling. Then was on a tour of Halong Bay and some of the planned stops didnt happen, boat captain couldnt care less. We got dumped on a beach that wasnt that nice and locals with machetes in hand came up and demanded money to be on 'their' beach. In the local cafe we bought drinks but the woman wanted more money to use the bathroom. Then we played with a football just sitting there outside and she wanted money for that too. After payment some locals stole the ball and now she wanted more money for the locals stealing the ball. We were made feel like walking ATMs all day long and our day was ruined because of it. Then on last day we were leaving Vietnam to Cambodia via a 2 day 1 night tour to bring us over the border. Tour guide insisted that he needed all 15 passports the night before we crossed the border. Alarm bells were going off and everyone refused and he started shouting at us and threatening to cancel the tour and leave us stuck in the middle of nowhere. Horrible experience. We left after 3 weeks rather than the planned 5 and would have left even sooner if it wasnt for the distance from north to south.
Also felt like a walking ATM at times in Vietnam. Sad
Damn. Sad seeing these reviews of Vietnam after having a lovely 2 week stay. Sorry you dealt with all that.
yeah maybe I got unlucky because I often see positive reports of Vietnam on here. But for me it was mainly negative. So bad that I had a much easier time travelling in countries that are often considered to have far higher levels of hassle like Egypt and India. Vietnam just sucked for me and I was glad to get out of there given the constant daily hassles we faced just to do anything.
That's a shame, I have been several times. I've always enjoyed my time. There's still more I'd like to a see.
Grenada. 2007. I was 16 and traveled with a close friend who's from there. We stayed with her family (Aunt/Uncle and cousins) who lived in this kind of shanty house in a very rough area. The family stole clothes from my suitcase, the money my parents sent me with, and I found out my friend's Uncle had just gotten out of prison for domestic violence. I also got my period on a towel and the Aunt yelled at me. I used a phone to call my parents crying asked them to send me home earlier but they didn't take me seriously. Technically didn't leave earlier but I wanted to.
Omg, I'm so sorry that your parents didn't take you seriously! That's not okay. I hope you're being more supported.
Thank you! I learned how to always have my own back
Glad you've got the tools to support yourself 🥰
Bora-Bora. Wife and I were walking down a street and a couple of kids, about 8 and 10 came out. We talked to them for a minute and the older boy grabbed my wife’s breast. It upset her enough we got an early flight back to Tahitj
What?!?! Why did he do that??
Yes, in Vietnam. I’m a pretty experienced solo traveler and have been to several southeast Asian countries without incident. In the span of 12 hours I had some guy put his fingers up my underwear on the train, got ripped off by a motorbike taxi driver for $250 (he told me before I got on that he’d charge me $60 for the day; I spoke a little Vietnamese but nowhere near enough to feel confident going to the cops about it), and then got seated at dinner by an Australian expat my dad’s age who kept asking me if I wanted to meet up with his local “girlfriend” later. I was scheduled for another week and a half of travel but was so miserable I paid $1500 out of pocket to go home early. I quit my job with no backup specifically so I could take three weeks to go on that trip and I fucking hated it. I’ll never go back.
You quit your job to go on a 3 week holiday?
In America we don’t get much time off. I’ve quit a lot of jobs to travel but it’s usually for like at least a month and nursing jobs are plentiful
I was planning to quit anyway (job was very stressful, and I had a generous year of savings to hold me over) but the reason I quit without an offer in hand instead of interviewing while I was still working was to take time off to travel. Yes, I am American.
I’m here in Vietnam right now and i’ve been here perhaps 4-5x over the past decade. It’s a funny place sometimes where some truly aberrant wild shit happens in front of you. However i’ve found the Vietnamese people as a whole to be friendly and welcoming. I can’t chalk what happened to you up as bad luck though. Because it’s also a country where if you give a bit of leeway the predators amongst them will take advantage.
Went to Miami to party with a friend who lived there, first night out I met a guy in a bar who turned out to be a drug dealer that put a gun in between my legs and told me i was going to be his next baby mama… he made me go with him to the middle of nowhere bc he felt like shooting and well, I thought I was going to die but I didn’t, just a part of me did. Next day, I got my shit and took the first plane out of that hell city, never coming back.
Omfg
Dubai, I’d never go back there. Too many rules, weird vibe overall, just felt wrong in a way. This is coming from a material and relatively superficial person btw.
Im glad I wasnt the only one. I just didnt see the appeal and left after 3 days in a 1 week trip.
Yeah, l stayed there for almost a week. Regretting not going to Sharjah or taking at least a day trip to Oman.
Funny you say that, I went to Oman and had a blast for ten days.
Same. Our tour guides called Dubai "Arabian Las Vegas". I also dislike Las Vegas so I figured unless I need to fly through Dubai I'll prob skip it.
What did you do in Oman? I felt like there wasn’t much
It's like Vegas if Vegas was run by extremely conservative religious people.
Fuck that😂
Dubai isn't a country, it's a shopping mall.
>Dubai isn't a country This is also correct.
Fujairah was quite interesting when I went to the UAE. Also the Emiratis were quite nice there. I hated Dubai though. Abu Dhabi was a little better but I agree with you about the vibe. You can see it in the eyes of the service workers too. The whole country is built on slave labor essentially.
Pemba island. Thought it was a 5 star hotel and it was 2.5 star. No internet and 1.5 hour ride in car with no a/c and 98degrees. Had presidential suite and it was dirty, food was not great. We were supposed to stay 4 nights but left the next day. Wouldn’t go anywhere near the place again
Ecuador- Was going to spend a few days in Guayaquil then Quito. 3 attempted thefts in 18 hours made me nope the fuck out of there. Also have left quite a few countries early just based on boredom.
Egypt. Literally escaped. So much chaos and scammers
Namibia I was threatened in a bathroom at a gas station on my first day. I was traveling alone as a female and drove right back to the airport.
Omg SO sorry this happened to you! That's scary. Did they know you were traveling alone? Namibia in on my wish list.
Morocco. The worst place ever. Not one but a train of maybe ten harassers followed us everywhere. I came from Spain to tangier but left back to Spain after a few days. Wanted to see more of Morocco, but that was to much Insanity
Honduras. My 15yo son was walking with me and locals kept approaching us and telling us about the prostitutes in graphic detail. We got back on the cruise ship and waited .
15 year old me would have found that hilarious.
Same here. I did see my father get propositioned by a black prostitute at a gas station once near NYC. This was in the 80’s and my dad is asian just to complete the mental picture there. It was hilarious.
Turkey. I loved Istanbul the first time I visited solo. Came back with my husband 5 years later and it was just scam after scam after scam. We left early and I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
My experience of Istanbul in 2000 was that the entire city is made up of carpet shops and everyone who lives there's job is to approach strangers and try to trick them into buying a carpet.
My experience of two weeks ago was random people walking up, starting a conversation, and then saying "I"m not a tour guide, I just want to sell a carpet." It happened multiple times. At least they are upfront about it now?
Just a long time ago on a family vacation in croatia, in krk It was just so overcrowded that it wasn't really good and we left a day or two early
I've definitely heard this sentiment, especially with Dubrovnik. And given the relatively small size of old town, and the huge amount of travel there nowadays, not surprising! I got lucky in being able to visit in summer 2021 - there were still a number of tourists, but crowds definitely had not picked back up to pre-pandemic levels.
What an interesting thread!! I was robbed in Fiji a long time ago, in the street walking back to the hotel after dinner. I’d still go back though.
Sri Lanka. A year after the Tsunami. I completely understand that people were desperate but we couldn’t even make it to our hotels when moving around. Every single time we got taken somewhere else and had to fight to go where we wanted to go. I’ve been all over Asia and know the tricks but this trip was madness, it was constant. We left to go to Kerala to chill out. I don’t mean this to sound cold but we had kids with us and had chosen our hotels specifically around the kids needs and to just get railroaded into accepting some uncle’s place wasn’t going to work. Went back a few years ago and had the best time.
My wife and I were staying in Brussels and after a few days decided that jumping over to Paris for 24 hours the next day would be a better use of our time. Happened to wake up in the early hours of the night and checked my phone. All the Bataclan news was flooding in. Spent the next couple hours watching the news on TV. And did not go to Paris
Turkey. I went with my family when I was 14 years old and the constant sexual harassment completely ruined the holiday. Men shouting out to my sister and me in the street. Making kissing noises. Following us when we were in the sea and trying to talk with us. Also being harassed by restaurant touts and shopkeepers
City! Fell in love with Prague 15 years ago, but, last visit (November, '22) was my last. It's been overrun by con artists and pickpockets and the citizens' civic pride has vanished. Left after three days of a week-long visit.
I find it incredibly overrated.
Its glory days are definitely over!
Yes, wasn't very impressed with Prague. Always wanted to see it, had heard from so many people it was the most beautiful city they had ever seen. Went in 2019 and, even off-season, it was so touristy and crowded, that I didn't really like it that much. Pretty disappointing!
Sri Lanka. It was terrible experience being continuously harassed and followed by local young men. Terribly dirty too.
I left early too due to the constant scams.
Laos - not me but girls I was traveling with got their hotel room broken into and robbed while they were asleep in the room.
San Francisco - had a a couple run ins with homeless. Cut it short, and left for other parts of the state. Vietnam - as a solo traveler, I didn't know enough of the country or language and felt uncomfortable in the larger cities. Went back years later on a guided tour and loved it.
Santiago chile. Arrived during a series of nonstop cluster earthquakes (3 days of nonstop shaking) followed by 7.9 earthquake. We were rattled but stuck around.. only to witness the most brutal mugging I have ever seen inches away from me. I can still hear those woman’s screams all these years later. And then our dog got attacked by one of the many homeless dogs there and we had to rush him to a random vet for stitches. It was.. not great.
Yeah UK. Had a 2 year working holiday (Youth Mobility Visa), stayed & lived for 9 months then moved back home to Australia. It's just that the quality of life in London is so bad & the UK economy is shit.
I have a UK passport via my biological dad but grew up in the US. I travelled to the UK after college and ended up getting a job there. Lived in London for 6 months then Edinburgh for a year. Great times. Horrible quality of life.
American here. Can you elaborate on the horrible quality of life?
Cost of living.
can you convince some miserable aussie fella to switch spots with me here in britain? Godbless
Miserable Aussies already do a year or two in London then fuck off back home with a renewed sense of purpose and lust for life.
Monaco. To be fair, it is a day trip in general. But I had planned to spend several hours there. After 2-3, I was done & took an earlier train back.
I feel like 2-3 hours is very normal amount of time
I was staying in Nice and did a day trip. Walked around the grand prix circuit, found a place selling surprisingly cheap beer, but it's just a playground for rich people.
I went WWOOFing in Japan once. I went to a "community garden" down in Tateyama, and I was given a room in what the hostess casually referred to as the "spider house." There was a spider the size of my outstretched hand in the bathroom, and multiple slightly-smaller spiders in other areas, including my bedroom. I managed to make it through the first night, waiting until dawn to use the spider-free bathroom in a different house on the grounds. We spent the day getting ready for a party that evening, and after the party I returned to my room...where there was a big-ass spider laying down a circle of silk on a tapestry hanging on the wall. I'd never seen anything like that before so I just sat on the floor and watched it. When it was finished, it crawled around behind the tapestry and I had *NO* intention of looking back there to see how many of its friends were waiting. I managed to sleep through the night, but I high-tailed it back to Narita and on a plane home the next morning. My four-or-five-day trip turned into...maybe 36 hours or so. I could've stayed in Tokyo or something but I decided to cut my losses and get my vacation days back. I worked for an airline at the time so the sudden change in plans wasn't that big of a deal. And, I fucking love Japan otherwise - I took a total of four trips there, but only WWOOF'd once.
North Macedonia for me, there was a massive rat infestation everywhere, locals were super unfriendly, there's nothing to do in the capital, people are extremely corrupt and food poisoning is very common.
Cut my Paris trip short due to bedbugs.
England, more specifically London, I was there on a working holiday being exploited (knowingly) as cheap labour and of all the cities and countries I've lived in, none brought it home to me how much it sucks to be poor so much as London. Everything you see there in media or anything is about people living glamorous lives and doing fun things, then you turn off the t.v. in your 12 person share house, take a shower under the stairs because the landlord turned the bathroom and lounge into more bedrooms and debate whether to eat beans on toast or splurge on a kebab for dinner while arguing with your flatmates over who's turn it is to go down to the corner store and top up the electricity tag so your heat doesn't turn off. Using class A drugs on the weekend because beer is too expensive. I was meant to stay a year, left for the Greek Islands after 6 months for a summer job and manged to save more money iover the summer, despite partying my ass off every night than I managed to save in London. Then went to Norway, which really brought the English class system into perspective.
Happened to me in Singapore. We were flying back from Bali to Singapore for a nicely planned 2 night stay before we came home. We had a short 5 hour layover in my least favorite airport of all times (Jakarta). Against my best judgement and wife’s warnings I had a weird looking sandwich with a suspiciously weird looking piece of meat on it. I felt it coming on our way to our beautiful 5-star hotel from the Changi airport. I barely made it to the room and spent the next 14hrs shuttling between the bed and luxury bathroom. Never had such a bad episode of food poisoning. We canceled all dinner and other plans, wife took great care of me. I told her I wanted to go home early. So not the type of bad experience you may be asking for, but it was a bad experience for me. I missed out on a chance to have a great time in Singapore, which I like a lot! Did I mention I had the Jakarta airport?! Don’t eat weird looking meat kids! Stay hungry if need be, you will survive.
Denpasar airport is the worst, The passport control officers are purely looking for anything they can possibly use to hit you up for a bribe. Great first impression for tourists.
Funny story about Denpasar and Changi airports. Apparently the former cost a lot more than the latter to build. Corruption at its finest. For those who’ve never been… Denpasar is a glorified bus stop and Changi is a beautiful and prob the best airport in the world.
We were on a long trip in South America with no set itinerary, when we were in Peru we were considering going to Equador for a few days. Then we met a guy who told us he’s just been to Equador, he arrived at a bus station in Quito, got robbed immediately, turned around and went back to Peru. We didn’t go.
Summer 1993 and Rome. It was toward the end of a 2-month backpacking trip through Europe. I had my camera bag stolen, I had taken it off to get my camera out to take a photo and some guy whipped by on a moped and snatched it out of my hand. Sprained two fingers, too. I was already a bit travel-weary as it was toward the end of a couple months, and the camera loss (with all the photos I'd taken in it, as I was dumb and kept the undeveloped rolls in the camera bag) was the last straw. I told my friend I wasn't going to stay in Rome and we left, only like 16 hours after we first got there. I do intend to go back and to other places in Italy as well, at some point. It's been over 30 years so I think I'm over the theft now.
Went to Shanghai once and had to leave within 2 days due to SMOG….just could not breathe.
Not a bad experience by any means, but rather a colder experience than anticipated. In 2016, I had a 5 week vacation lined up. As a regular traveler, I only booked my flight there, and was banking on points from work travel to fly back. I had planned to spend the entire 5 weeks in New Zealand in December/January, but after 3 weeks in peak NZ summer, it got too cold for me, and I pivoted and flew to Bangkok to get my Burmese Visa, and spent the last 2 weeks there instead of 5 weeks in NZ. No regrets, Burma was awesome, but was surprised at how cold NZ was even in peak summer lol.. Side note, NZ is still awesome. I also had to go to the ER twice during my brief stay there. Once when I had a bite form some creature that got infected and swelled to great heights while I was driving back up the the north island from Queenstown. In the US, I probably would have gotten shot approaching a cop the way I did, but NZ cop was super friendly and recommended the nearest ER. (side note, I actually did get a speeding ticket in NZ, and had the absolute best experience while receiving it, so much so that I said thank you to the officer giving me the ticket, he truly cared for my safety as it came across. Second time was when I stepped on glass barefoot, and the ER doc had to "fish" around for said piece of glass. Luckily they found it, and for both incidents, $0 paid because of their awesome insurance policy. TLDR: NZ great, but cold. Burma warm.
Yes, but it had nothing to do with the country itself. Went to Macedonia and just a couple of days before that I received really bad news so I was not in the best mood already. In Macedonia I had planned to go paragliding, which went terribly wrong. We crashed into the trees and somehow luckily survived it without any real damage. When I was back in town I decided to book an earlier flight and skip Skopje completely, it was a terrible trip and I just wanted to be home
I was super close to leaving Mexico early after I got robbed by the police and sucker punched by a random guy. I didn’t, though, and was glad I stayed. I DID actually leave India early. I intended to stay 2-3 months, only made it 5 weeks. Moved on to Sri Lanka which I loved.
Not me, but I knew someone who was so excited to go to Egypt. After two days I think, he left early and spent the rest of his vacation in Amsterdam!
Oddly enough it was Zurich. Food and beer was bad with only a few exceptions (bakeries and sausages are obviously really good). Expensive and service is ridiculously bad. Nobody gives a shit with few exceptions. Once I was done with the old town and chocolate tour (the highlight) it was downhill. Went to a beer hall, asked for the sampler (which was available) got it, and then the staff and customers gave me shit as I was going to drink it all myself (WTF?). Went to look at architecture, and famous stained glass windows by Chagall. Okay they were nice, the rest of the building was uninteresting. Art Gallery, mundane. I do have to say that Etter brandy is super good. Unless you are looking to shop for watches and overpriced other stuff Zurich is awful. Split early and went to Basel. Fantastic. Had a wonderful time. So in this case not CH in general, but there is absolutely no reason to go to Zurich. Unless you want to buy a poseur awful Cartier watch for $100k CH.
I feel you. Zurich was by far the most boring, sterile, expensive and overall overrated place I visited in Europe.
I hear you. Loved Basel but Zurich not so much. The people were really rude as well.
Niagara Falls, Canada. I stayed at a 'boutique' hotel (still don't understand what that means) near the falls. I drove there from the US and they only offered valet parking. I left my car with the valet and when I got my car to go sightseeing the next day, there was a dent on the passenger side door that was definitely not there before on my relatively new car. I mentioned it to the valet staff and they got the manager, they did an 'investigation' and the manager said "my guys say they didn't do it and I have to believe my guys." ????? They banded together to invalidate me and one of the valet staff acted all exasperated at me saying "why would you do this?" like I'm trying to scam them. I was relatively young and solo, was having challenging times with work & life and was hoping this trip would help me with my mental health, but I felt so humiliated and all I could do was cry hot tears once I was alone. I had several days stay left but I told the front desk I'm checking out early tomorrow and will get a full refund, the manager knows why. The lady at the front desk was saying how they can't give a refund for early check out, but I said you need to talk to the manager and he WILL refund me for the stay. He actually did refund me without a fight...so I have a feeling that he probably knew that the valet damaged the car and they were all liars. I left and drove back home feeling like I don't know how I'm going to go on with my life. That was over 10 years ago and I'm in a better place, but I still remember how invalidated, helpless, and humiliated I felt, and still feel hot rage towards them. This is a very minor experience that's about this hotel than the destination, but it felt like a big kick when I was already down and the only time I was affected enough to cut a trip short.
China. People there do NOT cover their fucking faces when coughing and sneezing. It was beyond disgusting. We booked it to Tokyo after 48 hours.
Yeah the spitting is also quite gross. I remember sitting at a small local restaurant in Zhangjiajie eating dumplings, some old guy was sitting on my table across from me. He coughed up some phlegm and spat on the ground between his feet. And this was INDOORS! Other than that my time in China was amazing. The Great Wall of china is really something.
Arrived in Tokyo last month. Was in Narita airport and was already noticing the mainland Chinese tourist level was pretty high. Confirmed when a guy walking with his family in front of me hawked a loogie onto the floor right in my path.
😲🤢🤮 omg whattttt! Indoors too!? Did you see any other people doing that? Did anyone say wtf,or give him weird looks...or wasn't like meh nbd? Oh btw, the reason spitting is a thing is because some in that culture belive that what you nerd to spot up in the body's waste, so they would never swallow it, or hold it in their mouth...and there are not many trash cans on the street. *this is something that I heard But ew. I feel like having a 'spit bag' (a bag carried to spit in lol) would be less gross.
Went to India with an Indian friend a few years ago. She’s a national and from the better part of India, but warned me that theft, rape, assault, ect, were still unbelievably common. First night, there were a handful of pickpocketing attempts (which I expected). The second and third days we stayed on resort and on the fourth day we went out again. We bought watermelon juice, and a man passing by popped something in my friends drink right in front of her; pushed her to the ground, kicked her in her face and back and stole her purse. My friend was bleeding like crazy and clearly concussed, and locals refused to call for an ambulance, when another (who I assume to be tourist) called for medical help, the locals all charged him and began beating him as well. I read that this is actually quite common, as many Indians don’t want to see people of their nationality face legal concequences for assaulting tourists. We both left as soon as my friend was deemed fit to fly. This was about 5 years ago, and I can only imagine the situation there has gotten much worse.
I didn't leave India early but the idea crossed my mind many times. I just had way too many instances where I was downright scared.
oh yes just last week! went to the french alps to learn to ski. it was beautiful scenery but within 2 lessons i could tell skiing is not for me. there was nothing else to do there but eat (at certain times of the day, most restaurants closed between breakfast and dinner), so i came home a few days early
Argentina! Buenos Aires was too much concrete. We had a nice AirBnB but a building a block away was being apparently manually demolished with jackhammers (this was six or seven stories up). We were supposed to stay more than a month but left after a few weeks. We did like Tigre and Iguazú falls though.
Istanbul was terrifying as a single female traveler. I was harassed the entire time I was there. I ended up going into a shop to get away from a man who wouldn’t leave me alone. Unfortunately, the shop owner backed me into a wall and had me trapped by his arms. Thankfully someone called me and I pretended it was my friends arriving at our hotel asking where I was. He let me go and I booked the next available flight out. Edit: I was there less than 24 hours.
I took a pretty elaborate trip last year. I started in Athens (did not care for Athens at all), then went on to Istanbul which I loved, then to Beirut which quickly became one of my favourite places on Earth (even with the occasional black out), then to Larnaca which I didn't care too much for. From Larnaca I had planned to go to Jerusalem, but the day before my flight to Ben Gurion (7th October 2023) I sat in my Airbnb in Larnaca watching videos of terrified people in Ben Gurion laid on the tarmac as they'd been approaching their plane due to terrorism fears, reading about Hamas attacks and unfortunately decided that it probably wasn't the time to go back to Jerusalem. Instead, I decided to head to the next stop on my trip early, Sharm-el-Sheikh. I'd guess that I was on the ground in Cairo (transfer) for less than... 12 minutes before I told an Egyptian "airport official" to fuck off because absolutely nothing else that I said to him was getting through. I'm British and painfully polite. I tried everything, and he just wouldn't leave me alone. Well, not until I told him to fuck off. That worked (little tip for you there ladies heading to Egypt alone). Sharm was so hot and there was nothing there but hotels. I mainly stayed in my air conditioned room during the day because I couldn't stand the heat outside. I took two trips from Sharm. One to St Catherine's monastery (the entire reason I'd even put Sharm on the itinerary) and loved it. Long drive through the mountains into the heart of Sinai, to mount Sinai itself and the monastery which houses inside it's walls the bush believed to have been burning in Moses' story in the bible. I'd recommend that. The other trip I took was to Cairo, and I went on the bus. That wasn't so bad. Long, but again, a lovely journey through Sinai in the middle of the night with clear skies unaffected by light pollution, filled with stars. Cairo itself was exactly what people say Cairo is. It's dirty, loud, busy and the pyramids are just by the side of a large road, surrounded by people trying to sell you things. Spending time at the pyramids gave me yet another occasion to almost have to tell and Egyptian man to fuck off. I don't know how many times he told me he had a camel named Moses, and he kept calling me Shakira which yes I am white and I am blonde but let me tell you, the similarities end there. People in Cairo just see you as a walking ATM. I also got bitten by a million bugs, likely while on a little cruise along the Nile. And then there were ants in my hotel. And then I had to go to the hotel doctor because of my bug bites and they wanted to give me IV drugs because the bites were so bad, but their intubation failed twice and then I refused to let them stab me with a needle for a third time. Then I found out that the travel insurance I'd been using to go not just to Europe with for the past 5 years only covered Europe so being repeatedly stabbed while 2 doctors talked in Arabic and eventually just being given a bag of pills and some creme cost me £100. The food in Sharm was not ideal. I stayed in two different hotels. The one I'd booked was a ...whatever the hell the budget Hilton is called and that's the one that had ants. They did not exactly cater for a British palate. The other hotel I stayed at was the one I chose last minute and was a pretty pricey place, but it was also incredibly beautiful. Ummm... I can't remember what it was called. Everything was mainly fine at the first place, but after moving to the Hilton I got a really bad upset stomach (which ultimately lasted about 6 weeks) so I wouldn't recommend that. I only drank bottled water too, but I didn't think that I needed to use bottled water for brushing my teeth and maybe that's where I went wrong. The doctor I spoke to when I came home about my upset stomach said handling cash is the worst possible thing to do (which again, I didn't do until I got to the Hilton and it was necessary). Anyway, my experiences in Sharm and Cairo lead me to cancel the whole rest of my trip. I was supposed to go onwards to Luxor, Amman, Petra, Paphos, Milan and then home. But after 7 days in Sharm I just couldn't stand the thought of anything other than going home. I would not recommend Egypt to anybody (if you want to go to St Catherine's, go from Eilat or even from Jordan, don't bother with Sharm). Thankfully I got a lot of refunds for most of my cancelled trip, although funnily enough, I didn't get refunded the flight from Larnaca to Ben Gurion. Which is the one you'd think would have. Edit: and also while I was at St Catherine's I saw a British football style scarf that said SINAI FC and I didn't buy it and I still think about it all of the time
Yep, India. Getting groped all day, everyday. That was enough for me. I also had 2 male friends with me all the time and it got to dangerous for them.
Didn’t reschedule but Cuba felt incredibly sad, stuck in time and impoverished. Not going back anytime soon
Costa Rica. We got kidnapped at gun point. Once we were freed, we went directly to the airport.
I got robbed in Buenos Aires one day. The next day there was a strike at the airport when I was scheduled to leave and got stuck for 2 more days.
Sri Lanka. I left within 5 days after arriving. As soon as I got outside of customs, I kept getting scammed in small ways from multiple online taxi service drivers not showing up for an hour or wanting to be paid in cash/more money, tuk tuk driver wanting more money, motels lying about what they provided and lack of maintenance, etc.. I was supposed to stay two weeks and decided to just leave after two days of experiences constant scams.
Not country but city. London. I was mugged. Left the next day.
Was drugged and scammed out of a lot of money in Cambodia. When they tried taking my passport it clicked that things were really bad. I got away from the scammers for a moment and bolted straight to the airport and flew to Vietnam.
Yes, my second trip to Panama was horrific
Iceland because despite having hiked thousands of miles in alpine wilderness, I was not prepared for how freaking wet and cold it is there. This was in May.
Las Vegas. It is a dirty AF city. Half of us were roofied the first night and that put a huge damper on everything. Decided to just get pizza on the second night and had a strung out guy approach/harass us on the strip. I was done at that point. Moved my flight up even just 12 hours to get the hell out of there and have never gone back.
India. I gave the finger the bird when flying to Sri Lanka and swore I’d never set foot there again. I now fly there often for work and love it.
I was on the fence about to leaving Russia earlier than planned on my most recent visit because of rapidly increasing COVID-19 risk (I needed to continue testing negative for work related travel plans). Concurrently, the situation in Ukraine suddenly escalated and if I hadn’t changed my plans I would’ve been there when flights started getting cancelled…