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?

Dubai's PR machine is quite something, anyone want to bet how long until there's a 'Dubai is lovely for a family holiday' sponsored post/ad on MN?

Me too. Same in Turkey

Paris. What a dump it is. Can't see the romance in it.

Rome - done the main Roman bits but rest was daubed with graffiti including ornate 16thC carved doors to the various churches. At least here the graffiti taggers and artists don't spray on churches and other historical buildings.

I was very surprised to read that, I go to Amsterdam once a year for work, and was expecting a seedy, crime-filled place but found the complete opposite. It’s a beautifully green city, with trees bordering every canal, the architecture is gorgeous and you could spend days in the galleries and museums.

We took mid teen girls to Amsterdam it was gorgeous don’t know what that poster was on about. Definitely go.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. Don't have to visit the "coffee shops" - avoid the places with a white and green sign with coffee shop on them. Nor the red light district.

Want to visit again but reminds me of my ex who we went three times there

Yeah a bit of self defense would have definitely helped my friend who was sexually assaulted by an armed policeman.

Idiotic post

The Gambia. Travelled with another woman and we were not left alone. The taxi driver from the airport asked for our phone numbers and it didn’t stop from there…

Japan. Had a nice trip there, but I just didn't find it as interesting as most people seem to. Combination with distance & cost, I don't think I'll go back.

China was interesting but I'm in no rush to return, and found independent traveling there quite challenging because of the language barrier.

Cities: Los Angeles, Brussels, Vancouver and some of the other Canadian cities (Calgary, Edmonton).

Totally agree about Dubai having a nasty undercurrent. I only stopped off there to break up a long journey to Australia and I wish I hadn't bothered. Was relieved to get on the plane to leave the place. It's the sort of place where you can have an amazing time if you have money but you also have to turn a blind eye to so many things like the way they treat migrant workers and the way the love to show off wealth while not caring one jot for the rights of the less wealthy.

I went to Jamaica a looooong time ago, hotel and beaches were lovely but yes, lots of poor families living in metal shacks, we met a family of 17 living in a shack. Most of these poor people worked at the hotels, market stalls or as taxi drivers and got paid little money. The roads were also very scary, not sure anyone had last a driving test (might be different now), we thought we were going to die during a taxi trip.

I didn’t rate Australia, it was nice enough where I visited but not only does it take 1.5 days to get there door to door but everywhere in the country is so far from each other. I was definitely underwhelmed.

Turkey & Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the men unsurprisingly.

strangely, I didn’t mind Dubai but my experience was probably not authentic as my friend and I were visiting her son who lived there. We spent a week seeing the best bits and surrounded by western expats. I absolutely hated though the way those expats talked about and to the service workers. Absolutely appalling. I also didn’t feel unsafe as a (very pale) white woman and even walked to the Mall and skied on my own then walked back. Not in a hurry to return though, been there and done it.

Barbados - I worked on conversation projects there and we lived in a lovely villa sandwiched between some very exclusive resorts - one girl was raped and I had my life threatened. We had to visit the local police station to give a statement and the blackboard with recent crimes was both shocking and eye opening. It's definitely isn't the idillic paradise people might imagine

people are taking one off experiences and applying sweeping statements to a whole country. Yep, not sure if they're just having a bit of fun but some of the comments are plain daft!

There's no escaping the fact that in some countries women get more hassle no matter how they dress or behave but it does help to be travelling with a man. Unfair but true.

There’s almost nowhere I would refuse to go. I never find travel to be a waste of time. There isn’t a single country I regretted going to.

I found Australia pretty underwhelming. Was there for nearly two months and outside of Sydney (which I loved) found most of it dull, parochial and sexist. And despite the exotic wildlife, not sufficiently different from the UK to merit a day on a plane. Wouldn’t exactly avoid it but probably wouldn’t spend the money again.

I have never been so maybe this is unfair but I hate everything I hear about Dubai. It sounds naff and exploitative, like Essex with slavery.

I have been to Russia and found it fascinating at the time but it would be hard to go now. Post Putin I would love to go again.

Milan. God its dull. I've been to other industrial/ busy cities with more vibrancy.

Any country where its illegal or unsafe to be gay.

Kenya. The only place I've ever seriously felt in danger of my life! Mombassa in particular. Armed guards at the hotel entrances and on beaches. Taxis being searched when entering hotel grounds. Being told to remove expensive jewelry and watches before leaving the hotel grounds even on coach tours. Just the general deprivity of it all on the streets, begging everywhere, filthy streets, filthy toilets (even in attractions and "official" coach stop places). "Mean" looking people in gangs everywhere who are eying you up to see what they can steal. The only place that felt safer and nicer was on safari away from the towns and the crowds of "dodgy" people!

I've been to the Gambia, Turkey, Egypt, Jamaica, etc., and didn't feel anywhere near as unsafe. Yes, you tend to get felt up in those places in the crowds, and there's a pick pocketing risk, but you don't actually feel in fear for your life like I did in Kenya.

Australia. Far too hot, and actually quite boring. People think because it's upside down it must be exciting, but when you're there you don't feel upside down, and it's just too hot to enjoy anything. I would admit the Great Barrier Reef is great, but the rest of it is meh meh meh and just far too hot.

Australia. Far too hot, and actually quite boring. People think because it's upside down it must be exciting, but when you're there you don't feel upside down, and it's just too hot to enjoy anything. I would admit the Great Barrier Reef is great, but the rest of it is meh meh meh and just far too hot.

Haven't RTFT so apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but have you noticed the common denominator for the main complaints/issues? Men. Again. Men.

Now there's a surprise.....

Did you come across lots of snakes and spiders? I lived there a decade and never saw a snake (I did see spiders mainly outside but non poisonous). Were you in a remote part?

I do agree that it was more misogynistic than I expected. A strong “bro” culture there.

People think because it's upside down it must be exciting, but when you're there you don't feel upside down.

This is my all time favourite complaint about any country.

😂

Totally agree with this, although when I went it wasn’t even hot. It’s strikingly similar to Britain in many ways but with far more of the dull bits, none of the history or quirkiness. Plus long stretches of places like the worst parts of the American Midwest: soulless one horse towns, long long roads with nothing to see for thousands of miles except huge shopping malls and awful chain restaurants.

The big cities are great, with the exception of Brisbane which was the most boring city I have ever been to. As far as I could tell everything else was dull as fuck.

When I first arrived in Turkey had a man follow me everywhere saying 'madam fucky fucky, madam like fucky fucky'! Lots of silly elderly women hooking up and having affairs and marrying young Turks and not seeing through it until their money has gone.

Animal torture and cruelty that will never leave me.