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Most travel top 10 lists — or top 20 or top 52 lists — showcase fabulous spots to travel, hidden gems, up-and-coming spots and iconic experiences. Fodor’s travel experts, of course, do that, offering up a GO List of 52 memorable destinations around the world. But we’re fascinated by Fodor’s NO List.
It’s the third annual offering of places to avoid — including Acapulco, Ibiza and, ahem, the U.S. — for a variety of reasons, including violence, political and environmental issues, tourism run amok and a category they’ve dubbed “places that give us pause.”
“We use travel as a means to broaden our minds and expand our humanity,” Fodors.com editorial director Jeremy Tarr said in a news release, “and use our No List findings as a means to foster dialogue as to how things can be improved in places where the current situation is grim.”
Here’s the list, followed by some of the specifics.
2019 Fodor’s Travel NO List
- Acapulco, Mexico
- Boracay, Philippines
- Ibiza, Spain
- Myanmar
- Nicaragua
- Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Maya Beach, Thailand
- “Places That Don’t Want You to Visit”
- “Places That Give Us Pause” — including Brazil, China and the U.S.
Over-tourism, overdevelopment and inadequate sewage treatment have placed the gorgeous beaches of Boracay into a state of such environmental distress, the Philippines government closed the island to tourists in April.
Violence and kidnappings led to the closure of the African UNESCO heritage site of Virunga, where rangers have been murdered and two British tourists were kidnapped. There is no firm re-opening date, Fodors reports, and no park security plans have been announced, as yet.
And the rise in hate crimes and gun violence — 310 mass shootings and more than 12,000 gun deaths — puts the U.S. into the “places that give us pause” category.
Find out more about Fodor’s No List — and why a place as sunny, idyllic and party-happy as Ibiza made the list — at www.fodors.com.