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?

Belfast.

Grim as fuck, terrible hotel (even though everyone seemed to think it was one of the best hotels, which makes me wonder how bad the rest were), and a constant undercurrent of religious sectarianism. I can’t imagine why anyone thinks it’s a great place to go.

Yes there's an incredibly strong theme on this thread.

Barbados- robbed at the hotel.
Nairobi - staff emptied our safe in the room.

Nigeria - shithole

South Africa felt so unsafe.

Czech Republic. It was so dirty and I felt so unsafe. We were in Prague and just got so bored, we literally left and took the bus over to Germany after 1 day for the rest of the holiday.
Malta as well is not worth the money getting there. Very meh.
I love Italy but I'd never go back to Rome again. I just felt like I spent the entire trip beating off scammers and I remember a lucky lucky man yelling at me for not buying some of his sunglasses. It was tiresome.

It would help if people put their age, sex, whether white, black, brown. Our experiences are likely to be very different.

Shanghai, China.

Couldn’t stomach the food, and I always love to try local cuisines abroad.

The locals would stare and point at us and drag us into their photos for selfies as they don’t really see Europeans in real life.

Bad air pollution and it’s normal to spit on the floor both inside and outside. It was grim.

Egypt is mine, constant harassment, everyone wanting to sell you something, donkeys with their backs rubbed raw, food poisoning that lasted longer than our trip.
The best thing I've found to avoid being harassed is to travel with a husband and child. I had no problems travelling around Morocco or Turkey when with OH and son.

Germany - got sexually assaulted by the airport security.

Egypt - Hurghada, just nothing to do and not my thing.

Bulgaria - Golden Sands and Sunny Beach were tacky, not in a Benidorm style way, but more in an outdated way. Also the sand on the beaches was absolutely full of cigarette ends, you could even feel them when you were walking barefoot - gross!
Sofia - nice enough city, but not the most interesting. Varna was also nice enough, but nothing about it to make me want to go back. On a positive note it was very cheap.

Morocco - it absolutely stank, and Marrakesh was a bit of a let down. Agadir beach resort, sea too rough to go anyway near though it was November, and nothing to see or do there. Food not enough choice, either Tagine or Cous cous, nice but got boring. Men quite sleazy.

Singapore - boring and a bit sterile, especially after being to China, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Poland - Warsaw a bit dreary though it was winter. Shopping not great. Food terrible.

I loved Belfast! It was quite strange seeing the local areas with British or Irish flags everywhere but I really liked the city centre

I really didn't like Turkey at all, too many men. It was like all the women had vanished but there were men everywhere and I found them intimidating. The amount of stray animals was upsetting too although the country itself was very pretty

Denmark (sorry!), I didn't hate it or anything, I just found it boring , and the landscape was so flat and boring, the little mermaid in Copenhagen was nice but underwhelmed with Copenhagen otherwise.
Also not keen on the food, and it's so expensive

In order of shitholes:

India - Delhi / Agra / Orissa / Goa poverty off the charts with wealthy ignoring it completely. Lack of toilets / sanitation with no desire to change.

Philippines & Cambodia - an underlying sinister element made me feel like every child could be potentially unsafe :-( temples in Siem Reap are interesting.

Taiwan - shops and restaurants equally rubbish. No money has been spent on the place for decades

and to balance - the best places I would revisit if time and money allowed:

Argentina - Interesting. Great food, wine, history and amazing scenery all over

Costa Rica - most environmentally aware tourism

anywhere in Italy / France / Spain - urbane & sophisticated. Can drive there. Great wine food, culture. So much to explore off the beaten track

japan - brilliant skiing / food culture cities and countryside all awe inspiring in equal measure!

this thread is making me want to book a holiday! 😊

India... dirty & rape culture is very prevalent there.

Another for Egypt. I've been twice to red sea resorts and I liked the snorkeling but not much else.

Is it something about solo travel that makes a difference? I loved Egypt (multiple times) Morocco, India, South Africa (twice - tho once on my own), New York (twice). Enjoyed all of them - so interesting.
I"'d also love to return to Russia, and to Jerusalem, but they look unlikely for the forseeable, for political reasons.
Been to Dubai a couple of times, but I probably wouldn't go back.
I really can't say there's any country I absolutely hated - I don't think you can judge a whole country on a few days in just one or two places.

TBH probably England. I'm American. I used to live in London and absolutely adored it. I've been back to visit many times. But on my most recent trip, I was subject to some awful anti-American sentiment and overt racism. I'd like to think I was just unlucky. But it happened with depressing frequency.

What on earth would anyone go to Dubai? By its very definition (not really being there until very recently) it has zero culture. And it has an appalling attitude to Westerners. What kind of holiday is that?

Los Angeles. I've never been so frightened anywhere.

Whoops

Myanmar.
50c and 100% humidity one day....I shivered going indoors to air con set at 25c...
(Thankfully I was there for work, not paying my own way).

Oman. Sleazy men worse than anything I’ve encountered in Dubai. Maybe as I was staying on my on but it was awful. Taxi driver was clearly drunk. On top of that there’s not a great deal to do or see outside a few bland resorts, muscat is fine but nothing to go back for.

I concur, as I said DW and I felt so unsafe even on our 4 hour stopover. It looked really boring from the plane and my SIL was physically assaulted by a man at a shopping centre. I also just can’t bring myself to support countries that are homophobic to that degree.

The poverty there is astonishing.

I was reminded recently just how bad it is there when 1984 gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton had to beg via GoFundMe to pay her medical needs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brock_(philanthropist)

Stanley Edmunde Brock (April 21, 1936 – August 29, 2018) was a British philanthropist, presenter, actor and author who founded the charity Remote Area Medical in 1985. Critical of healthcare in the US, The Independent states his work rescued millions of uninsured Americans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Area_Medical

"Founded by British philanthropist Stan Brock, it was originally conceived to treat people in the developing world, but turned its attention to those in need of health care in the United States".

The Fetanyl issue is also shocking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic_in_the_United_States

80,000 deaths PER YEAR in the last two years (just look at that rapid increase)

Some people shouldn't be allowed out of their own country! Complaining about things which could easily have been researched beforehand - eg. too hot, too cold, too far away etc., not to mention the idea that somehow these countries should be doing something to "entertain" you. Travel really is wasted on many MNers.

Work. It certainly wasn’t my idea of a holiday and I’ve made it crystal clear I won’t be going back!