Countries one doesn’t consider but should

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vietnam

+1. We went there on our honeymoon ~12 years ago and no one could understand why. A lot of variety and beautiful landscapes, amazing food.

Love it! We went in 1998, the year we got married. They had just recently opened the country to Americans. It was amazing but I remember my godfather, who was stationed in Vietnam during the war, was very confused why we went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that multiple people have said Slovenia. DH has Slovenian heritage and FIL was born there; it is high on our list of places to travel to in the next few years but I keep hearing about how it has just exploded in popularity in the last decade or so! Maybe just among the Europeans?

We were there at the tail end of Covid and saw few Americans. My parents were there about a decade before that and saw no Americans. We loved it. The Julian Alps are incredible.

[Anonymous]

Nauru. With $105,000 you can buy citizenship and get on a pathway to citizenship in UK, Singapore, UAE

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Lovely, friendly, historic. Easy to do in one trip too.

Lot of sex workers and poverty though

I've only been to Latvia and Estonia, but I definitely wouldn't say there was lots of poverty. I didn't see the sex workers either, but that might have been easier to miss.

Yeah, maybe in mid-90s but I wouldn’t say that is true now

If anything, it’s probably increased.

And who are the sex workers there exactly? The few who would even consider it, would do it somewhere else in EU. Who the heck wants their dad walking in. The two countries are so small. Everybody know everybody. Most people receive a very good education and can make more money anywhere in EU.

Yes, and they take their xes work to other EU countries by opening “all-inclusive” beauty salons.

What are you trying to say? This is totally indecipherable.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think that the tourism reputations places have are generally merited. Places that are great but not on the beaten path include Iran, Iraq, and Slovenia (in that order). Romania, Bulgaria and Albania are nicer than you might think, though a bit of a clean-up would make them nicer. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras also have much to recommend them, though like Colombia the crime is not negligible.

Iran? Iraq?

PP forgot to mention North Korea and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is incredible beautiful. The people and the mountains were lovely. I’ve also been to North Korea, I went with young pioneer tours. They won’t take Americans anymore, but I’m canadian.

Open your mind, pp.

How's the view up on your high horse?

People not going to Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan are not doing so out of closemindedness. wtf.

I have done hard core travel in many places in the world. I lived in Afghanistan for several years. There's a difference between open-mindedness and dumb.

Yes, we don't want to have to trade terrorists to get your PP's loser tourist behind out of a country he had no business going to. People should have to sign waivers saying that they will not be rescued/traded for if they enter these countries.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I took my first trip to Tbilisi Georgia and was amazed. Beautiful culture, that cheese bread thing - wow- their wine was nice and I really enjoyed interacting with the people. Of course they are no Italy or Spain but what a wonderful city. I went with a culturalExchange group and Georgia had the least people signing up. I would have never gone nor considered it. Now I’m wondering if I should broaden my horizons. Can you recommend other places where you were pleasantly surprised?

It’s called Khachapuri. Did you really go to Georgia and not learn that?!

Well, I knew exactly what PP was talking about when they said "cheese bread thing." I would not have know what they were talking about if they said Khachapuri. So I appreciated it.

Why the hostility?

No hostility, just incredulity that one could travel to Georgia and instead of reciting the proper name of one of the country’s most prevalent foods, instead refer to it as “that cheese bread thing.” Honestly, some people should just stay home.

Honestly, some people are miserable wherever they are, and you are a perfect example.

[Anonymous]

Suriname (Dutch Guinea/ mouth of Amazon/ mix of cultures, rainforests, and food. The capital, Paramaribo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Tanzania (Serengeti, Mount Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar)
Zimbabwe ( Victoria Falls/ Eastern highlands/ Hwange and Mano Pools/ Lake Kariba)
Jordan (Petra/ Wadi Rum/ Jeradh/ Dead Sea/ baptismal site of Jesus Christ)
Ecuador (Andes and Galapagos)
Guatemala (Lake Atitlan/ Tikal and Antigua)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Romania easily. Transylvania is marvelous.

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think that the tourism reputations places have are generally merited. Places that are great but not on the beaten path include Iran, Iraq, and Slovenia (in that order). Romania, Bulgaria and Albania are nicer than you might think, though a bit of a clean-up would make them nicer. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras also have much to recommend them, though like Colombia the crime is not negligible.

Iran? Iraq?

PP forgot to mention North Korea and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is incredible beautiful. The people and the mountains were lovely. I’ve also been to North Korea, I went with young pioneer tours. They won’t take Americans anymore, but I’m canadian.

Open your mind, pp.

Sorry, I guess I'm just closed minded by not encouraging Americans to visit countries that take American hostages.

That’s fine, you stay home pp. The rest of us want to see the world.

The idea of encouraging any American to travel to North Korea or Afghanistan is so irresponsible. It’s not a funny joke or a cool flex. Jeez.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I took my first trip to Tbilisi Georgia and was amazed. Beautiful culture, that cheese bread thing - wow- their wine was nice and I really enjoyed interacting with the people. Of course they are no Italy or Spain but what a wonderful city. I went with a culturalExchange group and Georgia had the least people signing up. I would have never gone nor considered it. Now I’m wondering if I should broaden my horizons. Can you recommend other places where you were pleasantly surprised?

It’s called Khachapuri. Did you really go to Georgia and not learn that?!

I didn’t want to be disrespectful to their food or talk above the heads of readers.

Anyone familiar with the food should know the name. It’s very common. How did you like the khinkali and the badrijani? I’ll give you time to find a picture in Google.

Georgia is nothing to write home about and yet the PP loved it. If trump were in office - it would be a shithole country per his book. I agree with others- relax! Khachapuri is probably their best offering. If the people there are anything like you- incredulous- most of America and everywhere else should skip Georgia and they probably do. I enjoyed their post.

Wow, how clueless. Khachapuri is nowhere near Georgia’s best cuisine, far from it. Have you even been there?!

When I lived in Russia, Georgian food was like Mexican food is in the JS. Spicier, tastier, better drinks — if you wanted a fun night out with your friends, you’d say “let’s go out for Georgian!” There was a phenomenal place hidden behind the church that Tolstoy used to go to…..I loved it so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uzbekistan is pretty high on my list. Samarkand looks stunning.
Senegal (Have any of you been? I am drawn there for some reason and hear positive things from expats but never hear about travelers’ experiences.)
Oman
Baltics
Caucasus, especially Georgia
Island nations in the Indian Ocean, but many of these places are well-touristed by non-North Americans given flight times

When someone did the worst travel experiences, I put Uzbekistan and Samarkand on the top of my list. I thought I would love it, but I found it really insular and sexist. And government very corrupt. Thr plov is good and the archiecture is pretty but overall it was a total low point in traveling for me. Pretty much everyone I was with also got food poisoning there. And I generally have a stomach like a rock.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting that multiple people have said Slovenia. DH has Slovenian heritage and FIL was born there; it is high on our list of places to travel to in the next few years but I keep hearing about how it has just exploded in popularity in the last decade or so! Maybe just among the Europeans?

Yes. Slovenia is the new Croatia. Croatia got super slammed with tourism during the era of Game of Thrones over the last decade since so much was filmed there. Now that it’s become a really saturated tourist market, people are heading a tiny bit north to Slovenia. Slovenia is beautiful, especially in the winter, and especially if you do skiing and outdoor winter sports. Lake Bled is gorgeous any time of year and it’s easy to get around.

People figured out the Croatia has a lot of the same stuff as Italy and Greece since it’s basically crammed in with them and was historically part of the same community. It somehow got stuck with Stalin after WW2 and people forgot all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took my first trip to Tbilisi Georgia and was amazed. Beautiful culture, that cheese bread thing - wow- their wine was nice and I really enjoyed interacting with the people. Of course they are no Italy or Spain but what a wonderful city. I went with a culturalExchange group and Georgia had the least people signing up. I would have never gone nor considered it. Now I’m wondering if I should broaden my horizons. Can you recommend other places where you were pleasantly surprised?

I ended up in Georgia because I was reassigned for the same reason. No one wanted to go there. It was amazing. The people were great hosts and there’s no equal for the food and wine.

If you liked Tbilisi, see the rest of Georgia —especially the beaches and other nearby countries. Azerbaijan was also gorgeous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took my first trip to Tbilisi Georgia and was amazed. Beautiful culture, that cheese bread thing - wow- their wine was nice and I really enjoyed interacting with the people. Of course they are no Italy or Spain but what a wonderful city. I went with a culturalExchange group and Georgia had the least people signing up. I would have never gone nor considered it. Now I’m wondering if I should broaden my horizons. Can you recommend other places where you were pleasantly surprised?

It’s called Khachapuri. Did you really go to Georgia and not learn that?!

Well, I knew exactly what PP was talking about when they said "cheese bread thing." I would not have know what they were talking about if they said Khachapuri. So I appreciated it.

Why the hostility?

+1

Georgian is not an easy language.

I still can’t remember the name of the eggplant and walnut sauce dish, but I would request it for my last meal on earth.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I took my first trip to Tbilisi Georgia and was amazed. Beautiful culture, that cheese bread thing - wow- their wine was nice and I really enjoyed interacting with the people. Of course they are no Italy or Spain but what a wonderful city. I went with a culturalExchange group and Georgia had the least people signing up. I would have never gone nor considered it. Now I’m wondering if I should broaden my horizons. Can you recommend other places where you were pleasantly surprised?

It’s called Khachapuri. Did you really go to Georgia and not learn that?!

I didn’t want to be disrespectful to their food or talk above the heads of readers.

Anyone familiar with the food should know the name. It’s very common. How did you like the khinkali and the badrijani? I’ll give you time to find a picture in Google.

Georgia is nothing to write home about and yet the PP loved it. If trump were in office - it would be a shithole country per his book. I agree with others- relax! Khachapuri is probably their best offering. If the people there are anything like you- incredulous- most of America and everywhere else should skip Georgia and they probably do. I enjoyed their post.

Wow, how clueless. Khachapuri is nowhere near Georgia’s best cuisine, far from it. Have you even been there?!

When I lived in Russia, Georgian food was like Mexican food is in the JS. Spicier, tastier, better drinks — if you wanted a fun night out with your friends, you’d say “let’s go out for Georgian!” There was a phenomenal place hidden behind the church that Tolstoy used to go to…..I loved it so much.

This got me to thinking but this is the restaurant … for all the Russian trolls on this site, highly recommend!
https://cityseeker.com/moscow/229971-guria