I am not as seasoned a world traveler as many in the community, but I have probably been to more countries than the average person. One of the things that I really enjoy about traveling is seeing some of the different cultures and different ways of doing things. But while I do try to keep an open mind on things, I definitely have an idea of some of my favorite and, shall we say, “less favorite” countries.

Reddit – Those who have traveled the world, what country is the worst to visit or rudest to visitors?

So I was intrigued when I saw over on the AskReddit subreddit, someone asked “Those who have traveled the world, what country is the worst to visit or rudest to visitors?“.

Here were a few of the responses I found most interesting

• Egypt – “never leave the hotel in egypt as an underaged girl without your parents. even if you’re with them you probably will be followed and hit on by older creeps, but they won’t do anything when you’re not alone”
• Egypt – “I went with my then girlfriend and two more friends in 2012, in addition to what you mention, we were also harassed by people in the streets “selling” you weird crap, forcing you to buy their shit. Pretty much robbing you.”
• Russia – “Russians will not smile until they know you. This includes customer service or sales people. They are suspicious of everyone, until you become friends, then they are great friends to have. Thats why I am hedging my bets. Moscow smells like trash and piss. Its grey year round, St Petersburg has either endless days where you cant sleep or endless nights where its incredibly depressing”
• Italy – “Decades in NYC without an issue, then shocked to be repeatedly accosted by aggressive pickpockets in Rome. Never going back.”
• Italy – “Had my iPhone stolen off the table while I was distracted by a waiter. My first day there. They call it apple picking, apparently”
• Morocco – “From being ripped off, to children following me down a dark alley asking for money, to horrible hotel reception, to rich, spoilt locals at nightclubs, I’ve never been to any other country where I’ve been so relieved to leave.”
• Ethiopia – “My worst experience was Ethiopia. I feel like it’s the kind of country that if you go as a wealthy tourist and hire your own driver, boom all your hotels in advance and so on, then it’s probably a reasonable experience. I went and tried to do it as the typical backpacker thing. Had a lot of issues, everyone hassles you constantly just for their own amusement. Had a lot of guns held in my face by teenagers at bus checkpoints, constantly getting ripped off with extra ‘luggage charges’ on said buses, or put on buses that weren’t even going where I wanted despite them swearing it was.”
• Jamaica – “Jamaica, from friends being grabbed and dragged into stores and shops , to locals hip checking you out of the way. only country that we didn’t get more then 100′ out of the resort before we turned around and went back in. people you are tipping with put a smile on but the second you walk away they are talking shit about you”
• Jamaica – “We visited Jamaica and the heavily armed police stopped us and said we had committed a minor traffic violation ( we hadn’t) they then kept saying that they were thirsty . So we had to give them money . We went away from the resort quite often , most of the time everything was fine apart from getting asked if we have money or food or do we want drugs or sex , but the incident with the police was the worst.”
• Philippines – “The Philippines probably has the worst traffic ever, and I don’t even understand why there are so many damn cars on a tiny ass island. It makes a 20-30 commute turn into a 4 hour waiting game. I had a friend leave his suitcase in a cab and told them to take it back to where he was picked up and he ran the 2 miles to the airport before be missed his flight. said its stupid how bad it is. the next time he went he left where he was staying like 7 hours before his flight and its only like 15 miles away.”
• Poland – “Not me but I had a teacher in high school who taught world history who, well, traveled around the world. One of the students in the class asked what her least favorite country or place she’s been to was, she said Poland. It’s important to note that she’s a black woman because she said no where else had she ever been called so many slurs and spat at like Poland.”
• India – “India is tough for solo travelers. I was being harassed and followed by cab drivers or salesmen for miles. Im a guy. And everytime i took a taxi or tuk tuk they dropped me off at some random jelewery store or something because the driver gets a commission or free gas by doing so/if i buy anything. Also being white i stood out and was a big target. Couldnt imagine being a woman alone in new delhi. Im sure some areas or cities are better”
• Kazakhstan – “I was in Kazakhstan a few years back. The people there were extremely xenophobic towards me and the group I was traveling with. They called the military on us. Four soldiers on horseback showed up with AK47s and pointed them at our faces and told us to get the fuck out of where we were even though we had a right to be there and we weren’t doing anything bad. These people weren’t just rude, they were fucking assholes. Needless to say I will never visit that country ever again.”
• Turkey – “my cousin was a blonde haired, blue eyed little girl at the time. And some weird old man actually tried to kidnap her right in front of us. he grabbed her hand and tried to walk off with her. bare in mind she was maybe 5 or 6 at the time. when we all started arguing, and were basically playing tug of war with this man trying to make him let her go, police came over and let the man go. they were speaking Turkish so we don’t know what he said but the man was allowed to walk free”

This commenter probably summed it up best by saying “There’s been a number of these threads before, and without a doubt, Egypt is always the worst”

My Thoughts On The “Worst” Country

So after reading all of those comments, it got me to thinking of what I consider the “worst” country I’ve ever been to. Of course, the word “worst” is somewhat of a loaded word. Whenever we travel as a family to a new country or culture and my kids talk about something being “weird”, we try to redirect them to just saying that it’s “different”. In some ways, something that is weird or “bad” may just be a product of being used to something else. I remember when I arrived in the Dominican Republic as a naive 19 year old (after “sneaking” into the country), I had much worse thoughts about the country than I did 2 years later after having lived there for 2 years.

Having said that, I definitely resonated with some of the commenters’ opinions on Egypt. I was in Egypt in 2023 and definitely felt some of these same experiences. While I didn’t feel unsafe (I’m sure due in large part to the fact that I’m a white man and was also traveling with my adult-sized son), the traffic was insane and we definitely got asked for money at seemingly every turn.

The Bottom Line – What’s The Worst Country You’ve Ever Been To?

Okay – now it’s your turn. If you’ve been to many countries around the world, I want to hear your thoughts. You can define “worst” however you want. And I suppose if you want to help us feel more uplifting, you can also share the “best” country you’ve ever been to 🙂

What’s the worst country you’ve ever been to? Leave your thoughts in the comments below

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