Ok hopefully we can share that country/s we loved and hated that we have visited….
I loved visiting japan,singapore,thailand,italy
I hated and would never go back to pakistan,israel,indonesia(bali),india
You?
Fave Country You Visited and The Country You Hated after Visiting
HappyBigKid on 18/05/2025 - 14:18
Last edited 18/05/2025 - 14:30
Last edited 18/05/2025 - 14:30
Comments
@star-ggg: oh I'm so sorry. I got Tabriz mixed up with Khoy. I was speaking to Iranian Friend of mine about going to Khoy. You are right, it doesn't make sense to go to Tehran first and then Tabriz if travelling from Armenia. You can do directly through the Armenian/Iranian border to Tabriz by bus.
I also visited Berlin and was not a fan. It was more the people I encountered but I think I’d like to go back and visit a different city. I went to Germany a few times as a little kid but I can’t recall much to have an opinion.
Hated after visiting:
Germany (only through Berlin and Hamburg). Perhaps if I had visited other cities, I wouldn't hate it?i guess it depends on what you get out of a place and what experiences made you hate it.
can you speak a bit of German? i found i got better service when they realised i could. but you have to expect that some people [everywhere] are gonna be sour and unpleasant regardlessYou are correct. And "hate" is a strong word. I guess I would say It wasn't a pleasant visit for me. I particularly stayed a city centres and only once traveled on a bus tour outside the city. My experience with restaurants was not the greatest. Mostly due to the price, the food and them being overcrowded. Perhaps I went to the wrong places. Some streets were also an absolute mess. Particularly when walking through the red light district of hamburg (Western part?).
For those putting down Indonesia as ‘least favourite’, did you visit anywhere other than Bali? Bali is just one island among many, plus it’s the most tourist-trodden island at that. It would be like disliking Australia based on staying only within Sydney central.
It’s tough when the question is about countries bc most people can only see 1-3 cities at a time really given our length of holiday available. And often whatever your impression was then dictates whether you’d go back to a different city.
I would even go further and say Bali is NOT Indonesia. Java is where it's at. Incredible Island.
💯
Yogyakarta was so much fun and nothing like Bali. There were barely any westerners, it had the chaotic Indo energy, Borobodur was fascinating and the locals didn’t bring scammy energy at all. I did have local friends helping me but I largely went out on my own and had a really good time. And that’s just one city. So many others await - Manado, Banda Aceh, not to even mention the thousands of islands and beaches, jungles… I seriously would love to disappear there for six months and just explore, swim, learn the language.
lol what's wrong with Sydney central?
I'm more curious what they did in bali and where they stayed that they hate it so much? If all they did was stay at cheap hostel in Kuta then eating at dodgy eatery next to it, then duh. I suppose haters gonna hate though.
lol what's wrong with Sydney central?
Sorry I didn't mean to imply Sydney central is a horrible place, merely that it's not reflective of all that Australia has to offer for a tourist.
No need to apologise 🙂 wasn’t offended. I enjoy good bashing about Sydney.
I’d revisit most places but my Favourite has been Japan. I also had a great time in Cambodia but I probably wouldn’t go back. Also NZ was so beautiful especially South Island.
In Europe Romania, Italy and Czech Republic were my favs. Places I didn’t enjoy as much but I want to revisit bc I think I was just too broke at the time are Germany, Spain, UK (I’ve only seen London but I’d like to see more and try London again), France (Paris).
Where I didn’t enjoy too much and unlikely to return are: Malaysia, Indonesia and China.
France is gorgeous everywhere you go. Diverse landscape
Vietnam because : food!
Turkey . Beautiful and interesting . Diverse landscapeMorocco is beautiful but unfortunately we’ve found the men there very sleazy.
turkey would be nice no doubt…considering it's half Greece and half Armenia and both those countries look amazing with REAL history.
Turkey is half greece half armenia ? Where did you get that from
I think he means because historically speaking half of Greece and half of Armenia are in present day Turkey. Like East Thrace, Constantinople, Ionia, Smyrna, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pontus and etc are nowadays part of Turkey but these were Greek lands and even where the capital of the Greek world was in. Most of the monuments and historical sites you see tourist areas of Turkey are actually Greek. Also it's actually rude you all downvoted that person on the 19th of May which is the day of remembrance of the the Pontic Greeks who were genocided by the Turks.
With Turkey also having these days control of the old Armenian cities and all the Armenian highlands which were historically populated by Armenians.
I'm male so my experience would be very different to say females or female friends traveling in a group.
When my daughter grows up, I'd advise her to never travel without a male to any Arabic/African/South Asian country.
Defos avoid India, especially the North. Sleezy desperados everywhere. Crime rate against women is atrocious there including those terrible rape stories.
Japan/Java (bali is NOT indonesia)
India.
This is such an interesting post !
I've seen Taiwan as a few peoples Favourites - I have never thought about it as a holiday destination, can people give me some insight on what they love about Taiwan ?
For me definitely Japan as my favourite, only just touched the surface of this beautiful country and cant wait to do more of it !
Hard decision for place as my least favourite - I am going to say France - we didn't find it lived up to anything remotely beautiful as we thought it would be, and the French people are rude.
The tourism industry is well developed in Taiwan so it's easy to use public transport to get to all the places of interest. Similarly between cities, the high speed rail is easy and efficient. It's a small enough that travel between regions dosen't take that long but large enough it offers a great diversity of indoor and outdoor experiences and locations. Lots of unique foods to try with most restaurants opening till 10pm. Taipei is literally next to a volcanic area so you can have a hot springs area there as well.
Its caught my attention now - never thought about it as a destination to be honest !
Taiwanese food is great, people are friendly. Very easy to get around with public transport.
Firstly gotta say… Parisians are rude as heck but I visited the small towns and they're all so friendly.
Taiwan is a bit underrated tbh and I don't find it easy to recommend. I personally love it, but a lot of places, while interesting, aren't exactly "world famous" (because you know why), but generally:
- friendly people
- easy to use transport, taxi is cheap too
- beautiful nature, esp if you love hiking
- nice food (though subjective)
- very safe and very cleanI know people who hate it and people who love it. If you love Japan you might love Taiwan, some people describe it as little Japan anyway. I do recommend you to go in winter though.
Taiwan is overrated, food is very ordinary, felt like a poor version of japan with the copious amounts of japanese chains around.
Dirty, homelessness, night markets are cheap by australia standards by substandard.It's a place people go once and never return.
Favourite: North Korea
Least Favourite: South KoreaIs that you Kim?
Si
Best: Italy (though packed), Scandinavia, Japan.
Worst: Mainland China and UK. Both drab dowdy countries whose citizens don't seem to give a toss.Literal lack of vitamin d (sunshine) = depression
Mainland China is such a polarising place, you can have an amazing or a crappy experience every 10 steps you take, and the people you meet are either awful or exceedingly polite
Loved Japan - Organised chaos (big crowds of people but incredibly efficient and friendly, fresh food, clean cities)
Hated China - Disorganised Chaos (crappy visa website, aggressive public servants, queue cutting, smoking everywhere inc. public toilets and trains, dodgy food standards)Loved - Prague (the town, ambience, architecture)
Hated - Istanbul (stupidly expensive, packed, chaotic, 80-90% kebab shops, fake designer shops, unfriendly people)How long ago did you visit Prague? I went recently and it was the least enjoyable place we stayed at
Visited both just last August, what made your experiences negative?
I visited for 3 nights, the place we stayed in was a surprisingly upgraded old but beautifully renovated penthouse which could easily sleep 10pax (we were only 4), and it was cheap. One of our friend had a list to do and we’ve managed to check them off pretty much all except the library.
Funnily enough I found a YouTube channel called the Honest Guide after the trip who has listed all the scams running in Prague and I think we had been pretty lucky to have missed them all even though we were around all of them.
Similar here, two of us stayed in a massive apartment that had 7 beds, which was somehow cheaper per night than a mid-range hotel room.
Everything was just super expensive, overcrowded and overhyped. Can't throw a rock in the lovely historic areas without hitting a fake weed shop, a rip-off currency changer or a souvenir store.
The castle was significantly worse than Dresden or Potsdam, felt like a lot of money to see very little of substance. Night-life felt like Bali but full of drunk English teenagers instead of Australians, at triple the price.
Trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, seemed like it would have been a nice place 10 years ago. Just hollowed out for tourists, then neglected.
We're pretty good at avoiding scams too, but like you said you were just constantly around them. Everywhere you go, someone is trying to get something from you, even at nicer cafes they still short-change or add random fees to rip you off. Felt similar to Rome in that regard.
Had a much better time in Budapest, which felt like what I imagine Prague used to be
@Jolakot: Ah interesting, funnily enough we went to Budapest right after Prague which I loved too. The food in Budapest were more suited for our tastebuds, however in terms of cleanliness, order, etc it was quite the opposite. Felt Budapest was “poorer” compared to Prague. Don’t get me wrong though, loved both places, but I don’t know, I just had really good vibes in Prague so much so that I checked out how much would it cost to buy/rent a place in the centre (unaffordable 😆).
I could not comment on the typical night/party life, as we are Latin dancers so we went to organised socials 🙂
Love Japan, but then I discovered Thailand. Thai weather gets it over the line for me.
Not a huge fan of NZ.Bali, never again. People only go because its cheap and close.
Yeah i don't understand how someone can keep going back. Bottom of barrel stuff. IMO
What parts have you been to? This is huge in terms of how you will experience a holiday there.
Certainly Kuta and Legian fit your description and they are the bogan enclaves, but there is so much more than that to Bali. Have been many times including twice in the last 6 months and always loved it.
Had a great time in Bali going to all the waterfalls and nature spots, but the best experience was going to Nusa penida. Can definitely see your point though, so many bogans.
Loved, japan, Iran, Georgia, all safe. Friendly, good food.
Hate, none tbh, just a different experience, Egypt, - cario sucks, others nice. Turkey, Istanbul sucks, other parts nice, Montenegro, can't even think of the capitals name, it sucked, other parts nice.
Iran does seem really interesting. i'm just uneasy about the current political situation..
Podgorica. Went there to tick it off and it was just boring. Have been to Budva twice though and it was interesting and nice scenery. The drive around the bay of Kotor is also quite serene.
The Montenegrin coast is lovely (Budva, Kotor), but the rest of the country is not much to write home about.
lol don't get how anyone can hate an entire country! If you're curious and walk around with a smile on your face (ok, maybe not so much random smiling in Russia as it's not part of their culture) and have a bit of fun with people and places you're guaranteed to have a good time and have good experiences.
Loved New Zealand and Italy.
Loved Chile
I don't have a hate, I least liked Cambodia mostly due to my poor planning but got an authentic experience at least.
+1 Chile.
Had a lovely long holiday there long ago. Apart from the amazing geographic diversity, I found the people themselves a highlight. They are less 'exuberant' or 'in your face' than Brazilians or Colombians, and less pretentious than Argentinians. Actually, in many ways, I found them quite like Australians.
And any country that has such a variety as Atacama Desert, snow-capped volcanoes, Patagonia glaciers, and then Easter Island…
I'd be interested to see what changes have occurred in the twenty first century.
Spain and Portugal.
Have never hated any country I have visited, they all have some new cultures to experience, places to visit and people to engage with!
France for love
Hate…I mean nowhere really so let's go EnglandCroatia and Slovenia.
Loved Thailand and Vietnam
Hated Egypt and Spain
A true ozbargainer :)
What did you hate about Egypt? I am going this year
Best: Germany, Georgia, Croatia, Sri Lanka.
Worst: Indonesia (Jakarta. Bali isnt bad), France (Paris/Marseille).
Loved Paris and other parts of France except for Marseille.
Loved Nice/Normandy. Paris and moreso Marseille were dissappointing.
I loved Marseille! The beautiful port area with the live fish sellers. That church on the hillside with stunning views. The railway station. The food.
Loved visiting
- Finland, Austria, Canada, RussiaDidn't love
- Switzerland, China - probably just the cities I went to though!Why would anyone ever want to visit India or Pakistan? Better off visiting your local rubbish dump, at least you get back home quicker for a proper shower and meal.
For me, fave = Croatia, hated = Albania
Close seconds, fave = Japan, hated = Czech Republic
im no china fanboy but I have to say China has been a great eyeopener. Food is great, people keep to themselves and relatively safe. Singapore is another great experience (with a tad on the expensive side). Personally, I enjoyed my trip to the US and the oldie but goodie Japan.
The negative ones? France, Netherlands, England
Portugal ftw
I spent 9 hours in the Moscow Airport. Whilst it probably doesn't count, I have never seen a bunch of more depressed humans getting about in my life.
I've seen enough Russian tourist overseas that makes me not want to visit their country.
That, and their war on Ukraine.
I always think of this clip from An Idiot Abroad when I think of Russian tourism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVr0nyFADA
I spent a few days in Saint Petersburg long before the current fascist land-grab began, but when the current psycho was still in charge. Relatively chill times. While the city was itself quite pretty, it just felt unwelcoming. It's not the Russian peoples' job to speak English but it was decently hard to sort things out as no-one spoke English except our hosts. We could get by with Google translate but you do feel pretty isolated. I'd guess it's better now. Some of the locals were very sweet and tried hard to help. The visa process was invasive and expensive and having armed officials take your passport on the train over felt pretty ominous. Also the place is just backward - dancing bears in the main square, people smoking everywhere. And this is their tier 1 city.
I take it back! Dancing bears, sign me up.
The armed border guards is nothing too bizarre. I first experienced that going from France into Spain on a bus.
loved visiting: germany; amazing food, beautiful scenery, everything is clean, and the people are humble. I'm also impressed by the fact that their not afraid to talk about their history and how they have improved things since then.
Hated: the US….been there and hated it. Wouldn't want to go there for a holiday, only reason i can find myself going to US nowadays is for work. The people are thick (both mentally and physically), the food quality is terrible (something i really look for on a holiday), the scenery is…fine, but any of the good well known spots are just heavily commercialised tourist traps, the culture is crap.Fave - Japan, Poland, Myanmar, (few years ago now obviously)
Least fave - mainland China, Malaysia (KL), Fiji (overpriced)
Disappointing - Jordan, PhilippinesLoved and would go back - Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Vietnam, Japan, Bosnia
Don't hate but probably wouldn't go back to - Bali, Malaysia, HK, Korea, UK, Croatia
People writing off Indonesia because of Bali is so funny.
Favourite - Japan
Hated - FranceLike some others have posted, I will share a few opinions:
Favourites:
1 - Iceland - Absolutely beautiful country with sprawling icy mountains and volcanoes, still very natural scenery pretty much everywhere you go - you could be in the CBD, look across the river and there's an absolutely untouched pristine mountain across the main river in the Capital city. Old fascinatic viking culture, hot springs-galore, geysers, Aurora Borealis, geothermal energy and fresh water on tap. Downsides - expensive, expensive, expensive2 - Netherlands - Beautiful country with sprawling hills with fresh air, just about everyone speaks perfect English, but Dutch is still easy to understand if you just listen a little closely. Only the capital city, Amsterdam, is touristy, the other cities and towns are more laid-back. Very easy to get around and explore with the train and tram systems and bicycles.
3 - Japan - The high-tech country with very interesting history and culture. Very easy to get around, people not from Tokyo are always very friendly and approachable, willing to help. Downsides - the language barrier if you venture out of the major cities
Least Favourites:
1 - Belgium - take the worst parts of Paris/France and turn it into a smaller country and you've got Belgium. Felt dirty and scummy here.The countries I have visited to give this list:
The whole of the UK & Ireland, Iceland, France, Belgium, Netherlands
Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia (Bali), Singapore, Japan
Canada (mostly Nova Scotia)
New Zealand (only North Island)I’ve heard Bruxelles is a bit grimy but Bruges lived up to the hype of being a living fairytale town.
Correct
Countries recognised by the UN: Palestine! Just keep low and bribe the food and water distributors!
Not recognised 2: The Holy See or Vatican because no gender quotas are met there! Taiwan as greed means to please Communist China.Bucket list: South Sudan! The only country with a higher debt than Japan. until Albo is catching up.
How come there are no haters for Russia?
I went to Russia for the WC back in 2018 and really enjoyed my time there. The people were so friendly.
Best - Vietnam. Cheap, incredible food, incredibly healthy, great people. All round better than Bali without the Russians and bogans.
Worst - India, did enjoy parts immensely, like an incredible cultural experience. Just other parts were scammy and you couldn't really trust anyone.Nha Trang wants a word… so many obnoxious Russians! Apparently due to there being a former naval base at Cam Ranh.
Also lots of gross non-a Russians too.
But still an awesome spot
Love Japan, Canada, Norway, Scotland, Denmark, Ne2 Zealand., Hated France (paris) and Indonesia(bali). Used to enjoy the US but levels of poverty, crime and Trump as the icing on the cake means it is really edging towards hated as well.
Funny how India gets a low rating:
One needs to have an open mind and knowledge of their history helps. Food tolerance helps too.
Ups: Amazing architecture, history, archeological sites. Curious people willing to engage in smart conversations.
Downs:
Expensive visa, dirty streets, unreliable power, dodgy transport numerous body search stations.
Dumb people may get scammed and need a learning curve. Keto freaks better plan ahead. Some racist pricing like foreigners pay 20x the museum entry price. Most of this can be avoided with some hacks like women to wear a veil until you are past the payment section. The South is pretty safe.Thanks for the veil tip
Yeah, thanks for the tips. Definitely will avoid it now.
Hated Cairo and Rome. Went to both for a history trip. Hated both because of all the touts.
Love pretty much everywhere else I've been. Too many to name.
Favourite: Japan, currently visiting for the 4th time :D, second favourite: Malaysia!
Least favourite: The Philippines… Got the worst food poisoning of my life, nearly got kidnapped, got scammed by an airport taxi after I got dropped off the wrong terminal on my way back to Australia T_T (PSA: don't travel to the Philippines alone like I did)
Tell us the kidnapping story!
Dunno man sounds like an adventure. Dunno what he's complaining about.
Maybe the problem was that I am not a guy and maybe it's just unsafe if you're a female travelling alone. I was young and naive and didn't look into the safety of the Phillipines and I was visiting some coworkers who lived there. Basically I was walking around the park and these two locals made conversation with me and they really wanted to take me around. After turning them down a couple of times I decided to go with them as they seemed really enthusiastic (probably first red flag here). We got on a tuktuk and end met two older ladies at a train station… Random af. Then we got to Chinatown and I looked around. Then we went to some remote area to have dinner. As we were waiting for food they ordered beer and they told me to have some. I declined as I don't like beer. But they REALLY wanted me to drink some. They even said it was someone's birthday. Finally I registered that I was unsafe. I was messaging my coworker telling him what I was up to and he said not to go with them but it was too late lol. Thank god I could share my location with him and he said he would pick me up. It was mother's day that day and I told them I was going to call my mum and i stepped outside while I was on the phone with a friend trying to calm myself down. Eventually two of them came outside and stood near me. Then moments later my coworker came on his motorbike and they disappeared! He told me to get on and we got the f out of there. My coworker told me how unsafe it was and told me stories about people getting drugged and done whatever to for as little as $50. Everyone involved would split the profit. He said he even brought a knife with him incase he needed to use it.
So yeah obviously this is probably rare, it just happened to be my experience and hence I won't be going back.
(Sorry for any typos, I'm currently on the train)
Yikes 😦 glad you were safe in the end!
wow - glad you got out of that situation safe.
I travelled Philippines alone for a month and it was the best trip of my life. Filipinos are the most down to earth and fun people I have met.
Only time I hated it, was when I was around white tourists from Europe. Yuck!. That ekky feeling. All they wanted to do was getting drunk and talk shit.
Really glad you had an amazing time!
Favourite: Taiwan
Hated: None - everywhere I go, there's luxury lifestyle for me.
Fav: Heard and McDonald islands
Favs: France, Italy, Japan, Peru, Switzerland.
Least favs: Qatar, Belgium.Tip: don't go to countries where the people there are trying to leave 🤣
Albo's new unrealised capital gains tax is going to make many many upper middle class people leave for good.
Imagine you had an investment house for 20 year and paid land tax but since you never sold it no capital gains tax. New is going to be a tax on income NOT earned.
Say REA tells albo your house you bought 20 years ago for 500k is now worth 4 millions. So you get taxed on the 3.5 million unrealised pretend to be tax. Then the market crashes and you sell it for 2 millions but hey you were taxed on the old high price. Australia will be the new Venezuela!
@gezza90: How come you have to go Tehran first?