Unfriendliest Cities 2014

[burmans]

I've found the occasional unfriendly person, but never an unfriendly city.

How does your home town rate for friendliness based on that as a criterion?

Agree totally, have found many who rate Sydney and Melbourne as unfriendly based on their experience at rush hour with people trying to get home after a long day at the office. That particular comment would be true of most big cities at peak hour!

Conversely have found in some smaller towns people can be outwardly friendly but people who have had to move to them tell me it can be exceptionally hard to break past the casual "friendliness" into real "friendship", sometimes those friendship circles are tight, go a long way back and are extremely hard to break into.

 

[Warks]

These people never went east of the Iron Curtain! Back in those days the "planned economy" countries had a mortgage on unfriendliness or just total lack of care or interest.

Belgrade would top my list. Budapest not far behind. East Berlin! Ah the good old days!


In more recent times I don't think there'd be any stand out city. Mind you I haven't been a lot of places in the past 5 years.

 

[JohnK]

Even on a good day I still detest Manila, Philippines.
It is one of the ugliest, most pirated, thieving cities on this planet.

Spot on. Would be no 1 on my list easily.

I didn't like my very short stay in Taipei. Language barrier could be the main issue but a few people appeared to be reluctant to assist.

But there are good and bad with every city.

 

[Buzzard]

I enjoyed Barcelona when I was there last year. Mrs B and I would both go back.

 

[roncritch]

Belfast for me...wife and I felt a distinct uneasiness about the city as soon as we arrived.....thought might be the same in (London) Derry, but was complete opposite.
Give me Ireland any day though..the Poms can have Northern Ireland!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I wouldn't call Nassau unfriendly. Sure, someone approached me and tried to sell me drugs on the street, but he was very friendly about it

Hey, that sounds like the Nimbin of the Bahamas!

I didn't like my very short stay in Taipei.

Definitely the lingo I'd say. It's difficult to gauge friendliness when you can't communicate too well but Taipei and Kaohsiung I thought were friendly, but difficult. I remember being in a meeting in an almost opulent board room in Kaohsiung with what looked like an intricately inlaid polished teak floor of all things and my hosts seemed to take pride in spitting out disgusting red betel nut remnants onto this beautiful floor. I was almost beside myself with despair and disbelief. I also had difficulties getting through to them that as customary as it may be for them, I had given up smoking two decades earlier and I had no intention of starting again to be social. They also drove me around the city and showed me some truly bizarre sights like the binlang xi shi (or absolutely over the top betel nut ladies). All in all, I think they are friendly, just different to us.

Belfast for me...wife and I felt a distinct uneasiness about the city as soon as we arrived....

I must admit to liking Belfast. I was there in '86 and locals I met up with couldn't believe myself and two friends not just drove a Pommie registered car through West Belfast but actually stopped to take photos of the mesh and barbed wire around the pubs and hospital. They were more amazed to learn we also were not shot at nor even stoned..........we must have just looked like dumb Aussie tourists in a Pommie rental!

For me, I can't actually say that I've come across an "unfriendly" city.......just the odd unfriendly local!

 

[Sprucegoose]

Florence for me

Surprising one of the most educated cities in the world.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Spot on. Would be no 1 on my list easily.

I didn't like my very short stay in Taipei. Language barrier could be the main issue but a few people appeared to be reluctant to assist.

But there are good and bad with every city.

I didn't mind Taipei a good mix between Japanese and Chinese

 

[D747]

My 2 least favourite cities are: Kingston in Jamaica and Manila. Both dangerous, dirty and sad.

 

[juddles]

..... But of anywhere I've visited, Riyadh wins hands down as the city where I've most felt that the locals didn't want me there.....

RooFlyer, although I love to travel and see new things, I have learnt in my travels that there are places and cultures that truly do not want tourists. And I completely understand, accept, and respect that.

As for the ranking, I don´t know what cities were on the list to start with, and how the questions were posed. Main surprise was Nassau. Have never been there but other places like Aruba and Curacao are pretty ****ty outside the tourist áreas. I just expected Nassau to be better.

 

[AviatorPJ]

Overfriendly cities might be worse than unfriendly ones.

That is GREAT criterion to ask more about....amongst the AFFs... for me, Hanoi ranks highly.. over friendly locals, either dank and cold, dank and hot or, dank and humid and chocking motorbikes.

 

[Cynicor]

I'll try to be positive and post the friendliest city- Tokyo.

Language gap is no barrier to the locals trying to help you out; stand around looking lost for more than about 30 seconds and you'll probably have someone try to play charades with you and get you to your destination.

 

[Foreigner]

Port Moresby was the scariest city I've been to.

The most pleasant part though was my trip to Jackson's Airport to catch the Air Niugini flight to SYD. In 1996.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Port Moresby was the scariest city I've been to.

The most pleasant part though was my trip to Jackson's Airport to catch the Air Niugini flight to SYD. In 1996.

That reminds me of a story I heard of two AusAID ladies who worked in POM and the only time during their stay that they left Fort Sh*tscared was when they were driven with security to the airport to fly home! What a hoot!

 

[waltervp]

I agree with Paris,... No idea what it is, but everything there upsets me. Trying to use the great public bicycle scheme where for a couple of Euros oper day you can use these bikes for 30 minutes for no additional charge. After 30 minutes you are charged additional fees. Totally brilliant idea, but noone knows where the bike stands are. Despite being highly visible noone can tell you where the nearest one is. Sometimes they are full and you have to find another one. The police, shopkeepers, anyone, noone can help you find them, resulting in a mad dash around the streets. Often exceeding your 30 minute allowance and ending up far from where you want to be, and causing much frustration.

The security man at the Eiffel tower, after queuing for an hour checks your bags (presumably for knives and guns?) andtells you to throw away your unopened bottle of special wine! Not allowed to put it next to the bin for later retrieval oh no, it has to go in the bin. No otehr signs were seen re prohibited goods, and the french attitude to match. Most unfriendly.

That subway that requires endless stairs and tunnels in which i can hardly breathe, the poor signage... Would it not be an idea to give visitors an idea of where to find the world famous landmarks at least? And when you get out another little sign pointing which direction for the main attractions? It all results in getting lost regularly and getting upset at the system.

Taxi drivers that use navigators and clearly totally ignore the directions it gives them, making me feel he is going the long way (not always the case of course). These things all add up to frustration.

And then the Charles de Gaulle airport where there was no regular bar to have a bit of a feed/beer... No lounge accepted my Q.Club card (I was flying Emirates to Beijing). MacDonalds provided a place to eat and have a beer but the beer was a tiny Heineken tin it turned out. When I went back for another one I had to deal with multiple rude staff who refused to serve as it could only be sold with a meal. Despite having just bought 20 Euros worth of food (trying to be efficient) 5 minutes earlier was not enough. They couldnt even suggest I buy a lousy burger to get mytiny beer. Bucket fulls of Coke no problem.

So yes, Paris is high on my list of cities to avoid too...

 

[ermen]

I would say Prague, Czech Republic.
Stone cold / ice cold local population...

 

[RAM]

I agree the list should be re-titled to worst experience in.

Cities can be stunning etc but often you remember the incident.

Like Vienna - no info on transport to the city at the airport (in English or German), nobody knew about "Family" tickets mentioned on arrival video shown as plane landing. Just that there was a EUR20 fine for the wrong ticket, waited 55 minutes for tourist information office to open but the well meaning lady said she didn't know as she drove and couldn't find any info on her PC. Long story short, ticket checker half way to VIE said we had ended up buying the wrong tickets and issued EUR40 fine. Said if you want to contest it go to such and such station. So we detoured to it and found the office closed with a sign saying go to another location. Went there, queued and then told put it in writing and our response will be posted. To Australia? Yes. That was 4 years ago. All the extra toing & froing took near 3 hours (waiting for office to open etc) - not a good memory. Nice buildings though.

Taipei - so many motorcycles but people pleasant and 'sorry' if they bumped you on footpath.
Frankfurt - locals helpful on where to find places when a wrong turn was taken.
Paris - Didn't you know France is the centre of the universe? Napoleon never lost a battle let alone a war (that is what it says at Les Invalides), it is a priviliege that we etrangers are permitted in their country don't you know?
Munich - most helpful locals - knew exactly where to buy the fireworks with 30 minutes to half day closing.
London - no English people to be found on the streets or working in the stores - so you get around the world in a single shopping day.
Bangkok - no means yes doesn't it? Free refreshments does not include water, soft drink tea or coffee - what's wrong with you, do we need to call the police?
Abu Dhabi - why would we advise when your flight has been delayed? Why would we announce the boarding gate has changed to the other terminal?

Nice cities can be improved with nice people and tarnished without.

 

[Warks]

I just saw the other half of the survey published on the SMH site - Melbourne and Auckland equal friendliest apparently. Sydney 5th.
Melbourne named the world's friendliest city, Sydney fifth

 

[Cruiser Elite]

"Vibrant" Dublin in Ireland scored points for being the city where you could "stop for a drink in the local pub, only to end up chatting with the locals for the next five hours"

Indeed you can - indeed I did - several days in succession - what a fabulous city.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Melbourne named the world's friendliest city, Sydney fifth

Of course it is.......when everyone has to huddle together around the same fire drum to keep warm, you have to be friendly!