When people come back from vacation, they always talk about how great it was. With the abundance of beautiful vacation pictures on social media, it makes it even rarer to hear people share their not so great experiences travelling.
The following AskRedditors responded to the question, “Travelers of Reddit, where do you NEVER want to go again?”
Interested in reading more responses? You can find the original thread at the end of the article.
On a cruise. It’s kind of dark, apologies for that. My significant other and I got in some sort of a fight one night, something so stupid I don’t even remember. So I went to the casino. And that’s all I remember, leaving for the casino. Next thing I knew I was waking up in a bed in a room I’d never been in before and these 2 dudes were standing there laughing at me.
I ran out of the room and found mine. I tried contacting the medical team to get a kit done, they said not to waste their time. I tried notifying the cruise of what happened, they also said not to waste their time. So I was terrified and trapped on this cruise with my possible rapists and the cruise didn’t give at all.
Never again.
DaughterEarth
On a bus tour. It was the most frustrating travel experience of my life. Want to see something? Too bad, get back on the bus. Done seeing something? Too bad, wait on the bus.
arcsine
Dubai. Long story short, I ended up unexpectedly spending 8 days there. Never been to a more vacuous, culture-deficient place. All it has is shopping and vast inequality and oppression of the poor. Oh, and it’s hotter and sweatier than Satan’s ballsack.
mrkoffers
Greyhound bus station in Atlanta. I have never seen such an array of terrifying things happen in one small space. That place is a nightmare.
lllbt
Saudi Arabia. My parents worked there when I was younger and as a minor, I came along. We lived in a gated type of community with very high walls to shield the Arabs from our liberal lifestyles.
Check points everywhere to ensure that all women were accompanied by a male relative. Everything closed down several times a day for prayers. Constantly hearing that high pitched yelling on speakers everywhere made me sick. We lived nearby some kind of arena for public executions and other punishments. Seemed to be the highlight of their week.
Nothing but sand, ultra rude men, and extremely hot.
Although, this was in the 80s.
Tigers-wood
You know why they charge you $20 to leave the Manilla airport?
Because they don’t know you’d pay $50.
wilyquixote
Kuta Beach, Bali. Had such high expectations but there was just trash everywhere.
I didn’t have high expectations for Kuta specifically but Bali in general. I was also around 15 at the time so was not involved with the researching at all as my parents planned and paid for it. I had only heard about Bali from people/TV shows/magazines/social media and from there it seemed like paradise so there ya have it.
squirtinlemons
Apparently, Gary Indiana is worth a thread all to itself regarding armpits to live in. I drove through once and was instantly depressed. Will hopefully never return.
wubod
Freeport Bahamas. The beaches were very dirty and I just felt like I was in a shipyard. They also have a problem with feral dogs. They were everywhere. It broke my heart to see the skin and bone dogs. I guess so many of them starve to death they cannot keep up with the body pickups. I saw too many decaying dogs to keep count. Seriously would NEVER go back.
Although I did not enjoy going to Freeport it really made me realize how nice I have it here in the US. Another reason I didn’t care for my trip was due to the fact that I was out there vacationing, sipping on martinis, while the locals were struggling to put food on the table. I saw where they lived and it really broke my heart. I felt very guilty knowing that my tourist butt wasn’t assisting them in any real way. I’m not familiar with Bahamian tax laws and government issued programs but I can’t imagine that the tourist money goes back to the people if that makes sense. I also really started upping my volunteer game, especially with the Humane Society, after my trip.
alphanips
The Arctic Circle in northern Alaska. I live in the interior so I take trips all around the state. There is literally nothing up there and no reason to go up there other than to say you’ve crossed the arctic circle. Bad roads and tons of mosquitoes, not much scenery, no good places to camp. I’d rather spend hours driving to go somewhere with a little more to it.
FancyBeeShoe
Zimbabwe. I went there to see Victoria Falls and stayed at the Victoria Falls hotel to be within walking distance. Everywhere, people were just standing around with just two or three carved trinkets they were trying to sell. There were absolutely no buyers. Looked like something out of a Twilight Zone show. The first thing they asked when you got close to them is if you’d sell them your shoes. No kidding, every single one.
photockie
Well, I’ve currently been stuck in the Newark Airport for 7 hours and I’d be perfectly happy if I never had to come here again.
Just landed. Total wait time to take off was 11 hours. They forced me to check my bag and then texted me that they lost it, and then it showed up at the terminal after all. Forget New Jersey. Forget United. Thank you all for the support.
Did I mention they sent me to Dulles instead of Reagan so now I have to somehow get to the other side of Washington to get my car?
eBelowTheStaff
I’m from Luton in the UK. If anyone says it’s disappointing, they’re lying. People come here expecting a dump, and that’s exactly what they get.
moix2006
This one toilet in Cuzco, Peru, that I totally defiled during a particularly nasty bout of food poisoning. Every time I started to clean up, the cramps returned and I had to my rush back to the seat.
It was like a hellish fusion of Sisyphus and the Augean stables, with added anal burning and shame.
The horror.
owlmachine
Syria. I hitch-hiked from Alexandria to Istanbul, through Jordan and Syria, before the Arab Spring. Syria was a beautiful and historically fascinating country, naturally fertile and prosperous, with delicious food and friendly people. But it was backward, closed-minded, poor and seedy because of a corrupt, paranoid authoritarian government. Now it’s a war zone and a humanitarian disaster, which is far, far, worse.
CiderDrinker
The airport of Moscow. Boy, that place was BAD. The bathroom smelled like smoke everywhere, staff was unfriendly and the gates changed all the time. Maybe it was just a bad day, but jeez that place was unorganized.
LittleMarch
Unless Im there to chase tornadoes, I’d never have another reason to ever go to Kansas again. Its just a paved corn field and I had to drive the entire width of it. At least Iowa had wind turbines to look at.
Pasalacqua87
Indiana.
Traveled for a big sporting event in college and my team was robbed of a Championship by the refs. My friends and I went back to the hotel and stopped at a gas station en route to get some beer to drown our sorrows. It is 12:10 am Sunday morning. They wouldn’t sell it to us as Indiana prohibits selling alcohol on Sunday.
I went to bed angry and sober. I should have been angry and drunk.
bailey1149
China. Believe it or not, they do not diaper their babies. I went through a market and set my hand down on something and I set it right into diarrhea! People are constantly coughing up mucus and spitting it on the street. Every single thing you buy there is junk… no quality in anything whatsoever. They’ll sell chicken in the hot sun out of the back of a dirty truck bed… no standards on food handling or health and safety. Sorry if this is overly critical, but I’m a hard core germaphobe. It tested every fiber of my being.
SweetNSalty222
Lapa, Rio de Janeiro
Pick pocketers run that place. I saw one of my buddies get picked and confronted the pocketer in hopes of getting his stuff back. They proceeded to kick my butt. Just skip it.
GreatUncleChester
Japan during late July, early August. The heat and humidity are sweltering and the sun rises around 4:30 am. I’ve never been so exhausted and miserable on a trip.
every_other_monday
East Saint Louis. I was meeting a colleague for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in a not-terrible part of East St. Louis. Unfortunately, Apple Maps took me into a desolate neighborhood with gigantic potholes in the streets and empty lots interspersed with abandoned houses on either side. Thankfully, it was a 90F July afternoon and no one was out and about. I stopped in the middle of one street, looked around, saw no one, and entered the same address into Google Maps. This time it took me to the restaurant.
ReindeerFl0tilla