Even Worse Cities
By Roadjunky, Posted May 11, 2007
Sections: Intro 1. Bombay 2. Dubai 3. Liverpool & Manchester 4. Any American Suburb 5. Guatemala City 6. Sao Paolo 7. Beijing 8. Singapore 9. Milan 10. Cancun Comments about this guide?
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When we at road junky decided to play the anti-guidebook card recently and pick out 10 of the worst places you could ever visit, we were amazed and amused by the reactions. People screamed out that Cancun has lovely beaches, Singapore is nice and clean and that Milan has hot fashion. They called us shallow and suggested we hadn’t been to those places.
Which we found hilarious. Because to note that somewhere like Liverpool is famous for having the Beatles is about as shallow an observation as you get. Our comments were more tongue in cheek observations on the worst excesses of modern civilization and consumer travel.
Like, trains probably ran on time in Hitler’s Germany, members of the KKK baked good apple pies and the people of Cali, Colombia, are good looking despite the murderous cocaine cartels there. A dump with icing on the top is still a dump.
In fact, the best criticism we got was from travelers who pointed out that we’d missed some of the worst places, especially in poor old Africa. We ignored hellholes like Jo’burg, Nairobi, Lagos and Cairo.
But hey, we figured Africa has suffered enough in recent history….
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What?! Bombay is on the list and Lagos isn’t. Total madness. But I have a lot of affection for Bombay.
However I think the reasons cited for including your cities are out of whack with the title of the article which was “Worst Cities to VISIT”. For me the reasons cited for Singpore are reasons not to like living there, not visiting there. If you said that SG is expensive and there’s not much to see, THEN it would be a reason not to visit.
Cairo and Bombay are certainly hectic but there’s lots to see and do and transport is cheap and easy. Their hecticness is enjoyed more travelers than just me, I’m sure of that!
However joburg and LA would make my list because they not easy to visit (without $$$ or private transport) and beacuse there’s not all that much to do in either city as a visitor. Plus there is the crime factor which they share with Nairobi.
It actually would be interesting to get opinons on what exactly makes a city unpleasant to visit and see if there is consensus on that :-)
My two cents are that
1. lack of ability to get around (incl cheap transport and crime rates),
2. lack of things to visit/do,
3. lack of nightlife and 4. lack a travellers “scene” for solo travellers are criteria for judging if a city is worth visiting.
I am on the road last 8 months, travel all the way by public transport. I crossed through bulgaria, turkey, siria, iran, pakistan, india, nepal, and here i am in urumqi china.
I spent about 5 weeks in kathmmandu, but it didn’t help…for me KATHMANDU is the worst scum hole on earth, the worst annoying ignorant bastards, hussles more then in india, the most poluted river (bhagmati) & down town with a shit flying in your eyes with every car passing by,in compare Benares is pharmacy,and the worst untasty boring food they eat everyday (dhal-bhat) .Who says that Delhi is polluted must be nuts or he never saw nothing more then paharganj. KTM deserves exactly nuclear annihilation!!!
Man..I have been livin in India for the past 23 yearsin Delhi & I am proud to say ur list is pretty much accurate!!..Delhi,Bombay,Agra suxx donley balls..literally!!..overpopulated,polluted,consumerist fukks mostly live thr and I have done my fair bit of travellin too..There are gud ppl I know thr too but when they were shown a better alternative(Like the rest of the world really..) they realised the kind of puke hole they were livin in.. And to the shmucks who think otherwise,I ask them to juzz go out of ur shit hole and explore the world more (Atleast go see South India or Goa for heavens sake)
Guatemala City was a dump. I had to take a bus to Tikal from G. City and the lights in the entire city went out.. and it’s 21:00…. people running like mad and stealin shite from food venders and yelling… I took a sh#)(T yesterday and it reminded me of the experience.
Surprised Somalia’s Mogadishu never makes these lists.
Not that I’ve been stupid enough to ever go there; I’ve been stupid enough to go to Nairobi, and even in ‘Nairoberry’ they speak of Mogadishu in baited breath. Apparently you need to be trained how to use a gun just to survive there.
Plus wikitravel reccomends that instead of travelling around in a bullet proof car you should consider instead an armoured tank…HILARIOUS
I LOVE this, nearly fell off my chair laughing!
Talk about crappy American suburban towns. Plainfield Illinois is the worst of the worst of them.
Lima Peru should be on the list. I am 16 and went backpacking there alone. If you go off the beaten path, it is gross, dirty, and garbage flies rampant. There is such a dense cover of smog that they haven’t seen the sun in Lima Central in years. Anywhere you walk, you are assaulted by hundreds of people trying to sell you anything from gum to sex. The pollution is so bad that plenty of locals walk around with masks on. The only thing to make Lima acceptable is the fantastic gas station attendants I met.
When I went back packing i was shocked to find what shitholes there are in europe. Rome, even though its better then milan, it was still a shithole. graffitti everywhere, if the ugly young people of rome could graffitti the collosseum they would. the air is overly polluted and the ofcourse in true roman fashion my camera was stolen. oh and they’re a bunch of perves.
I don’t really understand Milan or Beijing being on this list. Beijing is underrated and Milan isn’t bad.
Manila is something that definitely deserves to be here, because it sucks and someone might actually consider visiting it.
I loved the guide and I agree about Milan. I was born near the Swiss border (2 hours from Milan) and I agree that Milan is a crap city.
Tegucigalpa is much worse than Guatemala City in my opinion. People should be warned about going there, it is absolutely horrible.
Thank You! I have been doing a lot of travel lately, and have agreed with just about everything you have wrote…I will use this site as a quick, helpful guide to get a glimpse of any future travel destinations that come to mind. Thank you for being so clever and insightful.
Any American suburb??? what a ridiculous statement! As if anybody would have any interest in any country’s suburb as a holiday destinations……..?????!!!!!
U’re shitting your pants in any place of the world. Every place of the world where is people is dangerous enough for anyone. But well, how about compare all those cities you mentioned to middle east where you can get a shot in your head anytime you want.
There some point about são paulo, but still a great place to visit and know a lot of culture, that´s dont exist in any place of the world.
There is a lot of problem for local people, but for a visit you will only find the best of here.
Good night clubs, good food, good people, good culture, good poker rooms.
bad traffic and crowd.
I think the list is only valid if you first define what is that you want in a good city to travel.
I agree whit Robvert….
the list should only have cities where some one would be interested to visit (and any american suburbs is not one of them)
I met some backpacker that loved Liverpool and Milan, and others who dont…
If you want to travel just for be attended Cancun is the place for you, if you want to know the local culture maybe not.
Well, I’m brazilian and I have to travel a lot through Brazil. I would add to the list: Rio de Janeiro (because there isn’t a safe place where you can walk and don’t put your life in danger. I have the feeling I can be robbed and stabbed anywhere); Recife (also very dangerous); and Salvador (when you walk you can smell the urine in the streets)
Man you are a stupid.
São Paulo is one of the greatest cities in the world. Amazing places to go out at night, to dance, to eat to do everything that you want. If you don’t know about the city, don’t write stupid things.
Wow, I couldn’t agree more about São Paulo – which I preffer to call “You-know-where”. Unfortunatelly – or fortunatelly – I haven’t been to any other place you mentioned. And, yes, many people live in You-know-where because of money. People who get promoted and have their money increased, but have to move to this inferno. I always say: if there’s an opportunity for me to get piles of money in São Paulo, I REALLY preffer stay in where I am, with, maybe, less money, but HIGHER life quality.
actually, you could have had 10 worst cities to travel from india itself.. =)
why include any place in India? If you don’t like Mumbai, go to Goa/Kerala/Himalayas/Himachal Pradesh/Lakshadweep! Goa and Kerala are HUGELY popular and a lot of tourists go to Tamil Nadu just for the ancient Hindu temples
I am from Argentina, I’ve been living in Northwest Arkansas, US, in two “american suburbs”, in the so-called “bible belt” area. The description in this web is not quite exact about it, it is actually 1000% precise!!!!! Everybody is just mean, soulless. It is hard, I have noticed that I also think about what to buy tomorrow, nothing to do but going to the mall. Deep interpersonal relationships DONT EXIST, unless you want to “think that Adam and Eve played with dinosaurs” although there is a price for that, around 20% of your salary going to the denomination minister’s pockets. Ups, I almost forget, I started having a real life after I bought my car.
Don’t go to Dusseldorf!! Now that is a dirty horrible city. Best time to see that place is when it’s dark,so you don’t see it so much!
I believe that Lilongwe in malawi is the worst Main city in east Africa because you expect it to be, firstly a city and secondly a main city when in fact its a spread out dump with absolutely nothing to do.When you want to go to a bank you have to walk for hours. Everyone is always going on about malawi but its a rotten hellhole tourist trap.
hey why is dubai there i been there it is very nice
in europe there are horrible places too i don`t know why some people tihnk is the heaven and want leave latinamerican, some cities in italy looks really bad and dirties or people are just unfriendly and individualist. i`m from lima, peru and i`m agree that the traffic is one of the worst and sucks and some poor places are dirty and dangerous, but in general is a nice place to live and there are a los of things to do (i don`t know why someone wrote that a lot of locals use masks on, that`s totally a lie) obviously you can`t go with the outfit or expression of hey i`m a tourist, steal me, maybe the guy was holding his camera and taking pics to everybulding… about sau paulo is true that it`s dangerous, a lot of people who went there told me that… also in mexico city the traffic is like hell and it`s more polluted than lima. as other people said it`s depend of what you look in your trip, all cities have bad ans good things
Right On!! I’ve been to most of the cities mentioned in your anti-guide book and I couldn’t agree with you more! Well written.. esp the american suburb bit.. excellent
No one uses masks in Lima. Give Peru a break! Lima sucks, but with the ocean there and lots of mountains around, it certainly isn’t on the top ten list. Manila and Tegucigalpa should be. Columbus, Ohio should be as well. What a boring shithole.
Tegucigalpa really is the worst. Every time I have had to (unfortunately) spend the night there, there have been the inevitable shootouts or, when people get bored, target practice sessions with dogs who won’t stop barking. Drug use, gang violence and a lack of police couple to make Tegucigalpa a very nice place to leave. This is the only place where I pay the extera money to get a nice bus that goes through the city as fast as possible. After repeated visits to Tegucigalpa, I can say that outside most of the people, who are very welcoming and hospitable, there is nothing to see in Tegucigalpa.
If you want trouble, you can find it all too easily here…
Wow… worst article on this site – guess they can’t all be gems. I happened to enjoy myself at many of those cities. And obviously you weren’t able to befriend any actual locals! Singaporeans have no opinion? Well if you befriended some, you would have been able to learn about something beyond their shiny clean city.
Its good that the list has some variety otherwise Africa would dominate. I gotta agree, Tegucigalpa is much worse than Guatemala City. Manila is a shithole, and Belize City sucks as well. Whoever mentioned Lima as a possible candidate is C R A Z Y !!!
Let’s not forget Detroit (MI), Camden (NJ) and Gary (IN). These 3 failed cities are 3rd world shitholes on par with any other.
Come on… Belfast is the ugliest and sadest city that I have ever been!
this guide is ridiculous
This is stupid, These cities may be crowded and polluted but there is far worse things than heartless Americans and pollution. Singapore and Sao Paulo are fantastic cities although they do have some problems. Perhaps some of the worst places I have been would be Juba, Sudan (desolate hell whole full of rapists), Lutunguru Congo If you have read anything about Colton, you would understand. Also, Port Au Prince, Haiti Where my hotel concierge was attacked with a metal vase and nearly killed for supporting President Aristide. And Last but not least Bogota, Columbia where bomb scares are an every day thing and drug smugglers are armed with semi automatic weapons around every corner.
You´re a f* moron who don´t even know how to spell São Paulo
You guide is utter shite!
I don’t beleive you are a people person, if you are such a seasoned traveller why are your statements so inaccurate and ignorant!
Ive been to a hand full of those cities and many others in the world, and you are way off the mark, stop writing and go back to America and destroy your passport!
Man, I loved your comments, keep updating with more comments. The best part is that the majority of the people from those cities think they live in the best places in the world…. You are soooooo real about Milan and Sao Paulo.
Absolute Rubbish.
you seem to have a bit of an attitude when it comes to the following,,,
middle america
capitalism
religious people
have you considered putting aside personal beliefs and writing on a subject in a neutral way?
this ishow grownups do it.
Hey N, read his “guide” to the USA and find out how biased he really is.
Mark Basill: The guy who wrote this is English. You are stupid and an ignorant bigot for thinking just because someone critiques cities the way he sees them that he must be an American. Thanks for spreading hate and generalizing 300 million people. You rock!
Well ‘John’, his comments were kind of biased all the way through! And my second guess would have been an english man! Im Scottish, im only generalising the 250 million americans who dont travel out the US, the rest are ok! Kind of! I am in Singapore just now and the people here do have opinions, and valid ones at that, how long was he here for a long weekend and thinks that makes him and expert!
I liked Milan a lot. The side streets had lovely old churches, and interesting little stores, wonderful open produce market, the Duomo is cool walking on the roof, the Galleria is beautiful too, I found the people to be really friendly. My favorite thing there was a little bridge in a park just covered with locks. Seems couples come here and put a lock on the bridge. How romantic is that? Get off the main streets in big cities like Milan, and you will discover little gems of interest.
He most certainly is not an expert, you are right about that. He never said he was however. Just cut the guy a little slack, he calls them how he sees them and that dosen´t seem to be that bad. Generalizing is a very bad thing, you should work on your predjudices, they might just land youin trouble one day.
Suck my sweaty scottish balls John!
This dude was generalising the whole population of Singapore as not having an opinion! hmm, unlikely!
I think his opinions suck and he has little knowledge of any of these places!
Sao Paulo, Dubai, Sing, Liverpool & Manchester are all great places and by far not the worst cities in the world, get real!
I have visited them all and enjoyed them all!
The author of this list reveals his block headed bimbo brained qualities when he lists 11 cities in what is supposed to be a list of just 10!
Liverpool and Manchester are as much one city as say Boston and New York, or Dallas and Houston.
Of course the list is subjective, but for heavens sake, how hard is it to count to ten!?
This is a rubbish article. I hope this was meant to be humorous because these are nowhere near the top 10 actual worst cities. You should have retitled it as “top 10 worst cities people are most likely to travel to”, introducing a covariate to the main variable.
Even if you skip out on Africa there are a whole host of awful cities such as parts of Eastern Europe, towns surrounding the Aral Sea, Haiti, the Gaza strip, all of Iraq, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and the list goes on. Of course, once you include Africa, you can populate the list with the top 20 easily; see: Mogadishu, cities in Chad/Sudan/Eritrea/Zimbabwe/Western Sahara and even townships in World Cup hosting South Africa.
To actually claim an American suburb, Cancun, Beijing or most ridiculously of all Milan to be a worse place to visit than any of these is simply moronic.
What about Detroit?
As a guide this is utterly worthless. Including “any Amrican suburb”, Cancun or Milan is complete bullshit, just a reflection of the author’s political prejudices.
No Jakarta?!?!?!? you’ve never been there haven’t you?
I want to go out from this fuckedup city ASAP. I have a plan for that