View Full Version : What's your favourite country youve ever visited?
Klaus Armenia
22-06-2005, 22:13
I haven't been to that many, but I liked the US and Estonia. I would recommend anyone Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Here we go
22-06-2005, 23:03
Norway of the ones I've visited! Great place.
purves grundy
23-06-2005, 02:47
Mmmm yeah, I'd love to go to Lithuania. :cool:
I love Indonesia - so much variety. I've been to 20-odd islands, each one completely different.
Croatia for me!!! so beautiful, so varied... greta people, amazing sea, lovely islands, and so much history!
I think it was Mexico... And Brazil! ;)
Orang Utan
23-06-2005, 11:56
New Zealand
or Catalonia
Isambard
23-06-2005, 12:27
It's 2 countries now but it was one went I first went and fell in love with the place: Czechoslovakia. :cool:
Ron Merlin
23-06-2005, 12:36
I would recommend anyone Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Yup, Vilnius (Lithuania) is the place to be! Visit the Frank Zappa statue, the KGB/Genocide Museum, totter drunkenly through the cobbled Old Town and try not to go under a trolleybus on your way home. BTW DRINK THE BEER! Gorgeous! :D
Roadkill
23-06-2005, 13:15
Canada would be high on the list. I've only been to Nova Scotia, but I loved it. It had all the nice bits of New England, whilst being over the border in a considerably more liberal, laid-back country.
I was well taken with Romania when I went a few years ago too. Transylvania is beautiful.
dominica, but the people there are in for hard times and I can not see much hope that it will end either in this neo-liberal climate :(
I liked Alaska, especially the wilderness but also the people, though some of them did my head in at the same time I met a lot of alright people, though there really is too many people carry concealed hand guns, going back there this August with a bit of luck!
pilchardman
23-06-2005, 21:32
Poland. I'd like to go back. In fact, I've just had an idea for the summer holiday. Wonder if the kids'll wear it?
take them walking/climbing in the tatra moutains in the south on the slovak border, great place to go
Yup, Vilnius (Lithuania) is the place to be! Visit the Frank Zappa statue, the KGB/Genocide Museum, totter drunkenly through the cobbled Old Town and try not to go under a trolleybus on your way home. BTW DRINK THE BEER! Gorgeous! :D
syvturus is devine beer, i'm off out there at the beginning of august on holiday with the gf and her mum, he mum lives in wilno (polish for vilnius) but we're going out to nida on the west coast, amaazing place, it's a thin strip of land about 60km long, 2km wide, and it's sand that's formed the strip of land over the last couple of hundred years, it's full of pine forrests, sand dunes and fishing villages, the whole area is some designated nature reserve as well, so there's no cars or anything, been there a few times it's relaxing as fuck
my girlfriend just got back from wilno last week, she'd been out visiting her mum, she was pissed off as the place where she was born was full of stag parties and rugny tours and strip clubs, although if you go a little bit out of the capital it's like life hasn't changed for 200 years, not much happy medium going on there
i loved all the central & eastern european places i've visited, i don't get off much on lovely looking places and grand splendour, mainly on the history of the places and more importantly the people in the here and now, and on that basis i'd have to choose either serbia/montenegro or bosnia, with poland a close second (third, fourth?)
Space Girl
24-06-2005, 10:32
China and Cuba are my favs so far, I always loved the old ex eastern bloc countries such as romania etc and kept returning to them but then I went to China and Cuba and found them amazing places, I suppose I like communitst or ex communist countries and it's nothing to do with politics, it's the people I like, I have always felt really comfortable and welcomed
Ron Merlin
24-06-2005, 12:47
Oisleep - aye, Svytyrys is bloody nice. Have found it in shops on Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham! Getting some in tonight.
I went to Nida, I think, back in '94 with some Russian loons. Sat in the sand dunes, smoked a paravoz and hitched back. Lovely out there.
You're right about the stag paries and strip clubs - crap indeed. I went back last summer and was rather sad to see so many shops on Piles. There were about 3 in '94! Still, the flavoured rolling tobacco is a welcome innovation.
Enjoy 'Wilno Nasho' as the Polish nationalist graffiti has it! Visit Zaltvysklé bar on Pilies - v friendly staff. Tip well! Also Bix Bar up in then former Jewish ghetto - lots of Lith hairies gather here at the weekend. Most pleasant :D
Zaltvykslé café (http://www.zaltvyksle.lt/)
Bix Bar (http://www.bix.lt/)
Can't name just one
India
Kashmir (you try telling most of the locals it isn't a country...)
ex-Yugo for hospitality and beautiful women
South Africa for waking me up
Australia for it's unparallelled feeling of vastness.
passenger
24-06-2005, 13:38
Maltas well nice, been there 5 times, Ibiza the best of the spanish islands
Also Bix Bar up in then former Jewish ghetto - lots of Lith hairies gather here at the weekend. Most pleasant :D
is bix bar in the former jewish ghetto, i didn't know that was there, it's quite close to the gates of dawn eh? my gf said that was the first "proper" pub in wilno, as it was just about to come out of soviet times, i was there at christmas and it still seems to be pretty true to it's original, they havn't jumped on the tourist bandwagon, it's a haven at times!
BassJunkie
24-06-2005, 19:53
India, I been to about 35 countries now, but since the first time I went to India, I just compare subsequent ones to India. Left my heart there I did!
I was well taken with Romania when I went a few years ago too. Transylvania is beautiful.
I loved the Romanian countryside, but the horrendous attitude of the vast majority towards the Roma people was probably one of the most disgusting and degrading things I've ever witnessed. So it soured me a bit.
Got to be Brittany for me. It is like being in a big family.
Roadkill
25-06-2005, 21:01
I loved the Romanian countryside, but the horrendous attitude of the vast majority towards the Roma people was probably one of the most disgusting and degrading things I've ever witnessed. So it soured me a bit.
I know. :(
Not long after I got back, there was a Roma lady begging on the tube. No-one else would give her any money, presumably thinking 'bogus asylum, seeker' or some such crap, and all i could think was, 'if you knew....' It's horrible.
RenegadeDog
27-06-2005, 01:09
China and Cuba are my favs so far, I always loved the old ex eastern bloc countries such as romania etc and kept returning to them but then I went to China and Cuba and found them amazing places, I suppose I like communitst or ex communist countries and it's nothing to do with politics, it's the people I like, I have always felt really comfortable and welcomed
What places have you visited in china? You haven't made it to the glorious metropolis known as Wuhan, by any chance?
Thailand, closely followed by Indonesia.
For the warmth of the people and beauty of the places.
RenegadeDog
27-06-2005, 01:14
I have to say, I do like China, but overall I think I still prefer Thailand and India more. Although of course my China experience has been fundamentally different; teaching in a big city, as opposed to travelling around and seeing the picturesque bits, smoking dope and going home again.
India though is just amazing place to visit, such variety. Hampi, Goa, Pushkar, Dharamsala, Jaisalmer, Mussoorie, Almora, Manali...
This summer though I'm doing some decent travelling in China. Some family and friends are coming over, and we're going down to Yunnan for about 2 weeks. Really looking forward to it.
Yossarian
27-06-2005, 02:30
I haven't been to that many, but I liked the US and Estonia. I would recommend anyone Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
What was it you liked so much about Estonia? It's somewhere I'd like to see - I've read about the islands in the Baltic being quite idyllic - but I don't know anybody who's actually been there.
I've been to my share of countries (and I think I took somebody else's share as well :D), but I can't choose a favourite - there's crap things about the good ones and good things about the crap ones and I'd want to spend about twenty years going through them all again thoroughly and seeing a load of new ones before I felt like I could make an informed choice.
But if I got offered the chance to go to any country in the world tomorrow, I'd probably choose Malaysia for the climate, the scenery, and the people - an interesting mix of Malay, Tamil, and Chinese.
Ron Merlin
27-06-2005, 12:52
Bix is tucked away up near where the defunct Langas jazz club was (helpful,aren't I) on Etmonu. Vilnius In Your Pocket says :
"A real, down-to-earth, rock and roll bar and pool hall. In the old days, this was one of the city’s first entertainment complexes, although regulars would hardly admit it. Expect loud music, leather-clad rockers and some seriously hard alcohol to go down here. While it does not deserve to be annotated as dangerous, it remains one of those places you might not want to go alone."
Address : Etmonų 6
Tel : 262 77 91
Website : www.bix.lt
Open daily :11:00-02:00
except:
Thursday: 11:00-03:00
Friday: 11:00-05:00
Saturday: 11:00-05:00
It feels a little wild but, if you can handle Brixton, Vilnius is a piece of piss. Great bar. The garlic-fried rye bread is shite in Bix, though.
Cheers! į sveikatą!
i love that garlic fried bread stuff, alhough admitedly it's not the best there, it's good in broadways night club just down the road from bix
i like the toilet's in bix as well, nice underground stony thing going on there
it's always been fairly quiet that last few times i've been in there and certainly not anything like that quote in IYP makes it out to be!
Rock Bottom
28-06-2005, 05:26
\
ex-Yugo for hospitality and beautiful women
One place I ended up completely accidentally (the reasons for which are a long story) was Belgrade in Serbia. I thought it was a remarkably beautiful and interesting city with a lot of night-life - especially on either side of the banks of the river Danube(?). You can climb up some ancient castle structure on a hill somewhere or just wonder lost in the streets.
Serbs are cool - friendly, hospitable and beautiful - but even more so in neighbouring Bulgaria (Sofia) - where the women were truly goddesses. However, Sofia itself is dump.
CyberRose
28-06-2005, 15:33
The best country I have been to is England!
After that I really liked Hungary. Stayed in Budapest for 2 nights then stayed at Lake Ballaton for 2 nights
tastebud
28-06-2005, 15:35
can't decide.
either czech republic (prague- the most beautiful city i've seen), or croatia (beautiful islands & the capital city zagreb is really great too).
:)
The best country I have been to is England!
After that I really liked Hungary. Stayed in Budapest for 2 nights then stayed at Lake Ballaton for 2 nights
that lake ballaton is a fuckin shocker in the summer, all of hungary is at it, apparently a lot of it is man made
CyberRose
29-06-2005, 01:42
that lake ballaton is a fuckin shocker in the summer, all of hungary is at it, apparently a lot of it is man made
There's a place called Siofok (sp?) which is the main resort for the Hungarians but we stayed further round to the west in a place called Kezsty (sp?) which was really nice and laid back (was touristy but not resort-touristy if you know what I mean) And near where we stayed was a thermal lake and I saw a snake in it and still got in for a swim!! Radioactive snakes! :eek:
Johnny Canuck2
29-06-2005, 01:44
The USA. Beautiful country, incredible diversity.
Stobart Stopper
29-06-2005, 13:19
My favourites so far are Tunisia and Cyprus.
hammerntongues
29-06-2005, 13:50
There is a big difference between wanting to live somewhere and favourite country visited , but Spain does it for me on both levels . The food , the welcome , standard of living , sights , attitude , climate , theres`s more but that`ll do for me............
Minnie_the_Minx
29-06-2005, 14:16
I've not travelled much but I've been to Malaysia three times. Would go there any day over Thailand. Thailand's too in your face, whereas Malaysia's much more reserved. The scenery is great as well, lush jungle and palm oil and rubber plantations everywhere. Beautiful islands as well, especially the Perhentians.
Klaus Armenia
29-06-2005, 15:41
What was it you liked so much about Estonia? It's somewhere I'd like to see - I've read about the islands in the Baltic being quite idyllic - but I don't know anybody who's actually been there.
I've been to my share of countries (and I think I took somebody else's share as well :D), but I can't choose a favourite - there's crap things about the good ones and good things about the crap ones and I'd want to spend about twenty years going through them all again thoroughly and seeing a load of new ones before I felt like I could make an informed choice.
But if I got offered the chance to go to any country in the world tomorrow, I'd probably choose Malaysia for the climate, the scenery, and the people - an interesting mix of Malay, Tamil, and Chinese.
Tallinn's just beautiful, women are beautiful non-slavs, beer is cheap, accommodation is cheap. We stayed in a youth hostel next to the home of the president. It's well preserved, medieval. i just looked at the pix on google amnd its as beautifil as I remember. Do go if you get the chance.
did you get a chance to go outside of the capital, parnu on the west coast is a really nice finish type village, it was a big spa place under soviet union and still does all manner of treatments today, we had an amazing mud bath there administered by some old lady with a beard! also over on the east is the university town of tartu, this is meant to be more estonian than tallin itself, was a pretty lively place, also went out onto one of the islands just off the west coast, sareema, was a real tranquil place, but only went out there for the day, so didn't really get a chance to explore
mexico, went there in 1987 and had a fantastic month there, me and a mate travelling everywhere by bus :cool:
Either Italy or Spain. I've been to more exotic places, but have enjoyed those the most.
jer, Babylondon
29-06-2005, 18:57
Japan. mere words cannot do justice to it.
Formentera. ok, it's part of Spain but as an island it is unique, a paradise... and long may it remain so.
perplexis
30-06-2005, 05:05
Bolivia.
So much unbelievable diversity in landscape- from jungle inthe north, crazy dry desert in the south east and the most insane, surreal salt-flats in the south west, where everything is totally alien- there are pink lakes with ice-white deposits of borax, complete with flamingos, and green lakes and ones that change colour witht the time of day (no seriously), all at 4000m+ where the air is so beautifully clear and crisp and the sky so blue...
La Paz is a bit intense, but the people were pretty friendly (to me, though I heard some pretty horrendous stories), the area around is like the surface of the moon.
Yeah, I liked it a lot.
In Europe it's probably Croatia...
Japan. mere words cannot do justice to it.
Impossible to explain, isn't it. It's so different from Europe and North America (and the rest of Asia for that matter). You have to be there to appreciate just how different it is. In a good way.
jer, Babylondon
30-06-2005, 06:50
Sure is, Loki. The people, the land, the culture. The old and the new. Was unlike anything else I had experienced.
Sighs.
another vote for thailand here..i love the spirit houses and the beaches and the mountains and the quality accomodation your money buys(in many other countries a cheap room gets you a rat to share it with).
the thai people are freindly and laid back, very tolerant, i was sad to see some westerners offend thai sensibilities in various ways like by being naked on beaches:( the food is beyond
tasty too! thailand is also a nice place to study meditation..
tho of course thailand has loads of tourists/backpackers(for very good reasons!)
but if im allowed to choose 1 more country ..a different sort of place off the beaten track it would be yemen. sa'na is an exceptional city a world heritage site.i felt very privileged indeed even to be let into the country.very few westerners go there who arent embassy staff or english teachers/arabic students.the expat scene is very cultivated/arty :D unlike thailand sadly..
I've got to say Nepal - I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it. I was there early this year and even with the Maoist problems it was the most amazing place I've been lucky enough to visit.
I didn't do any trekking - just chilled out for 6 weeks. The food is fab, people amazing and friendly - a welcome change from being in India for 3 months. I loved it so much I'm going to go back and do some voluntary work there.
Loved it! :)
beesonthewhatnow
06-07-2005, 13:23
Australia.
Australia.
That's not a country! It's a continent :cool:
Major Tom
06-07-2005, 14:29
If you forget the politics - and about half of the people then its the USA.
the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, the Appalachians, the great Lakes, the Arizona Desert just to mention a few of the really good bits. And I love the music, some of the food (if you're really selective), and some of the people (ditto) - New York and San Francisco being two of the nicest and most interesting cities I've ever visited.
After that - Andalusia was fantastic- haven't been to any other bit of Spain - so Spain.
And Italy - and I've travelled all round Italy except for the bit that corresponds to the heel of the foot and its hard to beat.
Can't forget Scotland for the scenery. - It'll be in my top 5.
MissyGee
06-07-2005, 16:45
I would probably say Iceland. Loved it visiting lava fields, seeing a glacier on the flight in, the blue lagoon, the people, just everything!
DownwardDog
06-07-2005, 23:16
Good:
Japan - I really enjoyed their distinct non-European super advanced culture.
Afghanistan - Stunning scenery. Charming, amicable and heavily armed locals.
Belarus - Last little bit of the USSR struggling on. Totally unique.
Bad:
Nigeria - I don't fear hell, I've been to Lagos.
Cote D'Ivoire - Abidjan make Lagos look like Geneva.
Zimbabwe - Depressing beyond words.
Top has to be Mongolia. Truly one of the most beautiful, remote, untouched and downright goddam romantic places on the planet, inhabited by one of its coolest, most dignified peoples. Their hospitality is truly incredible.
Bolivia a very, very close second, with Egypt an even closer third.
chilango
07-07-2005, 19:25
toughie this one...but off the top of my head
1/ New Zealand
2/ Portugal (alentejo, douro and minho areas)
3/ Mongolia (wot Bendeus said)
4/ Mexico
5/ Canada (BC)
6/ Guatemala
7/ Sudan
8/ Russia (Siberia)
9/ USA (Arizona & Utah)
10/ Romania (transilvania)
...and worst?
1/ England (except the lakes)
2/ Czech Rep.
3/ Netherlands
4/ Sudan
5/ China
although to be fair they all have their good points, and theres a ton of other cool places. Depends on my mood I guess...
Donegal Mik
08-07-2005, 17:29
i loved oz and brazil. i live in poland and i love it there too. lovely mountains near/on the slovak border. great for skiing in winter and hiking in summer. beer's good too and da voddy ;)
Dubversion
08-07-2005, 17:31
ashamed to say i've never made it out of europe :(
but it's a close run thing between Italy, Greece and Spain.. i think i'd go for Italy, because i've lived there and loved it, but i suspect if i spent more time in Greece it would take over in my affections..
fucking HATED belgium, was bored by Switzerland and suspect Austria would piss me right off i'd spent more than a few hours there
phildwyer
08-07-2005, 18:00
Haiti. Not an easy holiday, naturally, but the strangest and most wonderful place.
Colombia, Spain, Cuba in that order.
Colombia has almost anything you want, great sea, excellent mountains, jungles, deserts, and especially next to no tourists once you get away from Cartagena (massively overrated) and Santa Marta. Plus fantastic people.
Spain's the best place in terms of lifestyle, though it's getting more and more tame and materialistic (the Aznar years took their toll).
Cuba is fascinating in so many ways, especially in its brilliant, well-educated, friendly people. And Havana is a city that shows up places like Barcelona for the trendy, rip-off towns they are (before c. 1988 Barcelona was fantastic).
J.F.Sebastian
13-07-2005, 11:01
Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.Nepal. Nepal.Nepal.
rachamim18
13-07-2005, 16:38
Well, as for rip roaring times, that would have to be Rumania and/or Kenya. As for just overall enjoyment [people/culture], that would have to be Thailand.
So far, Malta. Being a fan of classic cars, I was in my element because every other car was either a Beetle, and Anglia or a Morris Minor :D. Beer was cheap as was the food.
The fortified town of Mdina was fascinating and beautiful ditto the blue grotto. There's not much there in the way of beaches if that's your kind of thing, but there's plenty of other stuff to do.
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