Dubai. A cultureless fake city in the desert, full of posers.
One of the strange things I saw with Dubai is that the civil-site design is just horrible at the edges of developments. You can tell that the emirate could spend money to make buildings, but the buildings don’t form a city.
So like Vegas, but with less booze and weed?
More like Miami with less booze and weed.
Paris
Big deal, they have a tower just like this in Vegas.
Now that they’re basically banning cars, it might be worth a visit again
They didn’t actually ban cars. Only reduced traffic to certain areas.
I’ve heard Finland is on the up and up with clean cities.
Apparently the popo there are quite heavy-handed when it comes to littering and such.
That sounds nice.
Pick up that can
I think Paris is a great city that I really enjoy visiting every time I go there, but you’re perfectly right that it’s incredibly overrated, anything with that reputation really must be, nothing that exists in reality could possibly come even close to such a myth.
Yeah Paris is great as a cool, old, European city with lots of history. If you like just hiking around cities it’s great. I can imagine if you go into it thinking it is like some French tourist resort, you will be disappointed.
Soooo dirty
I’d always heard people talk about how dirty Paris is, but it was so clean when I visited last year. Admittedly my point of comparison is San Francisco, but still.
Did you stray further than the tourist center? Like the area around gare du nord I hated the most. Spend a summer working there.
I did. Still nicer than San Francisco LOL
Wtf? How?? (and I’m not French)
Paris has been romanticized a lot in media, to the point where the Japanese embassy has to have staff on hand to handle the dispair of Japanese tourists visiting and getting disappointed.
I remember Paris being a pleasant large Western city, but it is still a large Western city with all that it entails.
I also don’t get the hype around Paris. It’s not super ugly but also nothing special.
I don’t live too far from it, could easily go there for a week-end or even day trip. Still only been there twice and have no plans to go there again. In many spots it’s very crowded and dirty and the attractions aren’t better than in any other major city.
If you’re Australian, Bali.
Thems fighting words, where else can I spend my centerlink on a bintang singlet?!
Paddy’s Market
I’m there right now. You need to differentiate!
Most of the area south of Denpasar is just a large instagram zoo.
Denpasar is traffic. Just that.
North of denpasar it gets very beautiful very quickly.
Balinese people are some of the friendliest I have met on average.
What I do find overrated almost throughout is Balinese food.
Agreed. Get the heck away from Denspar and don’t even step foot in Kuta Beach, it’s not worth it.
Bali was amazing.
Florida
Any reason why in particular?
There wasn’t anything to do but theme parks really which gets pretty boring pretty quickly.
Theme parks is really only an Orlando thing. A large chunk of tourist Florida is hotels by the beach.
Doesn’t sound great either. However, fair enough.
The gentle click of jackboots makes it hard to sleep
Two of my least favourite places I’ve visited have been Cancún and Phuket. Both were minor stops in larger journeys, and I had fairly low expectations, but hot damn these places truly sucked ass. The countries they reside in have some truly great stuff, but you won’t find them in these places.
Tbh, i stayed on Phuket island on the north west-ish side, not in Phuket city, and I thought it was really nice. Near Naiyang beach i believe. Not a lot of people, still nice beach and some food and drinks etc nearby. Heard terrible things off the city but i guess the island itself can have its moments.
I’m sure it’s possible to find some good places on the island, but in my opinion, why risk it? Thailand has so much other stuff to offer at way less of a risk.
Yeah good point. The only reason we flew to Phuket was because we went diving from Khao Lak, and we just decided to sit out the jetlag for a bit close to the airport. But yeah, lucky (maybe?) that we found a nice spot. Would visit it again if I ever flew to Phuket again.
Phuket, I’m leaving.
Pronounced “poo-ket”, messing the pun up somewhat
If you’re from the Midwest, anywhere in the Midwest. It’s all exactly the same.
Source: Went on crazy long road trips as a young adult looking for something new; ended up moving somewhere completely outside the region later.
I’m from Canada, only been to Minneapolis once but absolutely loved the city. Would certainly consider moving there, but it being smack dab in the middle of buttfuck nowhere is so sad.
Good food man. One of the best designed cities in the U.S. imo.
Sparse, but underrated.
People hog the left lane and don’t respect flashing to pass. Fuck is up with that? Some of the most inconsiderate, yet slow drivers in America.
Flashing your lights or highbeams to pass is seen as quite agressive in the US. It isn’t taught in drivers ed, and the general interpretation I hear most people have of it isn’t “Hey, could you let me pass?” but instead “Hey! Fuckface! Stop driving so goddamn slow and get out of the damn way you shithead!”
Doesn’t help that in my experience, the only people flashing to pass are aggressively tailgating me when I’m already 10 mph or more over the speed limit.
Better to just pass on the right if there’s room. And if there isn’t room, fuck off telling someone to get out of your way. Not like they can get over anyway.
I’ve never heard of flashing to pass, the only thing I’ve seen it used for is to let a car in the right lane trying to get into the left lane know it’s safe to do so (as a driver in the left lane). I’ve only ever seen it used by truckers.
As far as Minneapolis goes, I’m quite the opposite. Having lived on the west coast I dread going to Minneapolis — everyone seems to be in a bad mood whenever I go there.
I hate to say it, but when traveling in Tucson the Canadian drivers make me absolutely crazy. It’ll be 100°F out and they’re driving as if there’s ice all over the roads.
I’ve never heard of flashing to pass?! In Australia that’s straight up road rage antics. You might want to check whether your local customs apply to the places you travel. That kind of misunderstanding could get you hurt.
The best thing about being in the Midwest is you have to fly to anywhere cool. The worst thing about being in the Midwest if you have to fly anywhere cool.
Venice. Smelly, super crowded and everywhere is a tourist trap trying to extract $$$.
Disagreed. I loved Venice. Was crowded but was very pretty and interesting, and had great food. You don’t need to go to the expensive tourist places for good food. As always, see where locals eat.
Yeah. The best idea of eating in Italy is to eat in areas without good views. A hole in the wall place that looks a run down diner served amazing squid ink pasta. Also, a lot of bars will sell snacks that are real food; three of those is enough for dinner.
Agreed
Depends on when you visit. I went during September and it was beautiful and not at all crowded. Didn’t smell, either.
Cruises. It’s literally people who are so terrified of international travel, they bring their home culture with them on a boat. Even if the mechanics of cruises are generally nice, they are filled with, and cater to this demographic. Personally when I am traveling, too many other Americans or Germans kind of ruins the vibe, so a whole boat of them is like purgatory.
International travel for people who hate international travel
Agreed. It’s for people who don’t like to sink deep into a culture. They want the short touch so they can pull back and leave asap.
I could never go on a cruise, the time constraints would drive me crazy.
Cruise ships. Not really a destination but I hate them so much.
Please don’t go to Salem MA in October. It is a gorgeous small city and my favorite place to be, but during October it becomes so insanely overcrowded that it poses a huge problem for the locals.
Go during summer instead, it’s a little cooler than most of the US
Isn’t the actual Salem Village called Danvers now anyway?
Egypt
Egypt is great for diving. The nature on the Sinai peninsula is at least interesting, if not gorgeous in places. Political instability and the general culture do mean that you can have a bad time there, especially as a woman.
Went 2 weeks there:
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First week was only about diving and was probably the most beautiful thing I will ever see in my life.
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Second week was about visiting the monuments and while they are astonishing cultural and historical bangers (except the pyramids which are impressive from the outside but just some dull stones in the inside) people living there (even those running restaurants or hotels) are invasive as fuck and not worthile your time…
However we also rentend an airbnb for 2 days and even if the room was clean it looked a bit gloomy but the guy was very nice and friendly we even ate a pizza with him and watched a local TV movie (some sharknado rip from their country XD). It was a way better experience than In a stared hotel with all commodities…
In general, going the tourist way is mostly a bad experience in every country.
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Egypt is the kind of country where I want to see things in it, but I kind of want to get the sanitized experience if I go there.
Kashmir.
Why Kashmir?
Too many tourist traps. It’s annoying.
What kind of tourist traps?
Ohio.
No, Ohio is appropriately rated, which is why it is no one’s vacation destination.
I took a trip to Cleveland and Cedar Point for an extended weekend and found it to be alright.
Cedar Point is an easy concession 🙇🏽♂️
miami. orlando (i.e. disney world and universal). las vegas. dubai. any other middle-to-upper class playground.
on the other hand, so people cannot say i mentioned anywhere in the center of capitalism: i’d love to meet ireland, scotland, brittany, galiza. the museums in new york, london, madrid, barcelona and paris are indeed something to see. the historic buildings and excavations in rome are of interest. and restaurant, café and bar-trotting in madrid, valencia, barcelona, paris, vienna, amsterdam, rome, naples, tokyo is something i’d love to do.
London. It doesn’t even have capital vibes.