Europeans of Lemmy, what places in Europe should foreigners avoid at all cost?

The capital cities. If you want authentic Europe, find the weird local festivals where people chase cheese down a hill or celebrate local culture or something. That's real Europe. Fuck the big cities and their galleries and museums.

These are a few things off the top of my head mostly northern and western Europe because it's what I'm familiar with. Also if you want to see something bizarre, go to Finland on free bucket day. But seriously Europe is full of unusual things to do. Or you could go to yet another gallery and pretend to be interested in paintings.

Eastern Ukraine isn't an ideal tourist spot at the moment.

Had a couch surfer stay with us a while in Kuwait. He'd been everywhere. He said that, of all places, Moldova had no redeeming qualities. Granted, things might have changed in 10 years. Does anyone care to weigh in?

As a European from elsewhere in Europe, I'm never going back to Milan. Maybe it's fine if you're into fashion, but if you're not there's not much to look at except a cathedral which resembles every other cathedral, and it's impossible to get a photo of it without also having a friendship bracelet scammer in the frame, actively harassing you.

All tourist locations in Italy and France have people trying to scam you (and some non-scammers just trying to sell you cheap toys), but Milan is the only place I've been to where they're straight up harassing you non-stop. Go to Pisa instead, it's super relaxing there and you can marvel at their past mistakes in structural engineering. A far better deal.

Canary Islands. Great place, but the mass tourism is actually killing them, provoking skyrocketing rent and shortages of power and water.

Dublin is a kip, you have far better options throughout Ireland, if you want a city go to Cork or Belfast. Galway is a bit boring to me but could be your scene. After that there are loads of little spots with loads going for them. The entire west coast is great.

Dont rent a big car, I mean big by irish sandards.

Here's what I would avoid when traveling to Poland:

Zakopane, it's overpriced and very crowded. If you want to visit the area the town is in your better off staying in smaller villages, unless you have to use public transit.
Szczecin --not an 'avoid at all cost' but more of a 'there are better cities to visit'-- this-or-that part of the city is always being remodeled/reconstructed and there's no 'old city' with day and night life focused between two shoping centers and some roundabouts in the city center. If you want to go sight-seeing Kraków, Wrocław or Gdańsk are much better choices.
Mazury lake district, beautiful lakes and decent nightlife, shit infrastructure - roads are narrow (two bigger cars can't pass eachother without going offroad) and often lacking sings and other markings
Podlaskie Voivodship, even worse infrastructure than Mazury, it's rural, mainly towns and villages with nothing a tourist might want to see. You might think it's a good place to go star-gazing but Bieszczady are a lot better for that (Tho you should probably go to a Dark Sky Site for that, there's one close to Bieszczady, in Slovakia)
THE SEASIDE, it's crowded, expensive, the sea is cold and it's fumcking wimdy, go to like Italy, Croatia, Portugal or Spain instead

Also in general avoid capital cities, they are often the worst of major cites in a given country.

Berlin

Andorra. Full of motor bozos, duty free shops, terrible cities in the valleys. A tax haven joke country. Nice mountains i guess.

Common tourist places during tourist season are usually the worst. I took a 10 day trip to Paris one summer and it was a mix of the most popular tourist places (Louvre, Eiffel tower, etc) and some underground shit my sister found.

Every tourist place was jam packed with annoying tourists, costly and had tons of scammers surrounding it. Every less known place was really awesome, aside from one sketchy neighborhood we had to walk through where we were followed for a while.

I'd also say that Northern Europe has generally been much more pleasant to travel through, for me.

Switzerland. If you've got buckets of money it's fine but donair can easily run you 18 francs and a real meal will cost you 100+. I've visited twice and both times the extreme costs involved have hamstrung my ability to actually enjoy things. The trains and geography are amazing - but the streets full of jewelers and high fashion specifically targeting millionaires or up are an awful example of late stage capitalism.

France is becoming a far right country on two weeks. Do yourself a favor and stay as far as you can.

I wouldn’t say at all cost, but Montenegro isn’t fun. Russians have built massive hotel resorts on the beaches there, the locals are unhappy that they’re there so they don’t like tourists. They’ll try to fight you on the beach because you’re not local. Get hassled by the cops because you’re not local, but you’ll be able to buy your way out of your problem if you’re lucky. People don’t want to talk to you, everyone is pretty cold and borderline rude. Go to a bar for a drink and you get a glass nominally washed/rinsed in tubs of soapy water behind the bar that the previous 100 glasses went through and hasn’t been changed out. The landscape is beautiful in a hostile sort of way, but there’s just not much reason to visit. It’s not even particularly inexpensive. The hotels will try to charge you for everything, including a scuff on the wall that you didn’t do, a chip on a planter on the balcony, etc. ridiculous money grabs.

As others said Switzerland. It's beautiful and all but really expensive. It really took away a big part of fun when I went there. But not only that, I thought the swiss people seemed sometimes kinda "rude"or maybe a better word for it "cold" and a little annoyed if it came to tourists. I get it, it's a small county and a lot of people are visiting each year, but it still wasn't fun for me to be there and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to go there.

And North France near the German border like Strasbourg. The city and the region is beautiful as well, but the people are often like the cliché everybody knows and that sucks if you're a tourist. But the south of France like Marseille and the Provence is always worth a visit. The people are chill, enjoying life in the typical mediterranean way and are often friendlier (and often speak English at least in the bigger cities/tourist areas).

Paris, it's the WORST city in all of France.

Olten

Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg are kinda famous atm.

Not a place in particular, but if you're driving, avoid any border crossings during peak holiday seasons. Specifically when you're crossing from the EU into non-EU countries or crossing from Schengen into non-Schengen area. During peak times you might be waiting at the border for hours.

Depends. Are you white? Would you be recognizable as a "foreigner"? In the latter case avoid all of Germanys provinces, especially in the former East. Do not travel alone and be wary of the cops. They are usually the same groups as the local Neonazis.

Not sure what answers you looking for, if you want to have a carefree vacation just read some reviews of specific countries and regions.

If you are backpacking or planning a multi-country trip I would check the crime rates of the places, there are many websites with the statistics available, like THIS

As a general rule of thumb popular places and big cities will have the highest crime rates, while smaller cities and countryside the lowest.

Also I would avoid solo trips and backpacking in general in the rural parts of less-developed countries, like Romania, etc.

Pretty much thats it. Europe as a whole is probably one of the safest travel destinations in the earth with some planning and common sense.

Don't come to Greece, over tourism is a huge problem here...

Usa

Just make sure to avoid Brussels. Belgian myself and I hate the place.

In Sweden/Stockholm:

Avoid Akalla/Hjulsta/Kista

They are all boring and sees a lot of gang crime.

Poland

I have read of tourists coming to Vienna and thinking there is anything worth seeing north of the Danube.

Unless you count the UN headquarters, there isn't. All of that is a completely unstructured and boring mix of industrial, commercial and residential zones mostly built after WW2 like you find anywhere in the world.

Feel free to cross post to !yurop@lemm.ee , a laid back discussion community for Europeans

Almost every reason given sounds like a description of my home of Florida.

CDG airport. I hate that place so much.
Heathrow, Schiphol and Frankfurt are all so much easier to navigate.

On a serious note though: I’ve never bern anywhere in Europe that I straight up disliked. Sanremo was probably the «least friendly» with locals all pushing us towards the casino at every oportunity. The city was also surprisingly worn down.

The local market was awesome though.

Belgorod.

Kursk

The green dots are all fascinating places that I've visited or want to visit in France

Note that none of them are in P🤮ris

Zakopane, Poland. Greedy bastards.

Not a European, but I'm going with dark alleys.

Bude. Don't go to Bude. There is nothing to see there.

Don't go to Amsterdam.

I can assure you that my van and my basement are totally save! So come right in stranger.

Outside of the obvious war, Kaliningrad in certain conditions. If you have local friends there you trust, or you are fluent in Russian, you'll have a great time. Its got a lot of nice history, some nice views, and its cheap. But if you're an obvious tourist, they do not treat you kindly. I wore a tank top and shorts in the city on my way from Svetlagorst beach and got side eyes for my tattoos and attire. If you're used to stereotypically polite service, it's not as prevalent there in Russia. And if you try to be nice, you're seen as a weirdo.

Lithuania is also hit or miss. Vilnius and Klaipeda are nice, but are NOT tourist friendly. I used to live there, but when I went back as a kid, my mom and I spoke English and Russian. They tried to overcharge our meal significantly but my mom knowing Lithuanian caught it. The people at the corner store also questioned why I only speak Russian, and hesitantly spoke with me. Plus people on the street would call out appearances if you look different. Really good fuckin pizza though

I was disappointed with Paris in my last visit. It's filthy, dirty and disgusting.

All. Stay home

Skelmersdale.

Beware of blind Belgian nuns

Aberdeen. It smells like piss.

There are over 40 nations in Europe. Most of which have 2000 years of individual history.

What kind of answer are you looking for, exactly ?

France.

I visited Amsterdam a month ago, it was awesome Why not?

You should avoid France.

If you go to Naples and the Amalfi coast, everything is expensive. That's expected, but do not for any reason use the trains. Gangs will rob you, possibly worse.

But do go. Sorrento is lovely but very commercial. Find the small towns where the Italians go.

And visit Pompeii, it's extraordinary.

EDIT - I may be wrong about the trains, please see the further comments in the thread.

If you go to Britain, bring your own food.

The news say Eastern Ukraine, though take that with a grain of salt as I haven't been there personally.

Sweden.

The Dutch!

Avoid coming, because i hate you

avoid Malta at all costs.

France

No go zones like in Sweden, and Ukraine atm.

As one of said foreigners (an American) I'd say "all of them." International travel is for people not living below the poverty line.

Avoid French cities: people constantly harass you for money and drugs and it looks shady and feels uncomfortable everywhere. Smaller towns can be nice.

And Italy: it's expensive, people are rude and arrogant and nearly every place I stayed at gave me a curfew so you can't even go out at night (but there's nothing to see there anyway).

Europe