Holidays In HELL: 30 Tourists Describe The Awful Place They Will NEVER Visit Again
1. CHINA
“China—I visited over 10 cities there, and everything seems polluted, rude pushy people, very oily food, most historical places have been torn down and replaced with new reproductions, hotels are dirty and noisy, locals staring and pointing, most domestic flights delayed or canceled, public urination, spitting, and defecation, dirty and disgusting public restrooms, locals refuse to form lines, etc.”
2. NIAGARA FALLS, NY
“The American side of Niagara Falls. What an absolute shithole. Went there on my honeymoon and will never go back. We planned 2 1/2 days there and did everything in less than a day. Our hotel had black mold in it, the people working everywhere were downtrodden and just plain unhappy. The falls are amazing, but frankly all the touristy things can be done in a day or less.”
3. MADAGASCAR
“Madagascar.
Went in the middle of the plague epidemic. That I didn’t know about until I came back home. Learned that there’s a plague outbreak every year, 2017’s one was just bigger than usual.
Never again.”
4. FLINT, MI
“Flint, Michigan. Something tells you you’re not safe when you have to order your $5 Hot n’ Ready through 3″ of bulletproof glass.”
5. KHARTOUM, SUDAN
“Khartoum, Sudan. There’s…yeah, there’s no reason to go there if you’re from…anywhere else. Lived there for a year. Never again. Hell on Earth. On the bright side, I know I’ve seen the worst the world has to offer, so any place from now on can never be as bad.”
6. EGYPT
“Egypt, shithole. Hotel had a section of the beach cornered off with floats where all the locals would hang around the edges and pester/swim under to grope the Western women.”
7. MARRAKESH, MOROCCO
“Marrakesh. Insane heat—the bottoms of my shoes melted due to the heat of the pavement and everywhere there were signs of animal cruelty. Horses with scars on their backs, monkeys on chains posing for tourists, and hedgehogs in tiny cages all exposed to the heat of the midday sun.”
8. SWAZILAND
“Swaziland. Was on a tour of Africa long story short somehow our passports got left on a train that we had to meet in Swaziland, tour guides snuck us in. Issues with leaving the country since we didn’t have entry stamps. Got forced to rent the passport office guy’s car for $500 to go to the first border where we snuck in, only to be told by someone else we were probably getting arrested. Finally found some connections through our tour guides and snuck back out of Swaziland. Was only 25 with my boyfriend, had to write to our parents and let them know to call the embassy if they didn’t hear from us within 24 hours.
Also Swaziland has no functioning government and is ruled by a king with like 90 wives.”
9. NEWARK, NJ
“Newark, NJ. Went there to see UFC 128 and I was terrified. The area around the arena looked like where they filmed Escape From New York.”
10. MOROCCO
“Morocco. As soon as I left the airport I was kidnapped, threatened, and extorted by a taxi driver. The local police weren’t interested whatsoever and to make matters worse the people there are the worst people I have ever met in my life. Every single one of them always wants something from you such as a cigarette, money etc….I literally could count on one hand the amount of people I met that didn’t want something from me due to the fact that they knew I was a tourist. The fact there could possibly be a World Cup held there is absolutely harrowing.”
11. ALBUQUERQUE, NM
“Albuquerque, New Mexico. The only night I ever spent there, I witnessed a nudist cycling gang harassing a Mexican wedding.”
12. BANGKOK
“Bangkok. Loved Thailand, but fuck that capital city. Polluted, people driving like maniacs, super-aggressive hawkers that never leave you alone, scammers even outside major tourist spots. Don’t think they like foreigners much at all over there.”
13. QATAR
“Qatar. It’s a bleak, horrible place full of extravagant wealth and slave labor. There is literally nothing to do as a tourist except shuffle from shopping center to shopping center, all the while being treated as lessers by the locals. God knows why they think a World Cup there is going to improve anything…”
14. KILLING FIELDS, CAMBODIA
“The killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. It made death and destruction too real. And I’d never heard about it before….How many more of these were there….Bone-filled towers, exposed mass graves for men, women and children. And then i stumbled upon the Killing Tree….I had planned a whole day there but couldn’t stomach it and left soon after arrival.”
15. PUEBLO, CO
“Pueblo, Colorado.
It’s perpetually a Tuesday in 1988 there. Every day.”
16. CAMDEN, NJ
“Camden, NJ. Only place in America I’ve ever felt so immediately threatened I abandoned all traffic laws. Made one wrong turn headed back from the aquarium and in less than 5 minutes was in what looked like a war zone. The minute I came to my first stop sign I was approached from 3 sides by ‘locals.’ It was snowy so I put it in 4-wheel drive and noped the fuck out of there, strategically avoiding any more stops—for any reason. Fuck Camden.”
17. GARY, IN
“Gary, Indiana. Stopped there for gas once. Gas station had a burned-out car in the parking lot and I’ve never seen so many metal bars and bulletproof glass in an establishment. Seemed like its reputation was pretty well deserved.”
18. BANGLADESH
“Bangladesh. I almost died multiple times when I was there… and nobody would have known or cared because of the insane hospitals and corruption amongst the police.
Day one: Electric shock from light switch at ‘hotel.’
Day two: Bitten by a stray dog.
Day three: Ejected off a rickshaw
Day four: Almost pushed down an elevator shaft
Day five: broke my nose and Dr. diagnosed it as /nasal allergy.’
Day six: food poisoning
Day seven: food poisoning
Day eight: followed back to hotel by dodgy guy
Day nine: proposed to by dodgy guy
Day ten: police officer offers to taser dodgy guy, but only if I marry him instead.
Day 11: visited leper colony—need I say more?
Day 12: food poisoning
Day 13: bad reaction to malaria medication
Day 14: pretty sure the tuk tuk driver tried to kidnap me. Drove for 2 hours in wrong direction with me locked in the back in the cage.
Day 15: had my bag grabbed off a rickshaw, fell off, and was dragged for half a block.
Day 16: Saw a leg getting pulled off a live horse.
Day 18: witnessed women giving birth in ‘hospital’ (one of them died)
Day 19: food poisoning
Day 20: almost went off a cliff in a taxi with no floor in it, just wooden slats across the bottom.
Day 21: attacked by a rooster in a rural village
Day 22: food poisoning
Day 23: A dodgy guy tried to sell me to another dodgy guy (never met either of them)
Day 24: food poisoning
Day 25: my friend fell down a hole in the sidewalk and we couldn’t get her out for like 3 hours.
Day 26: a guy got my cell number when I was getting more credit at a street vendor (the street vendor let him write my number down for like $2), and then followed me back to the ‘hotel’ and tried to break into my room.
Day 27: my bus hit a person on the street (the person was camped out in the middle of the freeway building a fire).
Day 28: bad reaction to anonymous medication bought at a ‘pharmacy’ (a room with every drug you can imagine and you can buy anything. I needed laxative).
Overall, I lost over 25 pounds while there. My friend didn’t poop for two weeks and then had food poisoning for the rest of the time.”
19. KUWAIT
“Kuwait, even if you have someone to show you around and you go in February. It might not seem like the worst at first. It’s not as extravagant as Dubai, it’s very nice weather in February, and there are actually some touristy places. But the whole thing just made me feel so uncomfortable. Everyone below a certain income (and that’s basically 80% of people you meet) is East Asian, and they are absolutely treated like shit, but they treat you like a king. It’s horrible. It makes the gap between ultra-rich and poor (really, there’s hardly anything in-between) painfully obvious, and I just couldn’t stop myself from saying ‘no, no it’s all right’ every time they offered to do something for me. They are so submissive and they have to be. It’s awful. I couldn’t look them in the eye, it made me feel so ashamed.”
20. DJIBOUTI
“Djibouti. It’s filthy, the heat is insane, and you meet con artists right as you get through customs that try to steal your bags.”
21. JAMAICA
“Recently went to Jamaica as part of Caribbean cruise. In particular, Montego Bay. While it is a very beautiful place, I feel like whole place is a scam to get your money. At no point did I feel safe anywhere we went. Every place we were taken on a tour required us to spend money on something. And despite the fact that it is very beautiful, the whole country is treated like a public trash can. Garbage everywhere, very sad that things have gotten so bad there.”
22. DUBAI
“Dubai. There is absolutely no culture. I never thought I’d be put off by diversity someday, but Dubai did it to me. It is just fake. Fake and fake. There is nothing genuine in that city and even the people are like carefully handpicked to represent what that city stands for, an unbridled, forced and insulting form of consumerism. And the locals are like zombies, lifelessly shuffling around in their luxury cars and doing nothing interesting than just consuming and loafing. They don’t even work for fuck’s sake. That city is just wrong on so many levels.”
23. REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
“The Republic of Georgia. Was the victim of an attempted kidnapping by an illegal cab service set up to kidnap and sell people into the sex/slave industry. When he told us we had to keep the shades drawn and funneling only young attractive women into the cab while turning away men, then forcibly tried to hold us in when we tried to get out. The only thing that saved me was situational awareness and the time it took him to try to fill the van instead of taking (only) the five of us.”
24. ST. PETER’S SQUARE, VATICAN CITY
“A papal audience in St Peter’s Square.
Where I was almost crushed against the fence by people quietly pushing their own bodies against mine to take my spot and get a view of the Pope, who’s basically just a dot on the stage from where we were standing. You’d think people would be more mannerly in this place, but nooo.”
25. THE THAI/CAMBODIAN BORDER CROSSING
“The Thai/Cambodian border crossing. Crazy hot lines, nowhere to sit or rest, and you see guards from both sides not-so-slyly slipping things to each other to push tourists ahead in line faster.”
26. MURCIA, SPAIN
“Murcia, Spain. Mainly due to my personal experiences there. Got stabbed in the back by the person I was meant to stay with/work for. Ended up sleeping rough for a while in that dingy city, had to beat a man unconscious to prevent a robbery, had to avoid a stalker. On top of that I nearly died in the bus station…of dysentery. Fucking dysentery. Like a medieval peasant.”
27. BELIZE
“Belize. Maybe it was once a decent place, but now it’s a desperately poor place. A few steps (less than 100 actual steps) I was already being asked what kind of drugs or women I wanted. That may be a thing some people want, but at no point did I feel actually safe besides from my being a big muscular man alongside two of my friends.
I did have the drug dealer escort us to a local restaurant and paid him for the restaurant advice and walking us there. He said ‘respect’ and ate with us. It was a an oddly fun conversation. If anyone else runs into Chris the drug/everything dealer, tell him three random white dudes he once met that didn’t buy anything from him say hi.”
28. BUNDABERG, AUSTRALIA
“Bundaberg, Australia.
I traveled around Oz with my friend for a year. We were in no rush, had a lot of savings and figured we’d take our time. We bought a hop-on-hop-off ticket for the Greyhound bus and decided we’d stop at pretty much every stop. Tour guides tried to tell us just stick to Fraser Island, Cairns, Byron, etc. I remember specifically mentioning we’d go Bundaberg and the travel agent said ‘don’t go there, it’s shit and there’s nothing to do.’ We asked her if she’d ever been. ‘Well no, but I know that it’s shit.’ SO we ignored her and were determined to see it all for ourselves.
Yeah so from someone’s who’s been there, don’t go to Bundaberg. The whole place is full of dust and sadness because any travelers are just there to work on farms. We had one good night out, through pure luck, when we hung out with some male strippers, won a Polaroid camera, and got free weed from them. But even they, as Bundy natives, told us not to stay long.”
29. THE GREAT SALT LAKE
“The Great Salt Lake. Parked next to the beach, walked across the mile-long beach to finally arrive a shore that was black with flies and a lake that continues on the same slant as the (nearly level) mile-long beach. After finally getting far enough out to float, you are able to learn of every cut, scrape, or other opening on your skin that has now been filled with salt. After finally floating, I got my head under the water with the primary relief being the showers back at the parking lot on the other side of the beach.
TL;DR: The Great Salt Lake is the capital of Utah’s salty slab of hell.”
30. MILAN, ITALY
“Milan. Had a varied holiday in Italy and enjoyed every city (Venice, Rome, and Florence) except this piece of shit city. City center is full of black guys trying to bracelet trap you if they figure you’re a tourist. Essentially forcing themselves over to you and putting a crappy bracelet on your wrist acting friendly but then aggressively suggesting you pay them 20 euro for that bracelet and following you all over if you refuse. Italian police are dotted around the city, but they do nothing unless someone ends up injured or dead in Milan is what I’ve heard from my mate who lives there.
Also the effing con artists dotted around the train station, was boarding a train to get to Venice and 2 women and 1 man followed me and my mate onto the train trying to suggest they’ll carry our luggage for us. We insisted it was fine in broken English to tell them to piss off. Then the lad approaches me speaking aggressively in Italian and without me knowing the 2 women went behind me whilst he was mouthing off and slipped their hands into my pocket reaching for my wallet. Good thing I had tight jeans on or else they would’ve gotten away with it, felt her hand and my gut reaction was push her on the floor away from me. Literally screamed all expletives I knew and the passengers on train (thank you kind Italian grannies) came and told them to go away, which they did. Grinds my gears just thinking about Milan, do not recommend at all.”