Best/worst country to visit

[travelinterest]

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

Loved = USA, Italy, Australia, Switzerland (Geneva)
Hated = Paris, Bangkok

Best:
Dublin, Ireland - once you get out of the tourist traps, there are some truly amazing pubs and bars and parks. The locals are so friendly!
Budapest, Hungary - beautiful city streets and stunning river. The little shops are unique and the shop owners were great conversationalists.
Florence, Italy - you can't beat the food, and the architecture is absolutely stunning.
Algonquin Park, Canada - I honestly cannot think of a more serene, natural setting. So gorgeous.

Worst:
London, England - overcrowded, loads of homelessness and poverty, touristy.
Nice, France - some of the most rude locals I have ever met. Also, very dirty city.
Vienna, Austria - very stuck up and overly posh. Not much to actually do or see.

Ooh and Edinburgh, Scotland is amazing! Awesome culture and history!

Best/worst country is deffo the USA. It’s horrifying and amazing in equal measure for me.

Italy, Italy, Italy.
Greek islands. History, scenery, sunshine, warm sea and lovely people.
The scenery in NZ is stunning but the towns are soulless and horrible.

Didn't like Dublin. Disappointing and underwhelming. Didn't live up to all the craic hype. (See also: Hogmanay in Scotland)
France. It always seems to be shut.

Love most of France especially the south and Avignon in particular. Not keen on Paris though.

Like Belgium, the beaches are lovely. Also really like Holland particularly Leiden. Loved Sweden.

Love love love London. Born there and lived there for 40 years. No longer live there but go back about once every 6 weeks.

Really didn't like Glasgow. But we had awful weather - 3 days of torrential rain and strong winds. Plus the awful taxi drivers who didn't know where anything was and expected us to give directions! Oh and one asked me if i could speak English!

Delatron what did you love about Lyon? I’m going there for the first time next year after visiting Paris a few times (and loving it).

I want to love Rome but for some reason feel stressed and hassled there. Other parts of Italy I have really enjoyed though. Skiing in the Dolomites was absolutely amazing.

@purpleleotard , now I live in South Island New Zealand and I agree with you!! Yes there is some stunning scenery here but tbh I have seen just as nice in other countries (Yosemite in the States springs to mind). I think what people like about NZ is its quite diverse with scenery, North Island being fairly tropical and SI being more Alpine.

@TailEndCharlie - sorry to hear you found Romania like that, I have a Romanian husband and we go every two years and I love it. They do of course have problems, unfortunately they have a huge gypsy population (the beggars) who are not originally from Romania (and who Romanians absolutely hate) and they have a very corrupt government, but the Romanians I know are lovely people and I have had amazing food there - its a shame you had such a negative experience. Please still try it out @mononoaware1907 - there are some truly beautiful places there.

I love Czech Republic (specifically PRague and Brno) and also loved Croatia.

Love Australia (Brisbane/Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast/Perth - not so keen on Melbourne tbh)
Dresden in Germany
Vienna (although not keen on people as said above)
Budapest (again not keen on the Hungarians - very unfriendly I found)
USA - Yosemite, Vegas, San Fran, Boston

Not keen on:
Dublin
Venice (too busy)
Montenegro
Albania
Los Angeles

"Vienna, Austria - very stuck up and overly posh. Not much to actually do or see."

You have got to be joking!
There is loads to see and do in Vienna. It was OH's 40th birthday present from me. We had 4 days there and went to see Pavarotti. It was just wonderful. I assume you mustn't like art, music, culture and sightseeing to "not find much to do" in Vienna. I didn't find it stuck up at all. I felt very safe in fact.

Vienna is the number one city on the 2018 Spectator Quality of Life Index (whatever that means?)

twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/980875010729443328?lang=en

I didn't find it stuck up at all. I felt very safe in fact.

Stuck up means unfriendly/stand-offish/aloof not unsafe.

Best/worst country is deffo the USA. It’s horrifying and amazing in equal measure for me.

Thanks, I think. I often feel the same way. We don't do anything by halves.

Most people have a fairly strong opinion of the US, which is fine of course.

BEST: London, Northern Mexico, Rome, New York, Cornish coast, Devon

WORST: Barcelona, Dublin, Manchester, Xante, Edinburgh

Loved

Southern India- Kerala, Pondicherry, interior Tamilnadu
Australia - lived there for a year in Melbourne and loved it. It was brilliant!
Provence, Barcelona, Rome and Tuscany, Stockholm.
Less busy islands of Greece
Oman
Bath, Cornwall, Lake District, wales
New York, New England, Chicago, San Francisco, Yosemite, UTah, Arizona. the USA is truly fabulous in terms of scenery and variety.

Hated :
Johannesburg - I felt unsafe and hated the need to be behind gates the whole time
Los Angeles - felt souless and empty.

Los Angeles - felt souless and empty.

I felt the same way about LA. And it's so spread out that it's more like a huge collection of adjacent suburbs than a city. So many mini-malls.

Depends what you're looking for.

For food, my best ones are Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Sri Lanka. Worst probably Germany and Canada. (Although Canada did introduce me to the sushi burrito.)

For people, the best are Italy, Spain and Canada. Worst: Morocco and South Africa.

For weather, the best are Italy, Spain and Costa Rica. Worst would be Scotland, Germany and Canada (in winter).

For natural beauty, the best would be France, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Scotland and Ireland. The worst, probably Morocco. The parts of Canada and the USA I've visited have been pretty underwhelming too, but I haven't seen much of either country.

For hotels/places to stay, the best have been Scotland, Portugal, Costa Rica and Italy. The worst would be Morocco, USA and Canada. Sri Lanka not great either. Canada (Toronto and Ottawa) gets a special mention for being INSANELY EXPENSIVE and really not that good. (Spent the last few days in a "budget" hotel in Toronto which cost around £150 a night and where breakfast was barely edible and eaten with paper plates and plastic cutlery!!!)

For culture, best are France, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Sri Lanka. Don't really have a worst.

Overall I think the standout best are Italy, Spain, Scotland and Costa Rica. Worst would be Morocco, and I didn't really rate Thailand either.

Best:
Hamburg - ok, im biased! I go ‘home’ whenever I can.
Edinburgh - beautiful city with awesome bars.
Amsterdam - visited so many times and still haven’t seen everything the city has to offer.

I also spent long summers by the Baltic Sea coast as a child and can’t wait to take my little son.

Worst:
Paris - nothing to do with the actual place, but I didn’t feel safe.
Maastricht - again, drove into the city centre and saw open drug dealing. Didn’t feel safe.

Certain parts of Mallorca are pretty shocking but other than the party resorts, it’s a nice place.

I’m not very well travelled but I’ve got friends who love visiting the far east (namely Thailand, Singapore, Japan). Maybe I’ll be brave one day and give it a try.

@purpleleotard to say NZ has no history is to completely ignore or disregard the history and culture of Maori who have been here for over 1000 years. It's a typical superficial Western view of history and is quite offensive. The lack of old buildings does not equate to a lack of history

@purpleleotard to say NZ has no history is to completely ignore or disregard the history and culture of Maori who have been here for over 1000 years. It's a typical superficial Western view of history and is quite offensive. The lack of old buildings does not equate to a lack of history

Best: South Island of New Zealand. Scenery is just breathtakingly stunning. The people are lovely. The food is fantastic. Such lovely fresh air.

I also loved Rome. The architecture, history and art. It raises the hair on my arms just thinking about it. Michelangelo sculptures in lots of churches you can just wander in off the street and see.

Worst: I was really not a fan of Bangkok. Sleaze central. Felt like everyone was trying to rip me off. Seeing old and middle aged white men with really young Thai girls everywhere.

My favourites would be
South eastern Sicily for the scenery and history
Budapest/Berlin as city breaks
New Zealand for the variety (rainforest, mountains, cities, glaciers, lakes, thermal activity, and much more...)
USA/Canada for the great open road
SW france (atlantic coast north of Biarritz) for unspoilt expanses of unpopulated beach

Least favourites
Prague - been twice and had a good time, but didn't get the wow factor
Paris- haven't been for years but was underwhelmed

Best : New Zealand, stunning scenery everywhere you look. Clean, lovely weather, loads to do/see/visit. Peaceful, felt very safe. Worth the journey time.

Worst: Thailand. Poor travel infrastructure between islands, Bangkok was dirty, crowded, taxis always trying to fleece you, would never return, once was enough.

Places with the biggest contrast of wonderful and truly awful:

Australia: Some fantastic spots - Sunshine Coast, parts of western Australia on the coast, the wineries. BUT lots of creepy little towns - roads lined by sort of strip malls with a vague ominous feeling of despair.

Borneo: Absolutely stunning Tropical Rain Forest falling on to beautiful white sand beaches with aquamarine seas. Then there is the city of Kota Kinabalu - one of the most depressing places I have ever been.

Loved Antigua. Got engaged there, but loved the people, the beaches, great atmosphere.

Nice I found family friendly. Was on the beach in December as it was 20’c during the day.

Hate Istanbul. Awful people, and being ripped off by taxi drivers
Also disliked Tunisia. Unfriendly people, was full of Russians who’d smoke and stub their cigarettes out in the sand. The beach was covered in fag ends 🤮
Qatar, awful dusty sandpit. Strange people who stare a lot —I must be beautiful—

Love: Berlin, Dubai, Vienna, Miami, Muscat, Koh Samui, Mongolia (outside the capital), Hiroshima, Shanghai

Didn't like: Paris, Kyoto, Beijing, Kuwait, Kenya

Most places I've been to have been somewhere in the middle.

Love the alps. My favourite place in the world to go.

Also the highlands and west coast of Scotland.

Worst - i have always hated the Peak District. Not sure why. I should like it. We don't live far so I go there from time to time and try and like it but never can. It's just a bit windy and meh.