People Describe The Absolute Worst Cities They've Ever Visited Around The World

Johannesburg

"I've never been more terrified than when traveling into Johannesburg, South Africa. Our business partner drove us into town and she started removing her earrings, wedding band, etc."

"I asked her why and she said that the bandits would cut jewelry off of you if they stopped your car, so it's better to put it in the glove box."

"Our client was a major bank; to enter, you had to stand in a tiny plexiglass airlock where the guards (with machine guns) could inspect you before letting you inside. Once in, it was just like any other business anywhere, cubicle farms and conference rooms."

- gecampbell

N'Djamena

"N'Djamena, Chad. Where the human spirit goes to die."

- redditslim

"I watch this travel YouTuber who's been to tons of bad and impoverished places in the world, but he always manages to find something interesting and positive about the place. He went to South Sudan when they were in the middle of a civil War and still made a cool video hanging out with tribal leaders."

"He had absolutely nothing nice to nice to say about N'Djamena."

- CleanNDopeAsMethSoap

Cairo

"It’s gotta be either Cairo, Egypt, or Cairo, Illinois."

- HutSutRawlson

"I drive through Cairo, IL., several times a month going from MO to TN. I've always referred to it as a Scooby-Doo ghost town. It feels as though another building has fallen down every few trips."

- Clyne

Port-au-Prince

"Port-au-Prince, Haiti. If you know, you know."

"I'll put it this way: I spent time in Afghanistan and it was nicer than Haiti by a long shot."

- UJMRider1961

"I have only passed through Port-au-Prince and it was ... sad. And a bit scary. We were there as part of a company relief effort after a hurricane that hit the island."

"We entered Labadee from a cruise ship (yes, I understand the optics of that but the passage was donated by a cruise line). Mostly we were there to hand out supplies and kept largely to the port areas."

"There's a hardness and desperation there that I have never experienced before. There were some military types around and though they were doing their best to put on their best show, I saw some brutality that I never expected so close to the US."

- frank-sarno

Haiti In General

"It's crazy that only two percent of Haiti's land is still forested. Farming cash crops during colonialism and then timber exports to pay off their 'debt' to France after the revolution."

- Occams_l2azor

"I will never forget, I was in the car which was heading towards the border. We drove through the green forest/jungle on the Dominican side, and then I started to spot the yellow hills. Just plain yellow because of deforestation."

"And the driver just said, 'Yes, here it is green, there it's yellow.' What also shocked me was how much the Dominicans hated the Haitians."

- Nightotter3

"You can easily see the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from outer space."

- Tom__mm

Pork Moresby

"Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I went there once to consult on building construction, and I wouldn't go there again even if they pay me the CEO's salary. I may not live to enjoy those salaries."

- flyden1

Sinhaloukville

"Sinhaloukville, Cambodia."

"I’ve been to third-world cities before, and this place wasn’t the dirtiest or most dangerous. What it was, was horribly creepy."

"The place is filled with ‘compounds’ containing Chinese-owned casinos. What I saw was like a building site, with new compounds being built everywhere (the shiny newness of these places contrasted with the general grubbiness outside of them). The place is really two cities in one: the hidden parts owned by the casinos, and the rest."

"I knew nothing about the city. I was only there because it was the port for ferries going to the islands off the coast of Cambodia (the one I went to was lovely). However, these places gave me the creeps, even though I knew nothing about them. I just put that down to hating casinos."

"Only later did I learn that these places were centers of slavery and extortion rackets, run mostly by mainland Chinese gangsters. They entice people from elsewhere (many from China itself, Thailand, or Vietnam) with promises of good jobs, but once there they are enslaved and forced to work in various kinds of online rackets. If they complain or try to escape, they risk all sorts of nasty punishments."

"The local authorities are basically in the pay of the scammers… basically, China itself cracked down on criminal gangs engaged in such scams, so many of them moved here. The locals don’t like it, but are powerless to prevent it; these 'compounds' essentially rule themselves, and their owners have enough cash to be immune from consequences."

- Malthus1

Doula

"Doula, Cameroon. The whole place seems ready to implode at any time."

- Tonysaiz

"Mossy, rainy, muddy. A town built on the edge of mangrove swamps by the colonial French. Seems likely to return to the swamps in a few more decades."

- thirdworldfever

Rio de Janeiro

"Controversially, Rio de Janeiro. I was there for four days, got robbed IN MY HOTEL, robbed on the street, got eaten by bed bugs, a few friends got robbed on the beach by the police, another robbed in the street at knifepoint, and a guy in the hotel got kidnapped in a car at gunpoint and then kicked out of the car as it was still driving."

"We got caught in a riot between police and football fans and got pinned against a wall while the police shot rubber bullets at us, and I nearly got beaten up by local girls who took offense at their men trying to dance with me."

"As somewhere that is apparently famous for its nightlife, we couldn’t find a decent bar/club anywhere on three out of the four nights."

"For balance, I really enjoyed the lapa street party and football game, but it genuinely felt like the shadiest place I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to San Pedro Sula, previously known as the murder capital of the world)."

"In case anyone thinks I’m just a rubbish traveler, the stuff in the hotel was locked in a locker, so it was the staff that robbed me. On the street, I made sure my money was stashed in my bra so they only got a few quid, and we didn’t go anywhere dodgy, stuck to the tourist stuff, and traveled safely."

- StrategyKing4024

Ashgabat

"Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. So much money wasted on empty white marble building. So much poverty."

- kinda_alone

Baghdad

"Baghdad. The sad thing was you could tell that it used to be nice. I flew in by helicopter and saw that a lot of houses had swimming pools. They didn't use them for swimming anymore though, they filled them with their household garbage."

- blanchasaur

Manila

"Manila (capital of the Philippines)."

"A third of the population lives below the poverty level... and that's the Manila poverty level, which is pretty f**king poor. It's enough to give you nightmares if you leave the rich parts."

"You can insulate yourself from the rest of the city, by staying in the fancy parts, like the Makati, but you can't escape the air pollution or the trash."

"There was a storm last time I was there. Cubic miles of trash had washed out of the city, into the river, and into Manila Bay. Along the fancy hotels path at the edge of the bay, there were waves washing up against the wall... but the trash was floating a foot thick on the surface, and so the waves were TRASH WAVES."

"Well, maybe there are historic Asian things? Nope, sorry, the city was bombed to rubble and the end of World War 2. All that's left are the foundations of the Intramuros, which are interesting, but not worth the walk through the slums."

"Ugh."

- reggie_fink-noddle

Dubai

"Dubai."

"When I got back, a friend who had lived there for a few years asked me what I thought."

"I said, 'Well, I'll be honest, it lacked soul to me, it was depressing and materialistic and soulless to me. It genuinely made me a worse person somehow. But I'm a tourist, you lived there, surely you experienced the real Dubai.'"

"He said, 'No, you summed it up.'"

- bqzs

Las Vegas

"Las Vegas. Soul-less and empty."

"No one is actually FROM LV. Everyone moved there for the promise of service jobs, but most of them have crashed and burned. Most people who work there live in gated communities as far from the city as possible."

"If you go there as a tourist or for a convention, it seems all shiny and bright. Restaurants and casinos are all glittery."

"But if you step off the strip, it’s a s**tty, gritty mess. Lots of poverty and drugs. S**tty motels where the semi-homeless live. Terrible bleak-looking houses. The fake soul-less of Jacksonville with the poverty of Detroit."

- wilburstiltskin

Though traveling can be amazing, there are some places that simply do not live up to the hype.

These Redditors may be able to cross these places off as locations they've visited, but it seems there isn't much else positive they can say about the experience.