A man who has spent decades travelling around the world documenting his journeys has named five places he feels are the least friendly.
Mark Wolters, a business and marketing professor who provides travel and budgeting tips, has visited hundreds of cities around the world.
But he says viewers regularly quiz him about which nations aren’t the most friendly.
And while Mark confesses he has enjoyed everywhere he has been to, and would return to many again, some nations and cities are less welcoming. One European nation, he says, is the only place his students have been racially abused.
While another small European nation was named as the number one “unfriendly” nation by the seasoned traveller. These are Mark’s top five unfriendly nations…
Belgium
Mark confesses he isn’t the “biggest fan” of Brussels. Although he does appreciate the city for its rich museum culture and the Belgian beer and says he “loves” Brugge.
But he admits the nation isn’t the friendliest place he’s visited. He said: “Overall, the Belgians themselves are not always the most friendly people and if you are of African or Asian descent, it’s the only country I’ve gone to in Europe with my students where we had racist attacks on my students.”
Mark says he eventually found himself having to speak to the police because his students were being “harrassed”.
China
Mark says his visits to China have been “great” if you encounter a small group of people. But once in larger groups, he says people started “fighting over seats at restaurants or dragon fruit at the supermarket”.
He explained: “When you’re going into a place [full] of people whacking you with things, it was just not a very friendly experience. Part of it is that there’s so many people, people are worried they’re not going to get stuff.”
Mark did however admit that visiting China was a “cool” experience. And while he says he encountered some unfriendly people, he would return to the Asian nation.
Denmark
Mark admits that while many people believe Denmark is “rude”, he believes people he encountered “just don’t care” because he is “not part of their lives”.
He explained: “They don’t mean it in a bad way, they’re not trying to be mean, they’re just like ‘we’re Danish, we live in Denmark, you’re a tourist here for a few days, why should I care what you think about my country, I love Denmark, it’s my country so forget you’. It’s kind of like you’re not part of my life so I don’t care vibes.
“Now the Danes can be fun times to party with, don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some good times with Danish friends over the years, but that distance they have, makes it so it’s a little bit unfriendly.”
Argentina
The South American nation, and in particular its capital city Buenos Aires, also made Mark’s list. He points to the difference between people who say they are from “La Capital” and those who identify as being from “La Provincia” – the capital or the provinces.
He said: “It’s kind of like an attitude from people in Buenos Aires at times. I had a good time when I lived there and I had a fun time, but I did notice, there was a difference in friendliness that you got outside the capital as opposed to inside the capital.”
Luxembourg
The small European country was Mark’s “number one” most unfriendly country in the world. While it only contains 650,000 people, and is mostly rural, made up of forest and nature park, Mark believes people “don’t care” about visitors.
He said: “They get paid really well, they have a nice place to live, they have nice stuff there, they have plenty of money, they don’t care about you, they don’t care about service, they don’t care about anything because you don’t matter because they’re fine. ‘You’re coming to Luxembourg, you should be thanking us for letting you come here’ is the vibe you get sometimes at the restaurants and the tourist stuff.”