Best/worst country to visit

[travelinterest]

AIBU to ask which countries/cities were the best or worst you have visited and why?

Dublin is not the best side of Ireland. I personally love the city and love visiting it because I have family there and studied there but it's surprisingly 'English' for an Irish city. There are much more beautiful places to see in the rest of the country such as Galway and Westport.

The best places I've visited are Mendocino in California, Los Angeles (mostly because I was surprised at how nice it was. I expected concrete jungle but it was surprisingly beautiful), Budapest, Moscow (personal interest and ties), Greek Islands.

Worst places were: Harbin, an industrial city in the North of China with terrible air pollution and food that did not appeal to me. I barely left the hotel so it could be a great city but judging by the fact that one of the main sights was a museum of a Japanese prison camp where soldiers carried out horrific experiments on Chinese civilians, I'm guessing I wasn't missing out. It was depressing.
Salzburg: I was a broke backpacker, the people were rude and unfriendly. I also fell off a (slow-moving) train and I got food-poisoning - two separate bad incidents.
Venice: too touristy for me and food wasn't great, considering we were in Italy

That's it for places that I deliberately went to. There are plenty of other places I could name that I traveled through that were horrible but I didn't go there on purpose to visit them so I don't think they count!

Best: Sri Lanka, also loved Cuba, Italy, Poland, NY

Worst: Tenerife and Tunisia

Best:
Lisbon (perfect city with lots of culture, history, great food and beautiful beaches)

Sydney (lived there for many years) and the wine country in New South Wales

Israel (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem)

Scotland (pretty much all of it)

Worst
New Caledonia (Pacific Island "paradise" - so boring, expensive and naff)

Chennai (DH was there for a few months with work and I really didn't have a good time)

Seoul (really wanted to love it and the people were amazing, but they're obsessed with shopping and it was hard work being a tourist there)

Many years ago in went to Berlin when there was still an East and West Berlin. Stayed in West and was lucky enough to be able to take a day trip via checkpoint Charlie int East Berlin. It was really interesting to see the contrast between the two and enjoyed the whole holiday.

Worst holiday ever was to Taba Egypt. Went for a beach holiday and diving and it is a good place to travel further afield to Israel or Jordan.
There are two hotels there right on the border of Israel. One of which we stayed in. The hotel was ok but nothing special but was full of Arabs which would be ok if the men were not such sleaze bags who hassle any woman who got within 100 yards of them. They spent their day hanging around the pool bars and only in the evening did their women appear with tribes of kids. The women then spent the evening ferrying food back and forward to the men folk before again disappearing with the kids leaving the men to continue their sleeve bag behaviour.
Cairo is one big dirty dump again full of sleezebags
Luxor is a greener dump with male prostitutes added to the sleezebags.

I can't understand how or why so.many people don't like Belgium and, in particular, Brussels.

Me and DH have had quit a few holidays in Belgium. The coast is lovely as is Ghent and Antwerp.

We are in Brussels at the moment. Our first visit and we are loving it. Been here 2 days and only have tomorrow here before we leave. We haven't managed to do everything so will be back.

The art noveau and art deco buildings and museums alone are worth visiting

Belgian coast is lovely?! I recall a long, flat coastline with bland, grey beaches with grey sand and grey, grimy sea. I found it depressing. There are some nice parts to Belgium but I do get why people are underwhelmed by Brussels - for a start there are hardly any parks or green spaces.

Well we have walked through 2 parks in Brussels today.

The sand on the beaches we have been to is not grey and nor is the sea grimy! From De Panne to Ostend has lovely beaches. Enough Belgians, Dutch and Germans go there. The British just seem to look down their noses at Belgium

@dontsweatthelittlestuff - wow, is it really that shocking that a hotel in an Arab country be full of Arabs with their “tribes” of kids!!!? I’m Arab and I sort of get what you mean about the sleazy behaviour, however I really take offence at the use of “their women” and “tribes” of children. Why did you use those terms?

Have not had a bad holiday apart from Tunisia. Hassled when our and about including being pulled into a shop and the vendor closed the doors with my DH hamming on them to get in. I had to pay him to let me out.

Was even hassled in the hotel by the animation team who offered me sex in front of my husband and one tried to aggressively get me to sell my phone. They thought it was funny to jump on top of people in the pool. I was not surprised to find out that a boy had drowned in the pool at the hotel a few months after we had been. The lifeguards just pissed around half of the time.

Best city for me, for ever, is Venice. I just like all that the people who go to "fashionable places" hate: that the time stopped there, and the shabbiness of former grandeur. One has to go in autumn though, when there are fewer tourists.

The city I didn't enjoy (but didn't hate either): Istanbul. The food was mediocre: dry and expensive, everything is served without side dishes for which you need to pay separately. Best Turkish food, strangely enough, is in North London. Visiting the harem in Topkapi palace felt for me just like it would feel for a black person to visit the museum of slavery.
Locals try to fleece tourists, selling cheaply made, overpriced tat of bad quality.

@bloodydisgrace, Venice IS a fashionable place 🤣🤣 It’s like Disneyland for adults, completely touristy. I thought the food was really bad and nowhere near as good as the rest of Italy.

Very surprised you had bad food in Istanbul - where on earth did you go? It has some of the best examples of Turkish food! Unless you are black I’m not sure how you could equate the harem experience with the transatlantic slave trade

Strongmummy
Istanbul was a while ago, we stayed in the central part near Aya Sofia.
Venice was quite quiet in October. And no, I'm not black, I was referring to what was pretty much female slavery in the Ottoman empire.

We had the worst meal out ever in Venice. I ordered lasagne and it was microwaved but stone cold in the middle. I sent it back (politely) and the manager came out and shouted at me. Was horrible!

Funnily enough it was in October and apart from the frozen lasagne aggression incident was a beautiful time to go to Venice