Where did you absolutely hate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not read all 61 pages, but will never return to Myrtle Beach. It's just kitsch n every direction, everywhere you look

But you can't beat the popcorn shrimp and hush puppies served in Myrtle Beach.

[Anonymous]

Phoenix/Scottsdale. I don’t see the appeal of AZ. I found it very blah and too hot (even though everybody loves to say it’s a dry heat). I guess I don’t appreciate the desert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Phoenix/Scottsdale. I don’t see the appeal of AZ. I found it very blah and too hot (even though everybody loves to say it’s a dry heat). I guess I don’t appreciate the desert.

I can see not enjoying Phoenix and Scottsdale, but overall Arizona is a great state. It’s one of my favorites!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isle of Palms-absolute worst.

Funny, I was totally turned off by it too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Vietnam? I had the opposite experience of a pp… loved the landscape but the people are the absolute worst. My friend speaks Vietnamese fluently so we understood everything being said about us and the other tourists (nasty nasty stuff). They also have a culture of scamming that’s way worse than anywhere I’ve ever been (and I’m very well traveled). We traveled the entire country for 2 weeks from south to north.

All that said I went in 2010 so maybe it’s changed - Nomadic Matt changed his tune recently too after his article from the late 2000s: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam/

I went in 1998 and felt the same way. No desire to ever go back. I did not see one smiling person in 10 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Vietnam? I had the opposite experience of a pp… loved the landscape but the people are the absolute worst. My friend speaks Vietnamese fluently so we understood everything being said about us and the other tourists (nasty nasty stuff). They also have a culture of scamming that’s way worse than anywhere I’ve ever been (and I’m very well traveled). We traveled the entire country for 2 weeks from south to north.

All that said I went in 2010 so maybe it’s changed - Nomadic Matt changed his tune recently too after his article from the late 2000s: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam/

I spent a month there in 2003 and had an amazing experience. Almost all the locals were kind, and a shop owner in Hanoi even made me dinner one night (we would hang out in front of her shop and play cards. I think the only thing I ever bought from her was a beer for $0.50). I never paid more than $10/night for accommodation, and went everywhere by motorbike. I doubt I would have the same experience if I went back, since that was 20+ years ago.

[Anonymous]

Montreal. People are mean and weird, city is very average in all ways (average Chinatown, average old part, average shopping areas and too crowded). The rest of Quebec is great.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Disney
Isle of palms (what were we thinking??)
India
The coliseum
The safari (way too much money and a terrible experience (

Tell us more about the safari… did you go mid-range (which is still thousands and thousands vs $20K+, so it’s all relative). What country?

Yeah, this is wild to me -- our safari was the trip of a lifetime and we loved it all. It cost us $$$$$$ though.

The first quote I got was for $50,000. Eventually we found a tour guide that charged $15,000. It was an amazing trip.

!!! We paid $6k for 7 days/3 ppl (Tanzania, 2021).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Vietnam? I had the opposite experience of a pp… loved the landscape but the people are the absolute worst. My friend speaks Vietnamese fluently so we understood everything being said about us and the other tourists (nasty nasty stuff). They also have a culture of scamming that’s way worse than anywhere I’ve ever been (and I’m very well traveled). We traveled the entire country for 2 weeks from south to north.

All that said I went in 2010 so maybe it’s changed - Nomadic Matt changed his tune recently too after his article from the late 2000s: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam/

I spent a month there in 2003 and had an amazing experience. Almost all the locals were kind, and a shop owner in Hanoi even made me dinner one night (we would hang out in front of her shop and play cards. I think the only thing I ever bought from her was a beer for $0.50). I never paid more than $10/night for accommodation, and went everywhere by motorbike. I doubt I would have the same experience if I went back, since that was 20+ years ago.

PP you quoted. Sounds amazing. I also traveled everywhere via motorbike. Wish I had a similar experience to you. Probably didn’t help we understood the language (via my friend). Some of the most horrid stuff was said by people smiling effusively at us or other tourists. So if my friend didn’t translate it / tell me what was said, I wouldn’t have known just via body language in many cases.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People rave about Turkey...but having spent time in Armenia, I can't get past the fact that Turkey committed attempted genocide against Armenia and still won't admit it.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html?onwardjourney=584162_v1

I just can't get past that.

Does anyone else have trouble visiting a country for social justice reasons?

This is interesting. I am aware of the attempted genocide, but it was 100 years ago. Literally everyone who participated in it or committed it is dead, the government has turned over many times, so I view it as an unsavory piece of history. If you started disqualifying countries for unsavory historical episodes there would be nowhere to visit.

That said, there are certain (current) regimes that I wouldn’t support with my tourist dollars, even if my safety were guaranteed. Putin’s Russia, North Korea, and China, for example.

I’m not crazy about the idea of visiting Serbia—that genocide still seems to close to me. It’s like looking at anyone over the age of 50 and wondering what they were doing in the 90s. I’ve never been to Germany and I think I’m just about at the point where I’d not feel weird about it.

Of all the strange and often ignorant statements in this thread, this one might be a contender for the #1 spot.

Actually, the PP is spot on. Many were never punished and went on to live ordinary lives. You can safely assume that many men over 50 were fighting in that conflict.

Not in Germany, which is the part the PP was responding to.

Yes—this September will be the 80th anniversary of end of WWII. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Germany and feel like a lot of the people my age (mid 50s) who I’ve met are absolute pacifists due their country’s history. I’ve also spent a good deal of time in former Yugoslavia. It is something that people struggle with— knowing or just wondering what other people were doing during the war. We have to put history behind us in some way.

Germans pretend to be pacifists. Lots of them are not sorry for their nation’s sins.

Why should they be? Who do you think is still alive that had anything to do with WW2? Anyone still alive would have been a very young conscript at the end of the war, hardly in a power position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Vietnam? I had the opposite experience of a pp… loved the landscape but the people are the absolute worst. My friend speaks Vietnamese fluently so we understood everything being said about us and the other tourists (nasty nasty stuff). They also have a culture of scamming that’s way worse than anywhere I’ve ever been (and I’m very well traveled). We traveled the entire country for 2 weeks from south to north.

All that said I went in 2010 so maybe it’s changed - Nomadic Matt changed his tune recently too after his article from the late 2000s: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam/

I went in 1998 and felt the same way. No desire to ever go back. I did not see one smiling person in 10 days.

I went to northern Vietnam in 2000 and it was delightful. No scams at all. But maybe it's different now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t hate it, but San Antonio was pretty dull to me. The Riverwalk is pretty and takes about an hour and there is the Alamo, but not much else. I am glad my trip there was for work and not on my own dime.

Completely agree. Went once with my spouse for his work trip, since it was over our anniversary and thought we could have a nice time away. Riverwalk was frankly a disappointment, and the Alamo was just ok. We know people who have retired there, and I don't understand the appeal.

[Anonymous]

Florida The whole state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Florida The whole state.

Opinions like this mean nothing to me, TBH. It's the same with people who say they "hate" an entire country. Like every person they met was a jerk, every meal was awful, every location was dirty and unsightly and every experience was a disaster.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've enjoyed every place I've ever visited, except for one: Massanutten. Virginia. I still don't know why the place sort of unsettled me, but it did. We were not there in the winter, maybe that's why? I still cannot pinpoint exactly why. Everyone else had a fine enough time, and I went along, but it felt off. Low vibration strange. I've never felt like that anywhere else. And I grew up rural.

one of your ancestors did something bad there and the local spirts remember. Clearly.

I took some international visitors to visit the old town section of Manassas which I consider charming (took them all over the area over the course of their visit). One of them, an artist, was silent throughout the Manassas visit. Towards the end she said Manassas gave her the creeps.

The Civil War raged all over that now bustling and developed area, and it was not that long ago. I think that is what she was sensing.

I would never take international visitors to Manassas....