Mhamid, the Sahara. The flies themselves were beset by sand flies.
We just got back from Chicago. Our favorite big city in the US! We have been visiting for work and pleasure for over 20 years.
New Orleans
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LOL. I was on Bourbon Street when the OJ chase was going on. Canât forget.
But if you love the smell of vomit in the morningâŚ.
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Exactly. A dumb AF topic to just bitch about bad personal experiences which can happen anywhere
+1
Keep an open mind, roll with things as they come and go, and generally you will have a good time anywhere.
A lot of these âbadâ places I read on this thread, Iâve been and quite enjoyed.
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For me the âwhyâ is important, and if people are clear on the why, then itâs quite possible to realise it wasnât a place for them, but might be for you.
Yeah, agree.
And I do think threads like this have value. I have limited time and money â only so many vacations one can take in life. I appreciate hearing cautionary tales, so long as itâs not just flaming. Thatâs why the âwhyâ is important.
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Singapore in the summer. Beautiful city, great food, great people, great shopping, beautiful gardens and zoo, appallingly oppressive heat. Every time I stepped outside I wondered if I would survive the trip.
Iâm curious about your vacation to Gary, Indiana. What prompted that?
I absolutely love the Smoky Mountains but loathe Gatlinburg. Pigeon Forge is even worse. Letâs put this little bit of hell right next to this little bit of paradise.
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Along those same lines is Wisconsin Dells. So much beauty next to so many water parks.
Comoros - Getting stood up against a wall with guns in your face while getting shook down by an undercover cop doesnât engender endearment.
Bermuda- Boring but I"ve been given a lifetime ban so I donât need to worry about going back.
Cayman Islands - Boring and if youâre only looking for a beach (which outside of doing business there is the only reason to be there) there are way better.
Seychelles - Most miserable people I"ve ever met. See anyone that isnât local as just a bag of money to be taken advantage of.
Honourable mention to Durban. I love SA, my wife is South African but I will never go back to that hellhole of a city.
Baton Rouge?!?! Ok, I get going to New Orleans, and why some people may not like New Orleans. But who goes to Baton Rouge for vacation?
I thought this might come up ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
FWIW I have a slightly different take on it:
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The area immediately surrounding the field of miracles and the roads between the field of miracles and the two train stations, yes they exhibit the filth, tat, exploitative pricing, and ignorant tourists etc. that drives me away from the major tourist sites.
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However step a 5-10 minute walk away from that, and Pisa the city, is much more appealing, with a pedestrianised main thoroughfare for the evening passeggiata, some really good restaurants at fair prices, plus a good daily market, plus another more specialist one in (IIRC) an old bank. Our apartment accommodation was excellent, in the family palazzo, so giving really nice insight that tourists often donât see. The gentleman of the household also collected old Barolo/Barbaresco. A smattering of good food shops rounded out what was a good experience. The one upside of mass tourism I would add, is that transport links are good. A real shame that we missed the opening of the newly discovered Roman port (they found it when extending the northern station) which apparently included some near complete boats (see link here: The lost harbour of Pisa | Roman ports)
So I do recognise the complaints about Pisa, which come as a direct result of the madcap âsee it all in a weekâ travel agency agendas that have âPisaâ down as a half day visit to see the field of miracles. Seeing everything on the way and around it being disgusting, has helped promote the view that Pisa is a shithole. In reality itâs not the locals that created that shit, but the swathes of very transient tourists. IMO Pisa itself is nothing like that, but a large proportion of tourists never actually see the city itself.
Regards
Ian
-Las Vegas NV - Does this really require further explanation?
-Seattle (Downtown/Capitol Hill/Pioneer Square) - Garbage, graffiti, excrement, parfum de urine, and the locals who enable and facilitate human and physical degredation. Been going there since the mid-80s and I know how itâs changed.
-Great Smoky Mountains NP/Gatlinburg - Too many people packed into a small area, really bad traffic
-Sacramento CA - Everyone seemed stressed and unhappy with a good deal of pretention (but pretense for what I donât know). I am sure there are fine people there; I just didnât meet them.
I hate that Gatlinburg and GSMNP inevitably get lumped together. The Smokies have more tree species than all of Europe. The way the glaciers pushed everything south along the Appalachians (as opposed to down to the Alps crushing everything) essentially shoved everything into one spot. Go a mile away from the roads and the natural beauty is profound, the crowds non-existent. Mount LeConte is one of the most incredible places Iâve been in my life.
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I was thinking something similar, that getting in the back country for a long hike or backpack trip would be great there. Unfortunately, traffic in the park was even worse than going through Gatlinburg, the roads were like parking lots, and it was impossible to park any where near the trailheads making the whole thing pretty unpleasant. There are so many great places in this country to see that thereâs about 0% chance Iâll get back to GSMNP. Maybe we picked a bad time to be there perhaps.
If Edward Abbey had his way, thereâd be no driving through any of the National Parks. I think weâre finally at a point where that option seriously needs to be considered. Shuttle buses, bikes and pedestrians only.
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