Best/worst country to visit

[travelinterest]

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

To all those saying Valencia is their favourite place, I’m there now and it is lovely. I prefer Malaga though.
I love Tokyo, New York and Ibiza Town as well

I really don’t like Paris.

Best
St Lucia
Budapest
Cuba
Istanbul
Malysia
Sr Lanka- but don’t buy things from the spice gardens as they are a con.

Worst
Jakarta ( Indonesia) - not brilliant for tourist
Dublin - expensive and not much to do
Estonia- Just didn’t like it
Los Angeles- a dump

@areyoubeingserviced my dad worked in LA for a bit and said it was a complete dump too. He’s travelled all over the world and puts it as the worst place he’s ever been

Best: Costa Rica. Beautiful, warm, friendly, great food and amazing to just be there.

Worst: Cyprus. Enjoyed our week there, but felt very Brits abroad. We were about 20 mins outside Paphos and the scenery there was beautiful. The little villages did great food and we did have fun.

So when I say worst, I just mean, least best!

Best- Argentina. Such friendly people. My car broke down and I quickly had 5 cars stop to help. Cue 7 locals having a colourful discussion under the bonnet.

Malta- looked like building site where we stayed.

Best Thailand and Italy absolutely love both countries so different in culture sadly many parts of Thailand have been spoilt

Worse place is Pattaya Thailand only stayed two nights passing through vile place

Most disappointing place I have been to is Goa

Best: Italy, particularly Sorrento, the most beautiful place I've ever been and the food 😍 Naples was a dive but Pompeii was something I'll never forget. Shame the men were predatory, me and mum didn't feel entirely safe travelling sans man.

Also loved Amsterdam, Croatia (best beaches), Cyprus and Vermont for Skiing.

Hands down the worst place was by far Tunisia which is a shame because the sea and beaches were beautiful but the culture (constantly being harrased by male hotel staff) and the food standards were awful. I actually contracted post infectious IBS from that holiday 10 years ago and have never recovered. 👎 Also the Algarve was so dull.

Worst = easily Morocco. Got spat on, hiss at, grabbed by a bloke trying to pull me into his shop. And I made sure to keep arms/legs totally covered.

Every seems to be out to fleece you so we just dreaded leaving our (very nice) hotel after a few days.

And then to top it off I got E Coli.

Best = been a few I love. Germany, lovely people loved every city I've visited. USA, loads to see and do though not been since Trump has been in. Dubai, stunning hotels and beaches. The quieter Canary Islands that aren't the touristy ones are a big hit with us too. Tokyo, insane but incredible. Would love to see the rest of Japan as I bet the rural parts are amazing.

I've been around South American Op, my favorite place was Paraguay, just really chilled out and off the beaten track, Bolivia was a good experience, Brazil was great but getting my body out on the beach was daunting as it's true that the Brazilians are hot in swimwear! Uruguay was nice but I was too ill to enjoy it, Argentina had great bakery's and was great as it was a bit more westernized so I had some great food there. Ecuador was a bit rough (dangerous) and Peru was okay, obviously amazing sights.

I've never been to a country (about 30) I didn't like or wouldn't return to but my favourites are: Thailand, Italy, Laos, Australia, Cuba, Netherlands, and cities would be Barcelona, Venice, Sydney,, Singapore, Dublin... I do like a city by the sea.

I suppose I'd put Russia, Tunisia & Turkey on the slightly meh list, but I'd never say never. I'd love to see Iceland and the old bits of Egypt and one of those paradise islands like Bora Bora or the Maldives. Never been to America and would quite like to do the West coast, but I'm boycotting it while that knobhead is in charge.

Best:
Florence - just loved walking around it and great food
Galápagos Islands - wildlife was just amazing
Tokyo - had a totally different atmosphere to any other big city that I'd been too which I just loved. Easy to get around and loads to see.

Worst:

Vienna - the weather probably didn't help but loads of people loved it but I didn't think it was anything special
Dublin - again maybe it was just the weather
Paris - been loads and I just never feel that it's as amazing as it should be

Thinking of more I loved New England, adore Edinburgh.

Not in a hurry to return to London, don't hate it just not a massive fan.

Favourites so far would be Botswana and Sri Lanka, weren’t in tourist areas in either place though so that always makes places much nicer.

Worst was probably Cyprus and hate to say it London........ Don’t live in UK anymore and I’ve always missed London but when we went back this summer I just found it so dirty, overcrowded and unfriendly

I don't know why Naples gets such bad press. We were warned not to go by several people but we did (I'll make my own mind up, thanks!) and absolutely loved it. Close to Sorrento as well which is just glorious. Italy is definitely by far my favourite European country and it seems like it's featured a lot on this thread!

Best:
Spain. There's a region and resort for everyone from all-action to traditional and unspoilt. It's cheap, warm, sunny, tons of flights from all UK regional airports, and only 3 hours flying time: What's not to like?!

Worst:
Tunisia for all the reasons already mentioned

Another one here who didn’t like Dublin. At. All.
Also don’t like....
Tunisia unpleasant
SA (Johannesburg is just lots of shopping centre. Cape Town I think is overrated. The wine region is lovely though, but don’t they know it!)
San Francisco also didn’t appeal at all.
Aruba
Jersey

I love....
Italy
Spain
California

Oh I adored Croatia

Going to do cities (as most seem to be doing)

Best (ever) Salamanca
Worst (ever) Brussels.

I have lived in both, and whilst I yearn to go back to the first, (and indeed my username is connected to it) I will never set foot in Brussels again.

Another one not keen on London, don't mind going every few years just to be a total tourist and wave at the Queen and see Big Ben and stuff. Loathe the tube and the fact it takes sooo long to get anywhere. I have family on the outskirts and it all just seems like a massive ballache for them to do anything. I know a couple of Londoners who have moved up north who can't get over how much nicer/easier the pace of life is up here. Sorry London, you're on my not-so-nice list.

I'll add Cornwall and Bath to my good list though!

Loved
New York-so much fun
Venice-so beautiful
Florence (Most of Italy really)
Paris-never disappointing
South of France
Santorini-beautiful
Cyprus
Amsterdam-pretty and interesting
North Carolina-lovely beaches

Disliked
Tenerife-naff
Malaga- got car broken into in the first 5 mins
Barbados-windy and full of loud Americans

Loved both Lisbon and Porto. Portuguese people were so friendly.

Hated Tangiers. Only went there for the day on a cruise many years ago and felt threatened the whole time. Has put me off ever going back to North Africa.

Off to Puglia in Italy shortly to visit Alberobello and Matera and hoping it will be fantastic.

Best:
Greece
Belgium (not Brussels, the smaller places)
Bolivia (I did a ton of research for that trip!)
USA (specifically LA, I go every year and there’s always more to do)

Worst:
UAE (DH doesn’t get it but then he’s not a second class citizen as a woman)

Best: Dordogne Valley in France - stunningly beautiful, river beaches, friendly people, delicious food.

Worst: Alicante in Spain - really unfriendly people, boring, food was vile - in fact we both got horrific food poisoning and were ill for weeks afterwards. You couldn't pay me to go back there.

Best: Scotland. Amazing scenery and the people were lovely and friendly.

Worst: North Wales. People were miserable and standoffish.