To ask where you’d love to visit but are too scared to visit.

If you ever get to go, choose St Pete over Moscow. IMHO Moscow is a grey shithole, St Pete is beautiful.

Agree. We had a three week holiday in Colombia this spring. We had a wonderful time. It's such a beautiful country and everyone was so friendly and pleased to show off their country. With the possibly exception of Cartagena, which wasn't unfriendly, but they have more than enough tourists there already - it was the only place we found a bit overrun.

We ate some wonderful food in Cuba. We ate in Paladars, these informal restaurants that people open up in their own homes.

The food in hotels can be very bad. But good food is possible for sure. You just need to put the effort into finding it.

I had the impression from Sri Lanka was a fairly easy and safe place to visit. Much more relaxed than India. A number of friends have been. Looks lovely!

Haiti

I've done both (lived in Russia for 7 months) and would love to take my kids there some day.

I'm in Albania now - it's fabulous. I've happily wandered alone in the evenings.

Interesting how many people have said USA. I've been once and don't particularly want to go again although I always felt safe at the time. My teens really want to go to New York. I've told them no way at the moment.

I've been. It was perfectly safe.

Rio de Janeiro during carnival. It’s been on my bucket list for years but I’m chickening out at the thought of being robbed, especially after a pick pocketing experience in Rome.

I’ve been to a number of countries mentioned. Would agree that the food in Cuba is dire and would also warn that it may cause issues if you want to travel to the US subsequently - currently you would need a visa instead of an ESTA and that’s much more expensive.

I travelled to Russia on a school trip many years ago and had the best night’s sleep on the train to Moscow. The toilets were awful, as they were in the Hermitage (where I am aghast to remember we spent 45 minutes trying to find our way out rather than appreciating what an amazing museum it was).

Russia
The Holy Land
India
The USA

I'd love to visit Iran. So much history. So much rich culture.

I'm American though, a member of the great Satan nation. So.. best not.

I'm not afraid of visiting Cuba but omg the food is said to be dire. Not their fault, probably due to sanctions. Still, bad food is Very offputting.

ps: I went to Egypt (Sinai Peninsula) as a solo traveller 9 months ago. Had a great time. Definitely can recommend, at least that area. I would try Alexandria next if I went again.

Mine are:
Iran
Jordan
Syria
Lebanon
Egypt
Ukraine

Seeing how many people have Russia on their lists, I feel very fortunate to have spent a reasonable amount of time there, and been to Moscow, St Petersburg and various other places. I spent several months living a studying there as part of my degree in the 1990s, and visited for holidays in the late 90s and 2000s.

I've travelled on various sleeper trains in Russia, including across Siberia. We stopped off at 4 different cities on the way to Vladivostok, so had breaks from the train. I did really enjoy the train — we spent out time talking, reading, sleeping, watching the world go by outside the window, having train picnics, chatting to Russian passengers and sharing food with them. The landscape seen from the train isn't stunningly beautiful, but I still loved seeing the forests, the fields, the small villages in the middle of nowhere, the large cities we passed through, the rice fields in the far East. We were mostly in 3rd class, which is open plan bunks, so had a very Russian experience. I'd probably go 2nd class if I went again now I'm 30 years older. I fell in love with Russia and its people, and once it has a different leader and it's safe to do so I'll be going back.

I was lucky enough to visit Israel and the religious sites over 40 years ago . I went to Uzbekistan just after the break up of the Soviet Union as my brother worked there. The people were lovely but we had a driver to escort us as foreign females were a bit of a novelty at the time. Everything but food was in short supply and corruption was rife . There was so much to see and I imagine it’s a great tourist destination now. I would love to visit Afghanistan and ,fingers crossed ,I am going to India in 2027.

Waiting for better political conditions to visit Yemen and Eritrea.

I was lucky enough to travel lots when I was younger including Russia, India, SE Asia. Now I’m (irrationally) too anxious to go anywhere! I hope my children get the same opportunities I did.

Studied Russian at uni and lived in St P for a year and absolutely loved it so am really pleased to see all the references to Russia here. I wouldn’t go at the moment but hope it will be possible to return there in the future.

Would like to visit Iraq and Kashmir but not sure that will ever happen.

My friend's daughter and son in law have just come back from their honeymoon in Georgia. They loved it. Go!

We went to Japan last year, apparently there was a small earthquake when we were in Tokyo, only our son woke up, thought “What’s that?” And then went back to sleep. It’s only because he overheard people talking about it at breakfast that he clocked what had happened!

Why can't you go to Jordan? It's a fascinating place.

I went to Russia in 2018 - it was fabulous.
I would love to go back. I'm not "too scared", but I accept that politically it's a no-go right now.

The trans Siberian 30 years ago and on into Moscow via a just modernising Mongolia was an incredible journey. The people were incredible it was so interesting.

russia 6 years ago, near Stalin grad and them Moscow and st Petersburg. Christ they are impressive cities, the scale!

spent a week in Mexico City recently, very safe, good fun, greenest capital city treewise I’ve been in…loved it.

I want to go to go to Kashmir….

South Africa for me. Looks to be stunningly beautiful but we know of 2 couples who have been and run into trouble, one of them were robbed at gunpoint 😭
It has really put me off and it’s such a shame but it’s all I think about now when I think of SA.

Sorry to hear that, I’ve just got back from a festival in Croatia that’s attended by a very diverse fan base, and absolutely everyone I spoke to said that their experience of Croatian people was they were super friendly and open minded - and they will return. Albania is also ‘up and coming’ for festivals of the same type.
They are beautiful countries, I hope you can go and feel welcomed!

@MyOtherProfile good point! I thought I’d quoted. Georgia.