To ask which country you would not visit again and why?

[travelcat]

I love hearing about travel experiences and am interested in knowing about places you have visited that you wouldn't go back to.

AIBU to ask which country you'd avoid in the future and what specifically made your experience less enjoyable? Was it due to culture, safety, or something else?

Vegas

It was like spending a week in a shopping centre.

I've been to both India and Morocco in the last year and don't recognise these descriptions (with the exception of central Marrakech where locals absolutely see tourists as cash cows) Further out of the city in Marrakech and Fes we were fine walking out and going for dinner.
I wonder if it's because I was in a mixed sex group both times, or had a local guide?

The only place I've really disliked was Marseille. I generally like France but Marseille was awful - unfriendly, dull and busy.

I'd actually like to bring my DH to visit this country - Vietnam.

I loved it, spent a month touring the country, years ago. The biggest downside is being seen as nothing more than a cash cow (tourist) and constantly being scammed! EVERY time you handed over money or received change, you'd have to check the correct amount was given. Prices constantly being hiked up or simply made up. I found the people not welcoming, they just see you as income.

And yet if the UK were the 51st state it would be the poorest! Shocking isn't it!

I completely agree, it was like being in the Trafford centre in 100 degree heat where drinks all cost £100 unless you were chucking money in a gambler.

Yes .. horrible

My DH would agree with you on that! He had a couple of encounters at immigration in San Francisco and New Jersey that put him off visiting the US ever again!

Surprised by some of these (Vietnam is the friendliest country I've ever been to! Although agreed on the pollution in the cities, Hanoi especially) but agreed on others - I wouldn't go back to the US again, found it genuinely quite unsettling both times I'd been with gun violence nearby both times, lots of very ranty shouty MAGA types protesting once sounding fucking unhinged, lots of very visible extreme poverty. I expected it not to be all that different from the UK but it was worlds away. And Cambodia - what we saw looked nice, but everyone there seemed to actively hate tourists. Which I understand, growing up in a tourism hotspot, but they were immensely rude and we got robbed once and scammed once in a 5 day trip.

Jamaica. The only country I've visited where I didn't feel safe.

Egypt - disgusting horrible men

I've never been, it doesn't appeal but I was at a presentation where a lady who is a wheelchair user said it was one place where she could get around easily and she was almost tempted to move there! Gives a different perspective!

Belgium. Shit food and miserable locals.

Canaries. I enjoyed my trip but once is enough, there are so many more places I would choose to visit instead

Turkey, as a young women travelling with a female friend we were literally treated like meat. Possibly it would be better now going with my dh, but to me that's not the point. Never again.

UAE- went on a stopover to go on honeymoon with my Wife (Oz) The way we felt like aliens even going through the airport, not even kissing or hugging or touching each other was incredibly upsetting. I cried in the toilets at how bloody unfair it was.

saudi- same reasons as everyone else, and similar as above.

edit- also certain states in the US, again just felt so unsafe, people with guns everywhere, me and DW just trying to see the world but instead being discriminated just for being ourselves

I wouldn't personally go back to Cyprus, though we saw some amazing Roman mosaics and there were lots of nice things about it - it was a miserable holiday for personal reasons and I hated the way they'd allowed apparently unlimited development for tourists just like me. I'd rather not go.

Jamaica because going to Antigua a few years later and finding that all Antiguan beaches are public was a revelation. Again, wrong holiday, wrong time in Jamaica.

I will actively avoid Egypt because I don't want to go to a country where there needs to be a man with a gun stood next to me or in my coach.

Love America and have had great trips not long ago to LA and SF, NY much longer ago. It's all so very personal.

I would LOVE to see you try to cuddle a roo 🤣🤣

Switzerland’s the people are rude, self entitled and just awful. I left after a couple of months working there and would never go back. Malta crap too.

I was just going to say I’m not sure they’d cooperate

Dubai, agree with PP

Never again. It's a horrible place where women are treated like absolutely shit and western woman are looked at like scum even when dressed respectfully. It's sleezy, and mildly threatening

It has such a nasty undercurrent, I despised it

I despised it and totally agree about the horrible undercurrent. I dressed and behaved completely respectfully the whole time I was there but got treated like I was a western piece of shit by the men there. It was absolutely horrible and I will never ever go back. To me, Dubai is like putting a glitter sticker over a puss filled boil

It's funny how people can have completely different experiences of the same.countries. interesting really! I loved most of the countries I've been to that people hated (Thailand, Tunisia, South Africa, Turkey) and really expected to love Vietnam, just hated it and felt like a horrible person hating it too.

India - went for work, never again

I felt way too vulnerable in Dehli to do anywhere other than the hotel or the office. Bangalore felt less scary but the traffic was horrendous.

The misogyny from so many of the men was soul destroying. My male colleagues were almost fawned over whereas it felt like I had endless aggro from trying to get visa letter onwards and only one of my male colleagues recognised how much harder it was for me than them.

And I get that we are so much better off than many but it felt that I was being ripped off at every turn because I was a westerner.

I'd never visit the Falkland islands again....... lived there for 6 months and I know if I ever visited again I would never come home! Beautiful place.

Given some of the experiences here , It seems having your DH there makes no difference!

Brussels - I haven’t been to the rest of the country. Dirty really filthy, whole areas cordoned off for building works but clearly not worked on in a long time as full of rubbish, wonky pavements, loads of abandoned e scooters, the food wasn’t great, lots of drug deals going on in most areas, beautiful buildings in disrepair, lots of shut up shops and huddles of men on street corners.

Madrid - I just found it a bit boring.

Egypt - same as previously mentioned. Pervy men, dirty, we all got diarrhoea, constant attempts at extracting money for tat which made it hard work being out, really bloody hot and where are all the females?

Never say never. Places change. Some areas within a country or even a city are a lot more hospitable than others.

But places where others have commonly experienced violence, racism, misogyny, homophobia, would automatically go to the bottom of my list.