Simply put - where have been the best and worst places you've ever visited? It can be towns within countries or countries themselves. Or continents, if you're really well travelled. Best places I've visited: Iceland Extraordinarily beautiful countryside; accommodating, kind people; lots of bars and good nightlife. Yeah. It's the perfect place. Quite pricey, but definitely worth it. France I love everything about France. The wine, the food, the countryside, the language, the cities, the people, the art, the literature. Devon, England I love the rugged British/Irish countryside so I felt right at home in Dartmoor, which is a massive national park in Devon. The weather is a bit more forgiving than the rest of the Isles too. Worst places I've visited: Manchester, England Very little to do, very few green spaces, just streets and streets full of brand retailers that you can get anywhere in the country. Valencia, Spain There were some nice parts but the whole city smelled like shit, apparently it was the summer heat on the sewers! :eek: I'll not be returning there Dublin, Republic of Ireland Overrated. O.V.E.R.R.A.T.E.D. Everything is a rip off, it's impossible to find your way around and you can't move for the amount of tourists. And the 'tourist attractions' are laughable - the only thing worth seeing is the Book of Kells, and you have to queue up for ages.
Best: Chicago. I loved how clean the city was, how most things seemed within walking distance from our hotel, the food, the parks. Worst: Most of the south but Alabama and Mississippi stuck out more, they were boring, the people seemed stuck in a different time, the blatant racism scribbled in bathroom stalls... I've road tripped through the Deep South twice and don't care to return haha
BEST Taos & Red River, NM- Really pretty place to go skiing and enjoy a winter wonderland Garden of the Gods, CO- Really majestic rock formations. DisneyWorld- How can that not be on the list? Haha. It's still fun even as an older person (I went when I was 16/17 and it was fun. WORST Some nameless town in Lousiana. Was about to pay for gas when this shoeless clerk frantically jumps in front of me and goes outside chasing a car that had stolen gas. Was a very awkward, "did that just haooen?," moment. Some Mexican towns I visited. Pretty nice, but I had to watch what I ate, how I spoke, what I wore, etc. Hard to enjoy any place when you're always watching your back.
I think every place I've been has had it's good and bad sides. I loved Stubaital in Austria, even though I hated our accomodation, we lived with some crazy old hag who locked us out and did all this other crazy shit, it was a mess. We had to take the public bus up to the glacier every morning. There was a shit ton of people on the bus and I had to carry my freaking massive backpack, two pair of skiis and skipoles. The worst part, you didn't always get a seat on the bus, but instead had to stand up for 45 minutes with all this shit on your back and people pushing against you. IT WAS HORRIBLE! Then there was the queue for the cabin lift up to the top. One day I had to stand on both the bus and then another hour for the lift. Still worth it though. <3 I do anything for you skiing <3 The good. The slopes are really awesome and the food was amazing! The best part was the temperature difference. Down in the vale we could play beach volleyball in our shorts with the sun, not quite, but "almost" scorching. While up on the glacier it was perfectly cold and snowy for skiing. Awwww, I miss the alps. The one place I really disliked and won't ever ever never ever ever go back to ever again is Juvass in Norway. It was literally the coldest place I've ever been. Everything was cold all the time for the whole stay and it was just such a depressing place. The skiing was awful. It was raining probably 70% of the time. The other 30% was sunshine or snowstorm. 90% of the time it was foggy and impossible to see. I was wet all the time. I tried drying my ski boots from the moment we came back from the slopes to the moment we left the next morning, still felt like a pond in there. The water for the shower was limited so we could only shower hot for a very short time. Everything was expensive. The accommodation were these tiny log cabins that were cold as fuck. I also accidentally destroyed my expensive new leather gloves when I tried drying them. I left them on the heater and when we came back from a workout the cabin looked like a sauna from all the smoke generated by the burned leather -.-* Overall just a horrible experience. It was beautiful there and I had a lot of fun with my friends, only I'd have rather had fun somewhere else.
Best: Los Angeles, California. I don't remember much about it but it from what I do remember, it's definitely one of the nicest places. I remember this time where my family and I where at a restaurant and my oldest sister and my father where still waiting for their food after we've all eaten. My mother allowed me to go outside of the restaurant to walk around and I found these odd little shells lined up on the edge of the garden. I picked one up and realized it was a snail. It was the first snail I've seen and I thought it was pretty cool. I also remember buying a large lolipop from Disneyland and the second I got it, I dropped it on the ground. My mother had to carry it in a little baggy for the rest of the time. I also remember getting lost after I chased Timone down to ask him where Pumbaa was lol. Oops. Worst: Chemanius, BC. I can see it as a nice little place to stop and rest for the night but my dislike for this place closes in with the fact that my father wanted to move us there when I was 10. The place he had was this tiny basement suite. One bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen attached to the bathroom.. a nice place for maybe a fresh-out-of-college adult but not a family of 5. The school that we where going to be sent to was a Christian school and it looked creepy as hell. Everything was extremely outdated and kinda falling apart. The mall was smaller than a house and the best place to eat was a Mama Panda. Granted, it has grown over the years but at that time, we where just not having it.
Best places: Numerous cenotes in Mexico Although they are the reason I'm now terrified of heights, there's nothing more naturally beautiful than the Mexican cenotes. They're big, cavernous wells that you can dive into, crystal clear water displaying the bottom that is hundreds of feet deep. Some cenotes were good for spelunking, and I remember swimming in one lined in raw turquoise. On one jump, I nearly drowned after wrecking my ACL. But hey, near Mayan sacrifice? Sure. Peneda-Gerês I was living overseas in Portugal and went to this park as frequently as I could. Oh man, was it beautiful. Right on the border of Spain, where we would drive down to grab lunch before going back home. But the place when I first went there was in December, and the air was crisp and cool, the ground was wet and you could smell the fresh green and eucalyptus. I fell in love with it, and would like to live there when I'm approaching death someday. Bayonne, France I once took a road trip up to France and found this lovely place to stay in called Bayonne. I stayed in a cheap residential right on the river, and warm breezes blew all night, and I kept the balcony doors open and could hear the rushing of the water. It was incredible weather for December, a beautiful place with a massive, gorgeous European church and small stone alleyways that took you past pastry shops and small, beautiful little places. I was only there briefly and had some of the best food of my life and found the place absolutely gorgeous. Fatima, Portugal I took a trip there on a whim. And I was blown away. There was a miracle that supposedly took place in Fatima, and though I'm not very religious, I knew that people congregated to celebrate the miracle every year. And wow. You don't have to be religious to be in awe of the mountains of people from all over the world, gathered for a single service in a beautiful churchyard. There's something about that togetherness, that willingness to commit and love and pray all in one area that is just incredible to see. I'm still not religious. But that place was still astounding to see. Worst places: Chichen Itza, Mexico Maybe it was my misfortune. But Chichen Itza was a huge disappointment when I was in Mexico. Seriously. I was there on a sweltering day and was super psyched, as I have a deep love and fascination for the ancient Aztecs and Mayans. But being in Chichen Itza was.. a let down. It was hot, and every shady spot was occupied by some sleazy merchant going "Ten pesos! One dollar! Almost free!" selling an array of penis shaped flutes and other cheap touristy gifts. Worst part? You can't go up to the top of the beautiful temple. Why? People were defecating up there. Way to ruin the fun for everyone else. Palmetto, Florida It was hot. It was gross. It wasn't fun. That's all I have to say about that.
Best: Scotland (yes, the whole country...but maybe Aberlour and Forres in particular) Worst: Arkansas and Indiana (excluding Indianapolis)
Best: France England Gettysburg, PA Lake Tahoe The South in general (growing up, I went on several road trips through Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, etc.). Lot's of beautiful scenery and interesting (sometimes sad) history to see. Worst: Myrtle Beach, SC - the only place I've been to in the South that I would be perfectly fine never returning to. Way too tourist-y for my liking.
Worst: The greater Los Angeles Area: Tons of traffic, nothing but highways, smog, and endless strip-malls and bland chain stores. It felt very fake, and not a good area if you like to walk places. I did like downtown Ventura, CA, and a bit farther North, Pismo Beach was a great place to watch the surfer boys, and pleasantly not as over-crowded. I liked SLO county better, overall. Ocean City, Maryland: What a dumpy, over-priced, over-crowded sea-side tourist trap. Yuck! Assateague island National Park to the south is SO much better than this indescribable horror. Crystal City, VA, and much of northern VA: Good God, how to convey the faux-glamour atrocity of this place, not to mention the traffic and congestion? Nothing cultural to offer, just a lot of ugly buildings and congestion. (An exception is made for Old Town, Alexandria) San Diego, CA; Felt very rich, preppy, tacky and pretentious. Looks pretty, but not for me. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Best Zion Canyon thru to Bryce Canyon, Utah, and along the Escalante River: Among the most strikingly beautiful places on earth for hiking, with amazing varied terrain, and the coolest rock formations and colors anywhere. Beats the Grand Canyon, easy. Traverse City Michigan, as well as Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties: It's hard to explain the amazing Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, clear blue waters of Lake Michigan, and all the inland lakes, and forests. In few places does the air seem as fresh. Portsmouth, NH: I loved this quaint yet artsy coastal town. A bit pricey, but would love to live there if I could. Close to Boston, and close to mountains.
