When traveling where are the most difficult cities/areas to navigate around why?

@ilyzium (1197)
Canada
August 24, 2009 11:32am CST
I've traveled all around Europe and once place that comes to mind for me is Zagreb, Croatia. Every time we travel there we are incredibly stressed out. Now because it is a very old city, there is a lack of street signage because even people that live there complain about it and say that it's a crazy city. I'm guessing that the older people that live there know it very well that they don't need to bother with signs? Another thing is that depending on the day you're driving through it, certain streets become one-way for that day, and turn back to normal like the next day, and the people that live there don't always know. The last time we became so frustrated that we found a taxi driver and told him where we needed to go, and just followed him in our rental car. I think that's the best solution if you're driving there.
2 people like this
3 responses
@breepeace (3014)
• Canada
24 Aug 09
I've never been to Zagreb, but despite it's reputation as a crazy city, I think I'd still like to go! :) I think the most difficult city I've ever navigated was Athens. Since most of the street signage was in Greek, and it's such a sprawling city, I found it a nightmare to navigate around on foot or the bus. The metro seemed much better, although even the metro stations could be kind of confusing.
1 person likes this
• United States
24 Aug 09
New york and D.c. are hell holes
@ilyzium (1197)
• Canada
25 Aug 09
Oh yeah I mean Zagreb is a cool city to visit as there's so much to see, history all around you, etc. Athens I've heard is also difficult to get around if you don't know the language - a few people have told me that before. Metro stations I find can be very confusing in different countries too, esp. if you don't know the language, not sure how to even buy the tickets?
@ilyzium (1197)
• Canada
25 Aug 09
I've never been to DC, only NY & I was in Manhattan which I loved, but I was traveling with someone who knew the area so we were ok. Really enjoyed the shopping there and all the walking we did. I have to say that NY blocks are a lot longer than normal blocks!
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
24 Aug 09
I found it very difficult to find my way around in Bulgaria. The language has a different alphabet to mine. It was even more challenging for me to find my way around a town in Estonia. The street names were in the center but not as far as my accommodation was. Therefore I had great difficulty finding it. My son's buggy had one of its wheels fall off and brake. Then a local lady helped me find the road the guest house was in. A lack of signs in Zagreb doesn't sound at all helpful to a driver.
1 person likes this
@ilyzium (1197)
• Canada
25 Aug 09
I can sort of understand a bit of Bulgarian but definitely not the alphabet, so that would be a challenge. How did you like it there? It's supposed to be very beautiful especially the beaches. Did you find there were many English speaking people in Estonia? You're lucky you found someone to help you find your accommodation. I don't really know much about Estonia but I would like to see Latvia & Lithuania.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
24 Aug 09
I think that Venice in Italy is a beautiful and interesting place, but I got lost all of the time. There are so many small streets, and my friends and I often ended up walking in circles. Our map wasn't very good, and that didn't make it any easier. We spent a lot of time trying to get from one place to another. We just laughed about it at first, but after a while we started to get frustrated, hungry and tired If I ever visit Venice again, I definately want to get a good map, but I would probably get lost anyway
1 person likes this
@ilyzium (1197)
• Canada
25 Aug 09
The one time I visited Venice, the same thing kept happening to me, so I agree it is a bit of a maze to navigate around. That's the beauty of traveling in another locale, you just never know what's around the corner and what surprises you're in store for. Now if I could remember what area we stayed in because it was outside of the main area, I don't know maybe Vaporetto or Tronchito, well it was the place with beautiful old villas. Any idea where that might be? I wish I could even remember the hotel we stayed at....:(