Traveling is one of the great pleasures of life, and one that’s typically only enjoyed by the privileged few (comparatively). If you’ve been saving your money and are looking to spend it on the trip of a lifetime, where are you going?
If you’re these 14 people, you’re definitely not going back to one of these countries – and they’re here to give you fair warning as to why.
14. The whole place.
Egypt. I visited Sharm El Sheikh back in 2015. The hotel area was amazing (I vaguely remember it being called “The Barron”) and you felt like a king there. But that was it.
As soon as you leave the hotel area, you feel like you’re in a war zone. Trash everywhere, barely laid roads. Nothing to go look at, outside of the hotel (apart from stuff they sold to you as a day trip – Snorkelling, Camel riding, going out in the dessert with a quad bike).
It did not feel “right” to be there. Every time I went to buy water in a shop, the price would go up each day. They would tell you a price, many times 2 or 3 times the price you payed the day before and you’d need to haggle them down. I ended up saying that I’d pay a certain amount and not more. When they said “no”, I’d leave the shop and they’d come chasing after me, saying “ok, ok, we can do £X.XX”. It was stressful to be there.
If I wanted to enjoy myself, I’d stick to my hotel room, the pool or the beach and ignore the people trying to sell me stuff on the beach. I was the only one in the group of 5 people who didn’t enjoy it. But I don’t see the joy in having to haggle my way through the day and having seen everything after the 2nd day.
13. Danger makes it unwise.
Afghanistan.
I would love to go back and be a tourist, but I don’t think I will ever have the opportunity nor would it be responsible now that I have a family to vacation there. The country is absolutely beautiful, and the weather was nice.
The people are one of the kindest, most respectful cultures I have ever had the pleasure of working with, full of beautiful traditions and fantastic food.
Sadly, they have their issues and it wouldn’t be wise to risk going there as a tourist. A real shame too, because I’d have loved to visit the resorts in Bamyan and go skiing and snowboarding there.
12. Quite the tale.
The Gambia in West Africa.
I’ve travelled to over 40 countries in my life including Egypt, Morocco, India and Cameroon and the Gambia is by far the worst of the bunch!
Went there in 2009 with my girlfriend (we were 20 at the time), it is by far the most corrupt country in the world.
Let me start by saying it’s a beautiful country and the people there are the friendliest people you could wish to meet, but the way they are treated by the government is disgusting.
We met a local guy there called Jimmy Brave who lived in a hut on the beach with his young family, amazing guy, cooked us dinner every night and never wanted anything but friendship in return (we have him a fair bit of money on our last day, more than we usually would because he genuinely didnt want it)
Anyway one night we decided we wanted to check out the nightlife in the tourist area where it was safe, so my friend Jimmy agreed to meet us by the hotel entrance at 7PM, then we would take him for dinner and hit a few bars.
We got to the front of the hotel just before 7pm and Jimmy wasnt there, we waited around an hour, still no Jimmy.
At this point we assumed he had forgot so we went back out of the rear exit onto the beach and to his hut, his wife said he had gone to meet us over an hour ago.
We searched for about 4 hours and still couldn’t find him so his wife suggested we call the local tourist police, we called and they confirmed he had been arrested for loitering in front of the hotel.
We agreed to meet the head of police and arrived at the police station, this is where it got shady.
We went in and sat at a desk in a empty dark room, a bug African guy in army clothing came in and sat in front of us, the guy had 2 cigs in his mouth smoking both at the same time.
He slammed his fist on the table and started shouting at us, demanding £500 (probably a years wages over there!) to release Jimmy.
Obviously we refused, after about an hour of arguing and various threats against us (we were a young white couple at the time and they assumed we were wealthy) we managed to agree on £70 and a 200-pack of cigs.
We paid and were told to wait outside, we were out there for over 2 hours and they brought the wrong guy out (we only knew our friend as Jimmy Brave not his real name so this proved challenging), anyway I was invited in to show the police who Jimmy was and had to pick him out of a huge cell filled with atleast 300 people, some who were very close to death.
Anyway Jimmy spotted me straight away and we had him released, when we got far enough away from the police station Jimmy broke down in tears, ive never seen a grown man cry like this in my life, he lifted up his top and he had several large open wounds where they had been whipping him in the cell and the police truck, we immediately took him to hospital where he remained for 2 days at a cost of £240ish (the hospital doctors were great).
So bare in mind he was beaten/whipped around 50 times (Hard!), just for waiting outside our hotel to take us for drinks.
And he was only released because we paid, if we had never turned up he said he would have died in there, they dont release the ‘criminals’ until somebody pays the corrupt police chief.
There was people literally dying in front of my eyes in the cell, I’ve always swore if I become rich I will be going back there just to release as many of these people as I possibly can (except any dangerous people who actually deserve to be there obviously)
This wasnt the only corruption from the police we seen while there it’s just the main point, we seen police walking down the street slapping women and kids for absolutely no reason, one cop told me he would murder anyone I point out right now for £50 (he had an AK47).
I saw people dragged in the back of trucks never to be seen again just for asking people for a bottle of water.
I feel really sorry for the majority of the population in Senegambia as they are amazing happy people who have to live in constant fear of the police/government.
11. Leaves a bad taste.
Cambodia.
But only because I was mugged in Phnom Penh.
Aside from that, I just found Cambodia sad and unsettling. A brutal recent history and a country that kind of has very little so virtually all you encounter is set up to appease tourists.
Drunken Europeans and Americans walking around partying with a local girl under their arm, everywhere I went was like fighting off women trying to give you a happy ending massage, every cabbie and tuktuk driver trying to sell you drugs and women.
I was only there a week and didn’t go too far out of Siam Reap and Phnom Penh, so certainly there’s more to the country outside those cities but the whole experience just bummed me out.
10. Not a great start to the trip.
Jamaica…got mugged within the first 5 minutes I kid you not!
I don’t think people realize how impoverished a lot of Jamaica is. I’ll never go back there either. I had a driver try to extort money from me on my honeymoon. The lady that set up the transportation at our resort was in on it. The driver accosted my wife demanding money for a previous ride he had given us but abandoned us so we had to find our own way back to the resort.
I told my wife to go into the airport and he and I exchanged words. He wanted the money for the return trip plus extra because he drove to pick us up for no reason. Mind you we waited over an hour for him. Once he realized I wasn’t going to back down and I wasn’t afraid of him calling the cops he backed down and left.
9. They give nothing back.
Tunísia, for the same reason.
Scammers everywhere, a guy threatening to hit me because I looked at him in an unfriendly manner after he pretended to fondle my wife breasts, awful service, even at a 5 star hotel ( even the manager complained to us of not being able to find proper employees).
Everything on that country seems made to rip you off, not giving anything in exchange.
8. Not much is going right.
Haiti. Went and did medical relief in a field hospital after the earthquake. Recent stuff aside, that country is, and has been FU**ED.
- poor infrastructure.
- poor education
- no significant industries.
- no natural resource advantage.
- corrupt government, polarized political climate.
- Island nation, so all imports are more expensive.
- poor medical system.
Anything a country would need to get a leg up is just nonexistent.
I’m a pretty positive person, and met the loveliest people there, but I’ve never been more depressed or pessimistic about a places’ future.
7. Horribly sad.
Probably and unfortunately my parents birth country Afghanistan.
I’ve been there 3 times for a long duration and the country keeps deteriorating. The ethnic Hazara minority already were not safe purely due to their race and religion (the Hazaras mainly are Shia while the ones who are killing them, the Taliban claiming to be Sunni) but now the Taliban is also attacking the ethnic group my family is a part of( Tajiks) purely due to our race and disregard for pashtunwali.
It’s depressing but I probably won’t return to Afghanistan in my life
6. Not a pick-me-up.
Chad. Definitely the most depressing country I have ever been to.
I actually lived in N’Djamena for a couple years. That was late 2007 to 2009, so I got to live through the 2008 battle of N’Djamena and subsequent evacuation…
But yeah, even besides that, not a place I’d recommend.
North Cameroon, however, was absolutely wonderful. The Waza national park, the Kapsiki mountains near Roumsiki, and the Lagdo lake were all beautiful places.
A shame that Boko Haram is now active in the area, making it far too unsafe for foreign tourists to visit.
5. Strong words.
Venezuela.
If I ever get out of this country, I’m never coming back.
I visited my extended family there (near Caracas) as a young child and had an amazing time, but things there have REALLY gone south since then. Pretty much all my family members that were there have left for obvious reasons.
4. The world is heartbreaking.
Syria, I went before the civil war and it was honestly one of the loveliest places I’ve ever been, with super nice friendly people.
Add to that the food is amazing. It would break my heart to see some of the places now.
Legit one of the most beautiful and historically interesting places I’ve ever been!
Castles and the Knights of the round table in Syria? I learned so much…breaks my heart that all of these historically significant places are gone and a population is living in poverty.
3. He probably was.
Moldova, never again.
Was attacked and robbed by smelly Gopniks on the the bus and i really think the Driver was in on it.
2. You’ve got to watch your back.
South Africa, beautiful place but the crime is horrible.
Someone tried to kidnap me when I was 9.
1. Tough to stomach.
Haiti..
I went there as one of the stops on a cruise ship, including Jamaica, Mexico and another stop which I forgot. Haiti’s stop was an all you can eat excursion on the beach. Sounded nice until we got there and the towns people were separated from us by a fence begging for food.
As an innocent 16 year old at the time, I went to the fence with food to give them and I was presented with a gun pointed at me by the national guardsmen. Idk if it was army, police etc but I just calling it national guardsmen lol but he the gun pointed and screamed at me like a sergeant to get away from the fence.
I put all the food down on the table and my family and I went back on the cruise ship. Who can eat in front of people begging you for food?!
Make those decisions carefully, friends – once you get on that plane, you’re stuck with your choice.
Have you ever regretted visiting a country? If so, tell us which and why in the comments!
