{"id":2013,"date":"2025-05-12T14:04:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2025-05-13T13:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T13:11:15","slug":"lonely-planet-co-founder-reveals-four-places-hell-never-visit-again-including-wonderful-holiday-hotspot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/12\/lonely-planet-co-founder-reveals-four-places-hell-never-visit-again-including-wonderful-holiday-hotspot\/","title":{"rendered":"Lonely Planet co-founder reveals four places he\u2019ll never visit again \u2013 including \u2018wonderful\u2019 holiday hotspot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
There are four places the travel expert has sworn off \u2013 including holiday hotspot Bali (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For many of us, the first thing we do when planning a trip abroad<\/a> is to look up the place on Lonely Planet \u2013 or buy one of the company\u2019s guide books.<\/p>\n

The publisher has been running since 1973 and was co-founded by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who are both adventurous travellers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say the pair have been all over the world and Tony, in particular, is often asked for his holiday recommendations as a result. The expert has recently recommended Uluru in the Australian<\/a> outback, saying it\u2019s \u2018impressive\u2019 and \u2018magic\u2019, as well as Kangaroo Island in South Australia.<\/p>\n

However, there are also several places he claims he won\u2019t be \u2018going anymore\u2019 and two of the countries on his list are incredibly popular with tourists.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Tony\t<\/div>
The Lonely Planet co-founder has shared the places he doesn\u2019t want to go back to (Picture: David Benito\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Writing in a blog post titled, \u2018I\u2019m not going there anymore\u2019,<\/a> Tony revealed that he feels \u2018guilty\u2019 about travelling these days as friends have decided to \u2018look after the world and not fly any more\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tSign up to The Getaway newsletter\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
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Fuel your wanderlust with our curated newsletter of travel deals, guides and inspiration.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

For now he\u2019s decided to \u2018continue travelling and continue to feel guilty about it\u2019, but there are four places the 78-year-old has sworn off, including Bali.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Indonesian island is a popular holiday spot <\/a>thanks to its natural beauty with vibrant blue waters and an abundance of flora and fauna. It\u2019s also generally considered a pretty affordable place to travel but for Tony it\u2019s got one major flaw.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sorry Bali,\u2019 he writes. \u2018There are so many good things about that Indonesian island and I\u2019ve just had a great travel writers reunion trip there, but until they sort out the ridiculous traffic I never want to go back, unless there\u2019s a very good reason to drag me there.\u2019<\/p>\n

He continues to list all of the \u2018wonderful\u2019 things about Bali, including the art, food, shopping and places to stay but adds that there\u2019s \u2018no way\u2019 he\u2019d ever want to spend another two hours of his life travelling between the Kuta beach strip and Ubud.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"San\t<\/div>
The USA is also on Tony\u2019s list, even though he\u2019s almost visited all 50 states (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another place he won\u2019t be going back to is the USA<\/a><\/strong>, despite having spent years trying to visit all 50 states \u2013 and having gone to Missouri and south Carolina last year.<\/p>\n

Tony currently only has three states left to visit until he\u2019s been to them all (Alabama, Kansas and Mississippi), but ticking them off isn\u2019t a priority right now.<\/p>\n

\u2018Despite having spent nearly 10 years of my life living in the USA and despite having many American friends, I\u2019m currently happy to leave the USA at the bottom of my dance card,\u2019 he states, continuing to say that this is due to Trump<\/a> and his \u2018associated scoundrels\u2019 running the place.<\/p>\n

His other two big no-nos for travel right now probably won\u2019t surprise many people: Russia<\/a> and Saudi Arabia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Landmarks\t<\/div>
Russia is also on his list (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tony says he\u2019s been to Russia several times over the years, but won\u2019t return \u2018as long as Putin continues to kill innocent people\u2019.<\/p>\n

And as for Saudia Arabia, he writes that there are \u2018so many reasons\u2019 he never wants to go there, from the \u2018murdering of journalists\u2019 to \u2018cheetahs being shipped to Saudi Arabia to be kept as pets\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This comes after Metro<\/strong> travel writer Alice Murphy<\/a>, revealed the one country she\u2019d never go back to<\/a> \u2013 and interestingly it\u2019s one that didn\u2019t make it onto Tony\u2019s list.<\/p>\n

Alice, who has visited 50 different countries, shared that Qatar is the only place she has no desire to ever return to, as it felt \u2018clinical\u2019 and rather \u2018dystopian\u2019.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t‘Underrated’ countries you shouldn’t skip\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
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While the places in this article might not be on your travel bucket list, there are several \u2018underrated\u2019 spots that are well worth a visit,<\/a> according to Michael, a man who has visited 175 of 195.<\/p>\n

Here are his top recommendations:<\/p>\n

Tunisia<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2018Tunis has one of the best street food scenes I\u2019ve ever encountered,\u2019 he says of the capital.<\/p>\n

\u2018I did a food tour with my buddy Mehdi, who runs the YouTube channel Tunisian Street Food, and I still dream about the stuff we tried. Fricass\u00e9s, brik, grilled merguez \u2013 it was unforgettable.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bhutan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Metro<\/strong>\u2018s Gergana Krasteva\u00a0recently wrote that of the 10 countries she visited in 2024, Bhutan trumped them all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Michael agrees that the isolated Himalayan kingdom is unlike anywhere else on Earth.<\/p>\n

From the ethereal mist draping the capital Thimphu to the sheer cliffs where Tiger\u2019s Nest Monastery clings, this mystic enclave feels like it exists outside of time.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s the kind of place that stays with you, haunting your thoughts long after you leave,\u2019 Michael explains.<\/p>\n

Madagascar\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2018If you want nature, wildlife, adventure, and coastline all in one place, this island will leave you speechless,\u2019 Michael says.<\/p>\n

\u2018It feels prehistoric. Like stepping into a lost world.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pakistan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While\u00a0India<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is known for its chaotic energy, the path to\u00a0Pakistan<\/a>\u00a0is one less travelled.<\/p>\n

Michael says: \u2018The people, the food, the landscapes, and the sheer affordability make Pakistan a must-visit for adventurers like me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Metro\u00a0<\/strong>recently named Pakistan as an\u00a0unmissable destination to visit in 2025<\/a>\u00a0thanks to its vast valleys and mountain ranges in the north, and we\u2019re not the only ones noticing all the country has to offer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

She said: \u2018Silence was the first hint that\u00a0Doha<\/a>\u00a0was not my kind of city. Or rather, the particular kind of silence that hangs in the air of an empty street. Running down the broad boulevards of the Gulf state\u2019s capital are lines of luxury cars, custom\u00a0Rolls Royces<\/a>\u00a0and cherry red Maseratis gleaming under the Arabian sun. But beside them the pavements are empty, because nobody walks on the streets of Qatar.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I couldn\u2019t help feeling that this driving-centric culture makes an aesthetically impressive city seem clinical, a desert sea of skyscrapers with little life around them. The only people on the streets are construction workers, their heads covered with cloth to fend off the sun.<\/p>\n

\u2018The scene was similarly dystopian in the Souk Waqif, a traditional market\u00a0<\/a>ranked as one of Doha\u2019s top attractions that I couldn\u2019t wait to shop in. It\u2019s said to date back to the 19th century, but its sandstone alleyways have been modernised so much, they feel like a sterile sort of\u00a0Disneyland. Compared to the vibrant bazaars of\u00a0Jerusalem\u00a0and\u00a0Marrakech, it\u2019s just a little soulless.\u2019<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are four places the travel expert has sworn off \u2013 including holiday hotspot Bali (Picture: Getty Images) For many of us, the first thing we do when planning a trip abroad is to look up the place on Lonely Planet \u2013 or buy one of the company\u2019s guide books. The publisher has been running […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2020,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions\/2020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mugfoundry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}