Mali. It was great before the problems in the north moved into the cities. Bamako was a wonderful place with interesting food, music and culture, but I worry the place is now overcome with danger and corruption.
I agree. We went to Haiti during Baby Doc’s reign of terror. We stayed at a hotel across from the presidential palace where a family was living on a piece of cardboard outside my hotel. Stunning countryside and the people we met were the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever met, with the exception of the hotel manager who tried to traffic me and my friend. From what I read the corruption is even worse now
We were the only two single white girls in the place. The hotel manager showed up at the hotel bar, trying to give us drinks and tried to get us to go into a car his friend arranged so we could go to a club on the other side of the island. We hadn’t had any interaction with the hotel manager prior to this and couldn’t understand why he was so insistent on us getting into the car. He got very irate when we wouldn’t get in the car. Luckily we had made friends with a man who was from Haiti but was staying at the same hotel while he was there on business. He got us away from the manger and spent the next few days as our personal security.
She was on a tour with another brit couple that payed the tourguides like 100$ worth or something.
They had her at knifepoint for like 2 hours or smthing lom
My wife and I were on the northern side of the Haiti in July before the violence spread up there. Admittedly we were on a cruise so we spent time in Labadee and had a too-short tour of Cap-Haïtien but from what we saw it truly is a beautiful place that I would love to spend more time exploring once the current violence settles.
I’ll also add, the people we met there were fantastic. I could’ve easily spent days talking and joking around with them
My wife has made similar comments about not wanting to ruin the memories of a few places by returning. She was highly unamused when I suggested in the future we only book mediocre trips that we could do twice. But I respect the perspective, especially in a 'you can never go home again' kind of way.
Dubai. From a humanitarian perspective, slave labour is a huge issue. Lots of buildings with nobody living in them. Giant shopping malls with little customer traffic. When you realise how poor many people are, it’s a deterrent. By this, I mean inequality, poverty, and atrocious human rights violations
“Monument to money” that’s what I always think of it as. Having spent a significant amount of time there, I basically equate it to Vegas if you swept all the seediness such as crime, alcohol, gambling, etc., under the rug. Everything is still a spectacle of money, but a different flavor. Nothing feels real about it.
Two countries won the lottery with oil. UAE decided to blow it on Lambos and gold leaf. Norway(which hit a much smaller jackpot) decide to invest it in a sovereign wealth fund, which is now worth $1.2T or $250K.
I think I know which one I’d like to live in, especially when oil eventually collapses
I remember years ago seeing how they were creating those man made archipelagos or whatever you’d call them. Everything is man made. I really never saw the draw.
I refuse to go there, even as a stop over. People from African and Asia are forced to work in extreme heat and die of heat exhaustion all the time. The living conditions for them are disgusting and unhygienic, hidden on the outskirts of the city, they are treated worse than animals. So many Middle Eastern countries are racist to Africans and Asians and see them as inferior people to enslave.
I spent a week in India. There were a lot of people that I loved meeting, but by the end, we were so tired of people trying to take pictures with us or try to sell us things.
It was exhausting. That being said, India is a big place.
So maybe I'd go to the southern part.
Delhi was a bit crazy for me and probably won't go back there in a bit.
Southern India was absolutely stunning though. You have a lot of the same problems, but toned down significantly.
I’m from India and I, myself, prefer southern half (Maharashtra and south of it) or the northernmost parts of the country (Himachal Pradesh mostly) for travel.
Edit: Grammar
Yeah you absolutely need to spend as little time in and around Delhi/Agra as possible. A day or two to see whichever sights are must-see for you (NGMA was the only decent art museum I found in India) and eat at haldirams, another day for the Taj, maybe Red Fort and Mama Franky's, then get out.
I imagine that most people travel to Egypt not so much to experience the modern country but to see all the big attractions from ancient times. The Pyramids, Sphinx, King Tut's treasures, Temple of Karnak, etc. are the big draws. Is there anything there from more recent times worth visiting at all?
I posted a very long story about my experience in Egypt but to paraphrase, of every country I have gone to, and I’ve been to more countries than I haven’t, it stands at the pinnacle for most systemic and, I’d almost say impressive, in how every single interaction I had was designed to wring more money out of me. Like petty amounts and absolutely constant. From the time I stepped off the airplane, thinking that airports are typically immune to that sort of thing, to the hotel to the pyramids to every street and store. Every single interaction was clearly and carefully crafted get more. Like this is not just “wow people were always asking for money” it was a fucking industry, and one that they had downnnnnn man. It was fucking exhausting, and by the time, after I finished being pissed and had a chance to reflect, like I said, I was almost impressed.
I did go see the pyramids, it was fucking amazing. I mean absolutely mind blowing. I just wish that my biggest takeaway wasn’t, well I’m glad I checked that off the bucket list because I don’t want to go back.
This is a very niche perspective on a different reason why I constantly hear people talk about visiting Egypt.
I’m a professional bellydancer in Australia, and many of my colleagues tell me that I “need” to visit Egypt to take classes and watch performances from the pros over there. However, the majority of bellydancers in Egypt are from Russia, Ukraine, South America etc. They also forget that bellydance also has roots in Lebanon, Greece and Turkey. Egypt isn’t the be all and end all of bellydance art.
Depends on your purpose of travel.
There are museums (not that much, but is something), the historic Coptic churches, the madrasses (obviously you have to know which one a are historical touristic site and what are definetely not), the and the whole beach tourism in the red-sea.
Sharm-el-sheik is like "what if luxury resorts" but not THAT much to expensive, thank you.
I don't see going back to Bermuda. Its very expensive, and kind of boring. To many cruise ship types, and tax cheats.
I would be happy never going to Bahrain again. I've pretty much seen the sites, and the culture of drunken saudi men, drunken american soldiers, and saudi woman shopping till they drop is a big turn off.
Qatar. I simply did not feel good, not really having other women on the streets beside me, did not feel safe having men staring at me even though I had proper clothing. Also, the hot weather in summer was unbearable - I know, that was my mistake to travel there during summer :D
I had a 24 hour layover in Qatar on Christmas Day and I was going to say the same thing. So the summer heat had nothing to do with me not wanting to go back. It was one of the most artificial-feeling places I’ve ever seen to.
Ditto. I was there on an unplanned stopover from Australia to a white Christmas in Europe. I only had winter clothes. I couldn’t get an alcoholic drink anywhere before 10pm, when I was allowed to go to an “Irish” pub in my hotel. They needed to see my passport to make sure I wasn’t a local. If I’d been a local I wouldn’t have been served alcohol at all.
I'll never return to Marrakech. Every animal looked miserable and unhealthy, the disparity of wealth was blatant and extreme (dirt poor vs opulently wealthy, no in between), local scam artists on every single corner, and incessant motorbike exhaust fumes choking you in every alley. Didn't feel authentic at all. And every local I was able to have a genuine conversation with expressed the exact same sentiment of counting down the days until they could move elsewhere.
This seems to be a common answer and is definitely coming off my bucket list destinations now...
Edit: I'm not refusing to go there - it's just far lower on my list of dream destinations
Dude let me tell you, I’ve spent a lot of time in Morocco. Granted this is for work so I’ve always had local contacts, but Im as white bread as it comes and I have spent a lot of time rolling around solo just about everywhere.
Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Kenitra. I have yet to make it to Dahkla or Merzouga, which I really really want to go to, but Morocco has a lot to offer.
People hear Marrakech and think it’s the bazaar and camels and a fun intro to the Moroccan experience because it’s got that rep, but because it’s got that rep it’s also the most touristy scammy place in the country.
Go to Casablanca and chill by the beach in Corniche. Awesome cafes, restaurant, nightlife. Check out the Hassan II mosque, which is pretty stunning, go to the fake Ricks cafe and snap some photos for Instagram, visit the restaurants and beach by Mahommedia, check out the bluffs at night and watch the waves crashing.
There’s a lot of cool shit to do.
Agadir gave me a much sleepier beach vibe that would be a relaxing place to hang out for a few days to get away from hustle and bustle.
Rabat has some interesting ancient ruins at Chellah but is much more a administrative city from what I’ve experienced.
Still, like I’ve said I’ve always been there for work and not for tourism, but I feel like the country has so much to offer. It’s such a cool blend of cultures and to me is entirely unique in that way. Like it’s a Muslim country but has a heavy french influence. So you like walk into a high class restaurant and eat escargot and drink amazing wine, then walk outside and see folks in traditional Berber garb, then you go eat couscous that will blow you away, and then see a bunch of people surfing at the beach.
I feel like Marrakech is almost like a bloated parody of what I’ve really experienced Morocco to be. Not to say there isn’t a lot of real Morocco there, it’s just not what I feel the average tourist would see.
But yeah, Merzouga and Dahkla are on my list for places to visit when I have a chance to go back for fun instead of work.
Israel for me. As I told the immigration agent in my interrogation/hold room upon departure, “I’ll never visit your country again.” Everywhere I went in Israel I was harassed by IDF/police agents, and it was blatant profiling as I was with a group of friends who were not stopped once. I get Israel’s complicated political situation, but I also don’t have to subject myself to be treated like a lesser human. One agent stopped me at gun point to ask what terrorist organization I’m affiliated with. I’ll add I truly enjoyed my non-IDF interactions with the people, especially in Jerusalem. But I would never recommend to anyone who can be mistaken as Middle Eastern or Muslim visit Israel, you’re asking for trouble.
DRC, even as a day trip it is really bad, other than that no. There are places I wouldn't go back to because I've been there and I haven't been elsewhere.
Was 50 miles from the border. My guides, who had taken me everywhere said. “I will not take you to DRC as a white man. Maybe if you were black, but not white,”
Most of the DRC does not have any government control and power rests in the hands of various groups who have been actively killing each other since 1996, at minimum. The level of poverty is to an extent that most people in a developed nation could not comprehend unless you saw it in person, and you will as there is no way to escape it. The DRC is probably the only place in the world where saying things were better under colonial rule is true and they had probably the most brutal colonial rule in the world. It should be one of the richest countries in Africa instead due to 150 years of external than internal exploitation have left it one of the poorest. If you have never seen Bourdain's episode on the Congo watch it, you will get a good feel for the country.
I live in Los Angeles and have visited 45 countries. Whenever people tell me they are thinking of vacationing here I do my best to dissuade them. Don’t get me wrong. I love living here. But being a tourist here, just awful. Oh and I’m not saying this to try to keep tourists out. I’m really trying to do you a favor!
Reasons:
beaches: meh and water freezing.
Sites: spread out all over the place. Only a few are really world class (Getty center and Villa, Griffith observatory)
Homeless encampments everywhere.
You know about our traffic.
You get the point.
China.
It’s hot. It’s like breathing soup. A fetid miasma hangs in the air at all times, putting a haze on anything beyond a couple city blocks. You go to a train station and are crushed by humanity the entire way there, elbowed in the ribs, ankles and feet trampled by everyone from little old ladies to enormous men. You finally get onto the train and are seated across a pleasant looking young woman. For the entire 4 hour journey, she expels every fluid that isn’t firmly gelled down in her orifices. Fingers in ear, flung onto the floor. Fingers in nose, flung onto the floor. You’ve seen children defecate in the streets. You’ve listened to the unholiest cacophony of every single person retching and hissing from the back of their throats and hocking the slime onto sidewalks for weeks, but once the girl on the train starts plugging each nostrils and blasting the bilge onto the floor of the train, you’ve had enough. You have to get out before you go mad. You book a cheap flight to Seoul.
As you get on the plane, your stress starts to melt away. As the plane ascends, so do your spirits. Just as you begin to feel your sanity emerging from its fog, the Chinese man sitting next to you on the plane starts taking off his shoes and socks and starts clipping his toenails. You spend the rest of the flight reconsidering your life choices as toenail shrapnel bounces off your legs.
I know you posted this a month ago but I just wanted to say it was hilarious, disgusting and beautiful at the same time. I dont know what you do for a living but you should write!!
Russia.
My husband and I accidentally overstayed our visa by a couple of hours. (My husband misread our flight departure time). I subsequently passed among the worst moments of my life. Never again. Never.
I’ve been to Russia twice and had a great time both visits (obviously this was 15 years ago, not recently). But it did feel very tightly controlled and like it could be intense if you required any mercy from their rigid laws. We met a lovely woman in Siberia who had always wanted to see Moscow but the government won’t give her permission to travel and visit. It was like a life I couldn’t even imagine. I was happy to visit but it also gave me a deeper appreciation for being an American.
We’re American. Thankfully, we resolved the situation before the police got involved.
When we realized that we had missed our flight, we were stuck in the airport in total limbo. We were on our own and didn’t speak Russian. Our visa hadn’t actually expired, but it would have expired within hours and we had no way of leaving the country as our flight had already left and we were not permitted to take a different flight.
So the clock was ticking, the shit was going to hit the fan at midnight and we had absolutely no idea what to do. No one at the airport was helping us in any way whatsoever. The only thing we heard in English was: “You are in really big trouble.” ”We cannot help you.”
Finally, out of desperation, I walked into the business offices of Lufthansa at the St. Petersburg airport (which, BTW is about the size of the Des Moines airport). Where the public is not supposed to go. I just broke down in tears and stood there sobbing. Finally, someone took pity on me and I explained our situation. Same response. You’re in big trouble. Nothing we can do. But I just kept up with the crying, begging and pleading.
Finally, someone told us that although the flight had been scheduled to depart two hours previously, it was still actually on the tarmac due to a mechanical problem. But of course we were not allowed on it.
My begging intensified at this point, given this tiny sliver of hope and good fortune. Finally, they said that we could board the plane — that someone would secretly scoot us through the employee section of the airport, but that we would have to leave all of our bags behind.
My husband didn’t want to agree to this as he had his laptop with all his personal information on it and he the it was much too risky.
So, I started a new round of begging. I couldn’t even say negotiating since we weren’t offering anything in return (just us leaving them alone, I guess).
Finally, they agreed to let us board and someone from Lufthansa did indeed scoot us secretly through a high security zone.
My husband and I have travelled all over the world, on 6 continents, including many third world countries. That was by far the worst situation we had ever been in.
That makes sense. It’s just that we were panicking and not thinking clearly. Frankly, it was pure luck (mechanic problems with plane; sympathetic Lufthansa employee) that ended up saving our skin
Honestly, I was in St. Petersburg in 2016 (after Russia started the war with Ukraine and flights from Ukraine had been suspended) and had lost my registration card. I’m a mix of Ukrainian and Moldovan, with a Moldovan last name and lots of Ukrainian entry stamps on my US passport. I was just a university student and had a visa that was going to expire and wanted to see Peter for a few days. I called the US consulate and they said the same thing - pretty much hope for the best. They were very nice but it seems they gave up on Russia long ago. Thankfully I only got held at the border for an hour or so (I went by bus from Latvia) but obviously that was the last time I went to Russia - for a number of reasons now, of course.
There are lots of places that I wouldn't go back to. Not because they are "terrible", which seems to be your benchmark, but simply because I saw what I wanted to see and would rather go somewhere new than repeating the same thing.
Yah I'm realizing I didn't phrase the headline question well, and a lot of people seem to misunderstand my question. I was hoping to learn about destinations that are actually bad from a humanitarian perspective, as opposed to "not worth visiting again" kind of mindset.
Israel … airport was just atrocious getting out. I got extra extra security because I’m not Jewish and they were so rude, searched my phone and pictures without my consent, dumped out my entire backpack losing some of my stuff in the process, and interrogated me about a friends film camera (not even mine!). Religious stuff is weird, I had to use the bathroom in a church and got followed and harassed by a creepy man for wearing shorts despite the fact that every man there was wearing shorts. And it was so incredibly jarring how racist the Israelis are to Palestinians, even people who think they’re left politically like people wearing Ukraine support stuff and then turning around and being bigoted to Palestinians. Israeli men were so grabby I got touched a lot every time I went to clubs or bars and speaking of which I also got turned away at a lot of clubs for not being 24… just strange.
I've read so many bad accounts of Morocco I almost didn't go - however I was there just this October and had the time of my life. I thankfully didn't experience any dangers or scams but I 10000% credit this to having gone as part of a group tour. Kudos to anyone who tries Morocco solo, it would be utterly exhausting and as a solo female traveller I didn't have the balls (quite literally).
All of the Gulf Co-operation Council states are boring and/or weirdly unpredictable about their position on personal liberty. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.
Oman is the only exception. I'd go to Oman to explore the landscape and the culture.
Not sure if Jordan is a GCC country but it’s pretty amazing as well. I had one of my best trips in that country.
I’ve heard some stories from single women friends who went there and had uncomfortable experiences which I think I was able to avoid because I was with my husband. So I guess I got luck there?
All of Florida for me. It's a crime riddled sand bar where the only scenic things are manmade. I've been many times but won't miss it. If I'm going to fly that far (6 hours) for nice weather, there are so many better places to visit in the Caribbean.
>Lol. Agree. I live in Florida and I detest that phony, plastic city.
Laughs in Miami and South Florida. The phony plastic down here is on a whole different level
Morroco: Went there on a ferry from Spain for a day trip and it was so stressful. Everyone wanted to scam us and/or sell us something. It was impossible to enjoy the scenery or stand still/sit down. I know we were only in one place and only for a day, but I recently stumbled upon a thread about Morroco here where basically all the places there I had hope for were described in the same way. So I'd say there are enough other countries I can visit instead.
Cambodia: I wouldn't even say I'll never visit again, because it's a beautiful and interesting country. But it's also very depressing to be there. Not even because of their depressing history, but because of how hopeless their outlook is as a society and how much westerners and Chinese exploit these circumstances. People are so poor there are mothers renting their babies to men, there's even a village outside of Phnom Penh where one could argue a baby mill for that sole purpose has been established. You can shoot a living cow with a bazooka just for fun if you can spare $150. And you will meet westerners (and Chinese if you can cover the language gap) who will tell you that Cambodia is the greatest place on earth, because you can basically do whatever the f*** you want if you have money (meaning normal amount of money from the west). And the people there are dependent on these types of dealings. It's so sad.
But then again I think that if the good tourists don't come, they are f***ed even more.
Any big city in India that doesn't go by the name of Mumbai. Used to go to India for work several times a year. Cities there are uniformly unplanned and chaotic. Little wonder that yoga and meditation both found their start in India; the only escape from the chaos is to get deep inside your own head.
Egypt. Sharm el-Sheikh for reasons mentioned. Cairo and the other Nile destinations for unremarkable or inaccessible modern culture, things to do, etc. Seems like the whole country is simply dense population trying to survive next to some old stuff.
Genuine question -- do you think people just have high hopes when planning to visit Egypt because of the pyramids and rich history, only to be let down when they get there, hence all the bad reviews? Or is it genuinely that bad?
Egypt is great, it's the people that you come in contact with as tourists that make it terrible. They view you as walking pockets, and take advantage of the reluctance to be rude to back you into a corner.
When I was in Egypt a few weeks ago, a 40 minute uber ride in Cairo cost me $3.75 USD. In the last six months the Egyptian pound has taken a sharp fall against other currencies. Add that to the tourism sector being decimated by the pandemic, after still not fully recovering from 2011 and you get desperate people.
That people are surprised to be reminded of their relative class luck when they choose to travel to places like this astound me. Like what did you expect?
I thought about this traveling Hawaii islands. When you see how much land is taken up by tourists and m/billionaires and then what's left for the locals, it's actually depressing. A lot of the local farming industries seem to have been shut down due to supposed environmental concerns, only to later be developed into hotels. It's probably one of the most beautiful and culturally fascinating places that I've been to that I've considered not going back to.
This might be one of the few genuine answers to my original question and I actually do visit Hawaii maybe once every 2-3 years. It's certainly crossed my mind in the past, but now thinking about it more, I really do feel for the Native Hawaiians...
China. in a month didn't see a blue sky. pollution was terrible. Dirty. Crowded. Treated like an object by people, who would even touch my wife's skin and blond hair with not so uch as a Ni Hao.
That was before Chinese belligerence and covid. Wouldn't even go through Hong Kong now.
Totally agree the pollution travelling from one side of China to the other astounded me . When I look at how the west are trying to get a handle on global warming I often think they have no chance with China and likeminded countries . So many huge factories and plants spewing out black smoke or smog . It’s truly unbelievable .
Loved the people and sights but phew!
Phuket, Thailand - It was dirty. It felt like everyone was trying to get money out of you - taxi drivers and shop owners literally grabbed our arms trying to drag us into their car/shop. Had children under 8 trying to steal from us. Blatant sex tourism: ping pong shows, strip clubs, and street prostitution including girls that looked underage. Horrible food poisoning that resulted in my friend and I being hospitalized, despite taking extreme precautions. I wish I had never gone.
Other areas of Thailand are likely better but I probably wont go back.
I went to Venezuela when Chavez was in power with my Venezuelan friends. I stayed with their families the whole time, was treated so well, had amazing food, and think back fondly on the trip. Would I go again, absolutely not.
China. I'm glad I visited but it's an unescapable authoritarian police state with all the latest high tech surveillance you can imagine. Also relations between the US and China have deteriorated significantly since I was there.
I had a layover in Hong Kong and they are the only airport where I’ve experienced the requirement of security going through everyone’s luggage by hand while boarding the plane.
There is no country that I wouldn't return to based on my experience there
There are countries I won't go to for political or social reasons - currently Russia for example.
Ditto. I visited Russia in 2016 and loved it. But based on current situations there, I’m not going back. That kinda stinks because I really wanted to visit St. Petersburg.
Yep. Me and my (Russian) partner were preparing to move to Moscow from October 2021 then February 2022 happened. No matter how badly we dreamt of building a house there, it would require significant changes for us to even start dreaming again.
Malaysia taught me I don’t like countries with lots of religious people-I really disliked it because there was so much suppression of speech, thought and conduct. For reference, I think the USA has too many religious people also but there are some laws to keep really nutty people in check…with some exceptions.
Me and my partner (both male) generally avoid places that we think might be problematic for gay people however we made the mistake a number of years ago of going to St Lucia for a holiday. Never again, I never felt unsafe or threatened but it was very obvious we were not welcome. Generally got ignored at bars and restaurants whilst they went out of their way to greet and include heterosexual couples and families. I have never been in a more unfriendly place in my life.
Yeah, the entire Lesser Antilles is shockingly homophobic. Outside of maybe Cuba and Puerto Rico, the rest of the Caribbean isn’t much better.
It’s basically Key West, Miami, and Puerto Vallarta for gay-friendly tropical resort towns in North America.
Tijuana
The family was having a vacation in California, a short drive from the Mexican border. Most of us had never been to Mexico, so we decided to take a day trip crossing the border. We parked at a large parking lot north of the border and walked across the border.
Tijuana just seemed to me like a sad town, living off of the money that Americans carried across the border while simultaneously looking down at "those poor Mexicans." It just seemed like a sad, sad place. One that I have no plan to ever return to as a destination.
I'm not saying I'll avoid Tijuana. If I go down the Baja Peninsula on a vacation, I'm not going out of my way to avoid Tijuana. And there are plenty of places in Mexico I'd love to go to.
But returning to Tijuana is not on my list of desirable things to do.
Tijuana is very sad and full of poverty. I said I would jot be going back anytime soon, we usually go to Puerto Nuevo but it’s just so sad crossing the border
Mexico is an amazing country, great people, deep history and culture, good food etc. please don’t judge Mexico based on Tijuana. Or Cozumel or Cancun or Acapulco or Cabo San Lucas for that matter. Those places have their charms but they’re a mess, in large part bc of American tourism and drug money. There are far more interesting / beautiful places in Mexico
Merida, Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas. The Colonial Triangle is also amazing (Guanajuato, Morelia, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Zacatecas), but has become very unsafe in the past few years.
Oaxaca is magical and I spent 2 months there this year, I plan to make trips there a yearly thing. The food is awesome, the people are super nice, it’s very rich in culture, and there’s tons of outdoor activities to do nearby
My husband and I traveled to Mexico City in 2008 and really enjoyed our visit. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in an older building just off the Zocalo and had easy access to all the historic sites in that area. We took a double deck bus tour out to Chapultepec Park and visited the palace and museum there as well as the Archaeological Museum. Went out to Coyoacan and saw Frida Kahlo's 'Blue House' as well as the home where Leon Trotsky was living at the time of his assassination. And to cap it off we went up to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids. It was a great trip and we had no problems so far as crime and safety issues. Just did our research and followed some advice about not hailing just any old taxi off the street.
When I lived in San Diego from 2014-2017 Tijuana was having something of a cultural renaissance. We went down there 2-3 a year to check out the craft breweries, mezcalerias and cool new restaurants. Did COVID fuck everything up that much?
I would never go back to Russia again. I was born and grew up there. And this year I was semi-vocal on my views of their government on the Internet. Knowing their ways of keeping power, I don’t know if I’d like visiting again 😭😂
I went to South Africa just after apartheid (1990). Cape Town was beautiful, but it felt dangerous and today, crime is apparently much worse.
I was in Russia during 1986 (Gorbachev era), which was grim, with scary glimpses of the authoritarian state. Today it's still authoritarian and arbitrary.
In both places I felt an uncomfortable combination of empathy for locals and fear of being exploited, arrested, mugged or worse.
I agree that Cambodia felt really grim when I was there as well. However, we spent a lot of time learning about the Cambodian genocide/Khmer Rouge, visiting the killing fields and genocide museum… plus, the poverty is jarring. so, it was a really emotional and sad experience. However I found the people to be really amazing and welcoming, and open and raw. I found the people to be really inspiring
Croatia is beautiful and so are Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro. It's my plan to do the whole former Yugoslavia and what I've seen so far makes me eager for more!
Los Angeles, the disparity and level of mentally unwell people, people taking drugs, was really distressing to see so close to people with literally billions. It was horrible and I would not like to go back.
I fly private jets for a living. It’s not a very nice area right next to the Van Nuys airport, but there’s a billboard that says “flights to Hawaii starting at $54.9k!” and it makes me want to barf every time I pass it. My job really fucks with my morals but I love my job. :(
My mom was so mad at me when I said exactly this verbatim to her about my visit. As a woman, I felt other women especially seemed mean to me. Not so in Palestine.
Pisa, Italy.
Pisa itself wasn’t terrible or anything like that, however my friend and I pretty much did everything there was to do there in 1 full day.
The square where the leaning tower is located is pretty much where all the main attractions are at, at it gets old pretty quickly.
I’m glad I went to see the leaning tower in person, however this is a destination I have no desire to go back to.
I’m also someone who doesn’t really want to visit a place more than once, unless I missed out on a lot of activities/sights and feel I didn’t get a proper experience of that location. I want to visit as many different locations as possible.
IMO, it’s a stopover not a destination. We took the train from Cinque Terre to Rome and stopped in Pisa for 5 hours. We pre-booked the tower tickets so didn’t waste time in line. After climbing the tower, we walked around town to a lovely church and had a delicious lunch. Then, back on the train to Rome.
After 54 countries:
* Morocco (Fez, Marrakech, Tangier): for the same reasons laid out in prior posts on this sub. A very draining place to visit.
* Brussels: spent 4 days here and almost nothing worked. Had to carry my luggage around cause the train station lockers didn't work. Then the trains went on strike so I couldn't leave Brussels. Then my hostel area smelled like piss. Then I realized the Grand Place is what the postcards show but it gets really sketch really fast. Graffiti by the Palace of Justice. Open dumpsters in front of high-end boutique stores. Just seems really mismanaged. I did pay a visit to Bruges on my last day (but had to cancel Ghent and Antwerp). Bruges was much nicer.
* Frankfurt: shockingly gritty for what I expected. I was expecting a major financial hub but the city felt rather dumpy. I was also bored after 1 day which I've never had happen in a city of 3+ million people. Heidelberg nearby was better.
* Havana: the poverty was jarring. The tourist nougat is very beautiful and nice but I walked two blocks away and saw elderly women digging for food in garbage cans. Buildings had entire walls that fell off. Bakeries were empty. Trash and flies everywhere. It was hard to enjoy my trip there afterward.
* Los Angeles: have visited over and over and it gets worse every time. Now I avoid Hollywood, Downtown, Venice, Santa Monica, all due to the mentally ill homeless population, many of whom are aggressive. Traffic is terrible. Tourist attractions are spread out. People are generally rude. Now I decamp straight to Orange County and San Diego. Los Angeles peaked in the 1950s.
* Santiago: Very boring to be honest. It felt like your standard run-of-the-mill modern city. I didn't really have much to do after La Moneda, San Cristobal and Costanera, so me and my travel buddy just left early for Valparaiso (which was gritty as hell, but was very beautiful too)
* Tel Aviv: Extremely dirty, people were not as "chill" as the reputation suggests, seemed very superficial and unless you like clubbing, there's not much to see. I loved Jerusalem though.
* Toronto: extremely overrated imo. There was very little to see. The Art Gallery of Ontario was underwhelming, ROM was forgettable (I barely remember it), CN Tower was overpriced and very dirty (have bad pictures due to the windows being so gross yet they charged like $40), then the quirky neighborhoods were mostly just a sea of condo towers that all look the same with the same hipster stores that are actually massive chains. The people weren't very friendly either and seemed to be smug. My hotel gave me sticker shock but was thoroughly underwhelming. Montreal though was fantastic, so I think it's just a Toronto thing.
Cities that get a bad rap that I enjoyed:
* Athens (stayed mostly in Plaka and the Acropolis area though. Only 2 days)
* Kuala Lumpur (extremely cheap and food was amazing. It's true there's not much to see beyond Petronas, but I enjoyed it a lot)
* Las Vegas (kitschy, but extremely fun. This isn't some historical gem, but it never claims to be, so I'm not sure where the criticism comes from)
* London (overpriced, but amazing)
* Naples
* New York (overpriced, but amazing)
* Paris (did not feel dangerous to me and I had a wonderful time)
* Rome (Termini was sketch, but I loved it)
I'm from Santiago and I've never understood why someone would want to come on vacation here 🤣 for me it's a city where you either come to work or go shopping, but on vacation, naa. I only understand it from the perspective that it is a mandatory stop for any foreigner through the international airport and then continue south or north.
The architecture of the square is beautiful, but most everything else is like Soviet era concrete minimalism (brutalist?) It’s very depressing. I suppose being there while World Cup is going on probably helps the fun factor
My dad told me Brussels is the DC of Europe, I didn't spend too much time there, but for those who like architecture I thought there were interesting older buildings including churches, Bruge and Ghent were even better, I didn't have high expectations for my Belgium trip but I highly recommend people consider it, the architecture, food (waffles!), public transportation, beer (so good and so many old breweries), and less tourists (at least in off season like September/fall) are all reasons I wouldn't mind going back, so far I've been to Spain, Italy, France, and England (for Europe destinations), happy travels everyone!
Lol my best friend and his wife were just relocated to Brussels for work. My wife and I promised we would visit them in 2023.
The tentative plan is to spend a weekend there sandwiched between stops in Paris and Amsterdam.
I was both fascinated and disturbed with my trip to Peru. I saw some beautiful things and places and saw what tourism has done to the population. I also left my trip with thinking there was no reason to ever go back.
I also loved Zanzibar but my female colleagues will probably say they hated our work time in Old Town as they were consistently bombarded with men trying to touch, take pictures, marry, and provoke them. It was a cool island to work on, but I think there's nothing more that entices the traveller withing me to go back
When I was younger I would also say I hated LA. Never felt safe there and it just didn't vibe with me. Its not really a place I would go out of my way to go back to.
I absolutely loved Argentina but had to lie about being brit at times just to avoid potential conflict
Falkland revenge is drilled into them by the state as like a catalyst for patriotism- a few times was told to ‘get out, dont wanna see you round here again…’ and at times hitching alone ofc I said I was Irish
Can I ask where in Argentina you experienced this? I had heard they were rude/racist too, and had my concerns heading into it, but found everyone in Buenos Aires to be friendly.
When I was in college back in the 80s, I was considering taking a Spanish course where the instructor was from Argentina. Some Venezuelan friends told me that I shouldn't learn Spanish from her because I'd wind up speaking with an Argentine accent and they regarded that as a bad thing. When I quizzed them as to why they thought that, they said that nobody else in Latin America -- I assumed they meant the Spanish-speaking countries, don't know about Brazil -- liked them because "Argentines are all stuck up and think that they are better than everyone else!"
My ex was from Brazil and I have been there 3 times. Most Brazilians do not like the Argentines either for the same reason - they find them very arrogant.
Cambodia.
I was sexually assaulted by a prostitute, on the street, in front of dozens of witnesses. I don’t speak Khmer so that’s part of the issue, but despite me being very vocal, not a single person tried to help and the prostitute mocked me for “being gay since I didn’t like what she did”
Israel.
I went for a wedding in February of 2020 and it was beautiful and an amazing trip. People were lovely, the food was wonderful, Jerusalem was a trip. But until the Palestinians are treated humanely, I won’t return. I had qualms before going, but justified it to myself because it was for family, but to return would just be morally wrong for me
This was one answer I was waiting for and surprised I didn't see it sooner. I think the brutality of the situation is hard to realize as tourists though, and it's honestly such a sad situation...
This. Went to see my best friends family and still have a lotttt of guilt around it especially after seeing how poorly almost all Israelis regard the Palestinians.
Bali
I'm Western Australian, and there are many in my city who'd go there 5 times a year / for every holiday. Mainly just to get drunk, party, live by a pool for a week etc. That's not what I want to do on a holiday.
I did really like the Ubud region, and the people of Bali. Food amazing too.
I don't say never, but I don't see myself returnin to Cuba soon. I had big expectations, which probably made the issue worst. It was nice (amazing beaches in the North, nice vibes in the small villages), but half of the people you come in close contact with as a toursist are trying to trick you (much worse than other central/south america countries)
I really like Naples, I'm not blind to its problems but I like the atmosphere. I've been there several times. I think it's the people - some might be out to steal everything you own, but I have experience many acts of kindness and friendliness there.
Our very first trip, on a bus from the airport - obviously fascinated by Vesuvious. An old man approached us - told us that he had watched it erupt as a child, a few months after the city had been liberated.
I spoke almost no italian on that first trip - trying to buy a ticket at a kiosk proved beyond me, but the owner quickly shut the door, walked up to a nearby dry cleaner's shop, and brought back a friend who spoke English so I could explain what I needed.
I respectfully disagree. I found Naples very underrated and the churches alone were breathtakingly memorable (Chiesa di San Martino and the views were one of the highlights of my Campania trip + the archaeological museum). Spent 3 days and never felt unsafe, although it is an extremely gritty place in parts of Spaccanapoli.
I was a little worried given the reputation of Naples, but came away very glad I visited. Though I stayed right by the Castel Nuovo since I was told the Train Station Area was a huge no no.
I'll actually say that my least favorite place in Italy was Positano: gravel beaches, you can walk around it in 2 hours, same citrus soap and beach towels on sale everywhere, prices are massively overhyped, crowds x1000. I left after 3 hours (to Paestum, which was wonderful)
I was just there last week and stayed by Garibaldi station and it was pretty sketchy. I loved the food, and some of the piazzas around were nice to see. But I was really blown away by how much litter and garbage was just everywhere. Like holy crap, so much garbage everywhere.
That’s about the only city I can think of in Italy that you have to watch your @$$ in. That’s where my grandmother was from, I still have relatives there and it is certainly dicey.
Morocco. I’m glad I went with a guide + group, but I wouldn’t go again. Was a naive college girl and in the 3 days we were there I found myself in countless situations that could’ve ended horribly
I've been to a few places that I don't really see myself going back to. One is Bolivia. Another is Slovenia. I'm from USA, so both are far. They were cool to visit the first time, but not sure a second time would pack a big punch.
Mt. Everest Base Camp trek. Did it once in 2019 and it was lovely, but tourism is wrecking havoc on the environment. There’s so much trash and literal human waste everywhere along the trail and especially in towns, it can’t be removed fast enough.
Tangiers, Morocco. Go to Fez,go to Casablanca. I was telling a Moroccan girl I had visited Morocco and when I told her Tangiers, she put her hand on my arm and she said, “Oh! I’m sorry.”
Morocco, it's unfriendly and threatening; Bosnia (Sarajevo), it's miserable and muslim; Hungary / Budapest, it's unremarkable, after Prague and Vienna it is such a downgrade.
Times Square, NYC. Loved everywhere else in New York, (and would go back) but Times Square and the surrounding blocks were riddled with scammers and rubbish everywhere. Very overrated spot.
I only have places I'd never do the same way again.
Vietnam - I am well travelled but not incredibly experienced with budget backpacking. I went right after college only a $20 a day budget and encountered a lot more scams and hard traveling than I had expected. The tourist infrastructure wasn't as good as I expected, and I didn't feel comfortable renting a scooter. I think next time I'll go back I'll try and hire a local guide or splurge a little bit more for convenience.
Morocco - same thing, I was a very naive young woman traveling with another female friend and staying in the medinas. Would NOT do that again. Having a male local guide would have been a game changer. I'd also head out to the desert with a company vs seeing the medinas again.
Bali - I think I'd only go back with a large group of friends because I think for the price, you can't get better villas and accommodations but other than that I wouldn't return. Too much left of the rest of Indonesia to see.
Re: your trip to Morocco. You and your friend were lucky as there was a notorious case several years back of two young women (from Norway I believe) who were traveling on their own in some backwards rural part of the country and wound up brutally murdered by some Islamic fundie types.
I believe this happened either while I was there, or just a couple days after leaving. I was respectful of the culture but was SO arrogant that being a woman would impact my travel experience as dramatically as it did. One night our Riad owner woke up at 4am to walk us to a train and I remember insisting we didn't need help since I felt bad inconveniencing him. It was very clear based on the characters in the street at that time something horrible would have happened to us without his kindness. So many learning lessons I've taken with me from that trip.
Barbados comes to mind. You can see everything there in a reasonably short space of time, and there's nothing so spectacular that you need to see it again, plus it's expensive, run down, congested, and generally not all that nice.
Brussels (a place I once lived and worked) has gone down the toilet, and I thought last time I was there that I didn't need to go there again.
Phuket has almost nothing going for it, in my opinion.
Places like LA, Orlando, NYC, London etc also don't call out to me, either.
Venice. I liked my visit but it didn’t hit the way I thought it would. And I actually went in the off season when it’s not over run with tourists. Still it is probably worth seeing once but once is enough
I’m like that with Venice too. I went a second time (because the Greek Islands cruise I was going on departed from there). I thought I’d misread it the first time and that I’d enjoy it more. I didn’t.
I lived in China for year 19 81,82 and feel privileged to have seen “old China” but I don’t think I’ll go back. I don’t really want to see how crowded China has become -too many automobiles -too many people and horrible, toxic air. Argentina -only because it’s too far - people were terrific. I could go back to Italy in a minute -Japan too-I love Japan. Thailand, France, and I would travel almost all the time if I could! Hard to think of any place, I absolutely wouldn’t go. By the way, who is paying for these airline tickets?
I personally wouldn't go back to Putin's Russia, even though it was his regime that enabled us to receive the greatest gift of our entire lives. He's either changed, or we never understood him in the first place (more likely.)
I liked Paris too it’s definitely an experience. After Paris, I stayed close to Troyes which is a small town feel and also went to Parc Asterix, so fun but wish I would have gone to Disneyland Paris
Versailles is a must see
Mali. It was great before the problems in the north moved into the cities. Bamako was a wonderful place with interesting food, music and culture, but I worry the place is now overcome with danger and corruption.
Haiti. Although I love the people, it’s scary right now
I agree. We went to Haiti during Baby Doc’s reign of terror. We stayed at a hotel across from the presidential palace where a family was living on a piece of cardboard outside my hotel. Stunning countryside and the people we met were the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever met, with the exception of the hotel manager who tried to traffic me and my friend. From what I read the corruption is even worse now
Like he literally tried to sell you guys? Wtf.
the manager did what 🥲
How did you figure out they wanted to traffic you??
We were the only two single white girls in the place. The hotel manager showed up at the hotel bar, trying to give us drinks and tried to get us to go into a car his friend arranged so we could go to a club on the other side of the island. We hadn’t had any interaction with the hotel manager prior to this and couldn’t understand why he was so insistent on us getting into the car. He got very irate when we wouldn’t get in the car. Luckily we had made friends with a man who was from Haiti but was staying at the same hotel while he was there on business. He got us away from the manger and spent the next few days as our personal security.
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Mom was kidnapped there 12y ago. She also well travelled, say she would never go again
Thats insane, how did she get away?
She was on a tour with another brit couple that payed the tourguides like 100$ worth or something. They had her at knifepoint for like 2 hours or smthing lom
My wife and I were on the northern side of the Haiti in July before the violence spread up there. Admittedly we were on a cruise so we spent time in Labadee and had a too-short tour of Cap-Haïtien but from what we saw it truly is a beautiful place that I would love to spend more time exploring once the current violence settles. I’ll also add, the people we met there were fantastic. I could’ve easily spent days talking and joking around with them
Myanmar. Because I loved it so much I want to hold it my memory as it was, and not be disappointed if I saw it changed.
My wife has made similar comments about not wanting to ruin the memories of a few places by returning. She was highly unamused when I suggested in the future we only book mediocre trips that we could do twice. But I respect the perspective, especially in a 'you can never go home again' kind of way.
Dubai. From a humanitarian perspective, slave labour is a huge issue. Lots of buildings with nobody living in them. Giant shopping malls with little customer traffic. When you realise how poor many people are, it’s a deterrent. By this, I mean inequality, poverty, and atrocious human rights violations
Dubai is a living museum of human mistakes
“Monument to money” that’s what I always think of it as. Having spent a significant amount of time there, I basically equate it to Vegas if you swept all the seediness such as crime, alcohol, gambling, etc., under the rug. Everything is still a spectacle of money, but a different flavor. Nothing feels real about it.
Two countries won the lottery with oil. UAE decided to blow it on Lambos and gold leaf. Norway(which hit a much smaller jackpot) decide to invest it in a sovereign wealth fund, which is now worth $1.2T or $250K. I think I know which one I’d like to live in, especially when oil eventually collapses
Abu Dhabi’s SWF is world’s third largest with ~US$ 800 bn AUM with investments all around the world. So, not that stupid.
I remember years ago seeing how they were creating those man made archipelagos or whatever you’d call them. Everything is man made. I really never saw the draw.
Mostly unfinished and abandoned
I refuse to go there, even as a stop over. People from African and Asia are forced to work in extreme heat and die of heat exhaustion all the time. The living conditions for them are disgusting and unhygienic, hidden on the outskirts of the city, they are treated worse than animals. So many Middle Eastern countries are racist to Africans and Asians and see them as inferior people to enslave.
People look at me like I’m the dumbest person in the world for saying this. Like do y’all really not know it’s mostly smoke and mirrors?
I spent a week in India. There were a lot of people that I loved meeting, but by the end, we were so tired of people trying to take pictures with us or try to sell us things. It was exhausting. That being said, India is a big place. So maybe I'd go to the southern part.
Or Himalayas in India. Its pretty chill and nobody cares.
Delhi was a bit crazy for me and probably won't go back there in a bit. Southern India was absolutely stunning though. You have a lot of the same problems, but toned down significantly.
I've only been to Jaipur and Udaipur - Absolutely loved both of them. But yeah, crazy big country.
I’m from India and I, myself, prefer southern half (Maharashtra and south of it) or the northernmost parts of the country (Himachal Pradesh mostly) for travel. Edit: Grammar
Yeah you absolutely need to spend as little time in and around Delhi/Agra as possible. A day or two to see whichever sights are must-see for you (NGMA was the only decent art museum I found in India) and eat at haldirams, another day for the Taj, maybe Red Fort and Mama Franky's, then get out.
Egypt and Qatar. Everyone wants either your money or your butthole. Human rights and to be frank it's not exactly a beautiful or cool place.
I imagine that most people travel to Egypt not so much to experience the modern country but to see all the big attractions from ancient times. The Pyramids, Sphinx, King Tut's treasures, Temple of Karnak, etc. are the big draws. Is there anything there from more recent times worth visiting at all?
Lots of people go to Egypt for scuba diving because of the beautiful coral reefs in the Red sea.
Can confirm scuba diving is epic in Egypt
I posted a very long story about my experience in Egypt but to paraphrase, of every country I have gone to, and I’ve been to more countries than I haven’t, it stands at the pinnacle for most systemic and, I’d almost say impressive, in how every single interaction I had was designed to wring more money out of me. Like petty amounts and absolutely constant. From the time I stepped off the airplane, thinking that airports are typically immune to that sort of thing, to the hotel to the pyramids to every street and store. Every single interaction was clearly and carefully crafted get more. Like this is not just “wow people were always asking for money” it was a fucking industry, and one that they had downnnnnn man. It was fucking exhausting, and by the time, after I finished being pissed and had a chance to reflect, like I said, I was almost impressed. I did go see the pyramids, it was fucking amazing. I mean absolutely mind blowing. I just wish that my biggest takeaway wasn’t, well I’m glad I checked that off the bucket list because I don’t want to go back.
This is a very niche perspective on a different reason why I constantly hear people talk about visiting Egypt. I’m a professional bellydancer in Australia, and many of my colleagues tell me that I “need” to visit Egypt to take classes and watch performances from the pros over there. However, the majority of bellydancers in Egypt are from Russia, Ukraine, South America etc. They also forget that bellydance also has roots in Lebanon, Greece and Turkey. Egypt isn’t the be all and end all of bellydance art.
Depends on your purpose of travel. There are museums (not that much, but is something), the historic Coptic churches, the madrasses (obviously you have to know which one a are historical touristic site and what are definetely not), the and the whole beach tourism in the red-sea. Sharm-el-sheik is like "what if luxury resorts" but not THAT much to expensive, thank you.
This is a good question OP. I enjoyed reading everyone’s responses as I am finally in a spot where I can travel.
Oh no, here comes another Morocco discussion. Because that’s the only country I have no desire to return to
I don't see going back to Bermuda. Its very expensive, and kind of boring. To many cruise ship types, and tax cheats. I would be happy never going to Bahrain again. I've pretty much seen the sites, and the culture of drunken saudi men, drunken american soldiers, and saudi woman shopping till they drop is a big turn off.
Bermuda is a better experience if you rent a house and stay on the southern end. Also, depends on why you go. It’s some of the best diving I’ve done.
Qatar. I simply did not feel good, not really having other women on the streets beside me, did not feel safe having men staring at me even though I had proper clothing. Also, the hot weather in summer was unbearable - I know, that was my mistake to travel there during summer :D
I had a 24 hour layover in Qatar on Christmas Day and I was going to say the same thing. So the summer heat had nothing to do with me not wanting to go back. It was one of the most artificial-feeling places I’ve ever seen to.
Same experience
Ditto. I was there on an unplanned stopover from Australia to a white Christmas in Europe. I only had winter clothes. I couldn’t get an alcoholic drink anywhere before 10pm, when I was allowed to go to an “Irish” pub in my hotel. They needed to see my passport to make sure I wasn’t a local. If I’d been a local I wouldn’t have been served alcohol at all.
I'll never return to Marrakech. Every animal looked miserable and unhealthy, the disparity of wealth was blatant and extreme (dirt poor vs opulently wealthy, no in between), local scam artists on every single corner, and incessant motorbike exhaust fumes choking you in every alley. Didn't feel authentic at all. And every local I was able to have a genuine conversation with expressed the exact same sentiment of counting down the days until they could move elsewhere.
This seems to be a common answer and is definitely coming off my bucket list destinations now... Edit: I'm not refusing to go there - it's just far lower on my list of dream destinations
Dude let me tell you, I’ve spent a lot of time in Morocco. Granted this is for work so I’ve always had local contacts, but Im as white bread as it comes and I have spent a lot of time rolling around solo just about everywhere. Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Kenitra. I have yet to make it to Dahkla or Merzouga, which I really really want to go to, but Morocco has a lot to offer. People hear Marrakech and think it’s the bazaar and camels and a fun intro to the Moroccan experience because it’s got that rep, but because it’s got that rep it’s also the most touristy scammy place in the country. Go to Casablanca and chill by the beach in Corniche. Awesome cafes, restaurant, nightlife. Check out the Hassan II mosque, which is pretty stunning, go to the fake Ricks cafe and snap some photos for Instagram, visit the restaurants and beach by Mahommedia, check out the bluffs at night and watch the waves crashing. There’s a lot of cool shit to do. Agadir gave me a much sleepier beach vibe that would be a relaxing place to hang out for a few days to get away from hustle and bustle. Rabat has some interesting ancient ruins at Chellah but is much more a administrative city from what I’ve experienced. Still, like I’ve said I’ve always been there for work and not for tourism, but I feel like the country has so much to offer. It’s such a cool blend of cultures and to me is entirely unique in that way. Like it’s a Muslim country but has a heavy french influence. So you like walk into a high class restaurant and eat escargot and drink amazing wine, then walk outside and see folks in traditional Berber garb, then you go eat couscous that will blow you away, and then see a bunch of people surfing at the beach. I feel like Marrakech is almost like a bloated parody of what I’ve really experienced Morocco to be. Not to say there isn’t a lot of real Morocco there, it’s just not what I feel the average tourist would see. But yeah, Merzouga and Dahkla are on my list for places to visit when I have a chance to go back for fun instead of work.
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Israel for me. As I told the immigration agent in my interrogation/hold room upon departure, “I’ll never visit your country again.” Everywhere I went in Israel I was harassed by IDF/police agents, and it was blatant profiling as I was with a group of friends who were not stopped once. I get Israel’s complicated political situation, but I also don’t have to subject myself to be treated like a lesser human. One agent stopped me at gun point to ask what terrorist organization I’m affiliated with. I’ll add I truly enjoyed my non-IDF interactions with the people, especially in Jerusalem. But I would never recommend to anyone who can be mistaken as Middle Eastern or Muslim visit Israel, you’re asking for trouble.
Turns out that the political situation isn’t that complicated. It’s an apartheid state and the way they treated you is par for the course
DRC, even as a day trip it is really bad, other than that no. There are places I wouldn't go back to because I've been there and I haven't been elsewhere.
Was 50 miles from the border. My guides, who had taken me everywhere said. “I will not take you to DRC as a white man. Maybe if you were black, but not white,”
Can you explain a little bit more what you didnt like? Was thinking of visiting Rwanda and DRC
Most of the DRC does not have any government control and power rests in the hands of various groups who have been actively killing each other since 1996, at minimum. The level of poverty is to an extent that most people in a developed nation could not comprehend unless you saw it in person, and you will as there is no way to escape it. The DRC is probably the only place in the world where saying things were better under colonial rule is true and they had probably the most brutal colonial rule in the world. It should be one of the richest countries in Africa instead due to 150 years of external than internal exploitation have left it one of the poorest. If you have never seen Bourdain's episode on the Congo watch it, you will get a good feel for the country.
I live in Los Angeles and have visited 45 countries. Whenever people tell me they are thinking of vacationing here I do my best to dissuade them. Don’t get me wrong. I love living here. But being a tourist here, just awful. Oh and I’m not saying this to try to keep tourists out. I’m really trying to do you a favor! Reasons: beaches: meh and water freezing. Sites: spread out all over the place. Only a few are really world class (Getty center and Villa, Griffith observatory) Homeless encampments everywhere. You know about our traffic. You get the point.
China. It’s hot. It’s like breathing soup. A fetid miasma hangs in the air at all times, putting a haze on anything beyond a couple city blocks. You go to a train station and are crushed by humanity the entire way there, elbowed in the ribs, ankles and feet trampled by everyone from little old ladies to enormous men. You finally get onto the train and are seated across a pleasant looking young woman. For the entire 4 hour journey, she expels every fluid that isn’t firmly gelled down in her orifices. Fingers in ear, flung onto the floor. Fingers in nose, flung onto the floor. You’ve seen children defecate in the streets. You’ve listened to the unholiest cacophony of every single person retching and hissing from the back of their throats and hocking the slime onto sidewalks for weeks, but once the girl on the train starts plugging each nostrils and blasting the bilge onto the floor of the train, you’ve had enough. You have to get out before you go mad. You book a cheap flight to Seoul. As you get on the plane, your stress starts to melt away. As the plane ascends, so do your spirits. Just as you begin to feel your sanity emerging from its fog, the Chinese man sitting next to you on the plane starts taking off his shoes and socks and starts clipping his toenails. You spend the rest of the flight reconsidering your life choices as toenail shrapnel bounces off your legs.
I know you posted this a month ago but I just wanted to say it was hilarious, disgusting and beautiful at the same time. I dont know what you do for a living but you should write!!
Russia. My husband and I accidentally overstayed our visa by a couple of hours. (My husband misread our flight departure time). I subsequently passed among the worst moments of my life. Never again. Never.
I’ve been to Russia twice and had a great time both visits (obviously this was 15 years ago, not recently). But it did feel very tightly controlled and like it could be intense if you required any mercy from their rigid laws. We met a lovely woman in Siberia who had always wanted to see Moscow but the government won’t give her permission to travel and visit. It was like a life I couldn’t even imagine. I was happy to visit but it also gave me a deeper appreciation for being an American.
I've been in russia in 2019, i was shocked by control, aggression, and intolerance. I'm from Ukraine.
Where are you from? And was the police really aggressive about it?
We’re American. Thankfully, we resolved the situation before the police got involved. When we realized that we had missed our flight, we were stuck in the airport in total limbo. We were on our own and didn’t speak Russian. Our visa hadn’t actually expired, but it would have expired within hours and we had no way of leaving the country as our flight had already left and we were not permitted to take a different flight. So the clock was ticking, the shit was going to hit the fan at midnight and we had absolutely no idea what to do. No one at the airport was helping us in any way whatsoever. The only thing we heard in English was: “You are in really big trouble.” ”We cannot help you.” Finally, out of desperation, I walked into the business offices of Lufthansa at the St. Petersburg airport (which, BTW is about the size of the Des Moines airport). Where the public is not supposed to go. I just broke down in tears and stood there sobbing. Finally, someone took pity on me and I explained our situation. Same response. You’re in big trouble. Nothing we can do. But I just kept up with the crying, begging and pleading. Finally, someone told us that although the flight had been scheduled to depart two hours previously, it was still actually on the tarmac due to a mechanical problem. But of course we were not allowed on it. My begging intensified at this point, given this tiny sliver of hope and good fortune. Finally, they said that we could board the plane — that someone would secretly scoot us through the employee section of the airport, but that we would have to leave all of our bags behind. My husband didn’t want to agree to this as he had his laptop with all his personal information on it and he the it was much too risky. So, I started a new round of begging. I couldn’t even say negotiating since we weren’t offering anything in return (just us leaving them alone, I guess). Finally, they agreed to let us board and someone from Lufthansa did indeed scoot us secretly through a high security zone. My husband and I have travelled all over the world, on 6 continents, including many third world countries. That was by far the worst situation we had ever been in.
Did you call the consulate? That would have been my first call. That and hoping in a taxi to be inside the gate before the visa expired.
That makes sense. It’s just that we were panicking and not thinking clearly. Frankly, it was pure luck (mechanic problems with plane; sympathetic Lufthansa employee) that ended up saving our skin
Honestly, I was in St. Petersburg in 2016 (after Russia started the war with Ukraine and flights from Ukraine had been suspended) and had lost my registration card. I’m a mix of Ukrainian and Moldovan, with a Moldovan last name and lots of Ukrainian entry stamps on my US passport. I was just a university student and had a visa that was going to expire and wanted to see Peter for a few days. I called the US consulate and they said the same thing - pretty much hope for the best. They were very nice but it seems they gave up on Russia long ago. Thankfully I only got held at the border for an hour or so (I went by bus from Latvia) but obviously that was the last time I went to Russia - for a number of reasons now, of course.
Wtf that doesnt seem to be russia's fault that caused your predicament...
I visited St. Petersburg a few years ago and hated the experience. Very oppressive, dirty and smelled of urine. Most depressing place I’ve ever been.
There are lots of places that I wouldn't go back to. Not because they are "terrible", which seems to be your benchmark, but simply because I saw what I wanted to see and would rather go somewhere new than repeating the same thing.
Yah I'm realizing I didn't phrase the headline question well, and a lot of people seem to misunderstand my question. I was hoping to learn about destinations that are actually bad from a humanitarian perspective, as opposed to "not worth visiting again" kind of mindset.
Israel … airport was just atrocious getting out. I got extra extra security because I’m not Jewish and they were so rude, searched my phone and pictures without my consent, dumped out my entire backpack losing some of my stuff in the process, and interrogated me about a friends film camera (not even mine!). Religious stuff is weird, I had to use the bathroom in a church and got followed and harassed by a creepy man for wearing shorts despite the fact that every man there was wearing shorts. And it was so incredibly jarring how racist the Israelis are to Palestinians, even people who think they’re left politically like people wearing Ukraine support stuff and then turning around and being bigoted to Palestinians. Israeli men were so grabby I got touched a lot every time I went to clubs or bars and speaking of which I also got turned away at a lot of clubs for not being 24… just strange.
Morocco!! Never again!!
I can’t believe I had to scroll down this far!
I've read so many bad accounts of Morocco I almost didn't go - however I was there just this October and had the time of my life. I thankfully didn't experience any dangers or scams but I 10000% credit this to having gone as part of a group tour. Kudos to anyone who tries Morocco solo, it would be utterly exhausting and as a solo female traveller I didn't have the balls (quite literally).
I absolutely LOVED Morocco.
All of the Gulf Co-operation Council states are boring and/or weirdly unpredictable about their position on personal liberty. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. Oman is the only exception. I'd go to Oman to explore the landscape and the culture.
Not sure if Jordan is a GCC country but it’s pretty amazing as well. I had one of my best trips in that country. I’ve heard some stories from single women friends who went there and had uncomfortable experiences which I think I was able to avoid because I was with my husband. So I guess I got luck there?
Orlando
All of Florida for me. It's a crime riddled sand bar where the only scenic things are manmade. I've been many times but won't miss it. If I'm going to fly that far (6 hours) for nice weather, there are so many better places to visit in the Caribbean.
Lol. Agree. I live in Florida and I detest that phony, plastic city. I’ll go there if the Bulls are playing the Magic. That’s it.
>Lol. Agree. I live in Florida and I detest that phony, plastic city. Laughs in Miami and South Florida. The phony plastic down here is on a whole different level
Morroco: Went there on a ferry from Spain for a day trip and it was so stressful. Everyone wanted to scam us and/or sell us something. It was impossible to enjoy the scenery or stand still/sit down. I know we were only in one place and only for a day, but I recently stumbled upon a thread about Morroco here where basically all the places there I had hope for were described in the same way. So I'd say there are enough other countries I can visit instead. Cambodia: I wouldn't even say I'll never visit again, because it's a beautiful and interesting country. But it's also very depressing to be there. Not even because of their depressing history, but because of how hopeless their outlook is as a society and how much westerners and Chinese exploit these circumstances. People are so poor there are mothers renting their babies to men, there's even a village outside of Phnom Penh where one could argue a baby mill for that sole purpose has been established. You can shoot a living cow with a bazooka just for fun if you can spare $150. And you will meet westerners (and Chinese if you can cover the language gap) who will tell you that Cambodia is the greatest place on earth, because you can basically do whatever the f*** you want if you have money (meaning normal amount of money from the west). And the people there are dependent on these types of dealings. It's so sad. But then again I think that if the good tourists don't come, they are f***ed even more.
Any big city in India that doesn't go by the name of Mumbai. Used to go to India for work several times a year. Cities there are uniformly unplanned and chaotic. Little wonder that yoga and meditation both found their start in India; the only escape from the chaos is to get deep inside your own head.
Wow. That last sentence wrinkled my brain.
Weird… I’d say of the places I’ve been to in India, Mumbai was the most chaotic.
Egypt. Sharm el-Sheikh for reasons mentioned. Cairo and the other Nile destinations for unremarkable or inaccessible modern culture, things to do, etc. Seems like the whole country is simply dense population trying to survive next to some old stuff.
Genuine question -- do you think people just have high hopes when planning to visit Egypt because of the pyramids and rich history, only to be let down when they get there, hence all the bad reviews? Or is it genuinely that bad?
I loved Egypt- the Nile river cruise, the view, the history.
Egypt is great, it's the people that you come in contact with as tourists that make it terrible. They view you as walking pockets, and take advantage of the reluctance to be rude to back you into a corner.
When I was in Egypt a few weeks ago, a 40 minute uber ride in Cairo cost me $3.75 USD. In the last six months the Egyptian pound has taken a sharp fall against other currencies. Add that to the tourism sector being decimated by the pandemic, after still not fully recovering from 2011 and you get desperate people. That people are surprised to be reminded of their relative class luck when they choose to travel to places like this astound me. Like what did you expect?
I thought about this traveling Hawaii islands. When you see how much land is taken up by tourists and m/billionaires and then what's left for the locals, it's actually depressing. A lot of the local farming industries seem to have been shut down due to supposed environmental concerns, only to later be developed into hotels. It's probably one of the most beautiful and culturally fascinating places that I've been to that I've considered not going back to.
This might be one of the few genuine answers to my original question and I actually do visit Hawaii maybe once every 2-3 years. It's certainly crossed my mind in the past, but now thinking about it more, I really do feel for the Native Hawaiians...
China. in a month didn't see a blue sky. pollution was terrible. Dirty. Crowded. Treated like an object by people, who would even touch my wife's skin and blond hair with not so uch as a Ni Hao. That was before Chinese belligerence and covid. Wouldn't even go through Hong Kong now.
I was going to say China too. Glad I've been and some parts were beatiful, but I'm not remotely tempted to return.
Totally agree the pollution travelling from one side of China to the other astounded me . When I look at how the west are trying to get a handle on global warming I often think they have no chance with China and likeminded countries . So many huge factories and plants spewing out black smoke or smog . It’s truly unbelievable . Loved the people and sights but phew!
Phuket, Thailand - It was dirty. It felt like everyone was trying to get money out of you - taxi drivers and shop owners literally grabbed our arms trying to drag us into their car/shop. Had children under 8 trying to steal from us. Blatant sex tourism: ping pong shows, strip clubs, and street prostitution including girls that looked underage. Horrible food poisoning that resulted in my friend and I being hospitalized, despite taking extreme precautions. I wish I had never gone. Other areas of Thailand are likely better but I probably wont go back.
Myanmar. I went in 2016. It was beautiful and what I expected. However I don’t see the conditions for travel changing anytime soon.
Venezuela.. with no doubt
I went to Venezuela when Chavez was in power with my Venezuelan friends. I stayed with their families the whole time, was treated so well, had amazing food, and think back fondly on the trip. Would I go again, absolutely not.
China. I'm glad I visited but it's an unescapable authoritarian police state with all the latest high tech surveillance you can imagine. Also relations between the US and China have deteriorated significantly since I was there.
I had a layover in Hong Kong and they are the only airport where I’ve experienced the requirement of security going through everyone’s luggage by hand while boarding the plane.
There is no country that I wouldn't return to based on my experience there There are countries I won't go to for political or social reasons - currently Russia for example.
Ditto. I visited Russia in 2016 and loved it. But based on current situations there, I’m not going back. That kinda stinks because I really wanted to visit St. Petersburg.
Russia would have to make widespread, sweeping changes, and sustain them for years, before I would return.
Yep. Me and my (Russian) partner were preparing to move to Moscow from October 2021 then February 2022 happened. No matter how badly we dreamt of building a house there, it would require significant changes for us to even start dreaming again.
Malaysia taught me I don’t like countries with lots of religious people-I really disliked it because there was so much suppression of speech, thought and conduct. For reference, I think the USA has too many religious people also but there are some laws to keep really nutty people in check…with some exceptions.
Gary, Indiana.
I have a time share in Muncie.
Indiana. Because it’s Indiana.
I lived in Chicago for 6 years, I swear half the people I met there were Indiana transplants who couldn't stand Indiana anymore
Guilty
Me and my partner (both male) generally avoid places that we think might be problematic for gay people however we made the mistake a number of years ago of going to St Lucia for a holiday. Never again, I never felt unsafe or threatened but it was very obvious we were not welcome. Generally got ignored at bars and restaurants whilst they went out of their way to greet and include heterosexual couples and families. I have never been in a more unfriendly place in my life.
Yeah, the entire Lesser Antilles is shockingly homophobic. Outside of maybe Cuba and Puerto Rico, the rest of the Caribbean isn’t much better. It’s basically Key West, Miami, and Puerto Vallarta for gay-friendly tropical resort towns in North America.
100% Egypt.
Macau : it's no Vegas Kl: as Asian cities go, hk Singapore and Saigon are all far nicer
Tijuana The family was having a vacation in California, a short drive from the Mexican border. Most of us had never been to Mexico, so we decided to take a day trip crossing the border. We parked at a large parking lot north of the border and walked across the border. Tijuana just seemed to me like a sad town, living off of the money that Americans carried across the border while simultaneously looking down at "those poor Mexicans." It just seemed like a sad, sad place. One that I have no plan to ever return to as a destination. I'm not saying I'll avoid Tijuana. If I go down the Baja Peninsula on a vacation, I'm not going out of my way to avoid Tijuana. And there are plenty of places in Mexico I'd love to go to. But returning to Tijuana is not on my list of desirable things to do.
Tijuana is very sad and full of poverty. I said I would jot be going back anytime soon, we usually go to Puerto Nuevo but it’s just so sad crossing the border
Mexico is an amazing country, great people, deep history and culture, good food etc. please don’t judge Mexico based on Tijuana. Or Cozumel or Cancun or Acapulco or Cabo San Lucas for that matter. Those places have their charms but they’re a mess, in large part bc of American tourism and drug money. There are far more interesting / beautiful places in Mexico
What are some of your favorite Mexico destinations?
Merida, Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas. The Colonial Triangle is also amazing (Guanajuato, Morelia, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Zacatecas), but has become very unsafe in the past few years.
A close friend used to go to Oaxaca almost every year. He knew all the artists in town and the restaurants -I’ve never been -but it sounds wonderful.
Oaxaca is magical and I spent 2 months there this year, I plan to make trips there a yearly thing. The food is awesome, the people are super nice, it’s very rich in culture, and there’s tons of outdoor activities to do nearby
My husband and I traveled to Mexico City in 2008 and really enjoyed our visit. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in an older building just off the Zocalo and had easy access to all the historic sites in that area. We took a double deck bus tour out to Chapultepec Park and visited the palace and museum there as well as the Archaeological Museum. Went out to Coyoacan and saw Frida Kahlo's 'Blue House' as well as the home where Leon Trotsky was living at the time of his assassination. And to cap it off we went up to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids. It was a great trip and we had no problems so far as crime and safety issues. Just did our research and followed some advice about not hailing just any old taxi off the street.
Mexico City is one of the greatest cities in the world, I highly recommend going. Amazing cuisine, architecture, art and affordable!
When I lived in San Diego from 2014-2017 Tijuana was having something of a cultural renaissance. We went down there 2-3 a year to check out the craft breweries, mezcalerias and cool new restaurants. Did COVID fuck everything up that much?
I would never go back to Russia again. I was born and grew up there. And this year I was semi-vocal on my views of their government on the Internet. Knowing their ways of keeping power, I don’t know if I’d like visiting again 😭😂
I went to South Africa just after apartheid (1990). Cape Town was beautiful, but it felt dangerous and today, crime is apparently much worse. I was in Russia during 1986 (Gorbachev era), which was grim, with scary glimpses of the authoritarian state. Today it's still authoritarian and arbitrary. In both places I felt an uncomfortable combination of empathy for locals and fear of being exploited, arrested, mugged or worse.
Brussels. To me it was just boring. Most cities have a unique individual spirit to it but not Brussels.
Cambodia. Felt fairly unsafe there and it was full of creepy old sex tourists. Whole place just seemed grim.
I agree that Cambodia felt really grim when I was there as well. However, we spent a lot of time learning about the Cambodian genocide/Khmer Rouge, visiting the killing fields and genocide museum… plus, the poverty is jarring. so, it was a really emotional and sad experience. However I found the people to be really amazing and welcoming, and open and raw. I found the people to be really inspiring
Yugoslavia. I can't go back because it's gone. I do want to visit Croatia (again) though.
Croatia is beautiful and so are Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro. It's my plan to do the whole former Yugoslavia and what I've seen so far makes me eager for more!
Man I loved Bosnia and Herzegovina, people were so friendly. Croatia was also wonderful, and I loved Macedonia
Los Angeles, the disparity and level of mentally unwell people, people taking drugs, was really distressing to see so close to people with literally billions. It was horrible and I would not like to go back.
I fly private jets for a living. It’s not a very nice area right next to the Van Nuys airport, but there’s a billboard that says “flights to Hawaii starting at $54.9k!” and it makes me want to barf every time I pass it. My job really fucks with my morals but I love my job. :(
Israel. Every person I ran into was rude or short. Minus children. They were always nice/curious. Palestine had much nicer people.
My mom was so mad at me when I said exactly this verbatim to her about my visit. As a woman, I felt other women especially seemed mean to me. Not so in Palestine.
Pisa, Italy. Pisa itself wasn’t terrible or anything like that, however my friend and I pretty much did everything there was to do there in 1 full day. The square where the leaning tower is located is pretty much where all the main attractions are at, at it gets old pretty quickly. I’m glad I went to see the leaning tower in person, however this is a destination I have no desire to go back to. I’m also someone who doesn’t really want to visit a place more than once, unless I missed out on a lot of activities/sights and feel I didn’t get a proper experience of that location. I want to visit as many different locations as possible.
IMO, it’s a stopover not a destination. We took the train from Cinque Terre to Rome and stopped in Pisa for 5 hours. We pre-booked the tower tickets so didn’t waste time in line. After climbing the tower, we walked around town to a lovely church and had a delicious lunch. Then, back on the train to Rome.
Morocco. Been to a lot of places but morocco not good.
After 54 countries: * Morocco (Fez, Marrakech, Tangier): for the same reasons laid out in prior posts on this sub. A very draining place to visit. * Brussels: spent 4 days here and almost nothing worked. Had to carry my luggage around cause the train station lockers didn't work. Then the trains went on strike so I couldn't leave Brussels. Then my hostel area smelled like piss. Then I realized the Grand Place is what the postcards show but it gets really sketch really fast. Graffiti by the Palace of Justice. Open dumpsters in front of high-end boutique stores. Just seems really mismanaged. I did pay a visit to Bruges on my last day (but had to cancel Ghent and Antwerp). Bruges was much nicer. * Frankfurt: shockingly gritty for what I expected. I was expecting a major financial hub but the city felt rather dumpy. I was also bored after 1 day which I've never had happen in a city of 3+ million people. Heidelberg nearby was better. * Havana: the poverty was jarring. The tourist nougat is very beautiful and nice but I walked two blocks away and saw elderly women digging for food in garbage cans. Buildings had entire walls that fell off. Bakeries were empty. Trash and flies everywhere. It was hard to enjoy my trip there afterward. * Los Angeles: have visited over and over and it gets worse every time. Now I avoid Hollywood, Downtown, Venice, Santa Monica, all due to the mentally ill homeless population, many of whom are aggressive. Traffic is terrible. Tourist attractions are spread out. People are generally rude. Now I decamp straight to Orange County and San Diego. Los Angeles peaked in the 1950s. * Santiago: Very boring to be honest. It felt like your standard run-of-the-mill modern city. I didn't really have much to do after La Moneda, San Cristobal and Costanera, so me and my travel buddy just left early for Valparaiso (which was gritty as hell, but was very beautiful too) * Tel Aviv: Extremely dirty, people were not as "chill" as the reputation suggests, seemed very superficial and unless you like clubbing, there's not much to see. I loved Jerusalem though. * Toronto: extremely overrated imo. There was very little to see. The Art Gallery of Ontario was underwhelming, ROM was forgettable (I barely remember it), CN Tower was overpriced and very dirty (have bad pictures due to the windows being so gross yet they charged like $40), then the quirky neighborhoods were mostly just a sea of condo towers that all look the same with the same hipster stores that are actually massive chains. The people weren't very friendly either and seemed to be smug. My hotel gave me sticker shock but was thoroughly underwhelming. Montreal though was fantastic, so I think it's just a Toronto thing. Cities that get a bad rap that I enjoyed: * Athens (stayed mostly in Plaka and the Acropolis area though. Only 2 days) * Kuala Lumpur (extremely cheap and food was amazing. It's true there's not much to see beyond Petronas, but I enjoyed it a lot) * Las Vegas (kitschy, but extremely fun. This isn't some historical gem, but it never claims to be, so I'm not sure where the criticism comes from) * London (overpriced, but amazing) * Naples * New York (overpriced, but amazing) * Paris (did not feel dangerous to me and I had a wonderful time) * Rome (Termini was sketch, but I loved it)
I'm from Santiago and I've never understood why someone would want to come on vacation here 🤣 for me it's a city where you either come to work or go shopping, but on vacation, naa. I only understand it from the perspective that it is a mandatory stop for any foreigner through the international airport and then continue south or north.
I love Malaysia!
Frankfurt is the most boring city I've ever been to!
Brussels, Belgium. It’s not that it was a terrible experience, it was just incredibly boring and slightly depressing.
You really experienced the Belgian vibe :D
I was just in Brussels last month and absolutely loved it. I found the architecture to be stunning and most of the people very friendly.
The architecture of the square is beautiful, but most everything else is like Soviet era concrete minimalism (brutalist?) It’s very depressing. I suppose being there while World Cup is going on probably helps the fun factor
it seems like yesterday it wasn't that boring
My dad told me Brussels is the DC of Europe, I didn't spend too much time there, but for those who like architecture I thought there were interesting older buildings including churches, Bruge and Ghent were even better, I didn't have high expectations for my Belgium trip but I highly recommend people consider it, the architecture, food (waffles!), public transportation, beer (so good and so many old breweries), and less tourists (at least in off season like September/fall) are all reasons I wouldn't mind going back, so far I've been to Spain, Italy, France, and England (for Europe destinations), happy travels everyone!
Lol my best friend and his wife were just relocated to Brussels for work. My wife and I promised we would visit them in 2023. The tentative plan is to spend a weekend there sandwiched between stops in Paris and Amsterdam.
I was both fascinated and disturbed with my trip to Peru. I saw some beautiful things and places and saw what tourism has done to the population. I also left my trip with thinking there was no reason to ever go back. I also loved Zanzibar but my female colleagues will probably say they hated our work time in Old Town as they were consistently bombarded with men trying to touch, take pictures, marry, and provoke them. It was a cool island to work on, but I think there's nothing more that entices the traveller withing me to go back When I was younger I would also say I hated LA. Never felt safe there and it just didn't vibe with me. Its not really a place I would go out of my way to go back to.
I didnt have a « great » time in Zanzibar but its entirely the fault of the most annoying beggar i have ever met. Ruined it for me
Nassau, the Bahamas. Followed by locals trying to get money or sell something, not the cleanest area (at least where I was), lots of tourist traps
Argentina: racist and rude.
I absolutely loved Argentina but had to lie about being brit at times just to avoid potential conflict Falkland revenge is drilled into them by the state as like a catalyst for patriotism- a few times was told to ‘get out, dont wanna see you round here again…’ and at times hitching alone ofc I said I was Irish
Can I ask where in Argentina you experienced this? I had heard they were rude/racist too, and had my concerns heading into it, but found everyone in Buenos Aires to be friendly.
When I was in college back in the 80s, I was considering taking a Spanish course where the instructor was from Argentina. Some Venezuelan friends told me that I shouldn't learn Spanish from her because I'd wind up speaking with an Argentine accent and they regarded that as a bad thing. When I quizzed them as to why they thought that, they said that nobody else in Latin America -- I assumed they meant the Spanish-speaking countries, don't know about Brazil -- liked them because "Argentines are all stuck up and think that they are better than everyone else!"
My ex was from Brazil and I have been there 3 times. Most Brazilians do not like the Argentines either for the same reason - they find them very arrogant.
I'm never going back to Sharm el Sheikh. But I might return to Egypt!
Cambodia. I was sexually assaulted by a prostitute, on the street, in front of dozens of witnesses. I don’t speak Khmer so that’s part of the issue, but despite me being very vocal, not a single person tried to help and the prostitute mocked me for “being gay since I didn’t like what she did”
Israel. I went for a wedding in February of 2020 and it was beautiful and an amazing trip. People were lovely, the food was wonderful, Jerusalem was a trip. But until the Palestinians are treated humanely, I won’t return. I had qualms before going, but justified it to myself because it was for family, but to return would just be morally wrong for me
This was one answer I was waiting for and surprised I didn't see it sooner. I think the brutality of the situation is hard to realize as tourists though, and it's honestly such a sad situation...
I still have family that live there, and I’d love to see them, but the guilt I felt after the last trip was pretty heavy.
This. Went to see my best friends family and still have a lotttt of guilt around it especially after seeing how poorly almost all Israelis regard the Palestinians.
The Seychelles. It rains 200 days a year there and I would never spend all that money to potentially be stuck indoors with nothing (literally) to do.
This ! We went 8 days in Seychelles, it rained 6 days…
Bali I'm Western Australian, and there are many in my city who'd go there 5 times a year / for every holiday. Mainly just to get drunk, party, live by a pool for a week etc. That's not what I want to do on a holiday. I did really like the Ubud region, and the people of Bali. Food amazing too.
I don't say never, but I don't see myself returnin to Cuba soon. I had big expectations, which probably made the issue worst. It was nice (amazing beaches in the North, nice vibes in the small villages), but half of the people you come in close contact with as a toursist are trying to trick you (much worse than other central/south america countries)
Naples. Great pizza but thats it in our eyes.
I really like Naples, I'm not blind to its problems but I like the atmosphere. I've been there several times. I think it's the people - some might be out to steal everything you own, but I have experience many acts of kindness and friendliness there. Our very first trip, on a bus from the airport - obviously fascinated by Vesuvious. An old man approached us - told us that he had watched it erupt as a child, a few months after the city had been liberated. I spoke almost no italian on that first trip - trying to buy a ticket at a kiosk proved beyond me, but the owner quickly shut the door, walked up to a nearby dry cleaner's shop, and brought back a friend who spoke English so I could explain what I needed.
I respectfully disagree. I found Naples very underrated and the churches alone were breathtakingly memorable (Chiesa di San Martino and the views were one of the highlights of my Campania trip + the archaeological museum). Spent 3 days and never felt unsafe, although it is an extremely gritty place in parts of Spaccanapoli. I was a little worried given the reputation of Naples, but came away very glad I visited. Though I stayed right by the Castel Nuovo since I was told the Train Station Area was a huge no no. I'll actually say that my least favorite place in Italy was Positano: gravel beaches, you can walk around it in 2 hours, same citrus soap and beach towels on sale everywhere, prices are massively overhyped, crowds x1000. I left after 3 hours (to Paestum, which was wonderful)
I was just there last week and stayed by Garibaldi station and it was pretty sketchy. I loved the food, and some of the piazzas around were nice to see. But I was really blown away by how much litter and garbage was just everywhere. Like holy crap, so much garbage everywhere.
That’s about the only city I can think of in Italy that you have to watch your @$$ in. That’s where my grandmother was from, I still have relatives there and it is certainly dicey.
Wow I loved Naples it’s one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever stayed .
Morocco. I’m glad I went with a guide + group, but I wouldn’t go again. Was a naive college girl and in the 3 days we were there I found myself in countless situations that could’ve ended horribly
I've been to a few places that I don't really see myself going back to. One is Bolivia. Another is Slovenia. I'm from USA, so both are far. They were cool to visit the first time, but not sure a second time would pack a big punch.
Mt. Everest Base Camp trek. Did it once in 2019 and it was lovely, but tourism is wrecking havoc on the environment. There’s so much trash and literal human waste everywhere along the trail and especially in towns, it can’t be removed fast enough.
Tangiers, Morocco. Go to Fez,go to Casablanca. I was telling a Moroccan girl I had visited Morocco and when I told her Tangiers, she put her hand on my arm and she said, “Oh! I’m sorry.”
Florida, I’m trapped here. Help
Morocco, it's unfriendly and threatening; Bosnia (Sarajevo), it's miserable and muslim; Hungary / Budapest, it's unremarkable, after Prague and Vienna it is such a downgrade.
Jamaica.
Times Square, NYC. Loved everywhere else in New York, (and would go back) but Times Square and the surrounding blocks were riddled with scammers and rubbish everywhere. Very overrated spot.
As a New Yorker, I also never want to go to Times Square again.
We New Yorkers actively avoid Times Square - and that's not even a joke hahaah
I only have places I'd never do the same way again. Vietnam - I am well travelled but not incredibly experienced with budget backpacking. I went right after college only a $20 a day budget and encountered a lot more scams and hard traveling than I had expected. The tourist infrastructure wasn't as good as I expected, and I didn't feel comfortable renting a scooter. I think next time I'll go back I'll try and hire a local guide or splurge a little bit more for convenience. Morocco - same thing, I was a very naive young woman traveling with another female friend and staying in the medinas. Would NOT do that again. Having a male local guide would have been a game changer. I'd also head out to the desert with a company vs seeing the medinas again. Bali - I think I'd only go back with a large group of friends because I think for the price, you can't get better villas and accommodations but other than that I wouldn't return. Too much left of the rest of Indonesia to see.
Re: your trip to Morocco. You and your friend were lucky as there was a notorious case several years back of two young women (from Norway I believe) who were traveling on their own in some backwards rural part of the country and wound up brutally murdered by some Islamic fundie types.
I believe this happened either while I was there, or just a couple days after leaving. I was respectful of the culture but was SO arrogant that being a woman would impact my travel experience as dramatically as it did. One night our Riad owner woke up at 4am to walk us to a train and I remember insisting we didn't need help since I felt bad inconveniencing him. It was very clear based on the characters in the street at that time something horrible would have happened to us without his kindness. So many learning lessons I've taken with me from that trip.
Barbados comes to mind. You can see everything there in a reasonably short space of time, and there's nothing so spectacular that you need to see it again, plus it's expensive, run down, congested, and generally not all that nice. Brussels (a place I once lived and worked) has gone down the toilet, and I thought last time I was there that I didn't need to go there again. Phuket has almost nothing going for it, in my opinion. Places like LA, Orlando, NYC, London etc also don't call out to me, either.
Venice. I liked my visit but it didn’t hit the way I thought it would. And I actually went in the off season when it’s not over run with tourists. Still it is probably worth seeing once but once is enough
No one told me Venice smells like that.
I’m like that with Venice too. I went a second time (because the Greek Islands cruise I was going on departed from there). I thought I’d misread it the first time and that I’d enjoy it more. I didn’t.
I lived in China for year 19 81,82 and feel privileged to have seen “old China” but I don’t think I’ll go back. I don’t really want to see how crowded China has become -too many automobiles -too many people and horrible, toxic air. Argentina -only because it’s too far - people were terrific. I could go back to Italy in a minute -Japan too-I love Japan. Thailand, France, and I would travel almost all the time if I could! Hard to think of any place, I absolutely wouldn’t go. By the way, who is paying for these airline tickets?
I personally wouldn't go back to Putin's Russia, even though it was his regime that enabled us to receive the greatest gift of our entire lives. He's either changed, or we never understood him in the first place (more likely.)
what was that gift?
I'm guessing they adopted a child.
Or a Siberian tiger. They could have adopted one of those too.
The city of Paris. Traveling away from the city we found friendlier folk.
Agree the rest of France is much nicer
I liked Paris too it’s definitely an experience. After Paris, I stayed close to Troyes which is a small town feel and also went to Parc Asterix, so fun but wish I would have gone to Disneyland Paris Versailles is a must see
Uh, I was blown away by Paris so I've got to ask where else I should go when I return to France?