Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 10:30     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
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/
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 09:40     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:Orlando, FL

Can't stand that place. Everything about it. Cheesy, tacky, crowded, fake, plastic, manufactured, etc.


I grew up in Orlando and there is an extent to which theme parks/IDrive isn't really Orlando, it's even south of the city down on I4. There is a lot in the area that's nice with the springs and parks. But thr development boom since I was a kid has made it suburban hell. I still love Merritt Island/Blue Springs.

So as a native (who doesn't live there anymore) there is nice to be found there.
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 09:33     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:
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.
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 06:33     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:NYC -- I can't stand the lib vibe of that city. Also it smells like MJ everywhere.


Yeah, MAGA values for vacation! Guns, grab women you know where and a ICE theme park.
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 01:21     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Las Vegas -- it's become insanely expensive and just not worth it. Will never go back.
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 01:20     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
NYC -- I can't stand the lib vibe of that city. Also it smells like MJ everywhere.
Anonymous
Post 12/28/2025 01:19     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Orlando, FL

Can't stand that place. Everything about it. Cheesy, tacky, crowded, fake, plastic, manufactured, etc.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 23:08     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
New York City
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 23:07     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
San Francisco
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 22:52     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
San Francisco, Portland, anywhere in Texas, most of SE Asia, China, Rome (obsessed with the history, but hate the modern city part).
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 20:53     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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?


I’m not the pp. I loved the safari I went on in Kenya and Tanzania, and it was very budget-friendly. The lodges were fine. Our guide was excellent. The people in our group of 8 were wonderful. Then I met up with a friend at a very nice lodge in Kenya (from which most people were headed out on an expensive safari) for 2 nights and I was miserable. Other guests were crazy rude—got in fights with each other. There was a group of Chinese tourists, and Australian and German tourists used racial epithets. Every person working there was constantly trying to upsell us on every single thing. And for the money this place cost, nothing was really that nice. It was miserable. I’d hired one of the drivers from my first, cheap safari to pick me up from this place and take me to the airport and I’ve never been so happy to see anyone. So, it’s not all about money you spend.



Weird. Sounds janky. Never heard of upselling at a reputable luxury lodge and I’ve been to multiple Botswana, Rwanda, and South Africa luxury lodges (Londolozi, Wilderness, Great Plains, etc).


Huh yeah, I’ve done everything from shoestring literally “drive yourself” safaris to lux safari and was never upsold on anything, at any type of lodge. Everything was agreed to and paid to beforehand.

I do agree you don’t need to do a super lux safari though— a lot of those places lean on unfamiliarity or latent fears and can really charge anything to their guests, who don’t know any better. (I saw one thread where multiple posters had been talked into hiring their own personal security team, which is absolutely insane.)


Definitely not insane to hire private security if you’re a VIP or NEO or someone with “google-able” wealth AND spending time in urban areas where there’s more organized crime and the government / police are largely “in on it.”

My aunt and uncle were abducted and taken hostage for ransom $ in an East Africa country known for tourism in the 2010s. Crazy stuff.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 18:51     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Daytona.
Orlando and the Disney stuff.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 18:27     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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?


I’m not the pp. I loved the safari I went on in Kenya and Tanzania, and it was very budget-friendly. The lodges were fine. Our guide was excellent. The people in our group of 8 were wonderful. Then I met up with a friend at a very nice lodge in Kenya (from which most people were headed out on an expensive safari) for 2 nights and I was miserable. Other guests were crazy rude—got in fights with each other. There was a group of Chinese tourists, and Australian and German tourists used racial epithets. Every person working there was constantly trying to upsell us on every single thing. And for the money this place cost, nothing was really that nice. It was miserable. I’d hired one of the drivers from my first, cheap safari to pick me up from this place and take me to the airport and I’ve never been so happy to see anyone. So, it’s not all about money you spend.



Weird. Sounds janky. Never heard of upselling at a reputable luxury lodge and I’ve been to multiple Botswana, Rwanda, and South Africa luxury lodges (Londolozi, Wilderness, Great Plains, etc).


Huh yeah, I’ve done everything from shoestring literally “drive yourself” safaris to lux safari and was never upsold on anything, at any type of lodge. Everything was agreed to and paid to beforehand.

I do agree you don’t need to do a super lux safari though— a lot of those places lean on unfamiliarity or latent fears and can really charge anything to their guests, who don’t know any better. (I saw one thread where multiple posters had been talked into hiring their own personal security team, which is absolutely insane.)
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 18:02     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
I am never setting foot in the Orlando area again. It's like Yogi Berra said: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2025 17:58     Subject: Where did you absolutely hate?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I had miserable experiences in both Miami and Orlando Florida (Miami less so). I will give the state one more shot (have always wanted to see the Keys) but if I don't like it there, I'm never going back to the state as a whole.


Op here. I felt so old and out of place in Miami. We tried the arts district, we tried restaurants for dinner, I just felt it was not my vibe or my scene as an unfashionable, heavier, mom of three. Miami and Houston as well were my two. I won’t see those again.


No place will ever make you feel uglier than Miami.
+1

I was coming on to say Miami for the same reasons. All the greased up, shirtless, gold chain and cigar dudes wandering around with the bikini top clad, heavy make-up, and even more gold jewelry women… Not a scene I appreciate at all.


Slime, like Trump and his entourage of enforcers and porn starlets.


Also not a fan of Miami, or pretty much anywhere in FLA except the keys. I just don't like the Magda vibe of the state.

Also don't like Vegas. I don't gamble so that's a big part of it. Shows, while good, are overpriced. And food is just meh. It's in the middle of the desert so very little is fresh, no matter how it's packaged.