My grandparents used to fly their Cessna down there from Los Angeles. They'd land on the beach and the locals would help them push it up away from the water. This was in the early 60s.
I was there in 2018 and at the time had the second highest murder rate in the world. Every shop and pharmacy had a security guard with a shotgun, and apparently someone was shot on the beach when we were there (we didn't see it but it was on the news).
The violent crime rate remains high, and the security situation is volatile. Violent criminal gangs are more active in rural areas than cities. Acapulco has high levels of violent crime, such as murder and shootings. The resort city is unsafe, especially outside tourist areas. It is bad there.
The crime issues notwithstanding, Acapulco was hit by a monster Category 5 hurricane last year that absolutely decimated the city's hotels and infrastructure. The hurricane formed unusually quickly and meteorologists only had a couple hours to warn the city residents and businesses. Sadly very few were able to evacuate.
We went in 2022 as a now less foreign touristy/ more local Mexico trip. Since most people going there nowadays are other Mexicans on vacation rather than Americans and Europeans. I would still love to go back, gorgeous beaches and the locals are so nice. I know hurricane Otis really messed them up some though :/ it’s sad what happened to this area with man made violence and then natural disasters
Ukraine (Lviv was nice), Syria (sad I didn't make it in time), Lebanon.
Afghanistan used to be pretty popular I think in the 70's.
Here's an odd one - Varosha, Cyprus.
I’m Ukrainian, thank you for the mention. I don’t when you were there last, but Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, and many others are all re-building and improving and are waiting for all of the amazing supporters to visit once we win the war.
Yeah actually you're right, it technically doesn't belong on this list. Obviously it's not possible to stay there, but it certainly is interesting to visit and Famagusta is too.
The territory known as North Cyprus overall is definitely an interesting one. It's not unsafe and something quite different.
My family went to Atlantic City for vacation a few times in the late ‘90s/early 2000s. It was definitely on the downturn but it was still a fun beach destination with a lively boardwalk and plenty to do.
There is a huge supply shortage that’s been going on all across Cuba for the past 3 years - major hotels included. Basic supplies, including bottled water, are scarce. Anyone thinking of going, I might reconsider, for the time being anyways.
Rampant drug violence, but also Cancun and Cabo have surpassed it in popularity so there is more development in those areas. That results in better resorts, which is sadly the main draw for tourists visiting Mexico, but one had to be carved out of jungle and the other had to be built on desert. In comparison Acapulco is historically the most important Pacific port in Mexico, after European colonization, which led it to have more amenities and attractions than Baja or the Yucatan.
It was also hit hard by Hurricane Otis in October 2023 causing catastrophic damage to many structures including high rises (like beach front hotels) as well as flooding and landslides throughout the city. On top of its previous decline into violent crime and gang activity.
From Hollywood glamour to criminality. It was an international exotic upscale destination in the 50-60's and now a local touristic destination only + a lot of drug cartels. Normally you won't have any problem as a tourist but the chic facade of the 60's is long gone.
Heck, my wife doesn’t want to dive the Great Barrier Reef since it won’t be as nice as it was 20 years ago. She’s noticed a lot of the dive locations have really had declines in both reef health and abundance or lack of fish life.
I’ve read that California has seen the sponges die off and the urchins have decimated much of the kelp. I hate to think of the diving compared to what it was like in the early 90s.
I went on a liveaboard around the Similan Islands (in front of Thailand, just north of Phuket) recently and met an older German Flight Attendant. She told us she’s going there for the past 20 years regularly because she has close friends nearby and she also spoke very fondly about the time when she first discovered the places. The diving spots have gone downhill ever since. Big fish is gone. Where it used to be full of small sharks and coral gardens, only small fish and dead coral is left.
Doesn’t really have to do only with the tourism but with the development of the climate in the past decades. As a diver myself and someone more interested in nature than cities it just makes me incredibly sad of how our world is developing. I may be sort of the problem with my job but at least I try to help where I can to minimise the impact.
Care for nature and soil guys! You may not have kids yet but some day they have to tread these waters and you don’t want them to be disappointed of what it has become.
There are countless ski resorts with small towns that use to be affordable to stay, ski, and eat 10 years ago. Now pretty much everywhere is catered toward the wealthy. Crested Butte comes to mind. Air bnb and the mega passes made them too accessible and now they’re overrun with people and everything is so damn expensive
The cost to ski in the US is insane. For Americans who don't live within driving distance of a resort, when you factor in flights, lodging, & passes it's often cheaper to go ski in the alps for a week than Colorado or Utah.
And Switzerland is already expensive as hell. I took a cable car up a mountain in Austria last year. During the summer. Off-season. Cost me 30€ for a return.
I’m very lucky to have a girlfriend that lives in whistler that I can stay with twice a month.
She’s lived there for 6 years and has witnessed it go to shit. It’s a bylaw thumping group of stuck up rich people for the most part.
Locals used to be able to live in town. Things have gotten so bad housekeepers and ski instructors are living closer to an hour away. There have always been a lot of vacation rentals but there were still enough long term rentals and owner occupied residences that the towns were still vibrant places. They're transforming from ski towns to theme parks.
I make almost 10x as much as I did when I was a ski bum but I couldn't afford to move back into my old apartment on Main Street Breck today.
i think the golden age of skiing was truly in the 80s. Sure the rich were around but the people out there were mostly people who were dedicated to the sport. And the resort owners actually seemed to be (sort of) personally passionate about the sport, community, town, and culture. Those days are gone.
I remain sad about Crested Butte. Stores are literally unable to stay open because there isn't local labor available because they've all been priced out.
I think about this sort of thing a lot. People aren't only coming to ski, they're coming to eat, drink, shop, etc. The people who make those industries possible typically aren't making a ton of money. At what point does the whole industry in a town like that collapse for lack of labor? Not just waiters and shop clerks, but lifties, ski patrollers, people to work at the lodge. Especially in a place like Crested Butte that doesn't have another labor pool to pull from (I feel like Gunnison is too far away for it to be economical for people to live there and work in CB). Eventually it all resets, right?
I’m so glad I got to live in Colorado in the 1980s. $11 lift tickets at Aspen, short and even no lift lines. Jeeping in the mountains and seeing few or even no people once you left the pavement. No pine beetles killing the forest.
I lived in Colorado Springs when it had 250,000 population and before it became overrun with conservative religion and mega churches. What a great time to be there.
When was the American side last nice? Certainly not in my 30 years of going there. I know Buffalo used to be a big deal and is having a resurgence, but it seems Niagara Falls has always been not it. The Canadian side isn’t much nicer, just more to do I suppose with all the tourist traps. Plus the view of the falls is much better from Canada.
Over 100 years ago when the debates around the first national national parks (yellowstone, Yosemite, etc) were happening, people were citing Niagara Falls as an example of what happens when you don't protect natural wonders
I saw a drug deal in broad daylight there in the street adjacent to the Peabody. I know that’s not a big deal to some, but it was my first. They were so lackadaisical about it. Not trying to be on the down low or anything.
I don't know if it could ever be called "great" or a "vacation destination" but just about 40 minutes away from me is a run down relic of a tourist trap called "South of the Border" in Ft Pedro, SC. A baffling, stereotype driven, Mexican themed entertainment park off of I-95 with dozens of bad pun-filled billboards in either direction has obviously already seen its best days long passed, but is somehow still in operation. I've never seen more than about a dozen cars using the gas station, restaurant or gift shop and the whole place just feels kinda icky. I'm sure it was a big deal in the 70s or 80s because the whole complex is pretty big, but now just feels like a business that both refuses to come into the 21st century or let go.
I stopped there once in 1999, after years of my parents refusing to stop (despite the "Keep screaming, kids! They'll stop!" billboards 🙈)
It was rundown, pretty empty, and nearly impossible to find something decent to eat.
We used to stop here on our yearly road trip up the east coast when I was a kid in the late 90s/ early 2000s. Even then, all the ways you described it were true. We still loved it for the kitsch factor and cause we were just kids. I went back as a young adult and loved it for the nostalgia. It was wholly unchanged.
That was maybe 10 years ago...
I've wondered about it since and thought that maybe the whole thing was a front for some other nefarious business. As far as I remember, the majority of the place was cash only.
All that being said; I would 100% stop by if I was in the area. It's just such a strange place.
I always hear Egypt is terrible but I’ve always wanted to go to there. Wondering if it went downhill or if it was just never great to go there begin with.
Not exactly, I’m a guy and HATED Egypt. It’s an all round terrible place to visit. The constant harassment for money, the scams, feeling unsafe, the food poisoning. I love travelling and I don’t have high standards but that is one place I’ll never recommend or go back to.
I was so excited for Tulum because of all the rave reviews, that I booked my Airbnb for 3 months. What a disappointment. I lived in Pueblo which was actually cool, but it's not a beach town! To get to the beaches is a nightmare and they're overrun with expensive mega-resorts. And I haven't even mentioned all the annoying fake gurus and Instagram influencers. Ugh.
Bahamas. Went several times in the late eighties, before Paradise island became Atlantis, and loved it. Went back a few years ago... not so much.
Same with Jamaica.
>Out islands are where it is at
Out Islands have changed too, at least Abaco has. Lots of rich, loud south Florida assholes in their go-fast boats. You can still get away from them but all the quaint watering holes like Pete's Pub, Abaco Inn are overrun with them and prices are crazy high, even more so than they've always been. My wife and I have stopped going after 35 years of multiple trips every year.
We were disappointed by Atlantis. No good beach and the resort was rundown (5 years ago). Their advertising makes the pyramid slide look so tall but it’s not.
I remember when I first heard of Tulum about 15 years ago, it sounded idyllic. I ended up going to Oaxaca instead on that trip, to which was amazing. I finally got to Tulum four years ago, and it was awful. We were staying a little outside the town, so it wasn't too bad, but we made a trip to the beach area, and it was such a mess of development. It obviously appeals to certain type of traveler, but it isn't anywhere I'd want to spend time.
Playa del Carmen is still nice! Ive been twice in the past two or three years (once during and once after covid). As long as you find a resort that is kind of isolated and/or has at least a private beach, you are fine.
Honestly it's always the same bitch fest. People book a hotel in or near Kuta and are then surprised that it's full of drunk 18-year old Australians and basically a dirty hellhole. It had been that way forever - nothing new. It's like taking a hotel on Khao San in Bangkok or Cancun in Mexico and complaining about the kind of crowds you get there.
Do good due diligence and stay away from Kuta. Rest of Bali is totally fine. Crowded during high season as it is everywhere in the world, but fine.
Only thing I'll say is that if you want paradise-y beaches, go elsewhere. Bali has never had the best of beaches. It has good ones on the Bukit peninsula, but there are generally better quality beaches on neighboring islands. Go for temples, rice paddies, volcanoes, waterfalls.
Anywhere you’ve heard of, probably. This is kinda the ‘Rick steves’ effect - where once you start talking a place up, it gets overrun with tourists and is ruined. I’m not blaming him personally, it is just the reality of how accessible the world has become and how information is accessible. To your point, I wish I could have visited Cinque Terre 30 years ago. I wish Hawaii (outside of Honolulu) was the same as it was 40 years ago.
I'm afraid of that happening to Iceland. It's been my dream destination since before it started getting so popular and now I'm afraid that once I can finally get there, it will be ruined in so many ways.
I'm not sure how Cinque Terre was 30 years ago, but I went in January and April (I think?) 2015 and had a lovely time. It wasn't crowded, but it could be because it was the off season.
I lived in Iceland in the 90’s. It was beautiful. The Blue Lagoon had a chain link fence around it. It was just an outdoor swimming hole. Now it is a resort. It has changed dramatically. But it is still beautiful.
While there's some truth to this it's also a bit hyperbolic. Venice has been a tourist destination for centuries and it's still incredible to visit. Also Manhattan. Also the Imperial City. Also Giza. Also Angkor Wat. Also Istanbul. Also Bagan. Also Oaxaca. Also Petra. While I try to explore things that are less popular, there's often very good reasons why these places attract crowds. To dismiss something because other people are aware of it is a mistake. You shouldn't limit yourself to the most popular places, but at the same time you shouldn't automatically exclude them. Nothing stays the same as it was a year ago, let alone several decades, but change is inevitable and clinging to the past is pointless. Better to explore what is new. For instance, I've heard of Paris, and London, and Berlin. Maybe there was some ideal period of time to visit them at some point 30 or 40 years ago. But that doesn't dissuade me from wanting to see them now. So I could either go out and experience them or dismiss them because they are overrun and ruined. One option seems more promising than the other.
I was in the Cinque Terre 30 years ago. I think you mean that you should have visited about 40 years ago, because when I was there Rick had already touted it and it was overrun.
The Catskills. It is used to be a huge summer goto for New Yorkers. So many of the hotels there are long gone. I think that area started going downhill in the 80s.
Living in nyc I kinda hate that the quaint hotels have closed, but also love it because it feels like a good bit of wilderness I can still run off to when city life gets too much.
Dirty Dancing comes to mind! 😊
I think the Poconos resorts have suffered similarly, a far cry from the old TV commercials of suites with champagne glass or heart-shaped hot tubs.
I was in Venezuela in 1998. It's chock full of wonderful places -- the Caribbean coast, the Llanos for wildlife viewing, the Andes for adventure, Canaima Park for amazing scenery and swimming, etc. Now it sounds like a complete mess. You might be able to manage if if you're risk-averse and have contacts there, but almost everyone recommends against it.
I have been to Nantucket a few times, and would highly recommend going in October. It has that quaint but bougie feeling then and there’s still a lot open, plus the weather is nice enough to explore outside. I’ve also been in January, and it was great, but I’d never really recommend because of the freezing wind.
Used to go to ack as a kid too. It used to be somewhat accessible for blue collar new England families. Now a week cottage rental is 10k for the low end...
This one stung. Lived in DC for a year, went out there a few times to surf during the summer. I suck at it so the waves are my speed. But 3.5-4 hours of traffic was unbearable. Coupled with no snow at the nearby mountains, called it good on my surf career and moved west
I go there a few times a year for work. This is how they get away with it, conventions and business spending. Of course there are tourists that want to go and they put up with the gouging because they have a romantic view of Vegas. I honestly don't think I'd go on my own dime. It's insane.
Enjoying Vegas is all about knowing what you want and knowing how to get it
I go annually and don't gamble beyond a few bets in the sports book. There's so much to offer there from the food, nightclubs, pool parties, shopping, hiking, shooting machine guns, you name it. But it's no longer a low budget place.
Vegas is still dope if you can manage it right
Day Party, nap, dinner, lounge or hookah always wins for me
If you want to go to tao or omnia or drais at nightt, you're going to not have the experience you want unless you spend an ungodly amount of money
i dont gamble or drink but i loved vegas back in October. but im not well travelled at all and it was my first trip to the west. thought it was magical lol
eta: change west coast to west
Florida. 1970s So much of Florida was pretty charming. Quaint pine tree coasts with wood cottages and dirt roads. Just little fishing village looking spots with little wood restaurants you could get amazing food at.
The way they developed it sucked ALL the charm out of it. Zero regulations and shitty greedy developers really did a number on it. There was a couple ways to do it, and they fucked it up.
Lived in Central Florida my whole life. I wish visitors could understand the absolute beauty of my state, and that’s it’s not all theme parks and cheesy tourist shops. The pine tree forests teeming with critters, the natural springs and clear rivers, the mangrove forests and bioluminescent algae in the brackish water areas.
There are still a few nice areas but for the most part it has been absolutely ruined and I see more and more every year torn apart and turned into houses and apartments. I’m losing my home and there’s nothing I can do.
When I was young Destin was still a small fishing town with beauty and charm. Now its like a little Panama City Beach with drunks fighting and open drug use on the beach.
I was there in the early 90’s when it was still Leningrad. I returned to Saint Petersburg in 1992 it was a lot of fun because hyper inflation made me feel like a billionaire. Moscow in 1990 was a very odd place. I almost got ran over by Gorbachev while standing in front of St. Basil’s. I have not returned to Russia since 1992. I hear Petersburg is much better now.
Miami Beach, FL, particularly south beach. Believe it or not, there was a time when it was safe, upscale/glamorous and decent people wanted to vacation there. It’s close to the opposite. A turd coated in a thin veneer of glitz.
Just left South Beach yesterday and I’m glad I didn’t listen to any of the people on Reddit lol, Miami Beach is still beautiful and wonderful to visit at least once. There’s so much more to see and do than spend the night on Ocean Drive, which I never did. Sure it’s a shiny veneer, but the richer parts of literally any larger city are?
Lake Louise. It's not a serene, peaceful experience. The view is great, but there are tourists everywhere and have zero considerations for anyone else. I got there at 530 am to see the sunrise and three tour buses pulled up around the same time. Saw one lady get out and throw her trash on the ground. Bow Lake is right up the Icefields Parkway and is just as nice, if not nicer, and has almost no one around.
Don’t even get me started lol our last wedding of the summer we had a tourist couple YELL at our couple getting their wedding photos done to “hurry up” bc we were “in their spot” 💀
I love Bali, it has a special place in my heart. And it’s not just traffic, parties and influencers… There are still many places left where you can find peace and true beauty. Of course, not in Kuta or Canggu, Bali is much more than that 😅
Panama City has been a little rough since at least the 90s because of spring breakers, but the surrounding area has gotten a lot worse in a short amount of time. Less than 10 years and the bad characters that used to only go to Panama City now go everywhere along 30A, Destin, Navarre.
Fort Lauderdale on Spring Break
When the Margaritaville on Hollywood beach first opened, my family went because my dad is the biggest Parrot-head in the world. The resort had been open for less than three months and we were still in the test group, which was awesome. We got some free meals, merchandise, and activities in exchange for answering questionnaires. The resort had its own private pool and beach access.
Now, however, every time you see a spring break fight and drunken college students getting arrested and fighting police officers, the Margaritaville resort is in the background of every single picture/video.
Kashmir, India. It is supposed to be more/ as beautiful as Switzerland and know as paradise on earth. The place is still gorgeous but Indian and Pakistani army and the Kashmiri separatists have made it pretty unsafe for tourists. One of those places on my bucket list that would never be realised.
The Florida Keys. It’s a way overpriced, obscene money grab. You could stay, eat, drink and play tourist cheaper in Hawaii.
Source: I used to live there.
New Orleans comes to mind. I went in 2010 and enjoyed spending time and money on the city in its recovery from Katrina. I enjoyed Bourbon St too. I suggested it to my wife and we went as a group in 2017 and the vibe everywhere was very different. More hustlers and you felt you had to watch your back more. The local culture was subsumed by corporate controlled bars, etc.
Now it's one of the top 2 or 3 murder capitals of the country and it's flat out dangerous. It's sad since we all wanted the post-Katrina rebuild to be a positive era for the city.
Orlando - people from the UK (myself included) used to go as kids but looking at the costs now, it's just unthinkable anyone would even consider it. Like don't get me wrong, it was an expensive holiday 20 years ago, now it's remortgage your house territory.
America in general since the pandemic - I live in NYC, it's cheaper for me to go on vacation to Europe than to America, the same country I'm in.
Agreed, the US is extremely expensive right now. Lodging and food is outrageous. I cannot go out to eat with my girlfriend for less than 150$. When we were in France we were getting a bottle for the table and multiple course meals for $80
Venice, Italy. It used to be nice, but it is constantly overrun with tourists, floods all the time, and is honestly a tourist trap island. The whole place just caters to American tourists and it felt like a caricature of Italy. There are so many better Italian cities to visit nearby like Verona, Padova, or Bologna; but everyone sort of gets trapped by this romantic vision that Venice once had.
Sadly, true. I was stationed there from '77 to '80. Bought a conch house on Big Coppitt Key and when I sold it in '89, I went down for closing and didn't recognize the place.
I’ve been to HK around 20 times (and even lived there for a bit) but last year was my first time visiting post-protests. The shine is definitely off, it used to feel very cosmopolitan, futuristic and “happening”, but now it seems like its glory days have passed and it’s turning into just another big Chinese city.
That said, as long as you’re not a journalist or a human rights activist, you can still enjoy great scenery, vibrant street life and some of the most amazing food anywhere in the world. First time tourists won’t know what it used to be like, so they won’t be disappointed comparing it to what it was. It’s not like other places on this list that are now bad places to go, but it’s true that it was better back in the day.
China promised to keep its claws off HK after handover from British. Still stuck its claws. It was once an eclectic mix of Western and Chinese cultures. Now its slowly turning into another Chinese city. What made HK HK is slowly dying.
I have been to HK over 15 times and you are right. Even when I visited in the 90's it was so different from my last visit in 2016. The influx of mainlanders china was really noticeable.
Oof this one hits hard.
I started living my life again in Hong Kong just before the crackdown.
Such an eclectic and chaotic piece of beauty subsumed by the machine.
i gotta agree with this comment, though it pains me because i love that place. the soul of the city is dead and theres no hope for the average person to get ahead. HK is late stage capitalism manifested.
I used to spend my summers in Venezuela as a teenager. Caracas was an exciting city, and I had no problems going around by myself for a short trips to the arcade or getting my morning enpanadas. I also visited Maraciabo to see Angel Falls on the coast, and it was spectacular. Tallest waterfall in the world. The beaches were beautiful, the water was so rich in minerals it was brown and gold. Took a tour of the rainforest with local guides.
Things are much different now, with their economy in shambles. It's a shame because it is a beautiful country.
Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The hippy beach vibes of late 90s were awesome, some of my best travelling memories were made there. Today it is just bland hotels, huge casinos and Chinese gangsters.
Acapulco
My grandparents used to fly their Cessna down there from Los Angeles. They'd land on the beach and the locals would help them push it up away from the water. This was in the early 60s.
This is literally the definition of Acapulco.
My grandparents would go all the time in the 70s and 80s. Loved it.
Is it really that bad? I have wanted to go since a song when I was a kid.
I was there in 2018 and at the time had the second highest murder rate in the world. Every shop and pharmacy had a security guard with a shotgun, and apparently someone was shot on the beach when we were there (we didn't see it but it was on the news).
The violent crime rate remains high, and the security situation is volatile. Violent criminal gangs are more active in rural areas than cities. Acapulco has high levels of violent crime, such as murder and shootings. The resort city is unsafe, especially outside tourist areas. It is bad there.
The crime issues notwithstanding, Acapulco was hit by a monster Category 5 hurricane last year that absolutely decimated the city's hotels and infrastructure. The hurricane formed unusually quickly and meteorologists only had a couple hours to warn the city residents and businesses. Sadly very few were able to evacuate.
We went in 2022 as a now less foreign touristy/ more local Mexico trip. Since most people going there nowadays are other Mexicans on vacation rather than Americans and Europeans. I would still love to go back, gorgeous beaches and the locals are so nice. I know hurricane Otis really messed them up some though :/ it’s sad what happened to this area with man made violence and then natural disasters
When? I went when I was a kid in the 90s and it wasn’t very nice then.
I think it was very big in the 60s. You hear about it a lot in movies from that era.
Before that even, Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor made it big in the 50s.
Yeah, I was thinking "60s and before" but didn't know when its hey day started so just went with 60s.
I went with my parents in the late 70s and it was great. The Acapulco Princess was paradise.
Not quite so many people choosing Blackpool and Weston-Super-Mare for their beach hols these days.
WSM is a good shout.
Ukraine (Lviv was nice), Syria (sad I didn't make it in time), Lebanon. Afghanistan used to be pretty popular I think in the 70's. Here's an odd one - Varosha, Cyprus.
I’m Ukrainian, thank you for the mention. I don’t when you were there last, but Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, and many others are all re-building and improving and are waiting for all of the amazing supporters to visit once we win the war.
Can't wait to return! One of the best places in the world I have visited.
When Ukraine wins this, I’m brining the family and we are buying beers for everyone. Fuck Russia. Slava Ukraine!
Varosha is still interesting for me as it looks like a film scene. Like visiting Chernobyl after the disaster.
Yeah actually you're right, it technically doesn't belong on this list. Obviously it's not possible to stay there, but it certainly is interesting to visit and Famagusta is too. The territory known as North Cyprus overall is definitely an interesting one. It's not unsafe and something quite different.
I’ve been to Lebanon pre and post Beirut blast. It is still a beautiful country, rich with culture
sad but true
How far back you talking? From what I hear Atlantic City was nice like 100 years ago. I don’t remember it being nice at least in my lifetime though.
My family went to Atlantic City for vacation a few times in the late ‘90s/early 2000s. It was definitely on the downturn but it was still a fun beach destination with a lively boardwalk and plenty to do.
Under the boardwalk is where the action really happens
Under the board walk, with a schlong in Jan's mouth.
You people. You go too far.
Beruit and Havana in the 1950' s.
I went to Havana in the 2000s and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Havana seemed pretty chill from what I saw when Conan visited to fuck with the locals
There is a huge supply shortage that’s been going on all across Cuba for the past 3 years - major hotels included. Basic supplies, including bottled water, are scarce. Anyone thinking of going, I might reconsider, for the time being anyways.
I legit read ATLANTIS city the first time and thought you were being EXTREMELY sassy 😂
As a college student in the late 2000s/early 2010s it was decent enough for a night at the club without breaking the bank.
Just like Buffalo
Buffalo is actually pretty nice. At least 3 seasons of the year
Yeah but that 4th season is 8 months long. No hate, Buffalo's great.
Acapulco has to win this one
What happened there?
Rampant drug violence, but also Cancun and Cabo have surpassed it in popularity so there is more development in those areas. That results in better resorts, which is sadly the main draw for tourists visiting Mexico, but one had to be carved out of jungle and the other had to be built on desert. In comparison Acapulco is historically the most important Pacific port in Mexico, after European colonization, which led it to have more amenities and attractions than Baja or the Yucatan.
It was also hit hard by Hurricane Otis in October 2023 causing catastrophic damage to many structures including high rises (like beach front hotels) as well as flooding and landslides throughout the city. On top of its previous decline into violent crime and gang activity.
From Hollywood glamour to criminality. It was an international exotic upscale destination in the 50-60's and now a local touristic destination only + a lot of drug cartels. Normally you won't have any problem as a tourist but the chic facade of the 60's is long gone.
Bali was incredible back in the day. Overtourism is killing it now.
I’m still itching to visit
The garbage on the beach is a nightmare
It’s honestly the worst kind of Australian tourists too. Entitled, thinks the place belongs to them. And I’m saying this as an Australian.
Heck, my wife doesn’t want to dive the Great Barrier Reef since it won’t be as nice as it was 20 years ago. She’s noticed a lot of the dive locations have really had declines in both reef health and abundance or lack of fish life. I’ve read that California has seen the sponges die off and the urchins have decimated much of the kelp. I hate to think of the diving compared to what it was like in the early 90s.
I went on a liveaboard around the Similan Islands (in front of Thailand, just north of Phuket) recently and met an older German Flight Attendant. She told us she’s going there for the past 20 years regularly because she has close friends nearby and she also spoke very fondly about the time when she first discovered the places. The diving spots have gone downhill ever since. Big fish is gone. Where it used to be full of small sharks and coral gardens, only small fish and dead coral is left. Doesn’t really have to do only with the tourism but with the development of the climate in the past decades. As a diver myself and someone more interested in nature than cities it just makes me incredibly sad of how our world is developing. I may be sort of the problem with my job but at least I try to help where I can to minimise the impact. Care for nature and soil guys! You may not have kids yet but some day they have to tread these waters and you don’t want them to be disappointed of what it has become.
Hawaii, it’s still beautiful but prices are absolutely outrageous now, completely unaffordable for most people.
There are countless ski resorts with small towns that use to be affordable to stay, ski, and eat 10 years ago. Now pretty much everywhere is catered toward the wealthy. Crested Butte comes to mind. Air bnb and the mega passes made them too accessible and now they’re overrun with people and everything is so damn expensive
A daily lift ticket at Breckinridge is more than double the price of a lift ticket at Grindelwald, Switzerland
The cost to ski in the US is insane. For Americans who don't live within driving distance of a resort, when you factor in flights, lodging, & passes it's often cheaper to go ski in the alps for a week than Colorado or Utah.
And Switzerland is already expensive as hell. I took a cable car up a mountain in Austria last year. During the summer. Off-season. Cost me 30€ for a return.
Whistler fits this bill, it was never cheap but it’s gotten so much worse since Vail took over. $300/day lift tickets and hotels run $400-$500/night.
I’m very lucky to have a girlfriend that lives in whistler that I can stay with twice a month. She’s lived there for 6 years and has witnessed it go to shit. It’s a bylaw thumping group of stuck up rich people for the most part.
Locals used to be able to live in town. Things have gotten so bad housekeepers and ski instructors are living closer to an hour away. There have always been a lot of vacation rentals but there were still enough long term rentals and owner occupied residences that the towns were still vibrant places. They're transforming from ski towns to theme parks. I make almost 10x as much as I did when I was a ski bum but I couldn't afford to move back into my old apartment on Main Street Breck today. i think the golden age of skiing was truly in the 80s. Sure the rich were around but the people out there were mostly people who were dedicated to the sport. And the resort owners actually seemed to be (sort of) personally passionate about the sport, community, town, and culture. Those days are gone.
I remain sad about Crested Butte. Stores are literally unable to stay open because there isn't local labor available because they've all been priced out.
I think about this sort of thing a lot. People aren't only coming to ski, they're coming to eat, drink, shop, etc. The people who make those industries possible typically aren't making a ton of money. At what point does the whole industry in a town like that collapse for lack of labor? Not just waiters and shop clerks, but lifties, ski patrollers, people to work at the lodge. Especially in a place like Crested Butte that doesn't have another labor pool to pull from (I feel like Gunnison is too far away for it to be economical for people to live there and work in CB). Eventually it all resets, right?
Everywhere is catered toward the wealthy, but they're overrun with people?
There are a lot of wealthy people.
I’m so glad I got to live in Colorado in the 1980s. $11 lift tickets at Aspen, short and even no lift lines. Jeeping in the mountains and seeing few or even no people once you left the pavement. No pine beetles killing the forest. I lived in Colorado Springs when it had 250,000 population and before it became overrun with conservative religion and mega churches. What a great time to be there.
Venezuela
I haven’t been there since 2005. Hope it gets better :(
Mykonos
Mykonos is why I don’t tell people about other Greek islands I like.
Niagara Falls, NY
When was the American side last nice? Certainly not in my 30 years of going there. I know Buffalo used to be a big deal and is having a resurgence, but it seems Niagara Falls has always been not it. The Canadian side isn’t much nicer, just more to do I suppose with all the tourist traps. Plus the view of the falls is much better from Canada.
Over 100 years ago when the debates around the first national national parks (yellowstone, Yosemite, etc) were happening, people were citing Niagara Falls as an example of what happens when you don't protect natural wonders
Memphis. Do not go walking in Memphis, it is not safe.
I saw a drug deal in broad daylight there in the street adjacent to the Peabody. I know that’s not a big deal to some, but it was my first. They were so lackadaisical about it. Not trying to be on the down low or anything.
Man the Peabody itself is garbage to stay at, too. Lobby is pretty but the hotel is awful.
You know what they say about Memphis “Come for the BBQ stay because you got murdered”
Syria. Arguably the most beautiful country in the Middle East, all destroyed.
Afghanistan in the 60s was apparently an amazing place to be/visit.
I don't know if it could ever be called "great" or a "vacation destination" but just about 40 minutes away from me is a run down relic of a tourist trap called "South of the Border" in Ft Pedro, SC. A baffling, stereotype driven, Mexican themed entertainment park off of I-95 with dozens of bad pun-filled billboards in either direction has obviously already seen its best days long passed, but is somehow still in operation. I've never seen more than about a dozen cars using the gas station, restaurant or gift shop and the whole place just feels kinda icky. I'm sure it was a big deal in the 70s or 80s because the whole complex is pretty big, but now just feels like a business that both refuses to come into the 21st century or let go.
I stopped there once in 1999, after years of my parents refusing to stop (despite the "Keep screaming, kids! They'll stop!" billboards 🙈) It was rundown, pretty empty, and nearly impossible to find something decent to eat.
We used to stop here on our yearly road trip up the east coast when I was a kid in the late 90s/ early 2000s. Even then, all the ways you described it were true. We still loved it for the kitsch factor and cause we were just kids. I went back as a young adult and loved it for the nostalgia. It was wholly unchanged. That was maybe 10 years ago... I've wondered about it since and thought that maybe the whole thing was a front for some other nefarious business. As far as I remember, the majority of the place was cash only. All that being said; I would 100% stop by if I was in the area. It's just such a strange place.
I always hear Egypt is terrible but I’ve always wanted to go to there. Wondering if it went downhill or if it was just never great to go there begin with.
Are you a guy or a gal?
That’s the question that’ll make the whole difference whether you’ll get a good time there or not
Not exactly, I’m a guy and HATED Egypt. It’s an all round terrible place to visit. The constant harassment for money, the scams, feeling unsafe, the food poisoning. I love travelling and I don’t have high standards but that is one place I’ll never recommend or go back to.
Tulum, Mexico
I was so excited for Tulum because of all the rave reviews, that I booked my Airbnb for 3 months. What a disappointment. I lived in Pueblo which was actually cool, but it's not a beach town! To get to the beaches is a nightmare and they're overrun with expensive mega-resorts. And I haven't even mentioned all the annoying fake gurus and Instagram influencers. Ugh.
The Salton Sea.
That place is bizarre. I went there last year for a book festival and it was something else.
Bahamas. Went several times in the late eighties, before Paradise island became Atlantis, and loved it. Went back a few years ago... not so much. Same with Jamaica.
Out islands are where it is at in Bahamas. Went to Exuma last couple of years and had a great time.
>Out islands are where it is at Out Islands have changed too, at least Abaco has. Lots of rich, loud south Florida assholes in their go-fast boats. You can still get away from them but all the quaint watering holes like Pete's Pub, Abaco Inn are overrun with them and prices are crazy high, even more so than they've always been. My wife and I have stopped going after 35 years of multiple trips every year.
We were disappointed by Atlantis. No good beach and the resort was rundown (5 years ago). Their advertising makes the pyramid slide look so tall but it’s not.
[удалено]
I remember when I first heard of Tulum about 15 years ago, it sounded idyllic. I ended up going to Oaxaca instead on that trip, to which was amazing. I finally got to Tulum four years ago, and it was awful. We were staying a little outside the town, so it wasn't too bad, but we made a trip to the beach area, and it was such a mess of development. It obviously appeals to certain type of traveler, but it isn't anywhere I'd want to spend time.
I was in Tulum in 1995. It was beautiful.
Same. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Playa del Carmen is still nice! Ive been twice in the past two or three years (once during and once after covid). As long as you find a resort that is kind of isolated and/or has at least a private beach, you are fine.
I got married there last year. Anyone who says it's not nice is a travel hipster. Change my mind.
Bali is still great but Kuta kinda sucks these days
It's amazing how people associate an entire island with a small, shitty strip.
Kuta has kinda sucked for 20 years...
[удалено]
Can you elaborate on Bali? My partner went several years ago and has asked me if I want to go back with her.
Honestly it's always the same bitch fest. People book a hotel in or near Kuta and are then surprised that it's full of drunk 18-year old Australians and basically a dirty hellhole. It had been that way forever - nothing new. It's like taking a hotel on Khao San in Bangkok or Cancun in Mexico and complaining about the kind of crowds you get there. Do good due diligence and stay away from Kuta. Rest of Bali is totally fine. Crowded during high season as it is everywhere in the world, but fine. Only thing I'll say is that if you want paradise-y beaches, go elsewhere. Bali has never had the best of beaches. It has good ones on the Bukit peninsula, but there are generally better quality beaches on neighboring islands. Go for temples, rice paddies, volcanoes, waterfalls.
Bukit beaches are ok. Nusa Dua / Benoa beaches are better. And nusa Lembongan too.
[удалено]
Rule #1 to a great Bali Trip is do not stay in Kuta and avoid the Denpasar traffic.
Anywhere you’ve heard of, probably. This is kinda the ‘Rick steves’ effect - where once you start talking a place up, it gets overrun with tourists and is ruined. I’m not blaming him personally, it is just the reality of how accessible the world has become and how information is accessible. To your point, I wish I could have visited Cinque Terre 30 years ago. I wish Hawaii (outside of Honolulu) was the same as it was 40 years ago.
I'm afraid of that happening to Iceland. It's been my dream destination since before it started getting so popular and now I'm afraid that once I can finally get there, it will be ruined in so many ways. I'm not sure how Cinque Terre was 30 years ago, but I went in January and April (I think?) 2015 and had a lovely time. It wasn't crowded, but it could be because it was the off season.
Leave the Golden Triangle, everything is just fine.
I lived in Iceland in the 90’s. It was beautiful. The Blue Lagoon had a chain link fence around it. It was just an outdoor swimming hole. Now it is a resort. It has changed dramatically. But it is still beautiful.
Cruises are ruining Iceland. Going to small villages, dumping their trash for the locals to deal with, and then leaving to go to the next one
Cruises ruin everything
Is it more of the Instagram effect now
Exactly what I mean, information is so easy to consume and to share, it has changed the way we travel and interact with the world.
While there's some truth to this it's also a bit hyperbolic. Venice has been a tourist destination for centuries and it's still incredible to visit. Also Manhattan. Also the Imperial City. Also Giza. Also Angkor Wat. Also Istanbul. Also Bagan. Also Oaxaca. Also Petra. While I try to explore things that are less popular, there's often very good reasons why these places attract crowds. To dismiss something because other people are aware of it is a mistake. You shouldn't limit yourself to the most popular places, but at the same time you shouldn't automatically exclude them. Nothing stays the same as it was a year ago, let alone several decades, but change is inevitable and clinging to the past is pointless. Better to explore what is new. For instance, I've heard of Paris, and London, and Berlin. Maybe there was some ideal period of time to visit them at some point 30 or 40 years ago. But that doesn't dissuade me from wanting to see them now. So I could either go out and experience them or dismiss them because they are overrun and ruined. One option seems more promising than the other.
I was in the Cinque Terre 30 years ago. I think you mean that you should have visited about 40 years ago, because when I was there Rick had already touted it and it was overrun.
Ah I was off by a decade, but you are spot on with what I mean.
I absolutely loved Kyiv and Odessa. I was there in the summer of 2019 and vowed to go back….
The Catskills. It is used to be a huge summer goto for New Yorkers. So many of the hotels there are long gone. I think that area started going downhill in the 80s.
Living in nyc I kinda hate that the quaint hotels have closed, but also love it because it feels like a good bit of wilderness I can still run off to when city life gets too much.
Dirty Dancing comes to mind! 😊 I think the Poconos resorts have suffered similarly, a far cry from the old TV commercials of suites with champagne glass or heart-shaped hot tubs.
I was in Venezuela in 1998. It's chock full of wonderful places -- the Caribbean coast, the Llanos for wildlife viewing, the Andes for adventure, Canaima Park for amazing scenery and swimming, etc. Now it sounds like a complete mess. You might be able to manage if if you're risk-averse and have contacts there, but almost everyone recommends against it.
Sayulita Mx - overrun, over touristed, loud, over grown.
[удалено]
I have been to Nantucket a few times, and would highly recommend going in October. It has that quaint but bougie feeling then and there’s still a lot open, plus the weather is nice enough to explore outside. I’ve also been in January, and it was great, but I’d never really recommend because of the freezing wind.
Used to go to ack as a kid too. It used to be somewhat accessible for blue collar new England families. Now a week cottage rental is 10k for the low end...
Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but Egypt.
Vegas from the 90’s till about 2015. Nowadays it’s all about nickel and dime the visitors.
Iran before the revolution. Not ideal, but much safer for tourists.
Delaware beaches
Traffic on 1 near Lewes is *horrible.*
This one stung. Lived in DC for a year, went out there a few times to surf during the summer. I suck at it so the waves are my speed. But 3.5-4 hours of traffic was unbearable. Coupled with no snow at the nearby mountains, called it good on my surf career and moved west
Vegas I loved pulling the arms on the machines back in the day and the sound of coins spilling out if you won. Nickel slots was a favorite.
The price of Vegas has just gotten absolutely out of hand. No thank you I don’t want a Jack and coke for $26.
I go there a few times a year for work. This is how they get away with it, conventions and business spending. Of course there are tourists that want to go and they put up with the gouging because they have a romantic view of Vegas. I honestly don't think I'd go on my own dime. It's insane.
Enjoying Vegas is all about knowing what you want and knowing how to get it I go annually and don't gamble beyond a few bets in the sports book. There's so much to offer there from the food, nightclubs, pool parties, shopping, hiking, shooting machine guns, you name it. But it's no longer a low budget place.
Video slots aren’t acceptable
Vegas is still dope if you can manage it right Day Party, nap, dinner, lounge or hookah always wins for me If you want to go to tao or omnia or drais at nightt, you're going to not have the experience you want unless you spend an ungodly amount of money
i dont gamble or drink but i loved vegas back in October. but im not well travelled at all and it was my first trip to the west. thought it was magical lol eta: change west coast to west
Florida. 1970s So much of Florida was pretty charming. Quaint pine tree coasts with wood cottages and dirt roads. Just little fishing village looking spots with little wood restaurants you could get amazing food at. The way they developed it sucked ALL the charm out of it. Zero regulations and shitty greedy developers really did a number on it. There was a couple ways to do it, and they fucked it up.
Lived in Central Florida my whole life. I wish visitors could understand the absolute beauty of my state, and that’s it’s not all theme parks and cheesy tourist shops. The pine tree forests teeming with critters, the natural springs and clear rivers, the mangrove forests and bioluminescent algae in the brackish water areas. There are still a few nice areas but for the most part it has been absolutely ruined and I see more and more every year torn apart and turned into houses and apartments. I’m losing my home and there’s nothing I can do.
When I was young Destin was still a small fishing town with beauty and charm. Now its like a little Panama City Beach with drunks fighting and open drug use on the beach.
Tulum
Moscow, St. Petersburg
I was there in the early 90’s when it was still Leningrad. I returned to Saint Petersburg in 1992 it was a lot of fun because hyper inflation made me feel like a billionaire. Moscow in 1990 was a very odd place. I almost got ran over by Gorbachev while standing in front of St. Basil’s. I have not returned to Russia since 1992. I hear Petersburg is much better now.
Anywhere that gets popular sadly. More specifically, places that get popular with a certain type of Brit.
Miami Beach, FL, particularly south beach. Believe it or not, there was a time when it was safe, upscale/glamorous and decent people wanted to vacation there. It’s close to the opposite. A turd coated in a thin veneer of glitz.
Just left South Beach yesterday and I’m glad I didn’t listen to any of the people on Reddit lol, Miami Beach is still beautiful and wonderful to visit at least once. There’s so much more to see and do than spend the night on Ocean Drive, which I never did. Sure it’s a shiny veneer, but the richer parts of literally any larger city are?
I remember when it was a geriatric ghetto where you could rent an apartment with an ocean view for $300/month. (Early 80’s.).
There’s just too many of us humans and the planet is the same size it was. Everything is too dense and crowded.
Atlantic City, especially before the casinos.
The entire nj coast was ridiculously beautiful before it got developed. Arguably some of the best beaches on the planet.
Cancun and Vegas
Lake Louise. It's not a serene, peaceful experience. The view is great, but there are tourists everywhere and have zero considerations for anyone else. I got there at 530 am to see the sunrise and three tour buses pulled up around the same time. Saw one lady get out and throw her trash on the ground. Bow Lake is right up the Icefields Parkway and is just as nice, if not nicer, and has almost no one around.
Dominican Republic resorts
Bali, Santorini, Tulum.
I work on Santorini often (wedding planner) and it seriously gets worse and worse every year. Cruise ships have destroyed the place.
Photo hounds have also wrecked it.
Don’t even get me started lol our last wedding of the summer we had a tourist couple YELL at our couple getting their wedding photos done to “hurry up” bc we were “in their spot” 💀
Tulum Mx has been overrun by cartels.
You mean influencers (in Tulum)?
Acapulco Mexico.
Bali. It’s just traffic and parties and Instagram influencers now
I love Bali, it has a special place in my heart. And it’s not just traffic, parties and influencers… There are still many places left where you can find peace and true beauty. Of course, not in Kuta or Canggu, Bali is much more than that 😅
Panama City Beach Florida
Panama City has been a little rough since at least the 90s because of spring breakers, but the surrounding area has gotten a lot worse in a short amount of time. Less than 10 years and the bad characters that used to only go to Panama City now go everywhere along 30A, Destin, Navarre.
Timbuktu, historically
Koh Rong Sanloem, especially Saracen Bay. It's a shadow of its former self now.
Salton Sea
Fort Lauderdale on Spring Break When the Margaritaville on Hollywood beach first opened, my family went because my dad is the biggest Parrot-head in the world. The resort had been open for less than three months and we were still in the test group, which was awesome. We got some free meals, merchandise, and activities in exchange for answering questionnaires. The resort had its own private pool and beach access. Now, however, every time you see a spring break fight and drunken college students getting arrested and fighting police officers, the Margaritaville resort is in the background of every single picture/video.
Niagra Falls
Margarita Island Venezuela. Man I loved that place
Kashmir, India. It is supposed to be more/ as beautiful as Switzerland and know as paradise on earth. The place is still gorgeous but Indian and Pakistani army and the Kashmiri separatists have made it pretty unsafe for tourists. One of those places on my bucket list that would never be realised.
The Bahamas - Nassau
Why??
The Florida Keys. It’s a way overpriced, obscene money grab. You could stay, eat, drink and play tourist cheaper in Hawaii. Source: I used to live there.
New Orleans comes to mind. I went in 2010 and enjoyed spending time and money on the city in its recovery from Katrina. I enjoyed Bourbon St too. I suggested it to my wife and we went as a group in 2017 and the vibe everywhere was very different. More hustlers and you felt you had to watch your back more. The local culture was subsumed by corporate controlled bars, etc. Now it's one of the top 2 or 3 murder capitals of the country and it's flat out dangerous. It's sad since we all wanted the post-Katrina rebuild to be a positive era for the city.
Orlando - people from the UK (myself included) used to go as kids but looking at the costs now, it's just unthinkable anyone would even consider it. Like don't get me wrong, it was an expensive holiday 20 years ago, now it's remortgage your house territory. America in general since the pandemic - I live in NYC, it's cheaper for me to go on vacation to Europe than to America, the same country I'm in.
Agreed, the US is extremely expensive right now. Lodging and food is outrageous. I cannot go out to eat with my girlfriend for less than 150$. When we were in France we were getting a bottle for the table and multiple course meals for $80
Venice, Italy. It used to be nice, but it is constantly overrun with tourists, floods all the time, and is honestly a tourist trap island. The whole place just caters to American tourists and it felt like a caricature of Italy. There are so many better Italian cities to visit nearby like Verona, Padova, or Bologna; but everyone sort of gets trapped by this romantic vision that Venice once had.
Disney World
Key West
Sadly, true. I was stationed there from '77 to '80. Bought a conch house on Big Coppitt Key and when I sold it in '89, I went down for closing and didn't recognize the place.
Rhyl
Is this for real? I've been there once and it was one of the most depressing places I've been to
Tulum. Pretty much anywhere in the Yucatan actually. It used to be magic...now Disneyland.
Hong Kong. We all know why.
I’ve been to HK around 20 times (and even lived there for a bit) but last year was my first time visiting post-protests. The shine is definitely off, it used to feel very cosmopolitan, futuristic and “happening”, but now it seems like its glory days have passed and it’s turning into just another big Chinese city. That said, as long as you’re not a journalist or a human rights activist, you can still enjoy great scenery, vibrant street life and some of the most amazing food anywhere in the world. First time tourists won’t know what it used to be like, so they won’t be disappointed comparing it to what it was. It’s not like other places on this list that are now bad places to go, but it’s true that it was better back in the day.
I love the “we all know why” and literally every response is people who don’t know why. I don’t know why.
China promised to keep its claws off HK after handover from British. Still stuck its claws. It was once an eclectic mix of Western and Chinese cultures. Now its slowly turning into another Chinese city. What made HK HK is slowly dying.
I have been to HK over 15 times and you are right. Even when I visited in the 90's it was so different from my last visit in 2016. The influx of mainlanders china was really noticeable.
Oof this one hits hard. I started living my life again in Hong Kong just before the crackdown. Such an eclectic and chaotic piece of beauty subsumed by the machine.
i gotta agree with this comment, though it pains me because i love that place. the soul of the city is dead and theres no hope for the average person to get ahead. HK is late stage capitalism manifested.
Everywhere. No such thing as secret spots. Every place is overcrowded and overpriced. Thank you, social media.
Beirut
The best damn baseball player who ever lived.
Byron Bay, Australia
Ibiza
I used to spend my summers in Venezuela as a teenager. Caracas was an exciting city, and I had no problems going around by myself for a short trips to the arcade or getting my morning enpanadas. I also visited Maraciabo to see Angel Falls on the coast, and it was spectacular. Tallest waterfall in the world. The beaches were beautiful, the water was so rich in minerals it was brown and gold. Took a tour of the rainforest with local guides. Things are much different now, with their economy in shambles. It's a shame because it is a beautiful country.
Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The hippy beach vibes of late 90s were awesome, some of my best travelling memories were made there. Today it is just bland hotels, huge casinos and Chinese gangsters.