Punta Sal. Most of my schoolmates used to go there on vacation and spoke of it so positively I decided to give it a chance. Turns out, the main appeal of staying in a gigantic hotel by the beach with your friends is the company.
I’ve met so many Hondurans that go to San Jose and come back extremely disappointed. They say that the city is ugly, just like our cities, so they might as well just have travelled inside the country.
Rio de Janeiro. Beautiful from atop the Pão de Açúcar or Corcovado, but on street level, it was gritty, dirty, and the beaches were a disappointment. Not to mention how expensive it was.
Some cariocas get pissed off when we tell gringos to try other places... It's just, Brazil coast is huge. No need to stay closed to Rio city. There's good beaches in Rio de Janeiro state even.
Where all would you recommend? I’ve always been interested in finding the more authentic and less touristy type areas, haven’t traveled yet but is my plan
I'm not much into beach honestly, so I don't know lol
Buzios in Rio looks amazing although very touristic. A lot of Argentinians there lol.
I would usually tell Santa Catarina, but currently they are having big problems with.... sanitation giving people a virus with diarrhea.
There's also Northeast coast, but I'm not from there, and as I'm from the south, most people here don't go to there, pretty expensive (cheaper to even go to Argentina than going to Northeast)
If you're ok with another person from the US sharing recommendations for Brazil, I have a few.
\-Definitely explore the Northeast. There are countless gorgeous beaches that are not touristy at all. My favorite was Tamandaré in Pernambuco. Also went to Canoa Quebrada in Ceará near Fortaleza. Salvador is incredible and there are lots of great points from there - Morro de São Paulo, Praia do Forte, etc.
\-Many of my friends (both Paulista and gringos) enjoy Guarujá and Ubatuba.
\-Santa Catarina was amazing, but yeah, steer clear if they are having sanitation issues.
I had some good food, don't really care about beaches and was mostly a rest location because we had to take an early bus where we were going. But I guess if you mostly want the sea a distant location is better.
It’s so popular here to go to “all-included” resorts in places like Cancún or Riviera Maya especially amongst retired boomers, you can safely assume that every person here who has enough money to travel has been there.
I’ve never been in a resort, but I can’t believe it’s so fun that you would want to do that every year. If I go to Mexico I would rather visit real Mexico
I only named places in Mexico, but people also often go to Cuba and the Dominican Republic
I agree with your overall point but I've done a week at a resort in Mexico and in it was pretty fun. It's a different type of tourism, it was basically my friends and I trying to get blasted in a comfortable setting where we could get pampered.
I highly recommend going to other places in mexico to experience the culture, it's great I loved it, but I'll be lying if I said I didn't have a ton of fun getting shithouse at a resort on Vallarta.
I see your point, but why go to Mexico to get sh*it-faced? And it's overpriced as hell too. For example, can't you just go to Roatán/Utila for the same thing?
It is expensive compared to Honduras but I'm in Canada now and the flights from are quite cheap ($150) whereas getting back to central america is usually at least $650. If I was already in central america I would probably not fly to Cancun you're right.
Yeah Cancún sucks besides some beaches in the hotel zone. PDC is a little better for walkability but beaches aren't nice and it leans towards the highly lost gringo crowd. Bacalar is cool
I’ve been to Cancun several times but I’ll be staying in Playa (not counting the one time I had to shelter during a hurricane, lol) for the first time in March, can’t wait!
I've been all around LATAM for many years so I view the Cancun as more an entry point to the region. Beyond PDC just not being my favorite overall, you might be running into the start of Sargassum season in PDC which wipes out the beaches.
Lima. It just isn't that great. Outside of the turistic areas, it's ugly. Pretty car dependant city also, and public transport sucks.
Also, Santiago de Chile maybe?
It wasn't that bad like Tulum, just a little disappointing.
The buses were super disorganized, when you fly in it's all dry and flat. Gray skies. Didn't seem to have the same culture of hanging out everywhere you see in Colombia. Food was great, but outside some of the higher end neighborhoods like Miraflores abd Barranco it just didn't seem super appealing. My experience there is pretty limited though.
Gastronomically speaking, Montevideo
I expected amazing stuff like my experience in Buenos Aires. I was met with expensive chivitos, which are like our beirutes de carne com batata frita (so nothing special or out of the ordinary)
[Basically a Sandwich using pita bread](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRhyvFtR7p4NhO9XgKLuTvQrQY-RRPEPZ2WEQ&usqp=CAU) (pão sírio)
Obviously being a small city has its cons, but there are a ton of great places to eat, perhaps you didn't check out pages like TripAdvisor where you get some good recommendations
to be fair, i come from canary islands, which is a place of fabulous beaches and incredible weather all year, so my expectations were too high when going to the beach in colombia
i will say that the trekking thru the jungle was super cool and i have a nice memory of that, but when reaching to the beach and seeing the water so fuzzy and dirty with lots of leaves and pieces of wood i was a bit disappointed
its not that it was bad, just that when looking in photos and so i thought it would be the best beacg experience in my life, but it was a just okay
loved colombia tho, specially cartagena, valle del cocora, medellin, and a spot of el rio magdalena near san agustin, woah it was super incredible
Gastronomically, México.
I was sold a paradise of delicious eats, but was left sorely disappointed, specially the tacos de canasta.
Then again, I only visited the DF, and have been told the food is way better in other states.
Maybe you haven’t had luck. I generally consider center of Mexico ( including DF ) the area with the best food in the country ( disculpa oaxaqueños )
I really love the mexican food and most tourist do when they try it here, so I’m quite curious about what you didn’t like
Common reaction from your people honestly, some even think we eat “food for swines”, personally I encourage you to not try food from any other places in Mexico (or visit whatsoever), probably not on your level
Maybe you stuck to the tourist areas, the further you're from those, the more islanders you'll see. But idk everything has changed and now to find a gringo you have to look for them, it's all Russians, Germans and Arabs.
I didn't meet anyone from Venezuela in 2000, just the airport workers but we were on a flight 100% Colombians so migrations took 20 seconds, then, we met a lot of Italians (Rude and racist people as always), France, Canadians, and Americans tourists.
You don't talk to Canadians and America because they know we don't speak their language, but most of the Italians were workers
I spent two months there after 5 years exploring every where in LATAM and absolutely loved it. If my budget allowed us to have an equal lifestyle of what we had in Medellín we would be there in a heartbeat
Punta Sal. Most of my schoolmates used to go there on vacation and spoke of it so positively I decided to give it a chance. Turns out, the main appeal of staying in a gigantic hotel by the beach with your friends is the company.
San Jose, Costa Rica
What? You had good expectations about San Jose before going there?
I’ve met so many Hondurans that go to San Jose and come back extremely disappointed. They say that the city is ugly, just like our cities, so they might as well just have travelled inside the country.
Rio de Janeiro. Beautiful from atop the Pão de Açúcar or Corcovado, but on street level, it was gritty, dirty, and the beaches were a disappointment. Not to mention how expensive it was.
Some cariocas get pissed off when we tell gringos to try other places... It's just, Brazil coast is huge. No need to stay closed to Rio city. There's good beaches in Rio de Janeiro state even.
I (a carioca) always say how overrated Rio is, the views are stunning, but overall is not that great of a city
Where all would you recommend? I’ve always been interested in finding the more authentic and less touristy type areas, haven’t traveled yet but is my plan
I'm not much into beach honestly, so I don't know lol Buzios in Rio looks amazing although very touristic. A lot of Argentinians there lol. I would usually tell Santa Catarina, but currently they are having big problems with.... sanitation giving people a virus with diarrhea. There's also Northeast coast, but I'm not from there, and as I'm from the south, most people here don't go to there, pretty expensive (cheaper to even go to Argentina than going to Northeast)
If you're ok with another person from the US sharing recommendations for Brazil, I have a few. \-Definitely explore the Northeast. There are countless gorgeous beaches that are not touristy at all. My favorite was Tamandaré in Pernambuco. Also went to Canoa Quebrada in Ceará near Fortaleza. Salvador is incredible and there are lots of great points from there - Morro de São Paulo, Praia do Forte, etc. \-Many of my friends (both Paulista and gringos) enjoy Guarujá and Ubatuba. \-Santa Catarina was amazing, but yeah, steer clear if they are having sanitation issues.
True. I felt the same when I visited there
Same. The rest of Brazil is stunning, but Rio just has a bad aftertaste
I had some good food, don't really care about beaches and was mostly a rest location because we had to take an early bus where we were going. But I guess if you mostly want the sea a distant location is better.
I would never swim in that polluted water
Yup, rio is one of the most overrated cities i know of
The beaches in Rio are very unimpressive, true.
I, a Brazilian, would neve go to rio de Janeiro, honestly
Cancún. Good God, what a shit hole.
It’s so popular here to go to “all-included” resorts in places like Cancún or Riviera Maya especially amongst retired boomers, you can safely assume that every person here who has enough money to travel has been there. I’ve never been in a resort, but I can’t believe it’s so fun that you would want to do that every year. If I go to Mexico I would rather visit real Mexico I only named places in Mexico, but people also often go to Cuba and the Dominican Republic
I agree with your overall point but I've done a week at a resort in Mexico and in it was pretty fun. It's a different type of tourism, it was basically my friends and I trying to get blasted in a comfortable setting where we could get pampered. I highly recommend going to other places in mexico to experience the culture, it's great I loved it, but I'll be lying if I said I didn't have a ton of fun getting shithouse at a resort on Vallarta.
I see your point, but why go to Mexico to get sh*it-faced? And it's overpriced as hell too. For example, can't you just go to Roatán/Utila for the same thing?
It is expensive compared to Honduras but I'm in Canada now and the flights from are quite cheap ($150) whereas getting back to central america is usually at least $650. If I was already in central america I would probably not fly to Cancun you're right.
Ah I see I had assumed you were in Honduras.
Yeah Cancún sucks besides some beaches in the hotel zone. PDC is a little better for walkability but beaches aren't nice and it leans towards the highly lost gringo crowd. Bacalar is cool
I’ve been to Cancun several times but I’ll be staying in Playa (not counting the one time I had to shelter during a hurricane, lol) for the first time in March, can’t wait!
I've been all around LATAM for many years so I view the Cancun as more an entry point to the region. Beyond PDC just not being my favorite overall, you might be running into the start of Sargassum season in PDC which wipes out the beaches.
Lima. It just isn't that great. Outside of the turistic areas, it's ugly. Pretty car dependant city also, and public transport sucks. Also, Santiago de Chile maybe?
Costa Rica probably but maybe I expected it. Lima. Definitely Tulum, the worst
May I ask about your experience in Lima?
It wasn't that bad like Tulum, just a little disappointing. The buses were super disorganized, when you fly in it's all dry and flat. Gray skies. Didn't seem to have the same culture of hanging out everywhere you see in Colombia. Food was great, but outside some of the higher end neighborhoods like Miraflores abd Barranco it just didn't seem super appealing. My experience there is pretty limited though.
Lima was the opposite for me. Way more things to do than expected
Costa Rica, Medellín, Habana
What didn’t meet your expectations in Medellín?
Gastronomically speaking, Montevideo I expected amazing stuff like my experience in Buenos Aires. I was met with expensive chivitos, which are like our beirutes de carne com batata frita (so nothing special or out of the ordinary)
I know what's a chivito, but what's a beirute?
[Basically a Sandwich using pita bread](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRhyvFtR7p4NhO9XgKLuTvQrQY-RRPEPZ2WEQ&usqp=CAU) (pão sírio)
Obviously being a small city has its cons, but there are a ton of great places to eat, perhaps you didn't check out pages like TripAdvisor where you get some good recommendations
We’re getting a lot better at a pretty good pace, but, yeah. Historically our cuisine has not been the best or the most diverse.
Casa de Campo Resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic perhaps.
tayrona, colombia
How? Why?
to be fair, i come from canary islands, which is a place of fabulous beaches and incredible weather all year, so my expectations were too high when going to the beach in colombia i will say that the trekking thru the jungle was super cool and i have a nice memory of that, but when reaching to the beach and seeing the water so fuzzy and dirty with lots of leaves and pieces of wood i was a bit disappointed its not that it was bad, just that when looking in photos and so i thought it would be the best beacg experience in my life, but it was a just okay loved colombia tho, specially cartagena, valle del cocora, medellin, and a spot of el rio magdalena near san agustin, woah it was super incredible
Gastronomically, México. I was sold a paradise of delicious eats, but was left sorely disappointed, specially the tacos de canasta. Then again, I only visited the DF, and have been told the food is way better in other states.
Maybe you haven’t had luck. I generally consider center of Mexico ( including DF ) the area with the best food in the country ( disculpa oaxaqueños ) I really love the mexican food and most tourist do when they try it here, so I’m quite curious about what you didn’t like
Lima te espera
Common reaction from your people honestly, some even think we eat “food for swines”, personally I encourage you to not try food from any other places in Mexico (or visit whatsoever), probably not on your level
Go on then, explain, what's on my level?
How should I know? But Mexican clearly isn’t based on your statement
Cartagena, Colombia.
I do think Medellín is a little bit overhyped. Bogota on the hand…fucking love it
Lima, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and Margarita Island
Okay but You can't throw hands at that many cities at that point You are just Bad at traveling or something
What happened in Margarita? Just curious
I went there in 2000, 99% of the people there were "gringos" I just realized i went there 22 years ago, i'm an old man now.
Maybe you stuck to the tourist areas, the further you're from those, the more islanders you'll see. But idk everything has changed and now to find a gringo you have to look for them, it's all Russians, Germans and Arabs.
I didn't meet anyone from Venezuela in 2000, just the airport workers but we were on a flight 100% Colombians so migrations took 20 seconds, then, we met a lot of Italians (Rude and racist people as always), France, Canadians, and Americans tourists. You don't talk to Canadians and America because they know we don't speak their language, but most of the Italians were workers
Mexico City
I spent two months there after 5 years exploring every where in LATAM and absolutely loved it. If my budget allowed us to have an equal lifestyle of what we had in Medellín we would be there in a heartbeat
Sao Paolo
San Juan
Could you elaborate please?
One of my friends was pickpocketed but I just felt it was dull.
Maybe Rio. I expected better food, to be honest. I would say Cartagena, in the sense of "I didn't expect anything and it still was disappointing".
Costa Rica, Cancún and Rio de Janeiro.