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?

I've been in a number of West African countries, Pointe Noire in Congo and Cape Verde were really nice and I felt very comfortable walking around. We had to have armed guards in Angola, to go to the pub and 4 people were shot dead in 2 weeks, at a crossroads by our compound, but out and about was OK.

Senegal was a bit rough in and around the port, (aggressive Police and security shoving AK-47s in your face, to get fags and $$$) but the people were lovely. A local guy directed us to his relative's restaurant, where they had whole roast pig - they were Muslim! - no booze allowed...

Malabo in Equatorial Guinea was $1 a beer and felt very safe, wary, but friendly locals. It is a horrible dictatorship, of course.

Bonny Town in Nigeria was a bit scary, I really thought we'd be murdered by the port Police and we had to get a taxi from one bar to the one next door... The normal people were lovely, but holy fuck, we got in a taxi and cops / soldiers swarmed round, demanding "dash." I wouldn't choose to go back.

Namibia was mostly good, but the white locals made Hitler look like a wet liberal!

Dubai - it was an odd combination of consumerism and women being genuinely classed as second class citizens.

Always the way!

I’ve been to Egypt and totally agree about animal cruelty.
However you have to see it from the context that Egyptians average life span is 50 years.
Life is cheap in Egypt for humans as well as animals.
I remember having a meal at the Mena House in Cairo. 5 of us spent in total a £100 which in Egyptian pounds was equal to our drivers monthly salary.

The Caribbean is a region not a country - was there a country specifically or just all of them?

There are definitely plenty of places in the Caribbean where you can travel around freely.

Saudi Arabia. All the bad things about Dubai magnified.

My dsil is white English but looks Turkish, he has black hair and a black beard.
All the locals assumed he was Turkish and dd never got hassled. When he said he wasn’t Turkish the men insisted he must be Italian then.

I love Amsterdam too and don't really recognise the previous post. Of course it has one or two sleazy streets but many cities do and you can avoid them. Brussels too is fantastic. The most beautiful square I've ever seen https://www.visit.brussels/en/visitors/venue-details.Grand-Place.3743

**Absolutely despised Morocco, pervy men at every turn. Felt like the locals were trying to take unfair advantage of tourists at every opportunity.

God yes! I was watching the snake charming in the square. My friend hates snakes so stayed behind in the horse and cart thingy. A boy was climbing around it so I warned my friend. He put a syringe, point side up in the cart which of course my friend missed! I saw it on my return.The same little shit demanded money for removing it. I waited until he had the syringe in his hand then threw money on the ground. An old man in a horse and cart was waiting for him to return! I got the feeling if we had remonstrated with the little shit, the crowd would have turned on us. Felt the same in Egypt where little shits would smack us as we went by.

Also went for a walk with my friend in a park in Morrocco. We got followed in there and not left alone. Unfortunately my silly friend was one of those 'hair smoothing' types when any man are around, even Morroccans with few teeth!

Morocco. It's beautiful the food is delicious, has some incredible history and culture but as a white woman I found it extremely uncomfortable. I was groped by men and male children, leered at, catcalled/insulted by both men and women. I didn't feel comfortable walking alone, which is something I like to do when exploring places. Our group was also completely tricked into taking a tour (really naïve! We were still at uni and just not wordly wise at all, we hired a minibus and driver for the day to go exploring. At the first stop someone befriended us and asked if he could spend the day with us, took us to his home etc. We just thought he was being nice. At the end of it we did a whip round to give him and the driver a tip and they stopped the bus in the middle of the desert and threatened to leave us there if we didn't give them everything we had. They took the boys one way and the girls another then turned on us. It was really scary). The way we saw animals and many other people being treated was also very distressing.

There were many many people who were wonderful, but unfortunately the negative memories far outweigh the positives.

I am confused by the syringe story. A random syringe? What would have happened had you grabbed it and thrown it away?

I found Egypt generally fine - but that was only because I went with dh. Also with us were two early 20s dds and my mother.

On the one occasion we four went out without dh, we were hassled to death. And we’d lived in the Middle East so were very much aware of the need to dress conservatively - it made no difference.

Must add - for balance - that we lived in Oman for many years and I never once felt unsafe or was hassled there - and I’d so often go out on my own, inc. to e.g. the souk. Everyone was unfailingly polite and courteous.

I hope it’s still the same now.

India.

I’m still livid about the way women were treated at Delhi airport on my last visit and vowed then and there never to visit again.

There were separate queues for men and women to go through security which was fine. No problem with that. What did make me angry was that when the male queue got “too long”, they would stop women going through until it had cleared. DH was through in 10 minutes but then had to join the rest of the men waiting a further hour for their wives/mothers/sisters/girlfriends.

I think lots of these posts are really daft. The 2 that seem to have come up that I feel the need to defend are Greece and Wales.

Greece is a huge and very diverse country for a start even from a tourism perspective. It's like saying you didn't like England because London is dirty and full of crime and refusing to visit the Lake District for example or going to The Lakes and saying it's boring and everything is miles away so refusing to visit London (I love both btw) I've only been to Crete in Greece but it's beautiful and I could honestly say I would never get bored of it and have never had a bad meal in the tavernas. I have no idea how it compares to the rest of Greece tbh.

Wales; Yes the weather is miserable a lot of the time but if you don't already know that then where the heck have you been?! It's also beautiful, safe and relaxing pretty much everywhere. It's another place I'd never get bored of personally.

I think lots of people on here just don't want to be exposed to anything out of their comfort zone and should probably just stay in and watch Netflix tbh.

Turkey, my 13 and 15 year old sister were sexually assaulted and I was nearly raped

Agreed, i travelled in Morocco and wouldn’t ever go back.

Wow, what was their logic for stopping women going through?

Hong Kong. Not enough to see there for a return visit.

I’m really surprised about Morocco, me and my friend went in our twenties and we had a great time. We went on day trips, to the Atlas Mountains, went to the Ouarzazate waterfall, had lunch in a tiny cafe where the owner cooked the omelette in the ground, under the earth.

Tunisia. Never have I been so harassed and my personal space invaded as it was there.

Dubai
Gestures of wealth are so obscene
Staff in hotels etc are treated like shit

Plus it was absolutely full of influencer type people and escorts. Wouldn’t go back

Athens - only stayed in the centre for 30 mins and then left as felt very unsafe as a single female

Venezuela - we were told never to leave the hotel compound, or if we did not to take anything with us.

I loved India and had absolutely no issues despite travelling on my own

Gosh I can’t think of anywhere I’d never go back to.

I really enjoyed my trips to India, Morocco, Thailand (been twice to each). I don’t love Dubai and wouldn’t pick it but I’m going to visit a friend who lives there. I’m also visiting Turkey for the first time soon and hoping it’s not an error.

I agree, the people I met were pleasant and respectful. Although I stayed only in rural areas. Maybe the cities and tourist spots have a different vibe?