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?

Well, they have women only carriages on certain trains, there must be a reason...

Most unfriendly people , where I didn't feel welcome at all, was France.

where did you travel to in France?

Ive been very lucky and found even in Paris people friendly with me and my dc, which was why I have been back so many times as a single parent it made travelling so much nicer. People in shops would give the girls lollipops and waitresses would be so lovely to the girls

We used to host Chinese and Russian teens they would cry when they had to go home. Told me all I needed to know about living there.

Spent 9 months in Australia, ticked the box, won't rush back.

Tenerife, been twice and was pretty bored, and that's with taking an excursion.
I get bored easily just sunbathing, I need to go and 'see stuff' which is probably why I'm in no rush to go to the Madives and the like. I adore a beautiful beach but I think I'd be bored once over the initial wow factor.

There's not really any other country I'd write off as a whole but have no appetite to visit South Africa and India.

Places I got a weird unsafe vibe from were Adelaide and Philadelphia.

Barcelona - we were actually followed off the platform and up to the street where another man picked up our trail and followed us to, thankfully, nearby hotel.
Also , Riga - it was just a dump.

Grand Canaria, lovely people but Cockroaches everywhere especially at night, couldn't put your bag down for fear of them crawling in and taking up residence.

UAE/Oman. I only went to visit family, neither would have been on my list of countries I'd like to visit. I won't be going back in a hurry.

USA, except I'd really like to try the Appalachian Trail. I might consider doing an equivalent trail in Canada instead. The USA is stunningly beautiful in parts, and I do have friends that I'd like to visit, but several things about the culture put me off. Some of it sounds silly (e.g. the US flag being prominently displayed in Catholic churches); it just all builds up to a picture of a place where I feel very uneasy.

I've only been to one country in southeast Asia, but my peanut allergy combined with not speaking the local language made it very difficult. I won't try it again unless I've spent some time learning the language and very carefully researching where I could safely eat.

This thread makes me feel a bit better about my UK trips. My son has severe autism, so travel abroad is unlikely for us. We could possibly do a ferry to France but hear that local people are really horrible to people like my son and pretty much many other countries are. It seems to risky to take him anywhere because of everyone's attitudes, let alone all the other logistical stuff. It's bad enough in the UK!

Just to add, my teen dd was hit on by a waiter in Italy. I'd learned some Italian and told him, in Italian, 'hey, that's my daughter'. He was immediately apologetic and spent the rest of the holiday offering us free coffee every time we saw him.

Moral is, learning the language is always advantageous, even a small amount to get by.

Egypt for me too: Dirty, hot and men harassing you/shouting things at you.

I did visit an Egyptian family and the house was immaculate and they were lovely but the streets of Cairo are quite dirty, plus the men don’t respect foreigners women

If anyone could recommend some good countries to visit when your child is disabled cognitively I'd appreciate the PMs!

The men hissing in Tunisia, mentioned by more than one PP, was particularly shocking.

2018 I think?

I'm surprised at people saying South Africa. Obviously there are parts that are a bit grim but the area around Cape Town and the Garden route is fantastic - Cape Town itself is beautiful and the wine country, Fransccheok and Stellenbosch, Hermanus by the sea etc. We have been a couple of times and can't wait to go back and explore more of the area. Of course you have to take sensible precautions but I have never felt unsafe 🤔

I'd said the violence against women in Japan is more 'subtle' or cowardly (for want of a better word).

There's huge issues with groping on packed public transport where you can't possibly move or challenge the attacker. Upskirting and secret cameras. There'll be a lot of signs on public toilets letting people know they're checked for secret cameras every hour to keep women safe.

And most scarily video games in which men can rape women are legal and very popular.

Egypt, animal cruelty,dirty, especially Cairo, sending disabled children onto tour buses to beg and constant harassment from locals selling crap.

Because they are so crowded during rush hour, you may be shoved up against someone in all likelihood, and some pervert man might take the opportunity to have a grope. Unfortunately because pervert men exist, women need to have women-only spaces like this to protect us from them, or at least so we don’t have to worry about the possibility of being groped.

@MikeRafone we are going to Vienna for new year- we usually go to Stockholm or Copenhagen or Berlin but fancy a change - sounds quite funky these days but with grand buildings - my H has been once before 12 years ago

I've traveled to 50+ countries, often with the same female friend, and came to the conclusion that different shaped / looking women can have completely different experiences in the same countries. Usually dependent on what type of woman is sexualised / considered most attractive there.

In India and South East Asia my friend had a horrific time (and I saw a lot of the harrassment). She was groped, shouted at, harassed and even nearly attacked. Whereas not a single man in months showed any sexual interest in me. She is short, slightly overweight, with a very large chest. One of the local woman suggested the issue was because no local women were shaped that way so the man had an intense interest in her. In contrast, I'm tall (taller than the men there), slim and pretty flat but still bigger than the petite local woman. I assume I looked very manly to them.

But then I had a horrific time in Paris, and would never go back without a man. She on the other hand had no issues.

None of its fair or ok but this has been my observations.

I don't think there's any country I wouldn't go back to, and I've been to most of the places on here. Morocco and Tunisia I didn't find too bad for being hassled, Turkey was worse (and I got food poisoning there) and obviously Egypt, but you have to factor that in. I booked guides to show us round and that eliminated the majority of the unwanted advances/baksheesh requests. Worth going just to see all the amazing archeology and would go back in a heartbeat. Lived in Dubai for a while, didn't love it, but have friends there so will go back at some point. I got threatened at gunpoint in Jamaica (I was working as a reporter out there and it didn't go down well with the local gangsters) and that's probably the place I've felt least safe, but I'd still go back - that said, there are loads of places I haven't been and would love to see, so I'm much more likely to do that. Japan, Iceland and Zimbabwe are currently top of my wishlist.

USA

I loved Japan but was with family and kids; maybe is different for a woman alone?

So many countries and places here. I think one bad experience put you off from that place for life

Jamaica

I like France as a country but have encountered unpleasant coldness and unfriendliness there, particularly in restaurants where English people seem to be very unwelcome – especially if you dare to break the 'rules' in times of what time you eat or anything like that. We once went into a restaurant for lunch with our two young kids and felt like the whole place was staring at us (seemingly because it was the end of lunchtime and not the done thing to be eating at that hour) – and it was noticeable that the service was very poor at our table compared to others. It was a really horrible experience.

I've also noticed that if you say you're Scottish, people are more friendly.

Italy, the roads are tiny and they drive like complete idiots but it is beautiful