Cities you'd never return to

JacquesSon

dan1895 wrote: »

Hard to answer. I've been to some fantastic places but both Rome and Madrid are places I've been to numerous times that I like a lot but wouldn't be in my top 5 places.

No offence, but that's bland beyond the definition.

Surely you've gone further than that?

If you fly Ryanair you can pass significant sites on the bus into town.

dan1895

JacquesSon wrote: »

No offence, but that's bland beyond the definition.

Surely you've gone further than that?

If you fly Ryanair you can pass significant sites on the bus into town.

Yes but those places where either out of this world amazing or absolute hell holes.
If I haven't mentioned it before Cuidad del Este is one **** hole I never want the misfortune of returning to.

JacquesSon

dan1895 wrote: »

If I haven't mentioned it before Cuidad del Este is one **** hole I never want the misfortune of returning to.

Cuidad is always an interesting prefix, 'del Este' just adds to the mystery.

It's not 15mins from Cancun is it?

ed. I've never been to Central America.

dan1895

No, Paraguay. All I wanted to do was leave.

JacquesSon

dan1895 wrote: »

No, Paraguay. All I wanted to do was leave.

Im picturing "Banged Up Abroad" now.

lertsnim

dan1895 wrote: »

It's not my favourite place but anyone saying Paris probably hasn't traveled much further than Paris.

Why so? The thread asks for a city you'd never return to, not your most hated city.

Tropheus

Istanbul. The best part was the road back to the airport.

Wacker The Attacker

Glasgow is satans **** bowl

SpaceTime

Cody montana wrote: »

I wouldn't say it's crap but I wouldn't return in a hurry.

Paris isn't that bad. I think people just don't explore it properly, get stuck in the touristy bits where they're treated like scum by the rip off tourist oriented places who serve you bad coffee for €10 and treat you badly because they don't care if you never come back as there's another bus load of fresh customers / victims every 5 minutes.

Paris has much more interesting bits, they're just not immediately obvious in a short trip. It also has really much better food if you're prepared to go for a bit of a wander and do some research online or get local advice.

I've always found it an amazing city for a proper bit of urban exploring. It's got huge amounts of interesting history and architecture and quirky places.

I think a lot of people arrive in CDG (not a wonderful airport), get on a smelly train arrive in the centre and see the stereotypical stuff and that's it.

syklops

JacquesSon wrote: »

True words.

I won't ask you for a favourite, but what's your medium recommended City?

For me, Prague.

WellThen?

Kashmir- India.War torn. On the border with Pakistan, beautiful Himalayas surrounding you but my god I was so upset the whole time.

We opted to stay a week on a barge type thing on a river. Was really nice scenery. Some driver guy collected us and told us we were never to travel unattended EVER. Felt more like a prison than a barge. Police with huge guns everywhere, pointing them at people passing to move them quicker up the street. We could only eat what was given and our host gave us no privacy. He literally ate every meal with us and hung around until we asked him to leave every night.

We were going gaga on this ****ing boat so one day we decide to hop on a smaller one and make our way to land alone. I was 19 and not quite understanding how important it was to have a bodyguard. We had 5 guys chase us down and nearly rugby tackle us to the ground screaming at us. They told us that we would be killed immediately if we go off alone.

Back to the barge we go. That night i hear fireworks all over land, turns out it was gunshots. Cue to the morning we get to land and people lying dead everywhere. We left that morning. Really horrific.

SpaceTime

I'd give Amsterdam a skip in future. Was there twice and just really disliked it on both occasions. Second time was a bit of an accidental trip for a conference.

Just found it really rough. I had some guy deliberately run into me and then attempt to demand money because he dropped his pipe!

Assumed he was trying to attack me so, automatic response was to arm block him which is how he ended up losing whatever it was he was smoking.

Also just found the whole city a bit sleazy.

Brussels has a bit of that sleazy vibe too but it's more rundown that just sleazy.

mg1982

A city i would never return too is Bacau in eastern Romania. I can remember driving into the place and there being piles of rocks on either side of the road. It just wasnt a very nice place. Although if my memory is right there was an airforce base there so we were able to see a lot of Mig-21 fighter planes in the sky.

Wompa1

SpaceTime wrote: »

Paris isn't that bad. I think people just don't explore it properly, get stuck in the touristy bits where they're treated like scum by the rip off tourist oriented places who serve you bad coffee for €10 and treat you badly because they don't care if you never come back as there's another bus load of fresh customers / victims every 5 minutes.

Paris has much more interesting bits, they're just not immediately obvious in a short trip. It also has really much better food if you're prepared to go for a bit of a wander and do some research online or get local advice.

I've always found it an amazing city for a proper bit of urban exploring. It's got huge amounts of interesting history and architecture and quirky places.

I think a lot of people arrive in CDG (not a wonderful airport), get on a smelly train arrive in the centre and see the stereotypical stuff and that's it.

I took the train from London. Right as we walked out of the station there was a fight between a group of people and a shop owner. But we chose not to get on the underground there and walked the entire time. It was very nice. Unfortunately we encountered some chuggers along the way but nothing too bad. Paris turned out to be one of my favorite European cities that I've visited. Much nicer than Rome, I also liked it more than London or Amsterdam.

Don't know why people dislike Florence so much. I thought that was a very pretty city

PowerToWait

I have to admit, I'm going to judge someone who dismisses Paris as a 'dirty kip' or somesuch.

You could never be bored in Paris. Not with even the most remote sense of romance (meaning mystery, not St. Valentine's) or history or imagination. The place is steeped, drenched, soaked in history, art, literature, revolution, gastronomy, intrigue.

It's a true melting pot as well. All life is there really. To borrow from Samuel Johnson, when a man is tired of Paris he is tired of life. I love it.

sigmundv

WellThen? wrote:

Back to the barge we go. That night i hear fireworks all over land, turns out it was gunshots. Cue to the morning we get to land and people lying dead everywhere. We left that morning. Really horrific.

Jaysus. Any particular reason you went on holiday in a war torn region?

Cienciano

WellThen? wrote: »

Kashmir- India.War torn. On the border with Pakistan, beautiful Himalayas surrounding you but my god I was so upset the whole time.

We opted to stay a week on a barge type thing on a river. Was really nice scenery. Some driver guy collected us and told us we were never to travel unattended EVER. Felt more like a prison than a barge. Police with huge guns everywhere, pointing them at people passing to move them quicker up the street. We could only eat what was given and our host gave us no privacy. He literally ate every meal with us and hung around until we asked him to leave every night.

We were going gaga on this ****ing boat so one day we decide to hop on a smaller one and make our way to land alone. I was 19 and not quite understanding how important it was to have a bodyguard. We had 5 guys chase us down and nearly rugby tackle us to the ground screaming at us. They told us that we would be killed immediately if we go off alone.

Back to the barge we go. That night i hear fireworks all over land, turns out it was gunshots. Cue to the morning we get to land and people lying dead everywhere. We left that morning. Really horrific.

Jesus, you went to a warzone and are complaining that it was a warzone?
Reminds me of Ian Rush when asked what was Italy like. "I couldn't settle in, it was like living in a foreign country"

thomur

Madam wrote: »

Perhaps I can show you around the best parts of Glasgow - no city in my opinion is beyond finding something interesting about it. Glasgow being a city of Empire has a lot going for it (shopping the best outside of London, great bars and nightclubs, the friendliest people on these here Islands, architecture to my mind better than Dublin or any city in Ireland). Weather can be a bit dreary though.

Have to say I was there for the football last year and thought it was lovely. Have been in Edinburgh a few times and thought Glasgow was going to be the ugly sister after all I heard about it but loved it. PS: Don't go into the Horseshoe bar wearing Irish gear. Was grabbed by a few of the locals and not released till we sang Flower of Scotland.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Belfast...

kurtainsider

Oh sorry. I thought that Belfast was a given.

Schadenfreudia

Well, if I was a Tech Summit.....Dublin

mynameis905

Pisa

greentea is just wrong

Vienna... I used to wonder what happened to all the nazis when WW2 ended... then I went to Vienna. Never met such rude people in all my life

whatdoicare

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place. I was mad to go there and convinced the husband to take me for a week. I was absolutely stunned by how awful the place was.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
It was just insane.

I reckon, unless you're famous or rotting in money, LA is just a place you don't want to be!

I didn't think much of the tourist spots either. Nothing wowed me about LA.


Everywhere else in America we went to - fupping awesome!

Reiketsu

^ I'm off to LA in just over a months time :pac:. Only for a couple of days though, heading to a few cities.

I said Paris and Warsaw in this thread when it started. I have been back to Paris since and hated it even more than the first time I was there. I'd like to add Brussels and Antwerp to the list. Cant think of any redeeming qualities.

JillyQ

whatdoicare wrote: »

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place. I was mad to go there and convinced the husband to take me for a week. I was absolutely stunned by how awful the place was.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
It was just insane.

I reckon, unless you're famous or rotting in money, LA is just a place you don't want to be!

I didn't think much of the tourist spots either. Nothing wowed me about LA.


Everywhere else in America we went to - fupping awesome!

Couldn't agree more about LA an absolute and utter hole.

Clankatron

Been to Paris over twenty or so times and I die a little more inside every time I set foot in the place. Not the worst city I've ever been to, but I could live a long, happy life without ever seeing it again.

InTheTrees

whatdoicare wrote: »

My worst memory was waiting for a bus...!

Bus? There's buses in los angesles?

What was wrong with your car?

fuzzypickle

Middlesbrough and some of northeast UK. The other half is from there and he thinks it's miserable and says he's glad to be rid. I did get cornered by people looking for money a lot which freaked me out. I found the people to be usually really nice and polite although he said some of it was sarcasm that I wasn't picking up on. :P
He absolutely abhors it so I probably wont be going back there any time soon.

Other than that I haven't been around (unless you count Paris but that was just Disneyland as a child ).

Ice Storm

Lots of negativity about LA here!

I was there about a week ago. I had to pass through the city but I decided to spend just the one night there as I hadn't heard anything good about it.

So I had very low expectations of the place but it actually surprised me and I wish I'd spent more time there. Its such an iconic city and if you're into music, so many bands have their roots in LA. I really enjoyed seeing famous places like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, The Viper Room etc.

I wouldn't rule out returning and if I do, I'll make it a longer visit.

StonyIron

Kilkenny - since the government abolished it.

whatdoicare

InTheTrees wrote: »

Bus? There's buses in los angesles?

What was wrong with your car?

My car that I didn't have?

Saipanne

Bangkok. I've been there a few times. I thought it was the best place ever when I was 24. Now I think its a filthy, rat infested ****hole. Full of people who swear they discovered Thailand. ****.

Shall not return.

JohnCleary

Saipanne wrote: »

Bangkok. I've been there a few times. I thought it was the best place ever when I was 24. Now I think its a filthy, rat infested ****hole. Full of people who swear they discovered Thailand. ****.

Shall not return.

We're going back for a 3rd time to Thailand (and surroundings) this Dec, really looking forward to returning to BKK. Funny though, I was 23 when I first went and thought it was amazing.... now returning as it's where the plane lands, but still looking forward to it.

BKK really is what you make of it... get exploring outside Kao San Rd. and it's a pretty cool city.

Saipanne

JohnCleary wrote: »

We're going back for a 3rd time to Thailand (and surroundings) this Dec, really looking forward to returning to BKK. Funny though, I was 23 when I first went and thought it was amazing.... now returning as it's where the plane lands, but still looking forward to it.

BKK really is what you make of it... get exploring outside Kao San Rd. and it's a pretty cool city.

I did get outside the Khao San road. In fact I visited it once last time. Cheers.

munchkin_utd

Clankatron wrote: »

Been to Paris over twenty or so times and I die a little more inside every time I set foot in the place. Not the worst city I've ever been to, but I could live a long, happy life without ever seeing it again.

Ive been there slightly less times than yourself.

Normally stayed on the verges and found it fairly grim. A couple of times had reason to be further out in the suburbs where all the ethno types are coralled, and mother of moses thats another level of grimmness. My wife on a different visit to the suburbs came across a Roma camp and human excrement everywhere, and once that was done with just general hassle from North African types who got an über horn seeing white females in their area and they got the feeling that they were 1 step away from being violently sexually assaulted.

But I stayed once near the Louvre and that was nice. Also stayed south of the river once and it was like being in some sort of a film about the legendary Paris of the 30s than the reality in most of the city nowadays. It was lovely and WAY cleaner and safer than the more dodgy (affordable) parts of town.

But indeed, if you stay in one of the pockets of touristy nice areas in Paris its nice, but the levels of general grimness in the rest of the city can be pretty bad.

PowerToWait

Ice Storm wrote: »

Lots of negativity about LA here!

I was there about a week ago. I had to pass through the city but I decided to spend just the one night there as I hadn't heard anything good about it.

So I had very low expectations of the place but it actually surprised me and I wish I'd spent more time there. Its such an iconic city and if you're into music, so many bands have their roots in LA. I really enjoyed seeing famous places like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, The Viper Room etc.

I wouldn't rule out returning and if I do, I'll make it a longer visit.

You and I obviously have no idea and are uncultured oafs. I was there 20 years back and had a great time down by Venice and Santa Monica. Great bars and many, many oddballs.

Wompa1

PowerToWait wrote: »

You and I obviously have no idea and are uncultured oafs. I was there 20 years back and had a great time down by Venice and Santa Monica. Great bars and many, many oddballs.

Venice Beach does have a lot of oddballs, alright. It's also wall to wall with people trying to hustle you. There's far nicer beaches along the Pacific Coast highway like Hermosa Beach.

Los Angeles has some great bars and great restaurants but overpriced. Actually some of the best restaurants in the world BUT it's still a crappy place. Driving there is a bag of crap. The airports are awful, have had a few domestic flights to LAX and Bob Hope. Long Beach is one of the ugliest places I've ever been to.

The Hollywood walk of fame is pretty underwhelming.

The drivers are probably the worst and most rude in the US.

But in fairness. I've only been there once for leisure. The other times were for work. So, maybe it's a great place to just visit. It's not a great place to work. I couldn't imagine living there. When I stayed out in Burbank my hotel room had a view of the freeway. I was jetlagged so, I woke around 3am. By 4am traffic was already building. What an awful way to live.

macscoob

Perth......most boring kip iv ever been.

PowerToWait

Wompa1 wrote: »

Venice Beach does have a lot of oddballs, alright. It's also wall to wall with people trying to hustle you. There's far nicer beaches along the Pacific Coast highway like Hermosa Beach.

Ah I was only there for 2 nights after a month in the wilds of the South West before heading home. It was a diversion. And far from unpleasant.

I wouldn't live there in a fit. Even then the smog was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe a mile. Prob a good bit less.

Wompa1

PowerToWait wrote: »

Ah I was only there for 2 nights after a month in the wilds of the South West before heading home. It was a diversion. And far from unpleasant.

I wouldn't live there in a fit. Even then the smog was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe a mile. Prob a good bit less.

When I went on my own time. I drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles and then up the Pacific Coast highway to Santa Barbara. Had heard great things about the likes of Huntington Beach...don't get it. You're looking out at these big ugly wells. Santa Barbara was gorgeous but is a bit like Scottsdale...very fake looking.

I'd take Northern California over Southern California any day. Even San Diego is kinda blah

Makassar in Indonesia - I've never been there but if I did go I probably won't go back.

mzungu

Dar Es Salaam - Too humid and very little to see and do.

Mombassa - See above

Ralf and Florian

dreamers75 wrote: »

Warsaw its like the Cork of Poland.

That's a bad thing?

Lollipops23

Had a 2 hours stopover in Detroit while bussing to Chicago from Toronto.

Obvs it wouldn't have a great rep these days, but it was a ghost town. Defo wouldn't be going back any time soon.

FTA69

Dhaka in Bangladesh. I went to Bangladesh as I worked in a largely Bengali community centre in East London for a few years and wanted to explore more about the culture and origins of the people I worked with. I had some fantastic experiences there but also some utterly f*cking nutty ones.

When I arrived in January I was picked up by a friend of a friend who drove me to my hotel. The dual carriageway had people driving down the wrong lanes in the wrong directions, swerving everywhere. I saw a 15 year old lad riding an elephant down the hard shoulder who then got off and took a massive sh*te in full view of passing traffic.

As look would have it, I arrived in time for the "hartal" or political strike whereupon mobs would take to the street for a bit of burning and rioting. Two people were killed by the cops outside my hotel the first night I was there. There are literally no foreigners in the country so people stare at you like a zoo exhibit; the lads in the hotel wouldn't let me leave as they thought it was too dangerous.

I snuck out after one day and saw some poor bastard get shot in the face point-blank with a rubber bullet before his mates dragged him off, blood p*ssing everywhere. Also while in a café I witnessed a mob attack a lawyer's social club full of supporters of the opposition and proceed to drag people out the windows and batter them with bamboo canes. I can still hear the sound of stick beating off people's skulls.

Piece de resistance was seeing the police drag the body of a dead homeless man off a 20 foot pile of rubbish with a rope around his foot.

Zillah

So, C+ at most?

For my own: San Francisco was a filthy, intimidating, drug-ridden, homeless person-besieged sh1thole. I think I might want to go back in the hopes of seeing the nice end of it, but what I saw was 90% horrendous.

Stojkovic

Zillah wrote: »

So, C+ at most?

For my own: San Francisco was a filthy, intimidating, drug-ridden, homeless person-besieged sh1thole. I think I might want to go back in the hopes of seeing the nice end of it, but what I saw was 90% horrendous.

You went to the wrong places.
I loved it and will go back.

ohnonotgmail

FTA69 wrote: »

Dhaka in Bangladesh. I went to Bangladesh as I worked in a largely Bengali community centre in East London for a few years and wanted to explore more about the culture and origins of the people I worked with. I had some fantastic experiences there but also some utterly f*cking nutty ones.

When I arrived in January I was picked up by a friend of a friend who drove me to my hotel. The dual carriageway had people driving down the wrong lanes in the wrong directions, swerving everywhere. I saw a 15 year old lad riding an elephant down the hard shoulder who then got off and took a massive sh*te in full view of passing traffic.

As look would have it, I arrived in time for the "hartal" or political strike whereupon mobs would take to the street for a bit of burning and rioting. Two people were killed by the cops outside my hotel the first night I was there. There are literally no foreigners in the country so people stare at you like a zoo exhibit; the lads in the hotel wouldn't let me leave as they thought it was too dangerous.

I snuck out after one day and saw some poor bastard get shot in the face point-blank with a rubber bullet before his mates dragged him off, blood p*ssing everywhere. Also while in a café I witnessed a mob attack a lawyer's social club full of supporters of the opposition and proceed to drag people out the windows and batter them with bamboo canes. I can still hear the sound of stick beating off people's skulls.

Piece de resistance was seeing the police drag the body of a dead homeless man off a 20 foot pile of rubbish with a rope around his foot.

The boy or the elephant?

In fairness you were there during civil unrest. Thats never going to show a place in the best light.

jmayo

greentea is just wrong wrote: »

Vienna... I used to wonder what happened to all the nazis when WW2 ended... then I went to Vienna. Never met such rude people in all my life

Jeeze, were you never in France.
I thought Vienna was ok.

whatdoicare wrote: »

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
...

You can't do LA without a car.
Hell you can't do most of America without a car.
And only really poor and insane people take the bus.

Actually now that you remind me. I remember one drunken night trying to find my way back to my motel in town south of Orlando, where I ended up sitting on pavement chatting to homeless guy pushing a shopping trolley.