Best/worst country to visit

[travelinterest]

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

Have to agree about the food in Cuba. You don’t go for the food.

Very difficult to state which are the best /worst as most every where has some redeeming features.

I will cause some complaint here but New Zealand is just a bit ordinary. Very like bits of the UK and with small fjords, not like the Norwegian ones. No history. Most people gush about it probably because they have spent a fortune getting there and are a bit embarrassed to say it was just alright.

The United States. Some dodgy people with easy access to automatic weapons.

The Gulf, why?

Best- India and Sri Lanka- lovely people, amazing food, great experiences

Worst- Dubai- fake load of nonsense, all superficial and boring

@Witchofzog - I judge the people by what they are. And I genuinely dislike binge drinking people. They are skanks to me and I don't care if they help old ladies cross the road when they're sober. They pollute otherwise beautiful cities with their presence, their vomit and piss and stench.

Best:
Granada (Spain)
Barcelona
Menorca
Majorca
Thailand
New York
Singapore
Keswick
London
Paris
Snowdonia
Venice
Alpujarras (Spain)
Amsterdam
Sicily
Amalfi Coast
Zermatt

Disappointing:
Monaco
Geneva
Normandy
Vienna

I’m desperate to go to Buenas Aires and Japan!

@MinaPaws I think you did the same trip as me in Tunisia. I went about 17 years ago on a package holiday when I was 15 and recognise all those things you mentioned from one of the organised trips and thought they were incredible. I didn't like the mithering though. And my dad (who I went on the trip with) had to pretend to be my husband to stop the men grabbing at me.

@Clandestino you sound absolutely delightful

Best:
Iceland outside of Reykjavik, amazing scenery and very safe
Galapagos Islands - better than I imagined
USA - although depends where you do. We loved San Francisco and the canyons
Northern Ireland - the scenery is stunning

Okay:
New Zealand, but not as good as expecting.

Worst:
Dublin - just boring. May as well have stayed at home and went to an ordinary English City. After you queue and look at the Book of Kells, it is really no different from any pretty ordinary City.
Guernsey - very very boring. The most exciting thing are some greenhouses whose foundations are over a few hundred years old. The actual greenhouses you can see were built in the 70s.

Worst: 100% Tunisia - it was awful, so much harassing and yelling at us as we walked by as a (then) young couple. We were also chased by street sellers after showing an interest in goods then choosing not to buy.

Best: I am yet to discover it! For scenery I love the UK it's so varied and beautiful. The world has so many places to see though!

Best - Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel
Barcelona
Edinburgh

Worst - Eilat in Israel
Birmingham
Salou

Best: Japan, Italy and New York

Worst: Langkawi in Malaysia. The only nice thing about it was our hotel.

Best- Vietnam
Worst- Morroco

Best: Clearwater in Florida. Just loved it, so beautiful and miles and miles of perfect, deserted white sandy beaches.

Worst: Thailand. Hated it almost every minute I was there. Grubby, nasty place and felt like we were despised though they made a show of tolerating us.

Worst - Egypt. Cairo is a hell hole if you are a young western woman there with a female friend. Nothing you can do alleviates the constant sexual harrassment. We gave up and read our books in our hotel bedroom.

Best too many to say - the nice bits of France, Spain and Italy are hard to beat. Paris, Seville, Granada spring to mind. Loved Austria but the weather abit dodgy as I am sun seeker. India blew my mind but not an easy visit. Still far less hassle than sodding Egypt. I also liked Israel, fascinating would like to go back but DH risk averse.

Best - anywhere in Belguim (beer, good people). Ghent is fab.
St Petersburg (best city ever been to for touristy sights).
The Somme area of France. - loved all the history and villages (like going back in time)
Kyoto and Nara (Japan)

Worst - Venice Mestre (town bit away from tourist bit) awful, dirty, scary place in the day
Sydney (overated)
Not keen on Amsterdam, as I felt a bit old - I would have loved it in my 20s.

We really like Belgium. We house swap and Belgians always keen to come here so we have had 3 Belgian trips - great art, beer, hot waffles, Bruges, Middelheim park, Antwerp. All good and quite easy to get to.

OMG we LOVED Berlin. House swapped with a funky young couple so had a week in a trendy district weather was hot and lots of out door pools. We still talk about that week one of our best city breaks

Forgot I LOVED Istanbul.

Haven’t read the whole thread but am I the only one that loved Tunisia
Thought the people were very friendly
Also loved Sri Lanka, Chicago and Belfast!

Didn’t particularly enjoy Brussels or Paris

@CarolDanvers where did you go in Thailand to hate it so much? Just interested as I've been all over and the only place I found disappointing compared to the rest of it was Phuket.

@christmashope I also liked Tunisia, but it was over 20 years ago - great food, nice people and so much history and colour. I've heard it's gone downhill since (and more so since the beach massacre) so I had a look at the lovely area our 5 star hotel was in and it's now a right dump!

I love Berlin, didn’t expect to but have had 2 amazing breaks there now.
Love Lyon, hate Paris!
Used to love NYC but spent more time there recently and fell out of love with it. Couldn’t cope with the general rudeness I encountered every day for weeks and the service was terrible in general. Shame.
Oman was fantastic.

You couldn’t pay me to go Blackpool.
Hated Egypt.

All over North Italy as a teenager in the 1970s and loved it, especially Venice. The shops in Milan were an eye opener for a UK teenager. I went to the Lebanon as a child and would love to go back as an adult. I've wanted to go back to Gibraltar since I was drafted there for three weeks - cheap, immensely historic, sunny and friendly to Brits.

I absolutely loved North East Germany around 10 years ago. Beautiful lakes and just getting used to non-Eastern Bloc tourists. Very friendly people and fantastic lake beaches.

Best -

Kenya
Italy including Siciliy
Oman
Singapore
San Francisco
San Diego
New York
Ibiza (quiet part)
Santorini
Morocco
Zanzibar
British Virgin Islands
Corsica
Belfast
Goa

Worst -

Can't think of any bad places, except some airports!

Best..the wild parts of USA where everything is big and scenery is off the scale..eg Utah, Death Valley, Monument Valley ,, Yosemite etc etc

Underwhelmed by Malta. Not the most attractive island with the exception of the Blue Lagoon which is stunning. Just a bleak island really. Harbour towns are pretty until you look closer at all the plastic rubbish coming in. Boring place, not much to see or do, better being in the sea (I do love swimming) than on land.

Underwhelmed by Perth and Sydney and much of the east coast but loved the wild places especially in W.A. Perth is nice enough but doesn't have character or history, brother says same, has lived there nearly 2 decades, coming from cultural Edinburgh it was a bit of difference to him.
Underwhelmed by St Vincent. Not safe, bad vibes, however Dominica exceeded expectations, beautiful and v friendly

Hong Kong gets a 'best ' and 'worst'. For the experience, vibrancy and sight seeing , amazing. But the animal cruelty on the markets was horrific. (same as with Chinatown in San Francisco.. love SF but there is one end of Chinatown where you really don't want to go ) :(