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?

Hey, easy, I'm only trying to help! I just thought you might want to get your little ranty post more engagement.

Anyway, I'll try again. This thread is about 'holidays'. Is that clear now?

To be fair London has its issues but it’s not in the same league as Cairo for a young woman - insane!

Also Iran are you mental?! Under that regime! A friends brother and his wife barely escaped with their lives from there.

Sri Lanka…..you couldn’t pay me to go back. Awful beach resort, awful rude staff, misogyny rife and everywhere trying to rip you off from shops to bus drivers. It was an extra holiday before Xmas and all I thought was I’m so glad it wasn’t my main holiday. Made friends with others there and all had same experience. Even the staff made comments about a bride being too heavy for the elephant…..

I loved Egypt at the time but now wouldn’t go back to any Islamic country as a white western woman. The only exception would be the Maldives as they are separate resorts but tbh think I’m done with long haul.

All this. Plus the fauna that is either actively trying to kill you, or just scare you to death.

That's useful to know, I'm only an hour from Holyhead and am entitled to free (well £5 port tax) foot passenger tickets. Wider list of destinations from Dublin than Manchester too.

Where did you go and what do you consider Los Angeles?
Downtown is not that thrilling though there are echos of its former glory.
Hollywood is just scary though there are a couple of sights worth looking at.
A lot of the beaches though are lovely, even just for people watching!
Disney isn't strictly LA but I took my DD and we loved it.

Why do western women, who are used to equality and are treated with dignity alongside their male counterparts - choose voluntarily to go to the Middle East and North African countries? Just why?

Don't put yourself through it. They don't have the same politics, values or culture and they are known for being misogynistic to the core. There are lovely places in the world to go to, where you won't be mindlessly and aggressively groped, manhandled, scared shitless in taxis and spat at. Just.Not.Worth.It.

Spain, well the 'tourist hot spots'.
Seeing brits guzzling cheap Stella, whilst watching football and coronation street on large screen tv's whilst the grown men wear football tops and their kids run riot.

Always embarrassed to be associated by nationality.

Tijuana is very unsafe, I went in the late 90s when it was fine but mainly with friends, but since then it's become awful. There are lots of much better places in Mexico thankfully.

Wales, I am English, got on well in Newport & Cardiff. Working for English company. Anglesey was awful. Never again.

Why Vietnam out of interest? It is my absolute favourite country that I've visited.

@Eastie77Returns I have been to S. Africa for work, I am White but the team I work with there are very mixed, and from all over the region, I'm sorry you had that experience. In my down time I went to the District 6 museum and on a guided tour of Cape Town, the latter was all White tourists but not sanitised I felt, and we mainly went to restaurants near the University so they were fairly mixed. We did go for a wine lunch but I can't actually remember who were the clientele in the rest of the restaurant but our party for that one was majority Black.

We tend to be a group from all over the subcontinent and I've lived/worked in a neighbouring country so I can sympathise with the different feel of the place to those used to living in a majority Black country.

I would suggest definitely going back as a tourist, it was really interesting. One of the periods I've lived in the region was when the first free elections were held but I didn't visit during that time, but it was really moving to hear on the BBC World Service at the time and then visit the same places I'd been hearing about at the time.

Also, my experience of walking around as a lone tourist was very pleasant compared to my experience in India that I've posted about above!

Tunisia, felt unsafe out and about as a woman, even with my husband and brothers with me. Lots of shouting and touching from men in the markets. Just gross.

Had a very similar experience in Turkey. Never again.

Same, Istanbul is one of my favourite cities and I lived in Turkey for a year, loved it. I'm a brunette as well. It's fascinating how different experiences can be, one country loved by someone will be hated by another. My "hated" (just my opinion and from my experience, I don't think the country is bad of course) country, Vietnam, seems to receive a lot of love here.

To me (I've never been) I feel that some areas of Cape Town the infrastructure and roads and stuff makes you feel like you're in a developed country? Am I mistaken? For example the V&A waterfront

Hungary (Budapest). Crap service and bad food.

Yes, absolutely.

The V&A waterfront feels very much like being in a developed country. It feels very safe and prosperous. We walked round it evening times feeling no concerns whatsoever.

However you do see examples of poverty even on the short journey from the airport to the V& A waterfront such as shantytowns built on the side of the motorway

@Twiglets1 I'd love to visit

We did have a wonderful holiday in SA tbh. CapeTown, Safari, the wine lands.

It was a bucket list holiday we probably can’t afford to repeat but I’m happy I experienced it.

Yes I agree, hence why I said upthread that I am picky about the places I visit. What's the point of going somewhere where women are scorned at best? Or where I am highly likely to pick up a horrible sickness bug. Nah, not for me. Call me boring, but I will stick to Europe!

Bizarre. I really liked Budapest and the food has influences of many different cultures.

I work in London and I don't recognise the picture you paint (though the area around Wembley is downright scary but that's been the case for at least a decade). I haven't been to Glasgow for a long time but I will say that the last time I was in Edinburgh it was evident that all was not well in Nicola's realm (as it was then).

But you say we should listen - what do you actually propose the normal wo(man) on the street does about it. We did at least get rid of the Tories!

Naivety or wishful thinking (maybe it’s the same), wanting to experience somewhere ‘exotic’, looks beautiful in photographs, and I guess it sucks not being able to experience vast sections of the planet Earth which we all call home.

That said no way would I visit, unless all of the lecherous men somehow were made to stay behind doors and the women were let out instead.

What is it about Tunisia in particular that has so many people visiting? Genuine question, as it has not been on my radar at all. Does it get instagrammed, or pushed as tour packages, or?

Florida. I went there once in February and that was quite warm enough for me. Plus Trump, of course, is an off-putter.