A travel expert has revealed the countries he’ll never visit again – and two are popular holiday destinations. Tony Wheeler, who founded Lonely Planet with his wife in 1973, has said there are four countries he will never go back to in a blog post on his website.
Topping his list was Russia, where the travel expert has visited several times. Wheeler’s distaste for returning comes from Russia’s acts of violence, including the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines plane in 2014, and the attempted Salisbury assassination in 2018. He will not visit “as long as Putin continues to kill innocent people”.
Next was Saudi Arabia. Wheeler said while he had “a very interesting time” there in 2002, there are now “so many reasons” he wouldn’t go back.
He pointed to the murder of journalists such as Jamal Kashoggi, the murder of East African domestic workers who are also subject to extreme exploitation, and the treatment of exotic wild animals being kept as pets.
Wheeler also said he wouldn’t visit Bali, despite there being “so many good things” about the Indonesian island. He said he wouldn’t be returning until “they sort out the ridiculous traffic”.
He said that while Bali has “great places to stay, wonderful art and dance, terrific food, great shopping”, he never wants to spend two hours in a car travelling just 18 miles.
The last country on Wheeler’s list is the USA. The travel expert has been to 47 of the 50 states but will not see any more while “the orange one and his associated scoundrels are running the place”, in reference to President Trump.
Despite having lived in America for almost a decade, Wheeler said he’s “happy to leave it at the bottom of (his) dance card” while it is “shoulder to shoulder with Russia and North Korea”.
