Best/worst country to visit

[travelinterest]

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

Best: Madeira, Hong Kong, Aude/Haute-Garonne areas of France.

Worst: Don't have one! I've never been anywhere I particularly disliked.

The best for me is Koh Samui, Thailand. Beautiful and restful.

When did you go- its like Magaluf!

Best - Europe - Ireland, stunningly beautiful beaches that would rival anywhere in the world. Venice, just stunning despite the crowds. Greek Islands, loved the relaxed pace and beautiful fishing villages.

Long haul - Stone Town, Zanzibar very atmospheric. Yosemite NP, clean fresh air. Maldives, perfect beaches. Kanchaniburi, Thailand, relaxing riverside town. Ubud, Bali perfect for people watching. Hong Kong, stunning skyline. Nepal, beautiful country with lovely people. Fiji, beautiful beaches and friendly people. South Island of New Zealand in winter, just stunning! The outback in Australia, atmosphere and eerie landscape. Australian beaches (too many to single out), beautiful to look at and amazing wildlife.

Worse places - pretty much most border towns around the world, full of crime and prostitution. Tacky Spanish Costa resorts, crowded beaches and British bars serving egg and chips. New Delhi, sterile, boring, people trying to mug you off and snobbery on a different level. Australian cities, not as interesting as the rest of the country, couldn't wait to get out into the countryside (probably more enjoyable if you live or work in them).

@adoggymama First person I hear saying this about Alicante! Lived there for about 10 months for my erasmus year and LOVED IT. Why did you not like about it?

Best: Madeira (not sure why some people on MN were saying that is boring. You definitely didn't take the right trips-if any), Paris, London, Valencia, Edinburgh+Glasgow
worst: Rome. Though full of culture, shopping, visiting, too dirty and overcrowded.

White 6 weeks ago! Stayed in a beach hut, with their own private beach! Also stayed for 6 weeks at the same place 2 years ago. Beautiful place!

Best: Hong Kong, The Hague, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zanzibar, Ljubljana, New York, Iceland, Maldives

Worst: Romania, Bosnia, Bruges, Tenerife

Meh: South Africa, Amalfi, UAE, Sri Lanka, Barbados

Tail I love Sri Lanka, the beach vendors are fucking annoying though!

Best - Israel - Tel Aviv is wonderful, lovely people, felt safe walking everywhere at any time.

Worst - Egypt - confined to hotel as hassled constantly when we went on excursions - including my young daughters. It was horrible.

Best: New York City. Austin, Texas. Whistler, Canada. Queenstown, New Zealand.

Worst: Was underwhelmed by the Isle of Skye. I didn't enjoy Scotland as much as I thought I would, in general.

@TailEndCharlie Really? was planning to take a 5 day trip to Romania next year. What was it that you didn't like? Thanks

Favourites
Romania. Rural Romania is so green and a bit like stepping back in time.
Italy the Amalfi coast is beautiful

Least favourite
Bulgaria

Favourite city - Venice - preferably out of season. Also really like Brussels, Le Petit Sablon park, amazing weekend market, some amazing bars and restaurants etc.

Loved the Portugal I knew of 50 years ago when Albufera was a sleepy village with a few fishing boats on the beach. Have to include the UK.

Not so keen - although the hotel was amazing, outside of it I found very little of interest in Mauritius. Spanish costas didn't enjoy at all, and never got the supposed magic of Paris. The preponderance of rude people probably didn't help.

Best: Goa.

Worst: Luton.

I haven’t done much traveling, but luckily I’m from Estonia, so have that experience.
I can help PP to put their finger on it. Racism and homophobia can be quite visible in there. Quite cold and rude people. So no smiling or your usual “sorry” if you bump into someone. No holding doors or helping with directions.

But, if you have someone local to show you around, it can be quite enjoyable and interesting.

Personally I like Helsinki the most. It’s a beautiful city, but quite expensive.

And the worst I’ve been to is Stockholm. Rather dirty and generally underwhelming.

Anyone travelled through South America got any opinions?

Best - Thailand

Worst - Morocco

Best- All of the Balearics are beautiful, but Menorca is especially so. Italy, New York

Worst- Another vote for Paris here. Massively overrated. Turkey is a total and utter shithole, smelly and full of lecherous men who don't care how young the woman/girl in question is when overstepping boundaries. Other people seem to love it though, so maybe that's just me.

I mentioned Lima already op. I wasn’t keen, but I did like other parts of Peru. Especially loved Huanchaco and Huaraz. I didn’t go to Machu Picchu (I know - sacrilege)! It’s obviously meant to be amazing though, so I would love to go there some day.

at PP going on a trip to Luton - horses for courses...

I've found something to like in most places I've been, favourites so far are southern Germany, Paris, Barcelona.

Only place I wouldn't bother with again was Gran Canaria - not unpleasant, just a bit meh.

Best Japan
Scenery, food, variety, so different! So safe. I lived there for two years and have a massive soft spot for it.

Worst Malta
It was just so dull and run down apart from Valetta. And I love a Med trip normally.

I love reading these threads and it's a good reminder of how different our opinions are :)

So many places I love that the only few I didn't fall head over heels with stand out.

San Francisco - only place in the USA that I didn't love. People rather self obsessed, and the only place I've felt very unsafe (rightly or wrongly) at night.

UAE - I found Dubai and Abu Dhabi very fascinating but really struggled with them. I had issues with their attitude towards women and non-UAE workers in general. In general I found it very soulless. There's a history and a culture of people that is so rich but it's been lost in a sea of hyper consumerism.

Sorry - I obviously need more coffee as that was some piss poor writing! Apologies.

I loved New Orleans so much, it’s one of my favourite cities in the world and can’t relate at all to the pp who said they felt they were being fleeced all the time. The most recent visit I noticed a lot more meth heads though sadly.

My best:
India
NZ
Italy
France
Iceland
Laos

Worst:
Morocco - really beautiful but the harassment was awful
Vietnam
Dublin
Agree Brussels sucks!